Rural Life

Day 5 of Lockdown - not so easy!

Once I'd written and published this blog yesterday, it was beer o'clock, but as we are in lockdown, it had to be done differently.  We booked FaceTime with my Mum and Brother, found some crunchy nibbles and then went to pour a couple of drinks.  Well John's beer wasn't a problem (for the moment), but my gin and tonic was - it was the last of the gin... Of... Any …. Sort!  Panic!!

Well the FaceTime aperos experiment worked very well by the way, and will be repeated later this weekend and a few times next week and probably for the foreseeable future, with different chums - let me know if you want to play!!

John had the responsibility of doing the shopping this morning as he also had a doctor's appointment.  He picked up the care package of Earl Grey tea that had been left for us, checked out the market and came back with lots of yoghurt and rice pudding as that particular supplier is going to self-isolate from today (eek), fish, apples, salad, ham and most importantly - Gin!

Not the strongest perhaps, but one of the best named, and with a smashing label!

The weather today isn't particularly nice - dull and cold (where did the sun go?), so I have carried on with working from home and the report that I am doing for the Broads Authority, while listening to my new CD by Claudio Capéo - if you are feeling bored, look up his brilliant songs Un Homme Debout and Dis-le Moi.  I defy you not to want to pogo around the room towards the end of the second one!!

The lack of sun has affected the cats of course.  Zola is in and out and can't settle to anything as she needs to keep warm (despite having a thick fluffy coat).  Poirot is trying to recover from me spending the morning with Patrick Bruel (on Facebook) and singing along loudly and tunelessly.  Nibbles is trying to sleep through it all.

Day 4 of Lockdown - strange sounds

I think I am over the phase of when I sit in a draught and feel chilly, wondering if I am coming down with the dreaded virus!  Now I need to get over the angst of checking and rechecking my relevant attestation before driving out of the courtyard, although making sure I have the right thing is still important.

Today's quick foray out of the house was again work related, checking up on the cats of a departed Brit.  There are four of them but only 3 turned up for their share of a tin of cheap and sloppy cat food.  The noise of slurping cats...

Anyway, once they had licked all the bowls clean, I walked down their garden and sat in the sun, admiring yet another Brimstone butterfly as well as a small orange tip.  There were also jays, pigeons, bees of all sorts, wild flowers and broad beans to admire as much as I could while being sat on by one large cat, and having another treat my foot as a dead rabbit.

And a really strange sound.  The quiet popping of pine cones as the sun gets to them, and they release their seeds which then fall to the ground.  Except that in the quiet of the country, and with no background traffic or plane noise, it sounded very loud indeed!

The cats guard our Guadeloupe sprouted avocado seed, which is now starting to look like a serious tree with a branch!  Sadly I fear it will never have fruit, but it is a fun thing to have.

There are rumours of more drastic measures of confinement here, as Parisians in particular explore ways to flout isolation.  That is the real fear for us.  At the moment, as we are pretty antisocial and also pretty well stocked, we are OK in our isolation, but further restrictions would weigh on our mental state, as we worry about the work we can't do, and the wellbeing of these cats.  

Stay away from other people is I think the key message at the moment.

Day 3 of Lockdown - permitted working

Important things first - Zola is being completely vile about taking her medicine, but I'm not sure we expected any better from her.

The weather today is fabulous, and you can actually hear the grass growing.  John did me an attestation for going to do one lawn, while he did another for himself to go and deal with 3 separate gardens.  He's not home yet, so I don't know how many fines he has clocked up, or if he has had to show his attestation at all.  I didn't, when I snuck out to do my lawn.

As you can see, I suffered in my isolation.  I had discussions with a couple of mallards, a very cheeky robin, a couple of Brimstone butterflies, and annoyed a couple of amourous frogs (but not for long).  Of course, it will all need doing again next week.

Home, and I thought I would check up on our lazy Victoria Plum tree - signs of 10 flowers, which is not really good enough.  Having said that, last summer was diabolical for an English plum tree here in France, so I shouldn't be too harsh.

The roads are quiet, people are doing some gardening when they can, but it is very strange.  It is also rather loud as the bird life is in full rut and is enjoying not having all that competition from cars and lorries and motorbikes.  Nature will take back the world, while we are confined - perhaps that was Her plan all along?

Stop Press - John is home with no fines paid.

Day 2 of Lockdown - and three attestations used!

I totally failed to mention yesterday's highlight - a drive by flowering!  A local flower producer and vendor dropped off flowers with her relatives and chums so that they didn't end up on the compost heap while still totally beautiful.  It was all done within the rules of social distancing, but what a lovely idea!  A lovely way to brighten a pretty grim day.

Today we braved the police with our attestation and decided to check that we could indeed use the local farmers market at la Flèche - we stick to our principles of supporting small and local business where possible.  I'm not sure we were supposed to go together, but other than that, it was good to go.  Benoit, producer of raw butter and raw milk that has a good two inches of cream on the top was there with our usual order, so we exchanged milk bottles and agreed to meet next week.  Jean-Marc the cheese man provided us with 5 excellent cheeses and we panic bought fresh Italian pasta.  The fishmonger had John Dorey and with few people there, I wasn't ashamed to ask him to fillet it.

This afternoon John worked - again armed with the famous attestation - but while it is a magnificent sunny day here and warm, the ground has yet to give up the ridiculous amount of rain we have had this month, so he wasn't out that long.

Zola the kitten-style cat has been having "difficulties", so I ended up with a third attestation as I whisked her off to the vet on a medical emergency.  No constipation, no excess liquid in her bladder indicating crystals, but a temperature and a diagnosis of cystitis - no cranberry juice for her, but anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and special food (cranberry juice would be a whole lot cheaper). 

So not really a total lock down day, but a weird one when we did sneak out (armed with our relevant attestations of course).

 

 

Day One of Lockdown - today's word is procrastination

As the church bell tolled midday, that was it - lockdown!

That was the moment that I started to yearn to pop out for new socks and to walk down to the lake to see if there were any herons about - no chance!

A friend has pointed out that it is either the opportunity for really getting to grips with things I've wanted to do for ages, or for monumental procrastination.  As I've actually got a report to do for work and a couple of tenders to respond to, I'm hoping that procrastination doesn't grab me.  But then again I have decided to revive this blog, which is in itself a form of procrastination I guess.

The cats know something is up.  One is whiney.  One has just trashed all the settings on John's computer.  One has decided that she might be constipated, or she might have a bladder infection, or she might just freak us out.

The chickens are not so fussed, but are intrigued by the fact that John has been working in our garden (fighting against procrastination) and has a fire going in an oil barrel.  Hopefully they won't try to barbeque themselves.

Rumour has it that there are two cases in the village, one of whom is in hospital - we are thinking of them.

Tomorrow I need to go out armed with an attestation - the cats in the country will need food - that is what will keep me awake tonight.