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Tag Archives: Trees

Counting my blessings: Day 2

25 Tuesday Dec 2018

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

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So I am sitting bed with my cup of tea, looking out of the window at this. It is a bright sunny morning here in rural France; and I am looking at my favourite tree. I have written about it often, calling it my Tree of Tao, because it just goes with the flow whatever the weather; it just takes life as it comes.

To be able to see this every day, is a blessing because I have incredibly bad eyesight, and I treasure the gift of sight. It’s also a blessing because it calms me and grounds me, reminding me that we are just small blips on a much bigger picture; and that all the things we think are important aren’t that important at all.

It sways in the breeze, and it sways in the storms and raging winds, it is always serene; when we look nature shows us so much.

Happy Christmas everyone, share with us the small things you count as blessings, they could inspire others.

Moisy

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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

The Wind – The Godsend that clears my mind

12 Friday Oct 2018

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

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For mental Health Week in England I thought that I would share with you one of the things I have always found therapeutic and that  I especially love about living here – The Wind.

As a lot of you know our garden is full of trees, we have at least four Oak trees, a big old sycamore, two Silver Birch, some pine trees, our gigantic Walnut tree, Cob nut bushes, cherry trees and never least what I call my tree of Tao.

I have said many times how I love to watch this blow and sway in the wind, almost as if it is reaching out to me and saying believe me everything will be allright.

Today is one of those sunny, blustery Autumn days that reminds me of why I love this season so much. I felt the need to clear my mind and sat in the garden with the trees blowing around me as I read my passage for the day from the Tao.

As always as the wind blew through my hair it was as if it was blowing out the cobwebs and confusion and clearing the way for me to reflect and see clearly. Add to that the leaves swirling in the wind as if my thoughts had materialised and were being blown away, no longer required, discarded, and I knew that I had done the right thing, to sit in the garden and let nature show me the way.

I bring this up on Mental Health Awareness week because the ability to reflect is very important to me, and sometimes very painful. But reflect I must because I know that it is the only way that I can learn and grow.

So if you are feeling anxious, down, or confused in some way – You know what I mean- when there is something on your mind but you just cannot put your finger on it – then just go out in the wind and sit somewhere away from others and let it clear you mind for you.

I am blessed I only have to step out of the front door….

Have a good weekend folks, enjoy the Autumn, whatever the weather.

Moisy

To always have hope – Feels like home

16 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, Reflections, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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When we moved here, three years ago last month. our pampas grass was small and not growing well.

It was squashed between numerous pine tress that overshadowed it depriving the poor pampas grass of any light; add to that Harley would lay in it as if it was a little nest and it did not stand much chance. Despite this it continued to live, but no grasses would appear in September and stand tall and majestic with their fronds blowing in the wind.

I love pampas grasses. I always wanted it to grow, lived in hope that one day it would have huge grasses, the size of paddles, blowing in the breeze and framing our beautiful view. Well this year we choppped down most of the trees – we had to some were dead, some posed a risk to the electricity cables – and the pampas finally got the light that it needed.

‘It won’t grow’ said Rich when we talked about it one night, ‘Harley still lies in it and squashes it!’

But I held on to hope. I had started to get the vibe that this old French farmhouse, and it’s ghosts of the past two hundred years, had finally accepted ‘Les Anglais’ and realised that we loved the house as much as they had. Being French they knew that, although we had not had much money, we would do our best to look after it; and, suddenly, things started to go our way: The trees were chopped down, the front door was replaced, the gate was replaced, the water connected, we now have French vehicles, our roof will be done before winter. We have the support and help from good friends, some considered as family, and help from those who care, and as the year went on the pampas grass grew and grew.

So here we are now and this is our pampas grass

Things are changing …..

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan

Have a good weekend folks never give up, always have hope

Moisy

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The water is flowing, and we are thankful for change

05 Wednesday Sep 2018

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

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So the water men arrived early, in fact they were digging up the field before the sun had fully risen over the horizon..

It is fair to say that as soon as they arrived they got stuck in, and did not stop. They had to dig a huge trench from the field opposite our house come under the road and up by our ditch (the one we had to climb into in our pyjamas when the naughty Welshies were chasing hedgehogs! See ‘The hedgehogs, the Welshies, the ditch and pyjamas)

But the problem was the huge pine tree that had been felled in February was still laying in the ditch, and it is so big our neighbour is going to have to lift it out for us with his tractor! (That is the problem when they knock on your door the day before to say ‘We’re coming tomorrow to do this huge job, see you before eight!’)

‘Oh no!’ We thought, but the lovely French man called us over and asked if it was okay for him to push the tree over towards our fence with his big digger. ‘Go for it!’ We said, so he did and now our life is easier because all of the overgrown weeds have been dug up, and the branches have been broken off. Result! We thought.

Nothing fazes the French!

In no time at all we had a huge hole in front of the house, and could not get out of the gate easily, our fence by the chemin was up and it was established that our wall would have to be drilled; that is when they called hubby over and told him he would have to do it (probably because of liability) handed him a huge drill, with an even bigger drill bit attached, and sent him on his way. God knows what they would have done if I was here on my own!!

We did not believe, at one point, that they would get such a big job done in a day, but they did and left before six, just in time for aperitifs.

Despite previous information, things I had asked for, and told I would have to fill in copious amounts of paperwork for, were just provided. I wrote a cheque and they drove off without it!

But, that is France as I said before!

So we have mains water, we have new gates, what’s coming next? Life will show us the way!

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

Winter….. Cold cold winds and a smattering of snow

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in My home, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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So the cold has us in its grip, my feet are like ice and I cannot warm them up, and I am currently sitting here writing this post with my feet on a hot water bottle. The room is warm but chilly old me, once my extremities get cold then they stay cold!!

The snow did come in a smattering and we have been wondering whether the pipe that is currently carrying water to our house, and above ground is going to freeze; but if we don’t keep thinking about it then we don’t give it credence and there bye  it won’t.

The chickens are loving the sunshine that has arrived with the cold, but not so much the fact that their water had over an inch of ice on it and Rich had to break it up and give them some drinking water in their Chicken Hilton Hotel. (Where there is good there is bad, and where there is bad there is good.)

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I have got loads of washing almost dry (although a tad frozen when I have brought it in) and we have embraced the cold and started to work on the garden; whilst wearing two fleeces and a woolly hat (I look so attractive sometimes, but then I look at Rich and so does he!!! Good jobs we loves each other!)

I have cut back my clematis that were starting to grow and were in a bad need of a hard cut; I also fed the hydrangeas that I bought last year, and went about the garden picking up the many many huge branches that have been blown out of our trees this winter during the wet and windy hooleys.

Add to that the precarious ones that were still blowing (unattached) in the wind…

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It made me realise just how much you are provided for if you just decide to get off your arse and get it!! As many philosophies say, if you just let go and stop looking what you need will be provided for you.

So Rich and I are now ahead of the game where wood is concerned, and will actually have a stock of wood for the next winter, and some still to be seasoned for the winter after. We have a ton of pine that needs cutting and we can intersperse that with other wood and use it safely if we do so.

I never thought I would be walking around my big garden picking up twigs to use to light my fire- but one of the biggest lessons I have learnt out here is waste not, want not; and now we have more wood to add to our pile and  enough kindling for the rest of this season.

As I was doing this I was thinking to myself and wondering if I had more money, would I still do this, would I still not waste things anymore? The answer was I would still do this; in my old life I would come home to my centrally heated home, it had real fires and we used the logs that could be bought already seasoned! Our’s are seasoned, the ones we picked up we had seasoned and, no, they are not pretty but they are real!

So yes, no matter how much money I have in the future I will still break up what my garden provides for us to survive the winter; it sure beats working in an office; and I know that I would rather work for nature than for my last employer!

It is a good feeling to  be ahead of the game for once, and we do finally feel as if we are getting there.

When we eventually came in from the garden, hands and faces stinging, the house was warm and welcomed us. I believe it is warming up every year because it knows we love it, each other, and all our furries; along with the friends and family who have stuck with us and shown us so much support; it knows we love living here; and love all the lessons we have learnt

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And we do.

Moisy