Chris

Last year I heard from a generally reliable source that the government was likely to extend the Auto Entrepreneur scheme in 2010 to include previously excluded 'agricultural' occupations such as running a nursery. Does anybody know whether this change in the AE scheme has taken place yet, or is still some way off actually happening, please?

It's not so much that Gardeners World is only for beginners now, but that when they try something more imaginative they so often get it wrong! My son, who is a professional horticulturalist, is regularly reduced to fury by the mistakes they make. He has reason to be upset, because people then turn up at his nursery and say they want to plant this plant in that position because 'that's what they said on Gardeners World'!  For an example, he and I watched the presenters being filmed buying an Arisaema on a stand at Malvern Show one year, only to see them plant it in full sun and the wrong soil in the programme the following week. Good nurseries offer a guarantee on their plants, but it all depends on the plant being treated properly: when GW gets it wrong, it is the trade that has to bear the brunt in terms of selling plants knowing that they will be wrongly planted, and that when they die the nursery will get the blame, if not the demand for a replacement plant or a refund!

I seem to remember that permission is not needed for a structure that is moveable/portable, but what is the definition of a structure that can be moved? Clearly my new garage needs permission, not least because its going on a concrete base(!), but what about these……?   I have two plastic tunnels 8ftx10ft: the only floor will be a layer of membrane, and the supports won’t be concreted in – are these moveable, since two people could pick one up and simply walk away with it?   I have a polycarbonate 6ft x 8ft greenhouse, which will have a floor of gravel over membrane – it could be carried away as easily as a tunnel once you pull out the ground pegs: moveable? Or fixed and therefore requiring permission?   And I have a couple of glass greenhouses – you’d need to take the glass out (which might take 4 hours), but then the frame could be moved just as easily as any of the other structures: moveable, or not?     I’m trying to do the right thing, but equally I don’t want to be making pointless applications for permission for things that don’t need them! Anybody got any experience of how these rules work please?

Would a letter from a previous employer (still in the trade, and currently linked with a nursery in France) be proof enough?

My grand plan for early retirement involves setting up a small nursery under the auto-entrepreneur system. I now discover that horticulture is a 'metier', for which I must register, on the standard 'metier' basis of either a qualification or three years experience in that work as a primary or secondary occupation. Qualifications are one thing (haven't got any!), but my big question is this - does the three years experience have to be the three years immediately prior to registration, or is it that you have been involved in that activity for three years at some point in your working life? I have experience in horticulture, but that hasn't been my area of work for the last few years. Would my previous experience qualify?   Any experience out there, please? Chris  

Go West, My Friend...... There are design standards for new Rectories (the 'Green Guide') - a house built to the standard should have room for at least one Elk head, and walls strong enough to support it (although taxidermy is not actually specified in the standards). Unfortunately the 'Green Guide' is only a guide, and seems to have been ignored in this area until recently! When our keen new inspector of parsonages rang up saying he'd like to come up and do an inspection we told him not to bother - we'd fold the house up and post it to him. When did arrive, he saw what we meant. The trouble is, these houses are all reaching their sell-by date at the same time, and repair bills are mounting year by year just at the moment when C of E plc finds itself most struggling for cash....[:(]

At least in those days a Rectory had enough space for a lion. Ours is a nasty 1960's plaster board and block bungalow, with barely space for a stuffed cat. Hanging 'George' on a plaster board wall required a feat of engineering skill on my wife's part when we moved here, in order to avoid creating an unexpected window in the dining room wall! George, by the way, is the head of a Canadian Elk - the rest of him proved good eating for my grandfather's family sometime in the 1890's - he was a big fella.   

Some varieties need more sun than others: for example Camellia sasanqua - scented flowers in autumn - benefits from sun in the UK. Water is a crucial factor with all types - if Camellias are too dry at the roots in summer the tiny flower buds will drop off at that formation stage, resulting in no flowers at the next season. Chris

Why do we always move at the worst times of the year for our plants?! Assuming they are mature plants, which were planted  properly in the first place....moving tree peonies at this time of the year is first a matter of avoiding root damage. Peonies have two kinds of root - the fine white actual roots, and the thick (and brittle) food store type roots. You need to get them up carefully, not disturbing the white roots more than you can avoid. The food stores do tend to break, but the plant can recover and rebuild them.  Plant asap in the new location, well watered, but not sitting in water which might rot damaged roots.  Reduce transpiration by judicious pruning, and yes, they shouldn't be allowed to flower this year. Shade from hot sun will be especially important this year while they re-establish. How hardy are they? Depends a bit on the species. The garden centre norm will probably be a grafted Japanese hybrid (these can require special attention when planting if they are to survive long-term), or sometimes a Chinese hybrid (more likely to be on own roots). These are known as Paeonia suffruticosa hybrids, and are quite hardy in much of Britain - they form buds very early, so are vulnerable to frost damage - avoid a frost pocket, or early sunshine from the east if you can. Other species are rarer - the toughest is the rather expensive Paeonia rockii, with its hybrids known collectively as Gansu Mudan, which compensate for environment by creation vast root-systems. Wonderful!

The problem with replanting peonies too deep tends to be that they will produce leaves but not flowers. It's easily done - plant them at what looks like the right depth in nicely cultivated soil, and as the soil settles with rain etc they will first sit in a puddle (which they hate!) then end up too deep.  'Tree Peonies' of the grafted variety are a different matter altogether, but that's another story..... Chris

Yes, or the one which proved that Google is as good with Welsh as it is with French. In the Vale of Glamorgan the translator was away, so the writer of the temporary sign at the road works told cyclists to dismount and use the pavement, but in the Welsh version produced using Google warned cyclists that they had a bladder infection.....[Www]

Thank you all - I'd tried the Google route and found out about the internet meaning, clearly I'm destined to open an internet cafe instead of a nursery. (Someone advised me to do ferret breeding: I had 2 for £20 here, but they were 195 euros each in the Gamme Verte in Loudeac.)  Most Celtic names mean something, but you need to get it right. There was a lovely play on the radio a few years ago about a London family who bought a Welsh house called Pant Mawr ('Big Valley'), but misread it and put up a house sign reading Cant Marw ('100 Deaths'), and wondered why everybody laughed at them!

We think we might be buying a house in Brittany, but the agent can't tell us the meaning of the name. It's right on the border between the Breton and Gallo speaking areas, so might have roots there. At the house it's written LESCODEC, but on the map it's written LESCODUEC. Any ideas, please? Please tell us especially quickly if it means 'radioactive dump', or 'gloomy, damp, suitable only for English buyers'!

Thank you - I struggled to find anything through 'search'! Chris

As a potential buyer, I've noticed a few private sellers returning to the UK who say they are willing to accept most of the money in sterling. The advantages of avoiding a double currency exchange are very clear, and should obviously be reflected in the price to be paid, but I still have questions. Apart from the obvious one of is it legal(!), what proportion of the money must still be paid in euros, and at what stage in the process? Does paying in sterling raise any special complications? How does the process work, since I thought the money had to pass through the accounts of a notaire in France? All ideas gratefully received! Chris

You're quite right - I stand corrected on the date, which I quoted from (faulty) memory. It has been suggested that I could ride on the back of my other half's E121 if I did need to take early retirement on medical grounds myself, but what happens if that is withdrawn (say) 6 months after we move over - if they are going to complete the changeover by 2013, then obviously they are going to start it well before then, but I doubt if they will give out a timetable. So we could be left up a creek - unless the French Govt allows the operation of UK Govt policy to count as an 'accident de vie'?! Don't get me wrong - I don't disagree that there has been widespread abuse of IB over the years - it's just that the vulnerable seem to be the ones who often get targeted and bullied when they want to cut down on Social Security spending. The concept of the new system makes sense, it's just the incidental effect that says that even if a person is admitted by the DWP as clearly too ill to work, they still can't go abroad and take their health cover with them.

Interesting reply, thank you. DWP has stated an intention to move existing IB claimants on to ESA by the end of 2010, which, while not close enough to cause panic, isn't that remote either. Purely personally, the new situation has certainly led me to ponder my medium-term plans again. Here is the dilemma - my house comes with my job, so any medical retirement would make me homeless. I can just about afford a small house in France, but without an E121 I can't go and live there!  Of course private medical cover wouldn't be possible, because my medical condition makes me hard to insure, and anyway I couldn't afford it out of a disability pension - especially if the UK government denies me any benefit as well as an E121!  Complicated?[:(]

Agreed - and presumably there is an equally logical difference between those who cannot work for a period, and those who will never be able to work again.  The trouble is, of course, that this latter distinction may only become clear over a period of years.  The Disability Alliance handbook on this new benefit states the following pretty baldly: 3. Presence in Great Britain To be entitled to ESA, you must be in Great Britain (GB). Great Britain means England, Wales and Scotland. You can, however, continue to be entitled to ESA during a temporary absence from GB in the circumstances set out below. WRA, S.1(3)(d) That seems to suggest that NOBODY can export this benefit. The DWP leaflet lists (very limited) possibilities for temporary absence while receiving the allowance, but says nothing about permanent moves within the EU.  Of course this is logical for the people assigned to the 'Work Related Activity Group', who will be expected to undertake regular supervised exercises aimed at getting them back to work, but the 'Support Group' (i.e. the seriously unwell) are not expected to undertake any activity which requires them to be where the DWP can keep a close eye on them.....

OK, then, I'll reply to myself.... Having spent an evening reading the paperwork, it seems clear that ESA can only be paid if you remain in the UK, so that even those found too disabled to take part in any kind of work related activity still lose the allowance if they leave the UK. Presumably no ESA = no E121, so is the E121 now extinct except for those over pension age?  The provisions of ESA initially apply only to new claims since October 2008, but Government policy is to progressively transfer people on existing Incapacity Benefit to ESA, so even those currently on this will lose both income and (presumably) E121 entitlement by the end of 2010 unless they return to live in the UK. Unless I've missed something, here is an almost  incidental change which could seriously disrupt the lives of those currently relying on E121 for health cover while living in France, for whom private medical cover is unobtainable owing to pre-existing health problems. Please, somebody, tell me I've got this wrong, or is this another pending crisis for those who thought that being EU citizens actually meant freedom to live where they chose?  Don't get me wrong, I've no time for dodgy claimants using the tax-payer to subsidise their life in the sun, but this seems an unfair way to treat the genuinely disabled. Somebody tell me I'm wrong! Chris

I know it's early days, but I'm wondering if anybody has had any experience yet of bringing this new benefit (replacing Incapacity Benefit) from the UK to France?  Reading the philosophy with which it was introduced, it would seem difficult to export it and still co-operate with all the processes designed to encourage the more able back to work, but surely they haven't found a new way of preventing the legitimately long-term sick from receiving benefits for which they have paid?  Any experiences so far on how the new system is affecting people moving to France? Chris

I did hear of a divorce in England where the wife cited as mental cruelty her husband's habit of putting her mother's ashes in their pot in the bay window, then whistling 'abide with me' while opening and closing their rather posh curtains using the string and pulley mechanism she had insisted they needed.....[6]

Interesting - but confusing! Oil? Did my dad OK - he worked for an oil company which promised him a pension for the rest of his life after he had completed 15 years with them. He began receiving that pension in 1952.......  I do appreciate both the advice, and the kindness with which it is being offered. Chris

Thank you, both, for your advice. Having spent my life with no money, it's a strange new feeling having money to invest - although we'd rather still have the source of the funds still living, as he'd know what to do! He was reading a book on quantum physics last Christmas night, saying 'I must be getting old, I've had to read that twice to understand it' - not bad for two days before his 98th birthday!  Mind you, in a moment of Euro-optimism we did find he'd bought Channel Tunnel Shares 30 years ago - these have cost more to dispose of than they were worth. No, my brother isn't intending to join in this purchase, just me and 'she who is to be obeyed' - so only the usual complications, fortunately. Chris

What would you do in our situation? We've managed to sell our inherited UK property (whoopie!), and plan to buy in France in 2009 using the bulk of our slice. In the meantime, if you were us, where would you put the dosh?  In a UK high interest a/c but with a 'forward contract' with a currency dealer? In a UK based euro savings account? Any other ideas? Nothing dodgy, please - especially offers to invest it on our behalf in South American business propositions... My brother intends buying a Purdy (never been known to depreciate!) and using it to defend the rest of his money converted to Krugerrands and stored in socks under his bed - is this what you would do?  All ideas/comments welcome - we're new to this! Chris

[quote user="mooky"] I used to have some road rage in UK and put two fingers up to some bad motorists, until my Bishop told me quite rightly, it wasn't becoming for a priest to do that. So I did the blessing sign instead, which would have peed me off more, if I had been the recipient. [/quote] The Bishop was quite right about appropriate gestures. I've always found that raising my biretta (note to non clergy by the way - it's a hat not a gun) as the miscreant goes by causes them to gawp rather too long, meaning they then have to try very hard to avoid the oncoming lamp post or car.  Deeply satisfying.[6] Chris