Re: Gardening Thread.

**Sabot** Sat Jul 07, 2012 6:29 pm

When I got up this morning my washing was still very wet, but by lunch time it was dry. Very strange, but washing does dry quicker here.

Finished the lawn I started cutting mid week. Not blazing hot, but relatively pleasant. Please God , let it last. I think I'm going rusty.

**bb1** Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:30 pm

I know the feeling, Sabot, it's been bucketing here all day. A lot of areas have been badly flooded. From the Sky site:

Gardening Thread. - Page 18 York-1-778x437

Gardening Thread. - Page 18 York-1-778x437

That's York.

**bb1** Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:31 pm

Birmingham:

Gardening Thread. - Page 18 Birmingham-paul-cook-of-walsall-1-778x437

**Sabot** Sun Jul 08, 2012 3:47 pm

Wey Hey. Got some gardening done. Well, weeding actually. But only just in time as it has started raining again. Every year we have different weeds, although I don't know why this is.
Nearly eradicated the The Nettles, but loads of Thistles. Unfortunately, not the interesting variety.
Lots of baby Beans appearing, but no Tomatoes as yet, just Flowers. This is when growing vegetables begins to get interesting.

**Sabot** Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:29 am

I have been having a serious think about my Septic Tank and Brussels, and I have decided that I am not having this. I will not allow them to come in a dig up my lovely garden to change a Septic Tank that is working perfectly well. I am not polluting anything, or affecting the Water Table, so I am just not having this.
I shall demand an Interpreter as is my Yuman Rite, because feck knows what they are talking about, and I certainly don't, but at least let's have this in English. There is a limit to how much French I can possibly be expected to understand, and I don't think that a Master's Degree in Geology is likely to be part of it. Although I could probably beat them on that given half a chance. What I don't know about Fosse Septiques could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I have watched all of they people with their peculiar Theodo thingies, and it isn't Rocket Science.
There is absolutely no way in which they could install their idea of a Proper System in my miniscule garden, so short of condemning the house, which would cost them a fortune in compensation, I suspect that I might win this one. But by the time I have taken this to The Court of Human Rights I don't suppose that I will care. But I have had enough of being intimidated yet again.

**bb1** Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:21 pm

Can you tell them that its historic, Sabot? Oh wait, tell them its a grave, cos the French Resistance chucked a couple of Nazis in it 70 years ago. That should do the trick thumbsup

**Sabot** Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:38 pm

Not sure France around here would want a Monument to The Nazis, Bonny, especially after what they did in Pontivy. But The Historic idea might be the way to go. A Grade One Listed Fosse Septique. Probably the first one ever installed, and still working in the 21st Century. I could even charge people to look at it.

I am half beginning to wish that my son hadn't taken down The Ghastly Hedge. There is no way they could have got a tractor in here with that still in place. Now That Hedge was a Monument.

**Sabot** Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:57 pm

St. Swithin's Day!

And OMG. It hasn't rained all day. Yet.

Did some more weeding. You are allowed to do stuff around here on a Sunday, so long as you don't make any noise, and don't hang washing on the line. Although I have noticed that they all break the noise rule when it suits them.

**bb1** Sun Jul 15, 2012 3:07 pm

Sunny with heavy showers here, Sabot, so I am none too sure what that means...

Hang washing on a line? It would be out there for weeks in this weather, getting wetter instead of drier.

**Sabot** Sun Jul 15, 2012 3:15 pm

But at least you don't have to rinse the washing frightfully well. If you wash it by hand, that is, which I do with jumpers and cardigans. In fact I am seriously thinking of doing away with the rinse program on my washing machine. No point in spinning it anyway.

**Sabot** Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:11 pm

Had a really good morning. I decided to go shopping early, but mainly because I had run out of Tobacco, and I am not very good with Tobacco Dust.
Anyway, I ran into this long ago known French Arsehole that I used to work for in his Chicken Shed, although I probably knew more about Chicken Sheds than he did at the time. Especially when he fried twenty thousand chickens during a heat wave. They all died. But there you go.
He learned his English in Ireland so this includes a lot of Focking This and Focking That, which is quite hilarious. Listening to a Frenchman speaking English with an Irish Accent is always a laugh. Just as it is listening to me speaking French with a plum in my mouth, no doubt.
Meanwhile, I hung around while he waited for his Mother who was at The Dentist because I really wanted to meet her. Sadly this did not come up to my expectations, probably because she thought I had designs on his body. But in the end it only cost me four Coffees and two Cognacs, both of the latter of which I drank. Nine Euros in all. Nine Euros for four half decent Coffees and two large Cognacs? This alone has to be a joke.
But the upshot is that he is a rebel, and he understands The System. On cursirory examination he says that I have no right to refuse examination of my Fosse Septique, which I knew anyway, but that I do have a right to an Interpreter, and possibly the right of refusal to impose Brussels Edicts on a passing rural peasant, of which i am one such.
I have invited him to Dinner next week to talk about this, although I don't expect that my house will escape this in the long term. But my progeny can worry about that when I am dead, in about thirty years time. Or whenever.
En Y Var.

**bb1** Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:23 pm

Exellent, Sabot! If the French branch of the EU is anything like the UK branch, you can keep this up for years. And then, of course, you can fall back on your Yuman Rites. Claim your religion demands that you keep your cesspit as it is, or something.

Or demand an Irish interpreter with a French accent, to offset the other one.

Oh, and as this involves the EU, keep receipts for everything so you can claim it back.

€9 for four good coffees and two large cognacs? Sounds like a bargain to me. Hope you kept the receipt as it was an Official Meeting With Your EU Advisor?

**Sabot** Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:48 pm

Oh shit, why didn't I think of that? But then I am just a Peasant. But on the next occasion that I sink two large Brandies before lunch time I will remember to get a receipt, before I fall over and drive home.
Peirot is a howl a minute, nasty little boy. but he loves his ghastly mother, so there is something to be said for for that. And his Irish accent is neither here nor there, He will do for starters. I will travel from there on. He will help me in the beginning.
I know, you see, that they can't force me to do what they say, until they finally prove that my Fosse Septique is polluting the Water Table and the surrounding area, which it isn't. Prove it, say I. Sheesh, even the first expert who came here said that I wasn't. Although sadly I didn't get that in writing. But he said that there was no chance of them pursuing me because there was No Pollution on my part, or the part of the Family who first installed this system. There is nothing wrong with it. It works.
It is on a hill, so you could say that it seeps, but so does every other Fosse Septique around here. Mine just doesn't apply to their idea of all that silly pipe work that my garden doesn't have room for or even need. I mean, what are they gong to do? Dig up my garden and come up with the same old thing that I already have?

**bb1** Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:38 am

This is odd. 'Outside' is blue, with white fluffy things, and a sort of big, orange-y warm thing where all the water usually comes from....

Whatever could it mean?

**Lamplighter** Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:44 am

bb1 wrote:This is odd. 'Outside' is blue, with white fluffy things, and a sort of big, orange-y warm thing where all the water usually comes from....

Whatever could it mean?

Just don't knock it, smile and wave at the big orangey thing and start praying!! LL sunny

**bb1** Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:02 am

Yes, I have every intention of doing some sun-worshipping, LL, and grabbling with the rainforest that appears to have sprung up where my garden used to be. rofl

Amazingly - absolutely nothing seems to be happening anywhere on the internet just now.

Long may this state of affairs continue sunny

**MsMarbles** Mon Jul 23, 2012 2:22 pm

Hi all, it is so hot here, decided to sit in the shade on the patio with my laptop. Far too hot indoors when the sun is round front of house in afternoons. Roll on winter please.

**Sabot** Mon Jul 23, 2012 2:32 pm

It's scorchio here as well, MsM, but unlike you I never long for Winter. But it is back to watering again as I grow so much in pots

Do get a bit of Vitamin D you all. Much more important than most people realise, and you only need 20 minutes a day on arms and legs.

**bb1** Mon Jul 23, 2012 2:43 pm

Three guesses what it's doing here?

Gardening Thread. - Page 18 S060

**Sabot** Mon Jul 23, 2012 2:49 pm

Yer well, Bonny. The forecast here for Thursday onwards ain't looking good, so I shall get in a double dose of Vitamin D in a minute. Glass of wine notwithstanding.

**MsMarbles** Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:45 pm

bb1 wrote:Three guesses what it's doing here?

If it's raining, I would gladly do a weather swop.

**MsMarbles** Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:48 pm

I have just ordered myself a decent sun lounger, and a couple of deckchairs for visitors. If I have to spend time in the back garden as it is still cooler than the house, then I want to be comfortable and be able to have a snooze on the sun lounger. I suppose this weather is good for drying the washing though.

**bb1** Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:59 pm

It's pouring here, MsMarbles. It stopped over the weekend and we all thought it was finally summer - then started again today.

I wish we could swop weather, I would happily send Pedro our rain for a while if he could send us some of Portugal's sun - they are having a very severe drought, wildfires, etc., and we're sodden.

**Sabot** Mon Jul 23, 2012 4:26 pm

MsMarbles wrote:I have just ordered myself a decent sun lounger, and a couple of deckchairs for visitors. If I have to spend time in the back garden as it is still cooler than the house, then I want to be comfortable and be able to have a snooze on the sun lounger. I suppose this weather is good for drying the washing though.

This is the wonder of old, stone built French Houses, MsM. They are always cool even in a long, hot Summer. My walls are about two feet thick so the heat never penetrates.
Mind you, they can be a bit chilly in Winter, but it is always easier to stay warm than it is to stay cool. So I just come indoors if I want to cool down. Those old French masons knew what they were doing.
The roof space which was designed as a Seed and Produce Store, and which is now my bedroom, can get a bit hot in Summer, but there you go, you can't have it all.

**Sabot** Fri Jul 27, 2012 1:51 pm

Oh MY, I nearly forgot to tell you about my Fig Tree. It's in a rather large pot to restrict the roots a bit, and came from a small cutting about five years ago.
Anyway, I thought the big freeze had killed it because all of the leaves went brown and dropped off along with a couple of very small Figs. But now it is amazing and better than it has ever been, and it has grown a new shoot.
The moral of this tale is never assume that something has died because it looks dead. Give it some time and it might come back to life.
Five days of searing heat here, but I can cope with any amount of that.

By the way, I saw a really sweet dog today, and with a lovely nature. It is a cross between a French BullDog and a Labrador, a bit like a good looking English BullDog. Although I did briefly wonder which one was the Daddy.

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