Dreams coming true!

I haven't been posting much [the repeated infections in my ganglion scar and then the crippling shoulder pains that came back because I was protecting the operation site have meant I've been trying to limit my computer use; I feel I'm on the mend now and the need to sort my photos has become overwhelming, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed not to aggravate whatever's happening with my shoulders], but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking of posting...

Two things:

Firstly, we finally sorted out the pile of stuff upstairs in the salon d'été, and can now use it as a...

...salon d'été - ta dah!

It felt great, even though we had to pack it all away again almost immediately, but we know that next year we are in a great position to set it up quickly and easily (which should guarantee a cold spell), and really enjoy the space as we intended when we bought the house nine years ago.

[The intention is to post photos later, when I've sorted out the jumble of months' of photos in three cameras...]

Secondly, the garden is now tidy enough that we can garden (for the most part) in a leisurely fashion.

OK, so sometimes I have a mad-dash to get on top of the weeds, but mostly it's a case of see a weed, remove it rather than "HALP!", and that feels great.  We have managed to move a few plants, are trying to create "coloured" sections of garden, and have tidied the edge and put down lumps of tufa to demarcate the drive better.

Again, I have the best of intentions with regard to posting photos [vide supra].

Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm going to Hell with all my good intentions, but seriously, as long as my shoulders hold up I want to get my digital clutter de-cluttered!

Wall finished!

[For now, at least; I may try some white spirit/cellulose thinner/WD40/specialist cleaner recommended on the internet - not sure, and I can always come back to it.]

"Before" [notice also "before" for floor!]

I think it looks a whole heap better - still room for improvement, but I'm happy to leave it for now [and go and bathe; yucky-feeling skin]

"After" [or maybe "during", if I use a solvent]

Now all that's left to do is have fun seeing how long David takes to notice.

My best guess is that it will be some time on the 21 or 22 of August - when he's back in the office catching up with his emails [might even be 19, as he's working from home that day].  I think I'm pretty safe in betting he won't 'spot the difference' before he reads the automated email he gets for my posts!

I have to admit to doing all the female sneakinesses in my power to hide my activities [tidying, cleaning, and putting things back as they were before!], and also that my sneakiness is in a different league to his when I'm waiting to see how long it takes him to notice a thing is different - did I mention the haircut that left it 9 or 10" shorter that took [I think] over a week to become 'visible'?  And that's something he looks at every day...

After two years of changing the knobs on the bedside tables [and repeatedly "looking for nicer ones" in various shops] I did tell him about that one.

David tidying upstairs...

Maria untidying upstairs!

Nice seating area

David had moved most of the tools and clutter from the front wall in the grenier, and vacuumed the floor so that we could set out a table & chairs and our 'comfy' chairs whilst the weather was so hot - I don't mind the heat upstairs, but downstairs is so well insulated that it just builds and builds if we have the shutters open when it's baking.

Outside: 36C, upstairs 28C and downstairs 23C and gloomy [shutters are great for keeping out the heat/cold, but also keep out the light].  So warm enough, but not as furnace-like as sitting in the sun!

Tidy/clean floor

Well David's off to Spa at the moment on a couple of track days, so I've been left to my own devices.

The only problem with having comfy chairs upstairs and relaxing, is seeing the tar from where the builders removed the old chimney to make room for the flue for the wood-burning stove...

I think I mentioned that David had moved most of the tools, but he didn't hide my little blue metal tool box well enough to stop me finding my 'heavy' implements; I can't currently handle the big lump hammer, and my wide-bladed cold chisel seems to be off on it's holidays, but I managed to make a start.

Oops!

Should I have been doing this so soon after wrist surgery?

I don't know, but neither the surgeon nor the hand therapist said "don't start wielding lump hammers/cold chisels", so I'm guessing the answer has to be "yes"!

I only managed an hour and a half, and am being sensible, but it feels great to have made an improvement on the eyesore and I must be building up strength in the joints, no?

Seriously, Crocs?! Seriously?

I’m sitting here wearing bright green ‘clown shoes’, reading the warning tag that had been attached to them, and wondering “why escalator safety?” and “why not using-a-chair-instead-of-a-stepladder danger?” or even “hazard of crushing mockery for wearing clown shoes?”.  I’m mystified why that particular potential for harm merits a tag being printed off and attached to my new shoes, and no other.

Seriously, though, I have bought my first pair of Crocs [as opposed to “mock crocs” (Shoezone was out of their “2 for £8” offerings in either of our sizes, so we forked out £19.99 for each pair – 30% off – at Sports Direct); I own plenty of those] and so far I love them. Having a pretty high tolerance for put-downs [try growing up with my relatives and not developing a thicker skin!], I think I’m going to love them.

I own Croc winter shoes [no holes, removable fleecy linings], and boots [the only things I can wear (apart from Wellingtons) that don’t give me heel blisters] and plenty of other mule-type shoes, but this is the first time I’ve succumbed to genuine Crocs' “crocs”.

We shall see whether they last any longer, or withstand the really sharp stones on the farm tracks any better, than the cheapo alternatives, and that will dictate whether this is the first pair of many or the last.

As an aside: I’m typing away and, distracted by the ‘chattering’; I glanced at the window to see two black shapes flying in front of the bars – cue yelling at the swallows to “get out!” and “stay away!” – clearly time for another brood [and the weather here seems to have been wet – lush growth, so I suspect lots of yummy caterpillars/grubs to feed the babies on, so it would be great timing], and they frequently investigate the house for nesting sites if I don’t warn them off quickly enough.

It’s wonderful having them nesting here, but I’d prefer that they stick to the barn, and if it came to it they would too – our shutter-closing habits don’t work well with their late-evening-snack-gathering routine and they poo everywhere!

Alasdhair & Maria's wedding

We were invited to Alasdair and Maria's wedding in Paris on the 15th June, and had an absolutely lovely time!

[Apologies: my photos are so completely rubbish that I'm not posting any of them, sorry!]

We travelled to Paris on the Friday, and once we'd battled the périphérique we got to our hotel in the 15th arrondissement, which was fine but really expensive.  No surprises there, just wish we'd had time to use the swimming pool/spa!

Saturday morning, we took a taxi to the Mairie of the 6th arrondissement, and met up with Hilary, a schoolmate of David's, and her daughter Molly, and Matthew (a college friend of David's) and his wife Gilly, and were waiting in the courtyard.  None of use expected to know anyone else at the wedding, so we were just trying to follow the crowd.

Well we did follow the crowd, but luckily were halted by a phone call from Alasdhair [thankfully David hadn't yet switched his phone off] asking where we were - "we're just coming into the room" - "you're at the wrong wedding"!

Oops!

We'd just looked at the time and as it was already nearly midday followed the other people heading upstairs.  In our defence, the invite said 12 o'clock.

It was only later that we realised Liam and Alyssa would have been there if no-one else we knew!

[Later we met up with another guest who shall remain nameless, and he had not only the wrong ceremony, but the wrong venue; he'd been at the church of St Sulpice across the road, had seen two groups of people and chosen the better dressed group only to find out he'd joined a funeral!]

The ceremony was at the conducted by the mayor (as I later found out, of the 7th).  She was gorgeous (and she was definitely one of those French women we hear so much about: slim, beautifully turned out, at ease), but spoke quickly enough that I missed some of the details. 

I understood her giving biographies of Alasdhair and Maria [it was totally unlike an English civil ceremony where the vows take up a lot more time, with the law taking up much less].

I was musing that perhaps in Paris there's some sort of rule that you are only allowed a glamorous mayor  [no offence intended to any English worthies, but the photos I've seen of UK mayors show distinctly homely women!], when she mentioned that she'd not always had an easy time with journalists [Maria is a journalist], so I thought "oh, perhaps mayors in Paris have more trouble from the press".

It was only after the ceremony that Matthew asked if I knew that she was Rachida Dati - I didn't, but that explained the bother she'd had at the hands of the fourth estate!  I thought she handled it very graciously: making a little joke when she could have been stony-faced or just ignored it.

Maria had organised taxi's to the restaurant, so that was one worry removed.

The wedding "breakfast" was held at the Tour d'Argent which is a really spiffy Parisian restaurant; the food was lovely, and the views were fabulous - sixth floor, overlooking the Seine, with Notre-Dame off to the left - it's a fantastic setting.

We started with amuse-bouches with champagne Tour d'Argent Grand Cru, then there were quenelles of pike "André Terrail" with Château de Tracy (pouilly fumé) and Vendéenne duck breast with vegetables accompanied by Saint Joseph (chave).  Gâteau de Mariage [scrummy chocolateness] and mignardises to round off a delicious meal.

[I had asparagus for starters and a vegetable medley for mains; both really good, and I was really grateful to Maria for organising that, and to Alasdhair for remembering I'm vegetarian!]

Under Matthew's influence [and that of several bottles of the chave!  I wish I'd been drinking alcohol; everyone was raving about the wine], we left the restaurant last and then we tried to find a taxi rank (with taxis!) before giving up and taking the metro.

Sadly, we arrived back at the hotel five minutes before the taxi was due to collect us for the evening reception, and still had to get back to the room...

So no evening outfit for me [I felt desperately weird being the only woman who hadn't changed].

Had we known the taxi was going to be 20 minutes late, I would have scrambled into my other outfit!

Not that it mattered - we were in time for the departure of the Ivoire for the cruise on the Seine (unlike one of the other guests), and it was a brilliant evening.  I was nervous that I was going to be boat sick, but I was fine, and really enjoyed seeing Paris from the water.

By the time the boat docked, David and I were ready for our beds [another huge thank you to Maria for organising the taxi guys to take us back to the hotel], so passed up on Matthew & Gilly's offer to go clubbing...

Unlike Liam, who apparently didn't enjoy his four hour wait for the Eurostar at the Gard du Nord the next day!

Fab time, and hope they enjoyed the honeymoon in Honfleur, and that we see them soon in the Aube.

Snippets

We had a lovely visit to France last month - we'd gone for Alasdhair and Maria's wedding [which was lovely, and about which I will post another time], but stayed on for a week's holiday.

We [David, mostly] finished putting the subsoil back into the trench left by the wall that M. Milesi had built for us.  We started to transfer the compost heap there [in the four or five hours that we moved the upper layers, we didn't come across any broken down matter!], but stopped when we realised that if we bought the long-debated shredder it might help to speed up the whole process.

So we've put it on hold, and we have a chipper/shredder on order [it will cope with all the hedge trimmings, too] that, fingers crossed, will fit in the car easily...

If not, we checked that the hopper removes without too much bother [four bolts], so it will still be easier to transport than if we had needed to use the trailer.

I'm desperately hoping that the shredder will make light work of our current compost 'mountain' and will prevent future build-up...

When we've finished moving the compost, I'll post again about the trench [too many photos at the moment to cope with the thought of going through them; I'll sort them out in Picasa and then should be able to face it].

We continue remarking about the weather - the Canal de la Restitution is much lower than it was on our last visit, but still massively higher than we would expect at this time of year; it's been great for planting [although it went really hot for four days] - warm and wet, just what the plants love - but there has been more flooding.  We saw horses up to their 'armpits' [there's probably a technical term, and that's probably not it?] in water in their field, which worried me, but the level was dropping all the time, so when we saw them later only up to their 'elbows' [vide supra re: technical term], I was a lot less concerned for them.

Philippe who owns the place next door [he's not really our neighbour, as he lives about five miles away] said the daughter of a former mayor of the village had her house (on the way to Chatillon) destroyed by hail stones about the size of an orange, and there was a tornado that hit less than 20 miles away.  We're more glad than ever that our valley seems particularly lucky when it comes to the worst of the weather!

We did have some weather-related damage - the bells stopped; odd that the absence of sound impacts us more now than the bells themselves ever do.  We also had "thunder storm stops play" when we were planting - it hadn't stopped raining, and we were desperate to get the remaining plants in the ground before the heavens opened - but it felt that the lightning was getting too close, and I don't want to be hit for a third time!

[OK, it wasn't dramatic either of the other times, but I have learned (the hard way) not to use a telephone during a thunderstorm - huge blue flash, Gibbs-slap to the side of the head, temporary deafness; not bad for a strike, but better avoided in my experience.]

Before the rain set in as though we were in England, we had a couple of days of low 30s, and a low of 18.5°c [weather when the shutters don't open for fear of letting in more heat; the only downside of really efficient insulation], and it only dropped out of the 20s because of the first thunderstorm!

All the plants are settled in, the ground is still very damp, we watered them in well so we are hoping that they will all survive.

It's so odd seeing France much greener than England; our hay was shoulder height on David, with no sign of a break in the weather for Jean-Luc to cut it - we only saw one field of cut hay the whole time we were there, so we haven't missed out on his attentions.  The (few) walnuts are between a petit-pois and a marrowfat pea in size, whereas I would expect them to be (nearly) full-sized by now - one recipes calls for green walnuts and suggests 25 June as a harvest date - not a chance!  The elder flowers were out at about the same time as I previously when I made some liqueur; I'm not sure I hadn't left it a little too late, but I was waiting for a day when they were dry [should have picked them when we first got there, but we were prioritising the plants at that point] - we shall see.

I'm trying to espalier train the plum seedlings David had moved to near Philippe's "hangar" - not sure that's what I should be doing, but I can't let them get huge, so I've got to try to 'tame' them before that happens.  Philippe thinks I'm mad, but in France we just don't see smaller trees over there like we do here in Kent.  It may be a crazy idea or it may just be a function of France being huge compared to England when population/square area is calculated - I will get around to looking up online whether I should be doing it, and if so how, but we're always so pushed for time when we are in France that I often find out later what I should have done.

Oh well, as long as I don't kill the trees, we're good!

We had a bike ride-through go through the village as we were scrambling to get last minute work done on the Saturday.  My French Googling abilities are unequal to the task of finding out what was going on, but there were a lot of motorcycles heading past the church.  I kept thinking "oh, it will nearly be finished, there's no point going to look" for a good five (if not ten) minutes, but eventually I went to peer through the elder bushes.  I counted 95 bikes go past, so there must have been hundreds.  I do wonder what they were up to.

The trip was only slightly marred by missing our Shuttle, and the following one that we were booked on being subject to hour-long delays - could have been worse, and they did bring round water as we were waiting, but I'm not sure why they gathered our details.  David said we might get a refund of some sort [I voted for unlikely; we've waited for over four hours without even an apology, so an hour doesn't seem to merit anything] - which we didn't.  I guess that Eurostar has different standards they apply.

Wall [without logs]

We arrived at the house for Christmas and noticed that M. Milesi had started the new wall.  He'd removed all of the traces of the one that had been falling down for years.

It was a lovely wall, but we were terrified that one day it would fall on someone - not something we wanted on our consciences.

An upside of replacing it will be that I will no longer be nervous about weeding the garden near to the wall [in case my activities were what precipitated its collapse].

The footings were laid, and then we had a massive hiatus before the wall went up, owing to the cold, wet winter.

As we couldn't garden anyway, it didn't matter to us, but did leave us a bit nervous that yet another workman had started a job only to abandon it before finishing [I would say "once bitten, twice shy", but it's been more like a swarm of mosquitoes than a simple learning opportunity!].

So it was great to see a wall there when we went in March.

The last time we visited the house (a couple of weeks ago), the spoil had been [mostly] put back into the trench, and we had an invoice awaiting us in the letter box, so we know his work here is done.

The wall looks great: not pretty like the old one, but it matches Philippe's wall , so I think it works very well.

And David started going over the ground to shovel all the remaining subsoil into the gap.  Rain stopped play, but we're not far from finished.  Then we plan to relocate the compost piles to the gap to let it work its magic & fill up the gap.

We can't plant now until the autumn or next spring [in case the weather does finally turn "normal" for the time of year], so it should give us a good bed to plant into.

Now we just need to remove the unwanted elderberry bushes [I intend to plant "Red Lace" instead - lower down the bank, so not as visually intrusive, and with prettier leaves & flowers, but hopefully it will berry up OK]...

Wall [with logs]

We had a delivery of logs just before Christmas, which prompted us to finally finish cleaning the wall in the barn - I'd done about two thirds of it a couple of years ago, but the rest was hidden by timber, stones and other builders' detritus.  Now all of that has been taken to the dump or found a more permanent home, so there was just a few rotten beams to remove and get the steam cleaner out.

David did the rest of it, and it looks great - just need to saw up and stack some logs!

The new logs are much lighter in weight - we don't know what they are; they are great, and burn really well, but don't last anywhere near as long as the oak logs.  I think we're going to try to get deliveries of both sorts, if we can manage that without offending anyone!

We used a couple of pallets to create a flat platform [makes stacking them easier, and will hopefully discourage rodents from making a home under the pile?].

We've got it almost right - when the pile is empty, I'm going to move the pallets a little to the right so there is a perfect bin-sized space immediately to the left, which will free up the concrete slab again [it's very useful for putting our little "bar" table to use as a stand for cooking outdoors - neither David nor I like the smell of meat or fish hanging around for hours after a meal, and this place is perfect: under cover and with a power socket on the wooden pillar (L of photo)].

Now we just need a 'barbecue summer'!

Catching up snippets

After last year's wet summer (and not being able to weed, and then the weeds all seeding, and then not being able to weed - you get the picture?), a lot of our visits have involved weeding the garden.

This time around, the garden was relatively weed-free (certainly much better than most people's gardens I know; and they live next door to their gardens!), so efforts were focused on the potager.  We've got it all cleared, apart from the bindweed, and it was so wet that we couldn't spray that.  We're still having to use glyphosate as the roots are impossible to remove from the clay soil; couch grass, with its sturdier roots we're chasing them out, but the bindweed just breaks off.

Speaking of wet, the whole area is awash!

Our meadow is about 2' high already, and the garden is incredibly lush - they have benefitted from the almost unremitting rain - but the local towns have had dreadful flooding.  The Seine at its closest point to us is normally a fairly pathetic little trickle usually, hardly more than a stream, but this time it was a raging torrent and the neighbours tell us that levels have dropped considerably.

Troyes has had worst-in-a-century flooding, and even lorry cabs were flooded, so that must have been something to see.

The Canal de la Restitution, where they were enlarging the channel last year (they do manage to get infrastructure projects completed in what feels like, to English sensibilities, record time) was nearly full this visit; everyone in Paris will be having a lucky escape because of it.  They probably don't know that it not just supplies their water from the lakes in the Aube, but takes water out of the Seine to prevent/minimise massive downstream catastrophes

Speaking of infrastructure miracles: in the six weeks since we were last there, the N19 has been resurfaced over about five miles.  We couldn't believe how quickly work must have been done [despite having seen the same thing, repeatedly on the motorways (we justify that to ourselves as being because they are toll roads)], and to an English eye, it wasn't even bad enough to justify doing.  Come on England, start buying that better surfacing material we have been reading about!

[Apparently, one Japanese car manufacturer has built its own test circuit and had to create lots of potholes because there was nowhere in Japan or even in the rest of Europe that uses such poor quality materials that the roads are as full of craters as in the UK, and to test drive their cars they need a surface as rough as we contend with daily to see if the suspension can cope.]

Having intended to post at Christmas about how lovely and dry the house was (45° humidity, even on the rainy days), I now have to admit it's about 60° humidity owing to the unremitting precipitation!  Still way better than during the years that the hemp-lime insulation took to fully dry out.  I wrote in my liqueurs blog about not having to light a fire until 6.30pm on December 29, but the rain has meant that in late May we've been lighting a fire every day much earlier than that!

Not complaining about the moisture, though, as the dozens of hedging whips we planted between Christmas and the new year all seem to have survived, and I'm sure the lack on heat and baking sun have helped that process.  The hedge to the left of the pré is looking like a proper hedge now.

We've had apéros with Isabelle and her family, and had Philippe who owns next door round for beers, so having a bit more time on our hands has been lovely.

A final word goes to David [who was very pleased with his Christmas present of a cheese keeper (so it can be left to mature at room temperature without drying out/insect 'involvement')]: unleash the cheese!

The world didn't end*

Not that you'd know it from my silence!

I've had another winter of being unable to summon up the energy for posting/keeping in touch with friends.  I have been reasonably active [going to the gym/swimming/for walks], but haven't coped with 'mental' challenges.

I was so happy when the sun finally came out - just in time for both old shoulder injuries to reduce me to a heap of inability [now both are on the mend, thanks to Stephen my new acupuncture guru], aided and abetted by the wrist problem [seeing a specialist on Thursday, so hoping for some answers shortly thereafter].  Just starting to feel like getting "up & at 'em", when both David & I succumbed to the chest lurgy.  That laid me so low I couldn't do a thing; which was great because I finally rested all upper limb joints [no choice!], and am currently free from pain [which has made me realise that I was in constant low level pain with exacerbation, rather than (as I thought) intermittent discomfort].

Long & short of it, I'm taking it slowly [obviously until I have a need to go at it like a bull at a gate - adrenalin is a fantastic pain-suppressor!], and as David is managing a lie-in on this lovely sunny day, I'm catching up with some posting.


* The "Mayan prophecy" may [or may not] have had the world ending on 21.12.2012