The turning of the Seasons

  Well, that's the end of lighting the stove in the morning when I get up. I've cleared out the ash drawer, removed the ready-use log supply and swept the hearth. I hope we don't have a real cold snap now, but I'm not going to start again barring a real return to the Ice Age...in real emergency, we've got the gaz heater, of course. Now is the time for planting (for Kim, that is, though I have rotovated the potager) and cutting grass. Time to look forward to swimming and a trip to the Pyrenees. Winter is finished, long live Summer.
  Bye for now, nearly tea time

Debugging. Nothing to do with computers!

   When you're running an Ark, with three dogs and up to a dozen cats, you will find that you have also acquired other, uninvited livestock, what an aristocratic seller of Pekingese dogs we met used to call 'lodgers'. I refer of course to fleas mainly, though ticks and mites are not unknown. It is therefore of intense interest to come across a product,which not only keeps its promises, but comfortably exceeds them!
  When confronted with this problem, we have usually used Frontline,either in its spray or spot-on form. However, the chemical seems to have lost its potency lately and a kitten continued to have fleas after as many as three applications in a week, clearly not a good thing. Our vet advised a product called Sorresto for the dogs, and we fitted all three with these special collars. They look like grey, plastic collars, and had a faint chemically smell which soon wore off. They were a bit expensive, but last at least six months, so worked out reasonable compared with the more frequent spot-ons.
  After a few days we were pleased to find the dogs were free of fleas, but most surprisingly, so were all the cats as well!! The house seems to be a no-go area for fleas and we haven't seen one for months. It's not often that a product proves so unexpectedly efficacious and I would thoroughly recommend it if you are pet owners plagued with flea infestations!

  Bye for now, going to enjoy the feeling of a flea-free house and pets that don't scratch!

Calories, it's not that simple

   A couple of days ago, Kim was watching a programme on calories on the TV. I was only half watching, as it's a subject which doesn't really concern me, my weight remaining stable without the need for dieting. The programme stated that 100 calories consumed in excess of requirements would build up day by day leading to a continual weight gain.
  I feel, from my own experience that this is an oversimplification. There must be a separate process which prevents this in many persons, analogous to the system where the kidneys excrete surplus salt. When I was living in Portsmouth as a young man, I stayed in digs run by an ex-Navy petty officer, who prided himself on his cooking. My skinny frame was a reproach to his feeding, he compared me to a Maltese goat, ' All ----- and toe-nails'..... He decided to feed me up. A full English breakfast was on offer, sausages, bacon, fried bread, the lot, as well as cereal. At work I ate a good canteen lunch and in the evening a copious dinner of soup, main course and a good desert, on which suet pudding was a frequent choice. Did I gain weight? I did not, though I did have to visit the toilet much more frequently....
   I feel this pretty conclusively proves that thin people will remain thin whatever their diet, while people who are naturally plump can remain thin only by eating carefully. Life isn't fair, is it?

    Bye for now, going to eat breakfast.......

End of an Era, sad death of Gremlin

  I'm afraid I have sad news for readers of the Ark-- on Monday we had to have Gremlin put to sleep. He has had a heart condition for many years and had to have medicine to keep him running. Still, he was a happy and apparently healthy cat, enjoying his food and would come running across the cour when called. When he was diagnosed we really didn't expect that he would survive for so long, but he defied all pessimists and seemed to go on and on. However, an ominous lump developed on his side, a cancerous growth, that threatened his life but due to his heart condition it was impossible to operate, he would not have survived the op. But he was not really inconvenienced by the lump, and continued much as before. But the swelling got worse and while I was in the UK for a few days to fetch Kim back, it started to bleed. Agnes, who was looking after the animals, took him to the vet, who said the bleeding was not serious and he could await our return. but it was obvious that the tumour had become infected and its growth was accelerating, and we were not surprised when Francois, our vet, agreed that the time had come to decide. So we came sadly back home with an inert package in the cat box rather than our silky-haired cat. He's now buried under the quince tree in the orchard, joining several of his friends. Kim is going to plant some daffodils and cowslips round the plot.
   Its always sad to say goodbye to a much-loved pet but we are comforted by the thought that he has had a good life and we were able to let him finish it with dignity and without suffering. Goodbye, Gremlin, run free!

The Village of Wooden People?

    On recent visits to Cognac, the GPS has taken us through the village of Bréville, whose chief peculiarity  is a large number of wooden statues lining the streets. The last time we passed, I took the opportunity to stop and photograph some of them and to try to find out why the streets are largely populated by crowds of wooden beings, human, animal and mythical.
I found that the images were by various different sculptors and had to revert to the Net, once I had returned home to find out the reason behind this plethora of wooden statues. It appears that it has specialised in woodcarving, having several different workshops and training schemes and an annual fete with woodcarving as a theme. Obviously, the town has decided to display some of the best figures in its streets to an impressive degree. it certainly makes the town memorable!

  Bye for now, lunch calls

Are you a Sitztpinkler?

 I read a fascinating article on the side of the BBC news today which not only added to my knowledge, but showed me the German race in an entirely new light. A German man was being sued for 1900Eur for damage to a marble bathroom floor by a slight mis-direction when using the toilet, what the French refer to as ' pisser a coté ' The learned judge ruled that a man was not obliged to sit when using the apparatus, and that the standing position was still considered normal for men. WELL, I was not aware that the matter was in any sort of question, but as background it appears that a debate is taking place in the Fatherland as to whether the seated position should be considered the norm. Indeed, it appears there are traffic light-like signs appearing, forbidding the standing position at the adjacent toilet bowl. An opposing faction refers derisively to seated pee-ers as Sitzpinklers, implying that their masculinity is in doubt.
  As I said, the whole question is quite new to me, and the traffic light would not have conveyed any meaning. I have in the past been taken to task by Kim for a few misdirected drops, but I assure persons inviting me into their homes, that my aim is usually good, and, if the worst arrives, I would, of course, rectify any spillage with toilet paper. In the circumstances, I intend to continue proudly erect, ein Stehenpinkler whatever the traffic lights may instruct. The German male has, however, fallen slightly in my eyes.....

   Bye for now, just going to strain the greens, see a man about a dog, take a leak in fact, standing, of course!

Is There a Kitten in the House?

  I promised you at the end of my last blog to let you have news of an event after we returned from Lille. The sad death of Charlotte had left an empty space in our household, even though Mu-Mu or Mounette, as her official name is, had tried to comfort us with extra cuddles. Then Kim, surfing on the site of Annabel Hinchcliffe, who re-homes loads of kittens, had an appeal for a tri-colour kitten,  who had the name of  Lottie! We felt this was an omen, and after discussion agreed to take her on.
She was said to be extremely shy and really needed special care to win her trust with humans.
Annabel`s house is in the Dordogne, a couple of hours from here, but we are not fazed by distance and set out to fetch the kitten. Unfortunately, it was a day of mist and drizzle, as seems common lately, but we arrived ok, after a rather idiosyncratic route provided by the GPS, and found the house with not too much difficulty. Annabel was sorry to see the kitten go, she is a lovely lady and has the same attitude to cats as we do.... After coming back by a more direct
route suggested by the other GPS, we installed the new kitten in our isolation room, otherwise known as the salon. This has a wire door so the new arrival can see the other animals but there is no further interaction.

At first, the kitten hid, each time in a new hiding place, so each time we wished to cuddle her, it was a game of hide and seek. She even spat and clawed the first time we pulled her from her refuge. The strange thing was, once placed on a knee, she was quite tame and affectionate and seemed to relax under caresses, even to purr. Yet once released, it was the same game again, we even re-named her Cache-cache, the French for hide and seek, with a more formal name of  Cacharelle. Still, there are only so many hideaways, even in so cluttered a room as our lounge, so we unearthed her each time, and now she has gained confidence she can usually be found sitting in `her` armchair. We also have
been taking her on our laps in the kitchen, when we are looking at the TV in the evenings. Gradually
we are winning her confidence and in a few weeks we will risk letting her out of quarantine!

  Bye for now, going to play with Cache-cache. Kim is unfortunately suffering from a painful kidney stone and has gone back to bed with a hot-water-bottle.