David

A couple of minor bits of bad news.

Firstly, he went on a Track Day at Dijon Prenois which he was really looking forward to.

Especially after his last track outing!

I'd watched him do 3 or 4 laps, and could see he was taking it sensibly while he was getting to know the circuit, and then as it was one of the few very hot days we've had I went back to the car to apply some stronger sunblock.

I was just sending a text, when he appeared next to me: some idiot had run wide on a bend and hit David's handlebars, knocking him off course.

Needless to say, a sudden change of direction when you were on the right line for a bend usually proves messy.

As it did on this occasion.

Sadly the chap who ran into him seemed to have the same level of manners as skill in riding, and he never stopped to see if David was OK.

At first he thought his finger was broken, but having tried (fruitlessly) for nearly an hour to find a paramedic, he reckoned it was probably just badly bruised.

Obviously, given the scratching to the body work at his last track outing, it was the other side that took the brunt this time.

And the other lever!

At least he'd had the toughened engine cases fitted...

He said that given the listing said there were three categories of rider - fast, very fast & racer - and he'd put himself into the slowest group, he was amazed at how poor most of the riding was.

In the 4/5 laps he was out there, he saw 2 people come off the track, one near-miss, and a nasty accident that ended up with the guy going off to hospital in the ambulance.

Not mentioning his own little incident!

At least he's OK now.

Bikers Dayz (who deserve a big thumbs down on this occasion) had turned a 3 set track day into a single free-for-all filler space (morning and afternoon) in a endurance cup race meeting.

I had been to another track day they organised at Spa Francorchamps, which was lovely: very laid-back, well structured and I felt happy about David going to Dijon with them.

But the level of adrenaline/testosterone at the place made me feel quite uncomfortable (and I grew up with bikers, so it's not like Im not used to a bit of muck & sweat).

I left it to David to decide whether he wanted to go out for the afternoon session, but was mightily relieved when he decided against it.

Pretty expensive 20 minutes!

Especially when you factor in the petrol/motorway tolls & repairs to his bike & leathers.

On the up side, at least he hadn't booked his place till he was sure he was recovered from Rockingham, and by then the Saturday & Sunday spaces had all sold out - could have been several hundred euros worse.

Could also have been much, much worse.

A spoiled day, but compared to the alternatives we were happy.

On to the second bit of minor bad news: David went to the fracture clinic at Guy's yesterday, and his collarbone is not healing as well as it should.

The doctor said it was a nasty break (well, I can see a nasty bump, so find that easy to believe), and David now tells me he is getting tingling/numbness in his hand.

Neurological symptoms can be a side effect of a collarbone fracture where the callus presses on the brachial plexus, but I'm now worried that they might want to operate on him.

Not happy about that, but will have to wait and see...

He has a physio appointment booked for next week, and another appointment at the fracture clinic in three weeks as the doctor wanted to discuss his care with a specialist.

Keep your fingers crossed, and watch this space.

A sign I'm getting middle-aged?

I no longer seem terribly interested in clothes - the last time I put any real effort into getting dressed (to the extent of trying on more than one outfit/trying things on in advance) was a lovely friend's wedding in late April.

Don't get me wrong, I do (sometimes) think about what I'm going to wear, but it's mostly track suits & t-shirts, so the decision is often: blue or grey (track suit)? And then: which one (choice of 3 in each colour)? Followed by: long-sleeve or short (t-shirt)? And: black, white or coloured?

The scary part of this is: I think I might be turning into my aunt!

It's bad enough when I'm frightened I'm turning into my mother.

Apparently, that's almost inevitable, but at least mostly she looks OK.

I love my aunt to bits, but when she's working in the garden she looks like she shops from jumble-sale rejects!

The outfit that got me thinking was: €3 (from a supermarket) t-shirt (sleeveless, brown, meant to look like US Army surplus); £1 (off the market) long, baggy shorts (red/blue check seersucker, with a pattern dripped onto the front in bleach - I didn't do that!); blue (a different blue, of course!) socks that I bought 22 years ago when I went to college (so I really can't remember the cost, but think I may have had my money's worth!); dingy green gardening clogs (another cheap purchase, but again I can't remember how much).

I believe I may have topped it all of with my cricket sixes souvenir hat (the cheap flimsy ones they sell to people who want memorabilia/forget their expensive "proper" hat) from the mid 1990s!

And then yesterday I was sitting in the kitchen feeling really lucky to have the sort of husband who doesn't mind me sitting eating lunch in my boiler suit & wellies!

Creatures: update 2

I've been amazed at how the birdlife has increased since we started the garden.

When we were first here there was a collared dove who used to drink in the tub that catches rainwater from the roof, and a pair of redstarts.

Oh, and the owl who took up residence for a while in the grenier!

I'm glad he's moved on (but I don't think he's gone far; there have been owl pellets in the barn! Oh, and hedgehog droppings), as I didn't want to have to move him from our "guest accomodation", but his mess was a bit off-putting...

Now, I have seen some goldfinches on the seed heads in the garden and we have a family of sparrows, several great tits (well, they look a bit yellow, but I think they're great tits), some blue tits and a whole bunch of restarts!

The redstarts are currently acting like humming birds, and hovering as they pluck berries of the elderberry.

Very entertaining!

Thinking of humming birds sadly reminds me of the dead hummingbird hawk moth I found...

I had seen one (or three, I'm not sure which) get stuck 3 times in the flowers of a pink evening primrose.

I know that sounds odd, but he definitely didn't seem to be able to extract his proboscis.

I thought I'd "rescue" him/them, so gently prised the flower apart. The fact that he/they didn't fly off until I had separated the tube at the base of the flower leads me to believe I was right that he/they were trapped.

I'd been checking the clumps of "Twilight" (that's the name of the oenothera; sadly apt in this case) in case I saw any more apparently stuck, when I found this one dead.

His proboscis was still attached to the flower.

So now I'm left wondering whether this was one hummingbird hawk moth with something wrong with him, or whether pink evening primroses are fatal?!

On a (much) happier note: I found the chap who left the mystery poo in the barn!

Well, the droppings were a mystery till I'd described them to mum over the phone and she said "hedgehog!".

I have moved an old oil barrel and he was there underneath it asleep.

I didn't dare roll the barrel back to where it was, in case I crushed him, but he'd wandered off a little while later, so I'm guessing he'll be OK.

Creatures: update

We have seen loads of deer - at least 30, but I've lost count!

I think they are all the smaller chevreuil (which comes up as "roe deer" or "venison", depending on your usage!).

These are the ones Sergine told us that Patrick doesn't hunt as they are "minou" (cute). Privately, we have our suspicions that when Sergine doesn't know about it, they become venison!

I think all the butterflies have finished for the year...

This week I have only seen a couple of Cabbage Whites, and haven't seen any of the bigger ones (Peacock, Tortoiseshell, Silver-Washed Fritillary or either type of Swallowtail) for a while.

Well, I suppose with the weather how it is (cold, wet & miserable), they must feel autumn's here!

We did have 2 glorious days of summer, but that is so long ago - nearly a week! ;-) - that I've forgotten how warm it was!

When I took David to the station it was 30°C in the shade, and that was Sunday at 7.15pm.

Five days later and I'll be bringing him back to a different season!

As if to emphasise how wet it's been, I had to chase a tiger (leopard?) slug out of the kitchen.

Normally I'm not squeamish, and they get dealt with using salt or a heavy boot, but this chap was enormous!

I measured him, and he was 7" long from the tip of his eye-stalks to the tip of his tail...

Didn't feel like arguing with him, and had no big stick to hand, so prodded him with a bit of copper piping till he went back out under the door.

Can't wait for the place to be finished so M. Baty can finish off under the doors!

That would keep the shrews out as well! ;-)

But not the swallow...!

I would have thought it's too late for nesting, but one definitely had been checking out the hole where our kitchen stove will be connected to!

Thankfully (unlike the bat!), he just took off out again when told to "shoo"!

Last day tomorrow...

Sadly, I'm going back to the UK (very early) on Sunday, so tomorrow is my last day here for a while. :(

Which means that I've really only got today to do those things I only want David to know about after I've done them (like moving tons of soil or digging out the patio or excavating my second sink)!

Things on my "to do" list include:

* Finish cleaning the fireplace
* Finish paint-stripping the second ceiling rose (well, while I've got the caustic soda/wallpaper paste & pressure-washer on the go it seems daft not to)
* Scrub some more of the floor in the grenier
* Wood worm treat the beams in the grenier, and the part of the floor in the corner so I can start putting the old doors there next time we come

I wish I'd known about mixing caustic soda with wallpaper paste to remove paint (also makes a good dent in tar!), then blasting off the gunk with a pressure washer before!

When I was cleaning the first ceiling rose (lovely, Victorian cast-iron) I spent many hours and many pounds applying Nitromors, scraping away the resultant yuk and rinsing.

Don't get me wrong, Nitromors is great stuff (and probably much better when used indoors), but the lessive de soudre (which we are fairly sure is liquid caustic soda) when mixed with enough wallpaper paste crystals to make a fairly gloopy solution is brilliant!

It can be as thick/runny as you like, and (unlike the Nitromors) doesn't start to dry very quickly.

I've left some over an hour and it was still a gel when I came to wash it off.

The pressure-washer is also fabulous!

Yesterday I stripped off as much paint from the second ceiling rose (not an exact pair to the other one, but like a king & queen pair - without the encircling arches, but otherwise identical) as had taken me many weekends on the first go.

Which is why the first one wasn't finished till yesterday - took about 40 minutes to get the last clinging remnants of paint off.

Mind you, there were at least 8 coats of paint (I know; I "excavated" down through the layers!) and maybe 11 (but I can't remember) on that one.

The more recent aquisition had no more than 3 or 4 layers - but the paint was much thicker. Looked/felt as though someone had plastered it first!

My other "Victorian clean up job" is the grain-loft floor: I've been scrubbing the walls (they look so much better, that it doesn't seem like a mad thing to do when you see "after"), and next to the newly clean stone, the floor looked positively horrid.

Given the amount or rain than we've had this week, an indoors job was really appealing - rather than wading about outside in the mud.

Or so I thought!

It took me 40 minutes (probably the length of my attention span) to scrub the ten boards to the left of one of the ties.

The water was so filthy I had to change it (I'd cleaned 2-3 square metres!), so I mopped the rest of the bit I was doing.

The scrubbed area was so much better, but so time consuming!

I expect it's the first time that floor has ever been scrubbed (it was never living accomodation, although that's what we plan for it).

Top tip: 150+ years worth of mud takes some cleaning!