Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Home grown nosh!

It's really lovely to be able to eat home grown food! This year we have had (ok, not many, but that's not the point...): courgettes, mirabelles, greengages, plums & damsons. M. Lorin showed us an old (early 1900s) encyclopaedia with pages of different layouts for training fruit trees; it's put ideas in my head!

Spiders, etc.…

I’ve beenwaiting for the opportunity to invite friends & family to come and stay at the house. But I’ve now realised that even when (when??) it’s done, there will still be some people who we won’t be able to invite… My English neighbour for one: she doesn’t like spiders AT ALL (when she looks after the plants for me whilst we are away, I go round and evict all the spiders I can find; I don’t mind them, so they are normally allowed run on the flat). So she would hate the denizens of our new home.

I woke up on the first night we stayed there this year to a huge chap on the wall about 3’ away. I saw him (her?) again later & measured - >4”/10cm and it wasn’t lying flat out!

We’ve also got huge black beetles (1” long) and crickets (male & female, I think – one’s bigger and lighter in colour than the other), and the occasional lizard. And that’s just indoors! If we factor in the birds (owls & swallows occasionally - I had to keep chasing them out in June; didn't want them nesting like the redstart...) and the odd bat, not to mention the rodents (can hear & smell them, so I know they’re there!)… Feels a bit like a menagerie.

When we go outdoors there’s all sorts of interesting fauna, including my current favourite: the huge black bee with blue wings. I also like the red & black bugs: striped (like a shield bug) & patterned (“gendarmes”) – but you only seem to find the adults copulating; so difficult to get a “decent” picture!

New Door? Old Door New Paint?

Dominique B’s efforts in replacing the front doors in the exact style of the old ones has been a resounding success! One of our neighbours called round and was asking whether we’d repainted the doors or whether they were new – so obviously from a distance (the road is about10-12’ from the nearest door) they are indistinguishable! Just what we wanted.

Kingfisher

We saw a Kingfisher. I thought it was a redstart at first – a blur of brown, and then it settled and showed its tail – a flash of turquoise and I was then thinking “could it be a kingfisher?”. It turned its head to face the side and then no doubts remained; it was a kingfisher.

Not what you’d usually expect to see in Maxi Brico!

Fireplace

We found and bought a fireplace for the entrance hall. Now all we need to do is clean of the eau-de-nil and black paint (mmmm, nice!) and persuade Dominique to fit it!

Finally finished dealing with the soil heap

In the end it took us 24 hours to level out the soil heap, with another 3 and ½ hours levelling it flat on the garden, but it feels a job well done!

Now all the ground is levelled (or as level as I want it), apart from a small trench with some gravel in it (but I need to move the gravel first, & there’s a heap of soil under the horse chestnut to fill that), and I’ve done the paths and planted all the plants I brought out (42 in total). It really does look like a garden now, and will only get better and better.

Having moved all that soil, I reckon there was at least one lorry load (by the time it was all un-compacted, nearer 1 ½ or 2 lorry loads?) – so that’s probably 11 tonnes (if not 22 tonnes, & not including digging out for the patio!). It was gratifying when M. Lorin call & was really impressed; I’m not doing it to impress other people, but seeing their amazement is quite pleasing.

Dominique let us down

By Thursday afternoon, we had given up on Dominique (he obviously wasn’t coming & neither was he going to call to let us know! Not too happy about that…). David started to move the spoil heap while I was levelling out the gravel in the patio hole. We’ve only moved it over about 4’ onto the driveway. I know it’s not much, but it’s enough to let us flatten out the soil heap & not have rubble where we want garden.

While David finished moving the spoil, I started levelling out the soil heap…

Patio

We did level out the patio hole (I had a horrible feeling that I would have to flatten it out), and make it round, and laid the weed-suppressing membrane while we were waiting for Dominique. It was quite satisfying throwing all the stones back in, and collecting up piles & piles of other stones to use as hard-core. I’d unearthed an awful lot of stones when clearing out the ivy under the lilacs by the snail pits, and all the small ones went into the patio hole. We then found even smaller ones to make it level, then did a layer of gravel (M. Lorin had left a pile of road gravel behind – perfect for this sort of thing). I levelled that off, but we decided to see if the rain makes it settle before putting a layer of sand to lay the patio on; there’s no hurry – we still don’t know when the delivery will be, so there’s plenty of time.

Again, watch this space!

7 August 2006

Finished digging out the patio (did I say that?) before David got here, and went to Bar-sur-Aube on Friday (4th) to see if we could find one in a circle (i.e. that we didn’t have to cut to shape). Owing to tiredness/randomness, I didn’t measure how big the circle was. They had one at Duchesne Gedimat which looked about right – 270cm in diameter, but as it was 349€, we didn’t want to buy it if it was going to be too big (didn’t fancy digging out another 50cm! Took me best part of 12 hours to do that!). We checked they did deliveries, which they do, for a “small” charge (don’t know how small), and they could deliver on the 11th – we’d better hurry up & order. Went home and measured (I knew it was a bit flat – but didn’t want to “round” it up if it was too big…) the circle 250-270cm – only a small bit of extra digging out necessary! By then we were both knackered so planned to go the next day & order. I ended up having an afternoon nap on Saturday, so David went on his own to order the circle of paving – comedy of errors! He couldn’t make one shop assistant understand there was only half a circle stacked on the pallet because the other half was incorporated into their display (and not because David’s French is bad; it isn’t!)! They ended up going to the warehouseman who said he’d have to order one – we’ll probably get it mid-September! Of course you can’t get them in August!!

At least now we’ve got the hole (and the weed-suppressing membrane) we can fill the hole with hard-core (a.k.a. all those small stones we keep tripping over!) & build the pathways. All we are waiting for now before we can plant the plants is Dominique to remove his rubble. He said he’s coming today…

Watch this space…

Bolting Angle Iron to Close the Shutters…

…May be a thing of the past.

Dominique B says he’s doing our shutters in September!! If they are of a similar standard to the doors and windows (and having seen those and all the other work he's done on our visits to his workshop, we've got no doubts) the place will look like a palace - fit for a baron!

I should probably explain that « chez le baron » is what the neighbours call our house, and it feels right. Even though M. « le baron » died over 20 years ago, I don't suppose the name will go away... He sounded quite a character! Even if he wasn't too hot on cleaning...

Created Compost Heap a.k.a. “Snail Pits”

Getting back to my peasant roots! [Actually, I don’t think my family were peasants – more skilled manual workers/artisans: blacksmiths; wheelwrights; butchers; publicans (!) from the genealogical research so far.] Now have cleaned out the snail pits – beautiful (there wasn’t even any slime!. Did I mention that the [French] neighbours think I’m mad because I kill snails?! Wait till I tell my English neighbour that we’ve got a snail farm in our garden – she’ll think that’s mad!). I have decided that the deeper one will be compost heap at one end & leaf mould heap the other end. In the shallower one I’m dumping: rotting wood (to create wildlife habitat – I think it’s stag beetles I’m encouraging?), sticks & twigs (kindling, for when we get a fireplace/insert/poêle) and stones (for, well, who knows? Maybe hard-core to fill in the patio pit – how ironic is that? Dig out all the stones, to… fill the hole with stones!). I’ve partially cleared the pathway between the two pits and once I finish chopping up the fallen branch from the greengage, will be able to easily get at them.

Also cleared under the walnut trees – essential so our kind neighbour can collect the walnuts He kindly agreed to this last year – we said if he’d collect them for us he could have half – everyone a winner! So we’re hoping he’ll do the same this year (and he can leave his tractor in the barn).

Am now picking up all the fallen horse chestnut leaves – they don’t seem to mulch down, and as the ground is uneven it makes a real trip hazard. May just level out some of the bumps when I’ve done that… After I’ve pulled out all the ivy, taken out all the dead wood (& brambles) from the elder bushes, moved a second compost heap to the snail pits (had nearly finished moving the first one when r.s.p. [rain stopped play],), picked up all the rubbish (seem to have cornered the world market in degrading scraps of baler twine – why?!), picked up all the (remaining!) broken tiles for hard-core & taken a couple of loads more rubbish to the tip. Oh, and of course I need to flatten the soil heap, lay paths, plant plants, spread gravel, lay the patio, weed kill the drive, and maybe eat & sleep!

Did I say I was getting back to my peasant roots? Hard physical exercise – with no time limits/deadlines; (if it doesn’t get done [with the exception of the plants – and I’ve plenty of time to plant them] it will still be there next year) – is really therapeutic. And I may even get fitter/lose some of the excess poundage!

My darling is still fast asleep (10.30). I’m letting him sleep, as he’ll need all of his strengthlater when we try to get to grips with the French mobile phones – like how to make the display stay lit for more that one second, why it doesn’t show who’s calling, what PIN to insert when we swap the SIM cards with the English ones, how to top them up (mine’s on subscription in the UK), etc., etc., etc.

Rain Stopped Play

I finally finished digging out for my patio (OK, it’s not level, but as what I’m digging into is effectively hard-core, I may decide that doesn’t matter!) about 3 hours before David was due to arrive. He couldn’t stop me then (I knew he’d think it mad & suggest getting a little man with a digger – but I want it NOW, not in a “quinzaine” – which technically means in a fortnight, but is actually the French equivalent of a Japanese “Yes” – i.e. “We may be considering considering your request”! [An Italian friend explained that the Italian “domani” was like the Spanish “mañana” “but without that sense of urgency”!]) - I need to be able to flatten the soil heap (after Dominique’s moved the heap of spoil; he says he’s coming early next week) – I need to see any odd lumps & dips to try to get it more even, then put in the paths to & from the patio (this is why I need to do the patio now) before I can plant the plants! I’m itching to plant the plants. I bet they are too…

Watch this space…

So the point of that ramble was: having achieved my goal (patio dug), I was delighted when it belted down with rain. And I got exercise running around & shutting 12 windows! I could get used to living in something bigger that a one-bedroom flat… I couldn’t do any more gardening and the garden was getting watered. Perfect!

Luddite Blog (4 August 2006)

I’m sure I’m doing this wrong! Handwriting my blog? Can’t be right?! Still there’s bit & bobs I want to say & writing them down makes sense. And I can copy type reasonably quickly!


I could always bring the laptop, but then I’d have to get WiFi (or whatever), and then I’d play Solitaire & email friends & browse on eBay and it would be no different to home! And that’s so not what we want. Not having TV & computer makes it a proper holiday for us. You hear the sounds of the countryside, and go for walks in the evening or visit with neighbours or read or sit *in front of the fire by candlelight/outside the house watching the sun set (*delete as appropriate, depending on time of year). It’s much more relaxing than watching telly!

When I met David, I’d got rid of the TV licence – first I got rid of the cable (when I worked out how much it was costing per hour for the ½ - 2 hours a week I watched seemed an easy choice to make; especially as I was broke at the time: not all London wages are huge! My brother was earning more as a builders’ labourer in Staffordshire!). After Sky One & UK Gold had gone, I couldn’t even find ½ an hour a week to watch, so saving over £100 on the TV licence was easy. Telly to cellar. For a week or so it was weird, not having the moving wallpaper & noise for company, but then it got really easy – listening to CDs whilst doing yoga/stretch for those evenings I didn’t go out. I didn’t miss it at all and was fit & relaxed.

I used to get the reaction from some people: “you don’t have a telly – how sad!”. From a 15 year-old boy that seems perfectly reasonable, but from women in their 20s to me that seemed sad (and not in a “Loser!” kind of way’ genuinely sad in the old context). TV is the focus of so many people’s lives… Whereas I had a social life & did exercise!

I’m sure some people won’t like it here without telly or Playstation, but those people aren’t necessarily relaxing to be around, are they?

Which brings me to crickets. If you’re sitting indoors, you’re not outside watching the evening primroses “ping” open at dusk, so you miss the falling-light changeover from swallows to bats and as the light fails you’d miss the sound of the crickets. Now that would be sad! Nearly as sad as not being able to watch the lizards lifting their feet when the sunbathing gets too hot…

31 July 2006

You will either remember that scene in Trainspotting

…Or you won’t. For anyone with a dirty-toilet phobia, there is only one scene that comes immediately to mind when you (we!) think of the film.

Now, my loo is pristine; disproportionately happy!

I’m digging a patio. After 4 hours effort (really hard effort) it’s starting to look like something. Another day, and I should be ready to start the paths either side.

Seems Odd…

… English people hoping for rain!

Since we were last at the house the temperature has dropped as low as 20ºC! and has been up to 35ºC (inside). France has had the same heat wave that we had in London, and a lot of plants have suffered in the garden. I think if they were more established, they would have coped better, but we have lost quite a few plants because of the lack of water. The neighbours are hoping for rain to swell the grapes, too.

I have a nasty feeling…

…That I will get fit! Being tired & not sure where anything is stored, I’ve been up & down stairs like it’s going out of fashion… When you live in a (one-bedroom) ground floor flat, the kitchen not being 2’ from the bathroom is a lot of exercise!

My hand has “crashed”, bye!

Weird or What?

How strange to have to go into a little room to use the lavatory! And the kitchen seems oddly empty without a loo! Yes, our partitions have become rooms! “Plus ça change; plus c’est la même chose” – we still have a shower in the kitchen though! And another one in the bathroom, (to be on the safe side? Perhaps Dominique knew how dirty & smelly I was going to get?!). The immersion has also gone.

We no longer have any lights in the kitchen (I’m in the grain loft – the light is better!)… but I’m sure that will come back!

30 July 2006

It’s 6.30pm, and about 27ºC and I’m sitting here with a gin & tonic (& ice!), relaxing! Mum & David left about 2.45pm to return to London (& mum to Cobwebs) and I started pottering around the house – very little to do, but I cleaned the (new!) basin in the (new!) bathroom and the (second-hand) shower tray. I’m putting off the loo (only used by builders for the last 12 months…) till tomorrow. I will do it, but couldn’t face it and was saved by a drop in temperature (mid 30’s & above; too hot for gardening) & thought “I’ll plant those plants; if we have a storm it will water them in well.” Forgetting, of course, about the entire boxful (30? 40?) that mum gave me! So I’m back to plan A: create some more space, then plant the plants. I spent 1½ hours with the piochet hacking off weeds, but I’m tired, and not really in the mood; I’d rather start at 6am tomorrow when I’ve had (hopefully) some more sleep and it’s cooler.

Whilst I was contemplating the plants, I was buzzed by a humming bird hawk moth – he loves cirsium (a type of thistle) & verbena bonariensis, but not enough to wait around while I went to get my camera! To me he looked more like a “humming bird deer’s head moth”, but that’s probably only me!

Bird

No sign of the bird; will have to ask Dominique D if he knows anything… It doesn’t look good.

29 July 2006

Unloading & setting up home takes a couple of hours (we will be so glad when we have floors – everything can stay downstairs, rather than us carting it upstairs & putting it back in boxes every time we leave!), so when we got to the evening’s glass of champagne it was really appreciated! After dinner we sat out again – still light & warm

Watched the right hand evening primrose opening – 11 flowers, taking 3-4 (?) seconds to open; it was like watching time-lapse photography!

28 July 2006

We arrived at the house about 9pm and were delighted yet dismayed to see new front doors… Delighted, because new front doors had been fitted; dismayed because we had old front door keys! A fruitless hunt around just in case our builder had left a key under a stone (in the dark, of course, but so much nicer to admire the almost fluorescent flowers on the evening primroses – oenothera biennis & oenothera glaziomana erythrosepaia, I think?), before calling a hotel in the nearby town. We’d decided to stop going there (enough small niggles, like not being able to turn off the heating/air-conditioning, I can’t remember what else & 80€ a night) and haven’t been for well over a year (18 months?), but boy were we glad when they said they had one room left, with 2 double beds! A dash to get there before reception shut (this part of the world is not somewhere that will wait if you are late; possibly part of the charm?), seemed small beer in comparison to the last 48 hours (see earlier post about mum’s journey down!).

Equally delighted that the Iron Horse was still serving once we’d checked in: Leffe for him & her; kir for m-i-l. And a refill to be on the safe side. Mum delighted next morning because she got the swim she’d missed out on in Brixton (she says she really will curb her appetite for excitement!).

I know they say you should always take a change of clothes in your hand luggage (we virtually only travel with hand luggage, so don’t usually worry about that), but it seems a little unnecessary when you are travelling to your own home… How wrong can a girl be?!

Needless to say, when we called the menuisier and the builder (both of whom must have known our doors had changed; Dominique B made & installed them & Dominique D must have been there/lent him the keys!) all we got was answer machines, so we were wondering if they were both off on their holidays – this weekend is when France goes on holiday. The hotel was full on the Saturday night, so we would have had to either abandon the furniture in the barn & hope no-one stole it (couldn’t leave the plants – they would die without water) or take a whole vanful back to England, unload & do it all again later (I’m guessing we’d have left the furniture to take its chances!!), if we could get a tunnel crossing without paying an extra (full?) fare…

Delight again, then, when Dominique B’s daughter called when we were at the bar to say her father had keys & we could collect them the next day. After the stress of thinking my holiday was off, a 90 (100?) mile round trip seemed like the answer to a prayer.

We were nearly at Troyes the next day (in yesterday’s [sweaty] travelling clothes) when Dominique D called to say he’d left a key under a brick in the barn & Dominique B had emailed David to let him know! Too late to turn back, we carried on!

That’ll teach David to leave the office before we go on hols! Or to leave his out-of-office in 2 languages! When we finally got to the house (did a shop in Troyes & had lunch), we found the key DD had left – under a brick David had looked under on Friday night! It was covered in dust & he hadn’t seen it by torchlight; it was only just visible in broad daylight & by then we knew where to look.

At least we appreciate staying in our house a lot more now.

Angelus starting… (I’m writing this on Sunday 30th).

I’m getting writer’s cramp – p.c. at home, but I still want to blog, so handwriting this (and now copy typing; much more fun!); not used to it!