Rural Life

A more positive outlook

Finally bugs are behind me for the moment and I can look more positively at the coming weeks and think about what needs doing.  Last week we dug up the very last potatoes from the 2024 crop - a bit sprouted but eating nicely!  The potato bed is now getting ready for other, more interesting crops, having received most of the 400 kilos of top quality compost.  The first strip has been sown (too late in my view, but nothing I can do) with broad beans, with wire cages over the top to defend the seed bed from cat bottoms.  The next block will have onions and shallots when I am a bit more convinced about the weather, while the final block should have the aubergines, chillies and courgettes, assuming I get round to sourcing plants or sowing my own.

On Friday I picked up what I thought would be refurbished Asian hornet traps, but turned out to be brand new ones, with my old trap numbers painted on them.  They will go out in the next couple of days, as I have seen a bumble bee, so things are starting to stir in insect world.  The plum blossom on the mirabelle style trees is starting to look very close to exploding so that will attract other things, and therefore also overwintered Asian hornet queens looking for nourishment.

The fog is less omnipresent at the moment and that means we are getting more interesting sunsets of an evening.  It is also lovely that those sunsets are ever later into the evening - just 4 weeks now until the clocks go forward, although the mornings are still too dark to be inspiring.

In theory this is the last weekend of the big game hunting season - I'm sure they will find a good reason to carry on but Sunday walks may be safer from next weekend onwards!  Looking around the plot, there is evidence of a lot of animals on the move, and I've just scanned through some trail camera footage which shows that nothing has stopped the wild boar in their inexorable fight to conquer the French countryside, as a group of 15 passed through!  For today you will have to do with print evidence though.

This week I had to resort to ordering a load of t-shirts - we've not indulged for perhaps 5 years and it is showing, so I gave in to cheap fashion and ordered 7 (3 for me, 4 for John).  Home delivery didn't seem to be possible without a huge additional cost, while leaving the parcel at a local shop didn't seem to be an option any more - I had to choose between three different ranges of deposit boxes.  Now I have to say it all worked really nicely and from placing the order on Wednesday, it was pretty amazing to collect the goods on Friday, but...  I liked going to a shop to pick up the parcel, sometimes I was tempted to buy something from them too, and certainly they got paid a bit for being the deposit point.  So while these boxes work very nicely, I think I preferred the human touch!

Now I need to go and watch the last half hour of an exciting rugby match!  Have a good week!

 

Sunshine makes everything better

This last week has all been about the slow recovery from a nasty bout of 'flu, with a slight blip when a gastro bug decided to make life more challenging.  But aside from that, it is amazing how sunshine makes things feel so much better!  On Monday, the sun was a bit tentative, and with dramatic clouds that did nothing but look impressive, so it was enough to tempt me out for a short walk to get the blood circulating and track down a bit of vitamin D.  The church was looking as magnificent as ever, to create a perfect image of sunshine, cloud and architecture.

There was a cruel wind, so to keep out of its path, I kept to the small lanes and built up bits of the village, rather than stride out to the route de Beaufort.  For a change I pottered down the cobbled lane that leads to the lavoir, or village wash house, to admire the clear spring that rises from a chum's cellar into a deep pool before pouring through the washhouse and down to the river.  Even in the big droughts a couple of years ago, the spring didn't dry up and it is always tempting to dip one's toes in during the summer.  Nothing would have tempted me to dip any bit of me in it on Monday!

Tuesday morning we treated ourselves to a trip to the compost emporium nearby.  They take all the green waste from the local tip as well as serious loads from farmers and others with significant quantities of "material" and on an industrial scale, produce the most marvellous compost.  Bagged up, it is a bit pricey, but take along your own trailer and it is much more reasonable.  A trailer load of about 400kg comes in at 32Euros, or roughly what you would pay for 3 bags of 50 litres of something that has been sitting around at a DIY shop for a few months but has "added goodness" apparently.  They also have a loyalty scheme.  Of course the only challenge now it to move it out of the trailer and onto the bits of garden that need it.

A bit of sunshine and a bit of motivation and the ability to be distant from a bathroom was all I needed this morning to do a bit of work in the garden.  There were a few final potatoes to lift before they got too interested in growing, so I struggled with the heavy clay soil to get them up.  While they are covered in weed suppressant matting, so there aren't too many weeds, the soil has soaked up as much water as it can and is heavy and unpleasant to work with.  Despite that, I managed to disturb a hibernating slow worm.  I put him in a sunbeam so he could warm up enough to move to safer ground, and stood guard while he did so, ensuring no prowling birds or cats could attack him in his sleepy state.  I'm sure I'll see him again later in the year - we do seem to have loads and I am very fond of them for their slug control capacities.

Finally, the early spring bulbs are doing their thing, and in very sheltered corners, the first of the daffodils are showing flowers.  Others will take up the challenge as it gets warmer, but these are tucked under an apple tree so not in any draughts.

The forecast is good for the next few days, so I should be able to tackle the compost and prune apple trees and set up my hornet traps and get prepared for spring, which isn't so far away now!  Have a good week!

 

Going out and about, and the 5 stages of 'flu

On the 31st January, I was out and about doing stuff.  It was a Red Day, so not appealing to be at home.  Poirot needed a vet visit to see how her eye ulcer was getting on, which then meant a visit to the pharmacy for more eye antibiotics.  The race horse that my brother owns a small portion of was due to race at Pau, so we also needed to pop into our friendly PMU (bar with bookie facilities).  Then of course there was the Friday evening ritual of a beer or two at our local to say goodbye to the week.  Sometime, somewhere in that lot, a nasty little green and many tentacled virus decided that I was its next best friend, and started to do its worst.

This leads to my empirical observations of the five stages of 'flu.

Stage 1 - Denial

I'm fine - that slight tickle in my throat means nothing.  OK, so there is a bit of snot, but the hazel catkins are full of pollen - it's just an early allergy.

Stage 2 - Complacency

I've had one cold already this winter, how bad can this be?  Just carry on doing the stuff I need to do, like feeding and giving medicine to cats, and thinking about stuff for clients.  I'll be fine.  OK so my throat hurts and my sinuses are full, but it is JUST A HEADCOLD.

Stage 3 - Fear

Well this is it - I'm going to die!  I can only breathe when sitting up, at which point I start coughing and exuding phlegm from every orifice, including my eyes!  Why did I watch trash TV this evening?  I'm having to relive that dreadful, badly acted story every hour thanks to my fevered state, and when not doing that, my mind is saturated with the images of patients in intensive care during Covid on artificial respirators.  

Stage 4 - Submission 

OMG it's 'flu!  I've got a fever, I can't smell the Vicks that I put on myself - surely a quarter of a jar is enough to smell something?  Let me just recline here (no lying down or I will die), and watch that spool of 20 really awful pop videos, because changing channels is too much effort.  Are 8 mugs of tea in a day too many?  

Stage 5 - Resolve

I will live, and next autumn I WILL, by hook or by crook, get a 'flu jab, because I am not going through that again, ever. Any my goodness, look at what a quarter of a pot of Vicks does to a sweatshirt!  That's an expensive mistake I mustn't repeat.

I remember when working in an office how colleagues would say they had been off for a day or two with the 'flu - well you had to say that, to get it past HR or you had an interview for malingering.  This is I think the third time in my life I have had 'flu and as with the other two times, it hits hard and takes ages to recover from.  The epidemic is now getting less here in France, but it is not something to take lightly.

I do still have those moments when I think "I'll sort that out, collect those books together, sort through that hard drive and clear it when I have a cold and I'm not up to doing anything outside".  This is foolishness and self-deception.  Even when you have a cold, all you want to do is lie on a sofa and watch mind rot - not that carefully scripted box set you want an excuse to watch again (The West Wing), not that faintly educational set of DVDs you've been keeping for a rainy day (Coast), just drivel.

While I was still happily in Stage 2 (Complacency), I worked through more wildlife videos, taken looking up a path we punched through a major bank of brambles.  There are odd animal runs among the stalks, but otherwise it is of limited value and we will be reducing it to a tactical minimum when we can.  Some of them are not as good as I initially thought, but that is Stage 2 Complacency for you!

The hen pheasants walk through it like so many Hinge and Brackets (for those of us who remember those two fine musical dames), while the cock pheasant follows where they lead.  I like that they can't walk in a straight line.

 

The boar use the path we have made - it is better than many they make themselves!  In this batch, note the different ages of boar, including young.  Boar are now producing two litters a year, which means numbers are exploding, an annoying consequence of global warming.  Sadly the hunters aren't much good at controlling them either.  It looks as though one of these may have been injured but it isn't possible to tell if it is a hunting injury.

 

 

I had placed the trail camera here in part to see if the hares were around at all.  Sadly there was no footage of them, but it turned out the area was part of the badger patrol area, and these are some of the best video shorts I've managed to get of them.  I'm so chuffed!

 

Anyway, I need more tea, so that's me done for the day.

Have a good week!

 

Trying again!

New month, same old lies!

O dear - does that sound bitter?!  The last week has been dominated by rain and floods, with a couple of fine interludes, but there has always been that promise that once we got to Saturday, the weather would change.  Yes, it would be cold at night, but the sun would shine, taking daytime temperatures up to a balmy 8 or 9ºC and there would be no rain for about 10 days or so.  The ground would dry out and we could look forward with a certain optimism.  To be fair, yesterday was rather lovely - it was cold, and a bit overcast in the morning, but the afternoon was lovely - just right for starting to sort out next year's firewood!

The dead tree came down with a satisfying thwunk, and we chopped up the top bits and either carried them away or stacked them for carrying away today.  The bird life in the One Acre Wood was giving it some, with great tits trying to out-do robins, who were trying to out-do nuthatches, and the woodpeckers were adding an unsubtle top note to the symphony of bird song.  The two clay pits/newt ponds were full to overflowing with water - I have high hopes of a good crop of tadpoles in the next few weeks, and all seemed right with the world.

Indeed up until 9:45am this morning, all seemed bright and glowing, albeit with a heavy hoare frost.  And then the fog rolled back in and we are back to dank gloom - I'm sure someone has seen Dementors knocking around!!  When we visited the Cats in the Country, it was difficult to make out the top of the Meadow from the Plantation, and that is barely 150 yards!  On a more positive note, I had to take Monsieur Clause to the vet yesterday, as he had a swollen paw - basically an abscess from a bite or cut of some kind.  Today, when I went to give him his drugs, he was waiting for me at the door, although as soon as I greeted him, his paw retreated in pain.  He inhaled his breakfast including the drugs, and then looked pathetic for treats, before I put my wellies on to top up the bird feeder.  While I was away doing that, he decided that the cabin roof was the place to be and jumped up.  Herumph!

On the other day we had sunshine, I got out for a walk around the village.  I went up to a high point I haven't visited for a while, and with the clear winter sun, it was possible to get a nice photo across the valley to an old manor house that was very important back in the day.

I also went down to our river to see how that was coping with the vast amounts of rain we have had.  It is rare that it floods by the village, and the sluice here does help to control the flow, although I think at the moment it is down flat to help evacuate the water away down towards the big rivers further south.

Tomorrow we have the last Red Day of the EDF winter 24/25 campaign, used to control peak load when generation capacity is low, or when the European spot price is high, or a combination of the two.  Last year, they held on to a few days for March, this year I think they will be struggling, as the freezing fog is due to continue for about 10 days as far as I can tell (I do so hope I am wrong though).  Once Red days are gone, I can spend a bit more time working through trail camera files and loading up interesting videos.  There are some nice ones of badgers knocking around, so perhaps next week?

Have a good week!  I'm full of cold and a hacking cough, so I hope things are going better for you!

 

Something evil lurks in California!

There is a written and illustrated blog for today, but somehow it is stuck in cyberspace and I can neither publish it nor share it to Facebook at the moment.

I will try again tomorrow - I imagine it is some form of cyber attack on the host platform.

You may yet find it yourself!!