Let there be light!

   The Summer is drawing to its end, the seasons are changing and the most obvious sign is the shortening of the daylight hours at each end of the day. Where a few weeks ago I wandered out the back door at six am in full daylight, or walked the dogs for their final trot at half past eight in the evening all in daylight, now it is a very different scene.
  Running an Ark, there are numerous outside tasks that demand the use of both hands, for example walking three dogs on leads or feeding cats or sheep. It is highly inconvenient to have to use one hand to hold a torch and I have found the only answer is my `light hat`. You can admire a picture of it in use above.
  Now I am the first to admit that the ensemble appears slightly ridiculous and gives me the appearance of a coal-miner. It consists in fact of a `headlight` attached to a peaked poachers hat that I have had for a number of years to wear in cold or wet conditions. It lives on the clothes hooks near the back door and can be put on in an instant. But how convenient it is!  Wherever I choose to look the darkness vanishes, I can see to do whatever I need and I have both hands free to hold dog leads or to scoop catfood into the dishes in the open barn. I don`t think I could possibly do without it!

   Bye for now, breakfast calls!

When is free speech free?

      A lot of TV news on French TV is concerned with the riots in Muslim countries following the obscure and badly-produced American film which was uncomplimentary about the Prophet Mohammed. American Embassies were attacked by mobs and some staff were even killed, together with a number of demonstrators. Is this the fault of the film maker or of religious fury and intolerance on the part of Muslims, whose sacred faith had been denigrated?
   And this week we have had an even more flagrant meddling with this already boiling-over pot. The satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, a sort of French version of Private Eye, has published cartoons of the Prophet in the name of free speech showing him pushing a Jew in a wheelchair  and being photographed with naked buttocks as an analogy with the Princess` unfortunate exposure and suggesting that Jews and Muslims cannot be mentioned without serious legal or riot sanctions. Further riots directed against French interests have already started and French schools and Embassies had to be closed as a precaution on Friday. Is it right for this scurrilous rag to be able to say whatever it wants? Will they be held responsible for the damage resulting?
  I would like to describe a further instance of an insult to religion. There is a well-produced advert on French TV at the moment for beef, It shows a sort of baronial hall filled with a crowd of demons and demonesses awaiting their dinner, a nice joint of beef, done `å point`. The infernal inhabitants are shown with red faces and little horns but are non-frightening and seem to be enjoying themselves. As the joint is served, the door of the hall swings open and a figure enters, obviously depicting Jesus, dressed in white robes and followed by a crowd of winged angels and cherubs. In a moment these visitors take their place at table interspersed with the demons and a cheerful, friendly meal commences, even with kisses exchanged between the two sides. The succulent joint is shown again in close-up and the point is made that beef encourages friendship. Am I shocked at the use of our Saviour, used in an advert? Perhaps I should be and indeed I find it in poor taste. I will not, however be leading a riot before the HQ of French TV...
  Should `Free Speech` be completely unfettered? There are those who say it should be, but there are already limits. I cannot publish untrue and libellous comments about you, dear reader without fear of legal sanctions. It is illegal in France to suggest that the persecution of Jews during the war is untrue propaganda, and stirring racial or religious hatred is sanctioned legally.
  I don`t know the answer but perhaps the key lies in the word `legal` . I feel the Muslims are doing themselves no favours by illegal and threatening riots and disproportionate reactions, and indeed the leaders of the Muslims in France are trying to persuade their followers to prefer peaceful protests at the insult to their religion. Perhaps it boils down to a lack of politeness and good taste, sadly lacking in modern society.  What do you think?

Time for a change, watch this space!

  As my Facebook friends already know, a few days ago my faithful Timing wristwatch took its pension and retired and even the offer of a new battery failed to restart it. I took the opportunity of replacing it with this rather snazzy watch, vaguely reminiscent of a Rolex:  it cost me 29 Euros from Intermarché and if it does as well as  the old one I will be very pleased. That, too was from Inter and cost slightly less, yet ran accurately for four years or so.
   I made a rather laboured joke on Facebook, boasting at having saved 1500 Euros on the real thing and people seemed broadly in agreement though one lady rather wistfully remarked that there was a nice feeling about owning a good watch. However I beg to disagree, there are a lot of awkward feelings too.
  I am a somewhat frugal person (not to say mean, I hope) and I could never reconcile myself to spending a really large sum on a watch, even if I could afford it. And if by chance I did, think of the anxiety. Swimming at the lake I wouldn`t want to wear the thing in the water, yet would quail at leaving it in my discarded clothes as I do now. It would have to be left at home, but that destroys the whole point of having a timepiece! And say burglars broke in...
  Such an expensive item would have to be insured, and All-risk policies are not cheap. Plus, the Claims department do look a bit sideways at the unsupported loss of this type of item.I know I did, when working in the industry. One of our clients claimed for the loss overboard of a Phillipe Pratek watch or some such name at a couple of thousand pounds, lost overboard on a sea-fishing trip. He was curiously reluctant to declaring it to the Police, too, on the grounds it would never turn up... Possibly a scam though impossible to prove, people think that defrauding an insurance society is not a crime, but their consciences are strangely elastic. It`s theft, whichever way you look at it. I know of a most respectable person, who cheerfully admitted the `loss` of a gold necklace to raise funds when in difficulty...Very strange.
  But I digress a bit. The other point of not spending the earth on a posh watch is that modern, low cost  quarz watches work so well, keeping perfect time for months. The only real point of spending out is the famous name and the precious metal case. I am perfectly prepared to forgo both for peace of mind. After all, that is supposed to be beyond price!

  Bye for now, I see by my new watch that it`s tea-time!

The Changing of the Seasons

   `Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
    Close bosom friend of the maturing sun`
       Well, here in Deux Sevres, we haven`t seen any mists but the summer sun has done its best with the vines! The other fruit has been disappointing, due to odd weather in the spring, unseasonably mild weather in February being succeeded by a late frost that blighted many fruit trees. Still, you do what you can with what you`ve got and I`ve made lots of fruit juice and jam from these abundant bunches on our treilles. We have had the normal summer weather of the Region, hot, dry periods with little or no rain and this seems set to continue a while. I bet my Scottish Facebook friend wishes he could say the same. I congratulate myself on a grain of good sense moving to the sunshine. I am a climatic migrant!

 Still, as I said in my title, the roundabout of the seasons is slowly turning. The Rentrée is past, the children are back in school, the tourists and the campers are gone and we are in what the French call the Arriere Saison, that time between the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn.Often, at this time of year, we have sunny weather, perfect for a late holiday for those lucky souls  (like us,) who don`t have to return to the office or workshop. Some years, the summer slides almost imperceptibly into autumn, and this season itself can drag out to greet November.

  However, like all things, every boon has its down-side and the lack of any rain is bothering the farmers and gardners. Our cour and sheep-field are parched and yellow, and even well-established shrubs and trees are looking sad. However this is normal for the time of year and they will green up again with the autumn rain. In the meantime ,we can enjoy the last of the summer, perhaps take a little trip when Kim gets back from Turkey?
  And amid the feeling of the summer`s end, we do have new life springing Likethis little kitten sitting on my knee and making it very difficult to type.

   Bye for now, off to pick some more grapes!

A spot of Bricolage.

  As I mentioned in my last episode, Kim (Mrs Noah) is away visiting our daughter, Alyson, and is in fact at this very moment in the air heading for Turkey, to accompany her on a fortnight`s holiday. In the meantime I have a certain freedom to carry out a few repairs and maintenance, in between caring for the Ark`s multitude of personnel and especially the most demanding of all, the new arrival, Storm  However, it was not in fact a long-contemplated redecoration or building project which came my way on Saturday but a bit of an emergency concerning our little building on the other side of the village road. I have mentioned this anomalous possession before,  it has recently been re-roofed and we use it as a food store or larder. I had noted a bit of a problem with the door lintel, but when I went in on Saturday  for some dog-food, the lintel was sagging down to catch the door and it was evident that something would have to be done

  As you can see from the picture at the start of the blog, it is a typical Poitou outbuilding with metre-thick walls built of the handsome local limestone.The wall above the door is supported by a lintel resting on the surrounds of the door. This is obviously built in when the walls reach the height of the door during construction. If you have a nice slab of Limousin oak, this is used to `roof` the door opening. If not and you are too mean to buy expensive timber, the deficiency is filled by several pieces of tree trunk, roughly squared or left round, as was the case here. One of these logs had rotted or been attacked by woodworm and had to be replaced. The pic on the left shows the sad remains.
  As you can imagine, it is not easy to replace this support, when it is set into the wall and supporting the masonry above. What I did, was to hack the remains out of the wall at each end and clear out the socket, enlarging it a bit with a chisel. Then I cut a replacement beam from a long rafter that a neighbour had given me some years ago (NEVER throw anything away! ) I cut it some eight inches wider than the doorway. Then it was a question of inserting the squared end into one of the sockets and pushing it in until the other end could be entered into its socket. I could then centralise the beam. The two ends rest solidly on the top of the door surround and it should be nearly as strong as the original, though not so deeply set in. It is certainly stronger than the old beam, because that had rotted right away at one end and was waving in the breeze.

   All in all, quite a satisfactory bit of repair, which has left me feeling quite proud. All done with local materials at zero cost!
  Bye for now, heading for my bed..Kim is going to ring when she arrives at the Turkish hotel, which will be in the early hours!!

Storm Warning-- New Ark crew-member.

Those of you who see Facebook may have noticed that there is a new face chez nous, so I thought it was time to introduce the latest addition to our crew. Meet Storm, a male (?) kitten who has come to join the Ark`s members.
   Mark, our neighbour, brought him down to us on Tuesday, asking if we could look after him that day and overnight, as he was taking his daughter Elia to a camp at La Palmyre. He told us that Elia had found the very young kitten abandoned in bushes. Thinking that it was one of a litter of kittens being reared by his own queen, he added it to the mob and it seemed initially to be accepted, only to be found rejected again in the bushes. Apparently it was not one of hers. Elia looked after it a couple of days but was due to leave for her camp. Really it was difficult for us as I was taking Kim to Paris the next day to catch the plane, but one look at the tiny grey form convinced Kim that there was a vacancy in the Ark`s crew due to a couple of deaths and the possible disappearance of Lilloo, who hasn`t been seen for months. So we asked Mark if we could keep him, which was probably his cunning plan all along...

   We took him with us to Charles de Gaule in the large cat box with suitable kitten milk, a thing Mark had not envisaged. He even came in the airport while Kim clocked in and came back with me on my lone and long journey back home. Now I`m left holding the kitten, as it were.
  He`s not a LOT of trouble, sleeps the night without needing feeding (I was fearing a two o`clock feed ) and sits quietly on my knee or rather, on my left hand, when I am at the computer, as he likes to suckle my palm after he has had his bottle. Still it does use up a fair amount of time to care for a baby like that. However, I will have a caste-iron excuse for not having done as much DIY as expected, when Kim gets back!
 
     Bye for now, got to make up a bottle.....