noelh Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 In our previous house, we had a fox who visited. It was great. But we moved and while it's closer to a rural area I haven't seen any. It's a more upmarket area, yes, I can say that smugly particularly since I came from nothing.😀 But no foxes, lots of birds but no foxes. It's a pity. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 Hunting season again here, but strangely quiet so far, I don’t suppose it will stay that way for too long. A friend who has horses said they were all over his fields last weekend, very dodgy at the beginning of the season when they tend to shoot at anything that moves without looking to see what’s beyond! John 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 Arrived a couple of hours ago in NE Spain for 10 days, a hotel which SWMBO first came to as a child, and which we have been coming to every few years since we were married. We took turns driving and I got the peripheric around Toulouse which can be quite challenging but was relatively easy this time, like the M25 on a quiet day. SWMBO drew the section between Narbonne and Perpignan which always seems to have lots of trucks and today strong cross winds made some of the manoeuvres of said trucks and towed caravans quite exiting. Fortunately that part of the motorway is three lane so it’s possible to give things a wide berth when overtaking. Happy days John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 Enjoy your break away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 15 minutes ago, Biggles87 said: We took turns driving and I got the peripheric around Toulouse which can be quite challenging If it's anything like the Paris peripheric, you have my sympathies. Hope that you both enjoy your stay. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 It’s a sort of junior version of Paris. We came east-about this time which is shorter than west-about, which was the way we went last time going home for some reason. SWMBO was driving that time and it was raining heavily, she was not amused! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 16 Author Share Posted September 16 Breakfast on the terrace again this morning, it’s a hard life. There is a roof which runs just below the southern edge of the terrace and every morning there has been a gull on it eyeing up the leftovers, they’re quite big close up with sharp looking beaks.This morning it was there as usual, and when the man sitting at the nearest table went to re-fill his coffee it hopped onto the rail then down onto the table and started helping itself. The lady on the next table looked a little alarmed so I got up to shoo it away but one of the waiters beat me to it, but not before several other guests took photos or videos with their phones. John PS: Off to Girona tomorrow morning to look at the market amongst other things. According to Yellow Pages there are 3 model shops there also! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 24 Author Share Posted September 24 Back yesterday from Spain, it was raining when we left and it was raining when we arrived home, looks like we brought it with us! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted September 24 Share Posted September 24 But is the rain warmer that ours Cheers Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 26 Author Share Posted September 26 I don’t think is Dennis. We had an email today from a friend in Spain saying they’ve had storms of ‘ biblical ‘ proportions since we left with a video of a river running down their drive. Our Meteo is telling us to expect a month's worth of rain in 3 days starting today, just as well we live near the top of a hill. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted September 26 Share Posted September 26 Yes that sounds very familier we seem to be having more and more rain here, good for the lawn though. Cheers Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted October 2 Author Share Posted October 2 I’ve discovered something that we have in common with the UK here in rural France, a shortage of dentists. I went to see mine a couple of months ago after an intermittent problem with one of my molars which turned out to be dead but with an infection below, so was given a prescription for antibiotics and an appointment to have it removed. Today was the day, but unfortunately after what seemed like about 250cc of happy juice it was still too painful to extract. I now have another appointment ( only 6 weeks this time ) and a prescription for more antibiotics and something to take 1 hour before the appointment to render me impervious, don’t think I’ll be driving there. John PS: Guess what? The tooth hurts again 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Sounds ever so familiar, I have just finished a course of antibiotics for an infected tooth and will be making an appointment to find out it's ultimate fate. Good luck John Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 1 hour ago, Biggles87 said: a shortage of dentists Apparently there is a very big shortage of dentists in France at the moment. I've been trying to sign up with one......any one, for ages without success. I had a double at the back giving me problems and had to wait until I got back to the UK and go private. It cost me £250 to have an extraction, but it was worth it. Still haven't got a dentist over here yet. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted October 2 Author Share Posted October 2 We had two before our current dentist. One was Dutch and both very good but in their late fifties when we found them and have both since retired. It took us over a year to find our current dentist who is about 25km away but in her late twenties so should outlast us, unless tempted away by the bright lights. It’s the same with doctors in rural areas our last one was not replaced when he retired, and our current one also 25km away but in the opposite direction has about 5 years to go. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Harmsworth Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 On 13/09/2024 at 16:15, Biggles87 said: We took turns driving and I got the peripheric around Toulouse which can be quite challenging but was relatively easy this time A couple of years ago we flew in to Toulouse late in the evening so stayed the night at a hotel by the airport. We had hired a car and I'm mostly comfortable driving in France - but I really thought we would never escape from the airport and then, when we did, it took several attempts (and quite a bit of being jolly cross) before we were going in the right direction. The signage couldn't be more confusing even if it was deliberate. Of course it would've helped if satnav was working but my wife's phone was stubbornly convinced we were at home in Sussex. Apparently it was going to take us eleven hours to get to Toulouse airport (didn't help the crossness much). We escaped eventually. Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Finding dentsts in the North West of the UK is a problem, I was at the same dental practice since I first went there in 1974, last year they decided to go to private patients only, so I was left high and dry, it took a long time to find another dental practice who would take on an NHS patient but I got there in the end. Cheers Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted October 3 Author Share Posted October 3 There’s a small town 12km from us which opened up a health centre about 8 years ago with 4GPs and 2 dentists but when we tried to register before it opened it was already full! On the subject of airports etc. @Mark Harmsworth, we flew to Florence about 25 years ago and hired a car to travel south about 100km ( no satnav ) and could not find any signs for the direction we wanted to go. We passed the airport again twice before we found the right road! John 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted yesterday at 10:05 AM Author Share Posted yesterday at 10:05 AM It’s Autumnal garden clearing time. We’ve been out in the garden with the dogs ( helping/supervising ) for the last couple of days while the temperature is still mild, and although it will be another month before all the foliage has gone from the trees, there were enough on the ground to make a start with the leaf blower. Ursino who is now 18 months old and 45kg loves it and has a great time chasing the leaves, while Rosie, now 10 1/2 just sits and watches. When he gets bored with this he does what we call ‘ Olympic Running ‘ around the patio, he discovered last year that the slabs are slippery when wet when he went base over apex when trying to do a handbrake turn on it in the rain and does figures of eight around it instead now, clever dog. We extended our garden into a small plot given to us by the local farmer about 6 years ago when we bought a field from him, and spent the first lockdown clearing lt. It was shoulder high in brambles which were hiding a couple of fallen trees and a pile of rubble and was larger than we’d anticipated ( probably about 1/2 acre ) and also a couple of young oaks about 2m high, which have since doubled in height and are spreading out nicely. We eventually decided that we didn’t need all of it for garden so fenced it off down the middle, we have aimed at keeping a metre wide clear path on the other side of the fence, but the rest of it is returning to nature with a good crop of brambles about shoulder high again. Nature always wins in the end. John 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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