This week all pretence of warmth disappeared on Wednesday with hard frosts on Thursday and Friday, followed by excessive rain. We are heading rapidly into winter, and for those of us on clever electricity tariffs, this means keeping a good eye on news from the supplier in case we have a White, or even worse, a Red day when the normally affordable electricity prices, creep up or become exorbitant. We had two White days during the week, so tried to act responsibly.
Sometimes that meant admiring the countryside in weak but still lovely sunshine - here you can see that on Tuesday we managed to get more of the Meadow treated to its annual mow, the rest will be done sooner rather than later.
John also went in with the strimmer and refound and widened the path through the bramble banks. Hopefully at this width we can keep it open all summer next year. It still needs work and I would like to add a dead hedge to keep the scrub bank in a contained area, but with gaps to allow wildlife to pass through and to shelter.
The log post is for when I move a trail camera from keeping an eye on the Orchard to seeing who uses the path, other than us.
Inspired by my visit to the UK last week and overly confident after a good Gym for Seniors session, I felt it was important to have a good check over one of the ponds, which is still free from much water... Or so I thought. I could walk out on the firm clay to by the boar wallow quite safely, but one step beyond that, and I was in a fetid mixture of leaf mould, silt and things I don't like to think about, but smelled rather. It took me a quarter of an hour to free myself from the fruit of my stupidity, not least as I was alone on site. Many lessons have been learned!
When I showed John the scene of my embarrassment, it didn't look too bad from a distance - and that should also be a clear lesson. And as an aside, I wonder if anyone is buried in there...
The third Thursday of November is Beaujolais Nouveau Day, and the new people at the village pub decided to make something of it. For those that didn't go - fools! The wine was actually nice for once - the very hot summer gave the wine more body than normal years, so that you actually knew you were drinking wine and not cherry cordial. I believe as I am in France I now have to say that you should taste in moderation.
Where you don't need to taste in moderation was the snacking planche that was also available at the pub - a small punnet of chips, bread roles, a baked camembert, radishes, olives, goose rillettes, cherry tomatoes, dried hams and salamis! What a delicious way to celebrate the new wine!
That was Thursday, and on Saturday we went for our annual visit to the all you can eat Chinese buffet at la Fleche. Despite checking on the website, it turned out it was booked out for a private party (of nearly 200 I think), so we ended up at the nearby Buffalo Grill. That is perfectly good, don't get me wrong, and one of the few places in France you can get a good slice of cheesecake.
As I wasn't driving, I also indulged in an Irish Coffee. This was rather disappointing, for a number of reasons. It was scotch whisky for a start, and the cream was whipped cream, and then digging around in the bottom I found a piece of chocolate - a nice touch but not quite right. We decided that we needed to review the correct Irish Coffee at home - something for a wet Sunday. Today is a wet Sunday, but we have other things on our minds.
The coming week sees us change our internet box for one that is fibre compatible (suitable for uttra high speed internet if you will). This could go awfully wrong, and we could be off line for a while or it could be totally simple, I just don't know. The actual fibre connection won't be done for a while, as I have to book artisans to do that, but even a new internet box is something to fill me with terror I must say!
Have a good week!
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