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Kiera

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  1. Chris, We had the same problem when our son reached 8/9 years old, and we ended up enforcing an English only when at home rule! This however, included the bribe of getting sky TV so he could watch TV in English as well as French. It more or less worked for us, with the odd slip up here and there, such as suddenly realising at the end of dinner that we had all spoken French for the entire meal... When we were relocated back to the UK a couple of years ago I was pleased we had been so strict with the English rule, as starting English school wasn't too much of a problem. My son has also just passed nine GCSE’s including a good grade for English (and an A* for French!) We also encouraged him to keep in touch with a couple of his English friends, writing to them and 'phoning them when possible, now with MSN etc he does the same in reverse keeping in close touch with all his French friends. Good Luck! Kiera
  2. We didn't really get much help at all with our daughter (ileostomy) with the exception of our superb French GP - who made lots of calls and nagged people on our behalf. Perhaps it may be worth visiting a local GP to discuss this when you have an area in mind, it probably differs alot from region to region. Good luck!  
  3. Thanks for that Chris, I would love to identify them! I'll get in touch with these contacts when I get back over at the end of the month. I have never got too close to them in the barn as I have always been afraid of disturbing or frightening them. They are quite small and spend the evening swooping into the light coming from the house. This used to terrify my B&B guests, but the kids and I love them! Thanks again for the contacts. Kiera
  4. Thanks Andy, Heavily sprayed potato crops! The three fields surrounding our house and barn are pasture for horses with plently of trees. I don't use any chemicals on the garden, so I suppose that may help in some small way. It just seemed curious that last year at dusk we could see 10 to 15 bats in the air at once, and this year there only ever seems to be five or six.
  5. Chris, wonder if you could help, we have a colony of bats in our barn, (Somme, 80) and they seem to be slightly diminished this year. Is there anything I can do to encourage them? I already have a large area of 'wild' garden and shallow water sources for the birds, hedgehogs etc. But is there anything I can grow/ introduce to help the bats? Thanks
  6. Kiera

    Somme

    Too true Sam, anything dug up is property of the French Government, and they do seem to be enforcing this now, even possesion of a .303 round could be seen as an offence. I for one know too many people on the Somme or Ypres with missing fingers at the best or who have blown themselves up in recent years. I don't look forward to digging in my garden and anything found is treated with the utmost respect and care, the outside may be rusty, but in most devices the inside workings are as good as they were 90 years ago...
  7. Kiera

    Somme

    I hope there is nothing sinister about the work going on in the wood, but with so much building here at the moment the first thing that springs to mind is development. The wood is owned by two seperate people, and this is the side that has until now remained untouched. It is unlikely that they are doing battlefield clearance as this is generally an unending task, and the bomb squad only come to take away gas shells normally (after a long wait!) I know in my garden that each time I redig the veggie patch new stuff comes to the surface, and my metal detector is useless due to the amount of shrapnel and shards in the soil- there again we did at one time have a German line and a Canadian frontline running through the garden. There was very little clearance after the war, many munitions etc on the surface were removed, but most of the woods were left - Delville was vaguely cleared of surface munitions, but tons of the stuff surfaces every year. Kiera
  8. Kiera

    Somme

    Alcazar, sorry my tone was a bit off! Still suffering from lack of sleep over the 1st July weekend! Rose's death seems a long time ago to me! She died when my son was nearly a year old, and he's now 16... Did you know that most of Rose's papers remained in Ypres too? They are in the documentation centre of In Flanders Fields museum. The Rose Coombs collections contains trench maps, photographs, newspapers and periodicals and original documents. Alcazar, have you read 'The Hell They Called High Wood' by Terry Norman, I still think is one of the best books on this battle. Kiera
  9. Kiera

    Somme

    'Rose Coombs only died recently,' Alcazar, Rose died back in 1991, but her book has just been updated. When Rose died her ashes were buried in Lille Gate Cemetery and the path leading up to the cemetery was named after her. I was up at High Wood and London Cemetery on Monday, it looks as if they are clearing part of the wood again, didn't have time to go and ask what was going on, but I hope it's not yet another area of the battlefield being built on. Having said that it looks like the the proposed development of the glory hole at La Boiselle has been stopped for the time being. Nice to see that you have Walking the Somme, Angela, Paul's next book in the Battleground editions, 'Walking Arras' is due out at Christmas.   Kiera
  10. Kiera

    Somme

    'Walking the Somme' by Paul Reed is a good perspective on the Somme battlefields (but I'm biased) but I always have a copy of Rose Coomb's book Before Endeavours Fade: Guide to the Battlefields of the First World War, which I think has recently been updated. Kiera
  11. Kiera

    Somme

    Alcazar, there are many German cemetries left, especially on the Somme, it is just that the headstones no longer exisit in great numbers. Although the French did give the Germans a limited timescale to remove their dead, those that were left were not destroyed, At Le Sars the german divisional memorial is there and the land around it still contains the german graves from the cemeteries. At Courcelette the German cemetery is next to the site of the exisiting civilain cemetery. Here one German headstone survives, and has been placed in the communal cemetery and is maintained by the commune. Many of the German cemeteries such as Courcelette was were destroyed by artillery fire (in 1916) as the lines moved, so moving the bodies into concentrated cemeteries was not always possible. If you look in CWGC cemeteries and see headstones in a line that touch, usually with a cross on the centre stone, that is indicative of a mass burial, it happened on all sides. Ossuaries and mass graves are more acceptable in France and Germany, whereas in England it was seen as normal where possible to bury bodies in induvidual graves. Kiera
  12. Kiera

    Somme

    Hi Angela, Yes, both myself and my husband work there during busy periods and also when the curators are on holiday. It is a lovely place, even better when we cover for the summer holidays (you have to stay in the house on the edge of the wood) I get up v. early and feed the deer on the edge of the wood! The couple who have run it for the past twenty odd years are retiring in September, and I have a feeling that the embassy will appoint new relief curators - so I think that was my last stint there... except maybe for a week or two in August Kiera
  13. Kiera

    Somme

    First time I've had time to get near the computer since 30th June. The Somme has been packed with people from all over the world attending various ceremonies, it was fantastic to see so many people wanting to pay their respects. We had 1,800 visitors and 52 coaches on the1st July at Delville Wood, certainly kept us busy!  Sadly we didn't have any friends calling into see us as our village was in the middle of the security zone! On the positive side the bomb disposal squad actually came round for the first time in a few years and removed the various shells we had dug up in the garden, including the gas shell I'd called them about a dozen times! Now I need a week to recover!   Kiera
  14. Fay, I've used the manned booths a couple of times now with my pre-booked ticket, just to see if I could be moved onto an earlier crossing, never been a problem using them, got an earlier train once, the second time they wouldn't let me on any earlier.   Last time I got stuck on the tunnel, (a couple of weeks ago for 40 minutes)  the compensation was being able to come back an hour later than the return ticket stated - but only if you were on a daytrip, nothing for those of us going for a longer period. When I first started using the tunnel (shortly after it opened) on two occasions we were given (without asking or complaining!) return club class tickets as compensation for delays. My daughter misses the goody bags too! Kiera
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