Weekend update

Busy week this week. I’ve finished the stain and UV protector coats on the wooden windows (hooray !) – two coats of each. Phew. They do look elegant now though.

I saw Dominique the farmer during the week and we agreed that the chatagniers (sweet chestnuts) behind the barn would be pollarded at ground level – he said that was “normale” and it’s what Antony the tree surgeon wanted to do. We also agreed that he would come round and take his moitié (half) of the oak timber on Friday. My standard of French took a real nose dive when I was talking to him though – I couldn’t get anything out right, very frustrating :o( 

Antony came back on Friday to continue the work and I think he inspired Dominique as the dead tree at our entrance was cut down on Friday - I didn’t even realise it had gone until I walked round to see how things were going and saw the tractor going up Lucien’s drive with a huge tree trunk in the bucket. Antony told me they had used orange baler twine tied to the blue tractor to pull the dead tree away from our phone line when they cut it down! John and Antony came back to finish on Saturday and Dominique said that they could leave the brash from the chestnuts on the top field and he’d clear it with the tractor – which was nice.

So, the back of the barn is clear and all the oaks from the barn to walnut grange are pollarded with sap-pullers left on (squirrel bough has been left on too), a hazel here has been coppiced and one of the elms has been pollarded, the other young elms haven’t been done and the second cherry tree on the top boundary (behind the collapsed wine store) has had all the rotten and dead wood cut out and has been cut back to good growing points. The net effect is a dramatic big block of sky when you come round the barn or walk out of the front door. They also took down all the branches on our land that was near to our phone line or electricity lines.

We’ve been invited via Facebook to some part of a French wedding in La Baule – Adrien from the hockey club is getting married to Nelly on 25^th June.

I watched the 700^th edition of The Sky at Night with Sir Patrick Moore this week – it started in 1953. I think he’s 88 now and terribly restricted by gout but still got razor sharp wits, Guests included Brian Cox, Brian May (guitarist from Queen who has a PhD in Astrophysics) and Sir Martin Rees, formerly president of the Royal Society and the Astronomer Royal. Worth catching on the iPlayer if you missed it.

It’s cantonal elections at the end of March and so we are getting all the party fliers, it’s slightly disorientating to receive communications from not one but two political parties that publicly claim to be on the left wing of politics. The political landscape has changed so much in the UK that Adam honestly asked me what left wing meant when I was talking to him. We aren’t allowed to vote until next year in local elections (and never in presidential elections) but two interesting things I’ve read are that the road from Noyal Muzillac to us is on some plan to be widened and improved and there is a defined plan to complete the cycle route from Questembert – Le Guerno – Noyal Muzillac – Muzillac – Ambon – Sarzeau.

I went to the cinema this week which was about half full for a screening of “Made in Dagenham”, rebranded in France as We Want Sex Equality; presumably Dagenham doesn’t hold the same connotations for a French audience. The screening was advertised as an advance pre-release showing but the film came out in the UK in October so it must not have been scheduled for a French release originally. Another film made with BFC funding and another film where everyone applauded at the end – or maybe that’s just a French tradition. It was good and I enjoyed it and the Vannes cinema really is a nice facility but I must take a notebook next time as the subtitles are so useful to get the little conversation phrases that people use but aren’t in the French courses.

I’ve received my medical registration details and I have a number of admin tasks to get done this week, I need a tax office certificate so that I can import the car into France, arrange to get the car lights changed over, visit the bank and order a lawn tractor (the 10km walk every time is OK for me but I’m not sure the lawn mower will enjoy it for too long).