Rural Life

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!

Day 54 of lockdown - much nicer things than yesterday!

Thank you to those who shared their anger, sorrow or amazement at yesterday's key story, and as a reward, I will be relentlessly upbeat today.

Yesterday was Victory in Europe Day, while today celebrates Europe, and I stopped at our local war memorial on the way home from the market to pay my respects to the fallen.  This area was in Occupied France, with a fairly heavy Gestapo presence at one of the local chateaux, and work camps not so far away.  There are a couple of isolated memorials, one in the local woods for a Resistance man and one in the woods for two British airmen, shot down a couple of days before D-Day.  In November, local airmen go and put poppies on that memorial.  This is our village's fine tribute.

After writing yesterday's blog, we set ourselves up outside in the garden for Friday night beer o'clock with Chinon and Tunbridge Wells.  We were charmed to be joined by a garden resident we don't see very often, but are always very pleased to see.  I do ensure that there is water available, and leave this one to find their own snacks of snails and slugs.  Everybody say "aaaaah", and no, I don't know what that pale line in the spines is, but it was on the real life hedgehog and it isn't a trick of the camera.

This morning I was checking over the seedlings and met this fine fellow stuck in one of the plastic modules, so I helped him out with a bit of vegetable material and hopefully he has gone off on his way.  He was so beautiful though!  And while they don't show on the photo, he had little copper effect bits on the edge of his carapace.

It took the blasted post snails only 2 nights to completely eat the label I put on the post box to tell the local council how many face masks we would need.  So today I had another go at putting a 2 on the box, this time using copper tape, as they don't like the electric charge up 'em.  I hope this works!

Finally, this afternoon I was potting on tomato seedlings and John was working out a way to fix the garden bench that collapsed under him (it is nearly 20 years old and the joints gave out, nothing to do with confinement ounces, which John has avoided anyway, as he works so hard).  We had to stop after a while as the rumbling got to such a level that we knew it was time to go in.  After 10mm rain was dumped on us, we've been inside for a bit, but now the rest of the tomatoes are calling to me.  Here is the lightening map for what went on in the skies around us.

 

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 51 of lockdown - a little tirade about face masks

With some lockdown restrictions lifting on Monday 11th May here in the Green Zone of France, there is a rush to ensure everyone has at least one face mask to their name.  I am very grateful that our local councillors will be doing the rounds over the next few days, popping them in our post boxes (I've had to leave a number on the letter box so they know how many to leave!).  And yet...

Well for a start, there is this conundrum for those of us who wear glasses.

I gather wiping the inside of your glasses with shaving foam helps.

But practical issues of steaming up aside, I have a whole bunch of issues with face masks.

Disposable ones - after all the hassle we have been having over the past years about reducing waste, reuse, recycle etc, suddenly people are using disposable face masks that have to be put in the main garbage, and some are using several a day.  That's not going to help the planet, is it?

Washable ones - except you "have" to wash them on a 30 minute, 65°C wash with detergent, no softener, but you can put them in with other stuff you are washing.  Hmm - so my washing machine is a bit old and doesn't have a 30 minute cycle, I don't wash anything at 65°C, and certainly nothing with elastic, which doesn't like that sort of temperature, and a full 2 hour cycle for our 3 (or 5 after our delivery) face masks?  Plus anything else we want to shrink of course.  Plus the cost of the electricity to power heating the water that much.  So that annoys me.

Then there is the politics, with a small p, of wearing a face mask.  The people I've had issues with over social distancing, or keeping a decent amount away from me, are those wearing masks who seem to think it makes them suddenly cleaner than clean and able to get up close and personal.  Think people who crane past you to see what is available from the fish monger, or little old ladies who want to get to the cashier more quickly so get up close and personal.  I remonstrated with one this morning, and she asked me if I had the virus to be so concerned.  As her mask only covered her mouth, me pointing out that I didn't know about me, but I certainly didn't know about her went over her head.

I am waiting to see how easy it is to have a hair wash, cut and blow dry while wearing a face mask, or indeed my visit to the beautician....

And of course the reason for wearing one, is if you have symptoms, you keep them to yourself, it doesn't stop you from picking up the virus from others, as it doesn't include eye cover.  Aaaargh.

Moving swiftly on, here is a pretty flower from bulbs I planted last autumn and I've lost the list of what they might be.  They were a nice surprise this afternoon.

 

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 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 44 of lockdown - a bit of a rant

Well after a day yesterday that felt like it had been stolen back from the gods of bad weather, today we have had what my French chums would describe as a truly British day.  I was lucky in that I got out to go to the market early (for me at the moment), so there was only a very short queue to get into the market place and my usual stalls didn't have many waiting either.  My only limit was that I had little cash, so had to do my bulk purchases where they would take card payments (cheese, fruit and veg).  I was out of the square by 10:25am, which was quite good as the rain radar had indicated that the rain would start in la Flèche at 10:30am.  Impressively for the forecasters, I felt the first spots at 10:27am.  By the time I got home it was properly raining.

It then rained solidly until about half an hour ago, so I've been truly confined to quarters.  As my big project is now put to rest for a while, all I have had to do is some bits of electronic tidying up, soI've had time to think.

When I got home from the market this morning, John had the internet radio tuned to Classic FM.  We were both fed up with Radio 2 and the false cheery, "we're all in it together", worthy projects and jollification, or fake sincere and practiced choke to the voice, hushed tones and doleful stories of death or loss.  Commercial pop and rock radio stations had inane adverts for things we didn't need and couldn't buy anyway, traffic reports for roads we don't use and government exhortations to good behaviour.  I had suggested trying Classic FM, and within seconds of tuning in, John was apparently happily conducting an imaginary orchestra through a rousing piece of music.

I'd also seen yesterday on Facebook a rant about orthodoxy in revering the NHS (no problem with that) and saying politicians in the UK were doing their best (don't get me started).  I had noticed an increase in people doing things to raise money, and all for the NHS.  People - you pay for the NHS every day of your working life - it's called National Insurance contributions and taxation.  It is the politicians who decide if what you pay actually goes to the NHS, but unless you are a tax and NI dodger, if you are a normal person, you pay every day for the NHS.  If you can't walk up stairs 35 times a day without getting sponsored, find a proper charity.

And here is where I really start to rant.  Many of the charities, and organisations you may not think of as charities, that make our "normal" lives so much better or safer are struggling with no revenue, having to pay furloughed staff, little if any government support and are facing huge challenges in keeping going.  If you want to benefit from any of the following post-Covid-19, think about donating a few pennies to them, to make sure they are there afterwards:

Wildlife Trusts; RSPB; YMCA; NSPCC; RSPCA; Lifeboat Association; Friends Of your local park, cinema club, library; shelters for the homeless, abused men, women and children; PDSA; festivals; small music venues; groups who look after local heritage including buildings, arboretums, prehistoric sites, meadows, forests; local fauna and flora groups.  I could go on, but you get the picture. 

The NHS and ALL their staff do a fabulous job, and we owe them gratitude for what they are doing for us now, not least in ensuring that once the pandemic is forgotten, their working terms and conditions are improved significantly (surely the best legacy we can give them).  But the world afterwards also needs beauty, kindness, art and culture, and you could do no worse than donate to them too, so they are there for you.

You may also wish to offer a sacrifice of something to the weather gods so that it doesn't rain all day tomorrow, otherwise you risk more of this!

Day 43 of lockdown - no politics here

This afternoon at 3pm (French time) the lovely Prime Minister stood up to give a speech in the House of Deputies about the plan for getting out of lockdown.  I gather it went on for at least 1 hour and 6 minutes.  I've not listened to it and I'm not going to talk about it here (or at any rate not today).

The other thing I'm not going to write about today is face masks - I'd planned to have a nice cathartic rant about stupidity and face masks, as I thought the weather was going to be pants.  It wasn't so I won't.  Perhaps tomorrow or Thursday.

Instead, more of the usual - cats, plants, vegetables - you can zone out here if you like.  I won't know so I won't be offended.

This morning we discovered a rat burrow - actually not so difficult to discover, as there was a vast pile of freshly dug soil and rubble outside the chicken run - like a giant mole hill.  John has borrowed our next door neighbour's old but effective rat trap and placed it in the burrow entrance - of course if we catch any, we will have to deal with them as it is a live trap, but we really didn't want to use poison as it is too indiscriminate.  If a mouse eats some and is then caught and eaten by a cat, the cat gets very ill (how I lost one of mine I think).  The contents of the trap could be tomorrow's excitement!  Our neighbour is very excited anyway.

This afternoon was cat in the country feeding time.  Fergus was cross with me as he swatted Spooky who wanted a cuddle, so I told him off. He went and had a really high quality sulk at me at a distance.

Once I had dealt with three of the boys, I went to check out the wildflower meadow - all was looking very lovely, although the pesky bee orchids are still being very shy.  In a couple of weeks I expect I won't be able to move for the wretched things, but currently they are hiding.  I did meet this very fine furry caterpillar though - eating its way through what seemed to be clover, it was about an inch and a half long.  I wonder what it will be when it grows up?

Donald decided to help me take photos in the meadow, including my favourite irises (for tomorrow), and other bits and bobs.  I suspect this is not how to take selfies!

Finally, I picked a few broad beans - they are still very tiny, so ideal for pretentious chefs, but I'd got to that stage where I could wait no longer!

Day 41 of lockdown - haute couture

Well the sunken cake didn't kill us - yet.  It tasted much better than it looked, but I must work out what went wrong.

This morning I had to go out to feed the boys in the country.  They were all present, correct and in need of cuddles, so it took quite a long time.  It was extraordinary, sitting with them and all I could hear was purring, birds singing, insects buzzing and the odd cuckoo a bit of a way off.  I recorded it for the blog, but haven't yet worked out how to get that off my phone and onto the computer.  As the forecast for the week is wet and stormy, that is a project for another day, not a Sunday.

Once the cats were cuddled out and I had finished my chores at the site, I went to check on the meadow and the orchids.  The bee and lizard orchids are still not showing themselves, but the two lady or early spotted orchids (whichever they are - my identifying flowers books are not brilliant on orchids, but a new one is not an essential purchase at the moment) were looking good.  Here is the one in the centre of the meadow (subtle it ain't).

Once I had taken this photo, I started back to the car, but noticed a flurry of yellow further down the meadow.  I followed it and watched it and it turned out to be two swallowtail butterflies playing (or something else) over the top of the flowers.  I charged after them, phone at the ready to get that one shot that will make me famous, but they separated and led me a right dance.  In this photo, you can see a yellow blob, and that is as close as I got to a swallowtail to photograph it!

This afternoon we've been taking it slowly as no one really needs to be out and about on a Sunday afternoon.  As all the talk is about wearing masks and whether it will be compulsory when leaving the house, I thought I would take a look at the free pattern supplied by the local paper and make our own.  I'll not go into our thoughts on face masks today, but if it is what is needed, so be it.  An old duvet cover, for a size of duvet we no longer have, provided the fetching material for these works of art, while I had just enough elastic to make two (how lucky is that?).  Here is yours truly modelling our post-confinement face ornaments.  Alternatively they will come in useful when I go into robbing banks.

If I don't look comfortable, it is because I wasn't - they really are as unpleasant to wear as the health care staff say, and I am full of admiration for them for doing an amazing job, while wearing this sort of thing and not complaining about it.