So after my last post, when I said how wonderful it was celebrating summer with our friends, under the shelter of our gazebo, with it’s pretty lights, and all the candles lit……

……..here is what is left  of it this morning:

A tornado hit Ambrieres last night, just after we had gone to bed. Storms had been forecast but not a tornado! I was just drifting off to sleep when it hit, we had the window opened and it was so powerful that as I was closing our shutters the debris was hitting Rich. Our kitchen roof, which you may remember from an earlier post when it was hit by hurricane Katie, has very, very large holes in it now; we are still waiting for Allianz to resolve our claim from last time, so I feel a complaint may be coming on!!! Poor Rich will have to do a temporary repair, but luckily has been working with a roofer and has learned a lot, bless him, I just want the insurance company to get on with it now.

My trees that were either side of the door were on the other side of the patio,and most of my pots had been blown over, or in some cases other places in the garden.

Our trees really took the hit, especially our beautiful silver birch, which has basically been ripped in two.

I posted before about how blessed I felt to have my washing line tied between two majestic trees, this tree and one of my old oaks, but she has been severely wounded and lost some of her majesty now.

 

Our walnut tree has been badly affected and is all over the garden, along with all of our walnuts!!! No walnuts for us this year. You can also see that my lovely geranium is no longer on its cherb, but did survive and is currently residing on the windowsill.

The tiny cherry tree down the Chenin has gone, along with large parts of the crab apple tree that I showed you when it was in bloom in the spring. She’s still standing, just!!

 

Even our oak, that is over three hundred years old took a hit

The Chenin has trees ripped down and across it, we can’t get up there for now, and as you can see Harley’s paddling pool took a hit along with our loungers, my other pink lounger is amongst the debris of the gazebo.

I was going to post about recent Chabby chic acquisitions, and renovations, I have been carrying out, but sorry folks, we have so much cleaning up to do that will have to wait for another day. And to just add to it we had two cords of wood  today, that we have just spent three hours stacking in the barn!!!!!

But I count my blessings,it could have been worse, our poor neighbours, their children’s trampoline is embedded in their house!!

Look out for more posts folks, I have to go I have a stack of cleaning up to do, not least the debris in my kitchen that blew in through the cat flap!

Hey ho, it’s all part of the adventure.

If if you like my blog, then please share, get the message out there.

 

moisy

 

 

 

 

 

Now having a house with five cats and two Welshes you get used to bangs and shenanigans in the night; so last night when I heard loud crashes downstairs,and what sounded like a creature with claws running up the stairs, I assumed the cats had caught something that was trying to get away (although why it would run upstairs where two Welshes were sleeping seems a bit stupid to me, because they too are  hunters!!!)

There were  a few more bangs which got the Welshes going and then all was quiet. So when I got up this morning I expected a mouse, dreaded a rat because the claws had sounded bigger than any mouse would have, but was not prepared for what I found. Off Wiglet wiggled into the kitchen before me and then I heard a noise that made me think “what the fuck is that?!!!” It sounded like a mini dragon in my kitchen, or worse, but more likely, a snake. i walked into the kitchen and found this beautiful barn owl trying to get away from my Welshe.

It was terrified, had got itself all caught up in one of those strips to catch flies, which was tangled in its feathers, and the round tube on the bottom was wedged on its claw where it obviously been trying to free itself. I quickly scooped up Wiglet and put her in the garden, rounded up the three cats that were circling and put them in another room and set about on “operation save the owl”.

I screamed for Rich, put on my gardening gloves and picked the owl up, holding its wings tight to it’s body. The poor thing was so tangled in that bloody alwful strip, it’s feathers were stuck together, and the tube was firmly wedged on its foot. But do you know what, as I pulled its claw free, and Rich u got all of the awful tape off it, not once did it go for either of us, it knew we were trying to help. It really was the most beautiful creature,and when I gently turned it and looked at it to reassure it, the way it looked at me, it knew that we love animals,that it was safe with us.

Although we managed to get it all out it was still unable to fly, but would not let me catch it again to try and cut some of the glue from its feathers,and it made its way into the derelict old building at the end of the barn. I only hope that it is able to preen itself enough to fly, I have to believe that or I will worry myself sick about it and any female and chicks it may be responsible for feeding. So I am asking you all today, power of positive thought for the owl, power of positive thought.

As Rich said when we came in,”what is about you and owls?!”

i think someone’s trying to tell me something!

 

moisy

 

Hi to all

As you know I house sit regularly for someone and recently I had an adventurous week there.

Firstly I found myself chatting away to myself like a mad woman in my bedroom (yes it is my bedroom because I spend lots of time in it! In fact the couple who I house sit for call it my bedroom!! And I find myself saying “I’m going home”  when I’m going back there!! ) when I turned around to find one of these sitting on the windowsill looking at me (the inside windowsill I might add.)

 

Yes it did have this look on it’s face because, like I said I was talking to myself!!

I stopped in my tracks, said “hello” and asked it what it was doing in the house; needless to say it did not answer, but  cheeped something at me, whilst I’m  frantically working out how I can get it out of the house safely. And then I remembered the cat!!The cat who is ever elusive and not always available who is now sitting at the end of the landing looking at me and looking as if it is about the eat the owl!

 

I moved quickly to stop the cat, but instead spooked the owl, who then flew down the corridor towards the cat, spooking the cat, who ran into the bedroom. I quickly shut the door whilst trying to reassure the owl (I was assuming it was bi-lingual and could speak English). I opened all the windows that I could along the landing, whilst the cat, who when I invite it to come out and sit with me, looks at me with disdain, was yowling to come out. I tried to encourage the little owl out from it’s hiding place, to no avail, so I left if for ten minutes and called my husband for advice – I don’t know why he knows bugger all about owls!!  Needless to say he was about as much use as a chocolate teapot, and asked me who I thought he was “Chris Packham!!” He also told me that I had been reading too much Harry Potter!!

When I returned to the landing the owl was no-where to be seen when I checked it’s hiding place. “Thank goodness for that!” I thought, and went to let the cat out, but something made me think to check behind a large ornate bucket and there it was blinking at me. “For God’s sake mate” I said in my best Essex accent,” I’ve opened all the bloody  windows” I’m now starting to sound like Michael Caine!  “Just go out as the cat wants to come out and it wants to eat you.”

Now  must have been watching “TOWIE” as it understood me and flew to the window, but then the strangest thing happened, it perched on the window, turned and looked at me for a couple of minutes and then chirped as if it was saying “Thank you.”

All joking aside it was an amazing experience, it was so beautiful, it looked just like this.

 

But it wasn’t so funny when I realised that it had come in down the chimney in the living room and there was owl’s shit and soot everywhere. So I cleaned it all up and thought (even though I was now mopping the floor for the fourth time) , “do you know what I don’t mind I feel blessed to have seen an owl so close up.”.

In fact Rich looked up the meaning, and although some cultures  believe an owl’s visit means death, it is often not in a literal sense but  a meaning of change, the end of one thing and the start of something new – again weird!!!!!!!!! Some cultures also believe that if you have been visited by an owl you have been blessed, so I’m going with that one!

Anyway I let the cat out and had a lovely evening. The next morning, I am speaking to Rich on the phone and I heard a noise, jokingly I said “don’t tell me the bloody owls back!!” haha ha, chuckle, chuckle. It was!!! Back down the chimney it had come, soot and owls shit everywhere. looking at me on the living room windowsill!! So I opened the door and got it to go out, again it landed on the door and stopped and looked at me, then cheeped as if to say goodbye.

I never thought that I would have the opportunity to see such a beautiful bird so close up, and despite the cleaning up I do feel privileged.

But what it does tell me folks is if you have a house in the French countryside you cannot lock up and leave it!!! Not unless you want to come back to catastrophe – there are a lot of critters out there that would find it very welcoming.

Watch out for more posts about living in the French countryside.

 

Moisy