14th September 2009
Dear All
You will find attached Missive 10, now becoming something of a monthly affair, which will also now be on the blog, and sorry it’s been a while coming – hurrah I hear you say!! – but we’ve had lots of visitors again and in the words of the Fairport Convention song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes!,” spring to mind.
Dear All
You will find attached Missive 10, now becoming something of a monthly affair, which will also now be on the blog, and sorry it’s been a while coming – hurrah I hear you say!! – but we’ve had lots of visitors again and in the words of the Fairport Convention song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes!,” spring to mind.
I have quite literally, a flying visit to Edinburgh at the end of the month for a Warden Conference, leave Wednesday and back Sunday, but considerably cheaper that ferry, petrol, vet fees etc. Less than €60 return!, and yes I’m planting trees to offset my carbon footprint!
Were back in the UK from 28th October until 16th November for my Mum and Dad’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. We’re in Stroud for the first few days and hope to catch up with some of you then!
Love
Roger
La Loge, FRANCE
rogerhiggs@hotmail.co.uk
rogerhiggs@hotmail.co.uk
Mes chers amis
Time on my hands! ~ Missive 10
Well luvvies, I finished the last blog in theatrical mode so I continue in that vein, sobbing overdramatically as; they have called, the right platform has been found and, if you haven’t already seen Linda and I smiling out at you from the Stroud Life newspaper, I’ve been launched on the unsuspecting Stroud public. However, I’m not letting it go to my head, as 10 days in, two blog entries down and to date not one single comment! The discerning public are too busy commenting and making the most dreadful puns about a woman who was attacked by a cow on the common! So come on Mooove over!! Heady stuff, and I’m sure in this case terrifying for the lady concerned, but don’t you just love provincial newspapers and some of the amazing headlines and earth shattering stories that often make the front page!! ~ “Kids make nutritious snacks,” “Grandmother of eight makes hole in one” and “Drunk gets nine months in violin case!” I rest my case!!
Refund
Remember in the last missive I told you we don’t have a television now, and how “Phonezilla” told us our package comes complete with 40 FREE channels. Well, surprise surprise, perhaps they are not FREE after all, as totally out of the blue we have just received a refund for not having them – confused? So were we!!, but even more of an incentive to avoid putting ourselves through the trauma of subtleties lost in the translation!
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink- nearly! or
“When the cat’s away the mice will dance!”
Perhaps a strange title as we are in the middle of a severe drought, reservoir levels plummeting and field ponds drying up, marooning large numbers of fish that are simply keeling over or becoming easy pickings for the numerous herons. At our recent family weekend, the intrepid few did manage to precariously wade into the mud, rescue a couple of dozen large carp and release them into a nearby lake. This operation ended up going on late into the night, as someone had the bright idea that they could do with a period in the clear water of our cattle trough, but decanting them into it stirred up the mud on the bottom and introduced even more mud. In the end the trough had to be nearly drained (we did recycle the water and use it for the garden!!), to find the fish, as the fish needed to be removed before the farmer came, possibly at crack of dawn, to draw water for the various drinking troughs dotted around the fields. It was felt that our French wasn’t up to explaining why the trough had, overnight, become a fresh water aquarium!!
However, a couple of days later he said how sad it was that the fish were dying and we told him about the rescue, missing out the bit about the cattle trough! He also did put a couple of full water trailer loads into the pond, but all it really did was dampen the dry mud. I couldn’t help but wonder if his concern was totally humanitarian or at least in part culinary, we are in France after all!! (Postscript: Just been for a walk and when we went to retrieve some of the planks the rescue party had used on the soft mud, Max decided he had read somewhere that hot thick squidgy and sticky mud was good for aged bones and got himself stuck!! He stood there casually drinking the green slimy water, whilst I undertook his rescue, whilst at the same time trying out the healing properties of the hot thick squidgy and sticky mud!! Needless to say we have found another use for the cattle trough – washing filthy hounds!! Perhaps he has also heard about the beneficial effects of hydrotherapy, as he didn’t complain too much, and the swim cooled him down!!)
But, back to the water or should I say lack of it, as a week or so before the family weekend, there was a degree of frantic activity and raised voices, due to the deafness of the people rather than at this time in anger, and we noticed that the trough had duly be emptied to supply the nearby cows, but the tap that normally remains on at a trickle to refill said trough was not running despite being turned on. After, continued activity and much coming and going of cars, slamming car doors and continued shouting, Monsieur appeared to tell us the water had stopped flowing from the well, although the well had thankfully not run dry, and please would we be careful as although we have a large supply tank, it was currently not being refilled as we used water.
This activity carried on for three days, with the occasional update from an increasingly worried Monsieur, who on the second day thought the problem had been solved as tree roots had been discover breaching the supply pipe, which we were informed had been completely re-laid only a couple of years ago. At this point, we were told that the supply would be on in a couple of hours, but night fell and although the water in the house continued to flow the cattle trough tap stubbornly refused, so presumably our tank was also not refilling!
The next morning a by now anxious and unshaven Monsieur, who we have discovered to be one of life’s worriers and who regularly loses sleep and doesn’t eat properly over such problems, did much pacing about and worrying about how he would supply water to his gîte customers and us. In Spain it wouldn’t be a problem, but here – bouf!!
It all went quiet for some time as Monsieur and the farmer disappeared to the well, and it was some hours later that water was restored and things went noisy again. An extremely agitated Monsieur came to tell us that the problem had been resolved but he was furious, the proverbial steam rising thick and fast. Thanking God, quite literally, he recounted how a water diviner had come to the rescue, not interestingly as you might expect with twitching hazel bough, but rather with information that they had noticed a growing puddle of water in a nearby field where one of Monsieur’s tenant farmers had recently done some work. Quite where the water diviner had come from isn’t clear, as from Monsieurs somewhat cynical reaction to the ancient art, I don’t think he had called in their services.
Anyway, briefly, the tenant farmer had been given permission to tap into the supply pipe and had duly unburied it, done the necessary work but left the pipe lying on the surface. The grass had in time grown up and hidden the pipe so that when one of the farmer’s employees was sent to cut the grass, he inadvertently and unbeknown to them cut the pipe and terminated its onward flow.
Standing in the shade, as temperatures were soaring into the 30’s, Monsieur fumed and raved about how “When the cat was away the mice would dance!,” an interesting change to our own saying. He told us, several times that the matter was in the hands of his Notaire (Solicitor) and the farmer was being summoned to explain himself and would certainly not be receiving the lunch invite that was customary. The money Monsieur saved, instead being put towards the cost of repairs and the possible replacement of the water pump at the gîte, which due to lack of water he feared had burnt out. We ended up having to calm him down, suggest he went back to the Chateau and had a steadying drink of water – the only thing he drinks, have a hearty meal to make up for missed meals and then an early night to catch up on lost sleep. When he finally left he had calmed a little, remaining very angry. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at the meeting with the farmer and Notaire!
Unfortunately, since this incident the water pressure seems to have changed and now our water pump is beginning to make funny noises!
What came first – the trolley or the trap?
Just a quick throwaway item, based on an observation when out walking recently with a friend. I am finding the French farmers to be very inventive and recently stumbled across what looked like a supermarket trolley serving a very useful function as an animal track – lift up the back flap, cover the top and bait the trap and hey presto you’ve caught a coypu, badger, fox or small sangier (wild boar). Then I got to thinking, perhaps when the farmer stacked up the traps in the barn, he suddenly had a brain wave – perhaps with wheels and without the top this would make a great “chariot” for putting the shopping in and with a trap door at the back they could be pushed together and take up less valuable car parking space and use less materials in constructing a suitable trolley park to keep them dry should it rain!!
It’s a chicken and egg situation and will we ever know the answer!?! Time on my hands!!
Something good from Swaziland
Many of you will know that Victoria has just finished her Master’s Dissertation, looking at the Political Economy of AIDS OVC (Orphans And Vulnerable Children) in Swaziland, where she travelled to do her research and subsequently came out to “chill” in the Vendée sunshine, the worry of getting it just right now receded and the mark eagerly awaited. She has taken after her father, something she does in many ways, and started her own blog on which she has posted her dissertation for anyone to read, and despite having something of a vested interest, it is a good read - illuminating and at times disturbing. It can be accessed on http://politicaleconomyofaidsovc.blogspot.com/ , and two rather splendid quotes lead rather neatly onto this missive’s philosophical section that follows:
· Barnett and Whiteside (2002) address how the emotions of a child cannot be quantified, for example “what is the cost of a cuddle foregone?”
· NPA (2006) (National Plan for Action) for OCV (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) “what all children need is love, without love, children have minimal hope for the future, which no provision of basic services can replace.”
I can’t help feeling that these sentiments apply equally well worldwide, not just in Sub Saharan Africa, although they may be more difficult to address there.
Children
Having time on my hands, has got me thinking and as from the back of beyond I try to keep up with news in the education field, (I suppose once a teacher always a teacher!), I continue to be dismayed by what is going on in the UK and thinking what a lucky escape I have had. The news of a day or two ago, that the two major teacher unions are squaring up about whether SATS should remain, in view of the proposed alternatives, which I have to admit raise a wry chuckle!!
What a shame that Education has to be a political animal, and as the adults slug it out with each other, in true playground brawl fashion, it is so often the children who should be at the very core of all that is done, who are forgotten, as the “grown-up” factions try to score points off each other. Any of you who are familiar with school life, can’t fail to notice that in a similar situation between children in a school playground, school staff mediate often finding some middle ground and compromise. What a shame the teaching profession has so many different unions.
I’m also reminded of the dichotomy of how we are all told, and know it to be true, that “a child who lives with encouragement – learns confidence,” yet OFSTED can be hostile and criticise often with little encouragement:
“When the cat’s away the mice will dance!”
Perhaps a strange title as we are in the middle of a severe drought, reservoir levels plummeting and field ponds drying up, marooning large numbers of fish that are simply keeling over or becoming easy pickings for the numerous herons. At our recent family weekend, the intrepid few did manage to precariously wade into the mud, rescue a couple of dozen large carp and release them into a nearby lake. This operation ended up going on late into the night, as someone had the bright idea that they could do with a period in the clear water of our cattle trough, but decanting them into it stirred up the mud on the bottom and introduced even more mud. In the end the trough had to be nearly drained (we did recycle the water and use it for the garden!!), to find the fish, as the fish needed to be removed before the farmer came, possibly at crack of dawn, to draw water for the various drinking troughs dotted around the fields. It was felt that our French wasn’t up to explaining why the trough had, overnight, become a fresh water aquarium!!
However, a couple of days later he said how sad it was that the fish were dying and we told him about the rescue, missing out the bit about the cattle trough! He also did put a couple of full water trailer loads into the pond, but all it really did was dampen the dry mud. I couldn’t help but wonder if his concern was totally humanitarian or at least in part culinary, we are in France after all!! (Postscript: Just been for a walk and when we went to retrieve some of the planks the rescue party had used on the soft mud, Max decided he had read somewhere that hot thick squidgy and sticky mud was good for aged bones and got himself stuck!! He stood there casually drinking the green slimy water, whilst I undertook his rescue, whilst at the same time trying out the healing properties of the hot thick squidgy and sticky mud!! Needless to say we have found another use for the cattle trough – washing filthy hounds!! Perhaps he has also heard about the beneficial effects of hydrotherapy, as he didn’t complain too much, and the swim cooled him down!!)
But, back to the water or should I say lack of it, as a week or so before the family weekend, there was a degree of frantic activity and raised voices, due to the deafness of the people rather than at this time in anger, and we noticed that the trough had duly be emptied to supply the nearby cows, but the tap that normally remains on at a trickle to refill said trough was not running despite being turned on. After, continued activity and much coming and going of cars, slamming car doors and continued shouting, Monsieur appeared to tell us the water had stopped flowing from the well, although the well had thankfully not run dry, and please would we be careful as although we have a large supply tank, it was currently not being refilled as we used water.
This activity carried on for three days, with the occasional update from an increasingly worried Monsieur, who on the second day thought the problem had been solved as tree roots had been discover breaching the supply pipe, which we were informed had been completely re-laid only a couple of years ago. At this point, we were told that the supply would be on in a couple of hours, but night fell and although the water in the house continued to flow the cattle trough tap stubbornly refused, so presumably our tank was also not refilling!
The next morning a by now anxious and unshaven Monsieur, who we have discovered to be one of life’s worriers and who regularly loses sleep and doesn’t eat properly over such problems, did much pacing about and worrying about how he would supply water to his gîte customers and us. In Spain it wouldn’t be a problem, but here – bouf!!
It all went quiet for some time as Monsieur and the farmer disappeared to the well, and it was some hours later that water was restored and things went noisy again. An extremely agitated Monsieur came to tell us that the problem had been resolved but he was furious, the proverbial steam rising thick and fast. Thanking God, quite literally, he recounted how a water diviner had come to the rescue, not interestingly as you might expect with twitching hazel bough, but rather with information that they had noticed a growing puddle of water in a nearby field where one of Monsieur’s tenant farmers had recently done some work. Quite where the water diviner had come from isn’t clear, as from Monsieurs somewhat cynical reaction to the ancient art, I don’t think he had called in their services.
Anyway, briefly, the tenant farmer had been given permission to tap into the supply pipe and had duly unburied it, done the necessary work but left the pipe lying on the surface. The grass had in time grown up and hidden the pipe so that when one of the farmer’s employees was sent to cut the grass, he inadvertently and unbeknown to them cut the pipe and terminated its onward flow.
Standing in the shade, as temperatures were soaring into the 30’s, Monsieur fumed and raved about how “When the cat was away the mice would dance!,” an interesting change to our own saying. He told us, several times that the matter was in the hands of his Notaire (Solicitor) and the farmer was being summoned to explain himself and would certainly not be receiving the lunch invite that was customary. The money Monsieur saved, instead being put towards the cost of repairs and the possible replacement of the water pump at the gîte, which due to lack of water he feared had burnt out. We ended up having to calm him down, suggest he went back to the Chateau and had a steadying drink of water – the only thing he drinks, have a hearty meal to make up for missed meals and then an early night to catch up on lost sleep. When he finally left he had calmed a little, remaining very angry. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at the meeting with the farmer and Notaire!
Unfortunately, since this incident the water pressure seems to have changed and now our water pump is beginning to make funny noises!
What came first – the trolley or the trap?
Just a quick throwaway item, based on an observation when out walking recently with a friend. I am finding the French farmers to be very inventive and recently stumbled across what looked like a supermarket trolley serving a very useful function as an animal track – lift up the back flap, cover the top and bait the trap and hey presto you’ve caught a coypu, badger, fox or small sangier (wild boar). Then I got to thinking, perhaps when the farmer stacked up the traps in the barn, he suddenly had a brain wave – perhaps with wheels and without the top this would make a great “chariot” for putting the shopping in and with a trap door at the back they could be pushed together and take up less valuable car parking space and use less materials in constructing a suitable trolley park to keep them dry should it rain!!
It’s a chicken and egg situation and will we ever know the answer!?! Time on my hands!!
Something good from Swaziland
Many of you will know that Victoria has just finished her Master’s Dissertation, looking at the Political Economy of AIDS OVC (Orphans And Vulnerable Children) in Swaziland, where she travelled to do her research and subsequently came out to “chill” in the Vendée sunshine, the worry of getting it just right now receded and the mark eagerly awaited. She has taken after her father, something she does in many ways, and started her own blog on which she has posted her dissertation for anyone to read, and despite having something of a vested interest, it is a good read - illuminating and at times disturbing. It can be accessed on http://politicaleconomyofaidsovc.blogspot.com/ , and two rather splendid quotes lead rather neatly onto this missive’s philosophical section that follows:
· Barnett and Whiteside (2002) address how the emotions of a child cannot be quantified, for example “what is the cost of a cuddle foregone?”
· NPA (2006) (National Plan for Action) for OCV (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) “what all children need is love, without love, children have minimal hope for the future, which no provision of basic services can replace.”
I can’t help feeling that these sentiments apply equally well worldwide, not just in Sub Saharan Africa, although they may be more difficult to address there.
Children
Having time on my hands, has got me thinking and as from the back of beyond I try to keep up with news in the education field, (I suppose once a teacher always a teacher!), I continue to be dismayed by what is going on in the UK and thinking what a lucky escape I have had. The news of a day or two ago, that the two major teacher unions are squaring up about whether SATS should remain, in view of the proposed alternatives, which I have to admit raise a wry chuckle!!
What a shame that Education has to be a political animal, and as the adults slug it out with each other, in true playground brawl fashion, it is so often the children who should be at the very core of all that is done, who are forgotten, as the “grown-up” factions try to score points off each other. Any of you who are familiar with school life, can’t fail to notice that in a similar situation between children in a school playground, school staff mediate often finding some middle ground and compromise. What a shame the teaching profession has so many different unions.
I’m also reminded of the dichotomy of how we are all told, and know it to be true, that “a child who lives with encouragement – learns confidence,” yet OFSTED can be hostile and criticise often with little encouragement:
Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte
If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, They learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy.
If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient.
If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate.
If children live with acceptance, They learn to love.
If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves.
If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves.
If children live with honesty, They learn truthfulness.
If children live with security, They learn to have faith in themselves and others.
If children live with friendliness, They learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
If children live with friendliness, They learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
Copyright © 1972/1975 by Dorothy Law Nolte
This is the author-approved short version.
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
Rudyard Kipling 1910
In short, in this the 20 anniversary year of the UNICEF’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, perhaps we should look back at what was written. These two “Articles” seem particularly pertinent:
In short, in this the 20 anniversary year of the UNICEF’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, perhaps we should look back at what was written. These two “Articles” seem particularly pertinent:
Article 3 (Best interests of the child): The best interests of children must be the primary concern in making decisions that may affect them. All adults should do what is best for children. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children. This particularly applies to budget, policy and law makers.
Article 29 (Goals of education): Children’s education should develop each child’s personality, talents and abilities to the fullest. It should encourage children to respect others, human rights and their own and other cultures. It should also help them learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people. Children have a particular responsibility to respect the rights of their parents, and education should aim to develop respect for the values and culture of their parents.......
Why don’t we all, as adults, practise what we preach and get back to genuinely thinking about the needs of the child, and having them at the centre of what we do – isn’t that what child-centred education is all about? Maybe, the government (or better still a Non-Government Education Organisation) could then spend all the money they save from trying to outdo their opposition on addressing issues of family life. I guess what I am really saying is that we should get back to basics and teach children key skills, give them love and work to build their confidence, respect of themselves and others and their imagination:
Confronted with a class of children, hold up a small piece of dull, unremarkable stone and ask the children to imagine it is a diamond – isn’t the struggle won when, most of the class can and the odd doubting Thomas is shouted down, or better still convinced by the others! The excitement and mutual respect is self evident.
For me the beginning of the end I think started, when reviewing the school’s Vision Statement, and against my better judgement, it was voted on to remove the word “love!”
My original (as far as I can ascertain) “day’s thought”
“A good book is like an old friend, you’re sad when they’ve gone!”
More help needed!
Many thanks for those of you who made our life a little easier, by suggesting courgette recipes and contrary to “mother knows best” and having been told – Roger don’t be so silly! - it wasn’t possible to make a courgette cake, well Nigel Slater writing in the Guardian food section came to the rescue and on her last visit (3 so far this year but more later) she thoroughly enjoyed the “Impossible Cake” as I have christened it!!
Indeed, someone who will remain nameless but is our female offspring!, was enterprising enough to add some courgette muffin recipes as a comment on the Blog (In case I forget to mention it anywhere else don’t forget you can get all the missives and much more on the Blog!! – “It happened one Thursday in February”). I can vouch for the chocolate ones, they were delicious, but fortunately Linda was a bit wary of putting in the mentioned tablespoon of ground pepper, and erred on the cautious side!! But, as I said, they were delicious once you had got over the strange tingling after burn, or cooled them down with a drop of crème anglais! On checking with said offspring, the correct quantity should read teaspoon! This has now been corrected, but hopefully nobody tried them before the amendment, or if they did hopefully they served them up after a hot curry, it would have masked the tingling sensation!!
Whilst on the subject of courgettes, amazingly they continue to grow with more flowers regularly appearing – 124 from small to 20 or so of marrow size and we’re still counting – thank you Dave! (see Missive 8)
But now it’s peaches! Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but what we initially thought were 4 almond trees growing between our newly dug borders, are in fact peach trees – an easy mistake to make I’m told as they are from the same family! Early on in the season the dry weather seemed to be going to ruin the crop, with the fruit falling off by the bowlful, but then the remaining fruit clung on tenaciously, expanded whilst remaining very solid and filled the trees again. Discovering they were peach trees, we included them in our watering regime and suddenly, although still rather small due to the drought, they have ripened and become sweet, succulent and juicy, but have also started to fall off the trees by the bucketful! They have been frozen in halves and as stew, jammed, chutneyed, eaten whole, made into crumble and still they come – so once again any pet recipes gratefully received, but please go carefully on the seasoning!!
Marker signs have just gone up outside the house for an organised long distance Randonnée (walk and bike ride) and at almost the same time Linda and I thought that if it stays hot tomorrow, the day of the walk, we could offer walkers a bowl of refreshing and revitalising peaches!!
Quotes ~ powerful stuff eh?
For some years I have been a collector of what I like to call “Clever Words,” collected from anywhere – a book I’m reading to the wall of the Gents in the pub I’m visiting. Here’s some to be going on with:
Confronted with a class of children, hold up a small piece of dull, unremarkable stone and ask the children to imagine it is a diamond – isn’t the struggle won when, most of the class can and the odd doubting Thomas is shouted down, or better still convinced by the others! The excitement and mutual respect is self evident.
For me the beginning of the end I think started, when reviewing the school’s Vision Statement, and against my better judgement, it was voted on to remove the word “love!”
My original (as far as I can ascertain) “day’s thought”
“A good book is like an old friend, you’re sad when they’ve gone!”
More help needed!
Many thanks for those of you who made our life a little easier, by suggesting courgette recipes and contrary to “mother knows best” and having been told – Roger don’t be so silly! - it wasn’t possible to make a courgette cake, well Nigel Slater writing in the Guardian food section came to the rescue and on her last visit (3 so far this year but more later) she thoroughly enjoyed the “Impossible Cake” as I have christened it!!
Indeed, someone who will remain nameless but is our female offspring!, was enterprising enough to add some courgette muffin recipes as a comment on the Blog (In case I forget to mention it anywhere else don’t forget you can get all the missives and much more on the Blog!! – “It happened one Thursday in February”). I can vouch for the chocolate ones, they were delicious, but fortunately Linda was a bit wary of putting in the mentioned tablespoon of ground pepper, and erred on the cautious side!! But, as I said, they were delicious once you had got over the strange tingling after burn, or cooled them down with a drop of crème anglais! On checking with said offspring, the correct quantity should read teaspoon! This has now been corrected, but hopefully nobody tried them before the amendment, or if they did hopefully they served them up after a hot curry, it would have masked the tingling sensation!!
Whilst on the subject of courgettes, amazingly they continue to grow with more flowers regularly appearing – 124 from small to 20 or so of marrow size and we’re still counting – thank you Dave! (see Missive 8)
But now it’s peaches! Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but what we initially thought were 4 almond trees growing between our newly dug borders, are in fact peach trees – an easy mistake to make I’m told as they are from the same family! Early on in the season the dry weather seemed to be going to ruin the crop, with the fruit falling off by the bowlful, but then the remaining fruit clung on tenaciously, expanded whilst remaining very solid and filled the trees again. Discovering they were peach trees, we included them in our watering regime and suddenly, although still rather small due to the drought, they have ripened and become sweet, succulent and juicy, but have also started to fall off the trees by the bucketful! They have been frozen in halves and as stew, jammed, chutneyed, eaten whole, made into crumble and still they come – so once again any pet recipes gratefully received, but please go carefully on the seasoning!!
Marker signs have just gone up outside the house for an organised long distance Randonnée (walk and bike ride) and at almost the same time Linda and I thought that if it stays hot tomorrow, the day of the walk, we could offer walkers a bowl of refreshing and revitalising peaches!!
Quotes ~ powerful stuff eh?
For some years I have been a collector of what I like to call “Clever Words,” collected from anywhere – a book I’m reading to the wall of the Gents in the pub I’m visiting. Here’s some to be going on with:
· “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon 1940 - 1980
· “Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.” Jean Cocteau 1889 – 1963
· Michael Palin on writing: “It’s the nearest thing to whispering in someone’s ear.”
Hope I’ve manage to whisper in your ear!
Kind regards, Best Wishes and Love
Roger, Linda and Max (“Resting after the onslaught of all the recent visitors – not so much all the walks and all the extra feet to avoid, but rather the extra hands that feed me – I’m not proud I’ll take food from anyone, think I now need some therapy!!”)
Roger, Linda and Max (“Resting after the onslaught of all the recent visitors – not so much all the walks and all the extra feet to avoid, but rather the extra hands that feed me – I’m not proud I’ll take food from anyone, think I now need some therapy!!”)
And to come next time, maybe: “Amazement at the Hotel de la Poste,” more “Clever Words,” “Joie de vie” and “More night sky gazing!”
