Tuesday 6 July 2010

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!!!

28 comments:

  1. Please note that a number of comments seem to have gone AWOL this morning. If you have posted a comment, and it is not here I am sorry. I click on publish and then hey presto they just vanish.

    I have also posted comments on other people's site which seem to have done the same thing so I am a little confused!!! Diane

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  2. Diane, I am having exactly the same problems. Comments arrive for moderation, I instruct blogger to publish and they disappear!! Luckily I have the emails so could resort to cut and paste I suppose. I have also turned comment moderation off for now to see if that improves the situation. I might just pinch your words above!

    Meanwhile to more important things, todays post was of great interest to my husband, he loves all the old farm machinery. Thanks for sharing.

    Laurel hedges are hard to keep under control aren't they.

    Fingers crossed that commenting problems are soon resolved.

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  3. Hi Diane,

    I'm having the SAME prob. with comments as of this a.m.!

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  4. Another blogger had a problem with answering comments today. David Lebovitz at
    http://www.davidlebovitz.com/
    had a post about the camera he uses (he has a link to an older post). You should read his blog because he is very funny. I bought all his cooking books and love his "sweet life in Paris". I hadn't laughed that hard reading a book. David's blog is one of my all time favorite.

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  5. Been noticing a few problems with posting also.

    A shame having even one unfriendly neighbor. Think I'd just let their side of the hedge go, or sneak over to trim. But watch out for rusty fences.

    Sure hope you get a camera thing going again soon. I'm always lost without.

    Interesting "farm equipment". I love rusty yard ornaments and don't have a yard. the patterned metal plates are unusual.

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  6. I am here to try again! My problems were identical to your Diane :(

    Anyway I enjoyed todays post, the old farm implements in particular.

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  7. Hello Diane!
    It looks like temperatures will be on the rise in the following days!
    I won't complain, I love the heat! :)
    I am glad you're having a good time here in France!
    Have a great evening!

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  8. I would love to have some of those pieces in my gardens.

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  9. Leesa, I hope that all is back working again except the site is showing up 0 comments at the moment!!

    Lindy, Glad your husband liked the photos. Hope now things are back to normal!

    Nadege,Will have a look at the site, thanks.

    Gaelyn, it is our hedge so I have to cut it. It is planted the regulatory distance from the boundary fence, so I have to squeeze between to trim. Unfortunately he is such a misery, he comes round complaining if one leaf as much as touches his crumby rusty fence!! Not a person in the hamlet likes him, so he has only himself to blame for becoming a miserable lonely old man!

    Thanks Carlib, you have a good evening as well.

    Becca I would also quite fancy them in my garden!.

    I hope all is back to normal now and everyone can get their comments sorted out :-) Diane

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  10. Ditto the comment problem! I can't even comment on others unless I log into my dashboard and then open a separate tab to view other blogs. Blogger, what are you doing to us?? I see yours is saying you have no comments, as mine is. What a mess.

    I like your old farming implements, too. There are some old working "historical display" farms hereabouts, and I find them fascinating. But I assure you I'm always delighted to go back to my modern tools!

    About my friends, two have not changed much in 32 years, I recognized one by her walk and head movements, and one was always a big girl, but was so big it took me a minute to realize who she was. That made me sad. I was touched that they wanted to find me, even though I've lived in the same place for 21 years, and some of them have seen me in that time.

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  11. Your comment posted very early this morning has just appeared on my blog - I hasten to add along with a lot of others. I think you can safely conclude the problem is bloggers not yours. I loved the photos today and look forward to your race updates. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...Mary.

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  12. Don't worry, I also have the same problem with the comments, I think it's google.

    Anyways, interesting post specially those disks.

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  13. Why is there always one such neighbor in an area, and why does he have to be next to you? Your whole out look must change depending on what side of the house you are. Try to let his misery be his.
    Those pieces are very interesting> if you find out what they are, please let us know. I know it is not, but that first piece reminds me of an early flying machine.
    Enjoy the races. When I saw who took the yellow shirt for the day, I thought of you.

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  14. Oh gosh DIane, this is a problem. I have an idea it might be Blogger as I noticed that since yesterday the count is wrong again too. I am sure the problem will sort itself out in a couple of days.

    BTW I tried that stew with the sausage you had on your blog a while back and it is delicious. I made an addition to it though, I cut up a tin of peaches in it too. :)

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  15. Marjie, The farm implements really caught my imagination, but as you say, if work is to be done then lets go modern!!

    I met a friend some time ago who I had not seen for several years, maybe 20 to 25. She came over to me and and greeted me and chatted away for over 15 minutes before she said something that caused me to suddenly realise who she was!!! I could have been very embarrassed but luckily someone switched the light on for me :-) Diane

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  16. Hi Mary, Glad the comment eventually arrived. It seems like it was some time before Google woke up to the fact there was a problem. Have a great day. Diane

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  17. Lani, think the problem is sorted out now but it took a while! Diane

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  18. Mya our dismal neighbour has 4 pieces of land in different parts of the hamlet so he has many neighbours.... The piece next to us, is only a piece of land and a barn, he lives further up the road. He just HAS to find something to complain about to everyone. Everyone just turns there back on him and we have such a friendly neighbourhood otherwise. Can't see what his point is.

    The yellow jersey had a tough time yesterday, not sure how many times he changed bikes!

    I will probably never find out what all those implements are, but yes that first one is quite unusual. Diane

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  19. Joan, seems like the comments are back to normal.... for the time being! I will remember the peaches next time I do that recipe, sounds good to me. Diane

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  20. I think it was a blogger thing because I commented on Joan's blog but it didn't show up only today I checked again and now it's there strange :)

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  21. Hi Philip, it was definitely blogger, there were almost 500 written complaints which I would say is quite high. Most people would just wait for it to come right! Hopefully the problem is now solved. Diane

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  22. Hi Philip, it was definitely blogger, there were almost 500 written complaints which I would say is quite high. Most people would just wait for it to come right! Hopefully the problem is now solved. Diane

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  23. I haven't noticed the problem.. will check it out. I will be on vacation for a week so will miss checking in on all my favorite blogs as often as I'd like. Hope it all gets sorted out... comments are so much fun!

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  24. longpastremembered. It seemed to be all day yesterday and I gather it was pretty much world wide. All appears back to normal now. Have a good holiday. Diane

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  25. Hi Diane...


    I love the pictures, by the way... What is the the thing in the second pic, do you know???

    GOOO SPAIN!!!

    Take care,
    Leesa

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  26. Yep I am also happy Spain Lisa. Sorry I am not up on my farm implements so I am not sure :( Diane

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  27. Wow, great post! Yeah, I have problem also with my site, that's why I removed some of useless stuff, my friends told me they can't get in. Now, I have problem with my facebook, everytime I log in, something pops up like detected web virus.

    Oh well, have a great weekend!

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  28. Thanks Lani, I suspect you have a virus on your computer!! Diane

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