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DorothyJ

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Everything posted by DorothyJ

  1. The thermometer in the sun was 52 degrees this afternoon before my husband removed it in case it exploded. 35 degrees in the shade and we are only in the loir area 49/72!
  2. I can see no problem with the 90 degree elbow into the liner, just the visual element if the liner is on view. Peter
  3. We laid old terre cuite in our kitchen  (around 1000) about five years ago. When we took up the concrete floor it had been originally laid with terre cuite but they couldn't be saved so some of the tiles came from the floor above the sous a cochon and some we bought locally. We live  4 kms from Les Rairies where the tiles were originally made and the chap at Yvon Cailleau  gave really good advice on both laying them and aftercare. I cleaned them thoroughly first, then I used a polish from this company which seals the tile but is not shiny (just a slight sheen) and is non-slip. I try to do a thorough clean and apply more polish once a year but  wash over regularly with savon noir, especially in front of the sink and cooker. 'Regularly' may be a bit of  an exaggeration but I do my best! It does get a lot of traffic as we all traipse through with shoes and wellies, especially when it is dry but it is very forgiving!  I think the tiles are beautiful,they  look as if they had always been there and in winter around the Villager they are really warm to walk on (no central heating).
  4. Thankyou Jay for the article. One suggestion was to water an area with diluted washing-up liquid, so Pete was able to tread on 3 of them. I had tried to drown them with the hose down the holes but that didn't work, just flooded the lawn, so I think we might resort to the w/up liquid and eliminate as many as we can.
  5. Naaaah not the Daarzet mole cricket ze   méchant scarabée qui a fait des grands trous!                             
  6. Thankyou for that I have re-looked at the cricket and identified it as a mole cricket. No wonder our lawns and paths have loads of bare patches as they are root eating insects. Anyone know how to get rid of them please?
  7. Can anyone please tell me what this insect is. We have holes all over our lawns and grass paths. The holes are between 15mm to 20mm dia. and at least 150mm deep although I haven't tried poking anything longer down them. The insect comes out head first and if startled reverses back down. It has 6 legs, the 2 hind legs are longer than the front and middle ones and its a dark brown colour. We have had them for several years but they now seem to be multiplying.
  8. Like Benjamin, we are withdrawing our money out of  Nationwide as and when it suits us. We have already moved the instant access savings account from them to another company and when our substantial ISAs come up for re-investment in July we shall look again for another bank or BS. We have pensions paid  weekly into Nationwide which I then transfer to another, apart from a few pounds. So I hope they are really fed up with us just as I am with them. We live in England but spend a great deal of time in France where we have a house - plus spending time in Sweden where our daughter and grandchildren live. I am doubly cross with N/wide as we started out as Portman BS members which was local to us and we always found them really competitive but they sold out to Nationwide and that was that. We now use Caxton, adding to it when the rate seems reasonable;  not much chance of that at the moment!
  9. I am so sorry to have troubled you.
  10. Does the Norwich and Peterborough pay the day's bank rate as Nationwide used to do? Having ditched Nationwide on principle, I would love to find a BS offering the same deal. Thanks
  11. I could not find my barclays card reader but I had one from Nationwide. I put in my details for Barclays and I was so pleased to find it worked for both!
  12. We have an Everhot on order which I hope will be delivered week beginning 22nd Feb. Can't wait! We visited their place in Glos and were really impressed with the cooker - we are having a 100i ( which includes an induction hotplate) and hope that not only  will add a little heat to our kitchen in winter but will mean I can get rid of the microwave/conventional small oven I use at the moment . We installed a Villager A flat woodburner about 3 years ago which I  use constantly in winter. Fantastic for anything in a saucepan and for keeping food warm but it doesn't have an oven. I love my Villager and hope the Everhot will live up to expectations. We don't have central heating just the A flat and another Villager in the living room. It's plenty warm enough but you do need to be in good health to keep them both fed!
  13. Serve fig chutney with the  foie gras. A chef friend of ours gave us some of his home made foie gras with a small dish of fig chutney as a christmas present one year.
  14. I will try and take a photo. Actually my girls are really athletic as they perform the same trick on the Himalayan Honeysuckle when the berries arrive. Unfortunately they crush the flags which are growing underneath the shrub as they crash down on to them. Completely spoilt - I mean the chickens!
  15. We have 2 fig trees which are only a few years old but we are still struggling to use them all. BUT the chickens are helping out - the low growing figs are easy but it takes  quite a bit of athletic jumping to reach those a little higher up! My husband reckons it keeps them fit!
  16. Make some fig chutney to see you through the winter. Absolutely delicious! Dorothy J
  17. We use around 4/5 cordes a year and have seen the price climb steadily. Our local woodyard charges 50€ per stère (1m long)  for bois dur (oak and beech) delivered locally.Order before 30th September for delivery by the end of October and receive a 5% discount.  We have  just bought 2 cordes of oak x 1 m at 150€ corde from a local chap. Our woodburners take 50cm logs so all of the above have to be cut but buying at 50cm puts the cost up by 5€ stère. So, for us, the extra work is worth it!
  18. I have been searching old posts to glean some information about grease traps and this topic seems to be the most relevant. So... We had a fosse toutes eaux installed 2 years ago and cleaned out the bac à graisse about 6 months ago. It had a thick crust of grease but after removing it we were able to gently run clean water through it and there was nothing else. Having opened it up today we found a small amount of grease floating on the top, lumps of something which looks suspiciously like congealed washing powder and on the bottom of the bac a layer of sludgy silt. Can someone please tell me - 1. should I be much more careful of the type of washing powder I use. 2. Is this sludge normal (having not seen any last time) and, as written in a previous post,would scooping it out take us back to a clean bac? Also, what cause the sludge? 3. What precautions should we take to ensure we treat the fosse with respect? Would welcome any advice. Dorothy PS It's the royal we, Im the one doing the encouraging!
  19. I don't know of any residential courses for spinning in France, but it is not a difficult thing to pick up. There would be an expense in buying a wheel and either buying wool already carded ready to spin (or the slow way with a pair of hand carders). It is not a difficult thing to do. I taught a 13 year old visitor to spin which she picked up very quickly - but she did spend a week practicing before leaving! This forum might help and it has an English section:- http://forum.tricofolk.info/forum
  20. I am left-handed and have no problem whatsoever with any crafts. My mother taught me to knit, so I knit like a righthander; she also taught me to crochet but here I do it with my left hand. She was just patient and sat with me while I practiced until I was confident on my own. I also enjoy spinning, embroidery, bobbin lace and tapestry. For these it does not matter which hand you use! Ask her what she would be keen to do and go for that one.
  21. We come from near Wimborne and Chez Fred fame has reached the rural areas as it has the reputation of being the best for miles around! Next time we go home we shall try it even though it is a good 30 mins to Stur Marshall!
  22. How? BBC iplayer always tell me I cannot listen/view because I am not in the UK. I haven't the faintest idea how to deal with this. I would love to be able to watch programmes I otherwise miss.
  23. I do not know how the private & NHS hospitals work together and who decides which hospital a patient is allocated to. Pete was monitored for 4 years at Poole hospital, passed on in December for further tests at Bournemouth but only Southampton could carry out the operation. I presume the private hospital could offer a place sooner than the NHS. But I think either hospital would have performed equally well as the team of surgeons work in both.An intensive care nurse told Pete that she used to work in the local NHS hospital where the cardiac facilities were 'state of the art' and equal to those he experienced. She felt the only difference between the two, apart from better pay in the NHS, was that she was no longer rushed off her feet but had more time to care for patients. Our experience at all 3 hospitals has been very positive and I feel so sorry that this is not so for everyone who needs treatment. Its a sorry state when you can't go into any hospital confident that you will get the best care possible.
  24. I thought i would update all you kind forum members who really helped back in November. I can only praise the NHS in our area. Dec 4th came and my husband needed an angiogram which happened on the 23rd showing that the valve must be changed. Operation was set for 16th January and today I brought him home. He went into the private hospital in Southampton (where 75% of patients are NHS) on the NHS so was really lucky to have his own room and unlimited visiting for me. The operation was a great success and all the staff were fantastic. Only one downside the food was appalling but that was the least of our worries. Now we are impatient to get back to France but will have to wait for all the post-op checkups. Now maybe we can get sorted with our French residency.
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