Water

 

 

Sunday was dry for the first time in ages, so we returned to the lake for a walk. The water levels have risen considerably and if it rises another 3 metres it will be full for the first time in several years.

 

 

 

 

It still has a way to go though!

 

More tractors!

Ian has been struggling to dig the pool and has got rather disheartened with it. I think it is just one of those things when you take on a big project, as when things don't go quite to plan it can become overwhelming. We needed a day off and Ian had been looking forward to Sunday's event for a long time. It was a heat in the national tractor pulling competition that took place about 20km from us in the Lot-et-Garrone. Ian went last year by himself as he was here for a few a days, but this year we both went, along with our cycling neighbours. It took us just over an hour to get there on the bikes. I didn't think I'd enjoy it but I must confess I found it an entertaining and enjoyable day out.

Tractor pulling is like drag racing with tractors. The machines are purpose built, specially engineered, hot-rod, tractor- type bling-things that Ian admired!

They are hooked up to a sled with varying amounts of weight on it and have to tow this sled down a 100 metre strip. The tractor that gets the furthest is the winner and there are various categories of tractors, including a class for garden vehicles such as ride-on mowers.  The engines are mostly old aircraft engines or equivalent and when they are on full power you have to put your fingers in your ears or wear ear defenders as the noise is so loud it vibrates your whole body.

The event was well organised and had a good family atmosphere. There was a tent where you could buy sausages, chips and beer and another one selling t-shirts and toy tractors. Unlike a similar event in the UK no one was drunk and there were no police on duty (as there was no expectation of trouble and even if there had been any it would be have dealt with swiftly by the local farmers)!

All in all and enjoyable break from the grindstone. When we got back the day was finished off nicely by watching Jenson Button win the Montreal Grand Prix. Ian was much more relaxed this morning!

The weekend we get out on our bikes at last!

At last..we got out on our bikes this weekend! Ian has been too focussed on the building work to allow for a break, but this week he changed his mind and got his bike out of storage! Was it the sun, the thought of exploring, of getting fit that motivated him? No, it was an village fete with a display of ancient tractors located about 10 miles away; so too near to justify driving! He also knew that he would only be able to tempt me to come by saying we were going for a bike ride! So we had a nice day out with our neighbours. It wasn't too hot, the rain stayed away, the roads were quiet and Ian got to look at some tractors. We took sandwiches and bought some chips and beer there, which made the route home rather painful! Ian is now trying to recover from his sore rear end!

When we returned we sat on the terrace with tea and chocolate cake. The cake was an experiment, made with the first harvest from the garden; beetroot! Yes, Beetroot Chocolate fudge cake, and I have to say it was very nice, although I reduced the sugar by 50g and made a fudge topping instead of the one in the recipe. I pickled the rest of the beetroot.

So the history of the beetroot is from this:

To this:

To this: (after we had feasted!)





Sunday walk

The dry and warm weather continues and Ian is currently in the field trying to pull out as much ragwort as he can. We want to cut the meadow for hay (a shortage of the stuff at the moment) but it is no good for horses if it is full of ragwort, which is poisonous to them when cut and dried. Yesterday we went for a walk around the field and the orchids are out in full force.

This one is a bee orchid and there are fewer of them than the pyramid orchids, which along with the daisies make really make the field look spring like. Of course once it is grazed we will lose a lot of this, but for now it is beautiful.

The other things that are out in force are the insects. There are enormous big black bees, blue butterflies and closer to the river, we saw a few dragonflies.

The word in French for dragonfly is libellule, pronounced a bit like 'lee-bell-loo'.

After our walk through the field we headed off down a footpath in search of the old 'lavarie' or washing place. The farmer had told us that before these farms were connected to mains water people had wells for their day to day water but walked themselves and their animals down to the local washing place to water the animals and to wash their clothes! Well, we think we found it; a fair walk from the road, down through the trees and through a small meadow. The dam for the stream has long since washed away but with some imagination we could picture it! I must admit I am grateful for running water!

Progress

Today was warm and sunny and a perfect temperature for a short bike ride. The bike ride itself was perfect for working off the slight hangover that I still had this morning. Yesterday lunchtime we had lunch with our neighbours and other friends to celebrate the fact that they have finished building their new roof. This was quite an achievement and has meant that for most of the winter they have been living under a tarpaulin, in fear of a storm. We celebrated from lunchtime until early evening.

The bike ride took me around the lake. There were two vehicles there; a couple taking their dog for a walk and a minibus with some of the monks from Plum Village, who were lying in the sun. It was a truly peaceful scene and when I told Ian later he comented that a lake like that in the UK would probably be packed and would charge £5 a day for parking.

We are still progressing with the house. The kitchen is now completely wired, the wall in the hallway closed off and the ceiling frame in the sitting room in place. In the meantime we are planning a trip back to the UK at the end of the month and our shopping list is growing! I am looking forward to seeing friends and family but I can't say that I am missing my homeland at the moment.

We may be getting the first two of our livery horses in May from Ian's friend but before we can do that we have to get some fencing in place so that may be the first job to do when we return. The other animal we hope to get soon is our dog. I will write more on that on another occasion but for now I will say that if all went to plan our new dog was conceived this weekend!

A nice break

We actually had a proper 'weekend' for the first time in ages! The occasion was the wedding of an old friend of Ian's in the New Forest. We decided to make a little break of it and stay in a hotel on Saturday night. Unable to find a reasonably priced bed and breakfast in the area we decided to look further afield and ended up doing an Internet search for hotel rooms in Bournemouth. We were amazed to find a very good deal at The Chine Hotel in Boscombe, where we got a room and breakfast for two for £52.95. It was almost too good to believe and we turned up expecting a catch and expecting one of the poorer rooms in the hotel but too our surprise, this was the view from our window.

 

The service was good, the room comfortable, the breakfast was good and all  in all we were very satisfied.

Ian used to live in Boscombe in the 1980s and had a small house there. It was his first house, he had no money, and learnt most of his D.I.Y skills renovating it. We couldn't resist driving by to have a look and Ian was surprised to see that the gate that he repaired 23 years ago was still there!



Ian remembered Boscombe as being the rougher end of Bournemouth and was surprised to see how much improved it was. The beach is a surfers paradise (but colder and greyer!) and the seafront itself quite unspoilt.

The weekend concluded with a visit to a friend on Ian's in Wimborne and a pub lunch. All in all a much appreciated break from D.I.Y.!

The joys of summer

Summer is here in full swing. We have had about three weeks of warm, dry weather give or take a few showers. Summer is a little late. This time last year I was already picking the last of the blackcurrants but this year they are only just ripe enough and I am still picking the last of the strawberries! Nature in early summer is almost terrifying with the speed with which it takes over. I like it but it so quickly gets out of control. I can remember coming back to Eastbourne from Brighton after spending two weeks in hospital and rather than feeling pleased to see all the lush greenness of the Downs I found it rather overwhelming and that is how Ian and I felt looking at my garden this weekend! The weeds were waist high, the plants over grown, the hedges encroaching on the flower beds. We worked hard and filled three wheelie bins (mine and two belonging to the neighbours) and still only managed to do half!

Mad dogs and Englishmen

This weekend I made the most of  being on my own and decided to visit my mother in Windsor. What is it about the sunny weather that turns everyone in this country into short tempered maniacs bordering on the edge of madness? Maybe the sun over stimulates testosterone production and as British men are not accustomed to this surge, rather than spending it drooling over anything in a frock, they seem to feel the need to go into battle mode. Why do engines need to be revved so loudly, wheels made to skid round corners, anyone doing less than 20mph over the speed limit need to be over taken and why oh why do white, flabby winter washed chests need to be bared to the world, only to turn pink in a matter of seconds?

My trip meant I spent a total of 6 hours driving and witnessed plenty of dreadful road use, culminating in a really frightening event on the way home. I was driving along the M25 approaching the Wisely junction, where traffic enters the motorway, when I saw a car parked on the hard shoulder. I was in the second lane and as I got nearer a young bare chested man got out the car and walked to the middle of the inside lane, arms open wide and staring straight into an oncoming lorry. He was shouting at the lorry (not that I could tell what he was saying but I got the distinct feeling that this was the culmunation of a road rage incident). At this point I drove past and could only see the outcome out of my rear view mirror. I don't know whether the man jumped out of the way or the lorry managed to avoid him, but I saw the man clip his shoulder on the lorry but otherwise walk away. This was some relief as I fully expected to see a squashed body on the road and a major pile up behind as the traffic was heavy. I was then stuck with what to do. I couldn't call 999 from my mobile as I don't have a handsfree set. so I drove onto the next turn off, which turned out to be a good 10-15 minutes away. I then couldn't really see anywhere to stop so drove on to the Services. By the time I got there it was too late to do a 999 call and all the Traffic Police were otherwise engaged in directing traffic somewhere so I ended up driving home and reporting it to Kent Police later. No one else had reported the incident and no one had died but it concerned me that someone should get so upset and stressed about something that not only would they endanger themselves but threaten the lives of so many more.

(My mother was pleased to see me by the way!)

Getting on with things

Another week has gone by and I realise that I have not written anything since last week. Thoughts and ideas for blogging have come and gone, but mostly gone; whisked up in the rush of getting on with things. It is easy how quickly day to day life takes over and you get caught up in the pressure of 'must be getting on with important things' to the extent that I am actually feeeling guilty about spending some time thinking about things and blogging! I must get over it!

It has been a cold May. I still have my heating on and have done for much of the month. The cold winter and late spring has meant that the blossoms and young bulbs have been particularly colourful and have stayed on the trees longer than ususal. As the weather warms up however, they are now falling quickly. The street was strewn with pink blossom on Saturday and the children were scooping it up to play 'brides'. I took my camera into the garden to get a picture of everything before it all goes. I am trying out some new software from Microsoft, called auto-collage. I have been pretty unimpressed with it but I did manage to get it to create this mix of spring flowers.

We spent most of the weekend trying to repair my workshop/shed/ summerhouse thing in the garden, which turned out to be a pig of a job as it seems to have been built with curved walls and probably constructed with the aid of several cans of Special Brew! I also made a lemon pudding, which turned out to be particularly yummy and put paid to my attempts to diet!

An 'arty' weekend

The weekend was fairly routine although it is quite hard to know what a routine weekend is when we are trying to finish off two houses and move to a third in another country. Saturday was spent shopping with a little bit of kitchen fitting in the afternoon but on Sunday we had a day 'off' and went to the Dulwich artists open house event, which is part of the Dulwich festival. The 'open house' in question belongs to a former colleague of Ian's whose wife makes the most wonderful glass beads. Also there was Ian's friend Madeline, who was showing her photographs taken in Nepal. The house was packed, there were demonstrations of bead making and a string quartet playing. I have to say that this is really not Ian's 'cup of tea' at all but he enjoyed talking houses with the owner (who was looking more and more nervous as total strangers wandered around looking at his possessions). I enjoyed being around such creative people and decided, on impulse,  to order a specially commissioned bead necklace. When I have it I will post a picture but in the meantime this is an example of Francesca's work. (Although the one I have ordered consists of a cluster of crimson beads that look like an exploding flame.)

As all exhibitors work for a European agency the afternoon was conducted in a mixture of English, French and Italian.

A spring weekend

The high pressure continues; resulting in lovely sunny spring days. The downside is that the cloud of volcanic ash hanging over much of Northern Europe, and grounding all air travel, is going nowhere fast. We all know people caught out and unable to get home. However my mother lives near Heathrow and was telling me tonight that for the first time since she moved in she has been able to open her windows and sit outside and hear the birds singing. I am quite glad I do not have any trips booked for the next couple of weeks as I feel now we are in a catch 22 situation as if the planes are allowed to fly tomorrow I would not be convinced that safety had been put before commerce.

All of a sudden it seems, everything is in bud. Ian and I spent some time on Saturday clearing up the garden. On Sunday we went out on the bikes along the coast to Pevensey and Norman's Bay. In the evening Norma and Ian watched TV together!

Signs of an election approaching

I am by myself this weekend as Ian is still in France. I have spent the day trying to catch up with things in the house, inluding 2 hours of ironing! Progress is slow and my boredom threshold is low so although I have made progress there is still more to do!

We had a leaflet posted through the door last week about a 'street meeting' at 4.00pm today, with our local community support officers. I can't say that I was terribly interested in attending but at 4.00 a very 'Women's Institute' type knocked loudly on the door and asked me if I was coming. She identified herself as a local councillor. I guess my naughty schoolgirl guilt got the better of me so I hurredly put on my shoes and went out into the cold. One other neighbour was there. I know the rest were in as I could see their cars but they had sensibly stayed away from the front door!

The community support officers are known as the teletubbies around here as they are round and yellow. The two who turned up were not particularly round but one had the air of someone who wanted to be a proper policeman and the other would probably have been more suited in a job in public relations. They certainly didn't seem to have anything interesting to say. In fact they didn't say much at all.

The councillor could obviously smell an election and had already steroetyped everyone around here as rather stupid. I did not make any attempt to disillusion her and thought it was quite interesting that she seemed totally incapable of making eye contact with anyone. After 10 minutes they decided that they were wasting their time and we all went back indoors.

A collection of hoarders!

Spring is slowly appearing. The crocuses are beginning to poke up, the days are longer and after school the kids are kicking their football around using my car as the goal post! However, this morning there is a heavy frost even in our seaside town, reminding us that we have not quite seen the back of winter.
Our clear out continues. Over the weekend we cleared out most of Ian's kitchen and removed the units. We then took some of the old cabinets to Ian's mother's house for her to use as craft cupboards in her shed. Ian has a tendancy to collect things and has bits and pieces everywhere. Mostly this means that when he needs something he can't remember where it is and so has to go and buy more! Ian's mother is the same and by all accounts his father was even worse so I fear that Ian has inherited a double dose of the hoarding gene! Ian started to help his mother sort out her cupboards. One box was full of old half empty paint cans of various speciality finishes. There were three tins of Lambretta paint which made me smile as the Lambretta was sold in 1976!

I am now attempting to sell off some of my old clothes on Ebay! One thing I found in the back of my wardrobe was an old evening dress, worn once! The date on the label was 1986 and so now should be desirable as a retro item!

Sunday evening feeling

I am really happy as my old touring bike sold for over £100. I am not bothered about the money. I am just delighted that someone is going to have it who may get some pleasure from it and will appreciate the craftmanship and the simplicity in the design. The bike has taken me over the Alps and the Pyrenees and on various day rides. The person who has bought it is coming down to visit his grandma and will pick it up on the way. I also sold some old mountain bike forks for not too much to someone who is delighted as now he can finish his bike. Ian and I have both been in that position when we were younger when we had no money but desperately wanted bikes and other such things that were good. Tonight I feel the universe is in balance! ( I have also just drunk two large glasses of a very nice red wine so the world is wonderful!)

Lazy Sunday

The anticipation of waiting for the auction to finish on my Ebay items is just too much. So much so I am still in bed! Ian joined in this weekend and put his old racing bike frame up for sale. It has great sentimental meaning as he bought it in 1978 (when he was a mere teenager) and raced with it for several years until he discovered girls and university! We then went through and thought about other things that we could sell that we will not need in France, although personally I find the exitement too much to manage too many items at a time!

We had yet more snow last night, although thankfully just enough to dust the cars and grass. I can remember going mountain biking in Wales on the 18th February about 7 years ago and the temperature was 18 degrees whereas this year it has hovered close to zero for most of the month!

I had my usual 6 month follow up and the hospital last week. One thing that the robot on the telephone forgot to explain was that it was with a different consultant. When I arrived they explained that they had put me in to see someone else as my usual consultant was too busy. Now I don't really mind but I think it would have polite to explain that to me on the phone before I arrived! As it turned out the new consultant was actually very nice and quite easy to communicate with. She agreed that I may need to have some treatment for the terrible heart burn I've been having, wasn't too upset that I had taken it on myself to try out some self medication with some old tablets that I was prescribed a couple of years ago, was happy to prescribe another month of medication but did not agree with me that it didn't need investigating! I think she probably worked me out! I also told her about the plans for France as I will need to sort out specialist care there and she was quite helpful.

Anyway, enough blogging. It is Valentine's day and I have promised Ian some bacon sandwiches!

History under the floorboards

This weekend we tackled the wiring in my house. Of course, the regulations mean that we are not allowed to actually do anything since Ian doesn't have the required Part P electrical qualifications. However, he does have a degree in electronic engineering and worked on the Channel Tunnel so he was able to look and explore the wiring and give his opinion of what needed to be done (which of course we didn't do). The problem came to light after I had my new central heating boiler installed. We discovered that the gas meter was not earthed and at the same time the RCD kept tripping out. Both problems required investigating. This required lifting all the floorboards to see what was underneath (and a nice little array of old pipes, rubbish and wires we found!). What we did find was a corner of a page from The Daily Sketch dated 1930 (when the house was built), an old tea card (from the 1960s) and an empty packet of Lambert and Butlers (from about 15 years ago). The timber structures in the house are in really good quality pine or deal and even now, 80 years later, they still have a strong pine smell. The tripping RCD was caused by dampness in the sockets behind the sink and has now stopped.

Dark weekends in November

The weather has continued to be exceptionally wet and windy for the past three weeks with only the occasional short lived respite when the sun has poked through for a matter of minutes. The rain is heavy; bordering on the torrential and the winds here blow it against the side of the house. Now to make it worse it is getting cold! This time of year has got to be the most depressing, with the days getting shorter and shorter up until Christmas. At least once January arrives, although it is often cold, you get a sense of spring coming as the days get slowly longer. Ian cycles 11 miles to work every day and after a week of battling the wind and rain he was tired and I am still recovering from the inevitable winter cold so we had another quiet weekend.


I am now the proud owner of a very nice camcorder! Ian bought it for me for birthday/Christmas and so I spent a while playing with it. Watch this space for my first attempts at movie making! I am also now working on a new computer made from the left- overs of Ian’s computers and a few new parts! We are now planning our IT system for France and as we both may need computer access for any work we do we decided that we need one each! It is a bit of an extravagance but then these things will be more difficult to justify when we don’t have a regular salary!

News from France is that despite our array of drains the cellar has flooded again. We are not sure why but it seems that the pump had become disconnected. A spare pump and generator seem to be essential. There have been a few sunny days by the land and the builders finally returned to finish moving the downpipes. The next stage (hopefully) will be the rendering although that will require a few dry and mild days. Unfortunately Warren has not reappeared to finish the septic tank!

Talking of my birthday, I made myself a birthday cake as I really can’t expect Ian to make me one! This was a dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache topping. It took me two goes to get the topping right and even then I wasn’t that pleased with it. Note to self for next time; it needs very good quality chocolate and careful handling and tastes much better if paired with cherries of some sort!

Last night of the proms

Saturday evening Ian and I did something other than building for a change! We went to the 'Proms in the Park' in Hyde Park, with my brother, sister-in-law and some of their friends. We took a picnic, found a place and spread out our food and drink. It was a lovely evening and the atmosphere was pleasant. Barry Manilow was remarkably good for 67; in tune and very professional. The 'Land of Hope and Glory' bit I always find a bit uncomfortable but it was really quite innocent and the majority of those waving union flags and singing were tourists. Ian tolerated it. It isn't really his thing although he did get to look at the latest stage of my brother's building project. They have now cleared out all of the studio and basement and are hoping to start the building by Christmas.

All jammed out

I have rather neglected blogging over the past few days in favour of fruit picking and jam making. This year my blackcurrants and redcurrants were even more prolific than last year and I could leave the picking no longer. So.. last weekend I picked the blackcurrants and this weekend the redcurrants (3 hours to pick all the redcurrants!)


I have been trying to empty out my freezer so I can defrost it and I still had some of last years fruit in there. Not wishing to add more from this year I started on a bumper jam making extravaganza that ended up requiring 4 trips to Lakeland to buy more jars and lids, as many trips to the supermarket to buy sugar. The result so far is 42 jars of jam. I have jellies and jams of both flavours and now have to think of something to do with the stuff as it is beyond my needs! (I still have 2 kg of redcurrants to use up!)

This is just four of the 42!

A little bit of France in England

I'm a little fed up at the moment as Ian has gone to France and I don't have anymore holiday left so on this occasion I can't join him. Having a weekend to myself is always a bit of a double-edged sword these days as although I relish the time to get on with jobs and things in the house the lack of company means that I am less productive than I should be!


Anyway, yesterday I attempted to make jam from last years blackcurrants and redcurrants before picking this year's crop. The rain gave me a good excuse not go outside and the Tour de France gave me another excuse to relax in the afternoon! However, today the sun shone. One thing about living by the sea is that you hardely ever go there and as it was a nice day and I had heard there was a French market on the seafront, I decided to go. I thought that somehow going to a French market would make me feel almost like I was in France! When I got there I found there were more treats in store as it was the annual 999 rescue show! This, according to the website promised:
" a fantastic array of emergency service displays including the HM Coastguard, RNLI, Ambulance service, Fire and Rescue and the Police Service.."

Also there were representatives from the French Gendarme which made me feel a little closer to France!

Unfortunately the promised demonstration by the RNLI had to be postponed as they got called out to a real rescue! (Although it was quite sunny there was a strong wind and the sea was a little choppy!

The French market proved to be about as French as the cheese section at Tesco! This stall selling sausages (along with a couple of cheese sellers with dodgy French accents) was about the most French and they competed alongside a fudge stall, a pick and mix sweet stall, a stall selling African looking Kaftans and a man selling Greek pastries!

The town itself has tried hard to rid itself of its Costa Geriatrica image in recent times and there was some evidence to that effect. Note the advertising potential..

and row of Mediterranean looking sunbeds (but without the Mediterranean bodies on them I'm afraid!)

All in all it was a pleasant day and I enjoyed it more than I have on previous occasions. It's funny how the sun makes everything look good!