Chocolate

When we came to France, we were advised to try to use local businesses for our needs in order to support the local economy in which we lived. We have done that, and I must say have not come adrift yet. Advice, help, support and products bought have been appropriate for each task we have undertaken and results have been quick and satisfactory. Whilst I have from time to time read the 'swimming pool' section of the forum,  I don't think that information found there has benefited me more than talking to local people, (businesses and other people who have had pools for many years ), once we found the time to persue answers to our problems with them. So far, as I say, we have been very satisfied by local help. We had been advised/thought that it was time to change the sand and I had remembered the zeolite suggestion by yourself to others in the past, came back to the forum and used the search facility. I  wondered what advantages zeolite might have when no-one else locally had suggested it to me. Also I Googled after my last post and came up with yourself as the supplier (which is clearly why no-one else had suggested it), and full details of the product and of zeolite in general, which is really what I should have done before I posted here in the first place. Thank you for your replies, but we have decided that good though others think your product is, we shall for the moment go back down the re-fill sand route.  I am sure that many people have benefited from your expert advice and visits to their pools and will continue to do so. 

Our posts crossed! Thank you. Will try your advice. It does rather point to the compost. My neighbours used it for Petunias so as they seem to like water perhaps that it why they haven't had problems. (And they are more knowledgeable than me given they have lived all their 80 years here.)

To add - thank you Russethouse also for the links. Really useful. 

Ah! A good idea, thank you. I had wondered about the compost. It does seem to be very 'peaty' and water-retentive. What can I do in that case? Is it too late to re-pot even if I could still get 'geranium' compost ?

Thank you for the replies and especially to Poolguy. The advice he gives to all freely is much valued. However, I was looking for a closer supplier than one in the Charante Maritime if possible. Is zeolite specially imported and/or only sold by Poolguy's company? It sounds just like a generic substance and hopefully should be available from a number of sources. A 'pool' shop? A specialist grit or gravel supplier? A builder's merchants ( just like building sand or cement) ?  Information from a non-customer of Poolguy (my apologies Poolguy. Nothing personal) who lives in the Midi Pyranees  would be helpful. Many thanks in advance.

I bought a number of geraniums (Pelargoniums) from a range of sources this year; local market, 2 different nurseries and a branch of a large specialist gardening chain. The compost was for bedding plants in general and was sold on the basis of buy 2 get one free from the last place. I was able therefore to give the third free bag to my elderly French neighbours. However, over the last two months I have steadily lost plants. They all fit a pattern. The leaf edges flop into their centres, then the whole leaf goes yellow and limp, then brown then die. With the steady loss of leaves the flowers are small, brown and also die. Then the plant has had it basically. When I pull gently the plants come easily out of the pot and none of them seem to have made a root system. Some of them did make some sort of growth above the compost but it doesn't seem to have made a difference. There are two sets of plants, one set at the back of the house and one set at the front. One set gets morning sun the other set gets early afternoon to sunset sun. To make matters worse, the plants I over-wintered last year and were strong, large, green and covered in flowers seem to be going the same way. I have fed the plants weekly with a well-known liquid fertiliser for flowering plants. Is this a compost problem? A watering problem, (it has been so wet here earlier on as everywhere)? A feeding problem?  Is it a virus/insect/mould problem? I can't see anything obviously visible. Help please someone before I lose all my plants.    

We are unsure of the age of the sand in our filter so we think that next year we should change it. It looks as if zeolite could be a sensible option according to the posts we have read on this site.   What have other people asked for, (zeolite presumably?), in what type of suppliers do we get it and what is the probable cost please?  We prefer to support local businesses if possible.

Yes I knew about the wallpaper paste trick. It's good and really does work if there are a few unwanted plants of any kind. However, there is an awful lot of this stuff. I think the best bet might be a mixture of your ideas - crush it underfoot, then spray thoroughly on both sides of the leaves, especially so on their undersides and along the stems. I will let you know if it works. Thanks everybody.

kill ground ivy please? It has spread over large areas in our neglected garden, especially under lowgrowing shrubs so is a real pain to get rid of it,. It takes hours to pull it all up and there is the big risk of leaving parts of the roots which are brittle, to sprout again. In England I unsucessfully used Tumbleweed and Roundup; if used as usual, the liquid ran off the leaves. I did try it mixed with an oil, also paraffin to make it stick but all that happened was that the sprayer nozzle clogged up at a rate of knots. I never did find the answer in England. Is/are there knowledgeable people out there who have found the answer. I would like to wave goodbye to Ivy !!!

Thanks Dick. I clicked on your link and saw that they have been sighted for quite a while. Sorry. I was so excited as thet were the first we had seen here in the Lot this year. I now realise that the coming and going is not so concentrated as I had at first thought. Thanks for the helpful info. Spring please hurry up. We are all sick of the rain now.

They're here! A loud 'burbling' noise heard above the roof, a quick dash outside and there they were, at 20 minute intervals. Skeins of Cranes flying from the South. Northwards into a stiff wind. Are they the first sighted? Or have other people seen them too? Am I the first?

Thank you again for the help. I had heard of the 'pink paint' problem when emulsioning the walls and ceiling. Nightmare! However, my problem is with paint for the woodwork. Teamedup - we went looking this afternoon for the paint you mentioned. We found a Dulux paint in satin and realised that 'cristalline' was the colour. The tins we found were in Bricomarche. There were several small tins and two 2.5 litre tins in that colour and that was all. It seems to be suitable for walls and woodwork so were not sure if we had the right paint. On looking through the new Dulux paint catalogue we couldn't find the colour cristalline, so if you want to use it again perhaps it would be wise to get it sooner rather than later. By the way, was the acrylic undercoat that you used  French or Brit?  Good luck

A really quick reply!Thank you. Did you use a special undercoat please? Where do we buy the crystaline and / or undercoat? The usual brico place or is it especially for the trade?

Please can anyone tell us what the difference is between two types of paint. One is called 'Glycero' and the other is called 'Acrylic'. We assume they are for different situations? Our sejour is covered with chunky crepi and needs to be painted as it is a horrid dirty white. Do we use acrylic or do we use glycero? Emulsion seems to come in both types, especially in the huge tubs containing the amount we need.

Thank you for those replies. Really helpful. Yes, we are painting over pale grey and in one case pale pink woodwork put on over 30 years ago. It is sound and not chipped, but really irratating that the French top coat  seems off colour once white or a pale emulsion is painted on the walls next to it. I read the Wickes recommendation, but as it can be difficult for us to get Brit paint now is there a French acrylic undercoat which is as good? A gloss as good for the top coat also? If not, then we will have to wait until visitors drive over to us. Thank you once again to those who took time to reply.

Over the last year I have been steadily painting the walls and woodwork in the house. However I have not been able to solve an irritating problem colour-wise. Does anyone know of a French paint for wooden doors and windows which is truly white please? White when against white walls especially. We have used several types by Dulux Valentine (French) in both white gloss and satin finishes but the result is always a funny colour. The final straw has come with our kitchen. We want the walls to be white so painted them with DV matt white emulsion. The newly painted woodwork immediately appeared to be grey so we re-emulsioned with white (British) Dulux matt paint brought over by a Brit friend. The paintwork then appeared to be a very pale pink against it, so we tried another French DV white gloss paint on the woodwork and it is still very very discoloured. It seems a greyish colour where we use it in other parts of the house so it is not a trick of the light in the kitchen. We have tried 'blanc' and 'blanc de blanc' around the house and the result is never white. As we are using white, cream and pale (very) emulsion on the walls for various rooms we need to solve the problem and save energy constantly re-doing work already done.  

Sorry. Thanks to Lesponts too! Brain's having a relaxed week end.

Thank you for the ideas. Yes, a really good site, Cassis. I'm off to order. I can see how much safer they are, and really simple to use.

I have been stocking up on the fat balls as they became available in the shops this Autumn. A few each week has not broken the bank. Last year I hung them from the trees on purchased feeders. These are terracotta things with a circular hollow all round to collect water and a hook underneath to hang the ball from in their nets. They were brilliant last year and gave us much pleasure. Now however, reading the above posts, it is better to remove the netting from each ball. Sounds sensible, but how exactly do/should I put the balls out for the birds? Advice please.

I am absolutely staggered at the wealth of scientific information, speed and helpfulness of everyone who replied to my query. The result is that I have done it! The barometer is 'set'. A combination of the info posted on here and another google search resulted in a quick and speedy outcome. A chap called Dr. Giles Harrison from the Dept of Meteorology at Reading University wrote a paper which is on the 'net giving details which backed everyone else up on here. I simply looked on meteo.fr as advised (thanks), used the calculations given here and by Dr. Harrison and with a calculator (!) had set the barometer in less than 5 minutes. Thank you everyone for your time, help and wisdom.

Does anyone know what ceiling coving is called in France please? Also where we could get it. Can only find the polystyrene stuff. We want the paper covered plaster (Gyprock we think) type. Would they sell the special glue too? The visible gap between the walls and the ceiling will take a long time to fill down our corridor otherwise.

We had our chimney swept the week before a woodburner was professionally installed last October. The stove was in use solidly until April when the weather warmed up enough to let it go out. Two weeks ago I thought it time to prepare it for the new season. The ashes were scraped out, the ash-pan completely emptied and the hoover sucked up the mess made. To my horror it also began to lift a tiny part of the small blankety thing inside the top of the stove. I put my hand in, felt around and gently removed the chunks of black clinker/tar and lifted the blanket from inside with a view to putting it back in smoothly. However the corners were thoroughly burned and beginning to disintegrate. We panicked and rushed off to the supplier in Cahors. She insisted that the blanket must never be removed, (hers had not been for 5 years) and the chimney must be swept three times in the burning season if used all the time. We were flabbergasted to say the least. Firstly that the blanket was OK ( it was burned for goodness sake!) and that the chimney was to be swept so often. Nowhere does it state this in the instruction booklet, nor were we told when it was installed, ( we are almost certain) and no-one else we have asked has it swept so often. She also firmly stated that we must not use the stove until it has been swept. We now await the arrival of the chimney sweep! We asked her if we could do some of the sweeping ourselves and she stated that the rods and brushes system available in the shops  was OK, but only if the brush was plastic, (for the tube up our chimney). A French neighbour says he thinks the cost of the professional is worth the fuss his wife makes if he sweeps theirs himself. The hoover is even used in the upstairs bathroom and he swears she would vacuum the loft if able! He /it can't really be so messy can it?

I am not sure if this is the correct part of the Forum to post this message, but hope someone will be able to help me please. I have an old Edwardian aneroid barometer which we recently brought from England. It was bought in an antique shop some years ago, but 'set' by the local clockmender who knew what to set it at for the part of England we lived in. It has 'worked' very well for many, many years.  Clearly this setting is not applicable now we have moved to France. Can anyone tell me how to find someone who will know where to turn the pointer to please?   The circular dial, (think of the so-called 'banjo' barometers) has numbers around it ranging from 26 to 32 with incremental markings in between to measure in 10 small divisions each time. Outside these is the usual dry, wet, change etc. words. The pointer is changed via a small screw in the back, turned by a small screwdriver. This is a gold-coloured setting pointer which only moves when the screw is turned. There is another black one which moves according to the changing pressure and gives the reading. If there is no-one such as a clock repairer who does this, can we sort it out ourselves? Is there a way of working out the setting as I believe it has something to do with how high we are above sea-level. That is shown on the local 'blue' map for walkers I think but we do not know how to use the information to set the barometer. All help/info welcomed. Thanks.

We have been given so much conflicting advice about winterising a pool that we are dizzy. The question we need correct advice on is do we lower the water and try to empty the pipes and pump for the winter? We have put the large green winter cover on it. When we moved in in the winter of 2005, this was how we found it, but the house had been empty for over 2 years. Last winter the pool was left uncovered by us as the son of the professional who installed it would not come until November, by which time all the able-bodied help for pool-covering had returned to England. It took 7 weeks of daily hoovering and chemicals to get clear water this Spring, apart from evicting the 42 frogs we found. (Honestly.) What a mess. The chap wanted to charge 42,000 euros to make the pool smaller (we had not asked for this), and to cure a leak and was not at all interested in helping us until this coming November. We politely said goodbye to him. Our pool is outdoors, in the ground and was made on site, we think of resin or fibre-glass. It was made about 30 years ago and measures 17m X 13m in the shape of a stretched hexagon ( or a coffin!). It has a diving end of about 3m in depth and we work on a capacity of approx. 200 cubic metres for chemicals. It is a chlorine pool with 3 skimmers at the diving end and 4 nozzles for re-entry of the filtered water at strategic places around the walls. The whole thing is cleaned by a sand filter and a pump in the sous-sol of the house at a little distance from the pool. One of the refoulement pipes was clearly leaking and water pumped into a downstairs room so a friend blocked this nozzle in the pool until we can dig in the lawn to find where the pipes run and so find a leaking split or join. I know  the pool is a monster, but it came with the house. A neighbour (French) insists that he runs his pump each night all winter for an hour just to keep the chemicals circulating under his green winter cover. Is that a good idea instead please? What happens when the temperature drops to -12 degrees or more as it does here? Frozen pipes full of water and more splits? If we drop the water to skimmer level or below, how do we empty the rainwater build-up without sucking air into the pump? Surely it would mean filling the pipes and pump with water again to do this? This is just one example of advice. We have had lots of others by friends and aquaintenances. Does anyone know how we can find reliable professional advice? We really do need sensible, knowledgeable help soon before the cold weather sets in or we will be forced to put water-lilies in it and call it a pond!

Thank you Christine for the informative reply and thank you for the time and trouble to info-search. My apologies for the seeming many questions, but they do seem sensible to me. Your advice is good and we shall visit our vet to begin the process. We no longer have a British address and would be visiting our daughter or friends. I do like to cover all angles and am a born worrier. Do hope my questions and the informed replies will help others. This site has taught us so many things about life in France.