First of the Summer Whine

Posted on 21 June, 2010 by Val

For us Northern Hemispherics, today is the longest day of the year and the official First Day of Summer. More poetically, it is Midsummer’s Day – the Sabbat of Litha. In the Pagan Calendar, the Summer Solstice is “a time for celebration of the abundance of summer, and a time to prepare for the darkening”. Great! Why can’t we just celebrate the abundance of summer, and TOTALLY NOT THINK ABOUT THE DARKENING until a bit later? October perhaps, when the clocks go back and the darkening is unavoidable. I mean, here I am sitting inside on this cloudy, windy midsummer day, in my sweat-shirt and fleece with the heater on, waiting for Summer to bloody well start, and already, tomorrow, the nights will be drawing in. Continue reading →

Posted in Cats, Chickens, Dogs, Environment, Life, Llamas, Pigs | 1 Comment

Re-design

Posted on 18 June, 2010 by Simon

I’m messing about with the design of the blog, and rather than following supposed ‘good practice’ – which would mean experimenting with something off-line, and only revealing it to the readers when complete – I have decided to try things out in full view of you, the consumers of the blog.

This approach suits my working style. I like tinkering around and, although I want to aim for perfection, I enjoy the process of inching towards it . . .

So, what do you think? Any comments or suggestions?

Posted in Blogging | 4 Comments

We are all visitors…

Posted on 18 June, 2010 by Val

Our visitors have been and gone. They left a glorious week of sunshine and blue skies in their rural homeland of Cornwall to share a glorious week of rain and grey skies with us and our animals in the rural holidayland of Middle France. Typical! But despite the less than perfect holiday weather, I’m pretty sure they had a nice time. Luckily, they are the sort of laid back, cat-loving, bird-watching, people-avoiding sort of people who are more interested in cats, birds and people-avoidance than sun-bathing. Also, luckily for us, they wanted to explore the unspectacular but rather lovely places to be found within a short drive of our home, which meant that we also got to spend much of the week doing holiday-like visits to pretty little nearby towns and riverside nature reserves. We have seen (and appreciated) more of where we live in the last week than we have in the last year. Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Visitors | 2 Comments

Tap Dance (Reprise)

Posted on 9 June, 2010 by Val

It is raining again today. A lot. Continuously. Another day for staying indoors and failing to complete inside tasks. Also another day when there is nowhere for me to dry the sheets and duvet covers that I need to wash in preparation for our visitors who will be arriving on Saturday, and not unreasonably expecting somewhere clean and nice to sleep. You may of course be wondering why, oh why, I didn’t wash them sooner, when the weather was hot and dry, and the whole world was a tumble-dryer on delicates mode. Contrary to popular expectation, this organisational lapse was not simply the result of my customary Can’t Be Arsedness. It was because, despite the fact that I share my life and home with Plumber Man, that well known pipe-and-water Super Hero Extraordinaire, the washing machine has been non-functional. Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Plumbing | Leave a comment

Lilas, Lilas, Bucket-Stealer

Posted on 8 June, 2010 by Val

So, here I am back in the Land of Dreams, and it is raining. And when it is raining, thoughts turn to inside activities, like putting in new electric sockets in the bathroom, and writing blog posts, and napping. So Simon has thought about the electrical work, and I have thought about having a nap, and neither of us have done either, and bloody hell, the day is nearly over already. I suspect the existence of an inverse correlation between rain and time. And we both thought about writing a blog post, but neither of us could think of anything to write about.

Until the bucket situation occurred. Continue reading →

Posted in Llamas | 1 Comment

Change Gonna Come

Posted on 28 May, 2010 by Val

Since I am off to Ingurland for a week today, I thought I should make the effort to write a post before I leave. I expect I will have precious little opportunity for blogging while I’m in Derby, as my time will be fully occupied with such awesome things as accompanying my daughter to a hair-cutting appointment (woohoo!), shopping with her for clothes (ie not jeans) for me to wear at her wedding in August (groan!), and hopefully visiting her new house (the purchase of which should be completed on the day before my return to France, yay!). I will also be marvelling at my grand-daughter’s newly acquired walking, and mobile-phone mugging skills, and watching her being totally freaked out by the Very Special Teddy Bear which I obtained for her First Birthday present, following a vast amount of painstaking research, obsessively careful choosing, and no small expense.

And because I won’t be here next week, Simon has been busy getting done those things which he can’t do without me. Yes, surprisingly, it seems there are some. Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Llamas | 1 Comment