Rural Life

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 53 of lockdown - a sad and worrying day

Actually the day started well - John put in a sterling morning's work on the extra space needed for the potato bed, while I mowed the lawn, so we used the fine part of the day well.  I also had a bit of a go through one of the raised beds, removing self-seeded tomato plants - one of the dangers of home made compost, as nothing kills tomato seeds.  Something else that doesn't disappear in the compost bin is the outer layer of teabags - you can see what gets left behind here.  We are not pretentious with using loose leaf tea, we are helping our soil!

This afternoon was less interesting weather-wise, so I decided that the 7½ pounds of (mostly) stoned cherries I had been hoarding for a year or two finally ought to be turned into jam, lots of jam.  Cherry jam is a bit of a pain, and I refuse to pay the extra for jam sugar (inner tight-fisted peasant coming out there), so I add a handful of frozen blackcurrants to the mix to provide pectin.  It is still not the hardest set jam but it is lovely in tarts and on brioche!  Here it is cooking away.

None of that is sad or worrying I hear you say, and you'd be right.  While I was fighting the good fight with the cherry jam, there was a murder in the road outside our house.  Our neighbour's cat, who gave birth a couple of days ago, was outside, as were her owner and another neighbour.  She was sniffing around on the road, when a brown car came round the bend at the bottom of the road on two wheels, drove at speed (despite the 50km speed limit and approaching junction at the road, swerved and deliberately hit and killed the cat before speeding off through a stop junction, presumably to see how many more the b@st@rd could kill as he sped through the centre of the village.  Neither of us saw it, but John got a blow by blow description from our neighbours, who are naturally very upset and shocked.  John ended up cleaning the road.  Our girls are going to get the road safety lecture this evening, although they will likely ignore us.

Sometimes people are awful shits.

Day 52 of lockdown - a little bit of everything

I think I said yesterday that I had to leave a note on the post box about how many face masks we might need?  Well overnight some peckish little monopod decided that my sticker was exactly what it wanted for dinner - look at the state of this!

It's been a funny day, with a GP appointment, a visit to the supermarket (cat food and rice still in short supply, but plain packaged flour in huge bins!), little work, nice weather and zero motivation.  So I thought I had better make good on my promise of making ice cream, not least as I had bought half a litre of best, unpasteurised, direct from the cow, cream yesterday.  Here it is churning away, and if you spot any little black dots, those are vanilla seeds from pods I brought back from Guadeloupe.

The slow stages of making ice cream were also a good excuse to watch the government announcements on easing of lockdown from Monday next week (staring the Man from le Havre).  Some of it had already been mooted, but the new map was revealed without the amber bit - Centre Val de Loire has gone green for those who are interested.  It was nice in the supermarket (there is a point to this surprising statement) in that I saw a number of chums I've not seen since lockdown started.  One is pretty vociferous against the Government, and I had had a bit of a hit back at her on social media about something she'd posted, so it was good to discuss the issues face to face and not while swearing at the intermittent nature of WiFi and the problems of autocorrect on the phone.  She is normally pretty strongly for the unions and the far left, so I was surprised when she said that they were also useless and incoherent - her anger was at the amount of perceived lying that was going on - about PPE, about bonuses to health care staff (her daughter in law had not yet received hers), and about the state of the health service in general.  But when we got onto the school issue, she said that she was really pleased that her grandson would be able to go to school half a day or a day a week from next week, as she felt he was becoming afraid of the world outside his house and garden.  The little darling (he is rather cute) is only 4!

Anyway, for most of my readers, this photo of the TV screen is the one that will interest you.

Borders closed for the moment, no restrictions on travelling up to 100km as the crow flies from home (carry a justification of your home address with you however), while beaches and lakes will only open if the local mayor can convince the Préfet that they have measures in place to ensure social distancing is maintained.  Still no bars or restaurants can open unless for takeaway.  They also exhort those that are vulnerable to stay home and confined as much as possible, but it will be personal choice.

In that vein, I had to speak sharply to these two (Poirot and Zola) about setting a good example on social distancing.  This is not good, although it is rather cute.

Given their size, this is rather better, and still rather cute.

Day 49 of lockdown - I met a frog

But before I get on to the frog, I should point out that the weather cheered up yesterday afternoon and aperos were taken in the garden, surrounded by chickens and guarded by Nibbles.  It was good to be out in the fresh air, although by 8:50pm, when we were trying to get Zola in for the night, somewhere within earshot there was a most tremendous row going on.  Zola was fascinated, which made scooping her up and getting her in a bit easier.

We were promised a hot and sunny day today, but I think "day" was over-egging it a bit.  We have had a lovely afternoon, warm and rather sticky and are forecast storms over night.  Anyway a dry day meant both of us were out dealing with lawns that had enjoyed last week's rain, indeed enjoyed last week's rain a bit too much in my opinion! 

One thing that loves hot and wet weather is bamboo - people plant it as they think it will make a nice and quick growing screen.  Yes, it does, but it is also a highly invasive, non-native species that turns into a right thug.  The stems in the picture below are about 3 to 4cm in diameter, they can go up about 4 to 5 metres, they spread by sending suckers underground that then pop up as far as 3 metres away from the parent visible stem and grow at a frightening speed.  The low one in the centre of this photo is only 2 weeks old and already 1 metre high.

And so to the frog that I met after I had finished mowing and was inspecting my work.  When I observed him, he was still and quiet, but as soon as I moved away, he started hurling abuse at me.  It put me in mind of my favourite joke about the Wide Mouthed Frog, but as it needs appropriate visuals, I will leave it there.

Day 48 of lockdown - another Vieil Bauge Sunday

And hopefully that has you humming a hit by the Monkees!  Except this isn't status symbol land.

Today is supposed to be the last yukky day for a while - I hope so as it really does get monotonous and as we are nearly at the end of week 7 of lockdown, it is just that bit harder.  The NCIS rolling repeats are ones I've seen for the last 4 Sundays I think, radio palls after a while and however often I look at seedlings, they haven't done anything miraculous, but I have got wet looking at them. 

There was a bit of a queue at the boulangerie this morning, so I took the opportunity to photograph the church from an angle I often see but rarely notice, if you see what I mean.  it is an historic monument, but at times when I look at it, I do wonder if it isn't about to fall down.  When we first moved here, the bells sounded the half hour, and twice on the hour, two minutes apart, with wild peels at 6:30 am and 7:30pm, and marking the hour all through the night.  Someone has complained, and now they only go on the half hour and on the hour (and once only) between 6:30am and 11pm.  I find this sad - the original was more authentic, but I guess some townies moved in and decided it wasn't good for the children or something.

This afternoon I went for a walk on my own to get a bit of exercise - the ounces are building up and we have roast pork for dinner.  There is a circuit I do, I could add perhaps another 500 metres to it, but haven't yet.  It takes about 45 minutes and takes me out into the country, before coming back along the repurposed railway line towards Baugé, and cutting back down to the village via the Pont de Godot (where you can wait...).  There is some uncertainty as to whether the Voie Verte is an authorised route, but when I was on it today, I was on my own apart from many small brown birds.

Truth be told, we are feeling rather flat - and I am pretty sure that is weather related.  If the sun is shining, we can sit in the garden and ignore the paperwork that needs to be done, the cleaning that needs to be done and all the other household chores.  But with a rain shower every 20 minutes or so, you feel like you have to attack business accounts or, worse than that, the French tax return.  Poirot is good at reflecting our mood.

 

Day 47 of lockdown - another wet one

I know, it's good for the plants, not least the fruit trees.  And better it rains a lot now and then dries up for the second half of May so that the cherries don't split, but in lockdown, wet days are just that bit harder to cope with.  The house also cools down in the rain - we actually had a fire yesterday evening!  It wasn't that cold, but we needed something to ensure the cats were suitably comfortable (OK and us too).  Nibbles approved!

The boys in the country needed feeding today, so I left John making pots of rice pudding (with cardamom flavouring - yummy) for the week, while I went to see how they were doing.  I got the biggest, fattest tick I've seen in a while off Fergus while he stuffed his face on fish flavoured cat food.  Once they had all scoffed enough, they escorted me down the garden to pick more broad beans and check on the other good things growing down there, and then tried to see if all four could fit on me in some way at the same time.  I need to be like Vishu and have 8 arms I think, to satisfy all their cuddle requirements.  That will be the instant good news come 11th May - we can go and see the boys together and then come home via the One Acre Wood - that is going to be such a good day!

Anyway, once that was all done, I went to check on the wild flower meadow.  The view down across the valley from there shows that while not raining hard, the air was think with moisture, and it wasn't the best day to be out.

The orchid torture continues.  While the early orchids are nearly over, the lizard and bee orchids are starting to send up their flower spikes to take over.  I've been looking for the bee orchid flower stems for a while, and today I found some.  I reckon by the time lockdown is lifted, we will have our first flowers.

Once home from all that, and as John had finished his creations, I decided it was time to deal with the black bananas hanging over the kitchen work surface, so made banana bread.  It should be nearly ready by now, so I had better stop typing and get this loaded up.

 

Day 46 of lockdown - a strange bank holiday

Yes, it's May 1st - celebrating workers.  Normally in France on May 1st, it is difficult to avoid people selling sprigs of lily of the valley, and if you are in a big city, the unions, the Communists and the Front Nationale (or Rassemblement Nationale as they now like to be called) are all out demonstrating at the wonder of the common man and the evilness of all governments of whatever complexion.  But this year it is all different.  I was strangely moved to receive a sprig of lily of the valley from the boulangerie to thank me for my fidelity through the current crisis - of course I would be faithful to them, they are the cornerstone of my morning!

The unions decided that standing on your balcony banging a cooking pan was a good way to demonstrate this year (and sod any health workers who live nearby who might be trying to sleep, or indeed any babies and their frazzled parents).  The Communists were more into sending electronic bunches of lilies of the valley to sympathisers - I've received a few today!  Marine le Pen gave her usual press conference rant to the massed media this morning and for once I kind of smiled.  She was wearing a mask so you couldn't read her lips, and her voice was very muffled behind the high quality mask she was wearing so it was hard to understand what she was saying (a bonus on any day).  One reporter asked her why she was against all the government strategy, and if she had been in power, surely she would have closed things down as well?  As far as I could tell her response was yes, they closed things down, which she would have done too, but a) they did it a month too late and b) they aren't her.  The wonders of hindsight...

The Day of the Workers is the day that NOTHING at all happens in France, no papers, nothing.  So apart from odd farming noises as animals still need to be fed, it is extraordinarily quiet out there, more than a normal lockdown day.  And quite cold.  Clearly birds are starving as I put 4 fat balls out in the feeder this morning and by mid afternoon half the volume had gone.  I went out just now to release the chickens and there was perhaps half a fat ball left.  Those sparrows are greedy so and sos sometimes!

Finally, a photo from earlier in the week of my favourite irises that come up at the edge of the wildflower meadow.  I keep thinking I really must lift a corm or 3 once they have flowered to bring home - I'm sure they are getting too congested where they are!

Day 45 of lockdown - technology is starting to creak a bit

I'll keep it short today, after yesterday's rant.  Typepad (the bunch that power this blog) are usually jolly reliable, but occasionally something goes a bit skewiff out there in the ether, and today is one of those days.  I gather the blog hasn't been available for a chunk of the day, and it is taking ages to do anything.

However I said I would do a post a day during lockdown, so here goes.

I had planned a rant about face masks - I'll save that for tomorrow, when the system is hopefully a bit more robust.

Instead I will say that while not as thoroughly wet as yesterday, the weather has not been totally kind, with a solid hour of heavy rain, so that in the past 30 hours we have had about 24mm rain.  Once the sun gets on it, this should ensure the asparagus goes mad tomorrow - yum!

While yesterday was just very wet, today has had the added joy of strong and gusty wind.  I'm not a fan of strong winds at the best of times, but certainly not when the trees are in full leaf.  The seedlings are also stuck in the BBQ as it is too windy for them to be out, as they would get blown away.

Anyway, I have a curry and naans to make, so I will leave it here, with a photo of Sanity Clause the Cat giving his view on technology.