Wildlife and me

Hoopoe

When you travel the lanes on a scooter you meet all sorts of animals. Buzzards are common, so too are grass snakes in the summer, some flat as they sunned themselves too long on the tarmac. I have seen praying mantises, frogs, stoats, herons, green woodpeckers, jays, and hoopoes to name a few. Most of these animals are viewed from behind as they flee from the scooter. This includes cats but not dogs!
The French have 2 sorts of dogs. There are hunting dogs. These are kept outside, often in small enclosures about  12 x 6 feet (is this because fence wire comes in snugly fitting 10m lengths?) with a concrete base. The others are pets. These are also kept outside but tend to have the run of the garden. Almost all of them bark wildly at scooters.
Barking does not hurt. Ok, one terrier made me jump as it snuck up to the gate unseen before it leapt at me. But in the main, I know who they are and what their trick is, so I am prepared! Usually they are behind gates and fences, and if they are out, they defend their territory up to the edge of the property. Not so the farms! You have to go into the farm to get to the box, so you are right in the dog's territory. One sheepdog spent the whole delivery period snapping at my heals. This can be unnerving as you try to concentrate on driving and depositing leaflets. I try to work on the theory that if the owner leaves the gate open, the dog is probably ok, however noisy.
But one dog is silent and completely free. No gate. No fence. And the box is just inside the edge of the property. This dog became more and more confident as it sniffed me out. Then one day I felt his teeth against my leg. No damage this time, but ever since the publicity has been rolled up and thrown into the drive as I pass. I wonder what the owners think?

Raspberries and Yoghurt

Today was a long day delivering publicity. Not because there was a lot of it to deliver, nor even because I needed to catch up - I was ahead on the day. No, it was just that the back wheel of the scooter exploded!
Now, we do have an aerosol tyre inflater and glue. It appeared to work at first but it was soon apparent that the tyre was too far gone for a quick fix. It limped home to the trailer and I swapped it for the other scooter at the depot - also with a badly worn tyre! All this cost me over an hour.
So it was a real pleasure to find that June had picked some fresh  raspberries  from our newly acquired 'potageur'. I had them with some Greek yoghurt. Lovely.

Anywhere blog

One thing about this blog format is that I can edit it from any computer, and from this laptop sitting in the living room which is better than retiring to the office.
And we can note the discovery of another Emmaus in Ruffec. As we arrived in good time for the gates opening, our acquaintances from Loubillé also arrived. We had not seen them for several weeks (see blog: French ambassador to Cuba). It should have been no surprise that their home here is their second one and that they had been away until now. Still, it is a good testimony for this Emmaus that they should be there for a specific item.
Quite a different sort of 'junk shop'- organised into sections with helpers at every one, even the books were categorised! When the gates opened the stampede rushed in and each was given a small piece of paper, each stamped with the Emmaus heading, for use how? as a bill for the checkout. I loved the interesting warning dotted round the place: Translated from the French it stated

'No naughtiness will be tolerated among the bric-a-brac'.

They take cash- oops! The train station had automatic machines, ticket machines, but at the other end of the road, hidden behind a tree, was a bank sign. The bank machine took my card very slowly. Then it continued to advertise its services culminating with 'please insert your card'! Ahh! I pressed 'abandon' but selected cancel. It asked me for my pin number and after proceeded normally. Phew. Emmaus was still on!

Aeroplanes

Today, as we came home from church, we saw a light aeroplane very slow and low over Loubillé. We were not aware of an airport in our village so we stopped a while and watched for smoke and flames. Thankfully there were none!

So we drove round to about where we saw it come down. And as we got closer we noticed a windsock. At the end of a field there were 2 planes - the one we saw and another, more modern, yellow single seater. Both were parked next to a car and a large shed that appeared to be a small hanger. All we need now is an air-traffic control tower (and customs I suppose) and Loubillé will become an international destination!

Fish and Chips in France

View from the end

The path ahead

You can get fish and chips here. Apparently there is a shop too, but we have not found it yet. The fish and chip van that we know was in Sauzé-Vaussais today so we slummed it. Still, slumming it by the nearby lake (plan d'eau) was hardly unpleasant. We even found the strength to walk round the lake afterwards. A lovely end to a warm day, and the sun was just going down too. 

The sun was just going down

The fountain at the far end
Just to prove we got there!

Ok, a blog spot- but you can also look here: blog.westobyweb.com.