Five year anniversary

I have owned my first French property five years today... and WHAT IS MORE... I have mostly stopped crying!!! YAY... Maybe, there will be another five years as I have promised myself 'no escaping yet'!!! ... and even though, at times I yearn to return to 'a homeland', this is now my home.  I wish to make it more so.
I have regained independence and some of my old strengths.  I am not ashamed of dependence on others for their support, love and care, however distant they are around the world...friends, cousins, kith and kin. I welcome those who can renovate and repair for I am unskilled in such matters. I make a good skivvy. However... Just a few days ago, I found the correct allen key and managed to get the toilet lid and seat correctly aligned so that it was not falling apart, which it dd, in the course of trying to get the whole-damn-thing back to being self-closure. About half way through the task, when I started to sob a teary eye,  I felt as if I could stick my head down the loo, flush the system and drown!!! "Would that solve the issue?"  I asked myself.   NOPE!  Then I managed its intricate ways!  I DO delight in the way a toilet seat slowly descends. Gently I say to those who bang the lid!!!! 

 Five years ago one part looked like this:
My house was purchased after the death of other dear human souls. I was destined to be the owner occupier.  Now the roof has been replaced with new windows in it and the lucarne. The guttering is different. I love my new roof. The roofers were so kind, patient and tolerant.  In the near future I am hoping that the brown kitchen window and door will be improved!

Almost at the beginning of this blog is a posting about the signing day on 30 April 2010 with a pic of me looking happier than I had for several years.  I was in disbelief when 'a little bird' told me 'bon courage'...  I certainly needed that! Then within a few weeks it was all change! 

Now, 2015...the transformed front courtyard garden will be lower maintenance and more joyful!
Today I am ecstatically happy to hear the nightingale and cuckoo. I love April and May!

almost done, more done since the photo date, and more to do!!!!

Currently, house and garden maintenance, administrative tasks, CLEARANCE of clutter and possessions in the ATTIC, kitchen replacement and other things on the TO DO list are somewhat overwhelming!
I am mostly happy to live here. It is my success story against adversity and struggle and am in good health.
The Future: Living is Hard Work but hopefully there will be more opportunities for playtime! I am lucky in many ways.




 

To the Dorset Sea

We drove in a very nice 'my colour electric blue' Lotus Elan (1991 I think!.. well it was J reg) without great suspension, but suspended I was.  It could do a ton whilst I kept extremely relaxed with regular breathing, heart not quite in my mouth!  I even had a test drive! Safe! Told it was 'school rules' and if I crashed it, I would have to pay. Fair do's. 

After a walk through sheep downs showing the vestiges of Roman vineyards (!!! yes, in England!!!)  we came upon Dancing Ledge.  The historical and geographical information on my return with the assistance of 'the fount of all knowledge' is fascinating!In the old quarry, evidently one of the Dr Who films was taken.  The notice on other grilled and barred entrances said that Greater Horseshoe Bats were in the caves. It was a fascinating place to be with what appeared to be its own micro-climate. I would love to return and do the coastal walk! Such a beautiful experience assisted by a half pint and a Pinot Noir in an English inn!

Captured with my zoom...Maybe a Meadow Pipit?

Dancing Ledge, Dorset

A Native Bluebell Wood

This was a first for me and oh, oh, oh so magical. We were trespassing (perhaps) in an ancient Dorset pheasant shooting woodland but who could resist treading amongst native bluebells, celandines, wood anemones with their six or seven petals, amongst gnarled and twisted trees dead or in leaf, amongst sunlight streaming between shadows on probably the warmest UK April day! Scents crushed underfoot arise with a  hint of wild garlic mixed with a luscious aroma of canola / oil seed rape from the surrounding fields.  Transported, transfixed heavenwards,  I wished to lay me down with bluebells 'round my hair listening to birdsong in woodland.  A long strip of ancient land left alongside a lane was wide enough to feel concealed within that habitat.  Oh to be lost in a bluebell wood whilst they are in bloom.

bluebells in a blur

On my way home

...being extremely tired after a night on a floor on a six hour ferry I needed to stretch my legs. It was eight in the morning when I deviated to a town called Falaise, which was just waking up.  On the ferry I had read that William the Conqueror had been born here, so I set off with my camera to the castle on a crisp and sunny morning.
A falaise is a steep rocky escarpment caused by erosion. With no time available I didn't view the chateau on the falaise at FALAISE from different angles.
In 2011, it was the 1100th anniversary of the town celebrating the birth and history of Guillaume le Conquerant...it is worth going to that link to remind us of a slightly different version of history than that which for example I was taught at school! It would be exciting to be at the planned events.

I saw the unfurled Bayeux Tapestry about 15 years ago.. stunning... I was in awe... at that time there were few people and so one could walk back and forth checking the images. Probably in my attic are photos and prints!!!
The Chateau Falaise is evidently similarly built to that of Corfe Castle, which I drove past on my recent travels and would dearly have loved to stop and be a tourist but we were on a see-the-sea mission! Shades of Chateau Angles sur L'Anglin.

It is also similar to the well-preserved Norwich Castle, which I know well, as my daughter lives in the city and it was my nearest city when I was occupationally resident in UK - an ancestral home... um... not the castle but an East Anglian seaside town!

Waste paper basket trespasser

This wee beastie rather spooked me when I emptied the waste paper basket on return from being on the road.  Obviously a type of Longhorn Beetle... I didn't wait to fully identify it!!!

In the Gods with the Chickens

At the meeting of the dissolution of the association of Les Amis du Théâtre Blossac, it was agreed to offer members a ticket to the theatre.  I haven't ever attended a French Play in a French theatre, so with a free ticket as gratitude for the very little support I gave in the last ten years to the restoration of this ancient theatre, I watched a performance of 'Public or not Public' by La Compagnie Théâtrale de l'Esquisse - if you wish you can read about them at this link.

In February 2014, I produced six postings about this Theatre.  The first is here for those who wish to read about it.

I hadn't ever been up to 'the Gods' in France before, so I was delighted to be near Paradise for two hours. I could almost touch the painted ceiling depicting mythological characters.
In France this uppermost part of the theatre is called 'le poulailler'.  Chickens roost up high.
I am not chicken, nor a chicken, and far from being a God or Goddess.

I didn't understand most of the vocabulary in the drama but could understand some words and phrases. I could enjoy most of the humour, the mime, the action, the audience participation, the music, the singing. It was fun.  It was lovely to laugh.  It was amazing to look down upon a stage and its actors.  Within the play there were sketches about Roman Gladiators and Caesar, the Globe Theatre and Shakespeare's plays, plus Carmen mimed to operatic song.  At the end, Strauss's 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' resounded loudly, whilst the four actors returned to prehistory, acting as apes as in the beginning of the Performance. One expected to see Lucie.  It was a fantastic French 'comedie'.  

A stage view

of the uppermost levels.

Four actors present and represent

 in mask and mime,

with fun, light, sound and action.

whilst THIS POSITION  is the nearest to YE GODS and the furthest from the stage. I climbed up higher when every other chicken had left its roost!

It was enough to make one dizzy;  tread slowly, carefully in case of slipping on new wood.

yet, the angel was watching nakedly...

in the theatrical heavens of PARADISE....

Incognito

since the end of March.

Better to be Busy

and LIVING....
hence I have some good photos and nice tales from the past week and probably more to come. LIVING has to happen. POSTING has to wait ...
IT, the need to write and communicate with whoever wants to read such trivia, takes Time. IT is a real divergence from doing all that needs to be done...
So...  notwithstanding that comment here I am burbling, trying to keep calm, having a small meditational moment which is a small oasis before the flurries of movement which have to happen.
I love having people around me which helps me to appreciate being alone but given the choice I like the two in balance and with scheduled events so that I have to meet deadlines. I work better that way!
RIGHT!!!!  Back to doing... or else it will be even greater uncontrolled chaos in my life!

Acacia Trees

That tall tree, not in my garden sends out roots apx ten metres distance and up sprouts a new tree. I allowed four to grow in my garden for they were not there five years ago and by last summer they were wonderful with their shady foliage and hammock hanging strength.....but then I noticed their roots!
In the Autumn a friend pruned three and chainsawed through the trunk of one that was in my potager but then roots have been a different issue!
In September a friend sawed one, then in February, Italian helpers sawed down another two and recently a paid gardener took out the fourth.  He and I scraped back the earth until he could get at the narrower roots with his lopper and then with persistent rocking the evil roots came out. I can now plant the potatoes in the 4th part of my potager.
HOWEVER, that acacia tree used to have another tree section that fell into the neighbour's land about two years ago. Now, this main trunk is pushing over the single breeze-block wall which is being held in place mainly by the mound created by the previous occupant of my house. Also there is bedrock there.
The wall was not broken like this in the Autumn.  There has though been a hairline crack for five years. Last  Summer the wall was straight and fine!
The good news is that the neighbour will employ someone to remove the tree and its roots (I hope) and rebuild the dividing wall. She is very conscientious, responsible and caring and does not wish anyone to be injured.  She said "Je se mefier". 
Her garden is really wild and I love it like that and said so but she is remorseful for not paying attention... a kind of out of sight out of mind... and like me ... she has other things to do and cannot cope with so much land.

My gardener erected the new pergola. 

My veggie plot is now divided into four sections by a strip of lawn wide enough for the mower.

The garden beyond the acacia tree.

There are three of these to dig out!