Last fruit out of the cold store

Walking today:    3.9km

One of the big challenges is harvesting produce through the summer and storing it for as long as possible. It's especially valuable to have something in store through the winter when our outdoor produce isn't so plentiful. 

Soft fruit (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, red, white and blackcurrants) is usually frozen, vegetables (potatoes, onions, shallots, squash and pumpkins) are stored dry and this year, for the first time, we had enough apples to store them cool in a fridge.

Our onions lasted five months until December, the last two shallots are about to be used, the Autumn Crown squash are lasting well and we still have several pumpkins left for roasting and soup. There are so many potatoes left (got a bit carried away with some two for one offers on seed potatoes last Spring) that they would last until September - except they'll start to sprout before then.

And these are the last 5 Braeburn apples out of cool store for cooking. The black spots, which are surface blemishes only and don't affect the taste or use of the fruit, are caused by calcium deficiency and we've top dressed the trees with bonemeal to hopefully address this for the coming year.

So, we've had fresh apples for six months now. Pretty pleased with that.

Le Chiffre de l'Actu - 49.3

Walking today:       3.8km

Swimming today: 1.25km

One of the things that keeps me going when I'm working outside is a regular supply of podcasts. I use these to keep up to date (Doctor Karl's Science Phone-in, Kermode and Mayo's Film Review and the peerless From Our Own Correspondant), stay entertained (The Now Show, Recycled Electrons) and try to improve my French (News in Slow French, Radio Lingua's Coffee Break French and RFI's Les mots de l'actualité).

RFI's podcast last week was entitled "49.3". Two or three times a week they present a two minute explanation of a word or phrase that's been in the news, it's rather worthy in the style of a school lecture but interesting nonetheless. I was aware of 49.3 from the passage of the "Loi Macron" through the French legislature, this is an interesting piece of legislation that has some people seem to think will transform the French employment scene. The headline stories have been that shops will be able to open on five Sundays a year (or 12 with the agreement of the local Mairie) and entrance to the career of Notaire will be opened up so it isn't decided simply by the University someone went to. There are another 150 or so measures, a bit of a ragbag of measures in my opinion, where the sum of the whole seems rather less than the sum of the parts. It may be that the real objective is to keep the European Central Bank quiet on the subject of France's necessary "Structural Reforms" to meet it's borrowing and fiscal commitments to the Eurozone.

So, back to 49.3. The Finance Minister, Emmanuel Macron, has been carefully negotiating the passage of these reforms through parliament for two months. As well as the normal opposition from the opposition he's had to deal with rather lukewarm support from his own side and not having a parliamentary majority. In the end the law was passed by PM Manuel Valls using article 49.3 of the French constitution of the Fifth Republic (can you spot what I learned from the podcast yet ....?) which allows the passage of legislation without a vote although the government then calls a vote of confidence. The political machinations at present means that the confidence vote was passed. Political cartoonists at Les Moutons Enragées website weren't so supportive (Roughly translates as "Let me take care of this little one"):

As always, Hugh Schofield has an incisive piece on this and the current state of Francois Hollande's government: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-eu-31461815 

Le chiffre de l'Actu = the number in the news

Things come in threes ....

So, today when the batteries in all my tools ran out together and had to go on to recharge:

I thought someone must be telling me something - and they were. It was time for lunch :o)

Breakfast View

I thought I'd share the view from our breakfast table this morning:

It was yet another frosty morning today, this is the view from my chair at breakfast. When it's frosty, wet or windy outside it's good to be able to "enjoy" the outside from behind the energy conserving windows and benefitting from the underfloor heating.

Hold the Front Page

Sometimes there's a particular subject on my mind for the next post on the blog, sometimes I take a "Target of Opportunity" with a photograph or something that's happened during the day.

So. today at various times there have been four different subjects I was going to write on the blog - a comment on the "Loi Macron" that has just been passed, an updated picture of the trellis on the barn wall, a set of pictures taken by Barbara during and after the heavy showers today ............

In the end today it's two pictures snatched in between the clouds just after the sun had gone down:

A thin veil of clouds cover the moon shortly after sunset, Venus is visible just above the trees.

And, finally. the new crescent moon is just visible in a gap in the clouds and Venus (bright object) with Mars (faint object at one o'clock close to Venus).


And, of course, there are still a couple of bigger posts on the editing table - the NHS, heating the barn and - not dared to publish this one yet on the French Economy - "Is France the New Spain"

Working Life

Swimming today:  1.25km

It's five years this week since I finished work at NEC. 

Of course, looking back at it now I feel as if really it's five years since I started work. As if somehow the time when I used to go to the same place every day and spent most of my time sitting down, talking to people and wielding a keyboard wasn't really working. 

It goes without saying that my former colleagues might agree that I wasn't really working during that time either ;o)

Certainly I do feel as if I've learnt much more in the last five years than in the previous five, I've spent the time working with my hands and my head and I've had to work out so many things from "first principles". 

At NEC I typically was in the office from about 8.30 until 6. And now our working days typically start at about 8.30 and we usually finish at apéro time .... at about 6, I've lost the 30 minutes drive each way and gained being outside pretty much all the time. 

I've lost just over a stone in weight and devised clever ways of manhandling huge deadweights of stone, wood and lime.

And at NEC I didn't get to watch the buzzards wheeling in the sky - as I did today.

Barn Re-Engineering

Walking today:   3.9km

"More construction?"

Dominique was passing and saw the trailer creaking under the pile of construction timber and concrete blocks, we'd just returned in the rain from Leroy-Merlin our builders' merchant.

"Just a few garden projects to keep us busy in the Spring, Dominique"

Dominique looked a bit doubtful, not sure if it was mention of Spring or the alien concept of a garden construction that had confused him.

Our open barn (hanger in French) got a new roof in November, it's about six metres high and has a large west facing wall in corrugated steel. Taking advantage of the west facing aspect and plagiarising a design from our friends Steve and Sue over the road we set to building a trellis to enable our New climbing roses and clematis to reach for the skies.

Pip - never one to resist a ladder - helped too:

In the Sky Tonight

Walking today: 3.8km

There are a couple of interesting sights in the sky at the moment.

In the west just after the sun goes down Venus is a brilliant object, it's close to the less bright Mars the two will be almost in the same place on Sunday evening. Here's Venus in tonight's bright evening sky - Mars is very faint in the picture just above Venus:

Looking 180 degrees the other way at the same time Jupiter is brilliant and rising (here over the garden and barn lights):

And in a still bright sky my good old friend Orion is very distinct: 

Tremors on the ladder

Walking today:       3.9km

Swimming today:  1.40km

Regular readers of this blog will know I'm not keen on heights. Also that we have (very) occasional earthquakes.

So when I was up a ladder working on the barn roof clearing the gutters and the ladder started to shake my first thought was "Another tremor". Actually my first thought was how do I get off this ladder and onto the roof?

When I managed to look down the cause of the tremors was obvious:

Pip has a thing about climbing ladders !

Scope built and ready for a clear sky

Walking today: 3.8km

I came back from the UK with one of my post-build projects, a telescope. We have good dark skies here (yes, I know the sky is dark at night but In many places in the UK light pollution from streetlights ruins the visibility in the sky) and I wanted to re-kindle a former hobby and continuing interest.

'Scope on tripod with eyepiece and laserfinder guide fitted

Looking down the 6 inch (150mm) barrel towards the mirror

Technology has moved things along a lot since I last owned a telescope, the mount (on top of the tripod) is motorised and electronically controlled so that once everything is aligned the control system will direct the scope to any object in the sky including planets, nebulae, galaxies, clusters and another 43000 objects in the standard catalogue. I'd never used one before and alignment consists entering exact Longitude, Latitude and time at the observation site and then directing the telescope to two named stars with the laserfinder. After a hurried consultation of the Stellarium app (most of the star names are in Arabic or Greek) to find the two stars requested the mount aligned accurately.

The Synscan GOTO controller mounted on the tripod

I've now got the camera mounted on the scope and tomorrow is forecast to be clear so I hope to be able to post up some of my pictures - doigts crossé as we say in France.

Into the third century

This is the 200th post in the blog.

200 times I've written down our news, the odd joke, some unconnected observations on life in France,  a sports report or three, added a few photos and tried to think of a title.

I had some objectives when I started:

No xenophobia, least of all about my adopted country
No politics
Assume some intelligence in the readers
Practice my photography
Have fun

I think I've mostly managed to meet those objectives, on our way to the third century ..... 

Things that make me stop

Walking today:      3.9km

Swimming today: 1.25km

Walking this month:     58.4km

Swimming this month: 4.05km

Walking Year To Date:      142.1km

Swimming Year To Date:    13.1km

Sometimes things happen that make me stop whatever I'm doing and either watch or think, I can't remember doing that so much before I came out here but maybe it was just a function of different life, different priorities and less time. 

So, from today in no order of priority the following made me stop:

The cold weather broke with a strong southerly gale and a massive hail storm, I was working under the newly re-roofed hanger where, before Gérard replaced the roof and fitted the guttering, a storm would lead to a huge cascade of water pouring off the roof and onto the driveway. Quickly the water starting coming off the roof just like old times, just before I dialled my roofer I remembered he was away skiing and I went into the Barn to see exactly what the problem was. The problem was ....... the gutters were full of hailstones and blocked. Never seen that before.

After the storm I was out on the field in a 40kph wind and a Kestral was hovering over the grass - completely stationary without beating its wings, staying where it was by simply adjusting its wing positions. No idea how they can do that.

And on our way to swimming we passed a well-dressed girl aged about 12 standing at the end of our lane thumbing a lift. Don't see that often - or ever in the UK.

How does your garden grow in the Winter - Ten Flowers from La Basse Cour

Walking today:   4.0km

It was -4C last night at La Basse Cour - again.

We've had more frost days since the New Year than we had in the last two winters combined.

But, despite the cold, we have a great selection of flowering plants braving the elements. Due to the lack of pollinating insects at this time of year many of the flowers are highly scented  - especially the Winter Box, Daphnae Odorata and the violets.

Camillia

Violets in flower on our bank

An aconite hides in the vegetation on the talus

Our first crocus

Sarcococca Confusa- Sweet Box

Daphnae Odorata

Mahonia

Hellebore

Pansy

Cultivated Primrose

Forsythia

Dynamic London

As a

Walking today:     3.8km
Swimming today:  0.80km

Inevitably I don't get to visit London very often, the last time was in 2012 during the Olympics, so I can't claim to be very knowledgable about the city.

We had to collect our visas from the Vietnamese Embassy in Kensington then across the city to Liverpool Street so that Barbara could catch a train on to Ipswich for an appointment. The streets around the Embassy area near Gloucester Road are narrow with small houses and Mews properties, they were even narrower with all the builders skips in the road as what seemed like an army of builders were busy renovating and updating many of the properties.

Nothing compared to what was going on around Liverpool Street, the forest of cranes above Bishopsgate heralded the huge developments going on in this area.

I walked back from Liverpool Street down to Southwark Bridge (huge developments on Queen's Wharf and Threadneedle Street), over the Millenium Bridge and along the river past Bankside and Tate Modern.

There's a huge amount of building work going on in London, there are lots of things that aren't right about the property market in London but the fact remains that the residential and commercial market is dynamic, driving the economic recovery and much of it is influenced by foreign purchasers. And many of the foreigners are in London because of the financial industry - and London is attractive because it's in the EU but not in the euro.

At least until after the next election .......

The only problem all day was at Clapham Junction on the way up where the brakes stuck on. The driver came on and told us that the support team had asked him to "re-boot the train" so he proceeded to turn everything off and restart the train. Now, I'm used to £200 PC's needing to be turned off and on again but a £2 million pound train .... .

Couldn't let this story pass without pointing out that the train was built by a French company !

Retour chez nous

A few walking distance updates:

Saturday:  5.6km

Sunday: 8km (dog-walking)

Monday: 4.2km (more dog-walking)

Today: 4.0km

And back to France today on the overnight crossing to St. Malo, it was surprisingly full for a weekday crossing out of school holidays in February.

We treated the CR-V to it's 100,000 mile service back at Fleet Autoway, rewarded it with new brake fluid, new coolant and fuel filters and then, somehow, yet again it ended up loaded to the roof on the way back:

Main culprits were the 500l of potting compost (It's just ridiculously expensive in France and we use about 700L a year) and the Sky-Watcher telescope (only available from Germany and 20% more expensive that in the UK).

The good news though was that I did find room for three cases of Biere Anglaise including one of God's own beer, Timothy Taylor's Landlord.

An important delivery ....

My post-construction project arrived today - my new telescope was delivered. It'll stay in it's box 'till we get back to France but I'll post some pictures when it's assembled.

Walking in a Capital City

Walking today:  9.8km (6.1 miles in old money)

In London to collect Vietnam visas, on to Liverpool Street and then a long walk through London and along the river to Waterloo.

Baking Bread

Walking today:       3.8km (very cold)


Living in a country famous for its bakers we've chosen to ...... bake our own bread.

As well as these standard seeded walnut batch loaves we also regularly make brioche, fougasse (a provencal savoury bread) and french white baguettes. I haven't tried to pass these off to visitors as "real" (ie: from a Boulangerie) baguettes yet and there's still a bit of work to do to get up to the standard of Gael's Festive - but time is on my side.

A few Flocons

Walking today:     3.7km
Swimming today: 0.75km

As predicted by Méteo Frances we had "Quelques Flocons"  overnight:

Fifty Words For Snow

Walking today: 3.8km

Swimming today: 1.25km

There's a terrific track by the incomparable Kate Bush from 2011 called "50 Words For Snow".

If you haven't heard the track (made with Stephen Fry) it's well worth a listen: 

The track was inspired by the fact that there are, apparently, 50 words for snow in the Inuit Eskimo language. There aren't 50 in English (although Kate invented a number for Stephen Fry to use on the track) and there aren't 50 in French either.

But there was a nice term that I liked on Méteo France this morning:

"Quelques Flocons" - literally "a few flakes"

Of course, having written about snow on the blog last week we had some snow today!

Just a few flakes.

Eating - a matter of life and death

Walking today 3.7km

The temperature fell to -4C last night here, the pond froze over and the cats ran out through the door this morning when we let them out but realised their mistake too late and stopped dead on the mat when the outside air hit them.

For our smaller birds here on days like this they will need to eat 25% of their body weight each day just to stay alive. So our seeds, nuts and fat feeders are very popular from first light until evening, I caught a couple of them on Barbara's home made fat feeders.

If I ate 25% of my body weight each day that would be 20kg ...... !

And the growing cycle starts again

2015 will be the fourth growing year for us at La Basse Cour. One of the great pleasures here has been the ability to grow a large proportion of our own fruit and vegetables. Today the vegetables in our meal were potatoes, carrots, leeks, chard and kale plus for desert blackcurrants, raspberries and blueberries - all of them grown by us here.

In January one of the "wet day" jobs (we have lots of wet days) is checking over the seeds and planning the rotations in the potager. We'll then purchase or, as this year, order the seeds we need for the coming season. If we have a success with a particular variety of crop we tend to stick with it - conversely we've given up a number of crops because we can't get them to work.

So, our seed potatoes have just arrived and by a process of elimination we arrived last year at three varieties that worked well and produced a great yield of good quality potatoes. We will be growing Casablanca as our first earlies, Charlotte as our salad crop and Sarpo Mira as our maincrop, Sarpo Mira is a bit revolutionary here as it's a Hungarian variety that is "largely" resistant to blight - which is a big problem around us. It's also not, so far as I can find out, available in France so it's regarded with some suspicion by our neighbours.

Our stock came from Quickcrop which has a UK site but turns out to be an Irish operation from Sligo, we ordered some other items and they promised delivery in four days. We're pretty rural here so delivery promises need to be taken with a pinch of salt usually, but everything turned up on time, I got texts and emails from the delivery company (standard practice I know in the UK but first time that's happened to us here) and we got a 30kg package delivered for £10.

The first step is to lay the potatoes out for "chitting" - allowing them to develop shoots before planting:

They should be ready for planting in about four weeks, weather permitting.