Anyone for Fruit Salad?

I am not a big fan of raw apples unless they are a particular variety or texture BUT I do like cooked apples especially with chocolate and pancakes.
Oranges ... hhhmmm ..... I am always suspicious of what they are going to taste like and have not yet worked out which season or variety is the best as usually they are too bitter and sour for me .... and yet I am the Marmalade Queen!
Have you ever eaten oranges fresh from the trees in the Alicante region of Spain? .... they are to die for and I can easily eat a kilo in one go!
Bananas have to be slightly green and never baked or put into warm, yellow custard aka school custard! or even baked with blue cheese! I cannot stand raw bananas if they even go slightly ripe, yellow and certainly not brown or black! However, to do the fruit justice I do love a banana sandwich or fresh sesamine baguette with banana sandwiched in-between!

I have been going bananas over the last few days!

Telephone and Internet facilities have been down .... unavailable ...
I have managed to get a new internet system fixed at my new house and tried to avoid signing up for France Telecom .. but ... silly me... if there is a problem with the Orange 'net plus' I can't dial out as there is no landline and I have no mobile except one routed via UK! It is fixed that I am in a conundrum!

So after days of trying to make the LIVEBOX at AsA work, I think it is still unsuccessful plus the days of not being able to access our internet system at Village de Vaux, including of course the hours that I have spent at both houses/homes trying to access the world wide web!...., 'les plaisirs' were not here or there ... in fact, blue berries could be added to the fruit salad!

This evening the nice man at Orange has made my nice Apple mac pro educate me in circumnavigating the nasty Safari which decided not to work. Thank goodness that some months ago I downloaded Firefox and today as an extra precaution I have downloaded Google Chrome which is thankfully available to certain Mac models.

Therefore APPLE has been able to access the lovely ORANGE and my BANANAS have not gone quite so bendy and so brown!

It has been False Economy because in order to save I have incurred the loss of time and humour... as well as pennies from the purse (the VERY nice man from Orange who knew all about my Apple was not a gift). One cannot beat the telephone system (Misters Bell and Edison would turn in their grave!) so I have changed the contract and changed to a France Telecom line with an Orange internet line at extra expense per month but with the added security that if one system fails (as I continually do!) one can hopefully use the second option! PS. It will take up to 3 weeks. But the horrible Orange lady who out the phone down on me without answering my questions would not tell me this and would not tell me that, so I have been told by a different Orange customer services agent that I may continue to use my current system (hohoho if I can get it to operate tomorrow/demain!).

I regarded (looked at) the LIVEBOX to see if it was alive today! From red blinking 2nd light of three days and apart from one day then the 7 days before that! it has all by itself turned to orange blinking light..... but it should be a fixed green light and not clignotant!

I have had 3 visits to the ORANGE shop and subsequently learned how to negotiate with the managerial person who stands centrally to allow or disallow persons to enter or not the hallowed Fort of Modern Telecommunication! (N.B. not jut F.T. but F.M.T.)
I am not allowed to change my package, my contract, my livebox, my annuaire details or my line parametres! However, when I asked most politely for a chair, given my age, she did get me one! There are few chairs for those who wait!
I, of course, WAIT, for I live in France, and in France one waits patiently and in order to progress more quickly one must improve one's command of French and try to sooth with soft, negotiable, smilingly, encouraging, complimentary words those with whom one wishes to succeed more quickly!
I would rather have a fruit salad ... but shall we add some other fruits?

Sounds and Sunsets

The grasshoppers are strikingly chordant at 21h of the evening, radiating their chirruping as a form of Morse Code as I stop to listen and look at the mass of ivy on the stone wall from where the sound is loudest.

French Poney is annoyed with me! She trots over to greet me whilst I climb the dry stone wall -- I couldn't reach to stroke her nose as the width of the wall plus another width before the electric fence prevents this gesture. It is one of my
favourite places where I can look over the fields and woodland to the east and westwards uphill to the sunset. I have a handful of hay from "Le Paradise des Chévres". That's the name of the field in which G's very large flock of sheep graze from time to time. I don't know how old the hay is but neither poney nor sheep were interested. In fact to show her discontent French poney turned tail towards me, did a long pee and a loud passing of wind and trotted off without looking back. Now I know my place!

To everything there is a moment

Slowly ... pas a pas ... I am making a little further progress with renovations in MY house.

One would not believe me if I were to say how long it takes to find suitable flooring, a door handle, a bathroom suite....and how to get it back to base!!!! ... and how and what to negotiate with the electrician, plumber, sander, painter, decorator, general builder, stonemason, etcetera! I have such a lot to learn and assimilate.

Do I need this week's problem to accompany the problems I have brought upon myself?

In the last week I must have spent at least one whole day in terms of time trying to connect The New House with internet and telephone facilities, to orange.fr only to discover that the account, now 7 days old, isn't yet activated!! Oh, so frustrating! frustrant!

In addition 3 journeys to the BIG CITY near me, to see if I can at least get into the shop called Orange which is so bulging at its seams with people making complaints, changing equipment or buying new resources and contracts, that they cannot squeeze through the automatic doors without the alarm being activated, takes almost two hours as I am passed from one helpful French person to another, in varying degrees of those who can understand me and those who do not wish to want to understand me. Ho hum and only last week did one of their staff congratulate me on my level of French competency. It just shows one can never be complacent!

Orange ... the future for me, hopefully, will be brighter next week! GGgggrrrrrrr!

What a difference it makes

to have no sheep and no pony. The difference is that there are far fewer flies and it is not necessary to achieve 'seven in one blow' as did The Valiant Tailor.

It makes dining on the porch, even if there is a wind that has a chill about it, a much more 'agréable' event. However, it is getting quite cold in the mornings and evenings. It is 22 degrees Celsius outdoors at 21h but it was evidently 8 degrees Celsius this morning, so I have been told! The clear skies are a bonus even though the temperatures appear to be dropping earlier than usual.

And what of the eight sheep and one French poney (notice the spelling in French has an e)? Their owner has moved them to pastures new down the lane.

Poney, cat, hammock and me

Poney, cat, hammock and me

Poney's field seems so parched. Her ruminant 'ovis aries' friends and she have eaten all the fruit and leaves that were accessible and now eye the plum and poplar trees on our side of the fence. I feed the French poney prunes that were plums but two days ago, for in this heat they have shrivelled to quite an edible state having fallen on the lawn. Cat comes to the wired fence and sniffs at poney as she bends her head to greet cat but cat pulls back even though the fence is in between. Cat is sensible. Friends cannot always be trusted

Poney is intrigued as I attempt to lay in the hammock under a cloudless sky as stars slowly make their appearance at 10 o'clock at night. She stamps her hooves on the ground and whinnies to gain my further attention but lulled by the rocking of the hammock I push my foot against the floor to rock some more. I close my eyes as the cat pummels amd whiggles and snuggles up to me. Opening my eyes I see a falling star and wish quickly a wish. Poney still watches cat and me in communion. A poney cannot snuggle up in a hammock with a human being. I would rather have a cat than a poney!

Songs of crickets fill the air and whilst I sing a lullaby I am thinking that it would be nice to be here throughout the night. However, I realise the warm air has a chill about it and think too soon thank goodness those dogs are not baying. An owl is heard: tu toooooooooo repeatedly. Separately a strange sound never heard before flies across the night unidentified. Then those wretched killing dogs start up. Other dogs of neighbours have also been barking from time to time but nothing like these kennel hounds.

Cat is alert and disappears to investigate some 'thing' unheard by me and then returns all warmth and furry friend that she is.

I want to stay but these story words are in my head. I think of fetching the sleeping bag… the sleeping sack ... and staying there all night under the stars. Oh, lazy mortal am I. Oh the creature comforts that I seek.

It was like this about the same time last year…a hot evening brought about by stunning daytime sunshine. Oh, how I love it… and need it… to bring warmth to my soul. Earlier in the evening I had managed to rescue plums fallen on the ground all at once, (some had been boiling on the ground in the sunshine), gather wallflower seeds, weed part of the gravel drive, iron linen from the line, sit and eat a simple meal of haricot verts in tomato sauce with cheese on top, boiled eggs in mayonnaise and fried wholemeal bread with mint leaves chopped and sprinkled on top, followed by Reine Claude plums gifted by a neighbour.

I love August in France.

I love the poney, the hammock, the cat and just sometimes like this evening I feel positive about 'me' but nearly not often enough! I have loved being alive today.

AFTERNOTE:

It stormed with lightning and thunder and at one point as the storm was immediately overhead the lightning and thunder almost simultaneous, I quickly sat upright as adrenaline kicked in. I am not afraid of storms but the fierce loud bang and bright clap of light makes one jump!

Good job I was not in the hammock!

More poeticism

Written some while ago, another poetical moment:

Homage to sheep, stones and solitariness.

Sheep are like Stones….except that the latter do not move.

‘Twixt sunrise and sunset one can almost meditate whilst observing these herbivores grazing on the grass in fields and one thinks that their movement is imperceptible.

Let one’s mind drift, look away or dream, and look again and one becomes aware that they have all changed places, surreptiously. However if sheep feel threatened or intimidated by a clap of the hands for example they bleat furiously and run ensemble.

Eating machines are what sheep are… unlike stones in walls and stones in fields that existing since creation perhaps have not moved far from their original place over thousands, nay million, billions, trillions of years.

A sheep born as a humble lamb soon learns to get on its feet to avoid danger, to move on and to eat.

Does luck come into it if it should it be killed as a lamb or as mutton? This does not seem to worry me anymore as I gave up being a vegan and vegetarian of over 23 years.

I climb upon the wall, the dry stone wall, over one metre high.

I could not have done this five years ago!

How wonderful to have such a commanding view over sheep and stones.

I am as strong as this blade of grass… oh drat, it has bent a few centimetres from my thumb. Breaking it off, again it stands tall and strong again. I will not weaken as before, I say!

I stand in this seemingly special place that I have learned… yes learned to love, this wilderness where one hardly ever sees a soul except of the woolly variety.

I have been back in France for less than 24 hours. It is now twilight as I overlook the barren sprawl of countryside, the trees … and SHEEP .. or are they STONES?

I stand up high on this stone wall with a view, up and down the lane before me. Behind me in another field are more sheep and their friendly poney and beyond to the west are the layers of sunset rays, amidst the darkening blue skies and streaking, fluffy-white darkening clouds.

Oh, marvellous moment to remember, this exquisitely warm evening when cities are far away, as I stand here solitary in wild, deserted countryside…not a soul to be seen, save sheep and stones... alone in France, with beloved England far away... as all souls are always all alone.

Waxing Lyrical - and not sanding down

The River Anglin

In the August shade I sit solitary against a tree trunk.

Summer into Autumn, roots bare and brown writhe like snakes upon solid brown earth on this Isle of L’Anglin.

When Winter comes tree roots will be submerged beneath the surging waters moving from higher to lower levels.

Tall poplars, their leaves mirrored in the looking glass create a meditational water garden wavering constantly and continuously.  Diamonds grow like deep dark glossy jewels on the surface of the water as ripples meet ripples, to and fro, from bank to bank.

Lilypads on the quieter side of this isle invite demoiselles and dragonflies to flit in a different garden of delight.

Willow weeps and wails, whilst a dozen ducks without drakes form a flotilla floating downstream.

Quiet voices, peaceful movement, disturb the potential silence of tranquillity as they prepare for the fête.

An artist’s heaven, a writer’s haven, a beautiful work of art, a public garden.   I long to stay.

 

 

 

Angles sur L'Anglin - an exquisitely beautiful village

Angles sur L'Anglin is an exquisitely beautiful French village. I am not sure what providence will bring. Perhaps those who wish to be kept in touch with this beautiful landscape of France can understand some reasons why seven years ago we sought a house in this particular village but were led to a pretty fermette. There have been continuing contacts in Angles sur L'Anglin. We missed many opportunities as houses were not advertised where we were looking or indeed if advertised at all. We saw several that weren't able to meet our needs or terribly overpriced. I jumped at this opportunity. A website is prepared. Some bloggings are being created. The course of life and subsequent computer problems have prevented progress as I try to find solutions to unexpected "angles" on house renovation. Village de Vaux continues.

Creativity of Text and Image

Creativity for blog text and image publishing appears to have taken a back-step as different styles of writing are produced - sometimes on paper to be kept for a little while and sometimes on paper that is screwed into a ball to reach the fire and burnt to ashes, sometimes as a poem and sometimes as a story or sometimes as letters, mostly as just a letter to myself.

Iphoto seems to not be working despite technological help from Apple so I need to contact them again so that I can download whatever images are stored on the camera.

"Entre les deux" ... that's me at the moment ... trying step by step to do what needs to be done in home ownership .. instead of being overwhelmed by the daily minutiae of life's unexpected little surprises!

One would have thought that with all my practice of searching for a house to buy I would have spotted the house renovation requirements ... but No ... and oH .. there is so much to do and to comprehend with practical aspects and restrictions that I seem to have lost the urge to write in the manner that is being produced here right at this moment in time.

I am sure it will return. Of course, I do it for me and not for anyone out there in the beautiful world of bloggers, BUT it has been nice to know that some people have actually read and even been interested in this potentially " normal" human being inside my shell.

I can be STILL .. ACTIVE .. REFLECTIVE .. LAZY .. TIRED .. STRUGGLING .. ANIMATED .. ENTHUSIASTIC .. LACKING POSITIVITY .. EMBARASSED .. ASHAMED .. OVERJOYED ..OVERWHELMED .. SAD .. HAPPY .. and so many other conditions of JUST BEING that appear to fluctuate seemingly incessantly .. coming and going... as I wait for each 'pas a pas' and 'step by step' to tell me what to do. And increasingly I know of people who are unwell and I think that whatever happens I have my health ..and it is evident that life should be celebrated and not reduced to negativity, inner injury and tears.

With regard to the house .. my very own house .. it feels like a kind of secret .. I have had a range of unexpected feelings - trepidation, fear, anxiety, excitement, energy, enthusiasm, a kind of shame and embarassment about how much rubbish has been required to reach the décheterrie (the recycling yard), and also stillness and calm, as I try to understand how the house wants to be looked after. I am feeling quite content there .. as I listen to the silence and the sounds within and without the stone walls and imagine times gone before and times to come.

I am enjoying 'le chaleur' et 'l'ombre' - at least 29 degrees celsius today, which I really cannot get enough of because it makes me feel HUMAN and NORMAL I watch the harvest coming in and see the bare, exposed fields with the crows or rooks cawing cavernously, making me nervous about Winter. BUT to think positively Sweetpea, the Autumn is yet to come and she who loves the colours, smells, mists and moistiness, she enjoys October.

On a practical note I am feeling more optimistic .... and I have to plan ... I have a lot to plan even when planning makes no difference and I have much to do.

So that is where the energy goes... I will return maybe on a different path soon.

Happy Birthday to Sweetpea in France

I had an interesting Magical Mystery Tour all by myself ... sleeping, resting and gathering thoughts. It is the very first time I have ever spent my birthday 'toute seule'.

What else is there to do when one is a pensioner and dealing with just a few unexpected challenges that life throws at the 'normal' human being? Ah ... 'normality'. The word arrives again. I get in touch with that word when I go out into the great world and see it all around me and when I am with all manner of people ... my children and my grand child most especially. She is not afraid and neither am I. I can do it! So she says and I agree to.

No photos yet ... no time.. no inclination to paint a picture.

Happy Birthday to me and me and me! You bet it will be different next year ... no party with 60 candles ... no cake with solitary candles .. no cake .. but maybe I'll just go and splash out somewhere fantastic!