27 September 2010
New title
Been messing about with the blog a bit (well, hubby is watching Eastenders, so nothing better to do). Changed the title due to my current obsession with jam making. There's supposed to be a picture at the top, but it keeps disappearing. Have to put up with it for now, am a bit bored of messing about with it. I'll have another go next time...
peaches!
Went to a 'sale' of sorts in someones house on Sunday. They've set up a little business selling other people's homemade stuff. Good idea and some of the things were very nice and quite professionally made and presented. (And some of the English sellers really ought to have learnt a bit of French first if they want to sell to the local folk, or at least learnt how to use 'google translate'.) I bought a second hand jigsaw for us all to do (Where's Wally?!). Well, nice though everything was, there wasn't really anything that I either needed or couldn't do myself. My mother bought a nice pottery cheesboard though, so we did contribute.
However, that is not why I'm telling you about it. The bargain of the day for me was a large load of free home-grown peaches! They were sitting by the door when we arrived, two buckets full, with a 'help-yourself' notice on, although for some reason I didn't really like to, but the woman running it was quite insistant that they must go, so I took a whole bucket-full in the end! Well, I wasn't sure how much I'd need for jam, although you'd think I could tell having made so bloody much this year.
Well, when we got home I weighed them and it was 10lbs!!!! Blimey, I'd been a bit greedy I think! Looking up recipes I found one for peaches in Brandy and having found half a bottle of brandy in the back of the cupboard I made up two jars of that. The rest of them I've chopped up and are currently sitting in sugar and lemon juice and ginger waiting to be made into jam tomorrow (ran out of time today). And in the end I didn't take too many as I've used about 4lbs for the jam, but the rest of it has unfortunately been ditched because they were too bruised for eating. Which is why I ran out of time to cook the jam - took ages to chop up the peaches and chop off the bad bits and re-weigh and replace and all that faff.
However, that is not why I'm telling you about it. The bargain of the day for me was a large load of free home-grown peaches! They were sitting by the door when we arrived, two buckets full, with a 'help-yourself' notice on, although for some reason I didn't really like to, but the woman running it was quite insistant that they must go, so I took a whole bucket-full in the end! Well, I wasn't sure how much I'd need for jam, although you'd think I could tell having made so bloody much this year.
Well, when we got home I weighed them and it was 10lbs!!!! Blimey, I'd been a bit greedy I think! Looking up recipes I found one for peaches in Brandy and having found half a bottle of brandy in the back of the cupboard I made up two jars of that. The rest of them I've chopped up and are currently sitting in sugar and lemon juice and ginger waiting to be made into jam tomorrow (ran out of time today). And in the end I didn't take too many as I've used about 4lbs for the jam, but the rest of it has unfortunately been ditched because they were too bruised for eating. Which is why I ran out of time to cook the jam - took ages to chop up the peaches and chop off the bad bits and re-weigh and replace and all that faff.
25 September 2010
Car booty!
Been to four car boots in the past month and managed to pick up a few bargains. Two of the car boots were big (one apparently had about 700 stalls and I can believe it, we certainly didn't get to see them all) and two were very small, one barely had 20 stalls! I know that you're desperate to find out what we got, so here's a little list of what I can remember:
- Winter clothes for the girls at 1€ each (which, even though second hand, tend to be better quality than the cheap crap that I can afford in the shops over here which just fall apart after a few days. After sifting through the unwashed stuff at the car boots (seriously!) when I find good stuff for sale it tends to be properly good stuff).
- A winter coat for Isabella, long and pink and suede effect for 3€.
- Adults and kids board/boxed games for the guests (although the kids ones seem to be in our house at the moment) for 2€ each. Monopoly, Triominos and Connect Four, all in 'as new' condition. I'm sure there was another one, but I can't remember what it was now...
- An electronic keyboard for 2€ for Georgia for her birthday. Got one for Isabella's birthday at an earlier car boot for the same price and they both love it. Hence they needed one each for the sanity of their parents.
- A couple of cheap books for the girls.
- A bike for Isabella for Christmas, not just from us, but from her grandparents as well. She has started to grow out of her current bike, we'd raised the seat and the handlebars and it was better for her, but it has no gears and she was struggling a bit when she was coming out riding with me on our 'flat, but not flat' roads. She also can't get up much speed on the flat roads.... Anyway, had a look at some of the bikes in the shops and the prices are horrific and the gears are often very stiff, even I struggled to change them. This bike in the car boot was in excellent condition, a nice dark pink colour, has five gears which are easy to change and came with a good adjustable helmet, all for 60€! Still a lot of money for us, and probably more than you'd pay in the uk, but we could never afford a new one, so we took the opportunity whilst it was there. The new version of the same bike is currently selling for 150€ in the shop, plus the helmet at 17€, so all in all a bit of a bargain. Had fun trying to get it in the car though, just about managed!
Bath time
Had a bath this morning. Ok, so that may not be headline news, but it is a rare event for me. Don't get me wrong, I do shower daily, but sometimes I need a bath. Unfortunately, ours is not a proper bath, it's a french bath which is more like sitting in a large bucket. But today I am ill and couldn't face standing in the shower so I dug out some essential oils (marjoram, rosemary and eucalyptus, not sure if they really go together but I've pretty much lost my sense of smell and I figured they're all good for a cold) and ran the bath. The base of our bath is about 60cm long (two rulers worth) and it's not flat either - half of the base is about 5cm higher than the lower half (for sitting on) with a drainage channel going down the middle of it (don't try to picture the reasons for that). So whatever position you're in, you are always guaranteed to be cutting off the blood supply to your lower legs. That is, you can either be sitting up with your knees bent; slightly lounging back with your knees bent double or slightly lounging back with your legs outstretched, but bent at the hip so that your feet are half-way up the wall in front of you (this position has the added bonus of making your stomach (well mine anyway) look like it's auditioning for the part of Michelin Man). So therefore, every few minutes I have to stand up to allow the blood to drain back down to my feet again in order to avoid pins and needles. Very relaxing.
And you may think I can't be that ill if I'm sitting at the computer, but I tried watching daytime tv, and Saturday morning daytime tv at that, and it was making me worse.
And you may think I can't be that ill if I'm sitting at the computer, but I tried watching daytime tv, and Saturday morning daytime tv at that, and it was making me worse.
18 September 2010
Cats! Hedgehog!
Had a terrible problem with kittens this summer, lots of them hanging around, more than we've ever had before. Most of them have gone now however, with the exception of a tabby kitten, which is quite sweet and very friendly, not wild at all, and not wanted by us. We already have a cat, although I must say, she's not the best at seeing off the intruders. Anyway, this tabby seems to have adopted us and learnt very quickly how to use the cat flap, which is partly why we've been unable to get rid of it. The cat flap is open all the time for our cat and we couldn't really start shutting it now, plus the front door is open most of the time during the summer what with the kids and the guests being in and out all day anyway. We are still deciding what to do, although we'll probably end up keeping it as we couldn't abandon it and no-one will take it from us! Looks like a trip to the vets in the near future. More money.
Also had a problem a week or so ago with a little black kitten. Now this one was very wild, not at all tame, not at all friendly and not a all safe to go anywhere near. This one also learnt how to use the cat flap. Now there is a big difference between a domesticated cat in your house and a wild animal in your house. And much as we didn't want to, we had no alternative but to run a 'catch and release' program. We went out one afternoon, left the cat transporter basket thingy in the kitchen, and fixed the cat flap so that the cat(s) could get in, but not get out. Sure enough when we came back it was in the kitchen. After a little chasing, Adrian managed to catch it and then after a bit of a scrap to say the least, it was a vicous little thing, managed to get it into the cat box. Into the car and off for a little drive. Dropped it off in farm land so it would have plenty of food in the vicinity and it legged it without a look back. Now, I know that lots of you will be tutting away at me, but this was a wild animal, in no way domesticated, there is no 'animal sanctury' anywhere near here that I am aware of, and quite frankly, the irresponsible people at the end of the day are those that allow their cats to bread prolifically in the first place and then don't take care of the offspring. Every year we have kittens around the place looking for food and shelter. It is not nice.
And so onto part three of the cat stories. Adrian found our neighbour's cat at the side of the road yesterday morning, it had been run over and looks like killed instantly. It was in the middle of the entrance to where the bins are for our hamlet (no, the bin men do not come to our door, so think yourselves lucky next time you poms are whinging about your refuse collecters), so Adrian moved it onto the grass at the side, a little more discreet. What to do? Well, we decided if it was our cat, we'd like to know, so we went round to their place but they were out. Later on I saw the wife, just coming back from the bins, she hadn't seen the cat there so I gave her the sad news. She didn't want to see it, said her hubby would deal with it later. Well, it was fortunate that Adrian had moved it earlier because there would have been no avoiding it when she went up to the bins and that wouldn't have been very nice for her. Anyway, once we had confirmed with the wife that it was probably hers (it had a distinguishing mark) Adrian went and got the cat and put it in a box and we kept it until Mr Neighbour came home later that evening. I showed him the cat's mark (we'd covered it's face) and he confirmed it was theirs, but he said he couldn't deal with it, so could we bury it please?! Well, couldn't exactly say 'no' could we? We've thought of a nice spot for it, but it's in one of the gite gardens, and we have guests in there at the moment, so we'll have to wait until monday morning when they've gone. In the meantime, we have our neighbour's dead cat in our garage.
On another note, we were having a bit of a chat whilst he was here, and the subject of the many kittens came up and he said, 'one of them was a lovely little black cat, been around recently although haven't seen it for a few days, so sweet - did you see it?' Aaah - no! The way he was talking I thought he'd have taken it on instead. The guilt! But then after further discussion I realised he was talking about a different cat black kitten (ie a friendly one, with different markings). Phew. I would have loved to have offered him the tabby, but that would have been bad taste.
And just to prove that we're not entirely mean, animal haters, we did actually save the life of a hedgehog earlier in the summer. Adrian found it in the swimming pool one morning, frantically swimming around, unable to get out. So he fished it out and brought it back to the house. It was in a bit of a state and you can't easily dry off a hedgehog, but we wrapped it loosely in an old towel anyway and put it in a box with a bit of cat food (apparently they can eat that) and it snoozed the day away in our kitchen, aprat from waking up to poop occasionally). In the evening, it woke up and we released it into a sheltered spot in the garden. Again, 'catch and release'!
Also had a problem a week or so ago with a little black kitten. Now this one was very wild, not at all tame, not at all friendly and not a all safe to go anywhere near. This one also learnt how to use the cat flap. Now there is a big difference between a domesticated cat in your house and a wild animal in your house. And much as we didn't want to, we had no alternative but to run a 'catch and release' program. We went out one afternoon, left the cat transporter basket thingy in the kitchen, and fixed the cat flap so that the cat(s) could get in, but not get out. Sure enough when we came back it was in the kitchen. After a little chasing, Adrian managed to catch it and then after a bit of a scrap to say the least, it was a vicous little thing, managed to get it into the cat box. Into the car and off for a little drive. Dropped it off in farm land so it would have plenty of food in the vicinity and it legged it without a look back. Now, I know that lots of you will be tutting away at me, but this was a wild animal, in no way domesticated, there is no 'animal sanctury' anywhere near here that I am aware of, and quite frankly, the irresponsible people at the end of the day are those that allow their cats to bread prolifically in the first place and then don't take care of the offspring. Every year we have kittens around the place looking for food and shelter. It is not nice.
And so onto part three of the cat stories. Adrian found our neighbour's cat at the side of the road yesterday morning, it had been run over and looks like killed instantly. It was in the middle of the entrance to where the bins are for our hamlet (no, the bin men do not come to our door, so think yourselves lucky next time you poms are whinging about your refuse collecters), so Adrian moved it onto the grass at the side, a little more discreet. What to do? Well, we decided if it was our cat, we'd like to know, so we went round to their place but they were out. Later on I saw the wife, just coming back from the bins, she hadn't seen the cat there so I gave her the sad news. She didn't want to see it, said her hubby would deal with it later. Well, it was fortunate that Adrian had moved it earlier because there would have been no avoiding it when she went up to the bins and that wouldn't have been very nice for her. Anyway, once we had confirmed with the wife that it was probably hers (it had a distinguishing mark) Adrian went and got the cat and put it in a box and we kept it until Mr Neighbour came home later that evening. I showed him the cat's mark (we'd covered it's face) and he confirmed it was theirs, but he said he couldn't deal with it, so could we bury it please?! Well, couldn't exactly say 'no' could we? We've thought of a nice spot for it, but it's in one of the gite gardens, and we have guests in there at the moment, so we'll have to wait until monday morning when they've gone. In the meantime, we have our neighbour's dead cat in our garage.
On another note, we were having a bit of a chat whilst he was here, and the subject of the many kittens came up and he said, 'one of them was a lovely little black cat, been around recently although haven't seen it for a few days, so sweet - did you see it?' Aaah - no! The way he was talking I thought he'd have taken it on instead. The guilt! But then after further discussion I realised he was talking about a different cat black kitten (ie a friendly one, with different markings). Phew. I would have loved to have offered him the tabby, but that would have been bad taste.
And just to prove that we're not entirely mean, animal haters, we did actually save the life of a hedgehog earlier in the summer. Adrian found it in the swimming pool one morning, frantically swimming around, unable to get out. So he fished it out and brought it back to the house. It was in a bit of a state and you can't easily dry off a hedgehog, but we wrapped it loosely in an old towel anyway and put it in a box with a bit of cat food (apparently they can eat that) and it snoozed the day away in our kitchen, aprat from waking up to poop occasionally). In the evening, it woke up and we released it into a sheltered spot in the garden. Again, 'catch and release'!
lizard!
Went out last night (school meeting. The excitement of my life). Wore my trainers and as I was driving along the road I felt an odd sensation in my right shoe which made me think 'it feels like there's a spider in my sock', but I knew there couldn't possibly be a spider in there so I decided that probably my sock was a bit baggy and it was the movement of my feet on the pedals making it feel odd. This morning I was sweeping the kitchen floor (a miracle in itself) and picked up my trainers to move them out of the way when I noticed a flat, dead, baby lizard in my trainer.
And talking of school meetings I was asked to join the parents committee yesterday. Clearly they are either desperate (actually it turns out that they are) or France has suddenly gone all pc and needs a token english person on the committee. Especially as the previous one has just left. You know who you are.
And after last nights meeting in which the class teacher admitted that her english was somewhat rusty to say the least and she has already been asking my daughter how to pronounce words (so far, after two full weeks in school they've learnt 'hello', 'goodbye' and the days of the week), it was suggested to me by another parent that I should go in and help teach english.... It's nice to be wanted I suppose!
And talking of school meetings I was asked to join the parents committee yesterday. Clearly they are either desperate (actually it turns out that they are) or France has suddenly gone all pc and needs a token english person on the committee. Especially as the previous one has just left. You know who you are.
And after last nights meeting in which the class teacher admitted that her english was somewhat rusty to say the least and she has already been asking my daughter how to pronounce words (so far, after two full weeks in school they've learnt 'hello', 'goodbye' and the days of the week), it was suggested to me by another parent that I should go in and help teach english.... It's nice to be wanted I suppose!
06 September 2010
Biking fun
Trip 1
Well, not exactly trip one, but my first big adventure in that I decided to go even further and attempt the real hill. Got to the bottom of the slope, went down in to a low gear and pressed on. Managed to get two-thirds of the way up before I had to get off and walk. Well, I thought it was two-thirds up, when I got to where I thought the top was, it wasn't the top, you know how it is with hills. However, I got back on the bike and carried on my way. Once I really had got to the top it was flat all the way, along the main road for a bit, only a couple of cars went past, turned by the ironworks and then round the back of the tip and beyond. I've been along the road that goes beyond the tip a couple of times before and I knew I'd be fine because it was a gentle downhill slope all the way. So I'm pootling along, a bit of light peddling, feeling quite pleased although a bit tired, and turned the corner. Who the hell put that hill there then? Bloody hell, it was small, but unfortunately steep. It was hard work but eventually I made it to the top. Mind you, it was well worth it, the view was lovely. No time to stop though, luckily it really was downhill next and then mostly flat until home.
Trip 2
Repeated the above trip and did the whole lot by bike, even the first big hill which I didn't have to walk up, but I did have to stop momentarily at the top to allow burning pain in legs to subside, 40mins whole trip, even added an extra detour. Well chuffed. Couldn't sit down though when I got back due to cocyx pain.
Trip 3
Today. On a high from last trip, decide to do same trip, but in reverse. Adrian bought me a helmet today, I am grateful, but was not entirely pleased as I feel like a right tit in it. However, on relection, I decided that a 40 year old red-faced, puffed-out fat bird on a bike with pasty legs and cycle shorts looks a bit of a tit anyway, so what difference was the helmet making? One car came past me on my trip, unfortunately a parent from school. I put my head down and pretended not to notice. Anyway, this trip started out with the usual 'flat, but not flat road' and then flatish for a long way until the hills start. Well, I thought this might be a better trip to make because it's mostly flat to start with so that will give my legs time to warm-up before the hills start, so getting up them should be easier. However, as I now had the right headgear, I had also decided in my wisdom that I should wear my trainers and not my pumps as these would protect my feet better in case of an accident. Did you know that trainers add several kilograms of weight to each foot and therefore make the going a lot harder, especially when combined with riding head-on into the wind?
So by the time I reached the junction where the hill starts I was already half-knackered. But I perservered, I've done steep hills before, how bad could it be? I think I managed about 10 metres. Walked the rest of the way to the top where I stopped, purely to admire the view and have a drink. Carried on and eventually reached the junction beyond the tip. Here I had two choices, either go right, downhill immediately, but face a small hill at the bottom, which I knew I just couldn't handle. Or go left, a longer trip, but all flat until the decsent. I went left. I nearly died. Into the wind most of the way and a good part of it along the main road where I didn't want to stop. Well actually I did want to stop, I just thought it best not to. Eventually reached my turn-off where I pulled in and found myself using language that would get me a part in a porn movie. (F*** yeah. Oh. My. God. etc etc. It was the relief of making it to the junction). Carried on a bit more, wind behind me now, stopped by the wind turbines (purely for more water and to admire turbines of course). Tractor starts coming along road behind me so I decide to set off in front of it, although with hindsight, once I'd set off I thought that may have been a bad idea - tractors are slow when you're stuck behind them in a car, but probably not when they're behind you on two wheels and pedals. Anyway, just a 100 metres or so of light pedalling and then it was downhill all the way home, and not once did I pedal again! It was just reward for my efforts I think. Just one more vital piece of equipment needed - sports bra. It's funny how going at speed on a bike can make you aware of just how bad the road surface is.
Well, not exactly trip one, but my first big adventure in that I decided to go even further and attempt the real hill. Got to the bottom of the slope, went down in to a low gear and pressed on. Managed to get two-thirds of the way up before I had to get off and walk. Well, I thought it was two-thirds up, when I got to where I thought the top was, it wasn't the top, you know how it is with hills. However, I got back on the bike and carried on my way. Once I really had got to the top it was flat all the way, along the main road for a bit, only a couple of cars went past, turned by the ironworks and then round the back of the tip and beyond. I've been along the road that goes beyond the tip a couple of times before and I knew I'd be fine because it was a gentle downhill slope all the way. So I'm pootling along, a bit of light peddling, feeling quite pleased although a bit tired, and turned the corner. Who the hell put that hill there then? Bloody hell, it was small, but unfortunately steep. It was hard work but eventually I made it to the top. Mind you, it was well worth it, the view was lovely. No time to stop though, luckily it really was downhill next and then mostly flat until home.
Trip 2
Repeated the above trip and did the whole lot by bike, even the first big hill which I didn't have to walk up, but I did have to stop momentarily at the top to allow burning pain in legs to subside, 40mins whole trip, even added an extra detour. Well chuffed. Couldn't sit down though when I got back due to cocyx pain.
Trip 3
Today. On a high from last trip, decide to do same trip, but in reverse. Adrian bought me a helmet today, I am grateful, but was not entirely pleased as I feel like a right tit in it. However, on relection, I decided that a 40 year old red-faced, puffed-out fat bird on a bike with pasty legs and cycle shorts looks a bit of a tit anyway, so what difference was the helmet making? One car came past me on my trip, unfortunately a parent from school. I put my head down and pretended not to notice. Anyway, this trip started out with the usual 'flat, but not flat road' and then flatish for a long way until the hills start. Well, I thought this might be a better trip to make because it's mostly flat to start with so that will give my legs time to warm-up before the hills start, so getting up them should be easier. However, as I now had the right headgear, I had also decided in my wisdom that I should wear my trainers and not my pumps as these would protect my feet better in case of an accident. Did you know that trainers add several kilograms of weight to each foot and therefore make the going a lot harder, especially when combined with riding head-on into the wind?
So by the time I reached the junction where the hill starts I was already half-knackered. But I perservered, I've done steep hills before, how bad could it be? I think I managed about 10 metres. Walked the rest of the way to the top where I stopped, purely to admire the view and have a drink. Carried on and eventually reached the junction beyond the tip. Here I had two choices, either go right, downhill immediately, but face a small hill at the bottom, which I knew I just couldn't handle. Or go left, a longer trip, but all flat until the decsent. I went left. I nearly died. Into the wind most of the way and a good part of it along the main road where I didn't want to stop. Well actually I did want to stop, I just thought it best not to. Eventually reached my turn-off where I pulled in and found myself using language that would get me a part in a porn movie. (F*** yeah. Oh. My. God. etc etc. It was the relief of making it to the junction). Carried on a bit more, wind behind me now, stopped by the wind turbines (purely for more water and to admire turbines of course). Tractor starts coming along road behind me so I decide to set off in front of it, although with hindsight, once I'd set off I thought that may have been a bad idea - tractors are slow when you're stuck behind them in a car, but probably not when they're behind you on two wheels and pedals. Anyway, just a 100 metres or so of light pedalling and then it was downhill all the way home, and not once did I pedal again! It was just reward for my efforts I think. Just one more vital piece of equipment needed - sports bra. It's funny how going at speed on a bike can make you aware of just how bad the road surface is.
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