Powercut and Cats in the Garden

I came downstairs this morning, loaded and switched on the dishwasher and switched on two sets of lights.  I walked out to feed the rabbits and chicks and on the way back to the house went into the gym/utility barn to feed the tropical fish.  Their tank was not illuminated.  I pressed the light switch – no light.  I check the fusebox for downed switches but they were all in the up position.  I went back into my house and no comforting hum from the dishwasher and no lights.  We had a power cut.  When there’s a power cut I like to check this out with someone else in the village to make sure it’s not just my electricity supply which is down, but no-one was home, except for Sylvie my neighbour who works nights, so going to see her early in the morning isn’t an option. 

I read in the garden for an hour joined by Purrdy who climbed up onto the pergola above my head and disturbed raindrops from the clematis and honeysuckle which fell on me and dampened the pages of my book.  By 9.30am – an hour later - I decided to go shopping.

Yesterday I heard from my surgeon that my mini gastric bypass was to be postponed until Monday because of a shortage of anaesthetists during the holiday period.  So I have a few more days to enjoy a bit of high living in the food department.

This morning I went shopping for food to take me through some of those extra days I now have before going into hospital. 

Beautiful, ripe, vine tomatoes were on offer at a ridiculously cheap price, and they smelled seriously tomatoey, so I bought a big bagful to make some sauce, as mine in the polytunnel won’t be ready in quantity for a few weeks yet.

As I arrived home, Sylvie was in the lane.  I stopped the car and simultaneously we each asked the other if we had electricity and then laughed.  I suggested that as she is French and can be better understood than I can that she use her mobile to contact EDF to see if they knew about the powercut.

So – all that food and no fuel to cook it – frustrating eh?  I put three Weetabix into a bowl and drowned them with milk and sprinkled them with sugar.  No bacon for breakfast today then.

I’m not sure how long my battery lasts on this laptop.  I’ve just checked and I currently have 2hrs and 28 minutes, and now Sylvie’s arrived with news about the powercut.

There has been some sort of accident which has cut the power, but, and you have to understand that only in France could this happen, they are switching the power back on at 12.00pm so people can cook their lunches!   They’ll try to keep it on for an hour, they’re not sure.  Then it will be off until 5.30pm. 

If you don’t have experience of France you may not know, but at midday sirens sounds in all the towns and lunch starts.  Workmen drop their tools where they stand and leave for two hours for their lunchtime.  Shops close, the streets become like streets in ghost towns and people just disappear inside to dining tables across the land.  When I first arrived here, I constantly forgot this and would drive 20-25 minutes to my nearest diy store for supplies only to find the doors shut and that I had a two hour wait until 2.00pm in the car park.  You’d think I’d have remembered after the first time, but I didn’t.  Time and time again I’d have to make the decision to turn around and go home or sit it out.  I learned to leave a book in the car permanently so I always had something to pass the time.  In the larger supermarkets, which don’t close, it’s a wonderful time to shop as there’s no competition for browsing counters and no wait at the checkout.

So – we may have power for lunchtime and then nothing this afternoon which is a real pain as I have loads of things I want to do, all of which involve electricity, for instance both my mobiles are nearly out of battery and need charging, laundry etc. etc.   That’s the trouble with modern life.  At least I’m slightly better off than Sylvie, who has electric shutters on her windows which she closes every night.  They shut out every pinpoint of light and so she’s in pitch black over in her house until midday. 

I have stood out in the lane with my mobile, walking around until I found a signal, and called my friends who live about 3 miles away.  Sylvie was out there too trying to make contact with the outside world! They have electricity, so after lunch I’ll pop over there for a cup of coffee and to continue using and simultaneously charging the laptop.

My little hamlet is a very quiet, calm place, hardly any noise except for birds and the lunchtime siren which you can just hear from the town three miles away, if the wind is in the right direction.  However, today is it very, very noisy.  Men with very big red machines are resurfacing the road.  This is one of them - a grader apparently.

I’ve never seen so many big machines at once.  They started on Monday, but disappeared for the whole of yesterday and now they are back in full force.  We have had some terrible potholes after the last two seriously snowy winters, so it will be lovely to drive along without having to negotiate the worst of them.

Well – midday came and went without the promised lunchtime electricity supply.  I went out into the lane to see if anyone knew anything and our two English holiday home owners were chatting to Sylvie and have arrived to spend a shortened month in St André. 

Sylvie’s shutters were still firmly closed and her three daughters were all fast asleep still, having not been woken by daylight!

I had coffee with my holidaying English neighbours as they have a gas cooker and could boil water.  We caught up with events since they were here around New Year.   I then went on to my friends to charge my laptop and have some coffee.  When I returned at 4.35pm, via the veggie patch, we had electricity again – thank goodness.  I picked some spinach and runner beans, the first runner beans this year, and will look forward to having them with my supper.

Friday and Weekend Things

Yesterday was one of those on and off rainy days.  I like to take photographs when the rain has just stopped or when the light is not so bright as I think the colours of flowers are more enhanced or less drained. 
This is one of the sunflowers growing up past my sitting room window - finally opened in the little bit of sunshine we had.

My neighbour's blue hydrangea in the driveway.

An orange Marigold in my garden.

A neighbour's pink Hydrangea in the driveway.

A yellow marigold in my driveway.

Crocosmia Lucifer in the border.  It's such a vibrant red - I love it.

And a close up of one bloom.

I'm still reading "Choral Society", but have a trilogy to read by Stieg Larsson, which have just arrived from ebay.

I'm going to save these until after my hospital stay.  I think I need some lighter reading for that and I may also try to see if I still have some talking books on CD which I can take in.  In June I took "A Year in the Merde" by Stephen Clarke, but wasn't very keen on it.  I also took in "Billy" by Pamela Stephenson which I did enjoy.   I love reading, but when you're not feeling absolutely up to par, it's quite pleasant to lie back and listen to someone read to you.

On Friday I was treated to lunch by friends from the Bowls Club.  Here they are trying to choose what to eat.

I had lunch out again today, this time with friends from my Writers' Group and a couple of husbands came too.  You can see I finished my meal - there won't be any more meals like this for a very, very long time..    I'm very grateful for the support that I'm getting regarding my bypass from both groups of friends.

 

And lastly, a photograph to show how Purrdy has grown in the few weeks that she's lived here with us. 

Three things I like:

1.   Eating with friends.

2.   Purrdy going to sleep on my chest while I watch television.

3.   Getting into bed at the end of the day.

Harvest to come, Garden Flowers and St Michel en Grèves

It was much cooler this morning, and couldn't make up its mind whether to be sunny or chuck down a heavy shower.

The sunflowers coming up past my sitting room window are now in full bud and almost ready to unfurl their petals.  The plants are not going to win prizes for height, but already reach above my head.  I think they're going to need some vine eyes screwed into the wall to allow a string to support the stems against the wind.

The hot weather we've been having recently, interspersed with occasional heavy showers has meant that the vines are growing really fast and the tiny little pip sized grapes are now swelling up and it looks as if they'll be a good harvest this year.

Another good harvest will be blackberries in a couple of months when they've swelled with juice and turned to a deep purple.  My neighbour who abandoned his house and garden nearly two years ago has brambles everywhere and they are also all along the lanes around here.  Looks like the freezer will be full this year.

My worker worked hard yesterday and dug out the messy ground where I park the car.  There was a lot of mud there which had caused me to slip on more than one occasion after it had been raining.  The area was then lined with weed suppressing membrane and covered with shingle.  Looks much better than before.

This is one of the roses on the driveway

and here is another - I love them.

Although the cats have plenty of water to drink in the house, alongside their food dish, they always seem to prefer drinking out of puddles or, in this case, the pond.

and talking of cats, these are a few flowers hidden under leaves next to the catdoor.

and these mixed up flowers are under the kitchen window.

and this clematis growing to the left of the kitchen window.

This afternoon I drove to Plestin les Grèves on the north coast to see a French woman who has already had the same bypass operation that I'm going to have, at the same hospital with the same surgeon.  She was lovely.  She has done really well and lost 64 kg/141lbs/10st1lb.  She was very confident and told me everything I had wanted to know.  We'll keep in touch.

On the way I stopped at St Michel en Grèves.  The wind was blowing so strongly off the sea that it was really hard to hold the camera steady, even leaning against a post.

As I drove out towards Plestin les Grèves, I came across this house on the side of the road and had to stop.  I will try to find out more about why it is decorated like this.

Three things I like:

1.   Hearing the rain on the landing window.
2.   Eating the chocolate brownie I bought on the way home.
3.  My new photocard system - switch camera on and photographs simply transfer to my laptop.

Bon Repos Market and Wimbledon Mens' Final

Another super weather day here in St André.  I woke early and listened to the Archers programme I missed yesterday.  Then I fed the cats, rabbits and chicks before going up to the field to do the same for the hens, ducks, chickens, chicks and goats up there.  I had been meaning to check the end of the veggie plot to see if there were any courgettes.  I was apparently late doing this, as there were two which had turned into marrows.

 

From now on in, I spend my days giving away courgettes.  As I was off to lunch with friends I could get rid of these first two straightaway.  Don’t get me wrong, I love courgettes, but the plants produce so many that I am always inundated with them.  The year before last, I bought a recipe book devoted entirely to courgettes, but it seems to have hidden itself somewhere impenetrable.

Drove over to Bon Repos, which was absolutely packed, as you can see from the full tables outside the café where we had lunch.

I had to take a photograph, but not close enough, of the French veggie stall seller, who looks exactly like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (celebrity good life, self-sufficiency/chef - for those out of the UK).

Spent the afternoon watching the mens’ Wimbledon Final between Nadal and Djokovic.  It was a beautiful afternoon outside here, 44 degrees in the shade at 17.20 hours. 

This photograph from The Guardian On-Line. 

Djokovic took the first two sets but then failed to win the third set.  However, in the fourth set  he broke Nadal’s service bringing the score to 5-3 and he only had to win one more game, his service game, to be Wimbledon Champion - and he did it!  Congratulations to Novak Djokovic! 

On a personal note, I am having hassle with my neck where the operation scar is located.  It is still swollen above the scar and as it presses on my collar bone is quite sore.  I'm supposed to massage the scar, but massaging against a bone is not something I want to do.  I may try to see the surgeon who did the operation while I am in hospital for the bypass as he is in the same building.

Three things I like:

1.   The excitement of the Wimbledon Final.

2.   Seeing blue sky and no clouds over my house.

3.   Smelling honeysuckle drifting on the breeze.