Forecasts

St. Martial
Yesterday's weather: Mr Meteo got it wrong AGAIN!

Meteo.fr is the official weather forecast website for France*. You get a three-times-a-day forecast for 36 hours for the most localised weather and a 4 day overview for the whole of France or its regions. If you pay a subscription you can get a 'detailed' localised weather forecast for up to 4 days.

The weather is dear to our hearts. Not as much as to our neighbouring farmers, but we like to plan what jobs we can do in the morning or afternoon. If it is going to rain or be extremely hot (yes, it is sometimes) then we won't plan to do anything major outside. I have been putting off painting our gateposts for the right weather.

Yesterday we had invited friends to lunch. Mr Meteo, as we fondly refer to him as if he were a friend (not) had informed us that we would have mostly sunshine and a comfortable 22 degrees. The morning was glorious and we carefully set the table under the shade of the horse chestnut, not my most favourite of trees, but it does give excellent shade at lunchtime. By 12.30 our guests were expected, the sun went in, the temperature dropped and we were decidedly chilly under the tree. At 5pm they left. The sun suddenly appeared again and we had a beautiful sunny evening.

Question of the day: Would we pay a subscription for a detailed four day forecast? That's a tough one. If Mr Meteo can't get it right 4 hours in advance, then I think we will hang on to our money.

(Disclaimer)* Other weather forecasting websites are available

Cat and mouse games

Saint Pierre - Paul
Yesterday's weather : Well, at least it didn't rain - 20 degrees
Message of the day: There are no ordinary cats (Colette)


The kitten woke me up at 6am this morning scatching at the door asking to be let out. I tried telepathy to tell him to shut up and let me get some more sleep but obviously my telepathic powers were too weak. I should add at this point that we did not partake of the fizzy PF yesterday despite handing over a cheque to poolman, so despite my prediction, I am not sitting here wearing dark glasses.

The cats are a continual source of amusement, comfort and frustration since we moved to France. Those who know us well will be aware that they were house cats in their former lives and they have embraced the outside world with gusto - for the most part.

Take yesterday, for example. Jazz brought home a mouse. Not unusual in itself except that she thought she would share this one with us since she hadn't been home much for a few days and wanted to reassure us how much she loves us really. So Morris the mouse was brought into the kitchen. I was upstairs at the time so Jazz called me a few times to make sure that I would come down to meet Morris and show my due appreciation. Jon was in the garage listening to his garage music (this. I should mention was Handel on that particular morning it had been Tears for Fears earlier; we have recently been reunited with some long lost cassette tapes). You won't be surprised to learn that I did not immediately love Morris as much as Jazz obviously did, especially as he was currently running around the kitchen floor, trying to find a hiding place. Figaro, on the other hand was particularly keen to get to know him and thought a good game would be 'chase the mouse under the sofa and bat him around the floor'. Morris had other ideas, refused to join in and was last seen in Figgy's jaws being carted off into the garden to play hide and seek under the fig tree.


Later Jazz thought she would try out the new feature in the garden. Surely it's a bouncy castle put there just for her? She jumped on it to see how it worked. Unfortunately she found that the cover on the big paddling pool only floats when it doesn't have any weight on top of it and she also discovered that she can't swim........ I don't know how she found her way out but only her feet were wet.

Misty, of course, isn't a cat. Well, we think she is, but she is convinced that she is a grown up human being and watches the antics of the other two with the expression of a kindly grandparent. She is affronted when we have the audacity to put her in the kitchen with the other two at night because she should be allowed to sleep in her own bedroom (the study). She would really like to have her own dressing gown and carpet slippers for cosy evenings in front of the television and a nice cup of tea wouldn't go amiss right now because she was woken up by that noisy kitten too and it was just too early, a girl needs her beauty sleep after all. And so say all of us, Misty.

Planning - a secret to be shared

Message of the day: Wine a little, it makes you feel better
Sainte Irénée
Yesterdays weather - very mixed and just too cold for June! Must try harder....

Before we retired and moved over here our very dear friends let us into a little known secret. At the risk of excommunication from the Brotherhood of Retired Persons, I am prepared to share this secret with you all.

It is the secret of Planning Fluid.

It is a little known fact that the 'little grey cells' (Poirot fans will recognise the term) work much better when the body has been liberally lubricated with said liquid. The liquid can be white, pink or red (pink and white are preferable for hot days) and should be consumed with abandon before any decision is taken. We prefer the French variety of fluids, although Italian will do at a pinch. The fluid is produced in all areas of France, our own area is well known for a particularly heavy one, known sometimes as the 'black planning fluid'. Over-use of this one can result in the consumer taking to their bed and no decision being reached for several days.

My favourite planning fluid at the moment comes from Alsace (for hot days) and Bergerac (for the red variety). For extremely important decisions and when a final decision is imminent, we like to take the king of all planning fluids which comes in a big green bottle, is very expensive and is effervescent (I don't know when it effer vasn't - sorry, old pantomime joke slipped in there).

As we are about to pay a huge cheque to swimming pool man today, I think the fizzy type is called for later on. I suspect tomorrow's blog will be written from behind dark glasses.

Twitching and, er, (how shall I put this...?) - droppings

Saint Fernand
Yesterday's weather - just worse and worse

We wish we could recognise birdsong. There is such a variety of it here. Of course we know the blackbird, magpie, cuckoo, but the various small birds are more difficult to spot and as we don't know their songs we have to take a guess sometimes. There is one bird with a very complicated and exotic sounding song, we would love to know what it is. Meanwhile we are compiling a list of those we have seen or heard and recognised: hoopoes and nightingales are the rarer varieties we have come across, robins of course, redstarts, bluetits, coaltits, great tits, chaffinch, bullfinch and wagtails are fairly common. There are birds of prey but we can't be sure what they are. Not kites, red or black.

We also have a huge range of butterflies who are probably grounded now because of the rain. On Sunday afternoon we counted at least 10 varieties in as many minutes.

We found a few 'messages' around the garden the other day - I have been trying to find out who (what) left them and enlisted the help of a friend. Unfortunately he requested a photograph, which I duly took and mailed to him. We think it is hedgehog, which will be very welcome as there is no limit to food for him here, the slugs are enormous; unfortunately it may be a marten which is not such a welcome beast, especially if it gets into the loft space at all as they are known to be very smelly. Potential guests will be warned in advance if the marten takes up residence. Meanwhile we are poo-free in the house at least.

Forms, forms, forms

Saint Anthelme
Yesterdays weather: I don't want to talk about it (18 degrees). Currently stair rod rain!

It is imperative that one of the first things you do when you move to France, or a new area within France, is meet the mayor. So after 8 years of holidays and 5 months of living here we did just that today (procrastination being one of our character traits since we moved here). Monsieur le Maire is a very nice chap, talks a bit too fast for me to keep up with but as long as I get the main substance of what he is telling me, if I miss a word here and there, it isn't too much of a worry.

We went to see him to find out whether we need planning permission for the shed/garden house. In France you need to fill in a form to exempt you from filling in a form, so we have to complete a declaration de travaux so that we don't have to complete a permit de construire.

We will have to submit forms for both the pool and the shed, separately of course. They are both completed in triplicate with plans of the village showing our location, plans of the property showing where we intend to build the pool and the shed and plans of the shed and the pool separately. Apparently this will take 3 - 4 weeks to be approved but it will be approved, no question. I suspect that it will be normalement 3 - 4 weeks but we will go ahead and buy the shed anyway as it is on a 4 week lead and all should come together at the same time (probably in November).




The mayor gave us some news - apparently the village is absolutely crowded with anglophones..... English, Scots, Irish and we haven't met one of them, so I don't know where they are hiding. But then, they haven't met us yet either and I know where we have been for the last 5 months. He also tells us that there is a soirée quiz held in the village store/bar which is well frequented by the Anglo-Saxons. He then went on to tell us all the social activities planned for this coming season, starting with the big fair for all the local villages in two weeks time. It seems we could be looking forward to a lot of late nights this summer.

Sheds, shopping and lunchtime closing

Saint Prosper
Yesterday's weather: Beautiful - 28 degrees
Message of the day: Happy Birthday, Dave G.

A stormy night - I had to get up at 1.30 and let Figgy in before he drowned. Jazz is still out even now and it is chilly and raining this morning.

We are going to look for our 'garden room' today. We are looking for a cross between a shed and a chalet - or we may even end up with one of each, one for the garden tools and one for the garden furniture and pool accessories. We've been tipped off about a supplier with lots of choice about an hour west of here.

That is one of the problems we have come up against - everything is at least an hour's drive, and most places are closed between 12 and 2 (how civilised, an old-fashioned lunch break). If you don't get up early enough you have to wait until the afternoon to be able to get anything done. Not that we mind, although it can be a little frustrating if I have forgotten it is Monday and the bakers are all closed - that'll be no bread for lunch today then, especially as I didn't get up in time to make bread.....

Hay update

Our friend did go without his Sunday lunch yesterday. He appeared with his tractor and re-whisked all the hay into piles and then came back with his other tractor attachment to roll it into bales. We managed 6 for our small field - it makes ya feel very proud y'know.

Flies, damned flies and whiskers (not on the cat)

Message of the day: HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!!
Saint Jean-Baptiste
Yesterday's weather: mixed cloud and sun - no rain - 21 degrees (today is fantastic already!)

One of the most annoying things we have here is flies. They arrived at the end of May in their millions and I must say that the entertainment value of seeing who can swat the most has long worn thin. We have put up temporary fly screens at the windows and door so there aren't too many indoors now - although to give you and idea of what we are up against, even so we regularly swat around a dozen in the kitchen every hour or so and probably twenty before we go to bed at night. I'm sure that any Bhuddists reading this will be horrified, and much as I don't enjoy killing things, flies are our exemption. Outside is a nightmare. We can't sit on the patio without being hassled but luckily in the shade it is much more comfortable - they are sunbathing flies! At least they don't bite - my collection of insect bites is still quite colourful, I'm hoping that one day I will become immune - creatures don't think Jon tastes quite as nice as me. When our new windows arrive (normalement this will be in September but we are hoping before summer 2008) we hope that the integral fly screens will help solve the problem indoors - but if anyone knows of a good solution for outside, do let us know. Whiskers
Picture of the day is the field being whisked. Monsieur Deneux was busy yesterday afternoon whisking all his hay before it will be collected up into rolls. As rain is forecast for tomorrow we are wondering if he will forego his day of rest today - the weather is fantastic this morning, 22 degrees at 10am.

Why we still love weekends

Saint of the day: Ste Audrey
Yesterday's weather: Miserable - 19 degrees, showers and sunshine
Message of the day : Beware the cat with the cobweb face

Funny, isn't it? You'd think that for those of us who are fortunate enough not to have to do the Monday to Friday grind, one day would be much as any other. Strangely, it isn't. We actually enjoy the fact that most people aren't working today and the area takes on a more relaxed feel.

Some of the larger towns have big markets on a Saturday, we might just potter along to one of them some mornings - depending on what time we finish breakfast! We wouldn't dream of doing this in July or August of course (unless we were showing them off to visitors) as that is high tourist season and it is almost impossible to park unless you arrive before 10am. So we have just two more market days before the crowds arrive until September.

Sundays are lovely. There is a unspoken agreement that no-one uses a mower, strimmer, chainsaw or has a bonfire after midday. Even the farmer generally leaves his tractor in the barn on a Sunday but he does pop by to check that the cows are all still in the field. He comes along and counts them before their extended family gather at his house for lunch. At midday everything in the valley goes silent until maybe 3 or 4 pm when people start heading home again and we hear the swish of cars rolling down the hill and off into the distance.

Lofty ambitions

Today we have been looking at the loft again. We are still trying to decide where to put the access, how much work we really want to do in there and what it will be used for. We think we are coming to a sensible compromise (watch this space!). Jon has cleared out the strange aperture which is going to become the only window for the time being. He is currently above my head sawing away to make a fly screen which will hopefully deter any further infestation of flies which then work their way down to the bedroom/study in spring. It is extremely dusty up there, hasn't been cleaned for years, and I suggested we get a couple of dust masks before we clean it deeply.

It is a big space and will make a super room when it is finished but don't expect that too soon as nothing works very fast over here and it is soon August when France closes for the summer holidays - so why start something now? 'Normalement' is a common word in French - normalement something will be done tomorrow, or next week, or even next month but don't expect anything and it may be done eventually.

Figgy came up with us and, of course, couldn't get back down again he eventually managed it by climbing on my shoulder and being carried down the ladder. He is now in the garden clearing off all the cobwebs that were attached to his whiskers (very fetching!).

Summer in the Lot

First things first
We've been here for nearly 5 months now. We just can't believe where the time has disappeared to. We are gradually getting used to living in the house rather than just visiting and daily we have new ideas about where to live, sleep (we've changed bedroom) and what to do with the garden, loft and kitchen.

At last, summer has (officially if not obviously) arrived. So today the temperature has dropped to a cool 19 degrees. The overnight rain at least saved me from having to water the tomatoes, courgettes and other plants.

After two very late nights we are relaxing in the study this morning and here is my first attempt at blogging. Please bear with me, I'll do my best to update it as often as I can.


Momentous decision
We have decided to install a swimming pool. It is an expensive option but one, we are assured and convinced, that will be a great asset to our lives out here. Apparently this area of France has the largest number of pools and we can understand why. Firstly we are at least 3 hours from the sea and on a hot day who wants to sit in the car that long? Secondly it does get very hot here, OK not this year so far, but generally you can count on several weeks of temperatures way over 30 degrees.

Are we enjoying our retirement?
Yes, yes and yes. How many people used to ask us what on earth we would do with our time without getting up and going to work every day. Well we seem to be able to fill it very nicely thank you. Every day is busy. There are many jobs, big and small to get on with and we are never idle. Well on a hot day between midday and 4pm it is impossible to get on with any gardening, DIY or anything else much so we are catching up on some reading (I'm sure that Waterstones in Guildford are missing my custom already). Over the last few years we stockpiled novels, autobiographies and reference books as well as craft supplies (not that I've had time for that).

If we miss anything it is friends and family but we are making new friends here and are really enjoying each other's company too.

Cat blog
Jazz is thinking about writing her own blog too but she thinks she is just too busy at the moment. Well the farmer cut the field yesterday and there are so many newly discovered mouse holes to explore that she just doesn't have time. Misty won't consider a blog, it would interfere with her duty sitting under the fig tree pretending to be a guard cat (Actually, we were amazed the other week when she actually saw off a Rottweiler who happened to wander past!), looking out for intruders like the postman and welcoming visitors, as she did the other day when we were out. Unfortunately she couldn't get in the kitchen to make them a cup of tea, but we know that she would have if she could. Figgy won't be blogging either, that's a girly thing and he's a boy, so there!

Well, my dears, I must now be away. I need to think about lunch, plan supper, check that all the plants are still standing after last night's rain and measure the plot for that swimming pool - shame it won't be installed until 2008.......