Rural Life

Waiting for Summer, although Spring might be nice!

No lockdown title at the moment, although we do still have curfew between 9pm and 6am, and aren't really supposed to travel across international borders unless it is really important.  I said I would continue to do the odd blog - I'm going to try for Sunday afternoons, once I've done my afternoon's work.

The big news this week was of course that café, pub and restaurant terraces could open to customers outdoors - our local opened on Thursday (officially he could have opened on Wednesday, but it isn't one of his "days"), but we were tied up with work until 7:30pm, so our first indulgence was on Friday evening.  Normality was restored and beer o'clock (or wine o'clock) was back!

Of course this had to be outdoors, and while there is a high roof over the terrace, that doesn't stop wind, and when it rains and there is wind, it doesn't stop rain much either, so we had to move tables.  The showers currently are very localised, so while it was pelting it down with rain, there was also sunshine and therefore a rainbow, or even two!

This morning we spent at The Shack, hedge trimming, a bit of mowing, a lot of weeding, some potting on and some planting of seedlings, but probably the most important activity was getting the ropes installed for the hammock.  And then we had to try it out - OMG!  Really rather blissful, to lie in the hammock, swinging slightly, listening to the birds and the blasted wind in the leaves, because yes, that wind is still going.  Cats also thought that this was pretty good, as whichever of us was in the hammock was also pretty horizontal and therefore unable to do much about being laid on and licked.

I also beat the bounds and found more bee orchids coming into flower - I'm quite pleased with this photo.

Finally, a serious bit.  The past 18 months with Covid have been hard in many ways for many people.  I guess John and I have got away with it pretty well, as we are fairly antisocial, and with our outdoor lifestyle and the gardens, have been able to be out and about without too many constraints.  But we have been pretty limited in how far we can go and who we can see, and this was brought home rather brutally, with news that an old friend died during the week.  I'd seen him in September 2019, and had planned to see him again in April or May 2020, when over for work, but of course that didn't happen, and in any case I wouldn't have been welcome because of the virus.  But I have good memories of September 2019.  Worse is that he was one of a pretty tight knit bunch of us that worked closely together in the early 90s, and at this time in normal circumstances, we would be able to get together, share stories, memories and a glass or three, and that most basic of human comforts, a hug or four.  This blasted disease has deprived us of that comfort, and that is the same for so many families and groups of friends across Europe over the past months.

But looking forward, have a good week all!

 

Lockdown III is now pretty well over!

Yes, great excitement here in the Hexagone as you can sit outside bars and restaurants, buy silly things like crochet hooks and summer shoes and stay out of your house until 9pm!  It's like turning 14 when I was a child!  Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.  No one has actually told the weather gods about this, so there is still a cold, gusty wind, frequent heavy and sometimes thundery showers and no incentive to actually wear sandals, shorts or remove one's sweatshirt.  From the Meteo France website, that change comes next Wednesday - I'm sure there is a good moon related reason for that.

Anyway, as proof of the release from dour confinement, here are photos of fripperies for sale at la Flèche market, and I have to say it was heaving this morning.  While I was lucky to find a parking space close by (necessary as I was buying a lot of geraniums for the window boxes), I think that was only because the weather was so pants.  That is also why I didn't bother with a coffee on a terrace either.

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So while that is the end of my daily blogging activity until the next time, I did manage to get a nice photo of the black iris in the neighbour's garden yesterday evening at chicken confinement time.  The buds and the lower petals really are a lovely velvety black, the upper parts are "just" a magnificent dark purple.

So now I will try to provide a weekly blog, monitoring how things change that I have written about during Lockdown III, and also reporting on the insanity that is the Attestation d'Acceuil for if you want to come and visit and stay with friends and family in France, but don't have an EU passport (and by that I mean a real EU passport, and not an old style UK one).

Thanks for reading!

 

Lockdown III, marginal release - the day after

Well, I am pretty sure the vaccination yesterday is doing something as when I woke up this morning, all my joints ached and were only soothed by a hot shower and an ibuprofen.  In addition I felt tired and woolly.  None of this was worrying or unexpected really, in fact, like I say, I am sure it is doing something, so actually a bit reassuring.  (And clearly I am still a bit woolly.)

Yesterday evening I spotted a few interesting things in the garden after I had locked the chickens away for the day.  In no particular order - chive flowers, poppies that could be a bit dodgy, set raspberries and strawberries and the display from the red hot pokers getting going.

Stuff at home

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Then after lunch today, I went to The Shack to feed the boys and see what was going on there.  The vegetables are coming on OK although a bit more heat might be good for them, not least for helping the sweetcorn to germinate (now there are 4).  I did meet some butterflies trying very hard to make new butterflies, which isn't easy when you are also flying (which they did, but had stopped that for the photo).

Walking round to the wildflower meadow, I noticed a lesser spotted woodpecker in the sycamore tree, so flushed with the success of the butterfly photo, I tried to capture that too.  It is honestly in there somewhere, but I need a posh camera with a telephoto lens for that sort of thing!

Anyway, the wild flower meadow was looking fabulous as the clover and the oxeye daisies and the linseed are all going great guns, plus I did spot and photograph badly the first of the bee orchids.  Soon there should be lots more with the sun and the rain that we have at the moment.

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My favourite irises are coming out even more, and looking rather fabulous.  The irises I covet are starting to come out too, in a neighbour's garden - jet black!  I might get a photo of those tomorrow, but for today I bask in my purple and white ones!

 

Lockdown III, marginal release - vaccination day!

Another mixed day here in rural France weather-wise.  There have been some blustery and heavy showers, including an absolute corker when I wanted to leave the vaccination centre, and in between, the sunshine has been helping the grass to grow.  I've got my work cut out with that soon!

Anyway, this afternoon, it was my turn to be vaccinated.  The Centre in Baugé used to be a fortified jail, so that prisoners were held securely, were taken next door for trial and sentencing and then could serve their sentence just a few yards away.  About 10 years ago, the somewhat run down building was fully refurbished into a cultural centre, with a 500 seat main theatre, which is also a big hall (the seating can be pushed back into a stack, and a number of smaller conference rooms that can be used by clubs or the music school.  Currently the whole thing is taken over by the vaccination centre, apart from when there is a council meeting.

Anyway, apart from a dull ache on my arm, it all went well, and the relevant information is stored on my TousAntiCovid app on my phone.  It is a pretty slick process.

The roses outside our house are slowly putting forth buds and flowers - nothing like the show at Chinon yet, but then they are more exposed.  The rambler rose should have been pruned over the winter, but somehow that just didn't happen.  The blossoms are very fragrant when you can get near one.

The red rose has been here longer than us and survived having scaffolding set up around it, the old mortar, concrete and other rubbish picked off the wall and new lime mortar added.  It is less fragrant, but the flowers are a lovely colour, and if I keep on top of the dead heading, will keep flowering until November in a good year.

One more day and then we have a significant release - the joy of a coffee on a café terrace awaits on Wednesday, assuming I can find a seat!

 

Lockdown III, marginal release - seedlings and work

Finally - nearly mid-May and my chilli seeds are sprouting, along with some red basil seeds I also sowed.  The cool temperatures, the dry conditions and the really rather unpleasant April have all contributed to making this a challenging growing season.  I hope that these come to some good - they are certainly staying well away from chickens!

As we have rain today off and on, I am really trying hard not to complain about the weather, but it is hard not to.  And that is also the go to conversation topic for the British in any case - I did a phone interview for work this afternoon and we had a good 5 minutes on the difference between the weather here and the weather there.  It creates a sort of empathy.  We didn't do the new conversation starter - have you had your vaccination yet?  It wasn't appropriate, but as part of the interview we did discuss the challenges that Covid has brought to working life.

My correspondent and I compared the conditions in which we were undertaking the interview - he was sitting in his bedroom and still wasn't used to that as a workspace, even after a year.  I was in my "office", which has been my workspace at home for 16 years now, and very much my comfort zone.  What he missed was seeing people around him in the large offices of his organisation - people he didn't work with directly but would see at the water cooler, or walk past their desk and say "hi".  For those used to that volume of human interaction on a daily basis, and who liked it, this last 14 months must have been a nightmare.

For me, there has been little change to the work routine except that I used to travel and visit people and places at least once every three months.  My last such trip was the 2nd to 6th March last year, and was rounded off by visiting family.  My fake filofax (how dated am I?) bookmark is stuck at that point, as I've not needed a roaming diary since.  I can't see me doing a trip before September, which is a little sad.

 

Lockdown III, marginal release - visiting day

As today is Friday, it is also Visiting Day.  We are limited to an hour (-ish), but the whole day revolves round it.  First of all, I have to be up promptly and well scrubbed, and have to do my Covid test.  We currently have the added excitement of putting drops in one of Nibbles' ears - which requires military planning, full PPE, the various flushes and treatments and ear plugs (for us) as she howls like a Banshee and closes her ear like a clam shell.  There are no pictures or tapes of this unedifying (for all) spectacle, but there is evidence of my negative Covid test.

The garden at Chinon is taking on its late spring colour, with magnificent irises and the first roses coming out.  The roses look particularly lovely against the white tufeau wall.

The visit went quite well.  We shared an article about James Boswell with her, and discussed Wednesday night's repeated documentary on the Festival of Britain - weird to see pictures of my Dad on the TV!  We also had a bruising game of Sorry! and were delighted/amazed that she remembered the rules better than we did.  But of course the place isn't right in her opinion, not least as it is full of old people who are ugly.  If anyone knows of a similar residential home that only has beautiful people in it, please let me know!!

 

Lockdown III, Day 29 - sort of coming to an end

The President briefed the press during the week about his path out of lockdown restrictions, with the first relaxation tomorrow - I show below the actual different phases, but realistically there will be very little change tomorrow as the curfew is still there from 7pm, only essential shops are open, you are still meant to keep away from people if you can and work from home.  The only difference is that you can travel anywhere during the day (6am to 7pm) without having to have a attestation.  It really is no change for me.

May 19th will be much more interesting, while the 9th June means that we know by what date everyone will want their lawns mowed!!  

Anyway, we continue with getting the vegetable plot at The Shack developed - I think there needs to be a manual on how to garden with cats as they can be absolute vandals, while thinking that actually they are really helpful and gorgeous.  Well the latter might be true, but the former isn't!!

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Anyway, after a struggle and a lot of sweating and pulling out of roots of perennial nasties, the sweetcorn has finally been sown.  I have recovered the bed with weed suppressant mat, partly to keep the cats off, and partly to protect the seeds from the cold temperatures we are due over the next few days.  While the maize is coming up in the fields around, I suspect that sweetcorn for human consumption is a bit less robust.

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While I was doing that, John did a bit of mowing in the wildflower meadow, not least to check that the new drive belt on Ginger the ride-on lawnmower is working as expected.  Now I know people are going all goofy about No Mow May, but here things grow about a foot to 18 inches in May (assuming it ever rains again), and hay is not an easy thing to mow.  We were pretty careful to identify the area on the meadow that needed to be addressed as it was mainly shoots of bramble and old man's beard with attendant horsetail and thistle, while leaving the massed ranks of oxeye daisies, pink clover, linseed and orchids to do what they do and look lovely (but impossible to photograph to best effect).  I found two bee orchids that had been caught, but close inspection showed that as the cutters were nice and high, they should still flower.  We can also walk round the meadow without too much difficulty.

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Once all that was done, we went for a walk around the One Acre Wood.  There we have a different sort of lawn - an oak lawn!  Very pretty, but they will not all survive, because that's not nature's way.

 

Lockdown III, Day 28 - is my mother a weather god?

Yesterday I signed off in a slightly petulant and disgruntled way, before settling down for the evening with a mojito made with Caribbean rum.  As I sipped, the sky grew darker and the cats came charging in.  Too good an opportunity to miss, we closed the back door, to signal the end of cat external adventures for the day.  Then we heard it - hail stones!  The trusty Meteo France weather app showed us the enormity of what we had to sit through.

OK, so they called it heavy rain, but it was hail and lots of it.  After dinner, I went out to close up the chicken run and see what had happened - I think I have found a way to get the photos to show side by side, so you can see that the tree peony flower got rather slashed about.

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Similarly the snow in summer was now snow in hail!

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It was a veritable winter wonderland outside - and these photos are a good half hour after it all stopped.

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Even before yesterday evening, we knew that we had no plums, no peaches and no pears to look forward to this year.  We are still optimistic that there will be apples and quince, but the quantities remain to be seen.  The apple tree leaves have been damaged by the hail, but there are still nascent apples and a bit of blossom on the trees, so we live in hope!  There are holes in the vine leaves, but there are still bunches of flower buds on the grape vine, so that may have got through too.

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All day there has been a flow of water from the roof drain, as the drifts of hail stones slowly melt in the sheltered gap between our house and next door.  I suspect the moral of this story is to always be respectful of your mother!!

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Lockdown III, Day 27 - that rare thing, a Friday entry

Before anyone starts, yes, I have been to see the Azay One, and in order to fill in the accessing the building forms with an easy conscience, yesterday I invested in a packet of lateral flow auto-tests (they allege they are 97.5% accurate!).  Once it was nearly time to head off, I followed the instructions, remembering also the advice from the nice lady at the pharmacy, and after the appropriate waiting time, the result was....  Negative!  Yey!

First stop was Chinon to meet up with the Chinon One, put the world to rights, confirm my suspicion as to why there are mushrooms growing out of the top bathroom ceiling (hint, it is just under the hot water cylinder...), have a spot of lunch and see which of the Azay One's requirements we had, and what we had forgotten or failed to do.  There I was able to admire the fact that the freesia I planted last summer was having more flowers, and once we had been driven inside by persistent drizzle, admire the crow that the next door neighbour hand reared last year, who has come back after a winter away.

The visit itself was not the happiest - while last week everything was fine and she was putting on weight as she was eating so much, this week nothing was right, the food was inedible and she needed to find somewhere else.  Once that was off her chest, the staff are actually nice and she gets a good glass of wine with her meals, but the place is full of old people, some of whom are missing bits (from the person who lost half an ear last year).  After that there was a flight of fancy, but we did threaten her with a cribbage challenge next week, which might improve her mood.

When I got home, after a beautiful drive through the Anjou-Touraine National Park (woods, fields, lakes and pretty villages), and before entering the house to be shouted at by bored cats, I took a moment to enjoy the plant display by the door.  The Snow in Summer is starting to put out flowers, the tree peony is out (I really must repot that once the flowers are over, as it starting to suffer), the lemon thyme that had suffered from lack of water has sprung back and the cistus looks like it will flower shortly.  This pleasing display helps to shake off the feelings of guilt and self-loathing only a mother can inflict on her child!

 

Lockdown III, Day 26 - losing inspiration

When I've not been in front of the computer today, including a 2 hour Teams meeting, I've been running around like a mad thing, but not doing anything very interesting, other than watering the cabbages at The Shack.  I've unloaded the remaining seed potatoes on someone, so they don't taunt me.  My Asian hornet traps have now each attracted a European hornet queen - I'm not too upset as they are huge and we don't really want hornets around either of the gardens.  Tomorrow is Visiting Day, so is also unlikely to be hugely exciting.

There is some gossip, for those that know where we live.  The slum longère next to us has been sold to a nice seeming chap for about 10 grand more than we think it is worth - we told him outright that he was mad, but he smiled and said he liked it!!  François the Drunk's house is up for sale at 16,000€ - if you want a 1 bedroom, no bathroom slum with a sitting tenant, you may be interested.  That means that the Island Cottage must also be up for sale, again with sitting tenant, and should be rather less than 16 grand as it really is revolting.  One of our neighbours opposite used to dream of buying it and flattening it, personally, with a JCB - I hope he is still up for that, once he has got rid of the sitting tenant, Mr Pipi.

This time last year, it was heaving it down with rain - we could do with some of that this year, as the ground is very dry.  I might need to learn to do a rain dance.  Tomorrow sees President Macron give us his route out of lockdown - for me the big one will be when bar terraces are open, so we can go out and see people and feel that there is more to life than work, eat and sleep.  It won't be until mid May at the earliest I guess. 

My current attestation free range looks like this - from Monday that could change, however with no bars, restaurants and non-necessity shops open, what will be the point?

Today, I am clearly feeling the Covid Blues.  I'll find a Caribbean beach to finish with!