Crossroads

We'd received the figures (but not the detailed estimates) last week, but hadn't really had chance to talk about the numbers till Sunday morning.

We were driving down from Leeds services (we'd stopped overnight after a wedding reception nearby - staying there gave us a shorter journey after the bash & saved us having to get out of London twice in less than 24 hours!), and spent most of the journey to the tunnel and the time under the sea discussing what to do.

We'd pretty much made up our minds to cancel the whole project!

To finance what is proposed in phase 1, we would have to sell the flat (and still borrow quite heavily).

We figured that if we have to sell my flat, we might as well do that and move into Ormonde Court and wait for the housing market to "adjust" and then buy a house in England.

We'd spend a lot more time there, for a start, and it would probably work out cheaper in the long run!

We could just fill in some of the holes in the house in France, and paint the floors (to stop the demoralising concrete dust) and camp here during the summer months...

What we've done for the last 3 years, in fact!

The last couple of days, though, I've been plugging all the figures into a spreadsheet (easier to see what effect deleting items has on the total), so it looks as though we haven't quite abandoned the idea yet.

It's nice in one respect to find the odd error in the estimates (lose that EUR 600, yay!), but irritating in other ways - the project manager stressed that they'd checked the figures...

Even I don't need 10 power sockets in the bathroom!

[Unlike the UK, you are allowed to mix water & electricity here!]

Once I've finished the spreadheet, I'm going to get out the red pen...

Various friends wonder whether we've been given the "rich foreigner" price; I can't help wondering that myself...

But it's the starting point we've got, so I'm going to get cracking.

PLEASE keep your fingers crossed for us!

How do you find Polish builders??

We've had the quotes...

OUCH!!

So today I am loading it all into a spready so that we can easily keep track of the costs as we go through deleting items!

The temptation just to build a new house is there, but we'd have to go back to the beginning of the process...

Save a lot of money, though!

Slow progress...

...but it is progress!

David spoke with M. Petipas, and he is collating all the quotes he has received/thinks we are likely to receive, so we are edging towards the point where we will find out how much it is likely to cost!

Hmmm...

We shall meet that when we get there, so I am busy not thinking about it.

I think we will be going to France mid-May, so it seems very unlikely that work will start at the beginning of June, but I'm at the stage where I will be rejoicing whenever work starts.

Because that will mean that at some point it will finish!

And that's what I'm looking forward to.

Robin's antics

I knew the robin in the garden was reasonably smart - he hangs around when I am moving the pots on the patio, waiting to grab any bugs exposed.

The fact that he doesn't get more I think might be owing to poor eyesight & quick grubs!

But I wasn't expecting prima-donna behaviour, but I'm sure that's what happened...

I was drying up the glasses in the kitchen, when I heard incredibly loud cheeping from the garden. Thinking it might be the wren, I was scanning the garden to see where it was...

Then I saw the robin on a pot - he was the one making the racket, and I felt he was looking directly at me.

I looked around to see what was disturbing him (I have never heard him make a row like that before), but couldn't see anything. He kept on making the noise and looking at me.

I was starting to think I was imagining this [weird, right?], and then I remembered the bird-feeder (now know as "robin feeder" because of the critter's aggressive teritorialness with the other birds!).

OK, I'll admit to talking to the robin (I don't have any cats!), so I was asking him if he was hungry & wanted me to fill up the seed hopper.

The response I got was he flew onto the kitchen windowsill & looked directly at me & carried on yelling!

So, feeling I was getting the message, I went outside to fill up the feeder. The robin flew into a viburnum (about 4' from the feeder - the garden's only 12' long so nothing is far from anything else!).

At this point he'd stopped chirping. I moved away from the feeder & he hopped to a pot nearer to it, so I went back indoors.

I'd just got back to the kitchen window when he flew onto the feeder - no noise, no giving me a beady eye, he just grabbed a few grains & went.

I used to have a squirrel that had got me trained to take out food when she banged on the window, but was the robin really calling for me?

I think so...

But who knows?

Letterbox!

It has now become clear why M. Lorin was so keen to arrange for M. Quinot to fit our letterbox - all our post has been going to him when we are not there.

There was no need for him to have a letterbox at the house when he owned it; the postlady just delivered anything to his other house (where he was living whilst doing up chez le Baron).

Simple!

The postlady has still been delivering any post to his house, but obviously if he's sold it that can't continue!

We don't know if he has sold the house (that bit of gossip had to wait as we were busy when he visited), but still we need our own letterbox.

And now we have one!

Yay!

Some sad news...

Well, it's sad for us!

We saw M. Lorin when we were at the house in December (we didn't see him on our February visit), we thought he looked a lot happier...

We wondered whether he might have found a girlfriend!

We couldn't see what else would have changed...

He appeared on Thursday morning (he came to apologise because his friend hadn't fitted the letterbox, and arrange for him to fit in whilst we were there), and dropped a bombshell!

He no longer lives in the village - he moved out in mid-December, and has moved to a village near to Troyes.

Apparently the damp at his house was being caused by a wall his neighbour had built (without proper damp-proofing) that was drawing moisture into M. Lorin's house.

The damp was exacerbating his arthritis, and giving him asthma attacks.

He looks so much happier & healthier, so we're really happy for him.

But not so happy for us! :-(

I really hope that we will manage to keep in touch and stay friends...

Tile-hunting...

By the time we'd finished with our meetings on Thursday afternoon, despite having enough time to fit in a quick visit to a tile showroom, we decided against trying to finalise our choice of tiles for the bathroom.

We were all set for an early start on Friday morning, just waiting for David to get the croissant-munching out of the way, when Mme. Bouzenard collared him with a message that M. Boyer was trying to get hold of us because a carpenter was coming to visit at 11 o'clock.

David eventually managed to speak with M. Petipas, and found out that the carpenter was coming after visiting their office (probably about 11.30, by this time), so we decided to wait for him rather than heading off to the one showroom that's not near Troyes.

We were waiting at the house (in the car, with the engine running - not warm), when Mme. Bouzenard appeared at the gate.

Another message (bad mobile coverage because of the fog? Normally at our house [rather than the gîte] the signal is pretty good); the carpenter would be about an hour late.

So we went back to the gîte and had an early lunch, and went back to the house to find the carpenter waiting (fortunately, he had only just arrived).

He didn't take too long (half an hour?) and then we were on our way to another tiring day...

How difficult could it be to choose some tiles?

Very!

We wanted something fairly neutral, in a large size, that will go with the floor tiles...

After over six months of trying to get a sample of the floor tiles we have chosen (we said that if the manufacturer wouldn't supply a free sample, we would buy a box), the sample had finally arrived at the builders' merchant...

Only it was the wrong colour! :-(

The lady was pointing out that that was the colour on the display, and we explained that we wanted the other colour - could she please check that the warmer shade was still available, and order one of those please?

I think the action of looking it up in the catalogue must have jogged her memory (we had asked those questions when originally ordering the sample in July [or was it June?]).

We then got a sincere-sounding apology, and she said the other sample should be there in a couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed!

We really could have done with the lost morning - we ran out of time to visit the showroom that was not near Troyes (but fortunately the "sister" showroom told us that they didn't open on Saturday - that really would have been a waste of time).

Had we known that the carpenter wasn't going to arrive till after 12, and the showroom in Mussy wouldn't open on Saturday, we would have headed off on a quick trip before our Friday meeting at the house, but perhaps the rest did us more good?

We still ended up going back to Troyes on Saturday, but we'd really narrowed it down by then, so it was quicker and less "painful" (OK, that's an exageration; it's not painful, but our heads hurt by this point!).

And we got a free sample of number one choice there and then! Also ordered a sample of the number 2 choice.

Having seen the (bluey) grey marbled tiles that we think will work, we are just waiting to check they don't look horrible against the more beige tones of the floor...

But there's also the (dove/elephant) grey tile that either needs ruling out or reconsidering!

Until the tiles are bought, we still have time to change our minds! ;-)

Meetings with builders, carpenters, plumbers, etc., etc.

We had an action-packed day last Thursday: M. Petipas had set up morning and afternoon meetings with the various trades he had invited to quote for the work on our house...

They had got 2 firms representing each trade to agree to come and give us a quote, and had split them into morning and afternoon visits.

We had a list of all the people we were expecting to see - needless to say there were a few last minute substitutions/cancellations.

I, for one, was quite worn out at the end of the day; trying to talk to 20 or 30 people about different aspects of the project (never really got to grips with who was who; just working out what trade they represented by the questions they were asking!), and listening in French for 2/3 hours at a stretch was quite a challenge.

I can remember at school (and later at poly/college) being told that humans have an attention span/can concentrate well for about 40 minutes (which is why most classes/lectures last less than an hour), but after that you might as well be talking in a foreign language!

Well, it was a challenge, but we both feel much more positive; it actually seems possible that work might one day start again...

Which would mean that one day it would be finished!

Flying visit!

Earlier this month we went on a "flying visit" to the house to meet with a builder and a chap who was a cross between structural engineer & carpenter.

We left Brixton mid-afternoon on the Wednesday, arriving at the hotel just off the motorway about 11.30pm; by mid evening Thursday we were back home & unpacked - a glorified day trip!

At 8.30 on Thursday morning we arrived at the house to find the two builders waiting! That's got to be a good sign.

Once we'd apologised for not being there before them (we weren't late), we started opening up the house to let in some warmth & light.

My thermometers (I've got a small collection of minimum-maximum ones) showed that outside & upstairs it had dipped to -8°C, but downstairs it had only dropped to 2½°C - that's got to show that the insulation & new windows/doors/shutters are making a difference, surely?

I'm hoping that when it's been properly insulated (including under the floors; see below), and the gaps under the doors are blocked, the difference will be even more marked.

M. Petipas had the builders drill through the cover of the well (took 2 goes, as they hit a reinforcing bar the first time - the only one that day that would inconvenience them!), and they dropped a line to try and gauge how far below the water is and how deep.

The well seems to be 22.6m deep, with (I'm not sure I'm remembering this?) about 10m of water - everyone agreed this will be plenty for us to connect to for flushing the loos/watering the garden.

If we want to use the water we will need a filter - one level for loo-flushing/garden watering, a higher level if we intend to use the water in the shower/washing machine (which we do hope to do), and an even more rigorous one if we intend to drink the water.

We will need an analysis by a laboratory before thinking about using the water for drinking - and the well will have to be pumped out for a long time (to clear the standing water & re-establish the flow) before that can be done, so we might put that on hold till later; it will depend whether that is possible.

We will have to be guided by the plumbers when we have the forthcoming meeting with all the firms that the project managers have lined up to give us quotes...

So we started the day on a bit of good news.

Lucky, really, because everything M. Huguenot looked at after that just reconfirmed our suspicions about the corners Dominique had cut!

M. Petipas had the builders dig holes in the concrete in the kitchen (no damp-proof membrane, no insulation), the bedroom (damp-proof membrane that was thinner than the supermarket bags they put out for fruit & veg - NOT adequate! - no insulation).

We'd already seen from the hole that appeared by itself in the back hall that that floor was like the bedroom one.

No floor was laid correctly: dug out; hardcore compacted to form a stable base; sand to provide a smooth surface that wouldn't puncture the damp-proof membrane; thick damp-proof membrane; non-compressible insulation (of adequate thickness); at least 10mm of reinforced concrete.

Oh, well, next time!

Pretty much what we expected behind the plasterboard that the builders removed - not enough insulation, inadequately fixed in position (one piece in the bedroom had crumpled up & slid down the wall because the gap wasn't narrow enough to hold it in place).

One interesting development that we hadn't expected: one of the joists in the back hall ceiling didn't quite meet the wall!

Instead of the joist supporting the floor boards upstairs, the floor boards were holding up the ceiling joist!

It happens!

The ends of joists do rot/get eaten away, especially in older buildings that were constructed before wood-treatment became widely available.

But that doesn't change the fact that no reputable builder would leave a joist like that and attach plasterboard below it!

A joist hanger would cost less than £10 & would cure the problem in less than half an hour; the rest of the beam looked completely solid.

At least we've found out at this stage!

But it does make us wonder what else is waiting to be discovered...

The carpenter/structural engineer took a look at the roof timbers, and pronounced that the mezzanine will be OK being supported on the truss beams (not sure if that's the correct term - got it from a French/English translation of carpentry terms).

Great news that we don't need a steel cage constructing within the house to support the mezzanine - in terms of cost and time.

So, we ended the morning on a high!

Quick look around the garden - quite a few bulbs coming through, and primroses popping up; with the sunshine it felt quite spring-like - and then back to the motorway.

We were at Troyes having lunch at the service station in good time.

Our next visit will be to meet with various trades who are coming in two parties to quote for the work.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this means we will get work started sometime soon!

Latest visit to the house...

We have just come back from a long weekend at the house: we had two meetings scheduled for Thursday, and managed to arrange another one for Friday whilst we were out there.

On Thursday morning, we were due to meet M. Petipas at 8.30 and open up the house for inspections by M. Bruneau (from the experts employed by Dominique's insurance company), and the huissier (apologies, I didn't catch his name).

We didn't expect M. Petipas to be on time (M. Boyer is always late!), so weren't very surprised when it got to 9 o'clock before he showed up...

I saw a car in the little road that leads to the house, but it didn't turn into the drive, so I thought nothing more until we had a knock on the door (normally all visitors are announced by the sound of a car parking).

He'd got to the village early, and pulled off the road to have a bite of breakfast before coming to see us.

All very good, until he tried to drive away, and got his wheels bogged down in the mud...

Have I mentioned the particularly cloying quality the local soil takes on when even slightly damp? And it has been raining solidly, so it's reminiscent of the Somme at the moment (we're not very far from there!)...

Happily, our neighbour (who wasn't keen on driving her father's tractor as she hadn't much experience of it) telephoned her cousin (the mayor) who kindly came in his 4 x 4 (yes, as a farmer, he does actually need one!) and rapidly dragged the car back to solid ground.

We had planned to have a meeting before the arrival of M. Bruneau, but time was against us, so went straight into his (very rapid) visit.

He said that Dominique's work wasn't a very good advertisement for France, was it?

We had to agree it wasn't!

I think that M. Bruneau had pretty much made up his mind before visiting the house, but given how the system works in France, that probably wasn't as bad as it sounds!

If Dominique had finished the work, and we had signed to accept it, we would have been covered by his insurance for all the work he was insured for.

As none of the work was finished, the insurance cover would not extend to our job. Add to that, most of the work he undertook he wasn't insured for, we were bound to lose either way.

At least next time we employ someone we will be scrupulous about checking their insurance!

An expensive lesson, but the expert was making a valid point when he said at least Dominique's work hasn't damaged the structure of the house. [He told us of a nightmare case where someone had paid €90,000 and had the structure of the house so weakened all he could do was have the house demolished!]

We were sad, but it wasn't unexpected. [I think we've looked in all the hats to see if there might be any rabbits!]

The huissier [a kind of indepent witness to any kind of dispute] said we would have a really good claim against Dominique.

But the main problem with taking the Tribunal route would be the length of time before we could begin work again on the house. The court case could take up to 5 years, and cost €5-10,000 in lawyers fees.

At the end of that, there may be no money with which to pay us anyway, so that would still be an enormous risk...

The huissier thought that Dominique's name rang a bell, so he called a colleague of his: apparently, there is (at least) one other court case in progress against Dominique, so even if we went down that route, we'd have to join a queue of creditors...

It's not looking an appealing course of action (especially given my family's experience of resorting to the law to resolve a dispute where we're got a really good case!), but we haven't made our minds up yet.

The day ended on a better note: we managed to get through most of "lots" of the dossier of works to be done with M. Petipas. We had a lot of points where we just didn't quite understand the technical language and M. Petipas explained what it all meant.

A few points were completely incomprehensible to us (all the words made sense, but not when used in that order!), but again they were easily clarified. Even in English, technical building terms aren't easy until you know what they mean!

There are a few points where we didn't want the proposed course of action, but most of those are also now resolved: either we could change those, or there is a valid reason we didn't know about why it has to happen that way, so we'll just go with what they have put.

So that just leaves a few points to be clarified, then (hopefully!) we are good to go.

M. Boyer has written to various trades asking if they wish to quote for our job, and has received some replies. He needs a few more companies, then they will have a day at the site with the interested companies, who will go away and send us quotes.

Sounds so easy! But we're keeping everything crossed!

Once M. Boyer & M. Petipas have analysed the quotes and we have chosen which companies to go with, then it should all be ready to start once a timetable has been agreed.

I do so hope everything works out right this time...

Back in Blighty!

David came out to France to collect me and the car, and for a meeting with M. Boyer on 22nd October.

We were putting all the things in the house (beds, fridge, tables, clothes, crockery, etc.) upstairs so that when the various new artisans come to give estimates they can see the house (rather than our clutter).

We're also hoping that before next summer work will have started again, so everything needs to be out of the way for that...

Fingers crossed!

I really wasn't ready to come home, even the week David was coming out, until the Friday I was collecting him from the station.

We'd had 2 cold days up to that point, and Friday was another cold miserable day (13°C in the house, and 13½°C outside!).

With the damp I wasn't managing to get any weeding done outside, and there's nothing inside I can really do (cleaned a lot of woodwork, but that will be an ongoing task; removing decades of grease & grime).

So, by Friday evening I was about ready to pack up & come back home.

Which is a good thing - I get terribly grouchy when confined back into a 1-bed flat before I'm ready!

Thankfully, the weather really turned colder whilst we were packing the house away - one night it got down to -1°C in the house, and -1½°C! OK, so that was upstairs, it only dropped to 7 or 8°C dowstairs.

Still, cold enough that staying there had become endurance rather than enjoyment.

Time to retreat!

We stayed in a hotel (heating, bath, bliss!) on the Monday evening, and awoke to a world white over on Tuesday morning.

Not snow, just an incredibly heavy frost.

Yup, definitely time to go!

I'm readjusting to life with light switches.
Catching up with 2 months laundry was fun!

Good job I have so much stuff - 18 loads doesn't average out too badly, when you factor in the several machine-fulls of washing that David had generated for me.

Now we have to go through the dossier that M. Boyer has prepared to check that it includes everything we want doing...

Still concerned about whether we need RSJs to support the mezzanine level, though...

Apparently, French architects are trained to perform structural calculations, so Nicholas should be able to tell us whether steels are needed.

But I'm still worried.

Do I call an English Structural Engineer?

Fried eggs are more environmentally friendly than boiled eggs…

In the interests of taking better care of the planet, I'm thinking of switching to fried egg butties from egg mayo sarnies (as I'm just starting to take some exercise again, and an incentive is sometimes to eat fatty - rather than 'healthy' - food).

Making the egg mayonnaise mix the other day, I got to thinking about power and water usage...

Fried egg: after the pan is hot, 3-4 minutes of electricity is all it takes to get a cooked white/deliciously runny-yolked egg. End of consumption of natural resources. Oil can be reused a couple of times (or if you run a restaurant of the less hygiene-conscious kind, lots of times!), and very little oil is needed anyway.

Boiled egg: it's much quicker to boil water in a kettle than from cold on the electric ring, so I tend to boil the kettle while the ring is heating (same amount of electricity as getting the frying pan hot + kettle boiling juice-usage). Ten minutes makes the perfect boiled egg for egg mayonnaise (don't want a runny yolk - no soldiers here! - nor do I want to achieve the grey-edged, green-tinged yolk that you occasionally come across in professional catering). So that's another 6 or 7 minutes electricity required. Then, you need to cool the eggs quickly, to stop the cooking process, so the cold tap is running for several minutes. Even if you don't leave the tap running and just fill a bowl with cold water, it still warms up surprisingly quickly and needs replenishing a couple of times. Net result: more electricity (especially if you boil the water in the saucepan) and litres of water used (and I'm guessing no-one is going to save that for another couple of eggs a few days later).

My advice: if you want to save the planet, eat fried food!
Does it show that I've been reading Scott Adams?

Japanese Goldfish Emoticon

<°)))><

I'm not sure what emotion a goldfish conveys, but I like the idea of a goldfish emoticon.

Just hope it's not rude!

Hunting/wildlife

The hunting season started late September, and I hear a few shots several times a week, so know that the chasseurs are out there.

I asked one of the neighbours whether it was safe to walk when they are hunting, and she replied that they haven't managed to ban us from walking, but to turn back if you hear the guns; the huntsmen are so intent on the chasse that they will fire on anything that moves!

Thankfully, I've not heard any guns whilst I've been on a walk!

But I did surprise a couple of deer - they bounded off into the wood before I could get close enough to take a photo (from experience, I know my camera's zoom won't make it that far).

They were lucky I wasn't after venison!

We see (what seems to someone used to England) a lot of wildlife round here: red and roe deer, herons, buzzards, other birds of prey (I'm no good at telling them apart - just know that they are incredibly noisy to have round the garden!).

I wonder whether that's because they are so keen on hunting in France that they make proper efforts to preserve wildlife habitat?

Being vegetarian, perhaps I should be against hunting? But I'm not, as long as it is people killing animals that they intend to eat, and killing them cleanly.

Let's not get into why I find it disturbing that some people enjoy the sight of a living animal being ripped apart for fun...!

Changing Seasons

It's getting colder now; definitely feels like Autumn, even on the warmest days, rather than "Indian" Summer.

It was 5°C yesterday when I got up, and 3°C this morning.

Yesterday, when the mist had cleared, the garden was steaming...

I felt as though I lived near a hot spring.

It's too wet to do any gardening (there's no power in the sun to dry the soil, and I don't want to compact it any more than I absolutely have to), but thankfully dry enough to go for a walk.

That's assuming I don't mind the occasional mud-removal stop, which I don't.

So much nicer that the city equivalent: dog-sh!t-removal stop!
The advantage of nice sticky mud is being taller without having to have shoe lifts!

The trees and vines are starting to change colour, and I'm catching a whiff of woodsmoke now and then (and feeling jealous when I do!), and have resorted to wearing my lightly-tinted sunglasses to keep the wind out of my eyes.

I don't want people to think I'm crying when I'm lovin' it!

I LOVE the internet!!

Where else could I get a (free) nostalgia trip as I washed the windows?

Incredible String Band for free!

Cleaning the windows to try and generate some warmth, in case anyone thinks I've gone domesticated!

James Gang, Robin Trower, Joan Baez - I'd forgotten I liked stuff like that...

Remembered I like artists like Nick Drake, Mamas & Papas, Beach Boys, so had quite an entertaining time.

Think I might get an iPod thingy...


Bizarre being able to share my random thoughts, not to mention my sartorial elegance (HeHe), with anyone who might happen across this blog...

Total strangers, friends, alien life?

Doing a blog feels like the broadcasts from I can't remember whom - they broadcast into space in case extraplanetary lifeforms are tuning in (presuming the greys are interested in the ramblings of earthlings!).

Doesn't matter who pays attention, or who doesn't.

I feel I've made the effort to communicate, and that makes me happy!

Happy meandering, all!

[The gear in case anyone is wondering is an effort to get/stay warm in the kitchen.

I could go in the bedroom and light the gas fire...

... but Dominique's lack of care/attention to detail extended to not making any attempt to rodent-proof before insulating the bedroom.

I know the little buggers use the space behind the plasterboard as a playground, but I have a nasty suspicion it has become the final resting place of one of them...

There's enough of a hint of, ahem, "disintegration" that I'm reluctant to sit in there longer than I have to!

I could go to bed with a hottie (water bottle, not top tottie, in case my beloved is reading. HeHeHe!), but 5.30pm seems a little early to give up!]

The internet radio has just stumbled across Shawn Phillips, whom I'm enjoying - is he famous?

Miscellaneous:

When we got back here after going home for a couple of weeks, it felt weird, but in an indefinable way. I couldn't work out what was wrong...

Until David pointed out that the clock wasn’t (or more precisely, the bells weren’t) working. It was almost eerie!

It was a few days before they fixed it, and I really missed it.

We spoke with the neighbour who has some vines at the back of our meadow, but lives in another village, and he said their clock only strikes the hour through the night (not the quarters, nor the hour twice) and they only have the midday and 7pm Angelus.

I suppose that’s what you get when you have Parisian second homers in the village!

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It was down to 5°C at night in early September – a reminder that autumn starts early here. They say that after 15 August, summer is finished.

Last night was down to 4°C, after a day when it was 11°C at midday. Sadly (for those of us who have turned into nesh Southerners!), it was 12°C upstairs & 13°C downstairs in the house.

Not warm enough!

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I’m getting used to driving again. One day, I even enjoyed myself! Mostly it’s still not enjoyable, although I have taken to using fifth gear occasionally!

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I saw gentians whilst out walking near the motorway – I was following a track that doesn’t really lead anywhere, but goes under the motorway & there they were by the side of the “road”.

Lovely!

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Is it just coincidence that the people who throw their food wrappers out of car windows eat rubbish?

I haven't seen a single packet for anything organic, cold-pressed or additive-free!

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

We had a reminder of “Old” France the other day – we overtook an old gentleman (in very faded “bleus” & beret) on his Mobylette (itself a rarity these days) pulling a trailer.

I’m sure there are EU laws against that sort of thing! But it was a heartwarming reminder of times gone by in this lovely country.

The “New” France seems well illustrated by my neighbours: after a lot of shouting, one of the children dragged the bin down the drive to the road (50m? 75m?). More shouting, and then the mum drove down to the bin and dumped three (pretty light – I’d have got more than that in one!) sacks of recycling.

I thought she was on her way out somewhere, and was dropping off the bags on her way, but no, she turned round and drove back to the house! They usually wait for the father to visit to get the bin back (he drags it by holding the handle whilst driving up to the house).

Makes me wonder whether I should get the car out to take my compost to the snail pit?

The only problem is the car is in the barn, and I’d have to walk nearly to the snail pits to get it!

Creatures: latest…

Chouette:

We’ve had a visit from the owl in the grenier (feathers, owl pellet & droppings tell a clear story!)…

I had hoped he’d gone elsewhere (especially when I found owl pellets in the barn – quite happy for him to be there), as I’m in the process of cleaning the floor up there.

Frog:

I went to the loo one night, & my eyes had been really watery, so when I came back into the bedroom I was only slightly surprised to see a drop of water by the door.

I didn’t think I could have had a teardrop quite that big, so I had a closer look.

When the “teardrop” blinked at me, I knew I’d have to wipe away the tears properly!

Needless to say, he got turfed out pretty pronto!

[No, it’s not true they turn into princes if you kiss them!]

Bêtes volantes:

I saw a dragonfly – I’d swear he was in camouflage gear, but he was gone too quickly for me to get the camera, so I’ll never know. Pretty impressive size, though.

Brimstone & chalk hill blue (I think) were another couple of butterflies I can add to my list, but probably won’t as they weren’t in the garden, but in the fields behind…

Aoûtats: that’s harvest mites to you & me. Trust me – these chaps are to be avoided!!

You think it's just a cloud of (virtually) colourless little flies, but they carry passengers...

I was in the pharmacy asking whether they had any insect repellent that I could spray on my clothing (they seem to get trapped under waist-bands, bra-straps, knicker-elastic – anywhere it’s constricted – and try to bite their way out!), when an older lady came over to help.

Fortunately she asked all the right questions. My mixture of improvisation & mime is usually successful in communicating what I want, but I didn’t relish doing: “And they lodge under my knicker-elastic and everywhere my bra touches” without knowing the words for “knickers”, “elastic” or “bra”! Underwiring I couldn’t even begin to guess at…

Thankfully, the combination of cooling weather (the only reason I was happy for the temperature to drop), and changing seasons meant that I only had one bite after spraying my clothing with the insecticide.

Next time I work under the trees I will buy the insecticide first!

Birds:

We had a green woodpecker on the damson tree in the garden; almost enough to make me want to keep it…

But then when you think why the woodpecker was so keen (the middle of the tree is rotten & has become an ants’ nest), I still haven’t changed my mind.

M. Lorin says he will come and chop it down in the winter – he doesn’t want to damage too many of my plants, which is sweet of him.

I saw a flight of partridges (well, I think they were) the other day when I went for a walk.

This was prior to the start of the shooting season, mind you!

3 blind mice:

One evening I was enchanted/infuriated by three baby mice (let’s face it, they probably weren’t blind) nervously skittering out from behind a box on the floor.

I’m terribly squeamish about killing things (flies, mosquitoes, slugs & snails I’ve managed to make an exception for, but it took years for me to stop feeling guilty about killing them), so despite their lack of awareness, I didn’t stamp on them…

Next morning when M. Boyer and his daughter (who speaks very good English and came along to translate where necessary) were sitting in the kitchen, I wished I had squished the little buggers…

Completely gone was any timidity – they were scampering across the floor: from the fridge to the shower, round the table, to the front door, back to the table, round M. Boyer’s feet!

My French is nowhere near good enough to say: “I’m really sorry/massively embarrassed by this. I wish I could stamp on the little blighters, but I can’t! No, they are too light for the mousetraps to kill them – see where they have eaten the apricots without setting off the trap?”

We’ve tried poison, but very little interest in that… And I’ve only had an “odd” smell a couple of times… So I think that’s more likely down to natural wastage than the poison working.

Have bought a couple of rattraps, but suspect it’s dormice/garden dormice that we’ve got rather than rats…

Oh, and shrews don’t eat apricots!

The traps have been completely ignored every time my unwelcome visitor has been a shrew…

I don’t know whether they eat walnuts or not…

There was sustained (and irritating) rustling yesterday – enough to stop what I was doing & try and find (and eject) the culprit.

Usually when I get up & go towards the noise that is the signal for silence. This time, however, the shrew in the bag of walnuts wasn’t paying attention! I couldn’t face the prospect of this noise going on until the shrew got bored, so I grabbed the bag and shook it.

I hate killing things I don’t have to (as I’ve mentioned), but that was going to drive me potty! I couldn’t then cope with the thought of a decaying body (however small) in the bag of walnuts, so I had to find it & remove it…

Only I hadn’t killed the shrew, he was still in the bag I was emptying to try and find his corpse!

Tub-trugs are wonderful! I was down to the last few walnuts into the third trug, when the shrew popped out.

Knowing (from experience) that small rodents have sharp teeth, I caught him in my Pyrex jug – and dropped him into the last trug (no chance of him climbing the sides & escaping.

He was re-homed in my pile of rotting wood – plenty of nice insects there to eat, hopefully!

Vanishing brush

I’ve hurt my wrist – throwing a stick for David. Some may say that’s just desserts for leading him a dog’s life, but it wasn’t like that…!

We hired a chipper/shredder for three days, which was too big to fit in the car, so we also hired a trailer.

Given that it was nearly £100 a day for the combo, we were trying to get all the chipping done in time to return the machine on Friday evening.

The money that would save would pay for my (much dreamed of) night in a hotel. And, more importantly, that soak in a bath! So quite an incentive to keep going when we’d had enough.

I was already quite achy from chopping down the trees/pulling up the ivy and hauling all the remains to the piles to be shredded or the compost heap, and after about four hours was getting tired.

I threw the stick, but caught my thumb in the pocket of my boiler suit, so the stick sailed off at right angles, and I jarred my wrist!

David needed the stick to prod into the chipper to clear any leafy residue that would block the machine. [Given that everything was sodden – intermittent, but heavy, rain being order of the day – and that we’d cleared blockages a couple of times, we were keen not to have to poke around the blades another time. Yes, motor turned off, spark plug removed!]

When I was doing the chipping, I just prodded with a long branch to clear leaves and then let that go through the machine, but each to his own.

Needless to say, the Law of Sod was fully operational; we finished the chipping about 15 minutes too late to be sure of getting the chipper back to the hire shop before it closed.

As we’d got so close, David kindly sent me off to have a shower, while he tidied up the fallen leaves and cleaned the chipper as much as possible (without getting out the power washer). We also loaded the chipper back onto the trailer to be able to get going early the next day.

In a way, it worked out in our favour: the nice man in the hire shop only charged us two days hire (it was one of those “could go either way” choices – we’d been told the machine would be available after 10.30 on the Thursday, so we did have it a little less than 2 days, but we were returning it on day 3...); we visited the depot vente and bought three flat irons for less than a tenner; we got to have lunch out in Troyes.

So, no complaints then!

And it looked lovely when we got back to a clean tidy drive/garden.