A walk

Saturday 8 August 2015
This was an extension of a walk I know up to The Witches Rock, Le Roc a Midi, return to the footpath, turn right towards the road. Turn right instead of left at the road.  At the stone crucifix we did not choose left or right but headed straight on over the field to the water's edge to proceed left with no pedestrian track. Without maps, I realised we were walking on the opposite side of the river to the original site of the sculptural 'roc auc sorciers'.  It was difficult to identify Doux through the trees but interesting to see from this side. We came to the Confluence of the Gartempe and Anglin rivers. 
I wished to walk further along the river but was unsettled by the proximity of a road with fast flowing traffic.  I was confident of the direction of the village but the sun was hidden.  With woodland to traverse, we crossed the field to the track.  No cattle in the fields!  Then we walked parallel to the river returning to the stone crucifix but instead of turning right to retrace our steps we headed straight on. This follows the curve of the river to "Le Moulin de Remerle".  I vaguely remember being on this side of the river a decade ago having walked to this point exactly by the water's edge from the bridge.
At home, studying the map, I understood my disorientation because the River Anglin meanders, forming a loop, before it meets the waters that it flows into.
It was an enjoyable few hours mostly held without discussion between two people. I love walking alone. I love company. This was a happy balance.
How annoying! I just wrote an elegant phrasal expression about reflections as to what I have learned and it has become deleted because I pressed the wrong button after I'd made it italic !  gggrrrrr! Maybe just as well!

without zoom

This plant has holly type leaves.. I know not its name.

This artform 'sculpture' worthy of any title by Richard Long, might have been made by a beaver or a coypu but as it was so symmetrically curved that maybe it was carved by a person.  Behind it is the tree that it came from or another felled by wind or man! I very much liked this natural artistic installation!

 The confluence of two rivers.

The River Anglin meets La Gartempe

Across the other side of the river, low at this time of year, is a place where I often stand after walking along the D6, down The American Way to the water's edge, then along the track to the Moulin de Remerle, a place where kingfishers play!

Keep to the riverbank and one arrives at the 14th century Hosannah Cross in the cemetery.

At the bridge we wondered what was best to do after an almost two hour walk. Pancakes at home! Given the hour we had an earlyish supper: cold lamb and leftover salad vegetables, oat biscuits and runny cheese, pancake with apricot conserve that couldn't achieve the temperature to make jam! Coffee after wine. I felt relaxed at last. Tensions had been displaced for another while. A rest day had ensued.
The morning had been entertaining two guests who we met the previous Friday evening. It is unusual for me to a) sit at anyone else's table... I only did so as we were departing to help translate the mystifying APERTIVO menu...and felt rapport!  hence b) I invited them to morning coffee at 24 at 10h30 but they came an hour earlier bearing croissants and stayed for coffee and tea leaving at well after noon.   Nice people, but I wish that someone would not dismiss one of the couple with thoughts about their faults and social weaknesses whilst praising the other half of the couple! None of us are perfect.     I know it is something I learned to do from him or others and have been trying to shed such negativity.   In my opinion, it is better to try to see beyond any niggles we might have about for example  how much anyone else talks or if they have what might be what was described as an irritating habit of smiling a lot!

It's a long while

since I wanted to share or had time, motivation or any energy to share.  Maybe I can begin to re-look at the Past month and to whatever Time becomes the Present and present a story or stories alongside to unknown and unknowing readers.

'A plus'...

(not pronounced 'AY PLUS' which once when an English bloke living in  France wrote to me on a dating site communication. I couldn't understand what I had done to gain an A star!!!)

It is pronounced 'ah plooss'...meaning 'see you later'!     or      'later'!

Dishwasher and Gratitude

After prepping, cooking and serving a delicious evening meal for six adults a week ago, there was clearing and washing up to be done all alone, well after eleven pm.  As it took at least two hours of focussed organisation,  I decided I would get the dishwasher NOW.
There were apero glasses for Vouvray and then wine glasses, apero dishes, main meal plates and cutlery and before I could say "keep plates and cutlery", they were stacked, and we had to have new ones for cheese and 'salade', then bowls for 'dessert' which was a Charoseth, a dried fruits salad with grated apples, then coffee cups and oh I found some Pineau as a digestif, so more glasses!
Everyone helped to decamp stuff from the end of the garden just before the street lights went out. They had five minutes to walk home.  Even at gone past 2.30 am was I folding down the parasol, collecting the tablecloth as a thunderstorm brewed, only discharging between 6 and 10ml of rain!!!
We are in the canicule ... a drought!

It is also true that about midnight my daughter and I were doing FACETIME just for 30 minutes whilst I tried to settle her emotional rollercoaster!  It was a welcome break to doing the dishes and although I wished to leave the washing  and wiping up to the morning I was so glad I did it so that I did not have to FACE IT the next day. My annoyance was that another in the house never verbally made a comment! 

INTERRUPTION TO MY POSTING :    I have to let go of resentment!!!!! I am trying to release myself from resentments, bitterness, jealousy, anger, frustration, annoyance, irritability with others who do not meet my needs and ideals...    I am trying to be more grateful for the moment and the goodness of all that is happening in my life. 

I must celebrate and see the good in the negative moment.. 
I MUST LEARN instead of carrying, pushing and pulling!!  Is that the reason for why my neck and wrists are hurting? I have to leaarn to LET GO! I have to learn to WELCOME GOODNESS IN...................................I have to learn GRATITUDE.................................. 

I last had a dishwasher... a lave-vaiselle,  about five years ago. It was inherited with the dark kitchen in which I could not establish the condition of anything. One bought a house and not a kitchen!  The dishwasher was poorly. Before that, I don't remember having one at the other French house, so it was 2002 when I last experienced the joys of loading and unloading.
In my own house, alone, I have come to enjoy 'doing the dishes' as a form of meditation and keeping warm in the winter. I learned to pride myself on beginning to keep surfaces free of dripping dirty or clean dishes! In the previous house I hated washing up, the darkness, dirt and grime beyond the dishes! I cannot explain in text! It was one of the elements that caused separation, resentment and the rest!  The planned window never arose because we realised the stupidity of outting a window into a North facing wall. French farmhouses in this region rarely have a window in the wall that receives the winter winds and rain.

I went to Auchan and compared several white machines, eventually rejecting the Bosch for the Electrolux and I am not displeased!  Before making the final decision I compared the silver fronted ones with my two prime choices.  I am convinced that the dishwasher uses less water than washing and rinsing stuff out in the outhouse BUT it definitely saves me walking such long distances...
I am so grateful for a dishwasher!

Steamed then Baked Rice with pistachios, saffron, cinnamon etc

Steamed veg - white cabbage, carrots, courgettes

Chicken, sun dried tomato and sweet red pepper kebabs marinaded in garlic, onion, sun- dried tomatoes and tarragon!

At a late stage in the proceedings, a pic seemed a good idea!

Stacked on the table to drip dry on tea-towels.

and more!

The Laundry Room ( La Buanderie).  One wall complete with dishwasher!

That vacuum cleaner is supposed to be in the cupboard where doors conceal a tall cupboard! The cuboards are painted Dulux Quartz Grey and that is the end of that paint can!

La Buanderie progress

Unedited photos of La Buanderie.. end of Phase One! Once just four walls now one wall has fitted kitchen cabinets which are the recycled brown ones from the kitchen! BRILL!  I have been very impressed by the look which is admittedly a bit glossy but that's 'cos I have used up the paint I had from five years ago! Quartz Grey.  There is space for a dishwasher. Above the sink will go another 70 x 40 cupboard.

 I'm a Persil Girl!

The thermodynamique boiler is supposed to absorb heat from the room,  but since October it has made gggrrrrring noises waiting for an electrician. One arrived and changed a valve as water was escaping out of it... and he never came back... so now I am waiting for another electrician and he hasn't turned up when he said he would!
Moving anti clockwise round the room is the door to the kitchen and a window to the atelier which can be opened... the other window cannot be opened for ventilation. 

Look at this huge machine for the central heating system. Now if I could get the last three radiators back on the walls and the plumbing for them finished then I could get the machine verified by an expert (it was working when I bought the house), order fioul and be tickety boo warm in winter!!

On this wall is now food storage ... picture later...
I would like fixed floor to ceiling shelving! I have to leave a door width space on the wall to open the vacuum storage cupboard door. As you can see by looking at the floor tiles the wall is off square!

Look behind the machine. The EXPERT man needs to fix a wire that for some reason goes across it!

I am indebted to the volunteer man who five years ago was and is my former partner. He who made the room dry and who recently has prepped and installed the recycled units. The hydrofuge worktop was from Bricodepot and good value... better than LRM!  It's nice to have a sink in this room!  Now I need the kitchen to decide which crockery and cutlery I shall keep as basics and keep to display as special crockery because I have some very nice things in boxes. Then I must sell what I do not need!!! Oh that will be hard!

Yesterday, rock

a french rock concert  was held at La Salle des Fetes. I was glad I stayed and learned a lot by asking questions and talking in French and English... ah... a new association in the village to promote artistic events!  Ah, a breath of fresh air!!!!

Then I drove to Lurais for superb young modern / hip music concerts!!!! Nice evening it was!!!!!
I quite liked the shadows on the church wall. Can't quite imagine a rock concert being allowed next to a UK church!

 There was a brilliant female singer in one group...and then the next used cine screen footage and typed message. However, after five or six of their pieces I though the music was same same same!

All musicians were brilliant but the violinist, clearly the leader, stole the showw, which was a shame i some ways, because I wanted to hear more from each talented artist and especially the accordionist. Great dancing music! I think the violinist certainly had eastern european violin culture in his blood.

 My digital camera produced this of the violinist. I quite like it!

Food and Garden

Pear cake made in the makeshift kitchen.

The Garden is as dry as a bone.. akin to an Autumn clearance of weeds.. and this is only one third of the unwanted growth removed.

I plan to plant roses instead of herbs. Sage spread to kill thyme and marjoram. It was vigorous but now it has gone.

Mashed potatoes with bashed carrots created tuna potato cakes, served with a melange of green beans and an extra half an egg for protein, served on small to medium plates.

Midsummer morning

It was Midsummer. An incandescent summer’s night and day. She’d gone to sleep with a full moon spreading its light at midnight. She rose with the morning lark, which she could not hear.  Six in the morning. Day had been awake for some time!

With the rising sun behind her she strode full of energy.  Overjoyed she always is to see her sweetpeas there at the roadsidc where they grow every year.   Stepping down ‘The American Way’ named after someone who used to live in that secret house hidden from view of the single-track footpath. There, with a full view of the sweep of the river, aloft on the cliff, his house stood without water and electricity. Owners have fought to have both installed. It is a protected heritage house.

Careful she was not to slip on the dew-laden rocks and roots forming the well-trodden descent to the river’s edge. The flowing current could be heard magically in the morning magnificence before she caught a glimpse of shining water. Step around ‘Le Moulin de Merle’, a watermill where she noted the growing sandbank. Above the dam the waterlily pads conceal frogs which ribbet and croak amongst those green plants. All this has been witnessed during the passing of time, the thousands of years since an Ice Age formed vast cliffs called the Roc of Sorciers. Majestic, they look down.

At the road bridge she decides upon an extension to her walk. All is unplanned. She is free to respond to a moment, a whim, an immediate choice for her and for no one else. It was joyful to be alone at last and able to move her legs and arms to and fro in a rhythm of a roaming rambler. Her mind is excited at this unusual event to be out and about when no one knows where she is or what she is doing for she has seen no one.

Along the banks vegetation encroaches upon the one-person track towards absolute primeval stillness, though she knows that the sun moves as it rises in the sky stretching shadows along the ground. Miniature flies float in morning sunrays as gossamer spiders float their webs preciously. Along and along, as birds sing-a-song and flutter tree-to-tree, leaf-by-leaf, woodpecker taps a different rhythm. Cuckoo calls, still singing in tune at the end of June, for July it will fly. By August it must be gone to Africa.  Woodpigeon rool-rool---coo-coos reflecting the languidity of a hay-mown scent of summer.

Darker it gets. Trees reach for the light above the canopy. Moss hangs on every branch above rock and stone where ferns, bracken and other humid hugging plants thrive.  In dappled morning light, She feels safe not seeing a soul in the Devil's grotto.  Ah, unexpectedly, she hears a cough!  A trace of humankind. Is someone wild camping?  No, ‘tis a jogger!

How dangerous to be moving quickly across such rugged rocky ground, where footfall or rainfall dislodges crumbly, gravelly stones even though larger and heavier boulders dig deep. Tread carefully. She has learned by experience.

'Bonjour.. fait attention!'  but she hears no reply and suspects he is not French and thinks they would be too sensible to be running in that place in such early morning warmth.

The land is rising upwards out of woodland which has been like that since probably the Magdalenian era. Rising upwards into agricultural land where the single track opens to allow tractors to travel along the grassy chemins.

Again she delights in looking at hedges and trees of walnut, holly, oak and beech.  A sign says ‘Private’ but she ignores it as she has always walked by here around the Pigeonnier and indeed has seen French persons doing likewise. Out onto the road, feeling the morning heat rise from the tarmac. Let her cut across another chemin and another harvested field and wend her way back along lanes to the village where people are queuing at the boulangerie. Everyone shares happiness. Then to discuss with a fellow inhabitant what is to happen to that huge acacia tree at the end of her garden.  She shares her concern about the ever-increasing number of acacias popping up in her garden. There are more than ever before. Clearly they enjoy the drought and heat.  Autumn will be the time when the woodman will arrive to cut it down but how will he and she poison the roots left in the ground in her garden. They have drained the goodness from her potager and caused much extra labour.  She will wait.  She can wait.

With cheerful pride and self-ennoblement she breezes home for coffee and croissant at half past nine, breakfast time! What a wonderful three hour walk!

Wild sweetpeas at the roadside verge

Under the bridge a new sculpture has appeared!

Wall art!

Garden art

I still haven't returned at an appropriate hour to dig up this mystery.

River art

Moulin du Pré has a new owner and is being renovated.

Natural art!