Visitors, power cuts and hospital appointments

I had some lovely days this week with my oldest son and three of his friends, staying here in St André. 

The weather was mixed but we all got some good sunshine hours in the garden, particularly on Thursday and everyone is more bronzed than we were at the beginning of the week.  One afternoon saw them over at a friend's house in Bonen and then walking the Nantes Brest canal while I sat in the sunshine and read my book club book on the bank side.

Here are Mike, Matthew (my son), Leslie and Brett -all lovely boys!

The hot tub was popular the first two nights into the early hours of the morning until a power cut in the village seemed to take out the motor.  Where’s a repair man when you need one?  The repair man for my laptop is my son, and he has spent more than a few hours working on problems on my new laptop – just one email account to sort out and it’s done.

The power cut came at 08.15hrs on Friday morning and bizarrely we had one at exactly the same time this morning too.  EDF decided it was nothing to do with them but was to do with my neighbour’s house itself until I called and reported it too and another neighbour telephoned as well.  We were promised a team to arrive in the afternoon and they did.  They had to replace some part on the main pole in the village after hearing about the explosions happening in there simultaneously with the cut.  Unfortunately, the incubator with twelve blue Cream Legbar eggs dropped in temperature during these cuts so the lives of the twelve little chicks due to be born this week was in doubt.  Another cut yesterday and a very short one this morning.  EDF workers have been down both days but seem pretty ineffective.
 

Since we replaced the polytunnel cover last week I have been sowing seeds and some of them have already germinated and are pushing up into quite decent plants.  So I’ve got runner beans, broad beans, courgettes, pumpkins, cucumbers, lots of different salad leaves and tomatoes coming on well. The door still have to be recovered but need some welding so the old ones have been kept for the time being.  I’ve had two decent bowls of strawberries. 
 

I don’t know what sort the plants are, there are lots of different ones but they all taste very good, and one of my guests brought clotted cream with him which makes them taste even better!

The boys left today and took six dozen of my free range eggs back with them.  Yesterday I had the biggest eggs I have ever seen.  It weighed 104g and I wonder if it’s going to turn out to be a triple yolker.  I get lots of double yolkers but have never yet had a triple. 

The nephrologist saw me on Wednesday this week.  The appointment was made after a very high creatinine level on a blood test weeks ago.  This high reading indicates severe kidney disease - which seemed unlikely as I recently had a kidney scan and my kidneys were both deemed very healthy.  Since that high reading there have been two normal ones and the consultant decided that there was no immediate worry but that he would just monitor me with three blood tests over the next six months and another appointment with him in November this year.

The lung specialist appointment this week showed that my oxygen levels were good and my lungs fine.  I asked if we could stop the six monthly appointments and she agreed with the proviso that I have a sleep apnoea overnight recording done in twelve months time and then annually.  Result!

I have yet another medical appointment, on Monday with the endocrinologist.  My parathormone level is still very high but dropping all the time through the last three blood tests.  I am still taking 2g of calcium a day and two doses of Vitamin D each month in the hope that I may absorb more calcium.  I am now on daily folic acid too so let’s hope that is also helping absorption.

So far there have been guests during June in both cottages who all said enjoyed themselves and promised to recommend the accommodation to others. They were my first English guests – previous visitors have been Dutch, German, Russian, Costa Rican, American and Australian.  I have no-on booked in now until the third week of July but there may be some more enquiries from the two websites with which I’m registered.  Anyone reading this who fancies being welcomed to a self-catering holiday in central Brittany in one of two well-renovated stone cottages, only needs to contact me by email at sandrachubb@orange.fr.


 

Here are some photos of the two bedroomed cottage.

The wisteria is just going over now with all the wind and rain it hasn't had much of a chance, but hopefully it will have a second flowering later in the year.

 

Many of the roundabouts here in Brittany have great designs on them but I think my favourite is this one just outside Roscoff with the beach and beach huts recreated.

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   Hearing the baby chick cheeping in the incubator. 

2.   Eating icecream while relaxing on a sunbed in the sunshine.

3.   Seeing newly sown seeds poking through the compost as bright green leaves.