In the Garden 2

Have been busy in the garden again, planting out seeds and what have you, though some are in propogators in the house, currently on the kitchen floor, am going to have to find somewhere for them as we don't have any window ledges on account of living in a french house. (Windows open inwards to maximise chance of injury to young children whose heads are just at that height. Also there are shutters in the way on the outside). I think they might end up in our bedroom, which is nice, but the only place they'll be out of the way. Have currently got on the go inside and out:


Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Mangetout
Melons
Raspberries
Peppers
Various herbs
Lettuces
Rocket
Potatoes ready to go out when we get some earth for the tubs
Mixed flowers and sunflowers with the girls

Will also be doing:

More carrots, onions and garlic
Sweetcorn
possibly runner beans
broccoli
courgettes
Dad wants horseradish, will have to try to hunt some down, not sure you can get it over here.

Have gone gardening mad and am devouring Adrian's old gardening mags and books which I was never really that interested in before, but now I can't get enough - my new little babies!!

Have been getting a few holes in the fleece on the raised bed of late and suspected the cat. Anyway, last night when I was putting the girls to bed, I was shutting Isabella's shutters when I noticed a lump under the fleece. It was indeed the cat. I jumped out the window without a second thought (fortunately, we are completely on the ground floor or it could have been messy), and went bananas at the cat. Cat looked nonchalently at me and then made an independent decision that it felt like being somewhere else just at that moment (they will never be told what to do).

Climbed back into house through window, turned around and cat is back on the edge of the bed. Shoo cat off bed again. Start shutting shutters and see through the gap that the cat is back on the bed. Threw small cuddly toy at cat. Cat looks at toy and stands ground. Threw wooden brick at cat. Cat bats brick a bit and then gets back to trying to get under fleece. Threw pot of felt tips at cat. Felt tips go everywhere except in direction of cat. Cat is now under fleece and has started digging. Consider throwing small child but can't be that cruel. (Not to the cat, to the child. And anyway, if one went the other would want to go too, neither of them can bear to think they are missing out on something the other does.) Give up and by the time the children are in bed, can't be bothered to deal with it. Wake up to a lovely ground frost and fog and fleece completely off the bed. Am outside at 8.30am on Sunday morning re-covering fleece and putting net on top. We shall see what tomorrow morning brings.

RAT!

We've had increasing noise in our ceiling and walls for some time from the rats and mice, but on the whole it's not bothered us and they don't tend to come in the house, so we let them get on with whatever it is they do. However, a couple of weeks ago all power was lost to the socket the computer uses and also the light on the bathroom mirror (wired up somewhere behind the wall, not visible socket). We realised that the rats/mice must have bitten through the wires. Anyway, Adrian re-routed the computer wiring under the carpet and through a wall to connect to a socket in our bedroom, couldn't do anything about the mirror light though.

We then decided we'd better do something about our lodgers as things could get worse. Adrian found some rat poison and went upstairs to where my folks live (we live downstairs) to put it down. Fortunately, there's a large hole in the floor under the table in the dining room which has been covered for sometime now with a peice of nailed-down plywood and a rug. Up the rug and the wood came and down under the floor went the poison. It was really smelly under there from all the animal droppings and wee and what have you, but the smell had not escaped into the house fortunately. After a couple of days, things finally went quiet in our walls and ceiling and we thought thats the end of that then. A couple of days after that, my parents part of the house began to stink to high heaven. Neutradol and open windows made no difference. The rug and the wood came up again, but nothing could be seen, and it was obvious that the smell was not coming from that area. Adrian sniffed around and reckoned he knew where it was coming from, which meant lifting the floorboards. Sure enough, giant foot-long stinky dead black rat. He tried to pick it up by its tail, but as it had already started decompossing, he was left with just the skin in his hand as the body fell away! It has now gone and the lights for the bathroom mirror have started working again...

Car broke down this week. I was doing the school run and it kept losing power, just about managed to get back home. Adrian checked it out and thinks its either the gasket or head gasket, one of which went before (too technical for me, can't remember which) and it was so expensive the garage made me sign a form to say that we understood that the cost of the repair was far more than the car's value. Mind you, so is the cost of filling up the tank with fuel (on account of it being a right hand drive car - who's going to want it over here, even though the mileage is really low for the age). Anyway, we've invested a fair bit into of late, brakes and tyres I think, if memory serves, (and fuel of course. I put a packet of polo's in the glove box the other day and the value immediately doubled), so we now have to consider if it's worth repairing. Unfortunately, we don't have the money to repair it, let alone buy a new car. Adrian has found something on the net which might work and he will try it himself, so we are just waiting for it to be delivered and go from there. Luckily, we are able to borrow my mum's car for the time being and we don't get out much anyway.

Also, need to order more gas for the tank we have as it is almost empty. We are not on mains gas here and have a huge tank in the garden behind the hangar. It costs about £1000.00 each time to fill it up and we have so far filled it twice a year. So we have to find that money too. I think my dad will be paying for it and it will be added to the ever increasing amount we owe him.

Adrian's mid-life crisis is getting worse, first poetry and then today he suggested that I might consider highlighting my hair. (I have never dyed my hair in my life and am not about to start now. Even if it is going grey as he kindly points out to me - I can't see any, they are all at the back apparently. He is moving into dangerous territory.)

Here's a little Top Tip to lighten the mood:

My hands have been getting horrendously dry and horrid and hand cream no longer has any effect. Then today I remembered something I learnt in Australia:

'Cup' one hand
Pour in a little olive oil, about a teaspoonful
Add either some sugar or salt, about a teaspoonful
Optional: Add one or two drops (no more) of either lavender or sweet orange essential oil
Stand over sink and rub hands together concentrating on rough bits especially for about a minute
Rinse off under warm water
Pat hands dry
Lovely soft hands

Talking of Australia, I got all excited last night, heard someone waffling on about videos on Google maps, so I checked it out, couldn't find anywhere we used to live in UK so I went further afield. France didn't work either so I took a trip down under. And there was my place in Australia!! I showed Adrian and think he was totally underwhelmed, but I was dead excited and found my friends house too! Maybe one day they'll have this place... (Not my friends - I mean google maps might have us on the video bit).

Adrian's Poetry Corner

Adrian has gone all deep and meaningful on me and started writing poetry. Honestly, you think you know someone and then they go and pull a stunt like this - still, if this is his mid-life crisis it could be worse...

Here's one for starters:

Life

My illness gave us the money to spend
No cash left, bad health to the end
The gites were great but just don't pay
So perhaps we'll have to go back one day

We love this place and all around
We sit outside, but not a sound
No people walking past our house
Here in the country, maybe a mouse
I hate the large built up towns now
Noisey, bustling, holy cow

I never thought I'd be like this
To sit by the river and watch the fish
Go gliding by, not a care it seems
Could lack of money end all our dreams

The kids made friends
They love it so
Do we really, Really have to go
I found a Euro in the street
Hooray we now have bread to eat

We do so hope the summer brings
Vacation people and all those things
They brought the playstation, The cube, The Wii
For us those things are not to be
They cost so much, but its nice to look
Our money may stretch to just a book

Now the cars gone bang I've had enough
I never knew it would be this tough
Now no cash to splash
Perhaps go back as white trash
I don't wanna go this was our dream
But it was the coffee, not the cream

Well the thorn is out, so much for it being absorbed by the body, it was rock hard when it appeared, nearly two weeks after it went in, couldn't even make a dent in it with my nail, I will spare you the gory details of it's exit.

Finally finished painting the garden benches, or so I thought, went up to the top of our 'private' bit of garden the other day and found another one. It's in a really sorry state though, so I'll have a go at that one in the summer, it's not urgent. Am currently trying to dig up the roots of several old yukka plants that I chopped down, still got loads of other painting jobs to do and our first reservation is in three weeks time, so there's The Cottage to spring clean, it's in a bit of a state as Dad is currently using it as a workshop.

Had to trek down to Nantes the other day, about an hour and a half drive away, to take Adrian to the hospital. His neurologist at our local hospital has gone on maternity leave and there's no replacement for her. Normally, Adrian only sees her once a year, and after 6 months I call her secretary to get a repeat precription for his injections which duly arrives in the post a few days later. Our doctor, who Adrian has to see every three motnhs for his tabs, called the neurologist in Nantes to ask for a repeat prescription for the jabs, they know each other and our doctor had just done the usual exam on Adrian, but the neurologist refused to issue it, said he wanted to see Adrian first, together with all his MRI's, old paperwork etc, which we had to take over. Managed to get a quick appointment but is was at 6pm. Set off at 4pm, waited until 7pm to see the neurologist, who was running late and didn't even bother looking at most of the paperwork and none of the MRI's, gave Adrian a quick check over, ignored everything I said about how bad his feet are, wrote a letter to the neuroligist at our local hospital who is not there to read it, basically giving a history of Adrian's illness, which she already knows, finally wrote out the prescription and then charged us €55,00 for the pleasure. Plus they charge for car parking now as well. Set off back home via KFC (first one in years, didn't taste like I remember them), got back at 9pm. Had to get my parents to babysit, which included my dad taking Isabella to her dance class after school, which just happened to be temporarily re-housed that week, so could only give him vague directions as to where it was (the mayor provided a 'tent' in the village). All in all, glad to be home.

In the garden 1

Am labeling this post so that if you're really not interested in my day to day gardening drivel then you can avoid it easily.

Anyway, did some planting today, got in the mangetout and the first batch of onions and carrots. Already done the garlic and the raspberries are starting to sprout which is good to see. Covered the carrots and mongetout with fleece so hoping that that portects them from any frosts and bugs and the like.

Will do some more onions and carrots in a couple of weeks and the potatoes will go in tubs again, it worked very well last year. Got some melon seeds of a friend to go in and maybe some more strawbs, we shall see.

Adrian and I keep discussing getting some chooks, meat ones though, we don't think layers would be worth it as we don't eat many eggs (only in cakes and the like, the girls and I don't like them). I also have a little dream of rearing pigs, maybe one day... Or maybe ducks - we shall see.