Tag Archives: heated shower

Wednesday 28th May 2014 – I’VE BEEN DIGGING …

… today. But not, as you might be thinking, with a shovel or a spade.

Just for a change today we had a nice day and I was up with the cock (but enough of my personal habits). And a little later, Terry came round. With his van. And the big trailer. And with our mini-digger, because if you remember, we own a mini-digger between us.

While Terry was sorting himself out I was rescuing the very sad Sankey Trailer from out of the undergrowth and coupling ut up to Caliburn, and then we set to work.

A few years ago I had someone from the football club pay me w avisit with his digger and he dug out a couple of ruined houses so that I could make a car park. He hadn’t done it exactly as I had wanted but he had been and gone while I was at the shops and so I wasn’t going to stand in the way of anyone who can work at that speed.

takeuchi mini digger les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnyway, the upshot of all of this is that Terry brought the digger around and we carried on where the prevuous guy had left off.

It took much longer than I anticipated as firstly I wanted to save all of the big stones to build a nice stone wall, and secondly, we had to keep on taking Caliburn and the trailer up to the precipice and shovel the soil out by hand.

Terry left at about 16:30 and hopefully he’ll be back to help me carry on on Friday, and I had a play around with the digger as I had never used one before. And I had an enormous amount of fun and I can certainly see a pile of uses for this.

I was all hot and smelly afterwards and even though the water was only 32.4°C in the solar shower I had a shower as I certainly needed it.

I crashed out for a while afterwards and then had a long chat with Rosemary on the phone. She needed a little cheering up.

So tomorrow is a Bank Holiday and I’m having a Day of Rest.

But it was sad to see the state in which the Sankey Trailer finds itself. The floor is dropping out of it and the chassis is rotten. It’s not got long for this world.

-4

Saturday 17th May 2014 – TOTALLY ASTONISHING!

Yes, Pionsat go to Lapeyrouse, 3rd in the table, to continue their desperate struggle against relegation whereas Lapeyrouse desperately need 3 points to keep their slim promotion hopes alive.

First things first, though. It was nice to see Matthieu finally back where he belongs – between the posts of Pionsat’s goal. Two years, is it, since he broke his leg?

fcpsh football club de foot Pionsat St Hilaire nico defaye goal us lapeyrouse puy de dome ligue une france, Lapeyrouse scored three times, but even more astonishingly, Pionsat scored 4 times. Two of them were throroughly excellent goals and Nico’s will be goal of the season I reckon.

Frederic’s opener was another superb opportunist effort out of nothing and the fourth goal (I didn’t see who scored it) was down to Frederic’s perseverence on the goal line chasing after what looked like a hopeless cause.

Had St Priest lost this evening, Pionsat would have been safe but they managed a surprise draw at St Gervais. This means that Pionsat need 1 point next weekend (against Lempdes who have already achieved promotion) to be totally safe, unless St Priest drop points at home to Beauregard.

But Pionsat can look at 2 totally silly, needless goals that they conceded the other week – that has what has made them suffer. Had they won that match instead of lost it, they would have been home and dry a few weeks ago. It’s the story of the last couple of seasons.

So I had another disturbed night in which I was very active on my travels, but it was all wiped away as soon as I woke up so I can’t remember where I was. But I did another rock programme for Radio Anglais this morning to put myself out in front a little.

I went shopping in St Eloy and bought nothing special except some tomato plants seeing as I have just one that seems to have run aground now and stopped growing. But back home with solar water temperature at 30°C, I chucked 5 litres of water out of the dump load (for that was a healthy 62°C) into the tank and had a most delicious shower. Now I’m all clean and smelling of coconut.

I’ve also continued my play around with Audacity and I’m making progress. Trouble is that large files are taking so long to load and are thus so slow to edit. I need to work on something that has a built-in DVD drive rather than an external drive. Maybe that might speed things up.

Finally a word for Bangor City who progress into Europe next season after their victory over hated local rivals Rhyl at Nantporth this afternoon. Let’s all hope that they can find the consistency that they need to make some progress in the Europa Cup. it’ll be nice if they can make it to round Two.B

-4

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

…matthieu malnar best goal ever fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot nord combraille 13 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 4 franceever 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
fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot nord combraille score first goal 13 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 4 franceFirst 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.


fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot nord combraille score second goal 13 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 4 franceThe 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 malnar shot fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire football club de foot good save nord combraille goalkeeper 13 avril 2014 puy de dome ligue division 4 franceMatthieu 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

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

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.

matthieu malnar fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire biollet st maurice division 4 puy de dome league 5 avril 2014 football franceNot 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.

gregory richen fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire biollet st maurice division 4 puy de dome league 5 avril 2014 football franceThe 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.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire biollet st maurice hit the post division 4 puy de dome league 5 avril 2014 football france
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

Monday 17th March 2014 – I HAD AN EARLIER NIGHT …

…than last night. In fact I was in bed by all of 04:00 would you believe? Carried awy again by some work that I was doing.

Even more surprisingly, having set the alarm for 07:30 this morning (we’re back at wrok as of today), I was awake – and wide awake too – before it even went off. I’ll probably pay for that later today but never mind.

I was quite busy during the night too. It was the week of beating the bounds in Wales where everyone has to walk – or run – around the borders of the country to satisfy themselves of the correct location of the markers. You could start at any time of the day that you liked, and I remember always starting at 10:20.

Sometime during the night I ended up in broad daylight in Birmingham (a city that I detest) with Zero. I on’t know why we had gone there but I was carrying a geren folder with all of her mother’s bankruptcy documents in there, as well as two rather large kitchen knives. Zero wanted an ice cream and a cake so we went into a cafe and while I was sorting her out, one of the serving staff picked up the folder and started to read the papers within. She then came over and asked us to leave
“Why on earth should we do that?” I asked
“Well, I’m afraid that you might use our premises to solicit donations from the large number of customers (there were about 4 in the cafe) who use or premises”.
She was surprisingly insistent, and even more surprisingly, made no reference to the two very large knives, and they were certainly large enough to frighten anyone.
I made a remark something along the lines of “the trouble with most people in Britain these days is that they are totally paranoid and immediately see things in a situation that simply aren’t there” but that cut no ice with her.

So now that I’m on summer hours, after breakfast I attacked the computer and restarted work on the website. That went on until midday when I knocked off the computer and ent outside to work.

I’ve promised 2 half-days on the garden each week and so I made a start on one of the raised beds, digging it over and weeding it, but I didn’t get far as I had to go to Cécile’s as there was a man due to come to check the septic tank. Accordingly I had a shower in the verandah (and we are talking about nothing to do with the Open University Students Association by the way) and then rounded up all of the washing from my holiday.

Once he had gone I came back via the Intermarche where I bumped into Jean Lauvergne and his wife and then when I was back here I had a couple more jobs to do on Caliburn. Firstly to change the passenger-side mirror. It was cracked quite a while ago but I caught in on something at Rennes-le-Chateau and that finished it off.

After that, I changed his tyres and he now has his summer tyres on. That took much longer than it should have – one of the wheels was rusted onto the hub and on another wheel the jack couldn’t find a good purchase. But anyway that’s sorted out and now Caliburn is ready for the summer.

buds on trees les guis virlet puy de dome franceI went back into the garden after and promptly broke the handle on the fork. It’s not my day is it.

But I did notice that some of the more sheltered trees and bushes are now budding. That’s early this year. It can only spell doom as I’m not quite convinced that winter is quite over yet, even if we did have over 25°C.

We also had 170 amp-hours of surplus electrical energy today. That might sound a lot but it isn’t as much as yesterday’s 205 amp-hours, which is about a record as far as I can tell. But there’s a reason for this. Now that the days are lengthening dramatically and the sun is much higher in the sky, I’ve started disconnecting the lights of the house in daytime and plugging the fridge in there instead. That way it runs through the day and the current doesn’t pass down the overcharge circuit, which is still running too hot for my liking.

I’ll have to do something about that.

Anyway now I’m off to bed. A nice clean me and nice clean bedding too. Luxury!

-8

Wednesday 12th March 2014 – NO PHOTOS TODAY, PEOPLE.

Yes, you can tell that I’m back home. And nothing exciting ever seems to happen around here and I never seem to do anything worth recording, especially as, having disconnected all of the alarms today, it was … errr … 12:20 when I crawled out of bed.And if it weren’t for the fact that I needed to visit the beichstuhl I would probably still be in bed right now.

It usually takes me a day or so to recover from a journey such as yesterday’s (I’m not as young as I used to be) and so a day of rest isn’t such a surprise really. And there was such a lot going on through the night (and the morning) that most of it slipped through my fingers. But I do recall running some kind of detective agency such as that of Hercule Poirot, and I had three girls working for me. The youngest was telling all of us about a superb proposition that had come her way and how it was going to make her a fortune, but it was the kind of proposition that had “SCAM” written right across it in illuminated capital letters and I really thought that, having worked for me for three years, she would know better than to fall for something like this.

I didn’t quite do nothing though. With over 160 amp-hours of surplus electricity by 15:00, water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater off the gauge and temperature of 34°C in the verandah, I treated myself to the second electrically-heated shower of the year.

And not only that, there was enough hot water left for a shave too and for the washing up as well. And there was enough of that seeing as how I made a mega-lentil-and-green-pepper curry. On the gas stove too. The temperature up here in the attic topped 20°C today – a waste of time lighting the woodstove – I’d be burnt out of the room before the stove was hot enough to cook on

And do you remember the charge controller that packed up last year and mysteriously started up the other week? Well, it’s just as mysteriously stopped again..

-3

Monday 24th February 2014 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Yes, here I am – another year older and deeper in debt. And having reached a ripe old age, getting riper as I get older, I suppose that I ought to think about growing up.

So having had another late night last night, I woke up and hung around in bed for ages until I reckoned that “if I don’t get up now then I never will”, only to find that it was 08:45. So much for my body clock!

But last night I was in Crewe with my taxi business and I was round at the house of one of my regular passengers up on Bradfield Road, a woman who always had a cab to go to one of the pubs down West Street. She had a friend around, a woman who was a widow whose husband had died 9 years ago in a pub in West Street, having been sloshed about the head with a house brick. This woman had fallen victim to a scam whereby some mad had come from either Alfreton or Ilkeston to seel joints of mmeat “like this one here” – taking the money on the promise of delivery the next day but of course no-one would ever see again. Another adventure had befallen this woman at the hands of this meat salesman, but this is neither the time nor the place to discuss it.

So after breakfast, it was to work, even though it is my birthday and thus usually a day off.

I have many requests from my friends, some of which are phyxically impossible of course, but others which require an element of work. This one today was “for God’s sake, have a shower”. But if anyone thinks that I was going to stand outside in this wind in nothing but my birthday suit they are mistaken but it was 23°C in the verandah and that called for positive thought.

I threw out the old woodstove that Claude gave me – and it went out in several pieces and a pile of dust in fact. Then a load of other bits and pieces followed, many of which went straight in the bin. And by the time that I had finished sweeping up and tidying up, there was a space about 2mx1m at the far end of the verandah that was clear. I ran up a rope and then hung a shower curtain to it.

After lunch I found the wooden rails that I stand on when I have a shower outside and put them in the verandah, mixed up a bucket of warm water from the home-made 12-volt immersion heater (which was on 66°C) and cold water out of the water butt, and … I had a shower.

Nice and warm it was too, especially as it was in the verandah and it would have been perfect had I had a low-debit 12-volt pump in working order. I ended up using a jug to pour the water over me, but nevertheless a shower it was, the first of the year at home, and I feel so much better for it too.

Cécile sent me a present of sweeties (thanks very much) and an envelope to send her any post that she has received, so I went round to her house to see if there was anything (and I made use of the washing machine too – so clean bedding tonight as well!)

puy de sancy snow mont dore puy de dome franceI’d been invited round to Liz and Terry’s for tea (thank you very much) but stopped off at the site ornithologique as there was a magnificent view of the Puy de Sancy and the Mont Dore covered in snow and with clouds reflecting the profile of the skyline.

Liz had cooked a curry with trimmings, followed by chocolate and avocado mousse which was delicious.

And then back home via picking up the washing, which is now hanging up outside as we are having another day of no rain so far (i’m the eternal optimist of course). But Sunday was the first day without rain since, would you believe, 9th January – 6 weeks ago!

Qo now I’m off to bed after my exertions of today. I wonder where I’ll end up tonight!

-6

Friday 5th October 2012 – TALK ABOUT EARLY!

Yes, I had knocked off work today by 16:45!

But there was a reason for that.

On my official sky-watching scale, today would be described as “glorious”. So much so that when a small cloud floated by at about 15:30 I stood and watched it.

The batteries were fully-charged by midday and by 16:45 I had hot water at 64°C. All of this can only mean one thing, and so I unleashed the tabletop washing machine.

Loads of washing here as it’s been a few weeks since I last did some, and so that was that. Off we went

Of course, washing means clean sheets, quilt cover and pillowcases.

As for me, I’m still smoking from being too close to the fire that I lit in my brassière the other day. But not to worry – 5 litres of water at 64°C into the solar shower to push that temperature up, and I had a gorgeous and most unexpected shower, followed by clean clothes and the like.

That’ll all go nicely with the clean bedding.

While the washing machine was still going, I went and had another look at these LED strip lights.

The batteries that I had been burning were up to 12.55 volts (of course they didn’t stay like that) and when I switched on the strip light that I had fitted the other day, well, I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

Quite the reverse in fact.

So much so that I disconnected the 12-volt fluorescent strip light over the work bench in the barn and installed a pair of these, together with the appropriate switch. These are impressive, these strip lights, and I’m going to buy more of these wherever I can find them

This morning though I was feeling inspired for the first time for ages and had a good session on the web site. But I was interrupted for half an hour as Terry needed to go to the quarry and wanted a hand.

With being nice and clean, I won’t go to Commentry and the swimming baths tomorrow – i’ll just go for a quick flash around St Eloy-les-Mines. It really was a nice, unexpectedly good day today and I’m glad that I took full advantage.

-1

Thursday 6th September 2012 – I DIDN’T GET MUCH …

… done on the wall today either. This deadline of next weekend is looking less and less likely

The effects of all these early mornings proved too much for me today. I vaguely heard the alarm clock go off, but it was 09:10 when I set foot out of bed.

Had It not been for the fact that I needed to go for a ride on the porcelain horse (or what passes for a porcelain horse around here) I would probably still be in bed right now

collapsed lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceA good few hours on the website and then outside at 12:30 and I managed to bung two really good bucket-loads into the wall.

Even better – after lunch, even with rearranging some of the stones, I still heaved a couple of bucket loads in by 16:30. However, such is the condition of the wall that all of that chalk mortar isn’t advancing me very much.

And 16:30 though saw me come to a rather shuddering stop.

According to my weather reporting, weather comes in five grades

  1. overcast
  2. cloudy
  3. clouds
  4. scattered clouds
  5. cloudless

We started to day with scattered clouds but by 16:30 we had progressed to a cloudless day. The water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load was 63°C, the batteries in the barn were fully-charged and there was a good wind blowing.

There was also a big pile of dirty clothes to be washed up here in the attic and the bedding needed changing – the kind of things that need doing no matter what other plans you have, and so I stopped work on the wall and dealt with the washing.

Put all of that out of the way.

While this was going on, I did a few odd jobs around here, like changing plugs on appliances and so on.

As you know, I don’t use Continental plugs and sockets here but British ones, for the simple reason that the plugs themselves are fused and so any issues with my system won’t damage the appliances.

‘ve also wired in the new media trolley that I assembled on Sunday. It now has a 4-way 230-volt socket that plugs into the wall – I can plug all of the external drives and so on into it, and it also has 3 x 12-volt DC sockets for things like the DVD player, the video player and so on.

Finally, even though the water in the solar shower was quite cold, I bunged 5 litres of hot water out of the dump load into it and had a shower myself – clean myself up.

And so now there are clean sheets, clean pillowcases, a clean quilt cover, and a clean me. I’m quite looking forward to that and it won’t be long before I’m in it either.

And then tomorrow I really must get cracking and no mistake.

-3

Monday 23rd July 2012 -171.4 AND 160.1 AMP-HOURS …

… of solar energy in bank 1 and bank 2 respectively might not be a new record (although it isn’t far off), but 154 amp-hours of that being surplus and hence being diverted into the dump load (the hot water tank) – now, that definitely is.

And having emptied out the hot water from the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load, which was still at an indecent temperature and filled up the tank this morning with cold water, that brought the water temperature down to just a mere 39°C.

And by the time that this 154 amp-hours of solar energy had finished, it was enough to push the temperature of the water off the scale – ie over 70°C.

Now that is impressive.

The temperature of the water in the solar shower tank may well only have been 30°C, but 5 litres of water out of the dump load took it right up to 38.5°C and I had yet another lovely shower.

And I’m all clean now, just for a change.

Mind you, I wasn’t half dirty earlier on.

This morning, after my 07:00 start (despite only going to bed at 02:30), a leisurely breakfast and an hour or so on the laptop, I went round to Marianne’s to move the International Library from her friend’s garage to an empty room at François’ at Barrot.

That was enough to make anyone filthy

From there it was off to LIz and Terry’s to pick up Liz and then off to Gerzat to record the Radio Anglais programmes for Radio Arverne.

And as well as the 5 that we had planned, we needed to do a 6th as Bernard had somehow managed to lose the one for this week. And it’s not very pleasant in the heat up there in their attic.

That’s it, really. Quite busy but nothing much to show for it.

I’m off to bed now, another ridiculously early night as it’s another early start tomorrow.

I’m changing the cylinder head gasket on Liz’s car.

-3

Saturday 21st July 2012 – I’VE BEEN A BUSY LITTLE B…..

… all day today, although you might not think so.

Not quite managing an early start, I still managed an early breakfast and then started to work. We needed a series of 5 radio programmes for Monday and so no time like the present.

All morning (and some of the early afternoon) was spent drawing up five minutes of a gardening programme, and then 15 minutes-worth of useful French phrases. It’s all becoming rather complicated.

We had a little break for shopping. St Eloy-les-Mines unfortunately. I was hoping to go to Montlucon as I’m running out of everything, but the radio was more important.

I just managed the basics, as well as some A4 pouches for the laminator, seeing as LIDL had some on offer, and also a pile of bags of hazel nuts for the muesli – it’s been a while since LIDL had any of them in stock.

Back at the ranch I cooked some more rice in the steamer while I had lunch and then continued wih Part II – a load of notes on the system of points for traffic offences here in France.

It’s quite complicated, and having to navigate around the French Government’s own website is not so easy either.

Anyway, there’s enough to keep us going for a good few weeks.

This evening, with piping hot water in the dump load and only 24°C in the solar shower tank and me feeling rather dirty, I dumped 6 litres of water from the former to the latter, which pushed that up to 35°C.

I stripped off and just as I was about to plunge underneath, the ‘phone rang.

And it’s a good job it was a telephone and not a television as it was Marianne reminding me about tomorrow. She would have had a giggle if she had known how I was answering the phone.

So a nice clean me, and I’m off for an early night. And a little lie-in tomorrow.  

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Monday 16th July 2012 – BLIMMIN’ ‘ECK!

Yes, and for many reasons too. Probably the most important was that it didn’t rain today and we had bright blue skies, with just a few clouds passing by – the first time since I can’t remember when.

It didn’t take long for the batteries to be fully-charged, and then the excess solar charge was diverted into the dump load.

home made 12 volt immersion heater solar energy dump load overcharge les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd with the data panel that I installed on the overcharge controller, I could see how it was doing.

28 amps – or 382 watts – currently going into the home-made 12 volt immersion heater. Already, 23.4 amp-hours have gone in and by the time that I took the statistics before going to bed, we’d have a grand total of 122.2 surplus amp-hours – over 1.5KwH.

By the time I was starting to slow down – at 18:00 – the water in the dump load was up to 58°C and still rising. And so cue a load of washing. That’s all hanging out on the line now.

I even changed the bed linen, having to peel the pillow cases off the pillows and the quilt cover off the quilt.

It won’t only be clean bedding tonight – it will be a clean me too, for the temperature in the solar shower reached 33°C and a couple of litres out of the 12-volt immersion heater pushed that up to a respectable temperature and so I had a nice warm shower – and how I enjoyed that!

Pure bliss!

That’s made me feel like a new man – although where I might find one around here is anyone’s guess.

But that’s not all.

The benefits of going to bed early saw me up and about and breakfasting at 07:40 and that was really astonishing. That meant that I had a good 4 hours on the website and I was still all done by midday.

So I mixed a load of mortar and made a start on rebuilding the stone wall on the lean-to. That kept me busy for a few hours.

Rob came round to borrow my 100mm hole-cutter so we had a chat for 15 minutes, and then I had another task to attend to.

Hardly any water seems to be entering the water butts so I also stripped down the home-made water filters. And as I suspected, bunged up to the eyeballs, they were. and cleaned out the water filters. No wonder there wasn’t much water reaching the water butts.

Anyway, they are all ready for the next torrential rainstorm.

And me? I’m ready to snuggle up into my nice clean bed. I’ve been looking forward to this for ages

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Thursday 21st June 2012 – I’VE HAD ONE …

… of those days that doesn’t happen very often, where I can sit back at the end of it all and say to myself “haven’t I done well today?”

Take the garden, for instance.

GARDENING RAISED BEDS les guis virlet puy de dome franceI was out there at about 13:00 hoeing at the raised bed that you can see in the foreground.

The front two rows are spinach, and I weeded and cleaned out a space behind them and that is where I planted 5 of the tomato plants that François gave me yesterday.

You can also see that I planted some bamboo canes there and I’ve tied the plants to them to keep them off the ground. And they needed it too – they are over 30cms tall.

As for the other 5 tomato plants and the chili, they are in the mega-cloche. You can see the bamboo canes that I put in there to hold up the plants.

If you look in the bottom left-hand corner you will see two old caravan windows covering part of another raised bed.

When I grubbed away a pile of weeds from in there, I discovered that half a dozen or so beetroot had taken and were busy growing away. So what I did was to clear a corner of the raised bed just there and plant a few more to see what happens

The carrots though have been a disaster. I planted a few rows before I went away and I have ONE CARROT. I hoed right through the part of the bed where I planted the seeds and I’ve put in another row to see what happens with that.

Everything that I planted, I covered with the caravan windows. It worked in spades for the leeks and spinach, covering them over while they germinated. It’ll do no harm to see what it does to the carrots and the beetroot.

bean frame les guis virlet puy de dome franceAt the bottom of the garden, the beans that I planted before I went (well, the four that did anything) are now really running wild.

As well as that, those that I planted the other day are bursting out of the soil like nobody’s business.

I had a rummage around in the barn and turned up with a couple of offcuts of wire netting and so I grabbed a few of the laths that we ripped off the barn roof in 2010 and made three climbing frames for the beans.

I’m going to need a lot more than three and so does anyone want to swap some brassica thinnings for any wire netting? Otherwise I’ll have to go into Commentry on Saturday and buy a roll.

You’ll notice too that the pea frame is doing fine too. The peas are finally starting to appear and the frame will give them something to cling onto too.

This morning I spent three hours on the laptop (I was up early for once) and I made an index page for my recent journey to Canada and uploaded another few pages.

I’m up to late morning of Day Four so far. It’s going to be a long, hard trip.

This evening I had a lovely, warm shower. The solar heat had pushed the temperature up to 37.5°C this afternoon but by 19:00 it had cooled down to about 34°C. However the hot water in the dump load was running at about 62°C and so 5 litres of that into the solar tank pushed that back up to 39°C and it was gorgeous.

musical entertainment st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceAnd so this new nice and clean me then then went and hit the road to St Gervais d’Auvergne to see this music extravaganza that I had been promised, and much to my surprise I met Liz and Terry there, as well as a few other people who I know.

That’s a group that features on keyboards the young guy who is the assistant at the controle technique. They weren’t too bad but the drummer wasn’t up to much.

But then I come from a background that is much different than here and I have greater expectations. Living in this part of the world, I have to bear in mind the words of Samuel Johnson, who once famously said “it is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all”.

However, all in all, a good time was had by all and if the temperature hadn’t have plummeted I would probably be still there now. A good way to celebrate the Solstice.

A very good day for a change.

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Monday 26th March 2012 – AND SO AFTER MY JOHNNY …

… Cash impression yesterday – you know, “I walk the line” – which is so much better than my impersonation of Glen “I am a linesman for Notts County” Campbell, I had a quiet day today and I hardly went out.

Seeing as I was in the mood – which doesn’t happen all that often – I wrote a huge raft of stuff for the radio programmes. As well as a few more of the 20 questions I did an article about how to appeal against a speeding ticket and also some more useful phrases in French for our non-French-speaking listeners.

That was really about it, I suppose.

But I did have a heated shower.

The temperature in the 12-volt home-made immersion heater that I use as a dump load went off the scale again and so I tipped 10 litres of the hot water into the solar-heated shower tank (which raised that up to a glorious 42.5°C) and put 10 litres of cold water into the dump load, which cooled that down to 62°C.

Tomorrow we are radioing in the morning and in the afternoon I’ll have a bash in the garden. I have garlic, onions and shallots to plant, as well as the shrubs that I bought the other week.

And not forgetting the raspberry plants that Liz gave me either.

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