Caleeforneyeay

Two more Workawayer girls aged 19/20 arrived.  Lovely personalities. I learned before they arrived that one had had her ID and bank cards stolen in Paris just before they were to visit the Eiffel Tower.  What a terrible experience!  They were confused by my English vehicle with French number plates having thought I would be French!  Also in California they have left hand drive vehicles!!
A late evening arrival after Cakes Fest meant soup followed by potato and onion quiche. They declined soup! They were quite discombobulated by being in a safe place! Next day, we started to sort unsorted hard copy photos.  As I thought I would cry buckets of tears,  it was a surprise to be happy, discovering wonderful memories and events that defined who I am or who I was, photos of my lovely children in their teens, and school creative arts work that was a dissertation for year one of an Arts degree!  I never did any more for that degree. Shame!  The two girls having listened to my stories as each photo or event revealed itself said they hope that when they get to my age they will treasure such memories and have their own treasures.
The weather was against us but then the sun shone. They had no garden footwear or work clothes!!!!!  One wore my Keen open sandals and one wore plastic bags tied with blue garden string over her plimsoll like shoes. We mowed one lawn and took a trailer of weeding and pruning debris to the déchetterie as it was too wet to burn.  There was carrot and coriander soup, rice and veggies plus apple crumble which continued at breakfast time. We did 4½ hours work.
The following day, as the weather was wetter, we went to a large market, a medieval town, frescoes in an abbey, to see something of French history and French life! After a courgette soup lunch we tackled the sweeping of a dusty attic, moving work tables and a few other things but I let them us retire by 6pm. We did 3½ hours work.  In the evening one said it was the best beef she had ever tasted.... collar of French reared beef with onions, shallots, mushrooms, wine as a kind of boeuf bourgouignon.   It was served with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli followed by Pear Tarte Tatin fait a main!  During the day they were given full permission to eat the contents of the CCC box as soon as possible!  Fortunately for my budget they do not drink alcohol and prefer to be vegetarian. They rarely eat American beef but told me to please not mention burgers 'cos they don't count as beef!  I think this was irony! Evidently, they have a sweet tooth - there is a challenge to provide desserts!
Sunday was a late start. The clocks had fallen back too!  I could have stayed in bed easily until midday but I arose dutifully to a silent household and walked for almost an hour. Then épautre toast and marmalade breakfast, whilst clementines (oronules) and grapes were disappeared fast! We agreed to do personal tasks then go to an Autumn Fruits fête, but were disappointed when we couldn't find it in the advertised village. So glad not to have cycled! Butternut squash and Fennel soup, roquefort cheese and rocket plus the second half of the pear tarte tatin was enjoyed in hot, hot sunshine in the back garden - a very rare event this year! They mentioned that they hadn't had ice cream for all their weeks in France and looked surprised that 'as a host with the mostest' I produced caramel ice cream.  However, I was told quite firmly that it's not the same as Californian ice cream!  Oh well!  We cycled to the Roc-aux-sorciers centre, (my third visit using my pass), followed by an hour on the road on two wheels. Back home I was surprised that it could be chilly with full sunshine before six pm. It was humid outdoors and the washing which was almost dry was more wet than when it was hung out! In fact, it was a clear night with stars quite visible! I disturbed a toad trying to hibernate in the small logs! We ate Linguine with Walnuts:  Sauté garlic and shallots in olive oil,  add roughly chopped walnuts and freshly chopped parsley, basil or rocket (dried if you must!) and a few breadcrumbs. Cook linguine in boiling salted water. Drain. Mix and serve with with freshly grated parmesan type cheese. We were big on fruit salad with wonderful fresh citrus fruits from Spain! 
Monday: They moved a trestle table which sounds easy but it wasn't because we had to dismantle it, and find the screw bits and screws etc to put it back together! It took ages as we rifled through my friend's toolbox. Fortunately one knew how to use MY electric drill but it still took three of us to remove the battery pack!!!!! Ggggggrrrrrr!!!!  Meanwhile, I started to clear more space in my attic and they brought all the photo boxes downstairs. I sorted them into people and assigned a box to each of son, daughter, cousins, family, me, my life with former partner and his house and my house before that! The girls helped  to find plastic boxes, clean and label, fetch and carry and although each box is ready for the second sort they do look neat in the attic!  I had to clear by 4pm, the incentive being that my cousin was arriving possibly at about five and there was evening supper to make....what madness is it to think that roast chicken and veg is easy?... but with three women to peel and prep vegetables and make a fruit salad we were done in no time. The chicken started to be roasted at 2pm!  It was lovely to have company enjoying slightly burnt roasted root veg and Mediterranean veg ... the chicken had been deboned and served in a 'fresh from the garden' tarragon sauce! 
Tuesday:  After a shared breakfast my workawayers were set to weed courtyard and rockery without supervision but when I noticed them sitting on wet ground to pull out every blade of grass, I realised they needed to be shown how to hoe and rake grassy gravel! I set my cousins to walk down through oak woodland to the river, mill and bridge, but I double backed at top speed jogging and fast-walking through the chemins, my walk curtailed  to get a Roquefort and Walnut quiche in the oven as they wished to leave at one pm! What a rush when we only got up at 8h15!  Then I ordered, yes, ordered the girls to go walking the same walk for three reasons: a) they hadn't been for a walk, b) they need to explore my village, c) I needed space to go to sleep!!!!!!! They were happy with the reasons! There followed a food fest.  I had started a deep squishy bread based pizza! They made French Macarons which took a lot of time and required me to scuttle about to find a sugar thermometer?... yes, I do have one... an icing bag and nozzles? ... yes, I have those too!  We had already checked that we had the ingredients!

We agreed to make up hours on Wednesday so we worked from nine until five with half an hour for lunch and cleared a lovely space in the attic! I started to sort various boxes but there is so much more to do!!!!!!! I have two people giving me deadlines. One says Easter and I say the end of the year!  I need to be monitored!   We also mowed a lawn and weeded ivy etc of the wall! We ate Tartiflette made with good quality Reblochon cheese. and also a red-kidney-bean casserole with a mashed celeriac topping.  They wanted beans!
Thursday, they caught the train to Cannes via Paris.  Their next hosts are very accommodating and kind! They are very brave to be travelling without a homeward bound ticket. They plan to go to Switzerland, Germany, England. They know not after February!
When I asked what had they learned they observed that they can do a lot in a short space of time and had learned how to cook... and when I asked what had they enjoyed they said FOOD! They were starbright gems!

Free bird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QR28CzONi8

Go to 54.43 for FreeBird

I just love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gluten-free October cakes in praise of a Goddess!

Banana and Walnut Cake

influenced by a Nigella Lawson recipe

See a few days ago!

Preheat oven to 180ºC/360ºF. Grease and line a large cake tin. I like round cakes! My oven has no reliable thermometer. I put it on the highest setting and lower accordingly to prevent it burning. The aim is to have a cake that when pressed, the indent bounces back! Be prepared for about 45 minutes to one hour of baking time!

Cream together 125g butter and 125g brown sugar, add

2 mashed bananas now out of their brown skin jackets. Beat in 2 or 3 eggs and about a teaspoon or less of vanilla essence and about one teaspoonful or more of baking powder.  Add about 250g ground almonds or more and some milk plus about 120g whole walnuts but you could use broken ones!

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake.  See above!

Banana, Walnut, Pear, Ginger Cake

influenced by a Nigella Lawson recipe

Preheat oven to 180ºC/360ºF. Grease and line a large cake tin. I like round cakes! My oven has no reliable thermometer. I put it on the highest setting and lower accordingly to prevent it burning. The aim is to have a cake that when pressed, the indent bounces back! Be prepared for about 45 minutes to one hour of baking time!

Cream together 125g butter with125g brown sugar. Add

2 mashed bananas not in their brown skin jackets. Beat in 2 or 3 eggs and about a teaspoon or less of vanilla essence plus a teaspoon or more of ground ginger. Add one teaspoonful or more of baking powder.  Add about 250g rice flour plus about 125g ground almonds. Adjust the mixture with some milk. Add 120g whole walnuts but you could use broken ones! Add one conference pear in small pieces, previously peeled and cored. Eat the peel!

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake.  See above!

Potatoes and Squash

Well over 20kg maincrop potatoes harvested, but I don't know which variety! The photo is disorientated! Pas moi!

 

Already had about seven of these and more to come! ... and now the well used three year old camera has the lens stuck open! Piffle!

Autumn Clandestine Cake Club

There were some delicious cakes!  Plums, Walnuts, Apples, Hazelnuts, Ginger, Chocolate, Coffee, Coconut, Dried Fruits, Pumpkin...and sponges representing a pumpkin and a coffin for the eve of All Saints day, all beautifully presented and tasting delicious! But no courgette or carrot cakes. It was all  good fun! What would you have made?

But 

Banana, walnut and ground almond cake

made for a friend far away...

th

Walnuts from different roadside trees

then another was made for the Clandestine Cake Club with the addition of pears and ginger but somehow it was not as good as the first! Too dry!

Lucy

I like to go to the cinema and a few weeks ago I saw "Lucy" in French without sous-titres!

Lucy was a fun, light-hearted film, unlike ‘Under the Skin’, which is one of my favourite films. The visual effects were wonderful and like Under the Skin uses an eye motif within the film. It was an entertaining evening!

Young French adolescents arriving late in the cinema were particularly annoying with their mobiles flashing with light as a distraction to us oldies, whilst receiving phone calls, taking pics of the screen, and greeting friends in true French style, cheek to cheek!  Five later arrivals greeted five who were restlessly already present! Eventually, un homme called "Arrête". The ten snuggled down in their seats and we heard no more from their popcorn-eating antics until they all laughed out loud at an animal mating scene!!!!

 “Lucy” was released in 2014. It is a French science fiction film written and directed by Luc Besson. The film was shot in Taipei, Paris and New York. Starring Scarlett Johansson, other stars were taken from cultures across the world. Johansson portrays a woman who gains psycho-kinetic abilities from a drug absorbed into the bloodstream. As a drug mule she saves the planet from destruction by destroying three other drug mules and in turn she is destroyed and scattered everywhere.

An animated film version of Lucy Australopithecusin was used in the film to connect to the dawn of Man sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey."  For more information go to    http://www.detectingdesign.com/earlyman.html 

Stonehenge revisited

Moving clockwise starting at the Slaughter Stone and The Avenue.

The Keel Stone

Thank you for the visit!

Stonehenge - little bird thoughts

My little bird flew to Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain - a fifth visit in my lifetime, a birds-eye view!

The following are thoughts, without too much thinking, not yet influenced by anything I would like to read concerning Stonehenge and its History and 'some-of-the-obvious-to me-now issues' concerning 'visitors' availability' of England's National Treasure!  Probably, at the root of all the mess in the last x years of trying to allow access to these ruins and to prevent it from further destruction, is the lack of MONEY plus different points of view and probably dissension in the ranks!?

THOUGHTS ON STONEHENGE
Rooks. 
Black feathers.  
Rocks.  
Blue stones. 
People are like black rooks pecking around the perimeter of blackened-grey-blue stones.
Preening in selfies.
Preening in self importance.
Standing, walking, listening, discoursing,
whilst elements of wind and rain
whips whisps of hair and scarf across a face
whips wooly hat from pocket to keep head warm
whips laughter and smiles from mouth and body.
Laughter heals in universal language even when different tongues with accents speak. 
Stonehenge must heal something in that Temple!
Moments of love and care abound between people 
who communicate with technological devices
whilst giant rocks from earth stand still, 
watching, 
listening to a circus parade circumnavigating around them.

That awful glass tunnel exists no more, replaced by a new English Heritage interpretation centre enabling access to a site of National Trust property.  The centre is housed beneath a metal architectural canopy which I admire very much...
Metallic contrast to steel cold stone!
Treehenge!  It reminds me of huge trees, which are possibly poplar, growing in fields of France. Did the Australian architects have eucalyptus trees in mind?

The canopy appears to work from a distance; representing undulating forestry like tree knolls surrounding the barrows further beyond.  I like the fact that people arrive in the great outdoors (once free from vehicles), queue outdoors at the ticket office looking upwards to a pixellated edge, queue outdoors for transport vehicles without entering any building, YET, somehow the MYSTERY viewed from the roadway is LOST!

The A303 remains visible as a stark reminder of modernity. I don't mind the juxtaposition of it! Now the debate continues to be considered by Government and the powers that be, of taking the infamous roadway through a tunnel beneath the standing stones!!! Madness or not?  In many ways I think it should stay where it is so that people DO get a free view of NATIONAL HERITAGE ... and so that the people walking around the 'Temple of Standing Stones' hears and sees the thick, colourful ribbon of traffic trundling past... and know they are in England! If rabbits were blamed for the downfall of some stones in the past needing them to be hauled into place by a crane perhaps, what happens if a road tunnel shifts the stones? 

Unlike most of the international people walking around the Henge, as a child I was one of a privileged few who touched the stones.  My children were able to stand alongside them.  Now, visitors walk around a circular track.  I don't see how grass can be maintained as it didn't appear to be protected from thousands of visitors' feet trudging over, nay pecking, the spears of green grass.  It still appears to me that part of the people circuit is in the wrong place.  I had to walk over modern rubber pavement and then onto interlocking, nasty green, uneven rubber matting and here it was that my hip went wonky!  After getting off the Golden Bus,  on the Magical Mystery Tour, we were hustled along.  Suddenly, I am aware that I am there, whilst the spectacle I have come to see has been drowned with a moving mob of mankind!   "Oh... stop... stand still like a stone', I say to myself. "Take stock! What is this pedestrian bridge doing here?"   Later, it all makes sense. It is traversing a most important element: THE AVENUE for THE SOLSTICE ALIGNMENT.   Unwittingly perhaps 'the people path' sandwiches human beings between the most important KEEL STONE, SLAUGHTER STONE and the vastly important SARCEN STONES of the HENGE.  Is it temporary one wonders?  It also is a bridge over the bank and ditch which fortunately has only been partially 'archaeologically dug'.  An English Heritage worker overhearing my comments to a friend interrupted us to explain: it seems that thankfully most of the bank and ditch has not been dug!  I'm glad he was there to talk to us because that is when suddenly it all made sense to me about what was wrong with the route march!
 "Why didn't they take the people further out beyond the Keel Stone?"

It's evidently essential to book online and in advance which creates a discount and a time slot of when to arrive. We were lucky to get a time slot on the day we booked.  It annoys me because one has to be near a printer or one needs a smartphone or ipad/tablet!  P.S. I was politely chastised for my printed ticket because it did not mention my name, booking number, time slot, etc!!!!!!! The lady at the cashier desk found the booking by my surname, and was unhappy that I too complained that the printed ticket did not show the valid information... as if it was my fault?!

I enjoyed being out on the Plain but getting on a Golden Shuttle or Train was not my idea of trekking to see a National Monument.  Was I part of a herd of sheep? Nope... they were in the fields beyond.
With ticket payment one gets free car parking, good, and a free audio tape, good!  But the audio numbers don't match the numbers on the free leaflet which are also colour coded so it took me a while to get my bearings and to focus my historical understanding into alignment with audio info, leaflet info, display board panels info and the ACTUAL formidable magnificence of Sarcen stones, Station stones, Bluestones, Trilithons, and markers!  I didn't realise there was 'an informative Guide book' until I was about to purchase a different book. Anyway I couldn't have read all of that as a visitor...it's something to be absorbed before or after visiting!

Afterwards I went to the exhibition centre and needed more time to study the visual and audio displays. I couldn't work out whether it would have been better to view the 'museum' first or last, maybe both?  My critical teacher's eye came into play when I realised that children could not look at the long animated screen AS WELL AS read tiny script where anyway they would not be looking... and there was no voiceover! Also there was nowhere for children or adults to sit and not be in the way of others! Maybe there was another educational centre somewhere?  I would hate to have a shoal of kids alongside the public as the space was already crowded and not peak season

I could see that opportunity was lost with insufficient space for large scale techno media representation.  When I described the Roc-aux-Sorciers to an English Heritage volunteer, he said that they couldn't compete with the higher level of archaeological historical presentation that the French are capable of achieving.  On reflection, I don't agree.   I think that the information is so enormous that the interpretation centre at Stonehenge needs to be multiplied by at least four... and in my opinion, any money being fed into hiding a road should be put into a larger historical and geographical presentation of all that is known or conceptualised about such a wondrous feat of engineering! However, it is a huge improvement and I have to congratulate the designers of the exhibition area for the tactile displays but not for the huge graphic panels like standing stones that were unessential to discovery!

I was horrified in the eating area to receive refreshments (soup and tea) with disposable paper/wooden crockery and cutlery.  Evidently, it is advertised as 'grab and go" ... OH PLEASE!!!!!
OK, there seemed to be no plastic apart from the tray. That IS a bonus... but packaged products were put into a paper carrier bag which was put onto the tray for us to take to the tables!   The floor was filthy. Tables were unclean. The waiter was not rushing but couldn't keep up with the flow!  We were supposed to put the trays and rubbish on a trolley hidden in the stainless steel wall! The second time  there was nowhere for the stuff and as I didn't have a tray I had to leave the refuse on the table!

The female toilet pans were clean but the stainless steel, paintwork and tiled areas of walls, floor, doors, skirting boards as well as the white ultramodern trough sink filled with hairs were unmistakeably British and filthy, even if it was the end of the working day!  How long will it last? It opened in December!!!! Am I proud to be English?   HELP! Let me return to the cleanliness of my region of France!
Despite all that, yes, I would go again:
to be with ancient peoples whose voices, tools, actions, remains, remain mysterious.
to be with England ... 'and did those feet in ancient times bring me my bow of burning gold, arrows of desire, my spear and chariot of fire',
to be with international people - a lady from Indonesia was on a ten day organised tour of England!  Others seemed to be extremely interested in continuous 'selfie' portraits jumping high in front of the henge, rather than absorbing the wonder of how Stonehenge arrived there and why! Maybe they were doing that as well!

A rook fest beneath a rock fest

This is a posting between yesterday and tomorrow! This not so little bird, a rook,

with its friend and friends...were accompanied by jackdaws which flew away from photocapture...
pip pip!

Distracted...

for days ... How lovely it was to keep me away from that thing, coined by friends as "unstructured  fiddling" !!!  Hence, no postings!  Now where was my little bird? this little bird?

Distraction..

is a wonderful thing...
but...
what does it achieve?
Thought for the day.. as I try TO DO!

Diary

Lots of jobs which take me too long as mind drifts to people, places, events!
Hair cut makes me feel better. 
Caught up on gossip and did you know that English Christmas Crackers are filtering through to France and have made it to Noz.  I love Chatellerault. Investigated what's on at the cinema. Unfortunately, nothing coincided with my visit.
New idea: I could live there in the right classy apartment!
Neighbours have moved to La Rochelle for work but still own their house here.
No more barking mad dog!
Slid mattress down curvy stairs after I carried single pine bedstead!  All ok until it stuck by the ceiling of the Salon and neither upwards or downwards would it move!  I went to the road, determined to ask anyone for help, waited for moments but not a soul existed.  Nothing for it but to try again and squeeze through the gaps for better vantage. Then down it comes, not taking me with it! Just a few bruises on the legs. Pride in success of doing it alone!  When the workawayers come and my cousins at same time I need to sleep 5 in a two bedroom, two salon house but will manage to have six placements not counting airbeds and settee... "Anything is possible in France" especially when one's friend returns all one's previous belongings and his for storage, including two single beds whilst he travels in Asia! Couldn't have happened in a modern UK terraced box!he would have needed a yellow storage container!
Freaked out today driving along when I knew I was on the right hand side of the road as a large French woman in her car ignored two sets of bollards on her side and came right for me!!!!!!!She didn't blink!
A week ago I inadvertently drove on the left hand side of the road and wondered why the driver behind me appeared to wish to overtake me on the hill up to the High Town from the bridge :} as I made comment ....aaaaagh a car is approaching me ... woops... memory lapse! 
Wet lawn mowed. One to go!
Butternut squash tickled...I am getting the hang of doing that... and fruits are hanging in rose bushes...
Giant potatoes are dug up as well as tiny ones. English main crop! 
Kinestherapist says I must not slump, nor sit too long, but need to do exercises more frequently!  What had I been doing to cause the aggravation she asks! Increasingly awoken in the night by fibromyalgia pain in the shoulders, something about the nervous system works in the night whilst muscles relax, then muscles have pain during the day. It means my sleep is disturbed...Is that all?

Good to walk again, stretching ham strings, seeing new fields, eating cinnamon and vanilla cake sandwiched with lemon curd after an extremely healthy and generous salad from friends.
Lovely two days!
This is me being positive. 

I love food challenges!

It's been more than 15 days since I returned from 'the two isle' vacation.
I am determined that for the next three to four days I shall not shop for food! 
So that will make 20 days of no shopping for food.   What a challenge!
I have consumed all of the fish bought on Ile de Re, (plaice today, sole tomorrow) Leclerc French lamb on promotion, Magnum ice-creams also on offer at Intermarche, home-made savoury bread, shop wholemeal bread, plus other leftovers including CCC cakes stored in the freezer.
I've eaten all the fruit and vegetables bought on the Ile de Re, plus, from my garden I have eaten butternut squash, the last of the limp lettuce, yellow raspberries, courgettes and potatoes, as well as vegetables left in the fridge since August guest food shopping!
I've tried to minimalise alcohol even though and I keep a stash of wine. Just white remains!
I've been supplied with croissants and treated to an amazingly fantastic meal out,  shared lunch with friends, etc.
There are fresh apples, onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes to use up plus canned, jarred, dried store-cupboard ingredients including milk stored in the cold room, as well as meat, fish, pastry, in the freezer, a little cheese and miscellaneous items such as butter, mayonnaise, Pimms, Martini, Ikea herring, anchovies, olives in the fridge. Plus a stash of vintage marmalade and other jams made this summer. It is almost obscene how much food is in this house!
Eggs have run out!
Green veg has run out! 
Those last two are vital to healthy survival but I will manage without until Saturday!
The purse has recovered a little from 'in the red' for many months!
Feeding Workawayers to a high standard meant a lot of food was bought!  The next ones are veggies and I am determined to eat almost vegan for a week...another food challenge... I have done that before.
In the past three weeks. I haven't starved.  I haven't suffered.
How abundant is The Good Life! 
I still need to reduce what I eat but it's a fine balance to keep protein and energy levels high!

The Witches' Rock - Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers

Shame on me!
I hadn't been to The Centre of Interpretation of The Witches' Rock in my beautiful village of Angles-sur-l'Anglin since 2008!  Recently updated, it is more informative. It interprets and attempts to replicate in techno media, with video historical re-enactment, life as it was 15,000 and 14,000 years ago when Magdalenian peoples inhabited a rock shelter at the water's edge, about 1.5km out of the village, near a small hamlet, Douce.  When the rock shelter was discovered it was given the name, Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers, which is also the name of the rock on the opposite bank.  In the 1990's the public was prevented from entering the site and the owner willed that a copy of the sculptures should be made to the public.
The frieze, is about twenty metres in length and is an impressively monumental work of art.  The Prehistoric relief wall carvings dating from 15,000 years ago are the most important carvings of their type in Europe. They were discovered in 1950.  Subsequently, the site was purchased in order to conserve it. 
The interpretation centre which cost 2 million euros, named Le Roc-Aux-Sorciers is a modernistic, dull-looking angular building overlooking the River Anglin.  The description is my own!! I should try to appreciate why the architects designed such a structure!  It has weathered in six years but somehow needs a touch of brightness; something to say "COME and LOOK at HERITAGE!"  Maybe a flag with the symbol of the goat/lizard upon it? I like the new rusty symbol fixed to stone walls here and there in the village... make sure you don't catch your clothing or eyes on them!

The most wondrous thing is,  not 'the going back in time display', which to my mind is difficult to absorb, but a dark cubic entrance, where one edges forwards little by little in fascination, fear, fumbling with hands, clutching at the body of one's friend or friends, as in a cave without light, eyes become accustomed, see that there are places to sit, to view a landscape of light, fire, prehistoric people and animals whilst modern French language explains it all.

Computer and laser copy technology recreate everything at full size, returning the 21st century peoples to the end of the ice age, into the caves and rock shelters along with our ancestors.
Pretty dynamic it is!
Yes. I shall go again soon.
It is an EXPERIENCE not to be missed.
There are lessons in History, Geography, Science, Archaelogy and Media presentation that should not be missed. Not to mention French language to understand and mathematics counting past years to calculate,

The name 'Sorcerers' Rock' or 'Witches' Rock' applies to the original site which faces south and is opposite a huge outcrop on the opposite side of the river which has ritual and fertility stories dating back to pagan times connected with it. The Roc-aux-Sorciers was classed as a Monument Historique on 18 January 1955. It is an Upper Paleolithic rock shelter site dating to the mid-Magdalenian cultural stage, ca 14000.  It has two geologically distinct sections; below is the Abri Bourdois, a classic rock-shelter site beneath a slight overhang, and above is the Cave Taillebourg, a deeper vestibule. The two parts are separated by a zone that has not yet been excavated. Evidently, it is good archaeological practice to not excavate all but to leave some for future generations who will have better technology and knowledge.
In 1927, Lucien Rousseau discovered the Paleolithic habitation and identified it as mid-Magdalenian. He began excavations in the Cave Taillebourg, named after the property owner, and recovered an engraved stone in which Henri Breuil detected a representation of a mammoth.  Suzanne de Saint-Mathurin became aware of Rousseau's article and decided to explore, hoping to find some incised plaquettes like those from the cave at Lussac-les-Châteaux, also in Vienne. Assisted by her friend Dorothy Garrod, she worked between 1947 and 1957 and others continued until 1964.

The exploration teams discovered carved stone fragments which had fallen from the roof of the Cave Taillebourg.  Only a carved, painted figure of a bison had remained in place. The sculpted frieze was discovered about 1950 with incised figures, sometimes painted, of bison, horses, wild goats, sabre toothed tiger, torsos of man and woman sometimes called Venus figurines.  The frieze of the Abri Bourdois shows the technical skills of Magdalenian sculptors. The anatomical details giving an impression of power is displayed when in the play of firelight. Both animal and human figures show realism, a rarity in paleolithic art.  This reinforces the unique value of the site. The excavations revealed evidence of human occupation, of a culture who used jewelry, lamps, and tools in flint, bone, horn and ivory.
Here, at the footsteps of where I live and where those Magdalenian peoples lived is an incredible discovery, a joyful coup for the village, which repeatedly, I experience to compensate for opportunities I lost and never made!

Les Araignées

I have two rooms that are used infrequently. There are closed shutters on closed doors until I open them to let in fresh air.  It is quite strange not to have windows as in England that can be opened.
I vacuumed three weeks ago.  After my holiday, busy elsewhere in the house, I didn't make up the beds until today.  I presumed the rooms were reasonably clean.  I'd looked two weeks and a week ago but had not seen SPIDERS.
When I vacuumed today there were so many, it was embarrassing! Anyone would think I am slovenly which is not completely true, however it is true that I find it increasingly harder to keep control of tidiness! I get involved in other things!
Some spiders, were discernibly black and others were not visible until up close. Webs too!  I was horrified, as I do my best to keep the house spider free! After a little while I returned to vacuum again as others had appeared! Where do they come from?
It is annoying that a musty smell must come from stone walls behind the plasterboard walls. I don't like it and haven't been able to eradicate it. The fabric of the rooms is definitely not damp but maybe I will re-instal the portable humidifier as I have some Workawayers arriving late October and that is where the young girls will be guests for a week.  The woodburner in that part of the house will be lit, so I will have to keep an eye on it in their 'apartment' as I wish to protect the oak floorboards!
And ... after all that ... I persuaded myself to get back into the saddle for an hour long circuitous ride. I will need to do some training in situ if I am ever  going to achieve a dream of cycling the Loire Valley and if poss ... into the East!!!!!! Camping along the way on a very low budget!

Getting tidy!

This week must be spent on getting tidy.
I have spent two days on and off working through apparently useless but useful junk in the atelier workshop.
I do not like house renovation.  I sometimes think I could move to a clean modernist home ... but I suspect that if I lived in a sterile environment I would make a mess and be extremely unhappy.  I sort of did it once. It was so easy to maintain! I had to have a place for my belongings!

The atelier is really a bodged lean-to and is half exposed to the elements.  It is fairly dry apart from the concrete floor above a water 'cisterne' collecting rainwater from guttering. I now realise it must have an overflow pipe, but where is it?  I need a laser torch, courage and assistance to put my head down the hole and see what is there.  The water level never seems to rise above about 2 metres deep despite the deluge of rain we get!   I have no idea what the cubic metre is! 
The concrete floor is beginning to break up particularly over what seems to be the metal bars of the cisterne. The concrete floor is damp! I would have taken the whole structure down but it is a dry though humid storage area for bikes and mower etc.  The roof is corrugated asbestos... leave well alone as it will be costly to remove.   No plans yet, although if I could afford it, which I can't, it would make a great kitchen diner!
An unused leftover quantity of oak flooring is stored plus 'useful wood' to one who was replacing single glazed windows with double glazed units, plus garden equipment and central heating radiators. The latter could now be replaced on the walls, even though I don't intend to connect with the oil fired central-heating system installed in the property. I know it works!

Some stuff was thrown out,  some assigned to car boot stuff stored in attic. 
The rest got tidied. It feels better! It wasn't a nice job!
The sun is shining on Sunday Sunday ... I am missing friends and company.
I have a frustrating dilemma as my son appears to be ignoring me. I wished to see him again to try and smooth the waters! 
Thank goodness my daughter seems to have forgiven me and although she can't afford to come here at half term we are on speaking and email terms again!
Onwards! Now the attic, AGAIN!!! The aim is to move the boxes so I can see the floor!

More than Wonderful days

Out of an abyss of darkness, comes light.
It is an expression for how the MIND gets it wrong...
for how negative thoughts, self-talk are not necessarily the truth, and how they work against positive thinking and create depression, resentment, anger even.
Chattering of the mind can be destructive to positive interaction.

"Think happy thoughts" is another expression.
I believe it is true that we are what we think and I know how negative thinking can take an enormous grip on the mind and affect behaviour.

I believe THE CURE is to be with others: it is essential to mental well-being. Also to have interests that absorb the mind, few problems to resolve, and a degree of purpose as well as creativity.

I am very lucky.
I MUST hold onto that notion for when self doubt takes hold.
No more outpourings MUST be my target.

To be mindful of moving a 'now' to 'a future', however challenging that may be on a daily basis,  means to dwell not in a past of 'yesterdays', unless it's to remember the GOOD TIMES. Not to wallow but to cherish. I don't know how to do it!
BUT THE GOOD NEWS is that:
there have been many more than wonderful moments, experiences, gifts of the soul received and given, and days, days, days when the man in the white coat is not needed. ***

I MUST  'turn around' with a little help from my friends.

THANK YOU to each and every friend who has suffered my darkness and yet who has realised my goodness enough to wish to be with me. THANK YOU! 

I feel a turnaround. Darkness is just a few steps mis-trodden; a few steps back.
So I need to step forward again and "Think happy thoughts".
I love being happy! Stay, happiness stay!

Days by  Philip Larkin ***

What are days for? 

Days are where we live. 
They come, they wake us 
Time and time over. 
They are to be happy in: 
Where can we live but days? 
Ah, solving that question 
Brings the priest and the doctor 
In their long coats 
Running over the fields.

It is true.

He blows, she blows, running like the wind!

It's a form of expression....
it's about how my criticism of others is really about me... about blowing hot and cold, running like the wind in fear, for fear of insecurity, self doubt;  also in fear of showing loving kindness, for fear of getting hurt!; STRUGGLE!
Well.... I quote my daughter, to say "that the past is not the future", even though I am 'trying to let go' of many things and many people. I haven't wanted to let go! Trust in myself has broken down, yet again. I discover it must be re-constructed, just when I thought I was doing OK! Too much time to think.  It becomes a vicious circle... unwanted negative thinking blocks out positive thinking and then good connections with others.  I have laughed with certain people but in the last week I have vented anger at my two offspring. I am ashamed of that. I appear to be making a porridge of problems for my inner soul and others who are nearest and dearest to me. 'Get a grip'.
I am not running. I tried being still, secluded, solitary, tried my hardest to be 'face to face' looking in the mirror, acknowledging who I am, trying to prevent childhood pouring forth, trying to prevent past mistakes looming like spectral phantoms, trying to stop criticism and blame that I taught others and that others gave me when all those words work at self sabotage.
Staying still in this French space with peace and silence surrounding me may not be the correct thing to be doing as once I thought.  I walk out of the house and see that mighty, magnificent towering chateau against the colour of the sky and then the world is wonderful.
My life doesn't have to be darkness. How did it get like this?
It is said that if something isn't working it has to be thrown away, repaired and fixed.  I don't wish to discard my life.  It does have to be repaired.
However, if my adult children don't, can't, won't acknowledge the fact that I HAVE been trying for many years to solve problems and that it is a process that they must also help with, then I am not solely responsible, if, eventually, inadvertently distance grows deeper with grievances about past and current behaviour.   I can understand why we blame our parents but we are not to blame as parents or as children for having tried to do the best that we could with the resources and circumstances that were available at the time.  Mea culpa. The point is that as a family we are rarely together so friendship takes a toll. One can't know and identify with others unless we meet, moreover, unless we communicate!  There is the internet and social media to connect us and of course, I can't make offspring use it!
I do have to change MY STORY. They have to change theirs! There has to be change in life for learning to be achieved. My wish is to fulfil my dream of having a happy family.

Events and Emotions since the beauty of the Ile de Ré seem to have plummeted into an abyss.
How to stop wallowing in self pity? ... it is true that I remind myself of good fortune, but the mind ensures that dark clouds are somewhat stormy.
I ask me to 'be gentle with myself'... and others... to be less judgmental.
I must work harder at achieving a balance; accept highs and lows, accommodate time with people and time without, enjoy the pleasure of daily hard work and the terror of clearing years of stuff, enjoy life when distracted from that chore, appreciate letting go,  stop worrying about the past and the future! Enjoy the beauty of the NOW!

Unexpected encounters

PART ONE:
Herein lies a strange tale...where at this town square, a story evolved, where someone met another one, and a third one met the two ... oh no! oh ho! Funnily enough it wasn't that funny at the time, although I didn't know how to stop laughing.  I had to control myself for fear of ridiculing the situation. A flare-up would have been totally unnecessary.  However, I didn't know what to think, feel or do!  If I did this then that .... If I did that then this ... to retreat and leave the restaurant entirely? to sit down as invited? or to sit elsewhere? A few days later we laughed at the odds against such a rendezvous in France! An extreme experience!  
I am obliged to conduct discretion!  There was a sense of the ridiculousness in the distance that some people might go in order to meet others and / or feed from clandestine liaison; a ridiculousness in being furtive, in being not open! What does secrecy and deception achieve?  Lies, hidden truths, in its many forms, including being economical with the truth will result in being discovered.  I am not being high-minded! What goes around comes around!
The event happened because there were coincidences, circumstantial changes, changes of venue, changes of days, times, changes, changes, changes. Factors conspired to converge into making a story worthy as part of a novel:

1. Travel on Monday was altered to travel on Sunday.
2. Monday postal delivery arrived on Saturday.
3. Saturday energy levels were low. Sunday surged with energy, anticipation, excitement.  No reason to delay!
4. Admin and household tasks were completed on Saturday.
5. On Saturday lawns were mowed and a good weather forecast meant they wouldn't need a cut for ten days. A rarity this year!
6. A week earlier, there was a desperation for sights, sounds and smells of the sea but I couldn't find a cat sitter or else I would have been on that isle earlier than the invitation.  Alone, is perfect but company always welcomed.  Then, Saturday late afternoon, a window of opportunity emerged as a cat sitter WAS available.
7. Monday lunch was altered to Sunday supper but not to include me!
8. La Rochelle was altered to Île de Ré but not to include me!
9. I arrived. I wasn't going to 'eat out' but changed my mind.  I'd eaten my dessert on the beach and a can of mackerel and oat biscuits was to be my evening meal!  BUT, AS I was on holiday and could please my very own Self, unafraid of dining alone, an impulsive choice was made!
10. 'Dress up' was in mind, but I 'dressed down' because I only dress to please myself.  When I dine out I always, always 'dress up' and sometimes am 'over-dressed',  so I wondered what it was that made me change into faded blue, not such clean shorts and a favourite pretty top wearing THE summer hat?  I'd taken off the pretty blue double spotted summer dress that I had travelled in that afternoon.  In the suitcase were two other black dresses and a black classy jacket but nope I did not wear them!  I splashed on perfume which I always do every day!  IN FACT, I had no intention of meeting anyone!   I think that is why I dressed down! 
11. A favourite restaurant exists in the town of that particular campsite where three converged.
12.  One cannot rely upon seemingly instant internet communication being received and read!

PART TWO:
The following day a different encounter ensued. Last September a charming, attractive English speaking French man chatted to me on the beach whilst I ate my peach. We wrote. In Springtime I ended correspondence because  despite his romantic compliments and invitations it wasn't going anywhere.  
This September: with a backdrop of yachts in the harbour and stripey coloured awnings, oh my goodness, he came into view, but 2 metres from me!!!! We greeted, we chatted about his health, his travels to Spain and France in his camper-van, and how he had downsized his van from last year. We didn't discuss me.  As I indicated that it was time to get on my bike, he inched a step toward me, I stepped a step away, repeatedly, eventually stepping over the boardwalk chain.  It happened in the way that some people step into personal space.  It happened in that way that says, "I like you".  Time to travel!  I felt compassion and rather sad, a little guilty, but not responsible for being a heart-breaker!  It was how he described me in the Spring when I said I didn't wish to have a relationship! 
Later, I sat with companion one.  We agreed it was 'Touché' and laughed, but in my case this wasn't an intended or wished for rendezvous!
Strange and not so funny when so many people of my age live solo.  One rarely is aware of single people out and about. In France I rarely see them. Should we singles all wear a badge?
Not so funny when all of us have basic needs for a companion, mutual support, appreciation and respect from others and to care for others who are able to share emotional competency and well-being.

It may sound bizaare, but it is a true experience.  I have never crashed on someone's date before!