chocccie

I've grown some of these squash ... they have grown VERY vigourously and have masses of male flowers.... but not a sign of a fruit!  They are taking up valuable space, and if they are not going to fruit then I'll have to be ruthless! Any ideas please?

I've just taken some curtains from a cupboard I never go in and found that there is a damp patch in the cupboard and the curtains (terrectoa/mustard) have blackish mould marks on them.  [:(]   I've washed them but, as I expected, the black marks remain, although dimished a bit. I think I'm going to have to dye them ..... is it worth soaking them in Biotex ?  I doubt this will make any difference, but do you know differently? Thanks very much

My hubbie is very protective of his wood to...... oh, that's too good to burn/use/throw away ..... oh that's a great shape, that might come in useful ..... oh feel the quality of this, it's be a crime to burn it .... oh, what a nice shape, let's keep this one ..... etc, etc, etc

[quote user="Anton Redman"]I would use good quality adhesive on the base plate of the wall rather than driling through the tiles. [/quote]   That's what I was planning to do.   Thanks for the advice everyone - much appreciated.

Hi folks I'm about to tile a ground floor room and I was going to tile the whole room, and then put up a stud wall over it.  This is to make a neater edge and to save time on cutting tiles. But something in telling me not to!  Is this a daft idea?  I'm thinking of people walking about in the room above and putting weight on the stud wall causing tiles to crack.  Or is that daft thinking?  Is the weight above spread evenly and wouldn't give me problems? What would you do? Cheers [:)]

OK, that's the dogs sorted ... now I need to find a cat-looker-afterer.....

Tony F Dordogne .... I've sent you a PM  [:D]

  Ahhhhhh..... so that's why my last few cakes have not risen! Thanks Claire - ever helpful as usual [:)]

Does anyone know where I can buy dried soya beans? Also, I get a bit confused with the flours ...... what shall I buy if I need plain flour?..... for biscuits .... or quiche?   thanks!

She's 100% back to normal!  Running all over the place and driving me mad (and I couldn't be happier!) The vet was sure it wasn't poisoning or snake bite.... he things the most likely explanation is our other (much larger, powerful and very boistrous) dog bashed into her and hurt her.  They do rough and tumble together all day long.  I'm not sure where the tremors came from..... shock maybe?

[quote user="Poppy"].  Don't like this new feeling [:(] [/quote]   I know exactly how you feel.  I couldn't sleep at night and had my husband up and down during the night to look out of the window if I heard a noise.  And of course, in the middle of the countryside there are plenty of noises. But try not to fret.... most thefts are opportunistic, they want to be in and out quickly and quietly.  Fingers crossed it was just a one-off.    

Poppy - I had my solar lights stolen too! Everytime we visited France from the UK I was so relieved to find everything intact.  Ironically, it was just after we moved out here permanently that we had a prowler/thief.  I had gone to visit my friend for a night or two and returned to find that five (out of a bunch of eight) solar lights had been pinched.  I had stuck them all in a bunch to charge up.  Not sure why only five were pinched though!  We also found signs that the building we keep our tractor and garden equipment in had been jimmied (unsucessfully).  Then I went to look at the shutters and found a similar mark... I couldn't tell how recent it was though. I know somebody who had their holiday home pretty much cleared out very recently ... they had obviously taken their time too.   A house up my lane was also burgled of outdoor equipment recently. As for thinking the rural French aren't security concious ... which ones???!  Have you ever seen a ground floor window without either shutter or bars?  And most of them are insured up to the hilt, have dogs, sensor light, lazer guns, the lot.  (Well, I might have made the last one up!). We've just put extra security on our ground floor shutters .... Mr. Bricolage had a sale on metal bars - the type that sit in brackets ... only about 10 euros a pop and they are really strong.

Well, I've had the bill..... and I can't believe my eyes!   50 euros!!    For a light night call out on a Saturday with an injection!  Can you imagine what that would buy you at a UK vet?!

You might as well be speaking Borg for all this means to me!!  [:$]  (But I'm sure hubbie will find it interesting)

Folks For those of you who don't live in France, please can I remind you of the dangers of chatting on this forum, making it clear that you don't live at your property and giving a website, which gives a detailed location of where your property is.  You are leaving yourself wide open to theft. This forum is as safe as any other.... but do remember that not everybody on the internet is as lovely and as honest as you! I've seen several instances on this forum recently of people making it clear they are in England, along with a website telling any prospective thief exactly where their property is! Please take care .... sad, I know.... but necessary.  Theft at holiday homes is not uncommon.

HE'S DONE IT!!!  Clever boy!   Thanks again Timco.

Thanks Timco.  I've done the above.  When in set up menu I can now hear the Sky programme audio going on, but it's still not finding the channels.  It's soooo frustrating.  My hubbie installed and set up the satalitte dish and is normally really good at working out this sort of thing, but this has us baffled! It's a Panasonic DVD and the set up guide is about 600 pages long! 

We're trying to programme a DVD and connect it up with our Sky channels (which is all we currently have)... .however, when the DVD system has finished scanning for all available channels, it flashes a message saying there are none found. The satellite dish cable is plugged into the DVD as instructed and all the cabling seems right. When switching the DVD on/off a  half second of the programme currently on Sky flashes through ...   Any bright ideas??   Thanks!

Yes please Anna!  [:D]

How much do you get through in a year? I had a supply here and never measured how much I used - and now it's all gone so I need to buy some in for this winter (late I know!) and next winter. How much, very roughtly, is average for a farmhouse?

Hi folks Does anyone have any reccomendations in North Haute Vienne please. I want to get everything in order for the dogs and cats in case of an emergency trips to the UK. Thanks! [:)]

I've sent you a PM

[quote user="WJT"]Choccie, so happy to here she is doing better and it wasn't Piroplasmosis. Did the vet rule out her eating poison? In any case it does sound like good news and she is on the mend.[/quote]   Yes, the vet ruled out her eating poison.  I asked several times.  He was really baffled because she was so stiff in the muscles and legs. Usually (but probably not always), an animal which has been poisoned by rat/mice poison will display anaemic symptoms (white gums, white insides of eyes (should be pink and red respectively) and bleeding).  We knew this and checked before phoning the vet.  he's pretty certain it wasn't poison but who knows. One thing I have just learned (though it's common sense really).  Drinking green water is very bad for dogs.  As we have very large grounds, it's quite possible that she's found some green water (as opposed to stagnant old puddles, which are fine (ish!). Thanks for the concern, advice and goodwill. PS - I haven't seen the late night weekend call out bill yet!!

They are costing me a fortune! Does anyone know of a cheap way of getting 'em ?  Maybe by the trailor load? I'm in North Haute Vienne if anybody knows of a place to go?   Otherwise, general advice would be great and I can have a look around. Thanks! [:)]

[quote user="Russethouse"] Could any of the mice she eats been poisoned ? Glad to hear she is better today. [/quote]   Very possibly.  that's our only explanation really.  she tends to leave mice that she finds dead and have "gone off".  She likes to kill them herself ('orrible dog!!)