Rural Life

Autumn Lockdown - Day 42 - a dank day in the country

It really has been a totally miserable day.  I did go out to see a client this morning and feed the Boys in the Country - you can see from the photo below that the sky was sitting on our very low hills, and all was ridiculously wet.  The cats were not keen on being out and about and herded me back up to shelter as soon as they could, and basically were keen to see the back of me so they could go back to sleep.  No one came with me for my walk round the boundaries of the other two plots.

This afternoon I did get to go out again, this time to the hairdresser - o the bliss of being properly coiffured once again!  Cecelia is very strict about her clients following the rules of hygiene, and is working very long hours to try to catch up with the backlog from the very tight lockdown.  She says that December is normally frantic anyway, but that this year, it is even more frantic than normal.  To ensure she can meet customer expectations, she only has Sundays off, stops at 4pm on a Monday to collect her children from school, has a two hour lunch break on a Wednesday to spend time with her children but otherwise the salon is open 9am to 9pm, and she is the only person working there.  Don't tell me the French are slackers!

I solved the problem of the Christmas card picture - I have ordered 80 photo prints of the picture I want to use, and will stick those to the stiff paper we already have, to provide a mount.  That sounds like it should be an expensive option, but the total cost is under 9 Euros including postage and packing.  The only issue is wondering when the photos will actually arrive.

Again following on from yesterday, given the level of pain and swelling from the sting, we are pretty confident it was a wasp queen that got me, having decided to overwinter in the house.  However she is history as John dealt with her with severity.

I believe Love Actually is on French TV tonight, so we will watch it all through for the first time ever (seen bits from time to time) as our nod to the festive season, and hope that tomorrow is a bit more appealing as a day.

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 41 - a bit of Christmas cheer

A funny day today - before breakfast I had a call from a client in the UK 99% certain in confirming that I had won a new contract with him (his actual description was "it is more sure than Brexit"), but that it would take a bit of time to sort out the paperwork.  Now contracts have been given out by HM Government recently for millions of pounds without the level of due diligence required for this bit of work, which amounts to about £8,000 over two years.  Still, every small victory has to be celebrated, and it was a weight off my mind.

So armed with that knowledge, I headed for the market at la Flèche for all sorts of goodies, but rushed around a bit rather than taking my time and enjoying the scene as I needed to get to the office supplies and copy shop to get the Christmas cards printed.  Last year it was so easy - here is the computer, insert your USB stick, select the file you want to print, do a test print, buy a ream of expensive heavy paper, put about 50 sheets in the printer tray, decide how many you want and hit go.  All done by me.  I got to keep the rest of the ream of heavy paper, which doesn't work in our printers, to use "next year".  Back I go today with my trusty USB key, the rest of my expensive ream of paper and a light heart, only to be told I would have to send the file by email, had to buy a new ream of paper, and to book a time to come to collect my prints.  As they also didn't have the required envelopes and printer labels, I left with what I went in with and a problem still to be solved.  So much for using local businesses (although it turns out they are big enough to sponsor a boat in the Vendée Globe race, so not that needy)!

This image is actually pretty relevant, as for the first time in about 13 years, I have had some sort of office Christmas party!  OK it was actually a professional society special interest group Christmas do, but that's the nearest I get nowadays.  There were games and competitions, including a scavenger hunt, all done by Zoom and hosted by the 2019 Most Interesting Mathematician (she kept her title in 2020, as they couldn't run the competition).

Since then I have been stung by a hornet that was trying to hibernate in my office, so I'm not very happy and typing with one finger.  Here is a pretty view to round off the post.

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 40 - intellectually that should be it

Quarante - Quarantine - 40 days of lockdown, and in theory that should be it, although the French government never said that it would be over today, but next Tuesday it should be, except...  Those pesky daily new cases figures are not getting down to the 5,000 a day that would mean they feel they have this under control.  I suspect a slight alleviation of restrictions on Tuesday next week, and then another lockdown about the 5th January.  I'm not putting money on it though.

Today has been a day of little jobs, but that make things progress.  This morning we cut more bits off the cherry tree.  The next thing will be to get the main trunk down and then we will have to decide what to do with that bit of the garden, which has always been very sheltered due to the size of the tree.

I also designed the Christmas card, ready to take to the printers tomorrow, and wrote the Christmas round robin - yes, I know everyone sneers at them, but actually I like to know what is going on in people's lives, beyond the fact that they ARE alive, and do as you would be done by and all that!  After lunch we visited the Boys in the Country for much needed cat cuddles and then to the One Acre Wood to secure some firewood.  One of the delights of the wood, is that it is on a ridge of hills overlooking the Loir valley, and we have a splendid view for miles.  It was looking particularly pleasing today.

It's about time to reassess how the orchid is coming on, and you can see that there are some interesting developments.  The first three buds on the new flower stem would appear to be branches that will have flowers on, while the next couple are starting to look a lot like flower buds and slowly swelling.  It is very odd, for days nothing seems to change, and then all of a sudden I notice something different.

If you want to compare, the first photo was on November 9th (Day 11) and the second on November 23rd (Day 25).

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 39 - a walk in the wood

Today has not been an exciting day to write about.  I've been doing a bit of work with one of my clients, and would heartily recommend the Water, Mills and Marshes LPS website as a place to linger to learn about the Norfolk Broads, the mills there and the work being done to restore land and buildings, and to educate people.  I was there in early March, just before the first lockdown hit, and it is a hauntingly beautiful area.

Less cheery was the news that the staff at the Francois Rabelais Hospital in Chinon have been affected by Covid quite badly.

Yesterday however, after a visit to the Boys in the Country, I took the long way home and visited the One Acre Wood for a walk and contemplation.  The previous Sunday we had both visited and had worked hard to fill the trailer with firewood.  The weather had been perfect - sunny and a hint of warmth.  Yesterday the conditions were less good, and I was on my own, but there were still interesting things to marvel at, including self-seeded cyclamen plants, and the ever changing light and views as more leaves fall. 

The service trees do not make good firewood (although we gather they aren't bad for charcoal), and often just collapse and fall for no obvious reason.  We tend to leave the trunks to rot down or provide food for whatever passes through the wood.  I found evidence of something having a good rummage in one of the logs.

Further round, I found a new mushroom had come up - it is a bit late, as many of the others that were around earlier in the year have rotted away or are looking like something from a horror movie.  I don't know why but pied de mouton (hedgehog mushrooms in English) seem to fruit very late in our woodland, and this is a rather nice example.  They are edible I gather, but I'm never entirely sure about them, and none of the hunters or scrumpers that come through the wood take them, so I leave them as an interesting curiosity and further evidence of the excellent biodiversity there.

In the words of the song, it beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as holly berries are everywhere and haven't been eaten yet by the birds.  In another week or so I might be inclined to cut a few sprigs and make a wreath, or I might just leave them to be enjoyed by nature.  I'll see how I feel.  I won't have them in the house, as the berries might be food for mice, and might be poisonous for cats.

With three cats living in the house, you would think I wouldn't be too worried about mice, but Zola brings them in and then forgets about them.  A couple have been living hidden in a crack between kitchen units and only coming out when we aren't moving, to eat their way through a packet of polenta.  Once we realised what was going on, we kept the packet in place, and caught one, and took it away outside.  Its chum finished the packet on Sunday morning.  On Sunday evening, it was looking for something else and making a noise, and for once Zola followed up, laid in wait for about 10 minutes and caught it.  And ate it - as the only evidence I found was a tail and a bit of "inner mouse".

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 38 - Sunday ramblings

Another cold, miserable, dank, late autumn/early winter day, and again so hard to get motivated to do anything!!  However after lunch, duty called.  John went off in one direction to see a client, but failed to extract money.  I went off in another to feed the Boys in the Country.  All four turned up quickly and the tin of beef and carrot chunks in gravy disappeared with a lot of slurping noises.  I've tried recording it, but it is the stuff of nightmares.  I'll spare you for the moment (or until I work out how to transfer the sound file in).  Once all the bowls were broadly clean, I put on my wellies and went out to beat the bounds - it was not a day to sit down for a love in.  I found a few raspberries clinging on and the couple I ate were very tasty!

Further down on my wandering, I found I had missed a last courgette.  The local slugs and snails hadn't, so I decided to leave it, as slugs and snails are food for my trusty toads that also live down that way.  Just one small one wouldn't make a meal for us anyway!

I then went round the other two plots, escorted as ever by at least one cat, to make sure all was safe and secure.  The badgers hadn't been out since the last rain (which would have been this morning), so there were no traces of them.

While we have perhaps between two thirds and three quarters of the wild flower meadow under control, there is still a chunk that needs to be got back from bad scrub.  If you leave rewilding to itself, essentially you end up with invasive scrub, which is great for brambles, mice, rats and other stuff, but doesn't favour wild orchids, the plants for butterflies and doesn't seem to be popular with the badgers either.  Next year we will try to claim back another 10 to 20 meter deep stretch of the meadow.

Finally, with a nod to the Festive Season, I share the progress on growing the brussels sprouts for John's Christmas dinner - they are small, but they are there!

Like that they even look faintly appealing to me!!

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 37 - more like Winter actually

Just over 2 weeks to the shortest day, and it isn't really light here until nearly 9am on a good day.  There was also a bit of a frost here this morning - the weather station in the garden recorded -0.7ºC, but that was at head height.  The pepper and aubergine plants still standing in the garden and the canna lilies at the front of the house are all showing signs of having been well frosted this afternoon, and it is probably time to cut them all down.  Except that it is too cold and yukky to really want to go out side and do that.

Surely not, I hear you mutter?  After all the douceur angevine, and you are in western France and all that, means that it is always warm and glowing?  Not all the time, no.  This morning it was a real labour of love to stand in the queues in the market, although I have to say, they were a lot shorter as a lot of fair weather shoppers couldn't face it.  I did the circuit including the tea lady up Rue Basse in about 45 minutes as opposed to an hour or an hour and a quarter.

There was a ceremony at the War Memorial as I left - poor Anciens Combattants freezing as they saluted the monument and then had to listen to a speech by a Mayor.  There weren't many of them due to Covid.  But then it started to rain too!  Once home, I had the honour of being sat on by Zola to help me warm back up again - even she couldn't be bothered with the outside world today!

After more rain, which fortunately didn't turn lumpy, it brightened up enough this afternoon for me to pop out for a bit of a walk, not much and not far, but something.  Looking to the south east from one of the lanes I went up, there is a nice view across the valley, although the clouds were not at all friendly.  There is more rain on the way, and as it gets dark, I guess it may become solid.  There was snow this morning in Normandy I gather - brrrrrr!

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 36 - a better day

One of the things that made yesterday so dismal and depressing was the weather - heavy overcast from morning to night and wet and dank and cold.  So it was with huge relief that once the day dawned today, it was with sunshine (and a bit of frost).  That golden luminosity makes even the most challenging day seem better, and while today wasn't hugely challenging, some of yesterday's issues are still lurking.

The morning was devoted to dealing with a backlog of emails and phone calls, after lunch I had to honour my commitment to the Boys in the Country and go and feed them.  They all appeared, were pleased to see me, and most were very hungry too - well cold weather and growing a good layer of thick underfur takes it out of a chap.  Once they had munched their fill, we went and checked the enclosed garden - I had to sit on one of the chairs so they could all have a good love in with me for 10 minutes.  Then washing up cat bowls in cold water, which is always a joy, before I went out to explore the other plots.

I always like to have a look to see what is going on in Badger Mansions, slap in the middle of the wild flower meadow.  The damp soil made it so much easier to see their paw prints, including claw marks.  There seemed to have been a bit of activity since the rain stopped.

I then walked round the edge of the meadow, accompanied by Clause who managed to raise a pheasant, but not catch it.  That was much more interesting than me, so I was able to go the rest of the way without being shouted at in Cat.  When I got to where the old log pile used to be, I found an excellent example of the disgusting Giant Killer Orange Slug that lives around here.  We don't have any in the garden, but we have loads in the One Acre Wood.  This one was about five inches long.

At this point, Clause decided I needed to be defended against the slug, so came back from pheasant bothering and stood around shouting at me.  I felt it was time to leave.

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 35 - my favourite palm tree

Yes, clearly I am clutching at straws here to find good things to talk about!

I've had a busy day, what with meeting the bank manager, helping with a hospital visit, taking details of a potential client, driving around a lot and being shouted at by cats.  The weather has been singularly horrid.  None of these things make for a good blog.  So I have rummaged around in the computer vaults to find something sunny from Guadeloupe and have decided upon my favourite kind of palm tree.  Well I call it a palm tree, but I'll bet biologists will have other views.  Here's the science bit courtesy of the Botanical Gardens of Deshaies about the Travellers Tree.

So, not native, but found all over the place there.  Here are a couple of young ones.  These are already taller than us, and rather nice and elegant to my mind.

The apartment complex we stayed at had a few in their grounds, that were rather bigger, so that the shield-like apex of the leaves is at face level.  These are a nice, liveable with size.

But here is a salutary lesson, in that like all trees, they get big and probably too big for their space - think any leylandii hedge, think oak tree, think walnut tree.  This monster dominated part of the Botanical Gardens - very beautiful, but I would suggest quite vulnerable to strong winds.

I'll do better tomorrow, I promise!

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 34 - OK, some things change

It's Wednesday so it is market day in la Flèche, and finally we see that some things have changed here and for the better.  It has been a source of huge frustration that while you can sell plants (deemed essential), you cannot sell flowers (deemed non-essential) unless done by order/click and collect or some such system.  So it was lovely to see my friend Brigitte out with her stand and the glorious colours of flowers and ornamental cabbages and bouquets and cyclamen.  Brigitte raises her own cut flowers about 1.5km from us, but buys in some potted plants.  It isn't worth her while coming to the market in the hope of selling a 2€ cactus sometime in the day, but people are always after a good bouquet, and hers are some of the best!

The fripperie stands were out as well - so much acrylic and lycra and faux leather in one place!  But people were  happier, even if they weren't buying much.  It was enough that the extra colours and activity were a treat for the eyes and you could dream of wearing that pretty draped blouse, "enjoy" the accordion music from the CD stand and wonder who on earth dreamt up the plastic stuff on the "anything for 2€" stall.  Life seemed a bit more normal.

While Radio 2 and Zoe Ball were going all mushy about the Pfizer vaccine being approved for deployment next week, the feelings about vaccines against Covid here are rather different, with nearly 60% of those questioned saying they wouldn't want it.  They want to ski, to cuddle their grandchildren/grandparents, eat in restaurants and drink in bars, but they don't want to have the vaccine that will make all that possible.  Weird.  Even more weird was a promotion of the Miss France competition that runs later this week with all the 28 contestants (Miss Tahiti can't make it) posing in pretty cocktail dresses, open coats and face masks outside Versailles.  We assume they get to remove the face masks at some point, but it will ruin their make up.  Below, we have not so much Frosty the Snowman, as firewood bundle the Snowman.

Finally, walking around the wildflower meadow, I found the first hints of next spring's bee orchids.  I see at least two on this photo!

I think the damage is badger looking for roots and stuff.

 

Autumn Lockdown - Day 33 - it's the little things...

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation.  We are all plugging our way through 2020, with its lockdowns, cabin fever, Brexit anxiety, money worries and all the other things that make this year such a doozie.  So when you spot something unexpectedly lovely, when someone says or writes something unexpectedly kind, when there is just a hint of something good, it can open the flood gates a bit.

I'll not go into the written or said thing - that's personal, but I will share lovely and good.

First of all, a handsome cat portrait to set the scene!  This particular cat is looking forward to the 20th January, when he will become the undisputed only Donald that matters once again!

Today John was cutting the grass at Aldi in Saumur - when he used to do that at Baugé, it could take a while as so many people we know shop there, so would say hello.  It isn't a thing at Tiercé or Saumur, or so we thought.  I got a text from John to say that he had seen someone we know.  Before the old longère next to us was classed as insalubrious (and that was before the ceiling fell in), it was a rental property of last resort, for those who would not get a reference in a million years.  We had some nice neighbours (few), and some stinkers.  Joel was in between - we liked him, but his friends were really the scum of the earth.  He was the original slave of Nibbles.  He was also a tortured artist - some of his stuff is very good, but a lot isn't easy to live with.  We are lucky in that he gave us a slightly disturbing picture that we like, and he added a few very nice sculptures to the outside of the house when it was being renovated.  He moved away when his lease was up, and the last we heard from one of his chums was that he had died.  We were sad but not surprised.  So it was with great joy that I read that John had seen him at Aldi Saumur this afternoon - rumours of his death were clearly exaggerated!

Not all corona is bad, or rather korona!  We bought six strawberry plants in the spring of the variety korona - not deliberately, they were the only ones that Lidl had that day.  They weren't very productive, but what fruit we did get was very tasty, so we hope for more next year.  We grow strawberries in hanging baskets to keep them away from slugs, hedgehogs and chickens.  The leaves have turned the most magnificent colour - the plants just keep giving!

Today's blog was brought to you under slightly challenging conditions - Poirot is being very clingy at the moment!