The long, hot summer period had an odd effect on us (and not just us either), in that it has been very hard to get the energy and inclination together to do anything. It's not that there isn't tonnes to do - the garden, The Shack and its attendant land, the One Acre Wood, the chaos that is the rooms we don't use much, the mess that is the rooms we do use - each of these has a To Do list as long as the landing carpet (another to do list in its own right). It was the oomph to do anything about any of them that we lacked. The sapping, continuing heat and the chores that had to be done irrespective (watering, dealing with cat needs, plus eating and washing, and anything to do with the Comice) distracted us from things that could also have done with being looked at urgently.
It is true, we did get the wood burner insert changed, and completed a dossier to get a subsidy - now I just need to sort out the evidence that all is done correctly for the money to be paid to us. Indeed we are now thinking that actually using the fire might be a good idea as temperatures finally drop!
We are now taking a bit more interest in the garden, not least as the seeds for winter greens I sowed back in early September are now getting to the stage where meals can be planned rather than robbing a few tender leaves while wandering around the plot. Yesterday I thinned the Bright Lights chard and we had this lovely salad to go with our prawns and baguette for dinner. They tasted as good as they look.
We have had bits knocking around the garden and the woodstore for a while to make a greenhouse or polytunnel, and last week we got the base sorted. This weekend we have put up three walls and a roof, and put in the potting table that has been taking up centre stage in the woodstore. Now we just need that last wall with the door and the pot of chillies will have a nice place to spend the winter to see if it is true you can keep them going. The gap on the back wall has been fixed by the way.
Cooler weather and a bit of moisture has reinvigorated the cristophine vine. We thought that the two or three fruits we spotted a couple of weeks ago would be the limit, but closer inspection reveals that the brute is making up for lost time and reviewing its plans for world domination! I mean really, where did this lot come from all of a sudden?
The news is full of the riots across France, giving the impression that life is impossible and that civilised activity has stopped. This is not the case. Yes, there were riots yesterday: yes, a lot of damage was caused by mindless idiots who have completely stolen the news headlines from the legitimate and almost legitimate concerns of the demonstrators. BUT the damage was limited to specific areas, while life continues away from those areas and people shake their heads sadly and mull over who pays for the repairs (spoiler alert - everyone through their taxes and insurance premiums). It was a beautiful and peaceful evening yesterday on the terrace of our village pub.
Some demonstrators were chuntering about the horrors of living in rural France, where you need your own transport, and where taxe foncière (the equivalent of council tax) goes up and up but you get nothing for it. Well, leaving aside schools, roads, street lights, meals on wheels, subsidies for new wood burning fires, rubbish collections, sewage services and all that sort of invisible good, one thing that small towns get is a subsidy to support a local cinema, generally run as a not for profit club, and staffed by volunteers.
Thus you don't have to trek for half an hour into a big town or city multiplex, as your local cinema club will ensure that many of the big releases come to you. Okay, you don't get Pearl and Dean advertising and all the trailers, but our two local village cinemas each have a varied programme of about 20 or 25 films a month, at very affordable prices and sometimes in VO (version originale). If the volunteers are a bit pretentious, that VO can be Turkish or Outer Mongolian, but on Friday night we treated ourselves to an evening out to watch Pressure, and it was great. The seats were comfortable, the sound was excellent and it is a brilliant film.
And finally, I was inspecting The Meadow today and listening to my favourite winter bird song (the wood lark - and today it was really giving it some), so I thought I would check how the badger set is getting on. Earlier in the year I spotted that it was being used as a den by a bunch of fox cubs, so I was interested to see if the badgers had done their usual preparation for winter. It was encouraging to see that the entrance is well used and expanded - it has moved a bit further up the field, by perhaps two foot in all, and there was a clear paw print in the damp soil at the entrance.
Next week there is more quince jelly to be made, and those long, long To Do lists to be attacked if I can continue to channel a bit of the enthusiasm I felt this last week. Dealing with cristophines is on that list as well as waging war on spiders - I don't mind a few as they capture any last remaining mosquitoes, but it has got beyond a joke. They can play outside, but not so much in the house I think.
Have a good week!
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