Rural Life

Day 9 of Deconfinement Diary - French bureaucracy will get me if Covid doesn't!

After yesterday's triumph of finishing the sewing (still not yet in place however - something for tomorrow!), I felt strong and able to cope with the thought of firstly helping some chums get through the ANTS system, and then looking at the tax declaration stuff.  Well that was a mistake!

Actually things started well, in that we got my friends' approved digitised photos done at the local service in double quick time, plus John scanned the required documents for me so I didn't have to battle the scanner.  Then it all started to go a bit pear shaped.  First off they wanted more documents than we had scanned, so I ended up taking photos of electricity bills and health system cards and using photos.  That worked and one application to change from a UK drivers licence to a French one went.  Could I get the other one to work?  Aaargh.  It took 15 goes to get the home address entered, as the system took offense at a "lieu dit" that it couldn't automatically find in its repertoire.  As the Government will happily send tax and health stuff to the address, that was a bit annoying, but by sidling up to it, catching the system unawares, a judicious prayer to the god of computers, and by not doing anything different, it finally accepted the details and let me do all the other stuff required for the second licence exchange application.  That is two hours of my life I won't get back!!

So after lunch I went to feed the boys and water the seedlings I planted at the weekend and check on stuff.  There are cherries, but not many, not large, not whole and not particularly spectacular - a shame after all the blossom.

I also took more photographs of bee orchids, but most are out of focus.  This one worked nicely though.

Once home, I thought I had better start looking at tax forms for here and Chinon.  Big mistake!  O it is easy to find the exchange rate they said last year at the tax office - I had to access a number of different reports, copy down twelve numbers to 4 decimal places, take the average and now I wait to see if it bears any resemblance to the number I asked for on the Q&A.  If it does fine, if it doesn't …. And tax French bears no relationship to real French like wot it is spoken either.  Another 2 hours of my life I won't get back.

Rummaging in the shed yesterday evening, John found our Covid-19 remedy (not that he was looking for it, but nice to have found it anyway).  We think it has more chance of working than Trump's dodgy hydrochloroquinine anyway.

Day 8 of Deconfinement Diary - with assistance from Nibbles

It's not been a momentous day here really.  First thing after breakfast I took my car to the garage as he was making a noise - a discussion and a look at the back wheels with a torch and he is booked in to get his brakes sorted out next Monday - not before as they are busy and there is a bank holiday.  I'm glad they are busy - it must have been a tricky time for them.

After lunch I thought I'd better crack on with the roof for the gazebo.  Lockdown stopped play as I had done all I could without fixings.  Amazon France was then blocked for unsafe working practices, so I had to wait until last week when the large "sells everything" shop opened and I had access to their haberdashery department.  If you remember, the lady there was pleased to sell me Velcro and orange tape and not have to discuss the lack of elastic.

I evicted the seedlings and got myself set up on the outside table, and cracked on, knowing it was going to be a long haul.  Nibbles decided to join me, and made things more difficult.  The photos show her serene and relaxed, but mine is a hand cranked sewing machine and there were times when every time my hand went towards her (so once every rotation), it got smacked, claws out!

Anyway, by about 7pm (hence the delay to this story), it was all done.  Tomorrow we will put it on the frame and celebrate with a bottle of something nice, but for tonight, you will have to make do with a photo of it on the ground.  There is of course still the centre piece to be done, but not this week!

The eagle-eyed will notice that Nibbles is still helping.

 

Day 7 of Deconfinement Diary - meeting some new helpers

Before I show you the newbies, a couple of pictures of old favourites.  First question is how many chickens can a small man trap they constructed actually hold?  Chickens don't seem to do social distancing, well apart from Bridie the Bantam who keeps well away from the Big Four when they are out and about.  So we found out last night, one small chicken underneath (no need to breathe for most of the incident it appeared), plus one big, fat Light Sussex (was a breed ever worse named - she is nearly goose size!).  The astonishing thing was that this double layer of chicken in a hole lasted for over half an hour!

Our latest previously owned ride-on lawnmower is currently having its blade plate welded, so we get to keep the grass collector that goes with it in the garden.  It is seriously large!  The hedgehog, Nibbles and, this morning, Poirot all think it is a great place for sunbathing - here modelled by Poirot.

This morning we were back to the vegetable plot to get the third courgette plant, four more butternut squashes and the 20 surviving sweetcorn seedlings into proper ground.  I lifted a piece of weed suppressant matting that had been protecting the soil and the horse poo we spread there in the autumn, and tried turning the soil.  That particular patch is about 70% clay I think so it was hard work, but the sweetcorn are planted and I am hoping that the broad beans provide a bit of shelter and a lot of fixed nitrogen in the soil as their roots spread out.

As I worked my way down the row and lifted more of the matting I met Sid first of all.  I don't know who was more surprised, but once uncovered he didn't seem too keen on going back under the matting.  Nor did he seem too keen on going towards the broad beans, probably as there was a cat on the other side of the beans.  I the end I moved him down to the bottom of the row, knowing I wasn't going to go that far.  Anyway, introducing Sid, the baby grass snake!  If he was a foot long in total I'd be surprised.

As I carried on turning back the matting I found the reason Sid didn't want to go back under, as I found Terry sitting and getting very cross with me for having lifted the mat, moved Sid further away, and then I wouldn't just go away and leave him alone.  He eventually pottered off under his own steam, but he wasn't too chuffed.  He was also very well disguised, so I really only spotted him because he moved.  There were some lovely Terry-sized snails further down the mat, so he should have had a good lunch once we left him to it.

It's ever so nice to meet the neighbours!

 

Day 6 of Deconfinement Diary - getting back to the new normal

Saturday morning is market time in Baugé, and I've been faithful to local stall holders and producers as much as I can be during lockdown.  The market was given permission to expand to include all the usual stallholders although it remains in the Place de Europe in front of the Chateau, rather than up in the market place.  It was really nice to see old chums back.  The lady who sells crèpes and gallettes was there and delighted to be back - she seems to have found lockdown very hard, particularly as she is a very social soul, so not seeing anyone for days clearly affected her.  I was also delighted to find that the Moroccan lady who does wonderful savoury stuffed pancakes and delicious cakes was back, so I could stock up on all the yummy things we have missed over the last two months.

After lunch (mostly Moroccan yummy things) we went out to do stuff, with first stop at a Vide Maison.  A widowed friend managed to sell her house just before lockdown, and can now disperse her stuff, prior to final signatures and heading back to Réunion to be with her children and grandchildren.  We will be sad to see her go.

My husband is very special - he got me a present on Thursday - a trailer full of horse poo.  Today I got to spend a chunk of the afternoon transferring it to a wheelbarrow and then taking it down the hill to sit and mature near where it will be needed.  How kind!

Each time I went down the hill, I was able to admire these flowers that came from some random bulbs I bought at Aldi and planted last autumn.  As I've lost the packaging, I've no idea what they are, but I am really enjoying them.

Today's cat pin-up is Fergus, looking rather imperial.  Until a couple of seconds before I took this, his back paw was pointing at the sky, but it came down, so pretty perfect!

Day 5 of deconfinement diary - health and shopping

A couple of weeks into lockdown, we had the annual reminder that someone's jabs were due.  I phoned the vet to see what could be done, and they said it would be alright if lockdown was lifted by mid-May, but jabs were not considered essential cat healthcare, so we would have to wait.  As soon as we knew that May 11 was Deconfinement Day I was back on to the vets, and got an appointment for this morning.  It has to be mornings and just after breakfast, or Nibbles KNOWS and hides.  I've had to phone up and admit to having lost her more than once!

People don't understand that the vetinary surgery is a risky place it appears - I was let in, to wait with Nibbles to be called for her appointment, but lots of people turned up on spec it seemed to me, and couldn't understand why the door was locked and people were only allowed in one at a time!  Anyway, I have to report that the vet pronounced Nibbles very fit for her age (13), with a nice consistent weight over time, and administered the booster with little fuss.  I think she understood the word Nibbles, as she went for her backside rather than the usual neck.  Since we got home, Nibbles has been sulking.

My other outing today was to collect pork and an organic chicken from a local farm, that does direct sales.  It is excellent, as there is a menu of stuff to buy on their website, and every 3 weeks or so I get an e-mail asking if I would like to order.  Their sausages and merguez are brilliant, and the shoulder roast joints very yummy.  They also sell pasta from a local organic beef farm (there is a reason for that) and eggs and chickens from another local producer.  All the products come from within an 8 mile radius of our house, which is great for keeping food miles down.

Normally we go into a room with a bank of industry grade refrigerators, but current arrangements for social distancing mean a table outdoors, a plexiglass barrier, a box for posting exact money and cheques, an extended opening time and a strict one at a time regime.  It works well, but it is sad not to be able to interact with other clients as before.

Yesterday I got the last of the spuds in - a relief I must say.  There are now 44 potatoes growing away - 20 are actually up and about, the others won't be for a while yet.  I have 4 gaps in the weed suppressant mat that I will be putting some of my butternut squash seedlings in tomorrow, as we are now past the Saintes Glaces.

And another cat photo to finish - Clause decided he would look a bit more sensible than normal for his selfie yesterday.  He is also getting heavier I swear, even though he is shedding fur as quick as he can.

Day 4 of deconfinement diary - personal grooming

When lockdown was announced, a massive wail went up from ladies all over France - no hairdressers and no beauticians!  O M G!!!  What were we ladies to do?  Our hairdressers sent out dire warnings about trimming fringes, home colouring and DIY hair cuts - wait they said, it will all be OK, and we will have more to work with, to make you look beautiful.  The two tone hair look was accepted for once.  Similarly for beauticians - they sent out advice and a long list of DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME, as well as DO TRY THIS AT HOME strictures, and many started to get their products ordered on line and made available at Drive pick up points.

With deconfinement however, life can get back to normal - or sort of normal anyway.  In the interests of this blog, and more importantly for my own peace of mind, I had an appointment today at the beauticians.  The rules are strict - arrive on time, not early; wear a facemask; bring the minimum into the place with you; use the gel at the entrance on your hands on arrival.  Once installed in your treatment room, it was also clear that the nice soft coverings had been removed and paper towels cover the treatment bed.  When you have to remove your facemask, you have to remain silent until you put your mask back on.  When I booked my next appointment, Noemie said that I would need to follow the same rules again.  "It's sad," she said, "but I can't see it changing for a while."  In faultless French of course.

There is an option for a voluntary contribution to the extra costs of maintaining strict hygiene, as they try to avoid increasing prices - I added a few coins to the pot.  We are all in this together after all.

The outward face of the house is looking rather splendid at the moment, as I have tended that rather than my own façade.  The geraniums I got from Aldi last year made it through the winter, and a bit of TLC meant they are blooming fit to bust.

The canna lilies, lemon verbena and vine are also looking very lush just now, although it will be a few months before the cannas flower.

The climbing rose that John pruned a bit late now has flowers.

And I am very pleased with my semper vivum drainpipe planters.

Day 3 of Deconfinement Diary - well that's what my brother said I should call it!

Wednesday is market day in la Flèche in the Sarthe department, just over the border from us and a mere 18 kilometres on the roads (a bit less as the crow flies, but not much).  It is the best market for miles around and I have been using it every week for the last 15 years.  During confinement, that was actually a bit dodgy, and I was probably lucky I wasn't caught by the Evil Gendarme.  The ones that I met, who checked my attestation getting into the market, were always fine and charming.  But a friend knows people who were fined and sent home without getting their goodies, so yes, I reckon I was lucky.

With deconfinement, it wasn't totally clear how the market was going to work, but it was certainly going to happen.  When I got there this morning, the clothes, shoes, kitchen goods and live chicken stands were all set up facing le Loir.  If you wanted the good stuff - food, flowers, plants - you had to join the queue (again), as numbers in the inner square where that bit of the market was, were still tightly controlled.

The big difference going in this week, was that if you didn't have a face mask on or with you, you were given one (and possibly a sharp talking to).  Fortunately I had mine, so once numbers allowed, I was let in to shop until I dropped, or couldn't carry anything else.  I was able to get all that I wanted (or could remember - total fail on bananas) - butter, milk, yoghurts, rice puddings, cakes, cheese, fish, salads, vegetables, black pudding (the real French boudin type - yummy), paté, bacon, and gossip.  What bliss!

Some stall holders weren't finding it as easy as you might expect.  You would think that with an enclosed space and newly found freedom, people would take the time to look at all the stalls.  It appears not!  My friend Brigitte took the following two photos - she sells beautiful cut flowers, and this was her first week back at the market.  She found she was on the side of the square less visited, with few passing by.

As a contrast, she took a photo of the "main drag" through the centre of the square, with rather more people.  It is particularly sad for her as at each end of her row, there were big stands selling plants, but people went round the back of her to get to them.  Both fishmongers were on the main drag, as well as the coffee bean stand.

The bloke that sells yoghurts was on the other side of the main drag, and was also having a slow time of it - again his first day back.  I heard him discussing the challenges of positioning with either a journalist or local councillor, so there may be changes next week.  It is very hard for these small producers as the markets are their main route for selling to the public, and they really do need people to come back to them.  As the Yoghurt Man said, it was like trying to rebuild the business from scratch - the 10 years he had already spent on the markets seemed to be forgotten by many.

 

Day 2 of (limited) freedom - a new normal

As I was putting the seedlings into a sheltered spot yesterday evening, to protect them from the cold temperatures overnight (fortunately no frost), I noticed a lovely effect on the heron that stands under our birch tree.  A ray of sunlight was hitting its chest and with the vivid greens of the new leaves, it was all very lovely.

Today, although still colder than it has been (thanks to that pesky east wind), has been sunny and bright and we could do things.  John has been gardening all day.  This morning I ventured into the metropolis to get my prescription filled and to get the fixings for the gazebo cover (remember that?).  There were more people around than I've seen for ages other than at markets, with a mix of wearing and not wearing masks.  The pharmacy wasn't so bad, but the shop where I got my fixings was very much in newly opened mode.  There was hydroalcoholic gel as you went in and they wanted people to take a basket too - I think I was the only one that did.

The lady in the haberdashery department can be a bit dour, but was delighted to be working, delighted to talk to people (at a distance), and also seemed pleased to not be asked for elastic and bits for making face masks.  When I explained what I was doing (she was surprised to be asked for 6 metres of Velcro), she was even more enthusiastic - it was a good shopping experience.

This afternoon I was able to get down to more spud planting, although I did have helpers.  As the first 20 are well up, I need to press on with this.  I got 10 planted today, and worked out where to rob some wider weed suppressant mat from, as the only stuff we found since lockdown started was 90cm wide, which only takes 1 row of spuds.

Once that was done, I went on a bee orchid hunt.  They are getting going in the wildflower meadow but are well hidden among the clover and the other wild flowers.  They will doubtless become boring over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow is market day, with many restrictions lifted.  It will be nice to see some stall holders that have not been allowed in up to now, as well as keeping the faith with those who have kept us fed over the 55 days of lockdown.  It will also be nice NOT to worry about being stopped and fined on the way there or back, as some have been.  I was lucky it appears.

 

Day 1 of (limited) freedom - not that I've noticed any real difference

Freedom!  Well sort of, anyway.

The weather to greet our new found freedoms was vile this morning - rain, blustery easterly winds and cold.  So while our boulangerie was open again on Mondays (they had been closed during lockdown on Mondays), it wasn't an unconfined joy walking up there, even if I didn't have an attestation.  But actually I did notice some differences - slightly more cars out and about and the barber at the top of the road was open and cutting hair.  But my plans to be out and about planting spuds and going for a walk in the One Acre Wood were confounded by 25mm of rain in 18 hours and a nasty wind that makes going into woodland a tad foolish.  However as the screen grab below shows, from here on in, it is due to get better.

The main excitement of the day was provided by Zola, when she brought in a sparrow.  We thought she had a lizard, so didn't bother chasing her.  It was only when I went upstairs to carry on working and saw her staring at the curtains, that I realised something more was afoot.  Our bedroom windows are large and it is a long way down.  The sparrow was unharmed, so it was a matter of getting the timing absolutely right to let the bird out, and close the window before Zola launched herself out of the window in pursuit.  Fortunately I succeeded.  

Otherwise, the news is full of how people are coping with going back to work and concerns about public transport.  Small pockets of infection are cropping up which should serve to keep people focussed on the key messages of social distancing, hand washing and keeping safe.  We are still waiting for our free face masks, but the 7th May copy of Private Eye finally turned up, saving us from an old but previously unread copy from February 2016.  There was a spoof in there of Johnson working out which way to jump over Brexit and which would give him the better chance of becoming PM.  Some things shouldn't be joked about.

With better weather, I should have more interesting things to report tomorrow, when I go out and about to see what freedom tastes like!

 

Day 55 of lockdown - not long to go!

From 00:01, the strict lockdown is over, from tomorrow I can go this far if I want to!

And I won't have to fill in an attestation either!  Joy unconfined!  Except it isn't that easy, is it?  The virus is still out there, we still have to social-distance, we need to have a facemask around in case we need it and we need to be very careful.  I'm not sure that we need to be alert (your country needs lerts…), but we mustn't forget and we must be vigilant.  For me, the pleasure will not be having to worry each time I leave the house as to whether my journey is necessary or should be justified.  The number of imaginary conversations I have had in my head in case of being stopped by the gendarmes!  But normal things can happen, like visits to the vet, the hairdresser, even to family within the magic circle!

Today has been a tad annoying.  I wanted to carry on planting potatoes as the first lot are up and taunting me, but as soon as I got to where they need to be planted, the heavens opened and it rained solidly for 30 minutes.  It eased off for long enough for me to pop out and pick a couple of kilos of broad beans and then started up again, until I got home.  This afternoon has been hot and sticky, so I happily potted on a bunch of seedlings and prepared a raised bed for something (not decided what) while we wait for the next batch of storms.  There are red alerts for rain and flooding further south.

I thought I would use up a few pictures that I have taken for the lockdown blog but haven't used, even if they are rather nice.  So here is my mass of red hot pokers - a rather rampant variety that we brought over from Worcester, and have moved around a bit.  This is probably still not the best place for them.

Did you know that lobelia overwinter if it doesn't get too frosty and you don't chuck them out as soon as they start to fade?  I think this lot are from last year, but could be from 2 years ago, and still going strong!  They also self-seed.

Despite the hedgehog, the proliferation of snails, slugs and chickens in our garden means that growing strawberries in the ground is never very successful, so we have them in hanging baskets.  We have a few Mariguettes (best tasting ever, but hard to get hold of the plants), the infamous Korona variety that we bought just before lockdown and this unknown variety that we got from Aldi last year, that has unusual pink flowers.  Can't remember what the fruit are like, but they are pretty!

Anyway, this is the last episode of Lockdown Blog, but as reactions on Facebook seemed to be that I should continue with this entertainment, a new series will start tomorrow.  All I've got to do is think up a snappy name for it...

Release diaries?  Waiting for the 2nd Wave?  Freedom blog?  Wait and see!