Gettin' a grippe

Having my own party tonight, on my third glass of Chateau Ferret (honest) not honest it's my third glass but that's really what its called. I like minervois. The Dixie Chicks are on really L O U D, the benefits of your nearest neighbours being half a mile away. The dog's sheltering between my knees, serves her right for spending the last half-a-hour outside down in the valley barking her her head off at deer/foxes/whatever.

Some things that have happened.

Grippe Avaire struck France with the inevitable knee-jerk response. Our poulets have been shut in since mid February. We are over 500 miles from the outbreak, the Spanish border is half that distance and as far as I know they haven't any restrictions. I see chickens out all the time around here, so I let them out for a ramble yesterday but only because E was in the UK, he is worried about the 800€s fine. The restriction finishes at the end of May, no parole.

Three times since Christmas I've put something on the gas to boil only to forget it. It takes about a week of soaking and scraping to get a useable saucepan again.

It takes about 48 hours for the smell to leave the house.

My dear dad was 80 in April, he cried at his surprise party.

After a long, cold grey winter, spring suddenly arrived with the swallows on 26th March, they were late.

Cowslips fill the ditches and banks, then come the purple orchids and self-heal. Good use of the colour wheel.

I persuaded E to take the car to the UK, I get around on my scooter. I buzzed into Alençon this morning and happened to glance down at the front of my white jacket, it was covered in dead insects. Now I know why bikers wear black and grey. Then I had to shop.

It was very warm last week so we decided to start shearing, we took Lissie first, I made the first cut, and the shears packed up. She now has a gap along her left side. What if I'd done the whole of her side before they stopped?

As E would be leaving for the UK the following day he rang Peasridge who were brilliant, Mr P said he doesn't normally work on a Saturday but would be in so to drop them off, he was going to Germany the following week so would take them with him for Heiniger's engineers to look at them and they would be shipped directly back to us!

Notes for 2007.

April- Check shears are working