Suninfrance

Good grief. So many stings. I'd have been a complete quivering wreck. I have never been stung and don't know if I am allergic. My dad always swelled up badly when stung and in a lot of ways I take after him (allergy to dentists injections and a total hate of the smell and taste of oranges). As far as wasps and buzzy things, I usually employ the "windmill effect" whenever anything buzzy comes near me (arms flapping everywhere). I now have a badminton racket which is always by my side in the summer. Ideal for the hornets. Basically hornets will only attack when you get within 2 to 3 metres of their nesting site, but unless you see their nesting site, how are we to know!! Policy is, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. If you get stung by a wasp several times and you are not allergic, no problem apart from the pain, but if you get stung by a hornet (frelon) more than once, take yourself off to the docs straight away. Jan

Hi Alexis Thank you. That's the one. I managed to find a site on Google which was very informative about its habits and see that it spreads by suckers which will account for the other 4 or 5 smaller trees nearby the main one. It describes the leaves as smelling of peanut butter (yummy) and in July and August produces highly fragrant jasminelike flowers which will be lovely as it's right outside their front door. Jan

Any keen gardeners out there or tree experts. A friend has a tree in her garden in Troche with an unusual flower/fruit/seed (not sure which). I have a photo which I can send to anyone who wants to have a go at identifying it, but briefly it's description is an elongated heart shaped leaf, the flowers/fruit/seed (whichever) consists of "fuschia" pink petals with a waxy blue/green pod in the middle. It's been driving us crazy trying to find out what it is - so HELP!!! Jan

More the merrier. You don't have to give your weight, just let us know if you lose some. No diet rules here. And .... there is nothing wrong with having a rounded "womanly" figure. I just want my clothes to fit better and feel more comfortable with myself. Personal choice, so I'm not beating myself up about it. Yes, I get a bit down, when I'm feeling like a tank, but I know I feel better when I've shed a few pounds and I know I can do it. It's just nice to be able to do it with others. Jan

Well done Belinda. Keep at it. Let us know the tape measure results tomorrow Alexis.

Hi Gay Staying the same is not so bad. Keep at it. I wasn't particularly good on the eating front last week, but I think I must be burning calories just trying to stay warm at the moment. House is still "a work in progress", we have one room which has a fire, but there are so many draughts !!! Jan

1kg down on last week - slow start, but happy it's going in the right direction. Jan

Anyone got a car for sale in the Correze (19)? Needs to be reliable. Left or right hand drive. Needs to be French registered. Jan

Uzerche has an old town on the hill and a river running through it. Quite nice. Don't really know about Vigeois. But ..... we bought in the same general area (Arnac Pompadour) and love it. It's green, and rolling. We bought our place through www.francehouses.com and they were very helpful all through the process. We e-mailed them from England and told them when we were coming, and they arranged a whole day with us showing us houses. Very nice couple, Pieter and Wilma Van den Berg. Pieter sorted out all our paperwork and came to the Notaire with us when we signed for the house. It all seemed so easy. We moved here permanently on 1st July and are loving it. Good luck with your searches. Jan & Ray

Hi Alexis No worries about weighing. Just let us know how you get on. Jan

Thanks Belinda That's quite a useful website. So I've worked out I would like to get to 69.8kg before Christmas and my final goal weight will be 63.5kg. I have a couple of friends out here who would also like to lose a bit, so I'll have a chat with them next time I see them and ask if they want to join in. Shall we say Tuesdays are our regular weighing in day? Jan

Count me in. Haven't got the hang of kgs yet, but if anyone can tell me what 11st 10lb is in kgs. That's me. Want to get to 11st (or less) by Christmas. I'm only 5ft 4in and looking (and feeling) like a barrel at the moment. So yes, I'm game. Jan

I totally agree with you Chouette. I have been on one diet or another (got the book and the T-shirt) for many years. Each time I lose weight, I feel great, then gradually you think you can get away with just that "little bit extra" and before you know it you are either back to where you started or in my case now way beyond it. I did a low carbohydrate diet for 3 months and lost 22lbs. Brilliant I thought. After I got to my goal, I managed to keep the weight in check for a couple of months but soon got back into my old eating habits. I have now put all that weight back on plus a bit more. Eating less (or more of the right things - fruit and veg) and exercise is the key. Although I started this "thread" I am still struggling to find the motivation to get going on a new regime. Plus the fact I have just had visitors from England for the weekend and they gave me a 650g bar of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut, which if I don't eat, my husband will and then I will feel deprived. Why ever to we get into this negative mindset at this time of year - any psycho-analysts out there!! Jan

Nice one. Creates a picture in your head. Wish I could draw !!! Jan

We got our insert from Briconauts in Limoges. The insert was 409 Euros and the flue 311 Euros. This was 18 months ago. When the chimney sweep arrived earlier in the year, he recommended we treat the back and top of the fire with something called mastique refractuer, which helps maintain the condition of the inside of the insert. Jan

The insert is great. We stayed at a couple of gites which had them and were so impressed we put one in ourselves. It's great to sit in front of it on a cold winter evening with a good book and a glass of brandy. Jan

Yeeeew! Gross Jan

Watched Loraine Kelly on GMTV this morning. They had three women on who all suffered from various things, bloating, eczma (? not sure I spelt that right) and migraines. They had agreed to undergo food intolerance tests with a new blood test kit you can apparently buy. The lady with the bloating after eating I can relate to. Many times I have woken in the morning feeling fine, but within a few hours and especially after eating, felt like my trousers, skirts were cutting me in half. Turns out she's intolerant to cows milk, aubergines, and a couple of other things. The lady with the eczma was allergic to cows milk (again), nuts, potatoes, amongst other things. The lady with the migraines had a whole list of foods she was intolerant to, but this was because they discovered she had a digestive disorder probably brought about by too many painkillers taken to relieve her migraines. All three have agreed to undergo a food rotating diet over the next four weeks and will be back on telly in four weeks time with the results. All sounds very interesting. Apparently you can find out more on www.gm.tv. Click on the LK Today tab. It's called Eat Yourself Better. Jan

Some good ideas here. Will look at the website links. Anyone tried the "Cabbage Soup" Diet?

Any messages on diets. Desperately need to lose at least 10lbs before Christmas. HELP! Jan

What a long "thread" about a sausage How about "museau de boeuf". Ray bought some as a salad dish last summer. He thought, yes, beef, I can do that. Whilst chewing, and chewing, and chewing (and more chewing) (and making concerted efforts to avoid throwing up) decided to look up museau in the dictionary. For those of you who don't know - it means muzzle. Yes, he was eating cow nose. Yeeeew! Needless to say - we haven't gone anywhere near it since. Jan

Thanks for the link Miki. Sure enough, that's the one. We have a grape vine over the well the loir is living in, and we also have hazel nut trees - so obviously a feast for the little critters. Jan

Thanks - I was wondering when it happened. Don't forget the old saying "spring forward, fall back". Jan

We tried humane traps and despite depositing contents a couple of miles away, we're sure we caught the same ones night after night. So .... we went to the local co-op agricole and brought a mouse trap called the "little nipper" and were amazed to find they were made in Buckingham which was just a few miles from where we lived in England. After depleting my supply of crunch peanut butter (they love it), we got fed up with hearing the trap got off shortly after we'd gone to bed every evening and then coming downstairs with the knowledge that one of us (actually Ray - I wouldn't go in the room knowing there was a dead mouse in it - I'm OK with live ones though - strange that). Anyway, I digress .... so eventually we got some FEROX flocons. Put some in a couple of jar lids on the floor and after a couple of nights noticed they were empty. May be coincidence, but we haven't seen a mouse since. Beware though if you have pets, to make sure they can't get at it, as we had a couple of friends over and one of their dogs was a springer spaniel - they like to sniff at everything and the flocons could quite easily be sucked up the nostrils. So despite not liking to poison the mice, I don't really want to share my house with them. Onto another sort of mouse now - we have a bushy tailed mouse looking thing that keeps running up and down the walls of our well. It's slightly bigger than your ordinary house mouse. Anyone got any ideas what it might be? Jan

Not sure this is the right forum, but couldn't see where else to put it. Are badgers protected in France as in England? We have large holes in the floor of our wood barn which a neighbour reckons are badger sets. We asked him if they were protected and he just smiled ! Jan