Author: patbell101

Summer seems to have really kicked in now, though it’s breezy today, long hot days with the occasional hail and thunderstorm to punish us. Things start happening, village fêtes and other things to do. The morning dog walk is a touchstone for passing time too. It was only a couple of month ago that the fields were short pasture that Siena would race across chasing the crows and occasional bird of prey that she never caught (thankfully). The morning walk has two particular fields that are evolving. From pasture to ploughed – tough going for Siena and only worth a romp when its something even more interesting like deer (again no chance of her catching any). Seedlings sprouting then slowly growing until almost too long to race through – the fine art of porpoising is hard work. It was at this stage that, looking out for Siena I saw a hare bounding through the wheat – I realised it wasn’t Siena at about the same time as it realised I wasn’t a tree and veered off at right angles.

Siena in the wheat shoots

Wheat

I had been watching the pasture in the large field opposite our house grow into hay to suddenly be cut and baled leaving hay bales scattered over a newly shorn field that Siena could race across with glee. I decided it needed some photos, so last evening in the golden hour at sunset (about 9pm to 10pm) I was out with Siena and Delia. Siena couldn’t believe her luck and raced around like a lunatic until Delia decided to take her back since I was occupied with tripod and camera. Just as dusk started to fall I went across to the lake near us and disturbed a deer who dashed off just feet away.

Chalus, some of you may know, isn’t the tourist destination it could be. Yes there is the tower from which Richard the Lionheart was shot but which is seldom open to the public. There is a bare 17th century church. There are the ruins of the 12th century chateau but little is made of them. There is little else of interest apart from a rusting (intentionally I think) large copper sculpture of a chestnut and a fading high street bypassed by the main road racing past toward the Dordogne. However, recently there has been a lot of work renovating the central square by the Hotel du Centre. Scarcely a centre before, no seems to be showing promise, with more area for pedestrians and two new artisan/artist workshops. A porcelain worker showing his beautifully decorated Limoges porcelain and a wood worker with his varied sculptures and also welcoming guest crafts in his window. So whilst the well-thought-of butchers has closed and with him much visiting custom for the (again appreciated) Le Sax’o bar who is selling up – changes are afoot and the centre of Chalus may well be worth more than just a fleeting visit for fresh croissants.

It certainly looks like ‘the season’ has started. It’s a social whirl this month, already there’s been a quiz (with a meal) and my Franco Britannique Rencontre group had another meal (in the same restaurant) this week. The former is an exclusively British group with everything in English (although our French teacher did join us). The latter is a nicely mixed group and we all speak (or try to) French together. This works out well because the 5 or so French natives are trying to learn English and together we can usually communicate pretty well. That was how the meal went too, even Delia managed well with French speaking. There is another quiz in a week or so as well as an outing by my French language group. This is a group which has various levels of French abilities and are separated into 5 classes on different days. Once a year they try to organise a day trip, last year failed to materialise but this year we are going to the new Tapestry exhibition in Aubusson, then a meal, then a chateau. We had thought that Aubusson would be a nice place to go with Delia’s mum and aunt when they visit this August.

Strictly the first meal was last month, it being on 31st may but 4 meals out in the space of 30 days is more than we can afford to keep doing.

When Delia’s aunt moved back to Aus, she gave use her teak garden bench. It moved with us through various houses and finally to France. It became very “weathered” and broke in a few places on the seat and on the arm. It had been teak oiled but Yorkshire winters and English rain did it in. For the past year it had sat in the garden more or less as a “feature” that had to be moved during lawn-mowing but otherwise was not much use. So I have now totally replaced the horizontal “seat” part with new lengths of wood. Also repaired the broken side piece with metal plates. So far its only primed but it still looks good.

I know this looks pretty finished but it is only primed. My next blog I’ll hopefully have a shot of the finished article.

Delia next week and don’t forget Delia’s Fit and Fab blog.

The weather has been a bit unpredictable (though for me still T-shirts every day, Delia less so). Delia touched on our trip to Angouleme last week and I’ve inserted some of my photos. A centre for cartoons, graffiti is an art form there. Not your standard tagging… some real intriguing ideas, trompe l’oeil and in your face stuff. Some of you who have visited us will have come out of Angouleme station and seen the illustrated tower block over toward the hilltop on which old Angouleme sits. The streets are replete with so much art that “genuine” graffiti (ie  the product of “vandals”) is hard to separate from that which is art. In fact one of my French courses had a case study of graffiti as an art form and the different forms it manifests – I guess the core fact is that it is in the street.

Few of you can have avoided the deluge of emails asking you to consent to new privacy policies. As for my last fortnight of work, I’ve been up to the eyeballs in Privacy Policies. Glad its over for now. GDPR is a four letter word!

This morning was a lovely walk with Siena before breakfast. Here’s a barn door and roses.

Today, after breakfast we went over to our nearby village, Lageyrat where Châlus holds its annual fête. Yes fête season, begins, probably every village and town will be having one over the next few months. Châlus has few roads it can close without disrupting most of South West France so it chooses Lageyrat which is otherwise a sleepy hamlet the rest of the year. It is local to us and our neighbours are heavily involved in the operation of the fête. Giselle was preparing beaucoup de carottes yesterday for the lunchtime communal meal of some 300 guests. Jean Claude was running about at the fête carrying pancake batter, beer barrels and all sorts. Giselle served us our crepes and replied “jamais” (never) when I asked when she was going to get a chance to eat. Delia went specifically to look at plants and we have now finally spent all the money that her mum gifted us (two years ago) on the garden. Today we bought a bottle brush and a jasmine. The plan for the jasmine is to climb up the fence posts of the newly painted fence panels we have just put up.

It’s mostly still T-shirt wearing morning walks (when it’s not raining, which has only been today). Unfortunately we had postponed a photo-club field trip to Angouleme a few weeks back due to rain too and once again today due to the rain. However; yesterday was lovely, so much so that when friends came for dinner last night we sat out and ate. Here’s a couple of shots from my walks this week, La Garenne de Beaulieu and also Siena pretending to be a cow, she does love to eat grass!

The meal was interesting in that we put the diet on hold whilst still choosing a main from the diet “book”. So I prepared a strawberry balsamic salad with halloumi. Strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar with ground black pepper and extra virgin olive oil with rocket and watercress on a bed of grilled halloumi cheese. Delia’s main was chicken breast stuffed with feta and olives with a salad of green beans, cucumber and baby spinach (except we couldnt get baby spinach so a reprise of rocket and water cress). Dessert was brought by our friends and was a gorgeous strawberry tart (which, to help with the diet and to my disappointment was sent back with our friends only half eaten). By the way, although I don’t yet pass Jamie Oliviers “string test” (waist measurement of half my height) I am down to 72.2kg from 83kg just after Xmas. I still have what can be affectionately called “pat’s paunch” though shrinking. As a diet it doesn’t feel so strict, I can easily imagine it as a lifestyle change rather than just to lose weight. Lots more vegetables and salad, nice chunks of meat, just less carbs.

So last week was my birthday. I’m still accepting gifts so hurry, but then I’ll accept gifts 365 days of the year! Anyway, Delia won’t argue that she hasn’t been the most successful at organising things for my birthday. She’s told me what she had tried to do or what she had thought about but this time she hit the nail right on the head. She gave me headphones that I could use to block out her tv whilst I’m watching my stuff (ok that also means she can’t overhear the “leakage” from my ear buds). And she organised the whole day. A late breakfast and off to Ambazac for lunch, I got to choose between two restaurants and the food was excellent. Then we went to “La Musée de Mineralogie et Petrologie” Certainly not something for her though she did a good job of seeming interested, even in the “Uranium” room. A great birthday, well done Delia!

Wed 18th April – My first morning walk in a T-shirt. OK I still need wellies for the ankle-deep mud but it’s sunny and warm and all’s well in the world.

So Thursday 12th I set off for my flight to East Midlands. I was due to walk my daughter up the aisle that Saturday. I was there in plenty of time and thought little of the full departure lounge but settled down to read. I heard the announcement for priority boarding and continued reading waiting for the main mass to start moving. I hadn’t realised that there was a flight straight after mine and that was what the crowd were also there for. I looked up and there was my flight about to taxi down the runway for take-off. Lounge exit doors locked.

Lets ignore the initial period of panic, the following disbelieving spluttering down the telephone from Delia and being ignored by the Ryanair flight desk. Wifi is wonderful, checking on-line, the next flight I could get was to Manchester, only 3 seats left so I booked, cancelled my car hire and rebooked that too. On the plus side, Manchester car hire was actually half the price. Still not what I wanted.

Landing in Manchester half an hour late (not my fault this time) and an hour faffing around with car hire meant I finally got to Gregynog Hall, the wedding venue, at about 8.15pm. The last half hour’s drive was guess-work as the battery for my tablet/satnav ran out. I did have a backup battery but that seems to just last 10 minutes. The in-car USB socket wanted to run an iPhone app which meant that the dash screen and my tablet had been fighting it out for the entire journey. Anyway I arrived and I had expected that only a few people would be there, it being the night before the wedding; so it was a lovely surprise to see almost everybody at dinner. Everybody being my ex’s-extended family as well as my children: Phil with Becca and his two children – Dexter and Lily, Catherine of course, and Adam come all the way from Brisbane and, with his blonde highlighted hair looking for all the world a surfer dude although a psychiatrist by trade. With Cath and Chris’ friends and his side of the family too there were dozens already here. There would be a total of about 120 for the wedding meal itself, not sure about after.

The next morning it was lovely to be able to wander the grounds chatting with new and old friends and relations.

Gregynog Hall

The gaggle of groomsmen were outnumbered by a flock of 8 bridesmaids who had each been allocated tasks ranging from “hen night organiser” to “wedding meal speaker”. Because of Chris’ masterful (Cath refered to him as groomzilla) wedding planning it all went as smooth as silk. I was privileged to walk Cath up the aisle and managed to do so without treading on her dress – actually not that easy as Cath held my arm and her dress spread out quite a bit. The ceremony was informal with readings and a beautiful song from Matthias, an alto tenor and on the road to being professional. Cath and Chris walked back down the aisle to a violin and piano rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.

The food was wonderful and sitting at the “top” table looking down at the grubby hordes was nice. The speeches from best man, bride, groom and the “speech” bridesmaid were wonderfully personal, intimate and funny. The cake, made by Chris’ mother was beautiful, consisting of 3 layers of chai tea sponge with a thin lemon buttercream coating. It had a lovely marbled texture.

After their first dance to Bruce, the rest of the evening went as weddings usually do. I got to talk to many as we all descended into varying degrees of drunkenness. Me not so much because I had to drive the next morning and I went to bed about 1pm leaving many still partying (though the music had long since stopped).

I especially missed Delia at breakfast the next day. All the families were gathering and preparing to leave but it had been lovely to see so many I had used to know so well and to see how their lives and families had developed.

So off to Nottingham where I was due to have dinner with a friend/client and stay in other friends’ house (Mike and Sandra) who were out touring.

A50 closure notwithstanding the drive went without a hitch and I walked from my M&S’ house to where I was to share dinner. I was surprised to find Nick (Sandra’s son) and Grace (M&S’ neighbour). A very pleasant evening ensued. Just as Nick and Grace were about to leave I had started talking about Delia and my Quaker wedding which so intrigued my hosts that I had to stay and explain. Perhaps the fact that being a Quaker was a step on my road to critical thinking and humanism was a little unsettling for them but all stayed amicable. Though as we all drank more and more I think she feared for my immortal soul. I got back to M&S’ place unscathed by lightning bolts and without making any deals at the crossroads.

The next evening I was off to friends in Leicester for another dinner but had to get back early for an early start to ensure I didn’t miss my flight home! Unfortunately, the hire car had some damage – a plastic grill had been cracked. I have no idea how or when it happened and I suspect it was there already when I hired the car. Anyway I had to pay £480. I had used a third-party excess cover at £12.50 instead of the £140 the car hire people wanted to charge. This was to be my first such claim – it seems to have worked OK – the refund is due to appear in my account soon.

Getting off the plane in Limoges and was greeted by wonderful summer warmth. Apparently, although I had left in the cold, the UK was starting to experience a heat wave too. I’ve worn a t-shirt for the morning walks since then.

OK it’s sunny but it’s cold! Still they’re still forecasting snow in the UK. The inevitable “global warming, what global warming” crowd are out in the media – don’t they know “global warming” is so last millennia, “climate change” is the thing now. And after this bit of the arctic has been pushed south I will be looking closely to see how the Arctic ice cap is doing.

I was reading about antibiotics and yes we all know about antibiotic resistant bugs (don’t I just after my foot infection last year?).  And I had read all about the massive doses of antibiotics intensive animal farming is responsible for – but I was surprised to find out that most of those antibiotics are actually not ones used in human medicine. Yes there are some used for infections in animals but the growth ones etc are not. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of intensive animal farming but the opponents need to get their facts straight.  And another thing – organic produce!  I can buy myself some wonky carrots safe in the knowledge that the pesticides used were total unregulated but at least they’re “natural”.

Well if Delia hasn’t censored that last paragraph, I’ll get back to the point, life in Nouvelle Aquitaine. Good Friday is interesting, there seems to be no acknowledgement of it at all here, life as usual. The separation of church and politics is pretty complete. Of course there is a counterpoint, in that the trains are on strike and I am hoping it doesn’t spread to air traffic controllers for my trip in two weeks for my daughter Catherine’s wedding. The last such strike had me stuck in the UK for nearly and extra week.

It is lovely to have the sun back though, cold wind notwithstanding, the morning walks are much more enjoyable. Siena, reluctant to go out in the rain through her dog flap, she ignores it for her walk. We do have a coat for her which keeps her a bit drier but she doesn’t seem to care.

Mutton. Isn’t something one hears much of but this weekend legs of mutton were on offer, so that’s what we had. A slow (4 hours) roast on a bed of carrots, fennel and cabbage (it’s what we had!) and it’s as good as any lamb I’ve eaten. I hope I can get another “gigot”.

Here’s a prile of photos from the last photo field trip, Site corot – Bill might remember the place.

Spring is sprung! Well for this week (give or take). At least 4 days of blue skies and sunshine, albeit with copious rain in between. Delia’s eyes have turned towards the garden and is off to a “garden centre”.  Garden centres aren’t quite the same as the UK or perhaps Aus – they are a bit  less commercial (not cheaper though!). Anyway, she’s off with a friend just now and I’m writing this.

As for me? I think I will fill in the exploratory hole I dug last summer to find a leak in our drainage system. That corner of the house has had a damp patch  on the outside wall since shortly after we moved in and despite having found a couple of leaks, the damp persists. Its not causing any particular problems, except when we came to repoint that bit it was more crumbly than the rest. A friend pointed out that the top of the patch coincides with a rainwater recuperation diverter I put in. So thats gone now with the aid of two joiners and a stretch of pipe. However I am hoping that the washing machine overflow problem we solved a few weeks back was the cause. Unbeknownst to us the washing machine drain had been blocked and much water had been flowing down the inside back wall and going somewhere. Not sure how long that had been going on for, there was a solid slug of fat in its u-bend so perhaps its always drained like that (or since we moved in and started using the sink regularly (as opposed to like in a holiday home).  These old houses are odd though, no damp course, just very thick (albeit double) stone walls with the gap filled with rubble. I do know that in the cave (basement) the back wall is below ground level and was certainly prone to damp (now skimmed with waterproof concrete so I do wonder what’s going on in the kitchen (which has no basement) as far as I know it seems to be bedrock underneath.

Anyway, the return of Spring (though snow is forecast for tomorrow!) certainly makes the walks with Siena nicer. Especially now that Delia has a new regime of brisk walking for at least 30 mins after lunch. She is using an app on her new smart phone – the first such phone in our household and now I read how the smart watch is already superceding it.  Then I used to have a really cool digital calculator watch 40 years ago so whats new?  At least I thought it was cool.

I guess the weather has dominated this week for most of northern Europe. We escaped the ridiculous amount of snow the UK seemed to have, instead we had a blast of very cold dry air after the brief snow snap. So we had sunny skies but, for the first time since I’ve lived here, I needed to wrap my face with a scarf plus the hat and gloves. -9°C at night and still around -5°C during the day; with the wind too thermal underwear was a must for the morning dog walk. Even Siena had her coat on (though she seems more energetic the colder it gets so I doubt it is really needed).

As the week progressed, it warmed rapidly and by Wednesday it was in the teens (above zero that is). Northern Europe got a lot of rain but we were fairly lucky, though last night was a deluge and my morning walk was ankle deep in mud.

Today feels like Spring and I’ve restarted the DIY and finally replaced the panels in the kitchen wall cupboard. They had sort of yellow pseudo-leaded glass panel inserts which Delia hated. She had an idea to use wire mesh, a sort of rustic look (personally I think it looked like a rabbit cage). She didn’t like it either. So we started looking for panels perforated in an attractive way (not just pinboard) afer much hunting, local and further afield then finally on-line from a UK supplier. Took a lot of doing, only in 0.5m² pieces and no-one would deliver to France, so we ended up getting it delivered to Mike and Sandra in Nottingham who then brought it over when they came on their SW Europe road trip.

Watching the UK news coverage dominated by “the beast from the east” (as they describe the cold airmass coming from Siberia) reminds me of previous UK winters with snow blocking railway lines, getting stuck behind a snow plough and spending the night in a snowbound leisure centre. Albeit over more than a decade time span, but still reminding me that despite the brief cold snap here, it is better here weather-wise.

Pat

Don’t forget Delia’s next week!

As promised I have some snow scenes. It didn’t last long. Well there were two separate snow events. The day of our apero (our “party” to celebrate our the completion of our living room) coincided with snow. That morning I stopped to take some shots and found it difficult to get started again, reverse and third gear. The photos were good though.

Our apero lost 4 people because of the snow but we still had 15 people who admired and complimented our living room and like a good apero should be everyone went home at 8.30 and we finished off the nibbles by way of supper.

This weekend our two Nottingham friends Mike and Sandra are with us on their journey south to Spain so this is a brief missive. So far we have learnt that Brantome is closed in February and that Lac de Massignac is a lovely walk.

And last night we heard our first skein of cranes as they flew north from sunnier climes. Sping is coming.

Last weekend, especially Sunday the weather was lovely and sunny, the temperature reached the dizzy heights of 14°C. OK you aussies would probably still be wearing gloves and balaclava’s (not baklavas, that a totally different issue) but for us Europeans (just) its a warm day. Siena didn’t care anyway, getting two good long walks was heavenly for her. I suggested to Delia that we could go on a walking holiday, perhaps follow the pilgrim’s way towards Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. But then she can’t carry much on her back so it’d be me carrying for both of us – perhaps a trolley pulled by Siena I suggested, but that would kind of spoil things for her. Back to the drawing board then.

We are still unsure where we will have our holidays this year. “Sun, sea and sand” seem to be the main drivers, winter is certainly getting to Delia. Southern Portugal seems possible with a visit to the trans-border zip-line, Delai’s mum and aunt fancy Porto I think but whilst we have enough rurality and isolation all the time here, neither of us really fancy a city break. So that decision is still in the air.

I keep meaning to ring and book the gite on the coast we stayed at for Delia’s birthday weekend last year, not much sun then but plenty of sea and sand. In fact… I have just this minute booked for our anniversary weekend!

The forecast keeps threatening snow. Delia’s looking out of the window in the middle of the night to see if its happened. Back in the UK, I remember traipsing to the station in snow and slush, standing on the exposed platform with snow flurries blowing around me. The same the following evening except in the dark. I do not miss that, now I can look out at the snow covered ground, or perhaps walk out with the dog and camera (sounds like the name of a pub) and take a photo like the one at the top of this blog (though that was early December).

Well not much else to say so its goodbye from me… and don’t forget to read delia’s blog next week, same time same place (perhaps with pictures of snow).

Pat