The Canary Dave

All is fine thanks, Fez. The problem sorted itself and the eye examination revealed nothing untoward. One of life's mysteries...

 

Morning all. Overcast, with rain expected this afternoon. All quiet until someone started letting fly with their shotgun. I have seen very little of the boar, deer, or even rabbits for some weeks now, so goodness knows what the gun was being aimed at. These days high visibility gear is sold for the hunters and there have not been reports in the press of accidents occurring when a person has been shot by a mate. Just hoping that our forwards find their shooting boots this afternoon. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. Grey and misty and not very warm. A list of small jobs to be done today, including chasing the garage about fitting the tyres I have already paid for, and the minor repair to enable the car to get the two year MOT pass. The guy at the garage is a sole trader and is rushed off his feet, so when he says he will phone you to fix a time for the work, don't hold your breath. Apart from that he is very good, and you feel he has safety for you and your car as his top priority, which is as it should be. Have a good day whatever you must do.

 

My eyes get 'tired' when watching TV.... just lose focus.... when i saw the eye specialist about something else... he said it was just muscle fatigue.....comes with age..... so many little things eh...

 

Morning all. A cold night and it is not expected to warm up that much during the day despite the clear sky. My sixteen year old grandson is the drummer with a four piece band in the Leeds area. They have been playing a lot of stuff they write themselves, with some covers, and have created a following as they play various venues around Yorkshire. Last Saturday they had a gig in London for the first time, and a coach was hired to take them and fans down. Two days before, two of them went down with covid, and really were very poorly, so couldn't perform even if it had been allowed to. In true "the show must go on" fashion, grandson and remaining member did a two person adapted set, which was not really that much like normal. The fact that they took the trouble to turn up has earned them another booking, when hopefully the whole band will be able to play. Have a trouble free day everyone.

 

Morning all. Bright sunny day, but only 6°C when I went to collect some bread, and clear signs of an overnight frost on the car. Last night we had the latest news from M. Macron on a number of issues. The existing restrictions on mask wearing and pass sanitaires remain, but the difference is that unless you have your booster jab your pass will become invalid. Six months and one day after my second vaccination my booster is booked for later this month, so not a problem here. It would appear that too many people have had two, but not returned for the third, something that seems a bit odd to me. Stick to the rules and avoid further lockdowns was the message. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. Warmer by a few degrees today, so no frost. Seems as though tougher rules for the pass sanitaire have had some effect as people have been flooding the web sites to get their booster vaccinations. Public holiday today, so my garage that was going to sort the car out was closed when I arrived. Being English I thought that the owner was still working, but when I phoned him found out that he always goes to the ceremony at his local village war memorial, and had forgotten that it was today. No problem, he will do it tomorrow. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. A lovely clear blue sky apart from the vapour trails across it. Car sorted, so now need to book an appointment for the MOT retest. Just received my council tax bill for the year and it has gone down by €1. Might go and celebrate with a coffee. Have a good day one and all.

 

Glad all is well Bolton. I had one of those episodes a few weeks ago. I went skiing and I seemed to have forgotten how to do it. I have skied for 50 years. I had to teach myself how to get down the mountain in the same way that I taught my children how to ski. It was rather scary as I thought that I may have had a mini stroke. My GP arranged for various tests including a brain scan. Her words were, "Not that I expect to find anything."
Went skiing again before the scan and everything was fine. One of those things. The brain scan showed nothing particularly abnormal.
I bought a new pair of skis in the end of season sale to celebrate. My goodness, it was like upgrading from a Volvo to a Lamborghini.

 

Morning all. Damp and dreary if mild today. Popped down to the recycling centre with a heap of cardboard yesterday, and was quite amused at the goings on there. It is the pruning season now and vans and trailers full of branches and other vegetation were trying to offload them into a massive but full collection bin. As fast as one tipped its load another two turned up. The attendant was in the bin jumping up and down trying to compress it, with little success. It appeared that sooner or later he was going to have to turn people away, and I doubt that he would be very popular. It is turned into garden compost and sold at €1.50 for 40 litres. I have used some in the past and it is good at bulking up light soil. Now need to be able to get and clean the chimney and fetch some more logs in. Glad of another Saturday afternoon tension free. Have a good one.

 

Morning all. Damp and dreary again. Popped along to a small garden centre yesterday to buy some winter flowering pansies to replace the geraniums along the front of the house. The geraniums will survive the winter if taken into a frost free outbuilding, and then in the Spring brought out, given a bit of a tidy up, and you can do that for a couple of years before they get too straggly. The pansies will provide colour through the winter, and providing you keep dead heading them will flower time and time again. Although the countryside may seem dead in the depths of winter, you can keep a feeling of Spring alive with little effort and expense. Have a good day everyone.

 

Good morning - a bit of excitement in our house last night, which caused me to wonder how women would manage to survive without men

My wife suffers from intermittent neck pain and finds the best way to ease it is with a hot water bottle. Experiencing some pain last night, she armed herself with one and went off to bed to read for a while. Ten minutes later I heard her back downstairs loading up the tumble dryer, so went to investigate - turned out that she hadn't tightened the stopper and the bottle emptied onto the bed, soaking the sheets, mattress protector and mattress. She had a plan for drying the mattress - with her hair dryer and toddled off upstairs to do that. Twenty minutes later, I went up to see if her plan was working - found her sitting on the bed, phone in one hand watching a film, hair dryer being waved around in the other. It seemed to be working fine...
Ten minutes later she came downstairs in tears. She had needed to blow her nose, so put the hair dryer down and went looking for a tissue. Unfortunately, she didn't think to switch it off first and the mattress caught fire.

An hour so later, after she had calmed down and had gone to the spare bedroom to sleep, I sent her this on Messenger...

I think she still loves me as I've only got one sore rib...

 

Afternoon all. Rather late in letting you know that it is heavily overcast and chilly. Needed to get a few things done, so been out and about. Think the rest of the day will be spent indoors keeping warm. Have a good time whatever you are doing.

 

Morning all. It's not December yet but the first of the raspberries are ripening. They seem to be ready earlier every year. As long as we have a batch for the Christmas Day trifle all will be fine. The stone fruit trees will have to go, though. They all seem to be dying. Fortunately the garden is Mrs NZ's realm. I'm still having to work silly hours.

 

yikes!

 

I would be several feet under the patio...

 

Morning all. Grey, damp and quite miserable. Any outside jobs would be on hold, but I seem to have a cold developing and would rather stay in. Must make up some warm lemon and honey which seems to help, though I did feel a bit better after a couple of glasses of the red stuff last night. A bit of a toss up there. Strange research published about France. 80% of people are happy with their lives, but only 60% think that the country is going in the right direction. Seems as though looking in two directions at the same time is quite possible. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. Grey and misty outside, and not the sunshine that was promised. Looks as though I will be out for the day as Mme has a list of things that she needs to go to Limoges for. My cold has given me a bit of a cough, so rather than getting strange looks from people as I splutter into a mask, I will stay firmly in the car and let her potter around the shops. This is of course consideration for others. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. Lovely sunshine and a cloudless blue sky. Yesterday when I left for Limoges it was damp, misty and miserable. 20 kms down the road the sun appeared and lit up the glorious colours of the trees and bracken at their Autumnal best. The drive to Limoges takes you through the hills with sweeping views across the countryside and a whole range of shades from a very light yellow, through the golds, and onto the browns and reds. Amidst the riot of colour will be a plantation of pine trees that are so dowdy by comparison, Somehow the yellow stone and orange roof tiles of the farmsteads seem to fit in perfectly with the colour scheme. It was very uplifting after the dismal weather at home, and when returning, reaching the same point as on the outward journey, the cloud and drizzle took over again. Glad I went out and didn't enter a single shop. Have a good day everyone.

 

Morning all. I am not sure at what point you say that heavy mist becomes fog, but as I went to fetch some bread you could only see about 50 metres ahead of you. Watched the local derby between Châteauroux and Orléans last night, and there was a large crowd there despite the 5°C temperature. 4-1 to the home side sounds convincing, but actually they were a goal down and only got to grips with the game in the second half. Half time and the fans in the stands disappeared to the warmth of the bars and the burger outlets. Many of them were wearing masks throughout the game, possibly as a means of keeping their noses warm. Have a good three point day.