Rural Life

Day 10 of lockdown - what day of the week is it?

Those who know me, know that I have been doing the working from home thing for 15 years now, so that shouldn't be phasing me.  They will also know that I have stints where I am working on a report, where I am at my computer every day for a long period of time and don't really go anywhere, so in theory I should be doing OK with this lockdown malarkey.

The thing about the above is that I have a deadline and when that comes, I'm free as a bird.  I can work or not work, I can go anywhere I want (often the pub I confess), John and I can go out walking and shopping and perhaps celebrate with a  meal in a restaurant, or go visit a vineyard and do a wine tasting.  I know when the work related lockdown period will be over.  This is not the same.  The report will be sent on Tuesday next week come hell or high water, but nothing much else will change.  For the first time ever this week, John and I seriously lost the plot on what day of the week it was.  Time has slowed down.

In other aspects, time has not slowed down at all.  Look at these broad beans in full flower!  Pity I couldn't spot any bees.

Similarly, you can hear lawns growing (actually at the moment I can hear our lawn being cut down again, as John tries out his new lawnmower), while the blossom is looking marvellous.  But human or economic life is now marching at a very slow pace for us, with little to differentiate each new day from the last.  Mind you, once this report is away, perhaps I will be able to enjoy that slower pace of life!  Here is a cherry tree in full blossom - not ours, but in the next garden over.  Pity the fruit from this tree are vile.

Day 9 of lockdown - guilt and markets

It's all over social media and the news programmes - the scrum that you encounter when you go to the supermarket to get the essentials for life as we know it (well first world, middle class or aspirant, comfortable life anyway). 

Here in rural France, there are the supermarkets, there are the small, specialist shops, and then there are the open air markets.  It is this last, where farmers and small producers bring their goods and bypass the middle men, that makes life for me so special.  In normal times, I have two different people I go to for raw milk, one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday, a bloke for raw butter, a bloke for cheese, one bunch for salad and vegetables, another for onions and leeks, yet another for fruit, a preferred butcher for poultry and game, and preferred butcher for lamb, another for ham and sausage... The list goes on.

When lockdown started, the open air markets were told they could continue but only for food, so no flowers, plants, clothes and frippery.  With the increased rules this week, the powers that be decided that in general open air markets should be closed, and only allowed on the say so of the Prefet of the Department.  Wednesday's market at la Flèche was given permission to go ahead today, which was a relief.

Armed with a new attestation, I overcame all guilt and drove up.  Why is it that I feel such guilt in going out, even though it is for a good and allowed reason, I have the documents with all the permissions filled in correctly, and I social distance?

Arrangements were changed for the market, but exceptionally good, with masses of space around each stall and a policeman on each entrance to the square checking attestations and numbers.  So much safer than the scrum that is the local supermarket!  It was such a relief to see my regular suppliers, and get my hands on good milk, good butter, fabulous cheeses, farm chicken - thank you to all those food heroes!  Nothing over-processed and no profits to the big boys.

And as I left, my friendly policeman wished me a safe journey home.

No photos of the market or my purchases, but pretty pictures of plum blossom, honesty and a lovely carpet of cowslips, including some that are tending towards being red.

Day 8 of lockdown - there's weird sh1t out there!

Here it is - well just the headline really.

So we are on lockdown and a bloke goes round to a house he owns, but rents to a chum, at 11pm at night, apparently to demand the rent he is owed.  Naturally he takes his hunting gun with him.  Tenant (and hunting buddy) won't let him in but they shout at each other through the door and then the tenant shoots the door, and landlord (and friend) on the outside is hit.  Police turn up, arrest one and send other to hospital (not too serious but still in).  Tenant is being charged with attempted murder and his brief is trying to get that down to aggravated assault.  Our Boys in Blue locally really don't need this crap, but I have to admit to some giggles about it.

But not as much as over the two Parisian teenagers who decided to spend last weekend with a Facebook pal in the styx south of Angers, but following a bit of an argument they headed back to Paris.  However, in order to get to the station at Angers, they nicked a couple of pushbikes.  They were spotted cycling up the motorway so the motorway staff stopped them and were pelted with stones and the bicycles.  Motorway staff call the police who turned up and with a bit of effort, nicked the charming duo, who admitted what they had done (bit difficult to deny much of it really).  The Police took them to the station, having charged them with theft, resisting arrest (rebellion), driving on a motorway in an unsuitable vehicle, then also fined them 135 euros each for being out without a valid attestation and sent them back to Paris.

Only in rural France!!

Here is a pretty picture of pear blossom and forsythia for a bit of more normal colour!

Day 7 of Lockdown - a bit tasteless?

And No!  That is not a reference to losing my sense of taste, which is thought to be a good symptom of going down with the dreaded lurgy!

After posting the Day 6 blog, we had a second go at doing FaceTime aperos with the Chinon Two, and it worked very well again.  This afternoon I had an inspiring virtual meeting by Skype with two work colleagues - there are some brilliant tools out there for connecting without endangering yourself or others.

There is however no good substitute really for going up to the village bakery in the morning for croissants and baguette, and it provides a bit of exercise as I have to go uphill.  Today the route was empty, although I met a couple of others up at the bakers, all keeping a good 2 metres apart.  What a difference a day makes, as this morning there was sunshine, so although eerily quiet, it was very beautiful.

While I slaved over a churning computer, John did sterling work in the garden, repotting things, finding new pots for things, sorting out sacks of compost and horse muck, enjoying the sunshine and tiring out the cats.  He found lots of lovely things for chickens - perhaps these will make the little blighters more inclined to lay eggs?  They are the stuff of nightmares of course, these giant grubs.  Who else remembers the classic Dr Who adventure The Green Death, which included a sickness (which turned you green) spread by 4 foot long giant maggots?

He also got round to potting up the strawberry plants we bought, when we were panic-buying cat food at Lidl 10 days ago.  We put them in hanging baskets to keep them away from slugs, snails, mice and chickens - in this way we might get a few during the season.  What variety are they I hear you ask?  No kidding - Korona!

Day 6 of Lockdown - a very quiet Sunday (with a cat picture)

Once I had done this blog yesterday, I was overcome by a fit of domestic goddessness (and needing a good excuse to have The Cat Empire DVD on loud), so I made cake.  It is basically a Quatre-quarts using brown sugar, and with some of the flour replaced by ginger and cinnamon - it's very nice with cream and jam!

Today has been even quieter than normal, as people respect the lockdown and also the noise curfew that is always in place here on a Sunday.  Perhaps the highlight of my day so far was when I pottered down the garden to let the chickens out for their daily vandalism spree.

Zola decided to show me what a voracious hunter she is, by leaping into and climbing up the pear tree to catch a collar dove that was sitting in it and taunting her.  Zola is not aerodynamic or subtle, so before she was even half way up the tree, the dove had flown off to the next perch.  Leaving Zola in the tree...  I carried on my garden inspection, released chickens, talked to them (well berated them for poor egg production actually) and turned back to the pear tree.  Someone was stuck.  Someone was very stuck.  Someone was crying and asking for help.  So, once I had taken a few photos, I grabbed a branch she could walk down, then she walked down me, and ran away to find another tree to climb.  Later on she brought John a lizard's tail to say thank you (but I'm not sure for what).

We are lucky to have a garden and cats and chickens to entertain us.  We also have a vast reserve of DVDs we haven't watched in ages.  Yesterday was The Cat Empire, perhaps today will be The Who or Gerald de Palmas - not decided yet.

 

Day 5 of Lockdown - not so easy!

Once I'd written and published this blog yesterday, it was beer o'clock, but as we are in lockdown, it had to be done differently.  We booked FaceTime with my Mum and Brother, found some crunchy nibbles and then went to pour a couple of drinks.  Well John's beer wasn't a problem (for the moment), but my gin and tonic was - it was the last of the gin... Of... Any …. Sort!  Panic!!

Well the FaceTime aperos experiment worked very well by the way, and will be repeated later this weekend and a few times next week and probably for the foreseeable future, with different chums - let me know if you want to play!!

John had the responsibility of doing the shopping this morning as he also had a doctor's appointment.  He picked up the care package of Earl Grey tea that had been left for us, checked out the market and came back with lots of yoghurt and rice pudding as that particular supplier is going to self-isolate from today (eek), fish, apples, salad, ham and most importantly - Gin!

Not the strongest perhaps, but one of the best named, and with a smashing label!

The weather today isn't particularly nice - dull and cold (where did the sun go?), so I have carried on with working from home and the report that I am doing for the Broads Authority, while listening to my new CD by Claudio Capéo - if you are feeling bored, look up his brilliant songs Un Homme Debout and Dis-le Moi.  I defy you not to want to pogo around the room towards the end of the second one!!

The lack of sun has affected the cats of course.  Zola is in and out and can't settle to anything as she needs to keep warm (despite having a thick fluffy coat).  Poirot is trying to recover from me spending the morning with Patrick Bruel (on Facebook) and singing along loudly and tunelessly.  Nibbles is trying to sleep through it all.

Day 4 of Lockdown - strange sounds

I think I am over the phase of when I sit in a draught and feel chilly, wondering if I am coming down with the dreaded virus!  Now I need to get over the angst of checking and rechecking my relevant attestation before driving out of the courtyard, although making sure I have the right thing is still important.

Today's quick foray out of the house was again work related, checking up on the cats of a departed Brit.  There are four of them but only 3 turned up for their share of a tin of cheap and sloppy cat food.  The noise of slurping cats...

Anyway, once they had licked all the bowls clean, I walked down their garden and sat in the sun, admiring yet another Brimstone butterfly as well as a small orange tip.  There were also jays, pigeons, bees of all sorts, wild flowers and broad beans to admire as much as I could while being sat on by one large cat, and having another treat my foot as a dead rabbit.

And a really strange sound.  The quiet popping of pine cones as the sun gets to them, and they release their seeds which then fall to the ground.  Except that in the quiet of the country, and with no background traffic or plane noise, it sounded very loud indeed!

The cats guard our Guadeloupe sprouted avocado seed, which is now starting to look like a serious tree with a branch!  Sadly I fear it will never have fruit, but it is a fun thing to have.

There are rumours of more drastic measures of confinement here, as Parisians in particular explore ways to flout isolation.  That is the real fear for us.  At the moment, as we are pretty antisocial and also pretty well stocked, we are OK in our isolation, but further restrictions would weigh on our mental state, as we worry about the work we can't do, and the wellbeing of these cats.  

Stay away from other people is I think the key message at the moment.

Day 3 of Lockdown - permitted working

Important things first - Zola is being completely vile about taking her medicine, but I'm not sure we expected any better from her.

The weather today is fabulous, and you can actually hear the grass growing.  John did me an attestation for going to do one lawn, while he did another for himself to go and deal with 3 separate gardens.  He's not home yet, so I don't know how many fines he has clocked up, or if he has had to show his attestation at all.  I didn't, when I snuck out to do my lawn.

As you can see, I suffered in my isolation.  I had discussions with a couple of mallards, a very cheeky robin, a couple of Brimstone butterflies, and annoyed a couple of amourous frogs (but not for long).  Of course, it will all need doing again next week.

Home, and I thought I would check up on our lazy Victoria Plum tree - signs of 10 flowers, which is not really good enough.  Having said that, last summer was diabolical for an English plum tree here in France, so I shouldn't be too harsh.

The roads are quiet, people are doing some gardening when they can, but it is very strange.  It is also rather loud as the bird life is in full rut and is enjoying not having all that competition from cars and lorries and motorbikes.  Nature will take back the world, while we are confined - perhaps that was Her plan all along?

Stop Press - John is home with no fines paid.

Day 2 of Lockdown - and three attestations used!

I totally failed to mention yesterday's highlight - a drive by flowering!  A local flower producer and vendor dropped off flowers with her relatives and chums so that they didn't end up on the compost heap while still totally beautiful.  It was all done within the rules of social distancing, but what a lovely idea!  A lovely way to brighten a pretty grim day.

Today we braved the police with our attestation and decided to check that we could indeed use the local farmers market at la Flèche - we stick to our principles of supporting small and local business where possible.  I'm not sure we were supposed to go together, but other than that, it was good to go.  Benoit, producer of raw butter and raw milk that has a good two inches of cream on the top was there with our usual order, so we exchanged milk bottles and agreed to meet next week.  Jean-Marc the cheese man provided us with 5 excellent cheeses and we panic bought fresh Italian pasta.  The fishmonger had John Dorey and with few people there, I wasn't ashamed to ask him to fillet it.

This afternoon John worked - again armed with the famous attestation - but while it is a magnificent sunny day here and warm, the ground has yet to give up the ridiculous amount of rain we have had this month, so he wasn't out that long.

Zola the kitten-style cat has been having "difficulties", so I ended up with a third attestation as I whisked her off to the vet on a medical emergency.  No constipation, no excess liquid in her bladder indicating crystals, but a temperature and a diagnosis of cystitis - no cranberry juice for her, but anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and special food (cranberry juice would be a whole lot cheaper). 

So not really a total lock down day, but a weird one when we did sneak out (armed with our relevant attestations of course).

 

 

Day One of Lockdown - today's word is procrastination

As the church bell tolled midday, that was it - lockdown!

That was the moment that I started to yearn to pop out for new socks and to walk down to the lake to see if there were any herons about - no chance!

A friend has pointed out that it is either the opportunity for really getting to grips with things I've wanted to do for ages, or for monumental procrastination.  As I've actually got a report to do for work and a couple of tenders to respond to, I'm hoping that procrastination doesn't grab me.  But then again I have decided to revive this blog, which is in itself a form of procrastination I guess.

The cats know something is up.  One is whiney.  One has just trashed all the settings on John's computer.  One has decided that she might be constipated, or she might have a bladder infection, or she might just freak us out.

The chickens are not so fussed, but are intrigued by the fact that John has been working in our garden (fighting against procrastination) and has a fire going in an oil barrel.  Hopefully they won't try to barbeque themselves.

Rumour has it that there are two cases in the village, one of whom is in hospital - we are thinking of them.

Tomorrow I need to go out armed with an attestation - the cats in the country will need food - that is what will keep me awake tonight.