Rural Life

Feral kittens in the Baugeois

It is that time of year when all undeconstructed female cats produce huge numbers of lovely fluffy bundles.  Our two have been dealt with, so in theory we don't have that problem however next door's girl cat has produced a litter of very lovely kittens.  We think the father is next door's boy cat - and that fact is the sort of thing that will set me off on a major rant.

The litter was 5 kittens, but one didn't make it and one has theoretically found a home (and not just our garden), however if you live in the 49150 postcode area of France and would like a totally adorable kitten, contact me!  The feckless owner is doing nothing about rehousing them - source of another major rant.  They are ready NOW!

How can you resist this?  Further lovely photos of them can be found here.

The Side Effects of Wind Power

No - not a post about Jerusalem artichokes and their ozone-busting side effects.  Nor is this this a rant about how scenery is destroyed by putting a wind turbine in it - I'm actually rather a fan, having seen impressive sites in Spain, Blythe, France and Lanzarote.

But do you know how they get them to their home site?  Do you know how big the individual blades are?  And if you think about it, you can see why they have to be done in one piece!

There is a smallish wind farm being developed near Cholet, and the windmills are made on the Dutch border (where else?), and somehow, the various bits have to get to the Marais.  Each windmill has three sails.  The planners checked the routes for special convoys and decided that it would be no problem to take the sails through near us.  What they didn't allow for was street furniture, street lights, trees and a partially demolished bridge, or the curvature of the sail on the lorry.

When they arrived at the Demi-Lune roundabout, they got stuck for about 19 hours, until a tree had been chopped down, street lights taken down and road signs dismantled.  After that each sail took a mere 9 minutes to manoeuvre around the Demi-Lune, stopping the traffic in 5 directions.  The wind farm is having 10 windmills, each with 3 sails - there were a lot of traffic jams around us for about a week.

This shows the size of the things (50 meters long excluding lorry cab) as they edge round onto the road out of town.