A new Noah's flood?

   It wasn't a very propitious start to May yesterday, with the day dawning with heavy rain, which soaked us on the early dog walk. When I went down to the field to give the sheep their morning corn ration, I found their feed bowls almost full of water-- I use these as a make-shift rain gauge, and I estimate that there had been over three inches of rain overnight. This was confirmed when we went to Chef Boutonne in the afternoon, and saw some flooded fields along the route. It was so damp and miserable that I was tempted to light the wood-burner, but couldn't face this admission of defeat, so I compromised by getting the gaz stove in and lighting that. I saw that our neighbour Phillipe had given in and relit his smokey central heating furnace, which bizarrely is on the other side of the road from his house.
  It rained all day, unusual for France, and today is not really much better, though the rain is now just a mist in the air. I do hope this isn't a forerunner of a wet summer...we could do with a resumption of our normally hot, sunny summer weather we used to be able to count on. Still, we are unlikely to suffer water shortages, I suppose....
  Bye for now, the coffee machine has finished, I'm going to enjoy a cup.

Well,the hole truth

  I have blogged before on the Ark about the legacy left in the stones of this old house by its former inhabitants over its very long life, probably more than three hundred years. We have noticed blocked up doors and windows, attachment points for halters and bridles, old mangers and pigsties...but this afternoon I happened on something even more dramatic.
  I was strimming the grass in front of the buildings, when suddenly the ground gave way beneath my feet. I staggered back, dropping the strimmer and supporting myself against the stone wall of the building alongside. On inspection, I found that a stone slab hidden in the grass had split into three pieces, revealing the mouth of an old well, obviously blocked up many years ago, for our elderly neighbour had never mentioned its existence

 The well was round, of stone, faced with cement, and quite narrow, only about two foot six wide. My initial fright was needless, as it was blocked a couple of feet down. the previous owners must have found it handy to water the animals in the buildings just behind. I was tempted to dig it out, a source of free water for the garden would have been worth having, but the thought of digging at the bottom of such a narrow hole to a considerable depth gives me cold shivers, not to mention the obvious danger of collapse of the old stone work. We will fill it in to ground level and replace the stone cover. Perhaps it might be wise to buy a concrete slab to cap the hole. Living in Devon, I have heard of several sudden surprises from old mine shafts suddenly reappearing. Rather than going to the trouble of filling a deep shaft, the miners just inserted beams across the hole some ten feet down and made a timber platform to block the hole, which was then filled level with the ground. The timber would rot after a hundred years and the pit would suddenly reappear, surprising people who had built on or near it!
   An interesting and surprising discovery in our little domain, though, as I am sure you will agree.
  Bye for now, lunch calls.