Moorings at Plymouth

   Well, as I said in my last, we are temporarily installed at Goosewell, near Plymouth, to look after Alyson during her illness. The funny thing is, we are living in Alyson's house, which is, in fact, our house, which we left 12 years ago to move to France. I shall only be here til Friday, God willing as I am due to catch the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, as unfortunately, Brittany Ferries don,t run a Plymouth connection in January.
  It is rather an odd feeling to be living again in our old home.  When Alyson is in residence, I don't feel it is our house. After all, when you let a property, you don't expect to live in it! And Al has decorated it differently to what it was, especially as the former commercial tenants left it in a mess. Not that Al doesn't make us very welcome, I hasten to add. But at the moment, we are sole residents, apart from an indignant cat and the feeling is a little different, strange even.
  This is an interesting house, in fact. It is the end of a terrace of four cottages, in a tiny street of four similar blocks. They were built as farm labourers cottages at the turn of the nineteen hundreds and offered a lounge diner and kitchen downstairs, three bedrooms upstairs.No toilet or bathroom, of course, but a wash-house and outside loo at the other end of the small rear yard. across the private access road to the terrace, is a long but narrow garden, which the occupant no doubt used to grow their veg. Of course, the cottages have evolved over the 200 years which have passed. Previous owners added a single-storey kitchen and bathroom which we in turn altered to add another storey which gave us a large double bedfoom and shower-room and toilet upstairs, so the house is much more comfortable, though still retaining its cottage feeling.
   STOP PRESS-- Alyson is out of the hospital and back home. She was released yesterday and we drove her home in vile weather conditions, with strong winds and heavy rain. She is still far from well, tired and still a bit confused, but we hope the fact of being in her own home will help her recovery.
  Bye for now, putting on the coffee...
  

The voyage of the Ark.

   Well, friends, the Ark has shifted its moorings some 500 miles further to the North and is
now located at Plymouth, Devon.  This emergency transfer was in response to grave health problems of our daaughter, Alyson, who was rushed into Derriford Hospital a few days ago, with problems arrising from a bleed  in the brain. She has been operated  on and seems to be making good progress but of course needs her mother and perhaps myself to care for her in hospital and when she eventually comes out. It seems likely to be a long job...
  Of course, with the time of year and current weather condition in France and the UK, this journy was always going to be difficult. The first problem is that Brittany Ferries doesn't operate their service from Roscoff to Plymouth in January, so we had to travel via St Malo. This town is actually slightly nearer home than Roscoff, but lands us in the UK at Portsmouth, some 4 hours drive from Plymouth. That is, of course, 4 hours under normal conditions not with snow and ice as is now current!
   In fact, the journey in France went quite well, there were no significant road or traffic problems, and the route to St Malo was identical to the  way to Roscoff as far as Rennes. Anyway, Angelique, our GPS guided us as usual. We had one fright, when a strange noise from the wheels began to make itself heard. Investigation traced this to an under-inflated rear tyre--a slow puncture. We topped it up at a garage and it did not worry us after that.It has now been repaired--a cross-headed screw was the culprit!
   We arrived at St Malo, clocked in at Brittany ferries and had a quick explore of the town. It's most picturesque with narrow cobbled streets and the inner town is completely enclosed by the town walls. Not looking at its best on a grey, cold winter's day, perhaps we'll come back in happier times...
  We boarded the Pont Aven ferry, enormous but comfortable. The dogs had to go in the special kennels on a top deck, normally they travel in the car but this does, at least, give them more room. Laika was surprised at being unceremoniously bundled into a head-high cage! We could then find our cabin and get some dinner before the ferry eased away from the dock. She was extremely quiet and smooth so we got a reasonable night,s sleep before arriving in Portsmouth at 8 next morning.
  Britain's roads were more affected by the weather, though we were not delayed until 10 miles short of Honiton, where we were in a queue for an hour or so due to snowy and icy conditions which had led to a crash on the bends approaching Honiton town. After clearing that we had no further road problems and arrived in Plymouth early afternoon, going straight to Derriford Hospital to see Alyson.
  She seems to be doing reasonably well although very weak and a little confused in her short-term memory. She is still suffering severe head-aches, however. The hospital is doing all sorts of scans and tests ,which have not revealed anything alarming, which is good news. We shall have to be patient and see how things go. She was VERY pleased to see her Mum! Kim will be staying in the UK for a while to look after her and has asked me to delay my return to France until next Saturday. Our friends Ian and Sarah have agreed to look after the French Ark's passengers a little longer together with Charley Bear, their VERY large Alsation--we shall be forever grateful. Ian, I have at least got the earth-sleeving you wanted...The kitten and Toffee will have to be patient a little while longer with their kind carers Agnes and Jacquie.
   Right, well I think I will comit this saga to the net before it disappears, perhaps I will return to the high-lights of our trip when I have mastered Alyson's computer. Bye for now from Noah in exile...

Funeral rites

  Today we went to a funeral, which was a little unusual in several ways. The deceased was the mother of our friend Jean-Luc, whose wife Patricia is one of our choir members. We met the old lady just before last Christmas, for the first, and in fact, the last time. Our choir has the tradition of visiting the houses of elderly or sick members of the congregation who can no longer attend the weekly service, or `culte` as it is known to non-catholic French churches. We called then on Jean=Luc`s mother and father, both somewhat elderly and frail but looking good for several years!  Alas, it was not to be and the mother died a few days ago.
   The couple were members of the Darbistes, a church founded by a Mr Darby, an English-man. They are, I believe, somewhat similar to the Plymouth Brethren in their beliefs, and one of their tenets is that they allow no musical instruments in their services. Nevertheless, they enjoy a reputation for singing in parts, which we found quite justified this afternoon.
 The other striking feature of this funeral was the atrocious weather, it rained heavily all afternoon, which did nothing to make a sad occasion more bearable. Our little choir had been asked to rehearse the four hymns to be sung, which we did, but the Darbistes were quite capable of holding their own, instruments or not! I have been to funerals in England where Kim and I were practically singing a duet but the large assembly this afternoon sang strongly and sweetly. I was amused to note that the embargo on instruments did not forbid a mouth-organ or perhaps a pitch-pipe from giving a discrete first note. The service in other respects was identical to other French funerals we have attended.
    The hammering rain was difficult to bear at the grave-side and we left as quickly as was decent afterwards, to get back to our fireside for dry clothes and a hot drink. We didn`t want this funeral to be the cause of our own!

    Bye for now, time for dinner now we have warmed up!

Ségolene`s progress

   In my last blog, I promised to keep you up-to-date with Ségo`s recovery. Well, I am glad to say she`s doing well. We have washed her foot with soap and water each day, then dipped it in diluted bleach. Today, we gave her her final antibiotic jab (take a bow, Noah, Kim was squeamish so I volunteered, the first time I`ve given one!) and painted her toes blue with a hi-tec chemical bandage. She`s walking almost normally now and, barring a relapse, should do fine. A very happy outcome!

   Bye for now, almost tea-time for the other Ark passengers.

   

Something smells rotten in the State of Denmark...

  An amusing oddity was detected this morning by our News Watchdog scanning the Net to fetch you the latest. A major problem of smuggling is worrying the Customs departments of the E U--Garlic smuggling into the Community! Why criminals would want to smuggle garlic boggles the imagination, was it to conceal a cargo of hard drugs, I asked myself. But no, the stuff is being run across the border to avoid paying tax.
     It appears that China grows it in large quantities and sells it at knock-down prices abroad. To protect the local garlic growers in Italy, France etc. an import tax was slapped on `foreign` garlic of 9.6 percent plus 1200 Eur a tonne, if I have understood correctly. To avoid this tax, an industry has grown up, to import Chinese garlic into, for example, Denmark, where the tax doesn`t apply and then smuggle it into Sweden and thence the rest of the EU. Sound  amusing, but a container of garlic could be liable for 30,000Eur, so the financial implications are large.
   Still, I`m sure the Police and Douanes can sniff out this new threat to our struggling garlic-farmers and the trail should be easily detectable by specially-trained Garlic-hounds...

  Bye for now, going to check if my garlic stock has a yellow tinge!

Blood on the grass! Emergency field surgery.

For several days, our ewe, Ségolene, has shown a worrying tendency not to want to get to her feet. As she is a large and heavy sheep, she does suffer a bit from foot problems, and I regularly have to clear mud and debris from between her toes in wet conditions but this was something worse. I suspected a twisted knee or hip but as she didn`t improve we called in the vet  yesterday.
   It was a vet we hadn`t met before, a M. Gilbert, working out of the Melle office of our practice. He was accompanied by an `apprentice` under training and speedily proved very competent in diagnosing the problem, not a sprain, but an infection under poor Ségolene`s nail on her right hind foot. As he had left his car with the tools of the trade in front of the house, to save walking back, he borrowed my Swiss Army knife and set to work to excise the nail. The blade not proving sharp enough, he used the saw blade to cut off the excess nail and release quantities of blood and pus, handing me back my knife covered with blood and mud. Mental note... wash knife BEFORE cutting another bagette! Ségo was very patient at the procedure and endured it without a baa or struggle, she really is a pet of a ewe.
  After this surgery, he injected her in the neck with a painkiller and anti-inflamitoire and with an antibiotic, leaving instructions that we were to wash her hoof with soap and water and then dip it in a bucket of diluted bleach. A further antibiotic injection was left for us to administer on Sunday, the washing etc to be done twice a day until then. Then a hi-tech substance which provides a sort of chemical bandage can be applied.
   He really was a very competent and cheerful vet, with a flattering faith in our competence to continue the treatment! We found the techniques a bit different to the care given to the small animals in the surgery. No question of shaving a patch of hair and wiping with an antiseptic tissue--just a quick jab of the needle in the neck muscle through the wool!  Seems to work, though! We`ll let you know how the patient progresses, but she was already on her feet half an hour later when we returned for the washing. Hope the improvement continues!

  Bye for now, going to finish my cuppa and prepare for the afternoon foot-washing! At least we only have three to look after...

Welcome the Tiger!

  Among the other presents we brought back from our Christmas stay at Lille, was a new computer!  It wasn`t exactly a present, though much appreciated. A friend of Patrick, Eric Weinburger, had bought a new computer and passed on to Patrick his old machine, a Tiger OSX as portrayed above. Patrick set it up, but was not happy with it, he said it was always `bugging`. I would add that Patrick and Cécile are not fans of Apple, they prefer Windows. Cécile even said that Apples are snob`s machines!  Being of the `throw away` generation, he seized the opportunity to buy a new Windows machine and passed the corps of the Tiger to me, no guarantees.. I thought our resident expert at Loubillé could probably sort it out so accepted with pleasure. the more so as I prefer the Apple system.
   Ade Brown gave the machine a good hoovering as he said this model could be prone to overheating. He then `cloned` my Leopard`s programmes onto the Tiger and I set it up in position on our computer desk as you see.
   I find the new machine quite a bit faster than the Leopard and above all, the clarity of the screen is impressive, it has brought out details in my photos with the High Definition system. There were a few hiccups after I had set it up which gave me a fright but it now seems to have settled down from its journey and change of ownership quite nicely. Being of a suspicious sort, I have kept the Leopard as back up in the grenier but admit I would be sorry to have to go back to the old system! Fingers crossed, then, but I can`t complain..the price was right! The sole drawback of this `outmoded` computer is that it won`t run Flash player but I can live with that, especially as Ade says that Flashplayer is the vector of many bugs.

  Bye for now going to play with my new toy!

2012--The summary

  Now that we`ve started a new year, I thought it would be good to look back over the last one and remember the high, or the low points of the year. To my mind, it has been a good year, with few serious crises  and some progress made. I have been looking over past blogs and the photos taken during the year to try to recall some of the events.
   January started fairly mild, with little frost. However, scarcely had we started to congratulate ourselves on a mild winter, when February brought a fortnight`s freezing temperatures, and then SNOW.  The house grew so cold that we abandoned upstairs and moved into the salon to sleep on our new futon, much to the pleasure of the cats.(see below)  Towards the end of the month, Kim was not displeased to depart to spend a few weeks with Alyson in the UK and to benefit from her central heating!




Some bricolage was successfully carried out, the kitchen tap, which was leaking was replaced and new bookshelves made in the salon. The  year`s wood was bought, delivered and stacked before Kim`s return.

  March was cold and bright, the vines were trimmed, the garden ploughed and Kim was able to plant her crops. Our two new ducks were growing fast.
   In April, we had our first eggs from the ducks but heavy rain caused local floods, luckily we suffered no damage.

  May saw some damage, however, when a lorry carried away the corner of the roof tiles of our newly re-roofed outbuilding. Luckily the damage was slight and Ian repaired it for us at a modest cost. A swarm of bees arrived at a neighbour`s house and a bee-keeper had to deal with them.  
   June saw us depart on our annual visit to the Pyrenees at Aucun, together with the Jubillee celebration and sheep shearing (no connection!) In July Alyson and Kerri visited us and we went to the Puy du Fou.  In August Patrick and Cécile visited, Kim varnished the kitchen floor and departed for three weeks with Alyson, including a week in Turkey, leaving me a grey kitten to bottle-feed--hello Storm!  In October hot water was at last supplied to the kitchen sink after a long saga and the quince tree offered only six fruits. In November, the only incident of note was a two day visit to Fouras and the Ile d`Oleron. In December the Christmas lights went up and we departed for our annual visit to Lille. If anyone wants more detail, click the appropriate month in the blog archives alongside...
  There were a few sad departures from the Ark`s passenger list, cats Bandit and Sunshine and a cursed fox took the two Muscovey ducks over Christmas. RIP all four...

  Well, I think that brings us up to date.  A happy New Year to all my readers and hope to welcome you aboard the Ark in 2013.

   Bye for now, going to roll up some tinsel!