'La grippe'... as a posting title has been altered because at 15h32 on 5 march 2015 there had been 445 views on that day alone....statistics tell me a large audience in France...
Well.. it certainly took a grip! It is said that the flu vaccine would not have fought against this current virus, so I am glad I did not have it, even though the French medical system offered it to me for the first time this year. Such is my age! It is also said that having the 'flu' is the best vaccine against contracting any future influenza virus in the next few years. For that, I hope to be blessed. It is not an illness to be taken lightly and anyone who says they have it when they have only a serious cold is not to be pitied. Yesterday morning I made a few steps to the postbox but returned to the warmth of my room coughing, fit only for lying dormant again. The cough linctus didn't take long to swig but methinks it only pacifies rather than cures.
In the evening, the air was warm so before the sparkling sun set to bed I walked in the opposite direction to town, to descend to the village with sun in my eyes. Quite an exhausted me returned home! It is fascinating how the body and mind insists one closes down all faculties in order to heal. I have slept such a lot and could still sleep more. Now two weeks and three days since this started, it is a wonder how the body and the mind begin to wish to circulate, walk, breathe fresh air, so that gradually, 'pas a pas', one returns to normal life, whatever that is! Fortunately, as the second week progressed I was able to do cerebral activities, to keep some semblance of self-respect about my person and domesticity. To stave off the humdrum of confinement I found several YT videos of Jane Austen novels and it has been good to return to the history and culture of England. Emma. Persuasion. Northanger Abbey. Mansfield Park. (can't find Sense & Sensibility for free). Pride & Prejudice 1995 BBCTV series was an epic watch in small doses. If only there were more Colin Firth / Mr Darcy characters available! Far from being Restless I have been fairly calm, getting on with neglected tasks, lazy, yet looking AT unending chores in house and garden, knowing that in a few weeks time, cuckoos and nightingales sing pleasure and distraction for woodland walks!
Saturday 28 February 2015
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Oh. What a Way
OhWAW
MAIN RULE: never have WAW people at the last minute without a full and proper investigation as to why they wish to arrive so soon, who happen to be newly met 'Romeo & Juliet", who happen not to have any apparent onward plan, who did not reveal that they secret smoke, hence who lied on their profile, who say they can and can't, who say they will and don't, who say they are willing but aren't at the least sign of me doing something else, and who, when fully tested when I was unable to control their lack of initiative, did absolutely nothing, not even clear the kitchen or put away tools, who did not ask me what they could do to help, who had not fulfilled the tasks requested, who did not consider that the old biddy might need to be checked as she hadn't surfaced from the bedroom during the day! Ah, they could hear incessant coughing!
So... Oh. What a Way to end three weeks. I have examined facts for truth. I was not perfect. I never am. I did annoy them. If I wasn't monitoring, helping, working alongside, giving instructions (quicker to do it myself as English spoken language differences did not match! ... Bossy me! ) they were lazy, distracted. They told me so!! When I asked what his plan would be if, when properly employed, his boss asks him to do something and discovers he hasn't done it, he shrugged his shoulders!!! He did not seem to make the connection!
In the classroom, good T.A.s were worth their weight in gold. The supplementary ones or trainees that came from time to time, one trained them because that was our role - to educate. It is my role as a host to pass on skills, to train to educate... BUT NOT TO DRAIN ME! I drained my SELF! I could have moved them on after week one! but there still would have been the same discontent from them. If I have any other WAWs there will be a very different approach.
For three weeks I made allowances for language, youth, inexperience, an injured knee, refusal to see a medical specialist... but when hours were not made up from a man and woman who told me they were happy to work more than five hours a day and all the rest... I wanted them to go. Influenza told me I wanted to be in darkness without knowing that people in my house were doing nowt but being in their 'love nest'... hey ho what do they do? They shout at me whilst I am in my bed, say that I am unfair to rise from my sick bed and take them to the town in six hours, accuse me of giving no warning. That last part is true! I am asking them to go one day early! They shout at me in my kitchen and tell me I have not fed them! What? Threaten to make a mess of my house and garden project started! Then the truth is revealed. THEY HAVE NO PLAN AND NO WHERE NEXT TO GO, except she was supposed to be going home. Suddenly, ACTION. They spend twelve hours on the computer checking for travel and other unsuspecting hosts. No one knows where they have gone, except heading North.
When they arrived I learned that I had accepted them from a different bad scenario! Someone had threatened to kill them! Alarm bells rang but insufficiently to alert me they were kids! My name will of course be part of their future 'bad time' story! Eventually, my logic decided it wasn't worth giving him, who has a policy of not giving feedback, any feedback. But I have notified the WAW Team. She was naive, scared like a rabbit and should have been sheltered in her family home.
What riled me when I surfaced to get a hot water bottle on one occasion was that he shoved her out of the way so that he could wash up, then allowed her to finish it because he didn't like to wipe, nor wash up! I found her washing one plate and then wiping it.. and so on! My plates in the cupboard were dripping wet or greasy with fat! Cutlery and crockery have all been rewashed. My two remaining wedding teaspoons were in their bin parcel. THEY HAVE GONE...and left labouring tasks for me to achieve, but I don't mind!
Let's look at the positive: they widened the lavender border, moved logs, forked and dug, gave me courage to buy a chainsaw, chainsawed timber, felled two trees, dug out one tree root, created timber surrounds for 4 part potager, moved heavy concrete plant troughs using roller wood I found, helped take garden waste to dechetterie, did hard labour prep of courtyard... all stuff I couldn't do plus she sorted a lifetime of postcard collection and photos. They sang and played guitar, we played board games, enjoyed a long walk... had a laugh... ate delicious food. I praised them often and at every supper ..."Well done you". Yes I developed trust issues, suspecting they were not moving on, but had no regrets telling them the honeymoon was over! I think I have the right to not allow people alone in my house if I do not trust them. I have regrets that it ended unpleasantly! But I have received KARMA!
MAIN RULE: never have WAW people at the last minute without a full and proper investigation as to why they wish to arrive so soon, who happen to be newly met 'Romeo & Juliet", who happen not to have any apparent onward plan, who did not reveal that they secret smoke, hence who lied on their profile, who say they can and can't, who say they will and don't, who say they are willing but aren't at the least sign of me doing something else, and who, when fully tested when I was unable to control their lack of initiative, did absolutely nothing, not even clear the kitchen or put away tools, who did not ask me what they could do to help, who had not fulfilled the tasks requested, who did not consider that the old biddy might need to be checked as she hadn't surfaced from the bedroom during the day! Ah, they could hear incessant coughing!
So... Oh. What a Way to end three weeks. I have examined facts for truth. I was not perfect. I never am. I did annoy them. If I wasn't monitoring, helping, working alongside, giving instructions (quicker to do it myself as English spoken language differences did not match! ... Bossy me! ) they were lazy, distracted. They told me so!! When I asked what his plan would be if, when properly employed, his boss asks him to do something and discovers he hasn't done it, he shrugged his shoulders!!! He did not seem to make the connection!
In the classroom, good T.A.s were worth their weight in gold. The supplementary ones or trainees that came from time to time, one trained them because that was our role - to educate. It is my role as a host to pass on skills, to train to educate... BUT NOT TO DRAIN ME! I drained my SELF! I could have moved them on after week one! but there still would have been the same discontent from them. If I have any other WAWs there will be a very different approach.
For three weeks I made allowances for language, youth, inexperience, an injured knee, refusal to see a medical specialist... but when hours were not made up from a man and woman who told me they were happy to work more than five hours a day and all the rest... I wanted them to go. Influenza told me I wanted to be in darkness without knowing that people in my house were doing nowt but being in their 'love nest'... hey ho what do they do? They shout at me whilst I am in my bed, say that I am unfair to rise from my sick bed and take them to the town in six hours, accuse me of giving no warning. That last part is true! I am asking them to go one day early! They shout at me in my kitchen and tell me I have not fed them! What? Threaten to make a mess of my house and garden project started! Then the truth is revealed. THEY HAVE NO PLAN AND NO WHERE NEXT TO GO, except she was supposed to be going home. Suddenly, ACTION. They spend twelve hours on the computer checking for travel and other unsuspecting hosts. No one knows where they have gone, except heading North.
When they arrived I learned that I had accepted them from a different bad scenario! Someone had threatened to kill them! Alarm bells rang but insufficiently to alert me they were kids! My name will of course be part of their future 'bad time' story! Eventually, my logic decided it wasn't worth giving him, who has a policy of not giving feedback, any feedback. But I have notified the WAW Team. She was naive, scared like a rabbit and should have been sheltered in her family home.
What riled me when I surfaced to get a hot water bottle on one occasion was that he shoved her out of the way so that he could wash up, then allowed her to finish it because he didn't like to wipe, nor wash up! I found her washing one plate and then wiping it.. and so on! My plates in the cupboard were dripping wet or greasy with fat! Cutlery and crockery have all been rewashed. My two remaining wedding teaspoons were in their bin parcel. THEY HAVE GONE...and left labouring tasks for me to achieve, but I don't mind!
Let's look at the positive: they widened the lavender border, moved logs, forked and dug, gave me courage to buy a chainsaw, chainsawed timber, felled two trees, dug out one tree root, created timber surrounds for 4 part potager, moved heavy concrete plant troughs using roller wood I found, helped take garden waste to dechetterie, did hard labour prep of courtyard... all stuff I couldn't do plus she sorted a lifetime of postcard collection and photos. They sang and played guitar, we played board games, enjoyed a long walk... had a laugh... ate delicious food. I praised them often and at every supper ..."Well done you". Yes I developed trust issues, suspecting they were not moving on, but had no regrets telling them the honeymoon was over! I think I have the right to not allow people alone in my house if I do not trust them. I have regrets that it ended unpleasantly! But I have received KARMA!
Sunday 22 February 2015
J.O.Y.
I have rushed to write.
The sun is shining... I spent thirty minutes in the sun, warming my face and heart, starting to read The Book Thief". Then, gathered all the strength I could muster. to do what had to be done.
LONG STORY!...but...the mains drainage backed up into the garden.
I am cleaning a brick that has the word "SPECIAL" incised into one side...how silly and funny!... it's literally had a pile of poo on it, as have others. This brick will have to take pride of place in my garden and not be hidden from view, to serve as a reminder of madness. I am cleaning the area where a clematis struggles and maybe I shall plant a rose there!
HARK!
JOY mounts within my soul when I hear those cries.... those sounds I always associate with where I live and the passing of the seasons. Les grues. Apart from death there is one certainty, that whatever the shit in one's life, the seasons will come and go; they will bring forth LIFE and DESIRE to live. Spring will arrive to climb the ladder from recent despair and influenza.
Too late for the camera... but I heard them. I opened the gates to Fort Knox, searched the sky from my street and there they were, towards the north / east flying, heading that way .. several v shape forms... SPRING AT LAST!!!! I am in tears of JOY. They are JOY.
It's a long haul but I can get there., wherever I have to go! Death hasn't wanted me yet!!!!! I defy it! The last ten days or so have been absolute HELL and WILL (who is he?) has been more than rock bottom, battling with trying to keep me warm, stop me coughing, stop me crying, help me to sleep ... I am not ashamed! Being ill needs a nurse, needs creature comforts, needs need to be pampered. It's hard! I am human. Dramatic? Maybe but I don't care. I am who I am!
SPRING SUNSHINE... LET ME HAVE IT! Let it shine into my house. I need someone to instal a velux or sun tunnel.
The sun is shining... I spent thirty minutes in the sun, warming my face and heart, starting to read The Book Thief". Then, gathered all the strength I could muster. to do what had to be done.
LONG STORY!...but...the mains drainage backed up into the garden.
I am cleaning a brick that has the word "SPECIAL" incised into one side...how silly and funny!... it's literally had a pile of poo on it, as have others. This brick will have to take pride of place in my garden and not be hidden from view, to serve as a reminder of madness. I am cleaning the area where a clematis struggles and maybe I shall plant a rose there!
HARK!
JOY mounts within my soul when I hear those cries.... those sounds I always associate with where I live and the passing of the seasons. Les grues. Apart from death there is one certainty, that whatever the shit in one's life, the seasons will come and go; they will bring forth LIFE and DESIRE to live. Spring will arrive to climb the ladder from recent despair and influenza.
Too late for the camera... but I heard them. I opened the gates to Fort Knox, searched the sky from my street and there they were, towards the north / east flying, heading that way .. several v shape forms... SPRING AT LAST!!!! I am in tears of JOY. They are JOY.
It's a long haul but I can get there., wherever I have to go! Death hasn't wanted me yet!!!!! I defy it! The last ten days or so have been absolute HELL and WILL (who is he?) has been more than rock bottom, battling with trying to keep me warm, stop me coughing, stop me crying, help me to sleep ... I am not ashamed! Being ill needs a nurse, needs creature comforts, needs need to be pampered. It's hard! I am human. Dramatic? Maybe but I don't care. I am who I am!
SPRING SUNSHINE... LET ME HAVE IT! Let it shine into my house. I need someone to instal a velux or sun tunnel.
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Far and near a witches' rock
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Shepherd or Vineyard Worker Huts - Posting One
In the very local surroundings of my village, Angles sur L'Anglin, you may discover on private land, or along a chemin, the vestiges of ancient dry stone wall buildings that have a small entrance. Evidently, they are found only in this region and in Provence. Several years ago the Office du Tourisme conducted a tour of these on one of the Patrimoine days, therefore, I am reporting what I understood when my French language skills were poorer than they are now! I know where many of them are, and as far as I can remember there are no more than 20 or so. I shall do further homework as I am not exactly sure of their title. However, this is a post posting sentence; they are called 'Loges' but in Provence are called 'Bories'. They were built to shelter shepherds or vineyard workers or those who worked in fields from the onslaught of the heat or inclement weather. Many are in ruins.
This is one of the largest that I know and in a private field.
Maybe I should make a map of where they are!
Monday 2 February 2015
Glorioso Weekend Feastings
SUNDAY: Sleepy head on the first day of the month got up late as did the Workers...
At about two thirty we had something to eat but none of us were hungry until we started to eat...
from the freezer a leftovers rice dish from October served three with raw carrot strips and a bit of lettuce, the last of the Ciabatta rolls and the last of the Pear Meringue tart... A FEAST...
Then we partook of a WALK for an hour and a half to 'Le Roc à Midi'. On the return journey I found a route I haven't taken in years!!!!!! Splendissimo! I also started to learn the days of the week in Italian and Spanish! Tricky!
Pics to follow tomorrow......
Two Roasted chicken cuissons stretched to feed three persons with potatoes, garlic and parsnips roasted. They had not ever eaten the latter! More carrots. I made a gravy with roasted red pepper out of a jar, swished with apple juice, carrot juice, pesto, cream and a little flour to thicken. I don't do gravy cubes or powder. YUK! We were stuffed! No one wanted apple crumble. Good oh.. it is for tomorrow!
In addition, I cooked a casserole of three chicken legs on a bed of onions and potatoes, lemon and ginger......that should feed us for two days... AND I made BREAD, which was started Thursday night using left-over Ciabatta mix and flour scraped out of the bowl and off the kneading table. It had kept covered with a cloth whilst the wild yeasts grew... then I added flour etc on Saturday night, kneaded it Sunday morning, cooked it late Sunday evening! YUM!
SATURDAY, they brought the trailer to the house, filled it with weeds, emptied my front-of-house plant troughs brought into the outhouse last November as they
are not frost proof... One cannot have everything as they were only 3e
from SuperU. All the soil is in black bins ready for Spring plantation! Some geraniums etc show signs of life, so we
extracted the living and repotted them into three troughs in my
kitchen hoping to flourish!!! Give life I say! They had also moved more logs into drier storage. My lovely workers managed 3 hrs labour and I called it a day as I was tired. They left me alone so I took opportunity to indulge in a bath and to test where shower water now spatters to... will still have to be careful!
Yesterday we ate beef casserole... it is a Bourgninon (spelling?) cut of beef and for 3.50e served four ( one portion in the freezer for me at a later date!). We had rice and carrots! The Italians were complimentary!
At about two thirty we had something to eat but none of us were hungry until we started to eat...
from the freezer a leftovers rice dish from October served three with raw carrot strips and a bit of lettuce, the last of the Ciabatta rolls and the last of the Pear Meringue tart... A FEAST...
Then we partook of a WALK for an hour and a half to 'Le Roc à Midi'. On the return journey I found a route I haven't taken in years!!!!!! Splendissimo! I also started to learn the days of the week in Italian and Spanish! Tricky!
Pics to follow tomorrow......
Two Roasted chicken cuissons stretched to feed three persons with potatoes, garlic and parsnips roasted. They had not ever eaten the latter! More carrots. I made a gravy with roasted red pepper out of a jar, swished with apple juice, carrot juice, pesto, cream and a little flour to thicken. I don't do gravy cubes or powder. YUK! We were stuffed! No one wanted apple crumble. Good oh.. it is for tomorrow!
In addition, I cooked a casserole of three chicken legs on a bed of onions and potatoes, lemon and ginger......that should feed us for two days... AND I made BREAD, which was started Thursday night using left-over Ciabatta mix and flour scraped out of the bowl and off the kneading table. It had kept covered with a cloth whilst the wild yeasts grew... then I added flour etc on Saturday night, kneaded it Sunday morning, cooked it late Sunday evening! YUM!
Yesterday we ate beef casserole... it is a Bourgninon (spelling?) cut of beef and for 3.50e served four ( one portion in the freezer for me at a later date!). We had rice and carrots! The Italians were complimentary!
Sunday 1 February 2015
What will the days of the blackbird bring?
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
 |
| with thanks to rspb for image |
In Italy, the days of the blackbird or 'i giorni della merla' are traditionally the coldest days of the year...29, 30, 31 January, sometimes including February 1st. Folk-lore says that the colder those days the better Spring weather there will be! Fascinating to learn something new, if true!
Here are three links for you to read if interested!
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
‘giorni della merla’ (days of the blackbird).
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