So, what happened ? Did I sleep through a season somehow ? Just a few days ago I was walking the dogs up on the hills behind us, in the sunshine, wearing a tshirt and jeans; yesterday I had to put on full wet weather gear, got blown away and soaked to the skin !
Panic for us living in the Lot the day before yesterday when the ‘red/green’ regional maps came out on the lead up to deconfinement, we were in red !! Lots of emails going round trying to find out the reason, then, what a relief, the Mayor of Cahors was on the lunchtime news saying that it was an error and when the next map came out, we would be green. We were ! Actually, I think I’m going to have to be dragged out of confinement kicking and screaming, I’m loving it. Days and days at home not worrying where I should be and when, just long days of gardening and reading, walking the dogs and, hmm, cooking ! The first three are going very well, I have created a small Japanese area in the garden as well as a ‘bee and butterfly’ area and a bug hotel. The next project is a pond, which may not be a great idea, with visions of dogs splashing and drinking the water ! I have never had so much reading time and have read thirteen books since confinement started. A lot of this is done sitting in my (very) little greenhouse. That is absolute bliss, lovely and warm with the soothing smell of growbag and watching seedlings. The dogs all lay outside, even when it is raining. This is the first greenhouse year in France and I have been able to over Winter flowers and plants from last Summer. Now I have got tomatoes too.
As for the cooking, well, not such a success story ! Betsy and I made a wonderful banana and walnut loaf and, flushed with success, we decided to try a carrot cake. Those of you who come to our book sales will probably have tried, loved and fought after Liz’s carrot cake with that dreamy cream. Poor Liz has to make three or four for each sale and I thought, well, if I can help out, that would be great. So, I set to and the mixture looked very encouraging. I have those round cake tins which you can clip shut – very professional ! I poured the mixture in and lifted the tin to put into the oven, but sadly I had forgotten to clip the sides shut. A near disaster ! Luckily I had put baking paper in the tin so was able to grab the four corners quickly and hold the mixture whilst I clipped the tin shut. Only a small amount of mixture was lost so I was hopeful. Sadly the cake bore no relation to the wonderful creation Liz makes, so I’ll stick to my ginger cake ! Another cooking accident just the other day; I was mixing a cake mix with an electric hand held mixer when the electricity went off. Silly me had switched the oven on at the same time as the washing machine, totally forgetting that Betsy does NOT share ! I switched off the washer and went down tot he gate to put the leccy back on again. Halfway back up to the kitchen I heard a weird noise then thought “oh no, I’ve forgotten to switch the whisk off “. If only I had a video camera, I got to the kitchen to find cake mixture flying around with dear old Tega running around trying to catch the drips !
As for dogs news, well, all was obviously very quiet at the start of confinement, then there were all the fears and rumours of dogs having to be put to sleep, so regulations were relaxed. I’m not sure why, but there were also stories that thousands of dogs would be abandoned. Why ?! Surely, with people having to be at home with dog walking being one of the things allowed, you would keep your dog. Happily this proved to be true, Danielle and I had no reports of abandoned dogs, a few lost, but not abandoned and there were no reports from other refuges of an influx. In fact, adoption figures rose ! My adoption page is looking very sad at the moment with no dogs available as I type, but with the relaxation of travel restrictions for movement of dogs, Danielle has had a busy week collecting dogs and these will be on the the website asap.
So, it looks as though confinement may slowly, slowly be over. The day it started I made a list of things to do, the first thing being shorten and put up curtains. Now here we are with liberation in sight and guess what I haven’t done …..! Another thing I meant to do was to watch the Harry Potter films AND the very popular animated films, Frozen, Shrek, Toy Story etc. I have never wanted to watch them but they are all sitting in the boxes of dvds currently in our shed waiting for the next Book Sale, so I thought I ought to give them a go. It looks very much as if our next sale won’t be until the Autumn, if then, but fingers crossed ! If it can go ahead there are plans perhaps to make it a two day event. Watch this space !
I’ll finish with, I hope, a five second video of the reaction of my great niece on being asked if she would like to sing Happy Birthday to her Granddad. Love it !
Sue x