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Category Archives: My home

The week started off badly….

07 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by in My home, People, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good, the bad and the ugly.

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Apologies to all of my Moisy’s French adventure readers for the lack of postings,  it is safe to say it has been a bad week!

I have been busy, blogging on my other blog   (phew two blogs are hard to keep up, and maintaining your social media presence is even harder!) and also preparing some new stock for a Christmas Fayre I am attending on Saturday the 15th. So I have been trying out some new designs and making little angels..

With wooden christmas trees on stands to follow, and of course my signature stars (still a work in progress folks) I also have some unicorns to finish and it is all very time consuming.

But this is not why it has been a crappy week, a week that started off badly and then got worse – although is starting to look a bit brigher now the weekend is on the way. Let me explain:

On Monday I had to go to the bank, and do some errands. We were up early and there was a slight drizzle in the air when I left; but as I drove to our post office it started to actually rain. I arrived at the post office only to find that it was shut! Now I don’t like the post office at the next town of Gorron, I find the woman in there to be a sour faced cow! She never smiles, barks at you and is just generally rude  (think the cliche of a rude French person and that is her, she really lets the side down.) But I had to post a parcel so needs must, and  I knew I would have to go there as I was going into Gorron anyway.

Off I set and as I drove through the grey French winter countryside the heavens opened and it poured down. When I arrived at the post office there were no spaces in the car park so I had to park and walk a couple of minutes  in torrential rain. I looked like a drowned rat. I gave the parcel to ‘les miserables’ and weirdly it cost me ten euros more than a larger and heavier parcel I had posted the week before in the post office at Ambrieres. How I longed to be able to go there with the lovely, friendly French lady; but, alas it was not to be.

Out I came and hurried back to my car, still in the torrential rain; in fact by now I could hardly see there was so much water on my glasses. I then drove on to the bank which was shut, as was expected, but I knew that I could still access the foyer to pay my money in  (banks are shut in France on a Monday, hence the term bank holiday) But to do that I needed a rib which I did not have with me, so I got a rib from the cashpoint (still in the pouring rain) and went inside. But oh no! This was the day when nothing was going to be simple! The bank had no pens to complete the deposit envelope! I went back out to my car (in the pouring rain) in the  hope that there would be a pen there, but of course there wasn’t so off I went to the tabac (in the pouring rain) to buy a pen; then back to the bank (in the pouring rain) to deposit the money. I had experienced enough, so I then went home and sod whatever else we needed!

However the morning from hell was not over; as I entered our kitchen there was rain pouring in down the wall from our roof. The roof we have only just had replaced! Now this is another story that I will tell in the future – once the issue has been resolved, but all I will say is that I will write about it and, despite a thinly veiled threat from someone, the story will be told. I pay for this blog, and I will write what I want!

Having said that there are some people who don’t warrant the word space so the story will be what actually happens and not about people who are so insignificant that they don’t need to be included. There is an important part here though: For those living in France it is worth taking out legal cover with your house insurance, they will then deal with issues like this for you, whilst getting your roof repaired.

Anyhow….. The rain poured in and we had buckets and bowls everywhere which meant tht we had to try and resolve things with odious people which you might have guessed we were unable to resolve.

What a day! I think I will start the week again tomorrow I thought; but I should have known better than to think that it couldn’t get any worse! On Tuesday I broke my tooth, and it was so sharp that it cut my tongue open. I now have a very sore tongue, am still trying to resolve our healthcare cover and cannot afford to go to the dentist! So I did what any self respecting person would do who is in pain and I filed the sharp bits of my tooth myself! Hopefully this will resolve it!

It is funny how some people can bring so much darkness into your lives when you let them in; and I knew that the problems we experienced this week with the roof was one of these occasions and that the only way to stop it was to stop interacting them. But even so it can sometimes still bring you down. I have documented many times the awful people that there are out here, but I am also a positive person normally and I do try and see the good; despite this  I was starting to lose that ability. I was in immense pain with my tongue, and couldn’t speak properly; but despite the pain I was in hubby, as ever, managed to make me laugh when he went off to get some bits from the shop with the list of things I had told him to get: Cat litter, bottle of wine, and potatoe wedges. Here is what he wrote (whilst giggling all the time):

As always I perservered and I got my things done for the craft fair (well some anyway) but I could not shake the feeling of being pissed off: pissed off with people’s shitty attitude; with the pain in my mouth, with French bloody bureaucracy, with people telling you there is an English speaking line and then nobody there speaks English! Pissed off with my mouth really hurting because I have to keep speaking French to people (which is not easy when you have to roll nearly every syllable!) Pissed off with feeling as if I am getting nowhere when nobody rings me back! Pissed off with feeling like I am getting nowhere generally. I had actually started looking at the possibility of moving to Ireland! At least I would have family there and they speak English (well not for Rich, he struggles to understand them, so he said he may as well move to Germany!).

By Wednesday evening I did not want to put my Christmas tree up, I did not want to go the craft fayre, I was in agony and could have cried. So on Thursday morning I messaged a person who I think it is fair to say is (along with my dear friend Mary) one of the kindest people I have met. I just asked if she was up for a chat because I felt pissed off. Now she knows, as you all know, that this is not like me; I am, generally, a positive person but I was struggling and she knew it. She rang me within ten minutes invited me over and helped me with contacting who I needed to about the roof – who were really helpful and prompt (I can say no more at this time) she chased the French bureaucrats with regard to our health cover and they are sending a form to Rich to get it sorted (yey!) and she gave me a hug. That was all I needed. When I came home hubby was worried about me – I am normally the one who keeps him buoyant, so he sat on the sofa and did something so simple – he tickled my leg! My sister called me to see how I was, nagged me to rinse my mouth in salt water, because I know that she worries about me; and I knew that I am blessed to have people who care.

Then I looked out of the window and I saw this….

 

I remembered what Marty (a lovely man who reads this blog) always says about how blessed we are; and I know that we cannot have it all. By last night I had started to cheer up; I just hope my tongue gets better now!

Like I always say in my other blog it is the small things that count, and they make up the good things. Big hugs to those who helped me this week, big hugs.

http://makingthisbetter.com

Moisy

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Me socks ‘r on!!

21 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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We’ve been blessed with glorious weather this autumn, as you know from previous posts. We haven’t been lighting the fire until the evening, and no need for the other expensive electric heaters. They have a double tax on electric out here in France, they tax you and then tax you on the tax!

But winter is creeping in now, it has crept up the valley and across the fields and under the fence into the garden..

It was freezing yesterday with a bitter Easterly Wind, and flurries if snow. The chooks tucked themselves up in their henhouse (there not moving out now, best they stay with us after last Friday) see my post If I bite my tongue too long and I even gave them a fat ball.

This morning we woke up to a freezing fog and the valley was shrouded.

Living in a stone house is stunning, but they have no foundations and once they get cold they impersonate a fridge! If you don’t warm them up early then you have to put everything on to warm them up later.

I was out today – hence the socks!

But I am grateful for what I’ve got, not least the ability to reflect!

To my American readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving, whatever your circumstances be thankful for the small things.

For those to whom Thanksgiving is not of their ilk for any reason – be grateful.

Have a reflective holiday folks, keep it mellow.

Moisy

There is nothing like being in the crisp, cold air…

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good life, The seasons

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You’ll all be glad to know that the Incredible Hulk is now back in his cage.

Yesterday after blogging and writing I spent the afternoon in the garden with hubby and the puppies.

The sun was shining on this late autumn day, and it was cold, with a nippy wind, and I loved it. I let the cold air blow through my brain, and remind me, as the Tao so often does, that what is needed is what you’ve got.

We spent the afternoon using our wonderful new tool that has been a life saver for Rich, the log splitter:

Nearly three years ago we chopped down fourteen pine trees that divided our garden and cut out the light. They were big babies and trying to cut through them with just a chainsaw was nigh on impossible.

But with the log splitter life was made easy because Rich could cut the logs to the right size and the log splitter did the rest. Making light work of it – almost

They’ve been protection for the chickens, an extra to make sure Wiglet could not get under the wire. They have been used to hold the fencing down around the garden, and they have been used as perches for the chooks. But the time has come to use them, before they rot.

There is nothing more rewarding than using what is available to you, letting nothing go to waste. Add to these the logs we have from the sycamore we pollarded in January, with more to cut; and the oak logs, with more to cut, that will not be ready until the winter after next, and we are set up for the next three winters.

So the log store is full with a mixture of pine and hardwood (you can burn pine providing you mix it with other woods) I’ve burnt calories, the puppies are happy and our garden is getting tidy, in small steps.

I don’t have a lot in material things, but what I do have money cannot buy. I am blessed.

Moisy

Have a good week folks

Why I have come to love wind and rain

07 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My family and other furry creatures, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I am surrounded by trees. My home has so many in the garden I could not list them all, but not least is my tree of Tao…

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I have written before how much I love this tree, as she blows majestically in the wind, no matter whether it is light breeze or a hooley, she never seems to move any faster and her branches always sway slowly as it to say she will not be hurried, and what is needed will come.

Last night a hooley blew in. Living on a hill we are susceptible to high winds and when I first moved here I wondered if we had made a mistake, especially when we lost our kitchen roof, and the tornado struck!

We didn’t realise quite how high up we were or how much the wind would blow around us; but as time has gone on I have come to love the wind; I love the way it blows through the branches and leaves of the trees, I love it when you can see the leaves, at this time of year, swirling and dancing their last dance, and I love it because it reminds me that we need to blow the old away to bring in the new.

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So  last night as I lay in bed  (I tend to wake at night, and often cannot get back to sleep)  listening to the wind and the rain battering against the shutters, it made me feel safe, and it made me feel lucky. Here I was laying in bed warm and loved with my husband snoring beside me, one of my Welshie’s snuggled up to me and the other snoring in her bed (she loves her new bed our baby!) and I knew that was all I need.

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I felt protected by our house, and the shutters, and I felt blessed that I was where I was. It really is the simple things!

Sometimes I can lay awake for hours , but  last night listening to the wind and the rain it was as if mother nature had sung me a lullaby and I fell back to sleep.

Today when we woke  the hooley was still in full swing, and as I sit here now writing this the rain is battering away at the window pain, my Welshie’s are asleep on our spare bed and one bar on my gas fire is keeping me warm.

But more than anything the thing I love about the wind and rain is that whilst the rain can calm you the wind can blow your fears away. I woke up today with something on my mind – you know – when there is something there but you cannot quite put your finger on it! So I decided to embrace what life had sent me and I went out into the garden, with my beautiful dogs, and as I did so the sun came out! I just stopped and looked out over the valley, with it’s sunny skies and dark clouds reminding me that the hooley was still with us and I took a breath.

I do not do this enough; I get caught up in the day to day things (writing two blogs, sending my book to agents, admin, unicorns – I know obscure!) and I don’t come out here whatever the weather, with my beautiful puppies who, God willing, will be with me for as long as they can, and even then that will still not be enough; and just spend an hour a day with them surrounded by nature.

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As I spent over an hour gathering the twigs from the enoumous piles of trees we still have to sort,  they hunted whatever I had disturbed from it’s winter hideaway, and just ran around with me, happy that I was outside with them.

As  I let the wind blow through my mind, and blow the cobwebs away, I looked at this amazing place that I am blessed to live and in it reminded me (as it so often has in my life) that we really are just small things that are here for a fleeting moment, and all the things we have on our minds are insignificant really.

Did I find out what was on my mind? No, but I did come in with the reasurrance that whatever it is it will all resolve itself in the end.

Moisy

Doesn’t matter where you live you just accept things as they are..

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, Reflections, The seasons

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Image result for quotes about being too positive

Here is a blog that I wrote last week, and forgot to share with you – sorry about that folks! I would welcome comments on this one….

Since the chilly temperatures last weekend the weather had now become weirdly very warm, and ever so slightly wet. Last year we had the wettest winter ever recorded in France and it can get very grey, very fast over here, which I know gets some people down.

As I look out of my window from where I write there is drizzle in the air and a feeling of dampness everywhere. The Welshie’s are snuggled and asleep and I have lit the fire early today. (I count that as a blessing as we have enough wood to not worry when we light it – for the first time in three years.)

Grey is my favourite colour, most of my house is painted one shade or another of it, and I often sit up here on the hill alone, whilst Rich and my neighbours are at work. It would be quite easy to feel isolated but I don’t. I am someone who likes her own company, I am busy with my two blogs now, and I am writing for hours every day to hone my book because come hell or high water it will be published – with another month heading to the eight thousand views scenario I would be mad not to believe in it.

I do a lot of reading as part of my research, and today I read a post where it said that it was okay to feel down and it got me thinking (which I am blessed to have time to do whilst living on this French hill) am I too positive?

I have blogged in the past about how someone told me that I was – but then she was a person who never seemed happy in her life, no matter what it gave her, and had often suffered from depression.

So can you be too positive? I know from reading the Tao that where there is good there is bad and where there is bad there is good, and perhaps it is that thought that keeps me going through the bad times, that I know that if I believe eventually good will come my way – in whatever form as long as I believe it. I also know that we continously focus on the negative only negative crap will come our way because we are attracting it. But do I not see the negative shit? Or am I now able (after reading the Tao) to just accept the fact that it is ‘just life’?

Let’s look at our roof scenario – it had major damage from a storm in the March of 2016, and then the insurance company refused to pay out. At that time I had lived here a year and yes I was stressed about it. Wondered how we would survive, berated the world for sending crap our way, and it just seemed as if we couldn’t get a break. Then two months later I started to read the philosophy of the Tao (The book was called ‘Change Your thoughts, Change Your Life) and it did change my life. When I first started reading it I wondered what the hell it was talking about, but I perservered and now I get it; but boy did it take time!

In the September a tornado ripped through our garden tearing the silver birch tree in half and finishing off the roof. As you know if you read this blog we had only a tarp that kept us for the elements and we had that tarp for another two years.

But here is the rub: I had learnt that to worry about it was not going to change it. We didn’t have the money to get it done, the water was going to come in but I had to accept that there was nothing I could do until the opportunity arose to fix it. Yes it could have got into the electrics – but it didn’t – yes it could have rotted the rafters – but it didn’t (well not completely) but what was me worrying about it, or being fed up about it going to achieve? Nothing!

I learnt that when the time was right we would get the new roof we needed and we have, we still carried on living here, we did not die! The same as with the water, I learnt from that lesson never to waste water or take it for granted again.

As the years  have gone on I have learnt that worrying and stressing will get me nowhere, and I just have to accept what life dishes out to me, and go with the flow.

Where there is good there is bad and where there is bad there is good. If I don’t know the bad then I won’t know the good.

So am I too positive?

Moisy

Being positive joke

Cloud Watching – Believe,

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My family and other furry creatures, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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It was cold over the weekend and although we had decided to have a bonfire in line with the traditional bonfire night in England (November the 5th folks, when Guy Fawkes, who was a Spaniard (are you keeping up?) was found guarding a huge amount of gunpowder under the houses of parliament and hung drawn and quartered for his sins, even though he was not the main conspirator. So as we English do we celebrate this gory event with bonfires and fireworks – I know we’re weird!) Anyway back to my story….

We had decided to have a bonfire to burn the huge amount of crap we have to burn, not least the smelly damp chicken hay, from the now defuct Chicken Hilton and the old rotted wood from our old roof. But hubby had been at work for half the day and had been busy all week so we decided against it and just had a lovely evening with some friends, drinking lots of wine and eating very hot chilli! (Are we getting old!)

Because Rich had been busy all week and worked yesterday I had promised him a lie in (it is so easy when you live this life to work every day all day and you would still not get everything done!) and a snuggle in bed. What better a thing to do on a cold frosty morning?

Bus Sophie, the Sofa Loaf, (also known as Nitty, Nutty, Nora) the toothless cat that we have adopted since living here, had other ideas and decided to Meowly Meow at the top of her voice as soon as the sun started to rise. So as husband snored (seriously he could sleep through a tornado that man – Oh wait he did!!) I decided to get up, let the mad cat out and make some tea (as I often say we are English after all!)

As is the way life showed me the way and I was greeted by the sun just rising over the horizon and it took my breath away.

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Yes! I was out in my garden again in my pyjamas and dressing gown!

I had to do it, I felt the need to embrace that beauty on that crisp, cold morning. It was stunning and as always made me think that without the cold, and the cat waking me up I would not have seen this.

Everything in life happens for a reason, you just have to look sometimes to find out what it is.

The whole sky was breathtaking with rolling clouds all around us

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So as I was preparing for this blog and downloading my photos, I saw this one and it made me stop in my tracks ……

I thought for a brief moment that I had caught in the clouds a face of a cat, and my heart stopped because I thought it must be Tinky Tiny Tilly, our beautiful little black cat who never came home nine months ago. I ran down the stairs to Rich and showed him and he could not believe it either, until he noticed the orange lines on it and I remembered that I had taken the photo the day before – it is a photo of Sophie in her favourite place – my car!

Perhaps I am the Nitty, Nutty Nora, or perhaps I just wanted to believe!

Have a good week folks, remember enjoy everything life has to offer, you can get comfort from the smallest thing.

Moisy

We have a roof – for the first time in three years!

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, People, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good life

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This was our roof from three years ago, after it had been attacked by storm Katie and annihalated by a twister going right through our garden.

As most of you know it has been the hardest part of this adventure to find work, or people you can trust to work for; and so we had no money to repair it. I have written only recently how we did not let that stop us, we carried on, we had no choice. (Boy can I see that what Rich and I went through was in prep for this adventure, because we already knew that nothing could beat us!)

But as I wrote in September the roof was finally being replaced; and oh my it is a piece of art!

Our wonderful builder Rob is a skilled man, because the roof had been open to the elements for so long some of the rafters had to be repaired (not replaced because bless him he knew we had to keep costs down.)

Being a carpenter Rob repaired joists and the result, particularly at the back of the roof is stunning; with it’s curves it looks like a wing of one of the kestrels or eagles that fly around us up here.

I love the contrast of the black tiles (black is de rigeur because we are in a protected national park, in fact we have only just found out that our barn is classed as a listed building because it was built in 1812) and the zinc edging that catches the light.

Having lived for three winters with the rain pouring in at times (we only had a worn out old tarp to protect it and we had bowles everywhere catching the water) my husband now dances round the kitchen every time it rains singing the ‘We’re lovely and dry’ song! Small things eh?!

This year we have achieved a lot with new doors and the new roof we are now warm and toasty; which means that the electric heater in the kitchen keeps us warm and the old calor gas fire, that we had in the kitchen, has now been moved up into the bedroom where I write, no more cold feet and hands for me this winter!

Small things, they are what matter.

Moisy

Do you ever take the time?

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I ask this question to you all, do you ever take the time to just see what is around you and look at it in awe. I know I have so much that can make me think feel this way, I am surrounded by Mother Nature, God, the Tao Te Ching, whatever you want to call it, it is all around me every day; and I know for that I am blessed. I have never lost sight of that.

But I know that some think they don’t have the countryside around them, so it is not so easy to see the beauty in the simple things; but it is! It is all around us all, no matter where you live, look at the the rain for instance falling around us, from the drop on a leaf, or railing, to the blade of grass, glistening with beauty. Have you ever stopped and just watched a drop of rain hanging from a rail, quivering and glistening, and waited until it plopped?

Rain knows no bounds, it is in the countryside, the cities, the suburbs, in slums. No matter what you feel about your life it is amazing if you just stop and look for a moment.

Or what about the sky? When was the last time that you just stopped for a moment and looked at the sky?

When ‘The War’ was raging around Rich and I eleven years ago I sought solace in cloud watching, as I watched the clouds just go on their way, slowly, unhurried and always  so beautiful and serene I was reminded that in the whole universe the pain that we were going through would pass, and wasn’t as bad, or as important as I thought.

I have never stopped cloud watching, and living here I am blessed every day.

So Ithought that on the first day of November I would share with you some of the beautiful sunrises that we were given to us in the month of October. I want you to imagine me, every morning at about eight o clock out in the garden snapping these shots, in my dressing gown (it’s spotty if you want the detail!) This one in particular was what inspired me:

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One morning when we woke it was chilly, despite it being very warm for October the previous few days, I opened the door to let the cats in and the dogs out and this caught my eye, the mist over the valley and it just rising took my breath away and I just had to capture it.

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Rich got up to find me scurrying around the garden in my pyjamas and said ‘What are you doing now?!’

‘Look at this I said, we are so lucky.’

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This set the pattern for the next few weeks and I hope that you enjoy them.

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I ask you all to just take the time today to just stop for thirty seconds and see something beautiful. Here is what I saw this morning, looks like November is bringing it’s own beauty to the party..

As the great poet W.H Davies said ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.’

Moisy

Reminisces – I love the way this life has changed me

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in My home, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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We have had a wonderful warm Autumn here in France, it has been recorded as the warmest October on record, but over the last week winters has started to creep in with the wind; and today, as I sit here with Sofa Loaf (the toothless cat we rescued when we moved here) fast asleep beside me it reminds me how much our lives have changed since moving here.

I am sitting in my fleece, with my old computer (with an added keyboard because the keyboard went on it years ago!) and the electric heater on very low. The clocks went back this weekend and the sun is low in the sky because the evening is drawing in already. Summer seems a long way away now.

Rural living is simple living if you don’t have a lot of money; so over the last three years I have learnt that everything counts, including the twigs from the garden – used for kindling – and the small logs from the cob nut trees we coppiced three years ago, now tinder dry and perfect for keeping the fire burning.

Yesterday as I stood in the biting late autumn wind loading the logs to take indoors I remembered how three years ago I was so excited about our first winter in France; about having to survive, it seemed so exciting at the time. But as that winter wore on I begrudged having to go out in the cold to collect the logs, and I wondered if I really was going to enjoy this life. It seemed so hard having come from our old house in England with it’s central heating that could be turned up at the click of a switch and the open fires we would light for atmosphere more than necessity.

As we were collecting logs today to re-stock our log cupboard, and also to try and finally fill the log store we bought (it is like something out of ‘The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe’ no matter how many logs we put in it, we havem’t managed to fill it yet!) I looked at Rich and said ‘I used to hate this, and now I love it!’ I love being out in the cold getting what I need to make our house warm and ‘snuggly’. I love all of the elements that every season brings and I embrace them all.

I am not dreading the many cold, grey, damp drizzly days you can get in this part of France in the winter. Instead I enjoy looking at the grey mists that surrounds us, I love the atmospheric feeling of being in the middle of nowhere snuggled down amongst the mist, feeling safe, and making do with what you have got.

I do, I love the fact that to use something I have to make an effort and get it, gone are the days when I can just have something in the time it takes me to click my fingers, and it made me realise that I love that aspect of our lives now.

When I used to live in England I would sit in my house in just a T.Shirt, I don’t now! Our only form of real heating is the log burner and you will never see me without a fleece, thick cardigan or fluffy warm dressing gown in the late autumn and winter months; and I love that! I love it that I have collected the walnuts (that we let go to waste the first year we were here, we literally left them to rot!), and that this weekend I will make us a walnut pie (bit like pecan only think Walnut!)

We don’t have money to go out, but in all honestly even if we did we wouldn’t, we are happy in our home, with our beautiful Welshies (the perfect dogs for autumn photos) all our cats, our fluffy slippers (well mine anyway!) This and to just walk around our garden, is enough.

I love what this adventure is showing us! Be gratedful for what you have got and just enjoy each day; and if you cannot do that then just enjoy a small thing each day and be grateful for that! I know it is hard sometimes, trust me you only have to read some of my older blogs to know how hard it has been, but live every day is if it were your last, for someone, somewhere it will be.

A good message for the beginning of the week I hope.

Moisy

Les Rats….It’s rural living folks!

23 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in My family and other furry creatures, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good, the bad and the ugly.

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They do say that you are never more than six feet away from a rat no matter where you are in the world. How accurate this is I don’t know, but I do know that it would have been naive of us not to think that rats may visit our garden, especially because we had chickens.

On the first night we moved into the house Harley was going mad at something in the garden. The house had not been lived in for three years, and the garden had been occupied by three goats (hence the name for the goat’s shed) and anything else that chose to live here! We only had Harley at that time, we moved here in August and Wiglet, aka the serial killer, did not come to live with us until the October. Had she been here then what Rich discovered would not have lived to see another day, but as it was only Harley the huge rat that Rich found when he went out to get Harley by torchlight, managed to get away. Although we did not see a sight of it after that, the following year Wiglet came bouncing down the garden so happy with a huge, dead rat in her mouth. “Thanks for that!” I said!

Over the years we did not see any more rats because our dogs are hunters and, especially when the serial killer moved in, the rats were deterred. But where there are chickens there are normally rats and after putting too many left overs in their enclosure in April we believe that a whole family moved in.

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We thought that we might have a problem after the chickens appeared to have stopped laying, and it appears that rats will steal the eggs and attack the chickens. They knew that they were safe from Wiglet (aka serial killer) because she could not get in the enclosure, although at times she would go mad trying to get in there, and she would also spend hours staring at something hiding in the twigs from the trees we had cut down, with her little tail wagging as if to say “I am so pleased to see you, come and play little rat!” She has dug holes all over our garden trying to flush them out and we planned, after we moved the chickens of course, to let her into the old Chicken Hilton and have a field day.

Over the summer Rich had seen the rats, I never had because I normally have the dogs in tow, but he said that they were getting more and more blase, and would  come out into the chicken enclosure in daylight. One day he counted seven going back into the Hilton tail to tail because (you guessed it!) Wiglet had come out to play. So we hatched our plan: we were going to put the chickens somewhere safe and let Wiglet have a day in the henhouse catching rats. For her it would be like a day at Disney!

I told you she is the most beautiful loving, vulnerable little dog but her mother and father were hunting stock and she is a born and bred hunter!

But, as is life’s way  nature beat us to it…

As I lay in bed one night with Rich snoring beside me, I could hear the hooting of a Tawny owl (probably the one that loves to sit in our cherry tree and look at us.); I have explained in previous blogs that one of the beauties of living out here is the owls that you just see every day (you may want to visit my post: what is is about you and owls!) There are Tawny owls, Barn owls and the cute little Pygmy owls that come out in the day..

pygmy owlIn addition I could also hear a lot of screeching! Husband will sleep through anything but I lay there knowing that the rats were getting their come-uppance! Our cats had also been very interested in the chicken enclosure and I imagined them sitting on the stumps of the trees with a glass of wine watching the entertainement!

Over the next few nights as we lay in bed we could hear Barn owls, and their babies and a lot of screeching, and squealing, coming from the garden and I knew that the rats had become too blasé, and the owls had spread the word and were now having a a feast.

Gradually we saw less and less of the rats, any food that the chickens had not eaten remained uneaten (although we have drastically reduced the scraps that they have.) Over the past few weeks we have seen no rats at all, although their warren of holes are still evident as Wiglet digs them up! One day Harley did spend an age staring into a hole wagging his tail in greeting, but it was a false greeting because that rat would not have lived to see another day.

So nature took over, the owls killed the rats, as they were meant to do, and I lay in bed listening to the life that goes on outside when you live in rural France.

I know that as the trees that we chopped down gradually get cut into logs, and I turn the twigs into kindling, the rats will have nowhere to hide, and if there are any about trust me Wiglet will have her day!

There is no going back to the Chicken Hilton for them because the dogs are now in there all the time. It may only be a matter of time before I am back in a scene from ‘Whatever happened to Baby Jane’ and Wiglet presents me with another dead rat. Good!

In addition Rich found a cache of hidden chicken eggs under the hay in the old suite of the Chicken Hilton that was once occupied by the chickens; the poor chicken was laying and was hiding them from the dreaded rats! The fact that they had not been eaten is also evidence that the rats have been scared off – straight into the jaws of Wiglet!

It’s all part of the adventure folks!

Moisy