Life amongst the chestnut groves

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.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that last week Pat didn’t post a blog. This was because he was off in Wales walking his daughter down the aisle. The wedding went well and he will tell you all about it next week. I was meant to fill the void and put a special blog up, but well I was otherwise occupied. Partly with painting (furniture) and also out to dinner with a friend (it was her birthday this week). Overall I enjoyed a weekend to myself (and Siena still got her two walks a day).

For the past few weeks I’ve been painting a huge cupboard (it is in 2 sections) today I’ve finished the second part, which means tomorrow we can move it back into our bedroom and we can get back to normal, instead of having shoes and clothes spread across our bedroom, which I must admit I will be very happy to have everything put back away. I really dislike messiness especially in my house. I will have photos of the completed project soon.

So what else has been missing, well Spring for one thing, it had started to feel like Spring last week and then part way through this week went, sod this and summer arrived! It is wonderful, blue skies and heat. So much so that I even helped out in the garden today and my plan for tomorrow is more work in the garden. I’ve also had to dig out all my summer clothes. I’ve accomplished a very good clear out from what I didn’t wear over winter (it’s all off to the charity shop) but also getting rid of what does fit anymore. I was also selective with what summer items were pulled out as some of them I just don’t wear or are now too big. It’s been a fun thing to do.

I must admit it is hard planning the garden and what I want to do with it. I really don’t know a lot about plants and especially ones that are annual. So I do find it a struggle. However now that I’ve figured out that I need the garden to be easy to care for, it is making some of the decision making so much easier. There is La journée du jardinier (translates as Gardner’s day) tomorrow in one of the nearby villages and I’ve been before and it is a good place to buy plants. All I’m really after is some flowers and lavender plants, it will be a good opportunity to buy.

So for now, à bientôt, from our wonderful part of France.

Last night Pat and I headed off to dinner to celebrate 4 years of living in our house here in France. We went to the same restaurant where we went the night we signed all the paperwork for the house 4 years ago. So this house is now official the 3rd longest I’ve ever lived somewhere and it won’t be long till it overtakes number 2.

It has also raised the thought for me, what makes a house a home. I think for me I’m still looking for the place that I feel “at home”. I think for a lot of people who have moved around a lot that it can be hard to find “that” place that feels like home. I think one of the reason’s I have been working over the past 4 years to modify this house is to help make if feel like mine (sorry Pat). This year I am working to making the garden something that I want it to be and after the past few years of experimentation in the garden I have discovered that I really need a garden that has a lot of colour in it – but that isn’t too much work, because gardening is not a thing I love.

Which leads me nicely on to the next point; I’m starting a new blog – one which will begin next week – it is going to be called “My journey to being fit, fabulous and 50”. For my family members that read this – the baby of the family is going to be 50 in a few years! And one of the things I will be covering in that blog is the thought process of doing more of what I love and less of what I feel I “should” do. However there will always be items that “need” to be done, that perhaps don’t bring as much joy as I would like, but contribute towards the final result. For example, working in the garden gives me something beautiful to enjoy and look at, but the working part isn’t something I particularly enjoy. So keep a look out next week for my new blog – Pat will put a link to it on his musings next week.

And as my picture today, 2 weeks ago I mentioned I was doing 2 small paintings that would be companion pieces here are the finished paintings. The 2nd one, like the first is a copy of another painting (or part of another painting) which was taken from the book “Painting in Watercolour, Florals That Glow” by Jan Kunz.

Until next week, à bientôt – Delia

Weight loss 3.6 kilos (this does include Easter!)
CM’s loss (off waist) 5.5 cm
This will be moving to my new blog.

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.

Ok, well the shopping ban on books didn’t last long! 1 week to be precise! But it’s not a complete overturn on the ban, it’s a modification. I’ve decided that a complete ban on books just isn’t going to work, I read way too much. So it’s a 1 book a month allowance. Which means I will still be reading through my backlog of books that I have purchased and either haven’t read or haven’t finished reading.

We have had a fun week this week, Tuesday night Pat and I headed off to one of our local quizzes and were team with two guys – and we won! Yah, very happy about that. So a bottle of wine is in the wine rack for some occasion.

Last Saturday I went with a friend off to a local garden centre, which was good I’ve bought some new plants which I am hoping to get in the ground soon. I’ve bought some heather which immediately I decided to put somewhere different from my original plan. I’ve also bought a few other flowering shrubs and one plant that has red thin leaves to bring some interest into the garden. Unfortunately I was informed that it needs to come inside in winter – not a good plant for me so it has been put in a pot and I shall find a place for it on the patio. I did also get some pruning done last weekend, but it was not a lot. Maybe this weekend I will get some of my seedlings started? We shall see.

Yesterday I and another friend headed off to St Junien to a lovely shop there which has an assortment of things, from vintage clothes to furniture and little bits and bobs. I was looking for storage but came across a cabinet that I think could work in the bathroom. Will most likely take Pat back this weekend to have a look and see if it would work for what we would like to do.

I also finished a painting this Friday at art class. It was a small painting which will be going into a small photo frame that I have, I’m now painting a companion piece for it as I do have more than one of these frames. It was a painting of someone else’s painting – I found it on the web but unfortunately can’t find the original at the moment, if I do I will add the info.

I’ve finally also progressed on some of my drawing work, this has been a struggle due to the fact that I have been somewhat uninspired by the choices I’ve had for this assignment. But I’ve nearly completed one picture another is half way through so at least progress is being made, maybe 2 pictures will be finished by the end of this weekend?

Until next week, à bientôt – Delia

Weight loss 3.3 kilos
CM’s loss (off waist) 5.5 cm
Officially moved from an obese BMI into an overweight BMI

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.

Spring feels like it is here – unlike parts of the UK which have had more snow this week. My daffodils have started to flower (those that weren’t destroyed by next-door’s roofers) and the weather is definitely warming up – we’re into double figures and next-door has started their veggie planting (peas always seems to be the first thing in). So I guess it is time for me to begin on the garden, but my gardening will always be weather dependent – it has to be dry weather – I can deal with cold weather but not the rain.

I will need to get some potting mix soon and get some of my pots started – planning some pots out the front for herbs and tomatoes. I’ve decided I’m doing a much smaller veggie garden this year as I found that it was too much work last year; just the tomatoes in pots, courgettes, some salad greens and I’m thinking about potatoes. I might attempt capsicums and aubergines again, but not sure. Pat would like some raspberries, but they really need to be planted now and in a well prepared soil. So that might not happen this year. I do also need to get out and do some hedge and wisteria pruning and weeding the raised bed veggie patch.

If you remember my last blog, I mentioned about the amount I had spent on buying books – both electronic and paper. I’ve decided it’s time for a shopping ban on books for 6 months. I need to read the one’s I’ve bought and perhaps even re-read some of my books. Perhaps a good time to also go through my kindle and do some editing?

I also mentioned the CSIRO diet book which I bought; we are now on the diet, partly to loose the weight we both put on during November, December last year, but also to get ourselves back to some good eating habits. I’m also trying to improve my fitness, by doing more walking (at a quicker pace) and putting in some resistance training. It’s working well. So each fortnight I will have my weight loss and cm’s lost down the bottom of the blog. This week has been the first difficult week and yesterday wasn’t the best day, but today is a new day.

And finally I am leaving you with a painting I finished last week. I love it – it is a painting of another painting by (I think) J Fabian-Mastroy. And while my painting isn’t perfect – I really do like the feel of the painting (Mine is the one on the end).

Until next week, à bientôt – Delia

Weight loss 2.6 kilos
CM’s loss (off waist) 3cm

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!

Firstly a quick update on Siena. She is fine, thankfully a couple of days rest and some pain killers did her the world of good, though it drove us slightly nuts as she needs her walks as an energy release.

As Pat mentioned last week, we had guests last weekend, which was lovely. M&S timed their visit well, as on Sunday our neighbour (who owns the chestnut grove, but also works with pianos) had a concert in his fantastically converted barn as an opening of his new piano showroom. The concert was a pianist and a cellist. The concert was arranged around the “theme” of Lisa Cristiani – who was a famous cellist and her last tour, which was through Siberia, in-between musical pieces there were readings from some of her personal letters. While I couldn’t understand the readings, as they were in French, the concert was great and we all really enjoyed it. One bit I did understand from the readings was the part about it snowing and snowing and snowing! Something we apparently are going to have more of this week! I think the cranes which have started the migration north may be regretting this early decision as it is very cold now (-2 at the moment) and we have more snow forecast.

With the cold but sunny weather we are planning a long walk today with Siena, and I’m also hoping to finish my Philip Pullman book at I received for Christmas. I’ve got to a good bit and put it down as I know I’m not going to finish reading it until I reach the end. So not conducive to the 30 minute read before I go to sleep at night. I have done some downloading of other books the past few weeks:

The Angry Chef by Anthony Warner – which is about bad science creeping into healthy eating – I’m loving it.
The Memory Illusion by Dr Julia Shaw – a fascinating book about how our memory works (and false memories).
The Year of Less by Cait Flanders – an interesting book about one women’s year of trying to simplify her life, started with an idea of not shopping for a year but expanded into a lot more (this one I’ve finished).

I’ve downloaded a couple more books as well, but haven’t started to read them yet. However I did go into my Amazon history and add up how much I spent on books last year and was horrified at the amount. I guess it comes from not having a library around me (or more to the point a library with English books, lots of French library’s around). So one thing I do have to do is be a bit more aware of how much I’m spending on books.
One downloaded book that has made an impact has been the CSIRO total wellbeing diet book. Yes I have done many a diet, but this time I went looking for a diet with some science behind it (this one was on a UK tv program which I found interesting as for all my non-Australian friends the CSIRO is an Australian scientific research institute). But mostly the reasoning is actually to try and find a healthy eating plan that Pat and I can stick to permanently and this looks like this could be it. We will see how things go over the next few weeks.

So on that note, I most likely should get myself out of bed and get my day started. Until next week, à bientôt – Delia

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.