If all we have to worry about is cutting the grass ...

It is a little known fact, but a fact nonetheless, that many dogs have Thespian aspirations. I have come across what can only be photographs from the dogs' portfolios that they take to auditions and the like. See what you think.

Here, Tinkerbell was auditioning for the part of a bat-eared fox in an African version of The Jungle Book:


Flash has tried out for a number of rôles. There was the part he was after in Bambi:


He went for the job of a Grizzly Bear in a The Call of the Wild, but failed for being too skinny - and too pale (that was in the days before PC):


and this. I'm not sure whether he was after a part in Gremlins III or whether he fancied himself as Yoda:


Either way, he didn't get the job.

For his part, Ulysse put in a bid for the title rôle in Driving Miss Daisy:


... and failed. I think he exhausted all of his options, and exhausted himself in the process!


Meanwhile, back to the saga of cutting the grass.

On Monday, having successfully repaired the tractor, we had a go at cutting the grass which, as this picture shows, is becoming quite tall (or long - take your pick). Sadly, it was just too long for the tractor, jamming it up and requiring it to be cleaned out every twenty metres or so.


We decided to see what we could do with the Toro. It threw its front axle, and lost one of the axle clamps. A replacement is on order, with no clear indication of when it will arrive. The Toro is unusable until it does.

So here is the quandary. We have better than a half acre of meadow grass that is getting longer by the day. The weather is ideal for cutting. Were the area suitable and access good enough, I would try to get the farmer to come in, cut it, bale it and have it for his cattle. It isn't, it isn't, and I can't. I do not wish to dip into our dwindling savings to buy a tractor that will do it (not the 2350€ one - that won't deal with such long grass - it would need to be a 7500€ one). I do not wish to do the whole area with a strimmer. That leaves one choice, which I have set in motion. I am hoping, before too long, to take delivery of a scythe-mower, as described here and pictured below.


Described as "A robust, powerful 'specialist' machine which can cut grass as cleanly as it does thick undergrowth. Optimum benefits are to be gained from use in paddocks and orchards, as well as wild meadows. Intended for use in recreational areas and is particularly suitable for use on larger plots of land.", it sounds as if it was specified for our situation.

The big surprise for me is the price. Delivered here from Germany, its cost at today's exchange rate, is about 20% less than the quoted UK price. It is still a lot of money, but is a great deal less than replacing the tractor. We have at least three or four occasions each year when the tractor really struggles and is possibly being damaged by the way we have to use it, and there are a few areas where the tractor just will not go, but where I anticipate this beast will.

Fingers crossed. We need it, and we need it to work!


I travelled to Paris again on Wednesday to return Tania's dogs to her. It is a long drive. Allowing for road works and stops for the dogs to exercise and for me to eat, it took five hours. It was dry but overcast. I had thought about taking them in the MX5, but I'm not as certain as with the Astra that it would manage a 750Km round trip without incident. There is still a question mark over the clutch linkage. The Astra also gave more room for the dogs, and is more secure when parked on-street in Paris. The only excitement on the way was when I saw some Marsh Harriers near the road; three separate sightings, two male and one female.

The return trip on Thursday was equally uneventful - only four and a half hours this time. The excitement on this trip was seeing, perched atop a fence post at the side of the autoroute, a buzzard which was so pale that, were it not for the shape, it could be mistaken for a male Barn Owl.

Whilst I was in Paris, the weather was dull, but our area was in brilliant sunshine. This has continued since my return. We have been out in the MX5 with the roof off a few times now - two trips to Montluçon to buy stuff, and I took Ulysse to the lake yesterday. It is superb.

If only I could cut the grass. We have some very good friends coming next weekend (I hope they know that they will have to watch the Turkish Grand Prix) and we want the whole place to look nice for their arrival.

We have eaten on the terrace a few times in this glorious weather, and I shall leave you with an image of the view we have from the terrace. If you are going to have a barbecue, you have to have a view like this to complement it.


Have a good week.

À la prochaine

Troubled tractors and dirty dogs

I have to say that the week started wonderfully. Warm and dry, if not completely sunny. On Monday afternoon I decided it was high time I had another go at cutting the grass - it was almost a foot high in places and the ground seemed firm and dry enough. The only trouble is that it was still, over part of the area, damp from the overnight dew which, in the absence of good sunshine, often hangs around nearly all day. Nonetheless, I started. I set the blades to level five - next to the highest - which, unless everything is totally dry, is enough to keep it under control. In fact, I have never gone lower than four, as the uneven nature of the ground, aided by the moles and their allies, would mean that I would be spending a lot of my time trimming soil!

I had achieved no more then one third of the first circuit when it was apparent that it wasn't going to cope at level five, so I upped it to level six - its highest setting, went back to the shed and cleaned the cutter shroud. I restarted where I had left off and did another third of the first circuit (it takes about twenty-five to do the whole thing, a bit over two hours when things go well) when it jammed up again. Frequently, when the blades jam, I can disengage them, move to a clean area, and re-engage them, which forces out much of the grass that has clogged them. I tried that. It didn't work. No grass cuttings came from the cutter area. What did come from the cutter area were some unusual and not too pleasant noises, smells of burning rubber and a lot - and I mean a lot - of thick, acrid, black smoke.

Do you ever get the feeling that all is not well? I did then. I hastily disengaged the cutter drive and drove the mower back to the cleaning area. As I was cleaning it, I noticed the left-hand blade was spinning freely. This, I decided, was not right. Tractor back to its garage.

On Tuesday afternoon, whilst Clare was out, I was cutting the front grass and the sides of the road with the other mower [link] and stopped for a quick chat with Pierre, who was out doing likewise. We talked about grass, weather and the usual stuff, and I told him that my ride-on (tracteur-tondeuse or tondeuse autoportée, or just autoportée in French) was in trouble, that I thought the cutter drive belt was either displaced or broken. I asked if he knew of a local repair man. It seems there is a man in Pionsat, but he only does Husqvarna - which I could never afford - and another in St Hilaire, just up the road, who does that kind of thing. He then ran off and came back some minutes later with a name and telephone number.

Wednesday seemed to get away from us and I didn't call the man. As Thursday was a public holiday (Ascension Day) I didn't call then either.

On Friday, another lovely, hot, sunny day, I decided it was "have a go" day, so gathered the tools I thought I would need and set about trying to see what was wrong with the accursed machine. Having successfully realigned the main drive belt a couple of years ago [link] I thought it worth trying this one, too. It looks easy in the book. The book doesn't have to do it! The book has drawings of the various components. They are clean. Real life isn't.

I eventually got the shroud off, so I could see the assembly. Somehow, the area was full of very dry grass cuttings; goodness only knows how they got in, but I must have removed at least a cubic foot of them. I could then see what the problem was. On the left side, the belt had jumped off its pulley and was tight against the pillar. That explains the noise, smell and smoke. When the belt was moving, instead of turning the pulley, it was rubbing hard against the fixed pillar! Next problem? How to move the belt back up to the pulley. The belt was tight against a 1" diameter pillar, and needed to be eased up onto a 4" diameter pulley. After a lot of thought, I removed the step (which turns out to be an important part of the structure) and attacked it with a couple of crowbars - that did the trick.

Pierre chanced by as I was doing the repair, so I called him in to show him what the problem was. We talked around it for a whie and, before going, he told me that the forecast was for thunderstorms during the evening. Happily, they didn't come.

A bit later it was reassembled, tested and (fingers crossed) lives to fight another day without having to pay a professional a shedload of cash.


Whilst the machine was out of commission, and before I fixed it, we were questioning whether it is really up to the job. Sure, when I bought it, I checked its specs - it is said to be good for 3000 sq m of grass, against the 2000 or so we have, and I specified to the salesman that our land was uneven and rugged. However, there are various indications that we are asking too much of it. I identified a machine I should like to replace it [link] - all I need now is someone to sponsor me to the tune of 2350€ (£2100 at today's stupid rate) so I can buy it!

The fruit trees are continuing to do well - those that we can see through the rising jungle - with peaches, pears, apricots, kiwi, black- and red-currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, mirabelles, plums and cherries all looking good. One of the pear trees is black with ants so we don't expect that to develop fruit to ripeness. Next year I think we shall need to try a more aggressive approach to protection against insect pests. A few pictures of the current state of

cherries,


gooseberries,


apples


and peaches


We still have Tania's dogs with us, and they are still behaving reasonably well.

For us humans, entering the kitchen to prepare food is a little fraught


the blighters have expectations - or at least aspirations. This is the opposite to the street beggars we have all come to love; this is totally passive begging - standing quietly looking up with coy, pleading eyes in the manner perfected by Princess (expletives deleted) Diana.

They continue to get on well together, sharing beds,


and rides,


starting off clean,


having a lot of fun in the sun

and ending up filthy!


I wonder if we can get her clean before I have to take them back on Wednesday.

Spare a thought for me today. As I am sat inside in my airless study at 30.2°C and 49% humidity, it is brilliant sunshine outside, over 30°C and bloody lovely.

Have a good week.

À la prochaine

A dog of a week, all things considered

Another mixed batch of weather this week - enough warmth and sunshine to permit some outdoor activity, and enough rain to ensure that the grass can continue to grow unhindered. The odd rumble of thunder, including a couple quite close, have had me running around unplugging things like computers and ADSL modems to prevent the risk of damage from lightning or static burst.

This week's walk around the orchard showed the fruits to be coming on nicely, and here are a few pictures to prove it. Subject to the goodwill of the weather, insects, birds and whatever it was ate all the cherries last year, we are looking set for (amongst others) :

Peaches


Apricots


Gooseberries


Pears


and blackcurrants


Of all of which, I feel sure we shall speak at a later date.

Now for the dogs. I am delighted to say that they are all getting on very well together.

Ulysse continues to establish his position as alpha male and third in command of the pack (after me and Clare). Flash has never questioned that - he knows he is no longer up to the job. Tinkerbell is small and submissive, and Shitsu, at ten months, has yet to assimilate how pecking orders work, although she does show proper respect to Ulysse and, more particularly, to Flash.


Like all young animals, she needs to learn about group living and hierarchies. As this picture shows, her ongoing education has been continued by being sat down in front of a number of episodes of The Dog Whisperer.


She and Ulysse are getting into some tremendous pulling games, which they are now initiating themselves without any intervention from us. The trouble is, they mostly happen on the tiled floor, where neither dog can achieve any real purchase


although, as this video clip shows, they all started in the front garden on grass, where Ulysse's weight advantage (he is about three times her weight) came into play.



I was awakened on Saturday morning by Flash padding around the bedroom, wanting to go outside. At 5am! I could have killed him - he refused to go outside for a pee before coming to bed, as it was raining (bless), but he wanted to go at 5am.

A word of advice. If you have to have an old dog, make it a small one. When Ulysse becomes old and less mobile, it will be easy enough. Flash is 23Kg (should be 25Kg). He has, for twelve of his fourteen years, always slept in our room and been close to us. He isn't going to change that. He has trouble with our stairs and usually refuses to climb them in either direction. He has suffered a number of falls on the stairs and his confidence has left him. We therefore need to carry him up to bed, and usually down again. When I am in the study, he frequently like to be here with me - that's two flights of stairs on which he needs to be manhandled.

When I awoke, I noticed a constant sound that I couldn't identify - I couldn't even say for sure from which direction it was coming. It was a kind of white noise, if you know what I mean. After I had carried Flash downstairs and kicked his sorry ass out of the door, I went white noise hunting.

Eventually, I narrowed it down to the cellar and, in particular, to the water system in the cellar. I became aware that water was moving through the system when none should have been. I turned off the feed to the outside front, and the noise stopped. Mystery solved.

I later traced the leak, for such it was, to the room under the garage where the swallows breed. A joint in some pipework feeding a tap in there (one we never use) was leaky. There is a valve behind that joint, so I closed that, went back and checked, and everything seemed fine.

Fine, that is, until Clare informed me that the tap next to the old outside toilet wasn't delivering. The Interesting thing is that the valve I turned off was on a spur that led only to the tap in that room.

A new mystery.

I shall let you know next week if I manage to solve that one.

Have a good week.

À la prochaine

I loathe Paris in the springtime

... and I'm not ashamed to say
I loathe Paris
Why, oh why do I loathe Paris?
'Cos it's so far away
(with apologies to Cole Porter)

At the beginning of the week, when it was sunny, I took a walk around the trees to see what progress was like. I was not unimpressed. Many of the trees are showing the early signs of fruiting. We now need decent weather and protection against insects, birds, and whatever it was ate all the cherries last year [link].

So far, though, all the soft fruits are looking good, like this blackcurrant.


The vinous kiwi fruit looks set to yield some fruit this year,


whilst the apricot looks ready to give its first harvest,


as does this pear.


All in all, a promising start.

.. and then it rained!

I had to go to Paris on Friday to collect Tania's two dogs. She is off to Cannes for a couple of weeks for her job, and asked us if we could look after her pair for her. Naturally, we are quite happy to do that - her dogs get on well with ours (probably better than they do with each other), and it gives ours some extra company for a couple of weeks. One of us will need to take them back at the end of the month - we shall decide later who should do it.

The drive to Paris takes, including a short stop for fuel for driver and car, approaching four hours. Much of it is autoroute which is quick, efficient, and BORING! And, having reached there, one then has to turn round and drive back again. I set off after a hearty breakfast late on Friday morning and returned on Saturday afternoon. Whichever of us does the return trip will most likely do something similar.

You probably know that we have a track record of, shall we say, sturdy dogs. Hobie was overweight all his life, and that we are calling Ulysse Podge speaks for itself.

Words cannot describe, therefore, how good I felt when I saw a poodle with a French couple in the car park at a picnic stop on the autoroute. I think it was a poodle - the head looked decidedly canine and of the poodle race. The body, however, was more ovine, prompting me to believe I may have discovered the original sheep-dog!


It even looks as though it is grazing in the car park.

That apart, the Paris trip was uneventful. Tania is always a good hostess and, although she had to work Friday night, we went out for a bite to eat and met up with Zoë (which is always nice), before Tania had to get ready for work. I had no real desire to do the Paris night scene, so I sat through the entire third season of Weeds on DVD, with two diminutive canines for company.

Saturday morning we took the dogs to the vet - Tinkerbell (Chihuahua) needed some vaccinations - and they were both treated with flea and tick repellant. It is as well, as we have already found ticks on our dogs this year, and I don't know how Tinkerbell and Shitsu (of that breed) would cope with such unwelcome visitors, to say nothing of their removal. After crèpes, we loaded various things and dogs into the car and I set off. Thankfully, it was again an uneventful journey.

I now have two requests for web sites - one is new and the other a redesign. Quotes are under preparation.

A couple of doggy pics to end up with.

First, Shitsu and the Podge are getting along OK


whilst Tinkerbell seems to think the insulated shopping bag is a nice nest!


Meanwhile, I have a serious job to do - I must cheer on our Jensen!

Have a good week.

À la prochaine

Foggy fête, armchair adjustments, stupendous scenery and growing grass

As promised, we went to the village last Sunday afternoon, to have a look at the Fête de la Saint Georges celebrations.

Sadly, Sunday was the most miserable April day in the whole, long history of miserable April days - incessant drizzle and sporadic fog.

The good folk of St Maigner put on a sterling show, recreating village life in 1909, but a lot of what should have happened in the open was hastily relocated inside, which spoiled the atmosphere. This is our third St George's Day in France, and the first that has not been gloriously sunny and warm, veering on hot. Last year's was the one to remember, as it was the day before my futile attempt at weight loss by having part of my ear removed.

Here are a few images from the St George's Day celebrations.




On Tuesday, Clare had a group of ladies around for a craft afternoon - paper making, felt making, that kind of stuff. I remained at a safe distance - two floors up in the study. The afternoon went well and is likely to be repeated.

To make it easier, we decided in advance to move the dining table and chairs and the table from the terrace into the annexe, first clearing out the sofas and so on, which we moved into the séjour, where the dining table normally lives. We have half a plan to convert the annexe into a dining room, cutting a doorway between it and the séjour, so this gave us the opportunity to try a few configurations in the séjour, to see how it would look. I am not displeased.


Thursday afternoon's ladies and dogs walk was cancelled by the lady who was due to host it, as her daughter was unwell. We decided to do our own, so bundled the dogs into the car (OK, we lifted Flash in, but every time any of the car doors is opened, Ulysse is in before you can say 'Flash') and drove to the viaduct at La Celette. This is one of our favourite places to take the dogs, as it is quiet, safe and very pretty. Generally, we make a comparatively short walk, in deference to Flash's limited abilities, but this time we ventured much further.

We reached a point where Flash was tiring, so Clare stopped with him and admired some of the wild flowers, a couple of which we pictured for later identification.



Meanwhile, Ulysse and I carried on for another ten minutes or so before returning.


The outlook from this route is superb - somewhat flat for the area, but extremely pleasant nonetheless. Whenever we look at the local scenery we need to pinch ourselves, and remind ourselves that


Whilst all this was going on, we were waiting for the ground to dry out, and for the weather to stay dry for a few days so we could attack the grass. It was dry enough on Friday, but we noticed that, it being Workers' Day, no work was being done anywhere, so we didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb by having mowers and stuff making noise. The cut finally happened on Saturday, and we are very pleased with the result


Meanwhile, I did a couple of pictures of Ulysse before and after his trim. What is interesting is that they were taken less then three weeks apart - but look at how much the jungle grew in that short time. This is the area where we feed the wild birds, and a lot of their seed ends up on the ground - goodness only knows what all these plants are!


And finally - whilst following some threads of research in connection with my TESOL studies, I came across a video clip that really made me laugh. Give it a go - see what you think.



Have a good week.

À la prochaine