All change again

Wow, just when life is ticking over nicely something comes along to pull the rug from under your feet and to stop you feeling too complacent. I got the call last week that everyone who lives away from their family dreads. "Call me urgently, it's about mum" In my family this means business.

Mum had not been seem all day and when someone went to check they had found her collapsed on the toilet. Looking at the fact that the breakfast things were still out, she must have been there since morning. My sister arrived at the same time as the paramedics and she was taken to the nearby hospital where she was admitted, having had a very large bleed into her brain. It was critical and I had to come.

It's amazing how quickly you can do things! Ian had booked my flight for the following morning and I had packed my hand luggage in half an hour. We had to leave at 5.00a.m. the following morning and I worked hard through the night to get my head round the fact that my mum was dying and I might not make it in time. Sleep was never really going to be an option.

At the airport the following day I noticed that red eyes mean you get given plenty of space in the waiting room! I made my way from Gatwick to Heathrow, seeing the first arrivals for the Olympic Games at Terminal 4 in a slightly surreal atmosphere. From the airport I got a lift to the hospital. She was in the acute stroke unit and we were given unlimited visiting (not a good sign). As I arrived I saw the red eyes and worried looks of my brother and sister and then saw a person in the bed who had some features of my mother but really wasn't her. She was wired up to a drip as she was unable to swallow and was being given fluids, but that was it. The bleed had affected over one third of her brain and was untreatable. We spent the weekend waiting.

On Monday, the doctors returned from the weekend, surprised to find that she was still there with relatively stable vital signs, although she had a chest infection. At this point they started a more active treatment approach and treated her with antibiotics and started to feed her through a naso-gastric tube. By Tuesday she was a little more responsive. She is able to follow us with her eyes, hold hands and move her left arm and hand. The worst of it however is that I think she is able to understand a reasonable amount of what is going on but can't speak or communicate in any other way. I really at this stage don't know what I wish for and what is possible.

Arriving in London in the countdown to the Olympic Games, in an unplanned way, with just hand luggage is a really unsettling experience. Today I booked a flight home in a weeks time and I will go whatever happens, even if I have to return again quickly.

Things to do!

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted here. I think we thought somehow that coming to live here was going to be a bit like early retirement, where we would still be busy but would have more time! Well that couldn't be further from the truth as we have a list of projects that gets longer each day and each time we cross off one job we add on two more!  The positive things are that we are working in a nice environment, we are pretty much working for ourselves and we don't do the same things everyday.

So here is some of what we have been doing:-

We have been making hay while the sun shines.. although it turned out that was only for a weekend and came at the time when we had a million and one other things to do. So, our one day off for weeks was spent cutting, baling and lugging hay. We called in a few favours in order to get it done and by the end of Sunday had a field full of large bales and a big pile of small ones. The wet summer has meant we have about 5 times as much as last year.

The wet warm whether has caused the garden to grow and I have been inundated with courgettes again! We have been eating courgette soup (quite nice), courgette lasagna, courgette muffins, stir fried courgettes, courgette scones.... (next year must remember that two courgette plants is ample!)

I guess people who have been reading the blog for some time expect that after 18 months our building project should be complete, we should already have our llamas and be open for business.  We are now more accepting of the fact that it will take longer than we anticipated to get that far!  Day to day life seems to take more time than we expected! Still we are progressing slowly. A big step this week is that for the first time since Ian and I met, all our possessions are in the same piece of land! For 18 months most of the boxes that we brought from England have been stored at a neighbours house. This week Ian managed to finish boarding an area in the garage that we can use as storage and we moved our boxes in there. They didn't look so bad when they were all piled up in one space.

We have also been trying to make headway with the electrics so that we can get our permanent supply connected before our temporary supply is cut off (as is being threatened!) We have a 4 page list of jobs and are gradually ticking off the red (high priory ones ). Some days we get it down to three pages but then remember other things that need to be added!

So, with all these things to do, I suppose we don't need another project but we just can't resist! Someone was offering an old caravan free to someone who could collect it. We volunteered our services and so yesterday drove 2 hours to collect what I have now christened 'Norma' the caravan; named after my old cat that never made it to France with me! Here are two pictures of Norma as she was this morning.

Of course we can't resist attempting a major restoration project at some time in the future. I have always wanted to have a go at tarting up an old caravan and turning it into a kitch waggon. Ian is not so sure about the kitch bit but when he saw what we could get in rental for one he was more convinced! For now we are just going the repair the leaks and damage and clean it up....but it has been a great thing to be thinking about while we should be doing other things!

Someone asked me before I left whether I would be bored in France and questioned what I would find to do with time! I can honestly say I have never been busier!

Strange goings on in the country

Sometimes on a Sunday I can persuade Ian to come for a walk with Gremlin and me. One of the walks we do takes us down into the village, along a couple of farm roads, and back home. On the way back we pass a dis-used quarry. It always looks very tempting and this time we decided to pop in and have a look round. (I should say this was about a month ago). It was quite a weird place. There were the remains of the workings. Ian and I were saying that probably many of the houses round here would have been built with stone from this quarry. In one corner there was an area that looked a bit like it had been used for fly tipping. There were a lot of large chunks of concrete slab, earth, gate posts etc. Ian had a good look and we did think that some of it might have some use. We decided that we might ask one of the nearby neighbours if they knew who owned it and if the items there were needed. Here is a picture of Ian and Gremlin climbing over the rubble.

There was a bit of strange smell there and I didn't feel comfortable, so we left and continued our walk.

A lot of people die here. This is probably because the population is quite old. There was yet another burial in the local graveyard attached to the church a couple of weeks ago. The graveyard is quite small and I often wondered where they put all the bodies.. (Are you beginning to work it out yet?). Once I went and had a walk round the cemetery but I didn't like it. There were lots of flies, decaying flowers and a funny smell (although it was the middle of August and hot).

This week the news broke amongst the English speaking community (although it had been news for a few days prior to that). A walker had also been in the quarry and had also been poking through the rubbish and found human remains; skulls, femurs, burial shrouds and even an old coffin. He had reported it to the police and it transpires that the local undertakers (or their employees) had been exhuming bodies to make way for new occupants. Now in France this appears to be legal under certain circumstances. The body must have been in the ground for at least 5 years and there must be no relatives, or they must give consent. The Maire must sign the authorisation and any human remains must be returned to the church where they are stored. Now the undertaker is in prison, his business closed for 6 months and he is facing charges that could mean up to a year in prison and a fine.

This is a link to an article on the local news about the events!

I am definately even more convinced than ever that cremation is the way to go!

Broadening Horizons

It has been a little while since I posted anything. Reading my last entry, about buidling the garage, I realise that we have been quite busy. The garage is now placed on hold as we have had to change priorities and concentrate on getting as much of the wiring done as possible so that we can apply for our permanent electricity supply. This is because EDRF are now threatening to disconnect the temporary electric supply that we have been living off for the past year. We can't really argue against it as we have had the supply for 6 years and technically we are not supposed to use it to live off! The positive thing is that it means we are making progress on our living area which is a great morale booster!

The wonderful thing is that we seal off bare walls with plasterboard never to see them again, and open up areas that we had temporary sealed. Today we removed our temporary wall between the kitchen and living room and for the first time were able to enjoy the open view, through the two doors.

The space has been a bit overwhelming and all of us, including Gremlin, felt a little lost. Maybe soon I can unwrap my grandmother's chairs!

Looking out of the double doors we can get a good view of the four hoopoes that feed off all the insects on the lawn. Unfortunately I can't get close enough to get a good photo!

Spring

May continues and is nearly at an end already! I have been busy with marking student work and trying to fathom out how to fill in a French tax form. The forms finally became available on the 9th May, to be filled in and returned by the 31st with fines for being late! This is one of the most frustrating things about France. A bureaucracy that makes the UK look simple with people employed to run it in the least efficient way possible! Well, we will do our best sfe in the knowledge that even if we got it right the chances of anyone in the tax office of being able to work it out are slim, so we expect them either to ignore it completely or return it as 'unacceptable' when we will get a D- and told to do better!

Ian has been continuing with the garage. The batons are on for the wall panels and we have been boarding off a little of the inside walls so that we can move our boxes out of storage for the first time in 18 months!

The weather remains mixed but this year the wild flowers have been out in abundance, including the orchids, although this time they are hidden in the field amongst the grass.

Walking the dog has become difficult as the grass is too long and when he decided to run off after a scent he disappears into the field and we can't see him! With that in mind Ian repaired the tractor this week and ewas able to cut a path around the edge.

I should really take Gremlin for a walk now but as I look out it is pouring with rain, so he may have to wait a bit!

The other news is that France has a new president, Monsieur Hollandaise as they have nicknamed him. I don't know in the end whether it will make much difference whoever is in government but even if I did have an opinion I couldn't vote anyway!

Storm approaching

I was just about to take Gremlin for a walk when I saw this approaching. The lightening took out our circuit breaker. Fortunatel it passed over in a couple of hours.

Home

We are finally getting over our trip back to UK. Going away requires extra washing and work before you go, two gruelling days of travel, hard work socialising and then washing and cleaning when you get back. Today the rain stayed away and I was able to do the last lot of washing and get it dry on the line.

It's been so long since I blogged that Google has changed its layout. Not sure I like the new one but sure I will eventually work it out.

We arrived back to torrential rain and wind and water seeping over the new garage floor. Lesson to selves: when laying service trenches to a building (especially when the building is at the bottom of a hill) make sure that you lay some drainage and divert the pipe away from the house, or else it will just collect all the water as it runs off the slope and spill it out the end! In this case the end was in the new garage. The solution was to get out the digger and dig lots of trenches.

I will do a seperate post of Gremlin's adventures in London, but just add that he seemed happy to be back and celebrated by running off to look for his girlfriend!

May looks like it is going to be a busy month with  couple of dinner invites, the hunt soiree, and of course plenty of jobs to do.

More later.

Wrapping up

The weather is turning a little and rain is forecast for the rest of the week. This is very much needed but means outside jobs are on hold now until after we come back from our 10 days in UK. Our last job before the rain was to finish wrapping the garage in its breathable membrane to protect the OSB.

As you can see all doors and windows are now in as well, so the garage is watertight and secure. The next job is to paint the floor (as once everything is in there it will never get done), render the concrete blocks at the bottom and batton and clad the outside. Then we should be able to move our boxes out of storage and the tools out of the house!

Springtime

This couple appeared in the front of the house yesterday. They are hoopoe and are common here around springtime. I had just attempted to mow our apology for a lawn and I guess there must have been a lot of insects around! The photos are pretty poor as I had to take them through the kitchen window before the birds flew off. I think they are nesting in our neighbours roof.

We also have a bird nesting in the tower and one trying to nest in the garage. Spring is here!

I planted my onions and potatoes last week. The vegie patch has been increased by a third in size and I reckon is now big enough to feed two people, although the soil will need a couple more years before it is properly workable.

Sheepgate (and other stories)

Spring is now here and we are up to 25 degrees during the day. Although the nights are clear they are not too cold and so we have forgotten about heating and are beginning to look out our summer clothes (not much different to the winter clothes but just have shorter sleeves!)

Last week Ian celebrated his half century, which required me to make a few mad cakes. Here are the results.

The tractor was all they had in the gift shop that was appropriate. It is made in China!

Cup cakes with chocolate and vanilla butter icing decorated with licorice allsorts

Gremlin the naughty cattle dog is slowly calming down at times. His main difficulties (or should I say our main difficulties) are his over exitement at anything remotely different. To that end we are trying to increase his disciplined exercise and I am trying to run with him (trying because I can't keep up) whereas Ian is trying to get him used to running after the mountain bike without attacking it. We have been having some success although he still runs off unpredictably after an interesting smell or a flapping duck, taking the bike or me with him.

Yesterday Ian took him round the field and I waited on the terrace for them to return. I glanced down towards Herman's field and noticed his sheep running around in all directions. After a while I could just about make out another animal with them. Closer inspection showed a red dog, causing havoc! I concluded the worse; that Gremlin had escaped from Ian and was having a good time on his own. I put on some shoes and made to go across the field, when I saw Ian and Gremlin trotting up together.  Further investigation revealed that Herman's dog had got out of his dog house and was rounding up  the sheep in Herman's absence (only not very gently!). A rescue party was launched consisting of me, Ian and a neighbour. When we arrived we heard the dog in the distance. After calling him a few times he sheepishly appeared (punn intended) and we were able to put him away. Now to look at the damage! There were sheep all over the place; several in the stream, some in different fields, many with big bite marks in their flesh. Ian and the neighbour set about trying to drag the wet sheep from the river and tend to the wounded. It took about and hour of pulling, coaxing, lugging, calling and falling in the stream to get them all accounted for. One lamb was dead and one sheep looked close to death. Herman returned at this point and surveyed the damage. We were amazed to see this morning that all the surviving sheep were still alive and grazing in their field.

Drought is anticipated this year. We walked around the lake with Gremlin this weekend. It should be full at this time of the year but it is less than half full.

As we were walking round the lake a couple warned us that further round there was an 'incident' and we might be turned back. They thought someone may have collapsed (maybe died) as there were Gendarme all around. When we got there it was mid-day and the incident had just been cleared in time for the Gendarme to go for lunch.

Today there was a funeral in the village. I don't know who it was but there were well over 100 people there. It is the third funeral in the village that we have seen and they all have been well attended!

Marching forward

March seems to be going by rather quickly. Our aim is to get the garage sealed and secure by mid April, when we are returning to UK for a week. With that in mind Ian has been putting in windows and doors. These are the latest pictures.

Back of garage 21st March

Double doors still needing fitting

End view; door still needing fitting

The roof is now completely finished, including cementing and pointing the ridge tiles. The large shutter doors still need installing and then the whole outside can be clad. I think I am going to call the garage the EBay garage as that is where much of the materials are from. The cladding is a type of fibro cement panel, popular in the United States. Ian saw it on EBay and had two pallets shipped from the UK. The windows are not EBay but special offer in our local DIY store and cost 70 euros each. The roll down doors, all the nails, the breathable membrane for the outside and all the tools required for the build (nail gun, stappler etc) were all EBay specials, and even with delivery have saved a considerable sum of money on the costs.

The garage is looking rather good now, to the extent that we were told by the local Maire that people are concerned that we are building gites, not a garage. I decided to make a joke of it (because it is a bit of a joke!) and told them that there was no doubt that the garage was going to be nicer than the house, but that was because Ian thinks his tools need a special place to live!

This week we have had our first real experience of French administration. Ian has been trying to register the car and I have been trying to exchange my drivers license for a French one. This has required three or four trips to various offices that are only open between 8.30 and 12.00 every day and very slow progress. One trip to the local town hall in Bergerac was the closest I have come to experiencing a visit to the DHSS in the UK. We are resolving to do as much as we can by post and email from now on, even  though everyone says you only get things done if you go in person!

The problem with exchanging the drivers licence is that as soon as you send it off if you are stopped by the Gendarme you can be fined for not having a licence. We struggled to find out the correct procedure in this case. The town hall suggested we asked the Gendarme and the Gendarme suggested that we asked the town hall! In the end we we to the village council and got a letter from them certifying that they had sent it all off to the appropriate people!

Ticked off

I didn't take this photo myself. It comes from here and is a deer tick. We have a lot of ticks here and they seem to like Gremlin a lot! Of course we are trying the flea and tick treatments, which seem to make no difference at all to the nasty little b*ggers, and in the end we have to remove them as we find them. They make me feel pretty itchy, especially as Ian found one just about to take hold of his leg the other day. Here they transmit nasty things like Lyme disease in humans and some nasty dog tick disease that has already killed two dogs this way..so we don't like them at all!

Garage gets a hat

More news on the garage building. Pleasant weather has continued and we now have a roof, minus only the ridge tiles. It was a three person and a tractor job, and once all the preparation had been done the placing of the tiles took two half days in total. Here are some pictures.

Extremes

Ian and I have been struggling to fight off a rather nasty cold for the last two weeks and are only just winning. I suppose that's one of the problems with having temperatures of minus 20 one week and plus 20 a few days later. We had a quiet weekend to try and recover, but this week Ian could sit still no more and started to work on the roof of the garage. Tomorrow the tiles go on, but in the meantime here are a couple of pictures.

Gosip and idle thoughts

No theme to todays posting.. just odd thoughts and observations on life here.

So here we are coming to the end of another month. The garage is slowly moving forward but weather has held us back a bit. The forecast now is looking more promising so hopefully we can crack on with it and move on to the next job! We still haven't got round to registering the car in France (as the process is fairly complex) and as the insurance runs out soon, and my UK drivers licence needs to be renewed and changed to a French one, then this job is taking on more importance.

Sunday here is the hunting day. Mostly there are one or two hunters out looking for rabbits or hare, but every month or so the whole hunt come out in force to hunt deer. It's a bit of a fiasco and looking at them out there last week I couldn't help remarking to Ian, that for the hunt organiser it must be a bit like organising a day trip for age concern, since the average age of most of the hunting contingent is well past retirement. They are usually driven to their stations in a 4x4 as they are too frail to walk there and mostly they use the gun barrel as a mobility aid. I guess that over the next few years with the old brigade dying off, so will the hunt. There are younger members but most of them suffer from the 21st century disease of too little time and too much work. I have mixed feelings. Having been anti-hunting for years I won't miss the spectacle, but at least here they eat what they kill and respect the wildlife around them, wanting to preserve natural environments so that there are plenty of things for them to shoot. Without the hunt, people would put down poison and adopt other more nasty and dangerous forms of pest control to keep the deer, rabbits and hare, etc from taking over.

Looking at the older population around here, it did strike me that it is very like "last of the summer wine." The older generation still get out and about and get themselves into mischief. One dropped dead last week after shovelling snow. He was well over 80 and I couldn't help but think what a nice way to go! The local accent and patois is also widely used amongst this group. They have names like Combo, Old Scapan and Peter Orange. Old Scapan is a hunter in his 80s who has a wife 20 years his junior. He still drives his tractor around. Peter Orange lives with his wife but they argue a lot and he has made it known that he is looking for another, much younger one. I have yet to identify the Nora Batty character but there are several candidates.

On a completely different note, the first of the three babies expected to be born in the village this year arrived recently. Well, at least I assume it did as the pregnant lady no longer looks pregnant!

Thaw

At last the snow has cleared and we can see the field again. Temperatures are up to seasonal normal and life is slowly getting back to normal. Burst pipes are being mended, freezers re-stocked and mail is now being delivered.
We managed quite well despite the fact that we live in an unfinished house with no central heating and only a 3kw temporary electric supply. Ian even managed to continue on with the garage on some days, although on others keeping warm was a full time job.

Here are the latest pictures.



Next stage is the roof.

A few photos of the snow (and no sign of it going any day soon!)

The view from the terrace

Looking up the road

The stinking pool that Gremlin loves

A VERY cold dawn (-13.9 on our thermometer)

Gremlin thinks it is great!

Coldest winter since 1985

9.45 at night and the temperature guage reads minus 9 degrees, which means that the real temperate is more like minus 12 degrees. The cold spell continues and the snow is still around and now unlikely to go until next week. By now most of us have given up trying to work as it is a full time job keeping warm. The farmer came round this morning with his snow chains on the car and checked we were okay. It was too cold for him to work in the vines and after he left us he rescued our neighbours who got stuck on the way to town.

Yesterday one of the other farmers attempted to clear the communal roads with a snow plough on his tractor. We managed to drive into town yesterday and did some shopping and we have enough provisions to last for a while (as do most people!),

Our elderly neighbour, Madame Delgrano, invited us over for coffee this afternoon. She had made a tarte au pomme and served that with coffee and Sangria. I think we helped her to feel less isolated this afternoon.

I will be glad when it warms up.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

The sky is deceptively sunny. It looks balmy but the temperature didn't get above freezing today and was minus 8 degrees this morning and overnight. We unpacked the thick duvet and I looked out my thermals! When I took Gremlin for his walk this morning I was wearing thermals, three fleeces, a windproof jacket, two hats, two pairs of gloves and thick socks, and when the wind blew I was freezing! The culprit of this severe winter spell is high pressure over Russia and a Northerly wind!

This didn't stop Ian from getting on with the garage. The frame is now almost finished and the next job will be boarding and putting on the rafters for the roof.

3rd Feb 2012

Zero tolerance

After a good session at the dog class last week where Gremlin misbehaved again and Ian and I were put in our places for not being strict enough, we have started to adopt a zero tolerance approach to Gremlin. That means he doesn't get anything unless he does as he is told first time. We are trying our best to be good pack leaders. It does seem to be working although I am cautious as Gremlin does seem to have a habit of working out our latest tactic pretty quickly and then either ignoring it completely or finding a way to disobey!!