Round and About - Part 90

Please note that either blogspot, or my computer, has a problem with comments.  I am posting comments which do not appear to be showing up on other accounts.  Also I am receiving comments that are simply going AWOL.  If your comment does not show up please do not think that I have deleted it.  Hopefully the problem will soon sort itself out :-(

Thankfully it was a little cooler today, so after a shopping expedition this morning, I came home and had a blitz at cutting the laurel hedge all down one side of our garden.  It is difficult to cut on the far side, as the space between the hedge and the neighbour's wire fence boundary is very narrow.  Also the fence is very rusty and has many bits bent towards our side.  I generally come out of it with torn clothing, if not scratches as well.   Anything to keep the one unfriendly neighbour in the hamlet from coming round and complaining :-) 

The other two garden boundaries are fir hedges and with neighbours who never complain if the hedge gets out of hand.  I always ask if I can go on to their property to cut it and they are always only too willing to say yes.  They are lovely people; my French is hopeless and they speak no English, but we seem to communicate with few problems.  I asked them the other day if they would come and look at my quince tree, as it was looking very sad.   The answer I received was bizarre, bizarre, but they wrote me a note to take to the nursery with a branch from the tree.  Bizarre is the favourite French answer when someone does not know! The result was, that the tree appears to have blight, caused by too much rain and then too much heat.  Hopefully it will survive, as it is quite an old tree and is usually laden.  I have to say it does seem to be holding its own since treatment, so fingers crossed.

Those of you who have been following me, know that at the moment I have no working camera, so no pictures of all the work I did today. 

I thought that these pictures that I took a couple of weeks ago while out cycling may be of interest.  Beautifully restored farm equipment, or so I thought  anyway.

Note the upturned metal plates, or discs of some kind, placed under this equipment all with beautiful patterns on them.

Great news, French rider, Sylvain Chavenel from the Quickstep team won today's (Monday 5th) 2nd stage of the TDF.  Not only that, he is now wearing the yellow jersey as the leader.  Other positions have hardly changed, but we have lost a few riders with a number of accidents on slippery roads in the rain in Belgium.  One crash on Sunday was caused by a dog running out in front of the peleton; I hope the owners were well and truly reprimanded!!!