Biggles87 Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 We are under one of the flight paths of the gru ( cranes ) which migrate to Spain for the winter and we usually see them in late autumn heading SW and again in spring heading NE for the summer. They make quite a lot of noise ( the bird equivalent of a Merlin to my ears ) and just lately I have heard but not seen them, until yesterday a large flock flew within sight of us heading SW! Do they know something we don’t, I know the UK media is talking of “ the beast from the east II “ and we’re used to cold January’s here but perhaps I should order more wood. John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 If the wildlife is on the move, then they most certainly know something is afoot. Incidentally, there all calls for people not to use wood burners. What should people do? freeze to death? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9105473/Asthma-charity-pleads-Britons-NOT-use-wood-burning-stoves.html 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 47 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said: If the wildlife is on the move, then they most certainly know something is afoot. Incidentally, there all calls for people not to use wood burners. What should people do? freeze to death? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9105473/Asthma-charity-pleads-Britons-NOT-use-wood-burning-stoves.html The same as everything else wood/coal/oil etc,it gets on my nerves... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Rather like shutting our coal fired power stations. They now run on wood chips. The trees are harvested and processed in the USA, railed to a port, using diesel, shipped on vessels burning heavy oil across the pond, then railed again using diesel, to the power station and burned. The calorific value of the wood chips is less than coal, so we need to burn more... Never mind all the mining jobs lost in the UK This, by the way is a Green Initiative! You really couldn't make it up. 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 1 hour ago, Biggles87 said: We are under one of the flight paths of the gru ( cranes ) which migrate to Spain for the winter and we usually see them in late autumn heading SW Yes a whole bunch of them flew over here about a month ago. Quite a site to see. 48 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said: If the wildlife is on the move, then they most certainly know something is afoot. Incidentally, there all calls for people not to use wood burners. What should people do? freeze to death? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9105473/Asthma-charity-pleads-Britons-NOT-use-wood-burning-stoves.html I think that most of rural France would freeze to death. We've got gas central heating, electric fires and a log burner. Put it this way, If we had to rely on the CH alone, it would cost a small fortune. Our first year here, we went through 2000 euros worth of gas, and that's just for heating, not hot water as well. So now we use a combination of all three. We run the CH for an hour in the morning, lunchtime and 30 minutes in the evening. Depending on how cold it is, the log burner goes on mid afternoon (mid morning if it's perishing). It means that there is at least one room in the house which is cozy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick4350 Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 5 hours ago, Biggles87 said: We are under one of the flight paths of the gru I'm looking forwards to The Rise of GRU in the cinema's later this year. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Though I haven't seen them yet this winter, there are some deer from across the street that like to eat the berries off my rowan tree in my front yard. There are also foxes and the occasional coyote roaming the street. That's just live up here, in the Great North Woods. Chris 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Nice photos. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 3, 2021 Author Share Posted January 3, 2021 Woke up this morning to about 1mm of snow, and it’s just started again. Our winter heating arrangements are similar to John’s ( @Bullbasket ) except we don’t have mains gas and our CH is oil fired, we didn’t have any choice at the time. Our wood burner is considered reasonably green as it has a ‘ double combustion’ feature which works like an afterburner, and a catalytic converter. When we eventually need to change the boiler we will go for one of the ( french ) pellet burning variety, I don’t like burning oil. John 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave S Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Just found this thread. I really envy you living there. If my wife and daughter would agree, we would absolutely move. I love France and the French people. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I think the cranes might have miscalculated, apparently Madrid has been hit with a heavy snowfall. Worst for 50 years. Storm Filomena. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Probably faulty ( head ) GPS. A few years ago we came across a field full of them at the side of the road, probably at least 200 of them. As we stopped to look they took of, circled a couple of times and headed south, except two who headed north following the road. We set off again and about 2 minutes later, two Grus passed us heading south! Very cold here at the moment, as I’m sure it is over most of Europe, and a couple of days ago our elderly neighbour told us he’d seen a dog around the local Ball Trap ( clay pigeon shoot ) range, which the local hunters use for practicing.We went to look and found a very dirty smelly Griffon type dog which the hunters use, which had obviously been sleeping under the hut at the range. She was very pleased to see us and willingly came with us so we took her to the local Vet to see if she was chipped, which of course she wasn’t, then the Marie to ask if anyone had reported her missing, no luck there either. She is posted on several web sites now and we have had one inquiry, but it is not her. At the moment she sleeps in a large cage which we used for our dogs when they were puppies, in my ‘Man Cave’ along with drying out horse rugs so it’s pretty ripe in there, but fortunately my sense of smell is not too good. We tried introducing her to one of our dogs, an 11 year old Golden Retriever who is very kind and non confrontational but she did not react well, so the prospects of keeping her if she remains unclaimed are not too good at the moment. We will give it a few more days to see if there is any response then we will try to find her a good home, she loves people but doesn’t seem too keen of other dogs which is typical of hunt dogs here. Stay safe everyone. John 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 John's @Biggles87@Bullbasket, I was going to ask you guys about winter temperatures where you are, I can see from your posts what the answer is, chuffing cold! Presumably, it's a bit milder closer towards the coast? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 10 minutes ago, Wez said: I was going to ask you guys about winter temperatures where you are, When we came over here, 16 years ago, I asked a neighbour (a Scot), what winter temperatures were like, and did we get snow in the region. His reply was that it hadn't snowed for more than four years, but that it could get cold. That winter, and every subsequent one for the next ten years, was freezing. We had snow every year, and lots of it, and one year we reached as low as -17 degrees. I have to say though that the last 4 or 5 years have been much milder, with very little snow. We live in a very flat, low lying area, about 2 hours from the coast.. John's (Biggles) temperatures are probably colder than ours. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Hi @Wez and @Bullbasket. The weather here is much the same, we are about 300m AMSL but it's not a lot colder. We often get snow in Jan Feb but mostly only 2-3cm and often it's gone by mid-afternoon on the day it falls. Like John, we had a pretty severe winter a few years ago but generally they're getting milder and wetter; which is not necessarily a good thing. Cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Oh, to live in such a warm climate! Though, this winter has been quite mild, with not too much snow and fairly warm temperatures. Unfortunately, they are predicting much colder temps in the next while. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 11, 2021 Author Share Posted January 11, 2021 It looks like our recent cold spell is coming to an end, I have to say that the novelty of filling water containers from a tap and carrying them to the stables begins to wear off after 5 days it's virtually impossible to keep a 20m long hose unfrozen. The horses have stayed in their stables for the last two days because the path to their nearest field has been frozen solid and rutted and has a short but fairly steep slope at the end so is too dangerous for a 33 year old horse. Today we've had some sun and the path to what we think of as the orchard, a small area with lots of fruit trees, most of which unfortunately are now dead or dying, had thawed out by 1600 so we decided to walk them down there and let them graze for a short time, while holding on to their lead ropes. While standing watching, I saw something out of the corner of me eye and turned to see a robin perched on a low branch, and as the horse moved to another patch of grass the robin flew down to inspect his hoof prints to see if anything interesting had fallen out of them. SWMBO and I watched this performance for about 10 minutes until we realised that we couldn't feel our feet and returned to the stables. John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 14, 2021 Author Share Posted January 14, 2021 I made an appointment for an anti-Covid vaccination on 03 Feb.this morning, the choice of date was mine as earlier ones were available. I managed to just slip in to the ' old and frail ' category, a friend in N. Wales who is the same age told me yesterday that he is not expecting one before April! We have managed to re-home the lost dog we found, she went to a retired couple about 100km away on Monday who fell in love with her at first sight, and as of yesterday things were going well. We were talking to the local farmer last week who told us that some of the smaller hunts were disbanding and some dogs were being abandoned. Stay safe everyone. John 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 21, 2021 Author Share Posted January 21, 2021 One of the less appealing aspects of living in rural France is the availability of broadband internet. Landline internet is not available at our end of the hamlet ( although it is at the other end! ) so we use WiFi which is pretty reliable and reasonably fast. Our sytem has just been updated to 5G compatibility but we've had to wait 4 days without any internet for our new arial to be fitted. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 One of our boys in Oliver Twist mode this morning He'd already been fed at 0700 but was hoping that by 0830 when this was taken we had forgotten. Nice try. Hope you're all staying safe. John 4 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 6 hours ago, Biggles87 said: He'd already been fed at 0700 but was hoping that by 0830 when this was taken we had forgotten. Nice try. That's horses for you! Dogs are the same too! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince1159 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 All i can say is thank gawd my cat doesn't have handles on his saucer!..... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 I had my first anti-Covid vaccination at 0915 this morning, very fast and efficient in and out in 25 minutes which included a 15 minute wait after the jab to make sure I didn’t fall over. I have an appointment for the second on 03 March so we seem to be going for 1 month intervals here. Stay safe everyone. John 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 I'll be lucky if I get my shot by this time next year. The vaccines ordered by our government from Pfizer in Belgium are way behind schedule and the manufacturing plant the government is building in Quebec won't even be finished until the end of this year. Not all of our healthcare workers have been vaccinated yet. Chris 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSG0 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 (edited) On 2/3/2021 at 12:11 PM, dogsbody said: I'll be lucky if I get my shot by this time next year. The vaccines ordered by our government from Pfizer in Belgium are way behind schedule and the manufacturing plant the government is building in Quebec won't even be finished until the end of this year. Not all of our healthcare workers have been vaccinated yet. Chris Just read that there is a supply bump/increase expected in April? should be in the news. Hopefully health care workers and seniors are prioritized. Since I am editing: I have always wanted to go to France and the Mediterranean. Ah if I could afford one of those 1$ dollar houses in one of those villages. We all know it costs more than a $1 to refurb. Edited February 5, 2021 by NoSG0 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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