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Tag Archives: counting your blessings

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

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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