SEPTEMBER

September is my favourite month of the year.

I spent a week of it in the UK where the weather was unusually kind.

Much as I enjoyed my week I was looking forward to getting to get back to France.  The Ryanair flight back was completely stress free.

I grumble about Ryanair but really shouldn't, without them we couldn't do what we do - live in two countries.

Yvonne was pleased to see me back home.

The double cushion trick is the way to a cat's heart.

Hugo has matured into a truly wonderful dog.

The September weather has been fabulous.

Warm days, cool nights and mornings, and plenty of sitting out.

The sunrises have been gorgeous.

The sunsets beautiful.

There has been plenty of deer activity - the brame is in full swing. 

We went to our favourite town, Chinon, for the afternoon.

Chinon never fails to enchant us.

We have passed an early evening or two enjoying life in the village square.

With the village pizzeria not yet re-opened after a change of ownership we went to Descartes to try the newish pizza restaurant there.

The pizzas were not great and we have read that the restaurant is about to close.

Making good pizzas is clearly harder than you might think.

Two gorgeous old cars were parked outside the salle des fêtes in our own village.

It was "Paella night", rescheduled from earlier in the summer.

It's usually an outdoor event with fireworks at the end of the evening but due to the successive heatwaves it was postponed to September.

Paella was served to a huge number of people.

It was an excellent evening, great food, lots of fun and fabulous fireworks.

With the cooler weather we fished the old Harleys out of the barn and went for a few rides.

I never thought I would still be riding my Harley at the age of 74.

Mine is 19 years old, his 22 years.  Almost vintage.

The band "Celtiqua" played their farewell concert at the Lavoir in Preuilly.

It was a bitter sweet event, great music from old friends but a sad goodbye.

The weather is looking good for the coming week and into October.

Long may it continue (although we really do need some rain).

When comfort food is more tempting I have earmarked this recipe for our courgettes:

https://www.ocado.com/recipes/one-pan-courgette-lasagne/3PNvJ4T7DIynBjWpm04ISQ

THE CATCHER AND THE EARRINGS

Well the tooth is gone.  Our UK dentist is marvellous.  His name is Michael and he's a very grounded, no nonsense kind of person and after a degree of fairly dramatic pushing, shoving and waggling, which seemed to last for ages but was probably only a few seconds, the tooth was out.

"Eee I am good" he exclaimed as he waved it in front of me.  I was pleased about that, as it meant that it had come out in one piece without the need for any digging, which had been my worry.  "Little bugger!" I said, looking at the bloody molar. (Literally.)

"You can faint now!" he said, with a cheeky grin.  He explained that many people get so worked up about having a tooth out that they faint once it's all over.  I can understand that, it's a pretty brutal business.  That's when it occurred to me why there were two dental nurses in the room instead of the usual one.  The taller one was probably there to act as catcher.  

Luckily I'm not the fainting type.  Anyway, I had to stay vertical in order to drive home.  I was back home only half an hour after leaving for the appointment.  Marvellous.

He gave me a leaflet about aftercare and some instructions saying that the socket would heal perfectly well.  "Things go wrong when people mess with it" he said.

However, I did feel a bit fragile and needed some paracetamol once the local anaesthetic had worn off.  Sitting outside in the shade at teatime I was glad for a visit from our robin who kept me company.

When we first moved to our second French house, when it was mainly a second home, I took my vast collection of beads there.  They rarely got used because we were there in summer when there were other things to do.  So we moved them back to the UK where I would happily tinker away with them over the dull winter months.

Now of course we spend the winters in France and my beads are still in the UK.  Having lugged them across the Channel twice, there and back again, and with the complexities of Brexit, I don't feel inclined to take them to France again but I do miss them.  Feeling rather battered and bruised yesterday afternoon I decided it was a good time to tackle one of the sorting jobs that's been on my mind for ages.  When we are only in the UK for a short time I often do little repair and alteration jobs and it inevitably involves rummaging through boxes without the time to tidy things up afterwards.  Hence a box full of random bits and pieces that needed sorting.  I tipped them all out onto the dining table and sorted them.  It was very satisfying in a mindless way that took my mind off the morning's drama.

And so I have been able to do some alterations to a friend's earrings.  She has three pairs that were a gift from someone and she loves them but the ear hooks make her ears sore.  She obviously has an allergy to nickel or whatever metal they are made of.  My idea was to change the gold coloured mounts for sterling silver ear hooks in such a way as to create the same length of drop or dangle.  That way she can still wear them without getting sore ears.  Playing with my beads again has been great fun.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing it.

AN EYE, A TOOTH AND A POP-UP

All over our part of France pop-up restaurants called "guinguettes" open for the summer months.

They are very popular often hosting musical evenings as well as serving food and drinks.  Our favourite is one calle "La Halle" at Boussay and a couple of weeks ago we went there to an excellent concert featuring the blues/rock singer Angie Palmer.

First the tooth story.  While Nick was in the UK at the end of April I started to feel a mild ache in one of my back teeth.  This tooth has been a problem for many years, three of its four cusps having been broken in the last ten years and the last repair was a big job.  My dentist in the UK said it might not last.

The toothache became more persistent so I popped into our dentist in Ligueil to ask for an appointment.  Even though I said I was in pain the earliest one they could give me was four weeks away, at the end of May.  Finding a dentist in France is not easy and we were relieved to become registered with one locally, thinking that if ever we were in trouble we had somewhere to go.  It seems we were mistaken.  What's the point of being registered with a dentist if they can't see you when you really need them?

The toothache became severe and our French GP prescribed strong antibiotics which settled it fairly quickly but I then developed an allergy to the tablets; a horrible rash and other symptoms.  It seems it is not uncommon to become allergic to penicillin later in life having never had a problem with it before.

Two days before my dental appointment was due the surgery phoned to cancel it and put it back another three weeks.  I was not best pleased and would have told them to stuff it if I had known how to say that in French.  I phoned my old dentist in the UK and they could fit me in much quicker than that.

A few days before I was due to fly back to the UK to see my old dentist Yvonne went missing one evening.  She is usually around us and not far away all the time so this was unusual.  When we went to bed we found her hiding in a corner with one eye clamped firmly shut.  She would not let me examine her but I could see blood on her face and she was clearly in pain.

We had a difficult night with her and in the morning took her to the vet.  She is not easy to examine and the lady vet who normally manages her (we call her the cat whisperer) was off duty so we had to leave her behind to be sedated and looked at later in the day.

I was worried that she might have been in a fight with the most recent visiting cat and that the eye was permanently damaged.  That would result in hard decisions having to be made.  Our previous cat Daisy had to have a number of serious operations for a tumour on her face and looking back we vowed never to put a cat (or dog) or us through all of that again.

When we collected her the vet showed us something like this that he had removed from her eye, an arrowhead grass seed.  No wonder she was in pain.  He gave us some antibiotic ointment to put into her eye twice a day, which was rather a challenge but within a couple of days the eye was fully open and her behaviour was perfectly normal.

The day before I flew back to the UK we went to La Halle hoping for a late lunch but the kitchen was by then closed.  Instead we had a delicious selection of local cheese and wine.

There was hardly anybody else there and the place was calm and peaceful.  We shall go more often.

Once back in the UK I was please to find the garden looking tidy and positively delightful.  How lucky we were when the previous neighbours (an odd couple) moved out and a young woman who is a gardener moved in.  She is doing a great job.

The day after I landed I saw my dentist who said the abscess is still present and prescribed a different kind of antibiotic to be taken for one week with an appointment to then have the tooth removed.  He said I won't miss it and I shall surely be glad to get rid.  I don't ever want to go through all of that again.

And so, with the cat now better and a plan in place to get my tooth dealt with I have been able to relax in our lovely little UK garden in fine summer weather - although feeling a little guilty that poor Nick is sweltering in France in the current heatwave.

A visit to the local charity shops has been fruitful.  These two cookbooks seem brand new and at £1.50 each real bargains.

A set of ten of these small glass dishes will come in very handy the next time I make lemon syllabub for a lunch or dinner party.  

SUBLIME TO RIDICULOUS!

Exactly one week ago we were sweltering in temperatures in the mid 30's.  The weather broke last Sunday and it has become cooler every day.  This is definitely the cause of mixed feelings!
 

At the very start of the heatwave - although I am not sure what the true definition of a heatwave is - we had invited some friends round for a bbq.  It was a truly sublime evening.  Sitting outdoors until after dark enjoying the company of good friends and good food, a perfect summer activity and it was still only the third week in May!

After that the temperatures climbed higher and higher with every day.  We were having to get up early to water our pots of plants outdoors before it became too hot to do it.  The pansies finally went over and have been replaced by geraniums.

Hugo spent the day lazing around wherever he could find a cool spot.

Yvonne went into high summer mode.

She didn't come into the house unless the air conditioning was on in the bedroom.

A friend used to say (and it was not his original idea) that there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.  This applied to Derbyshire weather as a coping strategy for wrapping up against the cold and wet.  We can do the same here but when it comes to sweltering heat there isn't much you can do about it except to give in, to stay indoors in the coolest place possible.  We have come to the conclusion that we have made the same mistake as other people who think they can beat the weather and carry on as normal.

On the very last day of the current heatwave we gave in, gave up on cooking and went out to lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, the Auberge de la Roche in La Roche Posay.  It was lovely and cool in their air conditioned dining room.

There were only two other tables taken.  It was the day before the French Mother's Day - Fête des Mères - and the restauranteur said the place was "complet" the next day.  In fact she could have filled the tables three times over.  She said that Fête des Mères and Paques (Easter Sunday) are the two days that get booked up well in advance.  While we were there she answered the phone many times and turned away disappointed people calling to see if there was a cancellation.  

From our table there was a view of one of the two huge hotels in La Roche Posay.  The town was one of the places where people could be sent to stay for a period of rest and recuperation.  This has not been available on prescription for a few years and as a result both of these fine old hotels have closed.  A sad sign of the times.

Our lunch taken from the "menu du weekend" was delicious.  The weekday "menu du jour" is not available on Saturday or Sunday but is always just as good.

A crab starter.

A fish main course.

A rhubarb and strawberry meringue dessert.

The next day, the Fête des Mères, the weather broke.  It was ten degrees cooler and much more "agréable".  Since then it has got cooler every day and we have had quite a bit of very welcome rain.  Now we want summer to come back, we are now after all into June!

ST SAVIN

This is the abbey at St Savin.

We visited it a couple of weeks ago with some friends.

We had returned to L'Ascenseur for lunch having enjoyed it so much the previous time (see here). Afterwards we decided to make a day of it and visit the abbey.  

It was a bank holiday but still not very busy.

I sometimes find Catholic churches a bit intimidating and unfriendly, especially if there are a lot of old paintings depicting violent scenes from the Bible.  This place is lovely, well worth a second visit (the previous time was two years ago with a different set of house guests) and a rewarding way to escape some of the heat on a very warm afternoon.