France and how it started for us.

Ive a fan "YES" me having one fully committed fan.

Evening All,
Well it really has been another hot day today 37/38 deg and its not for those who like sleeping all night, (I had to chuck teddy out of bed " all that fur was to hot)

We had the windows open and the local owl decided to hoot around 4am, the deer we're grunting by our gates and we had sprouts for dinner and i felt windy:rolleyes:

But i remembered a fan i had in the workshop thats really a blower (it's industrial design) and i went and got it and the room was a lot better,
the only thing wrong is you need ear plugs as its like a jumbo jets engines once it gets going.

But we complain when it's cold & again when its wet and now because its hot hot hot. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:playful:

Now the french dont mess about when if any rules are changed they kick up one hell of a row and then without notice cause havoc via strikes /road blocks etc,

Not like the english who when the goveremnt decided to raise the ladies pensions to 67 yrs of age from the age of 60 before they could have their pension, we hardly heard a word of protest. And the english tend to give out dates when they are going to do anything so the powers to be know what to expect and this lightens the punch so to speak and the effect is nil

The lastest kick up the rear end for the french travel depts is that because the crossing via boat from the uk to france and then return france to uk was taken over by another company the workers are not happy with the new rules ref pensions etc and so they've closed the 26 mile crossing between both the uk & france causing thousands of holiday cars and international trucks & coaches to end up stuck on both sides, the french port is grid locked and even the euro tunnel train has now been effected due to the french striker's lighting the railway lines up with burning tyres, so the tunnel is also out of action,

Its been three days now and some of the people cant get out of the ports or in and the boating companies have now said they are to cancell further bookings,
this will effect the english coming to france for holidays and the truckers getting home and of cause depending on the load in these trucks what damage will be done (frozen food and live stock) stuck in these lanes of jammed up trucks is not a good thing.

To add a little sault to these wounds is that we are having the hottest june/july for years so you could say these people are frying in the heat wave, running out of food/drinks and their temper's,

But some good news for all these fare paying legal folk is that the 3000 illegal travelers trying to enter england via illegal means are being fed and watered by charity groups
while they watch and whistle at the people caught up in this strike. (these illegal immigrants have a camp on the dual carrageway leading through the ferry gates)

All i can say is am i glad im sitting here in my office talking to you having just had dinner and ive a nice cool drink to wash it down with.:cool:

!!!THE WORLDS GONE MAD ""
 

A request i cant do

Evening folks,
It's been an odd day today To start with i managed to hold up a pile of cars at the local fuel pumps, ie Ive not had my car out much in the past few months hence the battery was low and because the makers built in all kinds of saftey devices ie the engine has to be off before filling up with petrol otherwise the fuel filler flap wont open until the engines off,
you cant start the car's engine unless your in nuetral gear,
Well today we used my car we drove 15km and needed to fuel up , Id had the electric windows up and down afew times plus the electric aerial up and down a few times,
so when i'd filled up the engine refused to start, every time i turned the key the dadh lights flickered, i thought i had an earth problem, but i was wrong, we pushed the car out of the way of the pumps and tried to see why the dash lights flickered etc,

after two hours in the boiling sun one of our neighbours came over and asked if i needed a jump start, "that did the trick and we managed to get home,

When i think about it the battery is over 10 years old and the cars a six ltr engine size with all kinds of electric operated things
It's proberly in need of a new battery anyway.

By the time i'd got home i was ready for a nice cold drink,:cool:

The answering machine was flashing and it was a request from the local SPCA. people telling me they have an 12 year old sheep dog thats been living at these trusts kennels
for 7 years now and because of its age they feel the dogs got about two years left.

They know ive just lost "Lottie" but they dont know ive three rescued dogs and after the last one has gone we're only going to have one or possibly two small dogs:

I was told this dog they have isn't very keen on male dogs and infact would like to be the only dog in the house so the final decision wasn't a difficult one to make.

It's hard to turn away but we feel a dogs home is one for life and when these three have gone we wont a short rest and after that as i say one or two "very small animals."

Sometimes you really do thiink lifes a bitch sometimes.
 
If only they could talk

Morning all,
Im just back from the morning walkies, (a storms blowing in)
We've had some really hot hot hot weather these past few weeks and to be honest i'd welcome a bit of the cooler stuff,

Yesterday we went to the super -store and while there we thought we'd fuel up the car '(the Bentely) I'd not had it out for a few weeks and i dont do a lot of milage these days so the re-fill is'nt done on a weekly thing,

Again most things on the car are electric and you dont really give much thought as to what your taking out of the battery to what your putting back in "if your not doing the milage to re-charge the battery)

And having filled the tank i couldnt get the engine to turn over, 'the battery was to low' and i'd only driven 15km's from the house, all the window's open/car electric ariel used for the radio, mirrors both opened out "again electric" sat/nav and forward camera all plugged in and all eating at the battery reserve,

No wonder they battery was not charged enough to take the load,

But its a sure sign the battery is needing to be changed, it's sat in the car for the last 10 years and so its done its job well,
But due to this heat wave i really did sweat while i waited for a jump start to arrive "our neighbour".

But from the modern day life to the old way of life long passed,

As we walked this morning back to our home we pass this old farm thats been left to rot away, day by day its falling more and more into disrepair state
But its much used and loved by the sheep who just provide a 24/7 silent lawn mower service and while the mother sheep preper the Lambs dinners the Lambs bounce about chasing each other until they see myself and the dogs panting as we walk up the steep lane past this old farm house and the Lambs heads can be seen trying to look at us from behind the corners of the old house,

Now still hanging outside the old house kitchen door is one of the old metal two handled mini sized baths,
It's been on that wall for years and years even after all nature could throw at it via winter winds, snow and rain it's still remained like some sort of a sign thats saying

"life was once here."

Who put it on the wall all those years ago?
Are they still alive?
Did that old bath see the German S.S. as they marched through the village during the secong world war? creating only fear as to what the germans would do to the locals?

If only houses could talk what a tale they'd tell.:confused:
 

As we cycle around Scotland we see very old ruins of houses, some probably from the 19th century highland clearances. Did the occupants go to America, Canada, or maybe just to Glasgow or a city in England.

Our road has many Victorian houses but ours is only 88 years old. But I'd love to know what the house looked like back then. It did have a fireplace in every room and our open living/dining had a wall between them.
 
Hi Ameriscot,
Nice to hear from you,
Yes it's the one thing you get from going riding or walking "away from the four wall's of the home"
And you can't help but wonder what was life like in our own homes before we came along??????

We have a big fire place in our "open living /dining" room and if you look up at the cieling beamed area you can see one beam has cutout bits we're floor to cieling wooden upright sections once we're fitted,
I was told by Marie "our nearest nieghbour that that part of the house was we're the cattle use to live and the fire part were the farmer and his family lived, (all in the same area of the house)
It must have stunk when you think of the cow's sweating in the hot weather and straw etc,
And what is our kitchen was the pig sty.
This area of france was known as a resistance strong hold " wonder if this farm was used for any meetings etc,
Marie did tell me that as children the family never went very far and it was a day out to visit the next village 20km away, they got there via walking or pony and trap,
she walked 3km to the village school every day,
I really love to talk to the locals and hear the stories of what life was like in those days but it was hard and one story was of one farmer who'd not returned home after a days work ploughing, He'd died sitting on a grass bank and his dog had stayed with him, the weather turned to snow and the dog was wrapped around his masters body trying to keep warm,


Yes as i say if only they could talk.
 
Oh yes I agree about houses and their history it's something that fascinates me greatly..I love nothing more than visiting and researching old houses particularly those in the Uk that are still around after hundreds of years. I live in a village on the edge of a small market town that was built pre 600 AD, and many of the medieval buildings are still standing from around the 16th century and being lived in or used for businesses and in great condition, having been renovated over the years . It always fascinates me to wonder about the lives of the people who'd lived in those properties waaay back when they were first built and if they would ever have imagined their homes would still be in use hundreds of years later
 
Hi hollydolly,
We bought an old cottage in a place in mid wales not far from BALA LAKE, it was a mile up a track no near by nieghbours (a mile across a valley as the bird flys) and the views really were to die for, infact you could sit on the loo a see BALA LAKE 7 miles away on a clear day,

anyway the old lady who did own it had died but she'd had the place made to a more modern look inside, ie covered all the beamed cieling with bourds and then papered with woodchip paper
and did away with the old bath and replaced it with a "pink plastic bath"
Well im sure you get the picture,

But this cottage had so much charater that had been hidden via trying to make it modern it was just unbelievable,

It was built as a sheperds house and when you lay in your bed you could see out of the windows across the land to check your sheep, when you stood up out of bed "from the outside you'd see only the bottom half of the persons body who was standing there,

Well we decided to change this house back to as near as possible using modern day appliences as poss, ie we changed the window's for old fashioned looking "double glazed ones"
A new bathroom suite but the old tub look with claw feet, and a sink you could swim in "it was that big" the old style, the loo had a big wooden seat and a pull chain.

But we got a very big shock one day when we found under the cieling bourding as we pulled them down hooks in the beames for hanging bacon etc and the last bourd we pulled down showed us the small fireplace was infact false, behind it lay this huge inglenook,
We spent all day one sunday clearing the old fire out so we could fit a big villager wood burner in its place,

It was then horror struck as i was cleaning the chimney, now you could stand inside this inglenook and lookup and see the top of the chimney pots and daylight,
And "HORROR" strands of ginger hair plastered into the fire backing wall?????????????????

My wife was really concerned as we knew a lot of the old country folk did strange things with their dead babies,
No such thing as paying for full church funnerals etc,
Like the dead animals the children and some adults we're burried in the garden and an old builders thing was to encase a live cat in the inner walls of a chimney for luck,
every old welsh house has a space on the inner chimney face for a tub of sault to be places to scare away the witches,

But we had now found this ginger hair hanging down parts of our chimney !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No nieghbours for miles, no phone, what would we do????
Well after a visit "on a sunday" covered in black soot etc i knocked on the local village police house front door, I could smell roast beaf cooking,
A small child opened the door took one look at me and shouted to her dad (the police officer") the chimney sweeps here!!!!

After explaining about this hair, he Laughed and said all the old welsh cottages were built with a mix of Lime and horse hair to make a mortor/mix to cover the walls etc,
He did come up later that day and had a look and he was right,

It was him who told us about the cat and sault & witches stories,

So hollydolly,
As you've said it really is a wonderful thing to be able to see these old buildings today.

We had a ball doing that place up and lived in it for 9 yrs pre buying this place here in france (same thing again 25 yrs empty of any human life before we arrived)
Nice talking to you holly.
 
I love old buildings as well - the older the better! We have friends who live in a small medieval village outside of Montelimar in France. The house, and I think most the neighbours' houses are from the 16th century!! Loved it!!

We visited the ruins of a 13th century priory on one of our bike journeys last week. We found this grave slab very interesting and can't figure it out. It shows a skeletal person, the intestines, and what looks like a baby between the thighs. I can find no reference to it online.

fetus.jpg
 
Strange that find,
I hope one of the members know what its all about???????
But a great find anyway.
 

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