daylight we have replaced it with

Blog 12 April 2016

I practised some real national pride and raised the Union Jack in Brevands to celebrate the Queens 90^th birthday. I posted on facebook and got so many lovely responses that we decided to do it all over again with English flags for St George’s day.

You may be forgiven for thinking that we have become homesick expats, but no, we just love the opportunities we have to follow the news within two cultures.   I put my flags up to remember the Paris and Brussels bombing and HOSS was Je suis Hero for a day. Our neighbours are now quite used to the union Jack in Brevands as we usually put a flag out if we have first time visitors….. or England is playing France at some sport or another,  it just makes for cordial relations

I have managed to get four grass cuts in the garden already this year and the lawns are looking great.  I like to go out, just me, and Mike comes out with a drink to sustain me and this time with camera ‘….. Don’t you just love my mean machine…..

For well over a year now I have been ordering a months’ worth of   doggie food from Intermache.  There is quite a process for this purchase as I have to make the order in person at the reception one day,  4 days later I get a phone call to say the order is in, and then, I have to go on line and make a Drive Internet order so I can pick up my shopping at the back of the shop…… sounds complicated, well no it actually runs like clockwork and when I go to reception the ladies know who I am and what I want. I feel very much in with the in-crowd because the ladies at intermache know me…the other up side to this process is that if Mike and I were not able to get into town to do our shopping we could buy on line and have a taxi deliver, so this process is insurance in case we should find ourselves unable to go out or just get darn right lazy in our old age…….

We had another fun evening supper at the table this week with 8 of us catching up on the goings on in our ex pat lives. Shirley here, has a dodgy shoulder and is finding it difficult to go swimming, which she does every single day of the week. We were hearing about the treatments she is undergoing and then Mike suggested she might like to borrow his infrared light on a stick.  Needless to say we just had to have a demo and as you can see, it was hitting the spot. Get well soon little mermaid…..

The dead willow tree is coming down and we have been at it for the past three days. Mike has taken the time to plan the best way to bring it down and has been searching for best practice on U-tube. We have been discussing this sad but necessary project and have planned each next move so we both understand how it will work and what the dangers are. Our neighbour came over and asked why on earth we were cutting down our magnificent tree and when I brought his attention to the green willows in the garden and the state of this one, and he was visibly shocked that a tree could die so totally and in so little time. He offered to help but I know how Mike works and that his brain cogs do not need a third party input with something so difficult and crucial.

I am not allowed in the area while mike is up the ladder but I do have to be paying attention and keeping an eye on progress. I therefore set myself up as the chipper department and as the branches come down I triage big twig, medium twig and no use to me twig, then put them in tidy piles so we can see what we have.  The chipper is very fussy about the size and shape of twig but once I got my eye in I found that I got really clever and in two days I have filled 18 supermarket bags-for-life, and I am still counting. I am really looking forward to filling a garden or two with these chippings to make them look smart and tidy.

So here we are at this stage and I am promised that once we have a trunk left it will be quick and effortless, so we work on, sad to lose our front drive Wow factor but enjoying the new open views and daylight we have replaced it with