Category Archives: Les Guis

Sunday 13th April 2014 – I HAVE JUST SEEN THE BEST…

…ever goal that I have seen in my lifetime.

And no wonder that the Nord Combraille goalkeeper is sitting there looking disconsolate. If you think that blond Frederic’s goal against the Chimps last night was totally unexpected and out of the blue, then Matthieu Malnar’s goal against the Miners this afternoon was ten times better than that.

The Miners are in Division 4 because their second team can’t win promotion from Division 3 so they can’t be promoted, yet they are streets ahead of everyone else in that Division.

A glance at a few of their results will tell you that – 12-0, 10-0, 6-0, 5-0, 6-2, 4-1. Putting Pionsat in that pool is most unfair because their relegation due to league reorganisation was bad enough, but now they are blocked for promotion too with Nord Combraille ahead of them.

However, Pionsat lost today as expected, but just by 2-1, which is a moral victory against the Miners.

And our two goals conceded have a familiar ring about them
First one was from the Pionsat midfield trying to play the ball out of trouble instead of whacking the ball out of play or upfield – or anywhere, really.

Losing possession is the inevitable result against a big skilful side such as this, and the Miners didn’t need too many chances to punish this kind of Pionsat play.

If I had a quid for each time Pionsat had done this I would be in the Bahamas, not the Auvergne, and Pionsat wouldn’t be in the basement of the Puy-de-Dome league either if they cut out all of this.

The second goal was scored with just seconds to go on the clock. Pionsat won a free kick and so everyone from Pionsat pushed up from the defence into the Miners’ half.

The free kick was cleared with a huge kick out of the Miners’ defence and with no defenders in position to intercept it, it was a race brtween a Pionsat full-back, Christophe in the Pionsat goal, and a midfielder from Nord-Combraille.

And that was how they finished, but in reverse order.

Matthieu had already threatened to do something earlier in this game.

Slowly easing himself back into the game after his couple of years out with injury and short of match fitness (which is no surprise – you can’t do any training with what he’s had) he found himself in a bit of space as a ball was hoisted over the Nord Combraille defence.

His snap shot found the keeper struggling and that was ohh so close to a goal there

But then we have this moment of magic.

Pionsat go to kick off after conceding the second goal, with probably not five seconds remaining on the clock. Michael takes the kick-off and lays the ball off to Matthieu.

Matthieu looks up, sees the keeper standing round about the penalty spot, and exactly from the halfway line, launches an outrageous lob on the half-volley. it sails over the keeper’s head into the net and that, my friends, was that.

He can probably try that another 100 times and I bet he won’t even get close to what he did just then.

This morning it was 07:29 when I woke up. On a Sunday too! Mind you, it was about 09:30 when I finally crawled out of bed. And I spent the morning on the website too. After all, it IS Sunday.

And after the footy, with having water at 68°C and the temperature in the verandah at 42°C I had another nice hot shower so I’m all clean again.

And that is that. What a lazy Sunday!

But I’ll be talking about Matthieu’s goal for the rest of my life I think.

-4

Saturday 12th April 2014 – SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY …

… is the Pionsat 1st XI’s habitual method of play. But just for a change this evening, they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. And if they had played for 90 minutes of every match with the same fire and spirit that they played the final 10 minutes of today’s match, they wouldn’t be anything like staring relegation in the face.

They won 4-3 with two goals coming in the final 10 minutes, and it’s just as well that they did, because being rlegated by losing to the Chimps of all people would have been more than any man could bear.

But the story of the three goals conceded sums up Pionsat’s season-

Pionsat concede penalty fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot montel villosanges 12 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 1 france

A moment’s inattention and hesitation lets in a Chimps attacker. A beautiful sliding tackle from a Pionsat defender wins the ball and the attacker goes down over the defender’s outstretched leg. How the referee could award a penalty for that is something that totally mystified me.
But then, had the defence been awake and attentive, the defender would not have got that far.
Unmarked attacker at the far post heads in a superb cross past Frederic who is once more standing in for Michael who has been standing in for Matthieu. It was indeed a superb cross, taking every totally by surprise, but there shouldn’t ever be anyone unmarked and onside in the penalty area.
It’s true that a more experienced keeper would probably come out for the cross, because as long as he got a fingertip to the ball, he could have flattened the attacker without fear of conceding a penalty, but you can’t blame a stand-in keeper for that, and it would have been worse if he had hesitated and been caught in no-man’s
land

And in any case, Frederic kept his team well in the game with a spectacular full-length diving save from a free kick halfway through the second half. Any regular keeper would have been proud of that effort
A loose ball in a crowded penalty area. Frederic runs out for it, shouting “leave it” to his defence. Instead, one of his defenders passes it back to him.
With a defender touching it last, Frederic can’t pick it up and so has to kick. Surrounded by three Chimps, the result is inevitable

So from 2-1 up, they are now 3-2 down and with just minutes to go. Pionsat win a couple of corners and from one of them, Vianney rises highest and heads onto a post and bounces into the net for the equaliser, past the keeper’s outstretched fingertips.

But a point isn’t enough to keep their slim hopes alive -they need all three and there are just seconds left.

And then we have a most astonishing thing.

Pionsat win a free kick just inside the Chimps half, right out on the far touchline probably 50 yards from goal. Blond Frederic takes it and swings it high into the penalty area. The ball sails over everyone’s head right into the keeper’s hands … and right through the keeper’s hands into the net.

Stunned silence in the crowd and I’m not sure who was the most surprised – the keeper or blond Frederic. But a goal is a goal is a goal, and Pionsat finally manage to win after several weeks of lack of success.

If only they had done this a few weeks ago.

So this morning, another early start. And I was in Crewe during the night at my old taxi office in Wistaston Road (but a different one at the back of another car sales place). And I was to audition for another rock group and needed some equipment and so went to the music shop just down the road (that isn’t there of course) where I bumped into Zero and her father.

But after breakfast I cracked on with my website work and then at lunchtime went round to Cecile’s to see how things were and to pick up some mail seeing as how her redirection has finished – and taking advantage of her washing machine too.

Then into St Eloy to shop (where I bought some seeds that I needed) and to pay a huge pile of money to someone in a shop there. Yes, I’m going to be having a new toy – more of which anon.

After picking up my washing (and thinking that maybe I ought to mow Cecile’s lawn sometime soon) I came back here – and crashed out for 2 hours. And a deep sleep it was too for just a crash. I was back in Crewe again at a house that bore more than just a mere passing resemblance to the one in Davenport Avenue where I lived with my parents.

And so then the footy. I’ve had a busy day today.

But watch these pages over the course of the next few days.

-6

Friday 11th April 2014 – LOAD OF BANKERS

I had to go to the bank twice today. And what really annoyed me was that I had a really good start to the day too.

I slept soundly for a change, and there was something about a menage a trois going on through the night. Mind you, I had been watching Percy so that might explain some of it.

But for once, up before the alarm and I’d even spilt my breakfast, remae it, made a coffee and brought everything up here, before the alarm went off.

So I was at the door of the bank as it opened, and “sorry, the informatique isn’t working”. And it’s market day in Pionsat too. So I GRRRRd and grumbled at them and, being reassured that it would be up and running by the end of the morning, I was persuaded to come back later.

While I was working on the web site, the boulanger came past and I gave her some of my surplus mint and thyme (still plenty left, folks).

At 14:00 I went down to the bank again. And guess what? Quite right. The informatique is STILL not working. And so I made a fuss, and the manager saw me, and he did everything by hand. And it’s important that he did as I need to regroup my cash as I have a major expense to make tomorrow, more of which anon.

They also found my missing bank card too, which cheered me up quite a bit.

I spent the afternoon clearing yet more wood and I can now actually see the ground where I want to put this new raised bed. This is progress, not just for the raised bed but for the woodpile too. That’s looking extremely healthy now.

-3

Thursday 10th April 2014 – WHAT A WAY …

… to finish the day. At knocking-off time, the temperature in the verandah was still at 24°C and the water temperature was at 68°C. That can only mean one thing – a nice hot (water-cooled) shower. and it was gorgeous too.

Follow that up with a good shave and now I’m fit for anything (well, almost).

I had a bad night’s sleep for some reason or other and Marianne put in an appearance too. I’ve been thinking about her a little just recently – it’s almost a year since she passed on – but I never expected her to arrive.

So after breakfast and the website I went outside in the gorgeous windy weather and attacked the garden again. I want to put another raised bed in – that’s my next trick – and it needs to be ready for when I sow the potatoes. But there’s loads of wood all over it from a tree that collapsed a couple of years ago and all of that needs moving.

But to do that, I have to clear out all of the brambles and weeds that have grown all over everything and that’s not easy at all. It’s taking quite a while to shift and there’s still a pile to go, but at least I’m not going to be short of wood this winter. The kindling bin is stacked to overflowing and I’m preparing another, and the pile of small wood has grown to more than what it was at the start of winter. Added to that, the pile of big wood has almost doubled in size, and there’s more still to come.

This afternoon, seeing as it was quite windy, I went round to see the farmer in Le Quartier who is having wind turbine issues. And I didn’t even need to leave Caliburn to see what the problem is.

The installation is a load of rubbish and the company that did it – that one in Montlucon that I showed you a while back and which has now (of course) closed down – should be thoroughly ashamed of itself.

The two houses are in a hollow sheltered from the wind on two sides. On the third side is a large tree at each house – in one case just 25 yards from the turbine, and on the fourth side are all of the farm outbuildings.

So on three sides there is no wind at all and on the fourth side is nothing but turbulence. And as the turbines are only a metre or two above the roof line (instead of a maximum of 12 metres off the ground as allowed by law), the friction of the ground on the wind will slow the wind right down.

Quite frankly, the installation is a disgrace.

To make matters worse, just 200 metres away is the crest of a hill that is on the farmer’s property. A pair of 12-metre masts on there with these wind turbines on top would provide enough power to light up the whole village.

To give you some idea, of the two wind turbines (installed since January 2013) one has produced 12.5 KW of electricity and the other 13.2 KW. And that’s from an installation that has cost €8,000 each.

–

-2

Wednesday 9th April 2014 – IT’S BEEN A WOODY DAY TODAY.

Yes, I’ve been dealing with some timber issues.

But first, I was up even before the final alarm sounded. I’d made breakfast and coffee and was back up here with my food by the time it went off.

I was on the web pages at 08:45 too and that has to be something of a record and I did two full pages before finishing at 12:00 and then it was off outside. And first thing that I noticed was that two more courgette plants are rearing their pretty little heads.

Now, if you remember the story of the raised bed that will contain the soft fruit, that was hacked out a few years ago of what was the jungle. But with all of the old weeds dying off and the new ones not quite established, it was possible to clear quite a large area around it, and so I attacked that today.

Surrounding the bed are lots of those horrible ground elder trees that sprout up like forests in just a year or two. I’ve hacked down about a dozen of those and they are stacked out to dry for a couple of years. One day, I’ll pull up the roots too.

Now, the sunlight streams onto the soft fruit bed almost all the day, which is what should happen.

There was an apple tree that had been flattened and was growing horizontally. I had a couple of tree stakes and so I’ve now staked that tree upright in the vertical – and it’s blooming now.

When I cleared the ground for the bed, I stacked some of these ground elder trees and od course they are now bone-dry. I ended up with two barrow-loads of small kindling that will do me for much of next winter and there’s still plenty to go at. I need to clear some space though in order to have a decent garden fire.

Final job was to water all of the plants in the garden. A hot day today, so they needed it.

And I can see that I’ll have to start some weeding soon.

-3

Tuesday 8th April 2014 – WHAT A WAY TO START THE DAY

Downstairs nice and early for a change, and … no gas. It must have run out just as I finished cooking last night and I didn’t notice.

Good job I’d bought that cylinder the other week. First job this morning was to couple that up so that I could have a coffee.

After the website, second job was to empty the beichstuhl. Such delightful jobs I have here. And just to prove that it never rains but it pours, the shredder packed up. And why a shredder? The answer is that you need something to absorb liquids in a composting toilet and the best thing ever designed for that is old telephone directory pages. Works like a charm when it’s shredded and I wonder what I’m going to do now.

Next thing was to check the state of affairs with the plants that I sowed the other week. I told you yesterday that a courgette plant was raising its pretty little head. So here’s a photo of it and its brother too, because we now have two courgette plants springing to life.

Still nothing doing in the carrots, parsnips and radish bed, but before lunch I sowed another row each, together with the beetroot seeds that I had soaking overnight

Talking of soaking overnight, I put pile of pea seeds in damp paper in a plastic bag. They’ll be okay in there for a while to help them germinate.

After lunch I carried on sowing and theres another pile of seeds now in the little plastic greenhouse helf thingy that I bought the other day.

It does occur to me that you haven’t seen it yet and so here it is in all its glory. You can see the bushes that I bought a couple of weeks ago, and all of the seeds that I’ve sown. In the plastic bag are the peas.

So what did I sow today?

Gherkins
Tomatoes
Sweet corn – but I’m not going to be optimistic about that. I found a packet with an expiry date of 2009 so if I was going to throw them away, I might as well throw them in the soil and see what happens

Thee was also quite a mixture of seeds floating around in the bottom of the box in which I keep the seed packets. Seeing as there’s an empty bed that won’t be used for a while, they all went in there and we’ll see.

After all of that I started tidying up outside, seeing as there was still some time to go. You can now see the herb bins in their pristine glory before they are all overwhelmed again.

It doesn’t look much like I’ve done any tidying up, but there’s a lot to do as you might expect. I can see the difference, but I doubt if anyone else could.

I’ve also cleaned the old “Westwood” ride-on mower. An ex-friend of mine found this for me and I never ever had it running because there are some bits missing. It’s sat here and not mooved wince 2002. Anyway, some time next week, it’s going. Someone is coming to pick it up. And you won’t believe the story behind this – you’ll just have to wait.

But whatever did happen to Paul? He was the best friend I ever had and he would do anything for me any time without question, something for which I was eternally grateful (and it goes without saying that I returned the compliment). But then he had his accident and he was put on medication, and that changed him considerably.

Finally, they changed his medication for another and I just couldn’t cope at all with the new personality. We were in Birmingham once, trying to make out which way to turn when a car (not unsurprisingly) blew its horn. He was straight out of the car going to thump the other driver and it was at that moment that I realised that I couldn’t keep this up.

I have enough problems dealing with my own issues without thinking about dealing with anyone else’s.

What a shame.

-3

Monday 7th April 2014 – I DON’T BELIEVE IT!

Well, I suppose that I ought to really. It should be something that I’m used to by now. But do you remember me saying that I replanted 4 strawberry plants the other day? I had a look today and there are now only 3, with a hole in the soil where the 4th one was, as you can see in this photo.

I’ve no idea what happened there. I suppose some local bestiole has taken a fancy to it.

But you can see the soil just there – clay with a barrow-load of sand worked in. That should lighten it considerably.

As for the garlic and shallots though, I don’t know if you can really see them here in this photo but they have mostly done the business.

One or two garlic bulbs seem to have failed but I have some of last year’s crop to plant in there to replace them. And one or two of the shallots needed reseating, but otherwise they are fine. The onions in another bed are pushing up too.

Nothing stirring with the carrots, parsnips and radishes yet. I’m not surprised about the parsnips, but the carrots might have done something by now and I’m bewildered by the radishes. They should be almost ready.

I have a courgette plant about to rear its ugly head out of its pot too. And where there’s one, the others shouldn’t be far behind.

So today after website work I went out and the first thing that I did was to empty out all of the herb beds. I have a row of flower boxes and I use them as herb beds and they were all overgrown.

If anyone wants some mint and thyme cuttings, let me know as I have tons of the stuff here. It really did run wild while I was away last year. Anyway, everything is now rosy in the herb beds and I even had fresh rosemary from my own garden in my onion and mushroom gravy tonight.

For the rest of the day I’ve been sowing seeds in pots. And here’s a list of what’s gone in –

Aneth
Coriander
leeks
cucumbers
lettuce
aubergines
basil
chives
cayenne peppers
mixed peppers
broccoli

They are all in pots in the little greenhouse thingy that I bought the other week.

I also have some beetroot seeds soaking ready to plant tomorrow, and I’ll also look at the rest of the brassica to see what I have an what I need.

All that needs doing then is to make some more pea and bean frames and then start some of those off, and to sow some more carrots and parsnips.

Mind you, that’s not all that I’ve done. I went to St Eloy at lunchtime and spent a whole shed-load of money, in fact the only time that I’ve ever spent more money than this was in buying Caliburn and buying my various houses and apartments. Yes, there will be a new arrival here shortly, more of which anon.

And I forgot two pieces of news from yesterday. Firstly, the mystery of Matthieu’s appearance on the football pitch Saturday night is now solved. He had no intention whatever of playing, so it seems, but someone couldn’t make it at the last minute so he went out rather than let the teamplay short-handed. If that’s not courage and devotion to duty after all he’s suffered with his injury, I don’t know what is.

And Nane rang me up for a very long chat, in the middle of which she announced that a mutual acquaintance of ours had died on Saturday. It’s never nice to hear of a death, especially of someone that you know, but this friend and I did have some issues between us that have been the subject of a considerable rant from me in the past. Nevertheless I wish her bon voyage to wherever it is that she wishes to go.

-3

Sunday 6th April 2014 – WE’RE UP AGAINST IT NOW!

The 1st Xi’s match at St Priest was one that Pionsat needed to win today to keep their survival hopes alive, but they went down 2=0. They are now sucked deep into a relegation battle and have lost their advantage.

But to be fair, it’s not entirely their fault. It’s true that they’ve conceded silly goals at times, but their attack has usually made up for that. But the big issue is that in Division 1, there have been 6 regional pools, giving a total of 60 teams. A mid-table performance is what Pionsat usually manage to do.

However, the Football Association here decided that Division 4 needed bolstering, and so instead of relegating 2 teams at the nd of last season, relegated three from each pool in Division 3. That was what caused Pionsat’s 2nd XI to be demoted when we all thought that they were safe.

This cascaded down through the pyramid and at the top level, Division 1, they simply reduced the level to 4 pools, or 40 clubs. Now, what was a mid-table performance last year is a relegation struggle.

Add to that the fact that with Matthieu injured and Francois retired, there’s no goalkeeper. Michael Bucaud has performed better than anyone could have hoped and has certainly done the team proud, but it isn’t the same.

I was also told that the trainer walked out on the club just before the start of the season and took three players with him to his new club. How true this is, I really don’t know and it’s not my place to pass comment, but all of this sums up Pionsat’s struggle.

Michael, who was injured in goal last week, was unable to play and so young Frederic took over again for today.

He certainly didn’t let the side down either – in fact he looked pretty useful and made a couple of really good stops, including a brave save with his feet, going the wrong way, in a one-on-one with a St Priest attacker.

It was the first goal that was a killer and we hadn’t had even 2 minutes of play. They surged forward from the kickoff and hit the bar with a blistering shot from about 15 yards out.

That ballooned up into the air and the follow-up shot – St Priest being the quicker to react – likewise smacked against the bar and bounced down and away. However the linesman (the home linesman, it has to be said) signalled that the ball had crossed the line.

The second goal was also something of a sucker punch too. Pionsat were too busy disputing a decision to respond to a quickly-taken free kick, and that let in a St Priest attacker.

Not much that Frederic could do about that, but then as we know, the Pionsat defence does have a habit of switching off at vital moments. It’s not the first time.

Strangely enough, this was one of Pionsat’s better defensive displays. St Priest had a player, the n°10, who was streets ahead of everyone else on the field, and it showed when he managed to wriggle free and find some space. However, for most of the match Vianney and Alex were clinging to him like a limpet.

And Alex’s performance in the centre of the defence was the best I’ve seen for quite a while from anyone. He’s played like this a few times and he’s be my first name on the team sheet every week if he could keep going like this. Apart from the two efforts that led to goals, St Priest didn’t have much of a look-in and it was a dour struggle in midfield for much of the game.

Pionsat’s attack looked tired, though, and it seems as if the fire has gone out in a couple of the players. They need to find some way of kindling some enthusiasm because they play so much better when they are enjoying themselves.

And so what else?

Well, shock, horrow, there I was, lying in bed this morning for quite a while, thinking to myself that it must be late and I ought to get up, only to find when I finally did leave my pit that it was all of 08:35. I don’t think that I’ve ever been awake that early on a Sunday morning.

I’d had a busy night too. I’d been to a street concert given by Mark Knopfler, featuring songs off his Golden Heart album. We were having to stand round the side of the stage and the camera was filming around the corner, almost as if it were a bootleg recording and we weren’t supposed to be there.

As the xoncert continued, I found myself in a bed, right in front of tha stage. A girl who had slept in it earlier expressed surprise that I could sleep there like that, to which I replied that I had a lot to do when the concert was over and so I needed to be fresh.

She wondered how on earth I could sleep through all of the noise, to which my answer was that it comes with necessity and practice.

After breakfast I tidied up a little, and I can now see the floor in places up here. That is progress. But when I became fed up with doing that, I carried on with the web pages.

After returning from the footy, I completely jigged them around to make a proper circular tour (in fact, it’s a figure-of-8 tour of Quebec now) and they are all on line. This link is for the Chemin du Roy and this link is for the walking tour of Quebec.

Have a good read, and I hope that you enjoy that as much as I enjoyed writing it all.

Let me know if any of the links are bad.

-3

Saturday 5th April 2014 – WELL DONE PIONSAT!

Yes, for once, a competent and workman-like display from Pionsat’s 2nd XI this evening saw them deal effectively with a St Maurice side that, it has to be said, would have been good enough for most teams in Division 4.

The team was reinforced this week by Julien and Gregory, and it was really nice to see Matthieu back on the field after an absence of two years due to injury.

Not playing in goal but in the outfield and though clearly unfit (which is no surprise after what he suffered), he was out there doing his bit.

He scored a screamer of a goal from a free-kick which went through the wall and right through the keeper’s hands, and probably would have gone through the net and the hedge at the back too had it not hit the stanchion in the corner. A superb effort.

The other two goals were scored by Gregory who was playing on the left side of the attack – and he had the ball in the net a third time too but was disallowed for a foul on the keeper.

He’s small and quick and holds onto the ball well, and Pionsat’s tactics were to lift the ball over the defence into space down the inside-left channel for him to run on to – and it worked like a charm.

It can also be said that for the first time for years, Pionsat’s defence held up really well. Didier dropping back as an extra full-back whenever Pionsat lost possession, but the highlight has to be Julien, who played in the centre of defence
(he’s a winger for the first team) and didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the match.

St Maurice hit the bar and the post, and Christophe tipped a shot over the bar, but while they had plenty of possession, it all broke down in the final suarter of the field thanks to Pionsat’s good defending tonight.

So well done them. Let’s hope that they can keep it up.

So what else has happened today?

With no pressure on me to do any gardening or any radio work, I had a quiet morning on the website. And at lunchtime I went to St Eloy to do a little shopping.

But what I encountered there may well mean that I shall set a world-record for a Saturday shopping trip, depending upon the result of a phone call that I will have to make on Monday morning. And if I receive a positive response, you won’t be hearing much from me for a while as I will be recovering from the shock.

I carried on with the website again when I returned, and then seeing as it was warm in the verandah and I had plenty of hot water, I had a shower, a shave and some clean clothes.

I’ll change the bedding over too (I forgot the other day) and have a nice long lie-in tomorrow morning. After my exertions this last few weeks I deserve it.

-3

Friday 4th April 2014 – IT WAS TOUCH AND GO …

… as to whether or not I finished the raised beds today. I can usually legislate for most eventualities that happen around here, but no-one has yet managed to legislate for the weather. And when, when I went to resume work after lunch, I noticed that the heavens had well and truly opened and there was also a hanging cloud in the vicinity, I reckoned that that was that.

Mind you, it was all my fault.

After the usual 3 hours or so on the web site, I went outside and finished off weeding and digging over the big cloche. That’s now clear, and I even managed to rescue four strawberry plants. They went in the soft fruit bed, which I duly watered (and which was doubtless my downfall), and then I came in for lunch.

Seeing the driving rain, I had a very merry 45 minutes inside doing some tidying up. But then I thought that this isn’t getting the baby bathed and I don’t really want to come back and do it again, so I put on a rain jacket and went back outside.

By now the soil had turned to a miserable, wet, claggy clay but I carried on regardless, covered in mud and soaked to the skin, but at 18:35, with just 25 minutes of my working day remaining, I could put my tools away.

Yes, in just 12 working days, many of them full of interruptions, I’ve dug over and weeded 13 raised beds and a giant cloche, none of which has seen any attention since August 2012, and I’ve sown and planted a few crops in them too.

I can safely say that I have never worked so hard in all my life, but it’s all now done, even if I am totally exhausted and crashed out yet again this evening.

But I’ve treated myself to my last bag of vegan Rhubarb and Custard sweets and quite right too because I feel that I’ve earned them. I’m going to be taking it easy over the weekend and then restart work on Monday.

And quite right too.

-3

Thursday 3rd April 2014 – JUST LIKE YESTERDAY …

… I crashed out twice today. And at roughly the same times too. Difference is though that it was only for a couple of minutes each time, and so that wasn’t quite so bad.

And I had an early night too, so I wasn’t surprised to wake uo to find that it was darker than usual. But it wasn’t through being awake early, or through snow on the roof lights. It was in fact raining and there was a thin coating of sand on them. This desert storm has reached over here now.

So after the usual procedureson the web site, I went out to work in the garden and, just like yesterday, there were no interruptions at all. I’ve finished the bed where the soft fruit will be going, and I’ve added a load of sand to about half of it. That’s all hoed and raked in. The soil is nice, dry and friable right now but when it rains, it’s just heavy clay. Sandy soil is good for soft fruit of course so the more I can get, the better.

I then started on the big cloche and tomy bitter disappointment, not one of my 20 or so strawberry plants survived the bitter winter 2012-13. I was wondering if I should buy some more when I saw them at the Auchan on Tuesday, and I wish that I had now.

So in the garden there is half of the big cloche to do, and then one more raised bed. I’m hoping that I can finish them tomorrow because that will mean that, starting on Monday, I can go onto the revised plan B of 2 hours in the house in the morning, then 2 hours in the garden after lunch and then finish off with 2 hours back in the house.

I’ve so much to do and I really ought to get cracking.

And another windy day today.

-3

Wednesday 3rd April 2014 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… I crashed out not once today but twice. Once at lunchtime and once at about 19:30 after I knocked off.

I’m clearly over-doing it, I reckon, and having late nights and disturbed sleep just recently isn’t helping.

I managed to wake up at some kind of realistic time however and after breakfast I had a productive morning on the website. By 12:00 (or thereabouts) I was back outside and I made a start on another raised bed.

After lunch (which finished rather later than planned, as you can imagine), I carried on with my raised bed and now that one is finished too. There’s a big raised bed, the last one that I installed, and that is destined for the soft fruit. I made a start on that and now that’s about one-third finished.

When that is done, there will be just one more raised bed and the two cloches (although at the moment I’ll only be clearing out the big one). Wouldn’t it be a pleasure if I could finish all of that? It depends of course on whatever interruptions I have and today, there were none at all, just for a change.

I’ve done some tidying up in the garden too, around the edges. The border between my land and the farmer’s field is a mess and so I cleared out a couple of metres of that. There are a couple of young trees growing there and so I trimmed them and wove the young branches around the barbed wire that forms the boundary. It’ll look so much nicer with tree branches and leaves all around it.

There’s a fruit tree too that’s giving me issues. If you remember back several incarnations of this blog, you’ll remember that I planted two dozen or so when I bought the place and for a while they were productive. But my absence for several years when I was ill led to most of them being lost.

One at least (and there may be more) is still there but as a sapling it was trampled down by a wild boar or something and it’s growing horizontally across the large raised bed. I’ve been trimming it back this last couple of years so that the growth will be concentrated in some branches that are growing vertically, and I had another go at that today. It’s looking much better.

We’ve also had tons of wind today. All three turbines going round like the clappers. Shame they can’t do this every day, isn’t it?

-2

Monday 31st March 2014 – I WASN’T SO GOOD …

… at getting up today. It took a great deal of effort to haul myself out of bed, but once I was out, I wasn’t so bad.

After the customary couple of hours on the web site, I went outside. This furniture removal is now postponed until tomorrow so I had a look at a couple of petrol-engined appliances that had been hanging around here for a couple of months.

Of course, they didn’t work and so I wen into Pionsat for some clean fuel. I also nipped to Cecile’s as apparently there was a bird stuck in the window.I was too late for the bird unfortunately and I can’t take it out as it’s fallen behind some shutterings that we spent a day or so fitting, and I didn’t have the tools with me.

Back here, giving everything a clean and draining out the fuel tanks and carburettors and the like, I finally got everything to work and I even managed to mow a bit of grass.

The new plastic greenhouse thingy is erected and I’ve put the pots with the courgette seeds in it, those that I potted last week, and also the shrubs that I bought. And while I may not have carrots and parsnips and radish, or even courgetttes, the garlic is going well, and the onions and shallots are close behind.

I fell asleep again at lunchtime but when I finally did make it outside, I did another raised bed. I must push on with those.

But I also had a visitor. Someone at the footy had seen me – or, rather, Caliburn, and he made an effort to track me down as on his farm he has a wind turbine that hasn’t been functionning for a few years and he wondered if I could get it to work for him.

So that’s another half-day out when we have some wind. This vehicle advertising really pays.

-4

Sunday 30th March 2014 – THAT’S MUCH BETTER …

… from Pionsat today. the 2nd XI went down the road to play Le Quartier’s 2nd XI and won 3-1 without really breaking into a sweat either. And Apart from the three goals, they also missed a penalty and had countless shots cleared off the line too.

The irony of it all was that they were playing without an attack either. Up front were Michael the Ist XI reserve centre-half who was available today because he didn’t play last night, and Michael who played in goal for the 2nd XI until he broke his shoulder three or four years ago.

I don’t remember about the first goal now, but the second goal was a driven cross by Michael the 1st XI centre-half that hit Jerome on the knee and went straight in the goal without anyone being aware of what had happened.

The third goal was a peach. Michael the 1st XI centre-half again, this time laying off a ball about 25 yards out to Bertrand who was rushing in like a steam train. He hit it plumb on the volley and normally these go into the field behind the goal, or else into the garden at the side of the pitch, but this one, just for a change, kept low and hard right into the far corner with the keeper a very distant second.

Talking of the keeper however, a more-miserable bad-tempered keeper I have never seen. He started at the first attack, throwing the ball into the back of Michael the 1st XI centre-half. Of course Pionsat were playing away and it’s the home side that supplies the referee in Division 4, so we didn’t even have a penalty, let alone a sending-off. And then every time there was a 50-50 ball the goalkeeper would physically threaten the opposing player, and the referee would intervene to punish the attacker.

Home-town referee, as you can guess. This kind of thing is totally shameful and does no credit to Le Quartier’s football club.

But of course Pionsat’s players are far too naive for even this level of football. They need to learn more about the judicious use of the elbow during high balls into the area from corners. That would have kept the goalkeeper under control.

As for Pionsat’s defence, they were up to their usual antics but Le Quartier had nothing to offer up front. Nevertheless they scored a goal near the end when a sleeping Pionsat defence allowed an attacker through and he scored a goal with a delightful lob over the advancing Christophe.

Apart from that, the change to Summer Time didn’t bother me at all. I was up and about as usual by about 10:15 new time. And I spent a few hours writing up more for the web site.

After the football (which had a 13:00 kick-off) I emptied Caliburn as we have a furniture removal to do this week, and then wrote a pile of stuff for the Radio Anglais programmes.

A chat to Cecile and her mum rounded off the day and that was that.

Back to work tomorrow.

-4

Saturday 29th March 2014 – JUST HOW UNLUCKY CAN YOU BE?

Jerome Brunet has the ball about 15 yards out and whacks the ball goalwards with everything that he has got. It hits the knee of a defender, cannons right out of the area and back all the way over the halfway line to where a lone Beauregard l’Eveque forward is standing. And he has the simplest of tasks with a one-on-one with Michael, while everyone in the stadium looks on, open-mouthed.

Back in the early 70s I once saw Albert Kinsey, playing for Crewe Alexandra, hit the bar with such force that the rebound cleared the halfway line before it bounced, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

So FC Pionsat St Hilaire lost again, 5-3 this time, to this goal and two of the most controversial offside decisions that I have ever seen, each one of which resulted in a Beauregard goal. And Pionsat should have had this team dead and buried. Hit the bar, hit the post twice, kicked off the line three times, and in the dying minutes they had 6 consecutive corners to add to the 25 that they had had during the rest of the match. But to lose a game in this fashion leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Add to that the fact that Michael bravely took his place in goal after his bad injury two weeks ago, but lasted just 45 minutes. Young Frédéric took ovee for the second half and looked the part, but he let two goals in and you really can’t do much about that. Everyone was doing his best today.

But it does have to be said – that breakaway goal, no matter how unlucky, wouldn’t have been scored had Pionsat’s defence been concentrating. Those two offsides – how many times do I have to spell it out – you don’t hang around with your hand up waiting for the referee’s whistle, no matter how clear-cut it might be. You play the ball and let the whistle take care of itself.

The fourth goal – the defence being out of place when the team loses possession and the midfield slowly ambling back instead of having any sense of urgency at all. Consequently the defence is caught short-handed.

And the fifth goal – Pionsat messing about in defence again – failing to clear the ball upfield or out for a throw-in but showing off on the edge of the penalty area and losing possession.

It’s all simple schoolboy errors, this is, and it’s been the same ever since I’ve been following the club, and probably before as well. The problem is that there is no leadership out there in the team – no-one who can take command.

So apart from that, having had a day off yesterday, I worked today. Until 12;00 I was working on the laptop – not on the website but writing the notes for the rock music programmes that we do on Radio Anglais.

Later, I went out and dug over another raised bed. This is the one where the shuttering has collapsed and so I used those red bricks that I was telling you about. However it hasn’t worked – that isn’t going to be very successful unfortunately as the bricks are too low and so I can’t dig them in properly. In fact it looks something of a mess. I shall need to think again.

I did manage a bit of work on the website once I had finished the raised bed. It is Saturday after all and there’s no point in killing myself by starting on another one.

And we had another day of high winds. More wind energy today than we have had in the last three or four weeks combined. I wish that it was like this every day.

-4

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality