Morning all. Bright and sunny this morning just for a change. It looks as is we might have a couple of days when it will be cooler, but later in the week it should warm up a bit. Rather a lot of flooding further south from here, but around Paris the Seine has burst it's banks in places. Hopefully with less rain the river levels will drop. Mouse news. None caught overnight. Have a good day whatever the weather.
Morning all. An hour ago there was a clear blue sky and it looked as if we might have a day to get outside and do things. Since then it has completely clouded over and looking at the forecast rain showers are expected this afternoon. My daughter has stopped going to her French class as most of the people there are of a pensionable age, and having three daughters at school she doesn't want to take the chance of them bringing something home, and then her in turn passing it on. There have been some positive tests in the schools, but no one has finished up in hospital thankfully. Stay safe everyone and have a good day.
Morning all. Overcast, and when I went out to make sure that Mme's car would start found ice on the windscreen, so not very warm. Tomorrow is the day when our electricity will be cut off from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm so had better set the alarm again to make sure we have a cup or two of tea. Yesterday I noticed that men were down prepared holes in the ground laying fibre optic cables in a nearby lane. As we are at the top of a hill we can get a decent mobile signal from the mast a couple of miles away, and being nearer to the telephone exchange get a faster internet speed than the village at the bottom of the hill that has no mobile signal at all. A survey was done by the local council into how much of a problem existed, and to no surprise people up here have a different view from those down by the river. Have a good day whatever you are up to.
Morning all. Grey, misty and more like autumn this morning. Need the lights on at present and they are about to go off for the morning. Have a good day whatever the weather.
I dont think I have tried red snapper.... I like red mullet very much... bit that is different? Enjoy swordfish too... but sadly overfished scarce. Another very chilly day in Leeds I am still in the wars..... had a further endoscopy and then a MRI scan on Monday..... all very unsettling..... not sure whether the meds are helping... or making it worse.... have a good day folks
That doesn't sound good yorkie - take care, hope it clears up soon. Chilly day up here too. I'm due to go for my Covid vaccination this afternoon - but am wondering if I'll manage to get there. The clinic is being held in a sports centre ten miles away - we had a foot of snow overnight and I've no idea what the road is like. The school nearby to the sports centre was closed this morning due to the road conditions, which are normally much worse there than here, so I may have to load up the car with my winter kit - blankets, coffee and the wife with a shovel...
Morning all. Grey and cold in rural France today. Got out of bed early yesterday to ensure that we had the cups of tea and coffee with breakfast before the electricity was cut for the morning. Needn't have bothered because it didn't go off. No idea what they thought about doing, or just where, but I can only guess they hadn't finished somewhere else so didn't get to this job. No doubt there will another letter coming soon to inform us of the new date for the works. Lots of activity in the village this morning with builders and gardeners hard at it. I need to go into town to do a few bits and bobs and hopefully will avoid many people. Noon until 2 pm it is always quiet as the natives have retired to the table. Have a good day whatever you must do.
Morning all. Grey and cold and we have a red level warning about ice on roads. The cars are covered in ice, but the rain that is light is running away down the lane. There is no reason for me to go anywhere today, so stay in and keep warm will be the order of the day. I haven't been round to the pond today to see if that is frozen, but yesterday noticed that the ducks seem to have stayed there for the winter. Rather more drakes than females who seem to suffer at the beaks of the males when they get a bit frisky. They raised a family successfully last year of quite a few ducklings, but it is anyone's guess as to which one was the father. Have a good day and keep warm.
A bit hard in our household right now. The heating engineer has just been to replace the expansion tank in our combi boiler - only to find that the heat exchanger needs replacing too. Another few days without hot water ahead whilst awaiting the part...
Morning all. A very cold night, but there is quite a magical scene outside with the rain frozen to the tree branches and the bright sunshine reflecting off the ice. Put the heater on in the greenhouse last night for the first time this winter, and it appears to have done the job of keeping the frost out. There are no seedlings out there yet, just plants that need protecting from the cold. I think it must be warming up a little as the ice on the car is starting to melt, but another cold night is forecast before the wind moves round to the south tomorrow, and raises the temperature into double figures. Let's hope that some of our exotic players from warmer climes run around enough this afternoon to keep warm. Have a good three points day.
Afternoon all.... just had my jab....!!! at Elland Road As we are moving i have been wanting to take our old landline with us from Sky to Virgin. I spent 5 hours in two goes on chat which is what they want you to do yesterday and today ....speaking to a range of people it seems in India.... they needed my phone password ( even though was online) which I didnt have as I am a new customer.. and then wanted information like biling dates as extra security info.... 'well I havent had a bill yet??!!.'... Crazy..... at one point they asked me if i wanted a phone call... which I jumped at.... and then they said 'but you will need your unique password sir' ... eventually half an hour ago I got through on a phone line and spoke to a guy from Newcastle who sorted the issue out in 5 minutes.... and set up 'the unique password' too.... I have not overestimated this one bit ...totally crazy..... I fear for the future!
Morning all. Bright and sunny today, and according to the forecast our cold snap is over. A couple of days that will be dry, so I will put on the wellies and go and see if I have some cabbage or kale that can be picked for dinner. It has been too cold or wet to venture far from the warmth of the house for days now and the bucket of vegetable peelings for the compost heap is full. Having thought that our mouse infestation was over we have caught another one overnight, number eight. Another trip out to release it. Have a good day whatever you have to do.
It is not the same one coming back is it? We have had that happen... Bit sluggish here this morning after the jabs....
No, we take them a minimum of a mile away to release them. We had 48 hours without any and thought that was it until this one popped up. They seem to love raisons or chocolate rather than cheese.
Back in the 70s there was a mouse plague in farming areas of Central Qld, the likes of which I had never seen before and don't want to encounter again. At the time, I was working as a labourer for the State Government and was one of many 'sent in' to help farmers in the area attempt to deal with the problem - and we were all utterly gobsmacked at the number of mice we encountered. There were heaving carpets of mice in barns, in homes, in fields and crawling over machinery - the only thing we could do to stop them was to try to kill them - rather inhumanely - with flame throwers. It was a bit of a stop-start process as we had to build firebreaks around each building, kill what we could outside of the firebreaks then stop to clear up before trying to get more mice out of the buildings into the areas where we could repeat the process. It took nearly a week - and a hell of a lot longer to get rid of the smell of burning mice off my clothes and out of my nostrils. Luckily for us, our permanent camp - a rather spartan wooden dormitory - was situated at the very edge of the plague area, so we experienced far fewer numbers of mice, but still enough to annoy and be a health hazard. We set our own traps every night - eight large buckets of water, each with an empty bottle balanced on the edge, neck facing into the water & smeared with oil and some breadcrumbs. A thoughtful little stick balanced against the bucket allowed mice to climb up onto the bottle and slide down into the water, where they drowned. Every morning we had around 200 hundred dead mice to dispose of by heading off into scrubland, digging a large hole and emptying the buckets into it. Thanks for dredging up that memory ofh...
Just received an email from Tescos telling us that the grocery order we were expecting this evening has been cancelled due to snow. There is a choice of three supermarkets where we live - one ten miles to the east, one ten miles to the west and the other twenty miles to the south. All three roads are blocked and police have erected barriers to stop access to them. Strange really, as very little snow remains in the village and the road through it is clear. Our local shop is closed for renovations, so no food there - and there wouldn't be anyway as the supply routes are blocked. Which makes for an 'interesting' week ahead. Very little food in the house and no heating as the boiler isn't working - and no hope of the spare part needed to fix it being delivered. If you hear a loud rumbling from the North, it'll be my stomach telling me it needs sustenance...
That is a sad tale BB, I feel for you. We have been trying to work our way through the freezers contents as there is food in them that we had forgotten about. "Special Offer" joint tonight that has been in there for three years. I think you need to get down to the shore. Fishing and driftwood come to mind.
Morning all. Bright, but windy at the moment, but it is expected to stay dry all day. Walked through the village yesterday and noticed that in one garden the crocus were in flower. For some reason that I cannot answer it is always the yellow ones that flower here before the blue or white ones. One of our tubs has muscari showing colour, so there are signs that things are on the move. The village pond was frozen over still and the ducks that have set up home there were nowhere in sight. Still very wet underfoot everywhere, but I did manage to harvest a good cabbage that we had with out dinner. It looks as if it will be tee shirt weather later in the week, so I might get on outside and do lots of the jobs that have waited. Being outside and cold it not something I enjoy these days. Have a good one whatever you are doing.
