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Category Archives: The adventures of living life in the French countryside

La Coupe du monde

04 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The good life

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When I started my blog I never thought I would be writing about the World cup, but that’s part of the adventure I suppose, we all change.

This is the first world cup since we came to France, and my husband lives it, all of it. This picture is the French flag fluttering in the wind in our garden.

Rich used to be an avid England fan, but, after some events in our life, he stopped being so obsessed and realised that he was being an arsehole about it when they lost, understanding it was only a game. So he then came to just watch the World cup with no pressure, and enjoyed all the games instead of focusing on the few, quite simply, he ‘got it’.

It was a good time to realise this really, because, despite all of the skilled and excellent players the English team had at their disposal, they were, quite simply, atrocious. They did not qualify for the World cup in 2014, there were too many egos in the team, too many people who thought that they were the most important. My friend used the old cliche yesterday ‘there is no I in team!’

So now we live in France and we support our home team, France, of course; but the English team are now a young team, skilled young men whose egos have not had time to become so inflated that it is all about them, and they are playing well; and you want their passion and lack of ego to be rewarded, and you want yhem to silence the doubters.

But how did I come to join in? Well since Karen arrived poor Rich has been watching the World cup with the female version of Saint and Greavsie sitting on the sofa beside him. (Sorry to all of my non English readers, they were football pundits from the eighties, and I am showing my age now?!)

We have giggled about this, Karen has conceded that she is Greavsie, because I have dark hair!!

So poor Rich has been sitting, beer in hand, on one sofa, whilst we sat on the other putting the world to right about whether it was a penalty, red card or yellow card. That is until something catches our eye like a nice looking bloke on the bench with a tight T. Shirt, or a particular haircut that we liked, when we would go ‘oooh he’s nice’, or ‘loving that haircut’, or ‘he’s good looking’. Then Rich’s eyes would glaze over, and he had a look on his face of ‘God help me!’

So we felt pity for Rich and decided that last Saturday we would go to a French bar to watch the French match, and give Rich some male company. But when we got there it was empty, apart from a man whose eyes looked to the right and to the left independently. Mmmmmmmmmm the French are clearly not big on watching the football in the pub!

But never deterred, my hubby in his French football shirt and Karen and I persevered, and got excited as some more people came in, four in fact!! They all sat there and as the game became exciting we ‘les Anglais’oooohed, and aaaahed, whilst the French looked at us as if we were mad! For such a passionate race they sure were not showing it when they watched the football.

As the game wore on we cheered when France scored, we roared when they scored again, and the French looked at us as if we were not only mad, but had all grown two heads. But we did not care, we like the passion of the game, and by the time goal three came the French had decided to join the ‘mad Anglais’ and began to cheer with us; they started to laugh with us (or it might have been at us) and the atmosphere changed and France won.

Despite igniting their enthusiasm we still came away feeling a bit flat. So last night we decided to go to an English bar (something we would never do) and watch the English game there, and even treat ourselves to burger and chips! Our old neighbours and friends had arrived on Monday and were excited to watch the match in a bar in France, so off we all went, into the humid and hot night, to a bar not far from us. It was full of English, mainly men, Rich loved it! Despite the adventure he still misses watching the football with other Men, particularly English men. Despite loving your new life there are times when you do still miss some cultures and comforts from your country (I won’t say home, this is my home now.)

The burger was good, the game was thrilling and England did not disappoint. Those young men worked their backsides off, the Captain steadied his ship, and they won the penalty shoot out for the first time in twenty two years!!

It was thrilling to watch, painful to watch, and, at times, I couldn’t watch! But they won, a testament to not letting ego get in the way.

Now we have a dilemma, because they could meet France in the final and what do we do then? We love them all so as always we will adopt our philosophy and let life show us the way; and continue to fly the French flag in our garden, our wonderful welcoming neighbours and friends in France love it.

Come on England……. Vive le France …….

Moisy

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In the summertime when the weather is hot……

29 Friday Jun 2018

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

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‘You can stretch right up and touch the sky…..’

Mungo Jerry – In the summertime

When the continous balmy days visit us in France it makes the harsh winters, which in themselves can be beautiful, pale into insignificance; after all you cannot have the good without the bad right?!

To be woken each morning to glorious sunshine over the fields of gold that surround our house, to listen to the trees in the breeze through the day and then  watch the moon rise each night over the forest below us, makes me realise over and over again that is the simple things in life that count.

Last night we sat, wine in hand, as a blood red moon rose about the trees in front of us – sadly my photo does not do it justice it was a crimson red which changed the colour of the wheat to a beautiful burnt orange. The bats were flying over our heads, the Welshie’s were at our feet and life was good – life is good. I am blessed.

Since my last blogs the pool has been put up courtesy of my darling husband,

and the puppies have been swimming… in fact we have bought them an inflatable aeroplane and they have had fun sitting on that with Rich pulling them around the pool

The pool has been a Godsend as the temperature has been steadily rising to over thirty degrees. It has a  cover that maintains the heat in the water and yesterday it was a balmy eighty two degrees, the temperature of bathwater; which in itself is lovely; but once you get out the breeze hits you and cools you down. I never thought that we would be sitting in our garden with a wine in hand, after getting out of the pool; and it just reminds me of how much my life has changed; yes there is more to do living in countryside, there are many downsides as well as good (I do find that if you stay away from them it helps!!)  but when I sit in my garden, especially in the evening I know that having the courage to make that move was the best thing we could have done – life is simpler but our life is full.

We have visited new places with Karen including some beautiful waterfalls in a town called Mortain, in La Manche. They cut through the hills surrounding the town in what is believed to be an enchanted forest that was visited by King Arthur and his knights, It was a beautiful tranquil place with the sound of the spring water gushing down.

Despite the heat we also visited the lake at Ferte Mace, a huge park that has been made for the people of the area to enjoy, with a large lake in the centre. We walked it’s three mile circumference with the puppies on Monday, finishing with a hot dog and drink at the little cafe at the side of the lake,  watching the sun sparkling on the water was a simple pleasure that I love to do.

The Friday before last we had a very scary incident when we were nearly stampeded by cows, after Princess Wiglet (trust me butter would melt!) decided that she would take exception to a cow that was staring at her and try and bite it’s nose of a cow whilst we were cooking a BBQ at Karen’s house! It really was frightening as the other cows came running over because they felt under threat from our three and started to push at the fence; and they were big cows! So we had to herd the dogs up and get them indoors quickly to try and make the cows disperse. You’ve gotta love a Welshie!!

We have had a busy few weeks since Karen arrived with the house hunting and pool buying, which has also included copious amounts of tea and coffee (and, of course, wine!). But it is now time to get down to business with regard to the future; and work. I have been busy with my Etsy shop, and also building my profile on Pininterest (175K unique views and counting!!) You may want to check me out I am under moisfrenchadventure (no surprises there then!) I have various boards from flowers to angels, and from hares to moons; but there are of course boards showing off my taste in furniture and all things rustic so if you fancy some inspiration then pay them a visit I have ready made mood boards set up for you. …..

Moongazing Hare by Lisa Parker

Parede verde com vasos pendurados

From bedrooms to kitchens, these simple and rustic rooms inspire.

In addition I must get on with another edit of my book!

But it has been a wondeful few weeks, what with the summer of sport that we are having and  our friend, and what we consider family member, here with us, we have had some fun and laughed lots, mainly at poor Rich with his malapropisms – for example he is on a Facebook site called Biteyface (it’s about dogs) which he informed me yesterday is called bit e face!!!! Poor Rich I think his life his harder now he is with two writers all the time, who just roar with laughter at what he comes out with!

Despite the things we have to do it will not be all work and the fun is just going to get better because we have our old friends and neighbours arriving on Monday. I cannot wait to see them, three years is a long time to not see someone who you saw on a daily basis for twelve years!!  I know that they will join the fun.

Have I made any more of you think about making that change and stepping into the unknown?

Look out there are new posts coming……

Moisy

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‘…….We’re always happy
Life’s for livin’ yeah, that’s our philosophy’
In the summertime. Mungo Jerry

The ‘Mad’ summer has begun…

22 Friday Jun 2018

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

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It has been a mad week!! Literally our feet have not touched the ground. We have viewed six houses, some weird, some lovely, some overpriced and some in deep rural parts of France, some too deep and rural!! Some viewings have been weird, some have been lovely, some of them have been shocking when it comes to price, and one has been a second viewing, but more of that to come in upcoming posts.

Karen and Dylan hit Ambrieres last Thursday night at 11.30pm. I had cooked a chilli and rice in advance which gave us time to catch up, drink wine and chat before eating at 2am!! The next day we were out house hunting by 10.30am and did not get back until after 5pm, it was a long day with a  lot to take in; and this has pretty much been the pattern for the week, adding to that some shopping, drinking wine in the summer evening sun, and drawing up lists of costs and pro’s and cons with regard to the houses we have viewed.

Because of the house hunting we have found small villages  in neighbouring villages to us that we did not know existed, including a stunning village called Sept Forge which is situated  on the river Mayenne and is truly idyllic. There is a tiny lane that winds down beside the river  with steep steps cut up through the forest that lead into the village square and it’s medievil church. Another two words come to mind when walking down this lane looking for one of the houses we were going to view, and they were tranquility and  sanctuary.

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The Welshie’s have not disappointed, in fact it is fair to say that they are now a pack, with Dylan being well and truly accepted by our two, with Wiglet as Dylan’s surrogate mummy (she even pulls her along by the back of her neck!). To watch these two together is a delight as they bounce around the garden talking to each other in Welshie, with Dylan virtually permantly attached to Wiglet’s side.

Harley has had his work cut out as the alpha, but has done a good job and Dylan know’s when to behave when Harley tells her – it is what he says that’s it!! He is totally worn out and whilst I was drafting blogs in bed today he stayed firmly attached to my leg asleep, and dreaming.

But the funniest one of all was yesterday when this stubborn little ten month old Welshie finally gave up, half way across the sofa she was climbing, and this is how she fell asleep…

Karen and Dylan finally moved into the house they had rented on Tuesday – simply because we had been too busy, and having too much fun in the garden to check the perimeter and move her in. The house she is renting is beautiful, massive, and really pretty.

But most of all this week we have laughed, we have planned (as much as you can for three people who really try and live each day as the only moment!) We have sat in the dark by candlelight listening to the owl in the tree (I still like to think it was the one whose life we saved two years ago, as it hoots at us) and Karen has screamed as she moved a bag in the kitchen only to find a huge toad hiding under the bag having been chased there by the dogs – This is one of the things we have to look out for as they are poisonous to them. But it made Rich and I laugh whenran off down the kitchen – all part of the adventure my friend, all part of the adventure!!

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The weather has been mostly sunny, with no real rain, and it is now  finally coming into it’s own with temperatures averaging between twenty three degrees and twenty five degrees. The forecast is for a steady increase and next week it will be up in the 30s again. So we have finally gone mad and a pool has been purchased *after about an hour and a half in the shop trying to work out the size and how big a cover we needed, base we needed and what cleaner we had to buy – Karen and I are writers, mathematicians we ain’t!! Bet you can guess whose job that is going to be tomorrow – and it’s not going to be me or Karen!!! It is so big it should be full by about Tuesday!!

But now I must go folks we have a BBQ at Karen’s house and a sleepover – how weird is that!! I think it is fair to say that we all feel young again, and excited at what life has to hold.

Katch up soon – promise- more blogs to come.

Moisy

La maison triste

22 Friday Jun 2018

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

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‘But only a host of phantom listeners,

who dwelt in the lone house then

stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

to that voice from the land of men…’

The Listeners.

Walter De La Mer

On our first day of house hunting we set off in a anticipation of seeing a three story house in the middle of the French countryside, near the beautiful town of Lassay Les Chateaux.

We met up with the French estate agent, and off we went following him through the countryside at breakneck speed and found ourselves going  out of Lassay back the way we came!?

Blimey! We thought, this is a way out!

As we pulled into a quintessential tiny French village, there was no sign of any three story houses. We followed the estate agent into what can only be described as an alleyway rather than a road that ran  behind other houses, it was so small you could not drive into it, definitely no three storey houses here! The estate agent then stopped and  proudly showed us a tiny house, tucked away between other houses.

‘I am sure this is not the house I had arranged to see.’ Said Karen, but by this time she had booked so many she was starting to doubt herself! So we decided to go where life takes us, and followed the estate agent into the house.

As we walked in it was clear that the house had not had someone living in it for some months and that the person who owned the house had been a lady, and that she had clearly died. It had literally been left like the Marie Celeste, with all her belongins just where she had left them the last time she had come home. The tiny kitchen and living room looked as if she had just got up one day and left, forgetting to take her coat, that was hanging on the back of the door, or her sunglasses, in the dish on the table, with her. The canisters for her garlic, salt, pepper and coffee were all there, just waiting for her to come back and start to cook again.

And that was it, the house had an air of sadness permeating through it because it was clearly waiting for her to return; it was sad because every time the door opened it was a stranger that entered and not the person who had so clearly loved it; in fact it was if it sighed when we came in, because we were not the person that it wanted to see.

It was a strange tiny little house with only one bedroom in the main house and the kichen and living room; you had to climb some steep steps into the bedroom, the lady had clearly not been wealthy  but it was also clear that what she had she loved. Never more so in the pretty little two tier garden at the back, which could only be described as a haven, something that she had cherished once. With the lilac tree, and wisteria tangled and trailing over the little archways she had put up; there were roses, and blackcurrants, clematis and the ever popular and beautiful hydrangea, in all of the vibrant colours that you get over here in France growing in abundance.

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The lady had built a little arbour  which was now smothered  with all of the climbing plants vying for top space as they tangled amongst each other because there mistress was no longer there to bring them under control.

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Outside there were more steps leading  up to a separate bedroom, come apartment where, the estate agent explained to us,  her son would sleep when he came to visit with his family. But you got the distinct impression that was not often, and it made you wonder why he had not come to collect some of his mother’s treasured posessions.

It was so sad, her family photos were everywhere, nobody had come to the house to take them and the memories that they held and cherish them, as she so clearly had. It reminded me how our cherished posessions are just things, that when we are gone they just sit there with nobody to love them anymore. That the memories that we cherish are often not memories that others cherish, even though we have those people in our memories all our lives, they do not hold those memories as dear as we do.

As we left the sad little house it was glad we were not going to buy it, it did not want us, it wanted it’s mistress to return, and, I am sure, would continue to look after her treasured things for her, because it did love her, more than others it would seem.

Cherish every moment folks, live for yourself and not just others, you come into this world alone and you go out of it alone, so live your life for you and those that love you will come along for the ride.

It’s  always the small simple things that remind me of what life is about.

Moisy

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And the rivers became raging torrents!

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

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

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The sun has finally peeked through the clouds, after four days and nights of virtually constant rain, sometimes the type of rain that comes with a monsoon.

The weir that is so pretty in our town is now invisible the water is such a raging torrent

Our friends attended what should have been a wonderful June wedding on Saturday, but the rain was so torrential they decided to return home to check their guests were okay, and that the electricity had not been affected (a common thing out here in bad weather, as the electricity runs overground because France is so vast). There they were in their wedding attire desperately trying to get their four wheel drive car out of the mud, it was so entrenched. By the time they got home they were covered in mud, and toasted the ‘happy’ couple with a beer and a glass of champagne, thankfully with the electricity in situ. But the poor wedding party fared worse, they lost their electricity, which meant the hog roast was off the menu as was the disco!

Yesterday the rain was still in play, and poor hubby went off to work at a friends only to find himself trapped as the river at the bottom of their garden exploded into the garden and up to the house. His van is still trapped there, and he had to drive one if their vehicles home last night! He had to climb through the undergrowth to get out if the garden, it was that or swim!

It appears that France has had fifty days rainfall in just two days. People have died and all of the rivers have succumbed to the water and become lakes instead.

Sort of makes our leaks in the kitchen pale into insignificance…

Moisy

The Deluge

11 Monday Jun 2018

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

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Last Friday the weather was beautiful, I spent the afternoon in the garden taking photos for social media, and realising that I couldn’t sell some of my finds, these ones are staying with me.

As we sat into the early evening drinking wine, the wind started to get up and the black clouds rolled in again. The thunder came rumbling down the road, carried by the thick black clouds and in we scooted. The rain came and that was it for the evening.

Saturday morning arrived and it was darker than the gloomiest winter day, literally black! We had been off grid all night and remained that way as we raised the blind, heard the thunder, and saw the lighting striking out from the black clouds, there was torrential rain and a raging torrent that used to be our road.

Forget the winter winds, forget the tornado, or the well drying up, this time there is something to be said for living on a hill!

The black clouds held on all day, rolling in over and over again blowing off into the distance and then rolling back again, they clearly thought that they had forgotten business.

The dogs hurrumped, and sighed and slept, the cats slept, and we cleaned the house.

My poor flowers that on Friday were stunning…

have now been washed away, they are so sodden I cannot dead head them, my beautiful clematis has it’s wonderful heads bowed, and it is fair to say the garden is a tad wet. My glorious honeysuckle that is filling the garden with perfume, is still trying, when you can go out there the smell is beautiful, a smell of summer, a wet one!

Sunday came, and more storms came with it. Pictures started to appear on Facebook of shops in Mayenne, large supermarkets, whose roofs had cracked open and they had to be evacuated, other shops flooded out and attended by the pompiers (fire brigade) who were having to pump them out.

I gave up with my wet washing, decided to be typically English and pegged it out, in the rain, anyway. There is no pollution here, so it will be wet, but it will smell nice. Might have something living in it by the time I get to bring it in, but it will smell nice!

By the evening the sun came out, it is still really hot here despite the rain, just wet! So we took the opportunity to have a vin rouge in the garden for a couple of hours, until the rain came back!

Our poor phone keeps cutting us off mid conversation with people because it has not had a full charge in days, as we are so often off grid!

Today there was a promise of a respite according to the weather forecast. It did not happen and this was our terrace earlier today…

The ironing pile has gone down, odd jobs have been fixed, lawns have not been mowed (are you kidding!) but are still growing, and our kitchen roof, or our tarpaulin since losing it over two years ago, has held up well. Although we have had moments of putting bowls out all over the kitchen, and, as we always do, we have laughed about it, but that is for another blog.

And tonight? Guess what? It’s raining! But we don’t care, because we have each other, our animals, our friends, and, as you know if you read Karen’s post, an exciting summer ahead.

I don’t complain about the weather, to quote Byron Katie, you just have to love what is.

Comfort food tonight homemade sausage roll, with our local butchers sausage meat, chips and beans. You can take the girl out of England………

Moisy

Living calmly…

27 Sunday May 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside

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“Vow to seek a calm inner response to the circumstances of your life,”

People who have known me for many years have known me to be a person who takes no crap, I would have rather lost what I had than take crap for it. I would fight my corner, ferociously, like a tiger, (and, to be fair I had to sometimes) and nobody would beat me. In fairness and as I have said in previous posts, including a little but more about me, I was conditioned at one point to not say anything, whilst this caused a rage that seethed inside me; and as a lot if you know it made me ill.

But now, as I sit here today, I have a different perspective. I still don’t put up with crap, but the difference is that I now look at people and choose to step away, or more often than not say nothing, because there is no point in confrontation, it gains nothing. I may say something to them I just don’t confront.

I do think that moving here, and living a simple life has enabled me to learn that an I have inner strength and I just don’t need to show it to others so openly. I have read the Tao ( some have even thought I have found God! Each to their own!) and I now dip into a verse each day, sitting here, surrounded by nature, and peace and solitude at times.

Over the past week we have randomly opened the Tao on the verse ‘Living calmly’: it is a lesson about living your life without letting others, or circumstances control it. It is about staying calm and believing that what you need will come, if you let it. Yesterday our dear friend Karen opened the book to choose the verse and it opened on this one again. When she said that we had read this already this week my immediate response was “Then we didn’t get the lesson, and we need to read it again!”

That is what this adventure has shown me, being so close to nature, that all you have to do is sit in peace and quiet, surrounded by nature, as I am now, listening to the bees humming, the birds singing and watching the swifts dancing in the sky, and I know if I believe what is needed will come.

Embrace the silence folks you will be amazed by what you hear!

If you just listen.

Moisy

Life!

15 Tuesday May 2018

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

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“Where there is life there is death, and where there is death there is life”.

You have probably guessed that for me everything has a counter balance. Last nightI had a difficult night. Another of our girlies has taken a turn for the worse, and Wiglet, a hunter born and bred, knows it, she smells weakness. Don’t let this butter wouldn’t melt look fool you, she knew that chicken is ill and is weak and so she was driven into a frenzy trying to get in to their enclosure to kill it.

As dusk drew in I called her and gave her the command, and she ignored me, no surprises there! So I went over to get her and shushed her into the house; but as I did so I noticed her rubbing her face. On initial investigation all I could see was blood, and what looked like a split from her mouth to her nose. I panicked and ran round a kitchen looking for something to wash her face, then I got a grip and bathed her face with clean kitchen roll and could see that there was no split, but she could not close her mouth and her teeth appeared to be out of alignment. I checked all her teeth and her tongue and could see nothing and I thought ‘Oh my God she has broken her jaw. At this point she could close her mouth because I had manipulated her jaw but she was still rubbing her face and whining, and she kept going to the water bowl to drink and then walking away. It was clear she could not lap up the water.

I grabbed a syringe and squirted water into her mouth, but most came back out, whilst I frantically searched broken or dislocated jaws in dogs; simultaneously videoing her and sending it to my friend. That was it we were both searching the internet then for anything we could find whilst she ate a chew, the cat food, and chicken and rice! But still she could not drink.

The plan was to take her to the vet first thing, and I took the syringe to bed with me and her and Harley pup, in the hope that I could get some water down her throat. It was pitiful to see when she walked up to the water bowl and stuck her paw in, and walked away.

So I searched a different search and asked ‘why won’t my dog drink?’ Up came various reasons, one of which was that dogs have very deep roofs on their mouths and things can get stuck, thereby preventing the tongue from working as it should and making it impossible to drink. That was it, she sat so quietly whilst I ran my finger along the roof of her mouth and found this embedded in the roof of her mouth width ways right at the edge of her throat.

I promised her I would make it right and I did, I pulled that bastard right out, and Wiglet promptly drank half a bowl of water. We went the the vet today for safekeeping, and her mouth has already healed and the vet confirmed she is one tough little bugger.

So as I sit here this evening, in a slight breeze, and warm evening sunshine, and glass of wine in hand I count my blessings, for all that surrounds me and with the thought that if I had left it through the night she could have choked to death, thank God I listened to that voice in my head, that said ‘Check again.’

And I count my blessings for this

Sadly we think we will have to Re-home the chickens we have, it is driving our princess too mad, I don’t think the sick chicken will make it meaning there will be only two girlies and Claude, but we have to know that they will not go in the pot, we could not just send them away to be killed. I do think our chicken keeping days are numbered.

Where there is good there is bad and where there is bad there is good…

Bonne Soirée

Moisy

And then life runs away with you…..

06 Sunday May 2018

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

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I cannot believe that it has been two weeks since I blogged! Life has just seemed to take over!

My dear friend took all of my stock of ‘handmade with love in our barn in France’ wooden hearts, moons and much more, back to England to promote at an artisan market. I spent two days painting and embellishing this promotional board for her to use, and then sod’s law stepped in and the courier company did not deliver it in time!

But such is life and the stall looked stunning anyway and has generated a lot of visits to our Etsy shop petiteFrenchfancies.We are blessed to have such food friends who help us, and I always count my blessings.

As part of promoting a shop, and raising my media profile, because I WILL get that book published, I have twitter, Instagram, and PinInterest accounts, and spend quite a bit of time posting to these sites, but they do work and so it must be done. It was no surprise to me that the stars of the show at the Artisan Market were the moons because I have a moon board on PinInterest that has just gone berserk averaging up to thirty pins a day!

This has inspired me to develop that particular part of the range and branch out into moons and hares, and I love it…

Also Spring has kicked in and the clematis, and hydrangea needed feeding and rearranging quickly, and our pots needed to be fed and prepped for the summer. I plan to have a blaze of blory in my pots this year.

Adding to that we are still frantically trying to clear our garden of the trees that were felled in February, just so we can mow our grass and stop any ticks getting to our much loved animals, especially these two…

The grass has got so long around the tree branches that they are literally becoming embedded and that will have to be our focus for the next week in between working and the two bank holidays that are in France!

So bank holidays mean vide grenier’s where the French bring out all their old treasures,and often all their old merde! And sell them. This is the time I am in my element, searching for pretty little French things to stock my shop, only last week I found these beautiful and rare finds…..

I want to keep the shelf, vintage from the 1940’s but hubby has put his foot down and said it has to go into the shop. He is right of course, we have been without a kitchen roof for three years, so we have to focus now that life has sent good people our way.

But now they have been added to my long list of things to do, as they have to be put onto the shop, with photos to be taken, and settings to be made!

Sadly we also lost two of the girlies over the past two weeks, despite adding calcium to their diet, and rubbing their bellies because we thought they were egg bound they passed away. We could not kill them or eat them and we have had to have a funeral pyre for them so we raised a glass one evening this week to say goodbye as we sat by the fire bin they were in. Now Claude only has three girls in his life, where this time last year he had six.

Like I always say, the only constant in life is change….

So speaking of change Tilly did not return. Her bed still lies empty, and there is a big hole in our hearts.

Last weekend a strange thing happened, TIlly had a small toy bird, that when touched, or tossed in the air would tweet, it sounded just like a bird. It was up on her bed, and I had forgotten about it, but last Sunday, on a wet afternoon, it started to tweet, as if something was playing with it. For two hours it drove Wiglet the Welsh to distraction; perhaps it was Tilly’s revenge for all the times she had chased her! And then it stopped. There was a strong sense that our beautiful little cat was with us, in spirit. On the Monday it started again, and I looked up at the bed, with tears in my eyes, and said how much I loved her, and thanked her for coming to say goodbye. The bird stopped tweeting, and for me, she was gone. But not for Rich, he still hoped; and so on Monday of this week, as he was in the kitchen making the tea, I heard him say “Oh my God!” He came running in to get his shoes on, saying Tilly was on the windowsill crying to come in. I flew outside, frantically cslling her, but she was not there. Rich swore he had seen her, I believe he had, she had come to say goodbye, to tell him to let her go.

So yesterday as I was working on PinInterest this picture came up on my feed, it was as if to say Tilly is with Snowy our Westie Dude, and he is looking after her

i have to believe what I tell others, who lose their beloved pets, if Tilly could tell me this is what she would say….

And yes I do have tears in my eyes.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone whatever time it is for you in your timezone, treasure every moment…

Moisy

Processionary caterpillars and my tree of Tao

29 Thursday Mar 2018

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

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I may have said before but I love this tree.

For me it represents the ebbs and flows of life, in the way it sways in the breeze, and then sways in the howling winds we get on the top of this hill. It never blows about furiously, nothing seems to rile it, it just goes with the flow. When I look out of my bedroom window, from the wonderful vantage point of my bed, this is what I see, waving at me as if to say ‘Go with the flow, girl, and everything will be alright. Look at me, I stand here in the long winter, and just wait patiently for Spring to come.’ All will be what it needs to be in the end, just trust it.

But this winter we noticed a small white pouch hanging off of it’s branches, and thought ‘Oh no!’ It was a sac of processionary caterpillars!! Now these little critters will all decide, one day in Spring, to climb down the tree nose to arse in a procession (hence the name) and go off to find somewhere to bury themselves in our garden and emerge later in the autumn as moths. These moths will then go back to ‘My’ tree and build some more sacs, multiplied many times, and lay more eggs. Only thing is this time the little critters will come out and strip my tree!!

The other problem, which was immediate and very serious, was that said caterpillars would kill my animals. They are extremely toxic and were the animals to touch them, or were we to touch them, then the very least would be a nasty, nasty rash, but for the dogs, especially, it would mean a form of anaphylaxis and they would die.

The sac had to come down, before the caterpillars did!!

Sadly this meant we had to cut the branch from the tree; so our wonderful, knows no fear, lumberjack friend came along on Monday to resolve the problem. Now these little critters are clever, the nest was on a branch over forty foot up the tree. So up went our nearly septuagenerian friend (he would out us all to shame he is so fit!) forty foot up the ladder (hand saw in hand) and then jumps into the tree and climbs another ten feet, all the time with me footing the ladder with my eyes shut!

They did not come easy and the branch got stuck, so we had to cut another three branches from the tree, and still they would not drop! So there was our friend jumping up and down on the other branches to jolt the cut branches out of the tree, with me shouting at him to ‘be careful’ all the time. I think the adrenaline rush is what keeps him young in body and mind!

The bonfire was built, because you have to burn these suckers, it is the only way, and they were promptly dispatched to caterpillar heaven.

All part of living in the countryside!

I felt so guilty for my wonderful tree of Tao, but I knew that it had to be done, to save it’s life. Now it still waves at me, only this time it is saying ‘Thank you’.

Moisy