Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

I can think of worse places to be stranded...

Me too, at least it's our own one and not a hotel

[Sue]

I have had a query about a Sarah Widdup. I have put in a report 10 years ago that she married Thomas Howarth, but the person who contacted me has a different marriage. I thought all my research was original from Parish records and such, but I had a feeling someone on the site told me this one.

Problem solved. Two Sarahs, cousins nearly same birth date.

[Sue]

We have been rebooked for April 13 th, by then the garden and weather here will be lovely. We may not want to go home.

I have spent the last two days digging out the three year old compost heap and shredding dried wood and branches. The soil from the former has been put round the hedges and round the ornamental cherry tree where we are making a new flower border. The shredded wood is going round our rose, lavender and herb garden. Always something to be done round here. The downstairs shower room looks lovely with its newly painted walls and ceiling, now the door needs painting.

We shall keep busy. My niece is sending me some sewing and craft stuff, that will help. I miss my sewing.

The neighbours kids are all working from home. We just helped the eldest with her English homework made us feel useful

[Wendyf]

Do you have a well stocked wine cellar Sue?

[Gloria]

Do you have a well stocked wine cellar Sue?

Perish the thought she hasn't.

[Wendyf]

Do you have a well stocked wine cellar Sue?

Perish the thought she hasn't.

I'm sure she will have....

[Sue]

We are working through it !

When I went to the supermarket for essentials the other day, first in the basket was hair dye( i have no intentions of corona virus turning me grey when I have spent a fortune over the years stopping it ) , second item two bottles of tonic for gin and tonic, third essential, a giant pack of toilet rolls, then the lesser essentials were fruit, milk, bread, tea bags...oh dear we ran out...and dish washer tablets. ( to wash the used glasses)

[Stanley]

Sorry the ferry booking was duff Sue. Made me wonder about freight on ferries. Medical items among them? My mind goes back to that bum Grayling and his phantom ships.....
I shall be pursuing my piston rod and clevis. Funny thing is I never get a thought about infection while I am in the shed. Good prophylactic I reckon!
Oh, and Melvyn Bragg at 09:00!

[Sue]

Sorry the ferry booking was duff Sue. Made me wonder about freight on ferries. Medical items among them? My mind goes back to that bum Grayling and his phantom ships.....
I shall be pursuing my piston rod and clevis. Funny thing is I never get a thought about infection while I am in the shed. Good prophylactic I reckon!
Oh, and Melvyn Bragg at 09:00!

Same with gardening Stanley. Its been quite heavy digging moving the compost heap, no time to think of anything else, nicely fatigued at the end of the day. Brittany ferries has taken a couple of the plush ships out of commission but the rest are carrying freight only. We have been given a ferry on April 13 th as the next possible date but don’t hold your breath. By then we may even decide to stay on as the garden will be thriving and need attention, its often even outdoor eating weather by then . No point theorising about the future but get on with the present planning jobs and doing,

Our lovely newly decorated shower room is now only spoilt by the door and door frame, Bob says we have some white gloss so thats another job to tackle. Several of our non fruit trees need a prune before they leaf before its too difficult and now its been dry for a week we may get tge veggie plots rotivated and recovered. As I said to our neighbour our garden will be ...tres propre. Tidier than its ever been

I seemed to spend a lot of time yesterday online giving pep talks to my older pals back in the UK. The more I talk to them the luckier I am beginning to feel. Unfortunately we don’t hear Macrons broad cast, and would probably not understand it, so do not really know what he has said. What the media writes cannot be relied on. However our lovely neighbour will keep us informed i am sure if things change.

[Sue]

Bob and i were just discussing why there appears to be no stock piling in France, why are the shelves full. I think it is because they have always shopped daily and still can in a controlled manner of 100 people at a times. Secondly they have always bulk bought so already have large stocks. Many houses are designed with a storeroom . Many things on the shelves are large packs anyway, so you just take your usual one item, is automatically a bulk buy.

[Stanley]

I've just been in the Co-op Sue and it's a war zone, stripped bare of normal stuff even milk for God's sake! I think you have got it right about the French not stockpiling, they are closer to their food and understand it. I have a theory that the worst of the panicking stock pilers are those who don't keep stocks in their cupboards and cook. They live hand to mouth on take-aways and eating out. They are the most likely to panic as there's nothing in the house. Thanks to my mother and my life experience I always have food about me.
Keep calm and carry on!

[Marilyn]

It’s gonna get worse Stanley...

[Sue]

I've just been in the Co-op Sue and it's a war zone, stripped bare of normal stuff even milk for God's sake! I think you have got it right about the French not stockpiling, they are closer to their food and understand it. I have a theory that the worst of the panicking stock pilers are those who don't keep stocks in their cupboards and cook. They live hand to mouth on take-aways and eating out. They are the most likely to panic as there's nothing in the hose. Thanks to my mother and my life experience I always have food about me.
Keep calm and carry on!

Yes thats it Stanley the ‘ oh my God what will I eat’ . Many do not have anything in the fridge or cupboard so have nothing to top up. They are creating a store from scratch. Here we have a chest freezer full of home grown and home made products that I am just working through. We topped up meat supplies on our way here. Even then I bought the traditional 12 pack of chicken legs etc and froze as individual portions. We often only eat one between the two of us and have loads of veg with it. One thing I need to buy is potatoes. We are ours last year with all our visitors, and only bough a very small pack last Thursday. We don’t eat many potatoes but do need some

[Marilyn]

Even those of us who do tend to have high pantry and freezer stocks will eventually suffer.
I cut into a cauliflower today that was less than perfect. I’m thinking of making soup tomorrow after cutting the heart out. That will only happen if, after chopping and rinsing, it passes close visual inspection and “the sniff” test.

Just one more thing to note at the supermarket ( if I can be of any help)...I noticed folk stockpiling food from the back of food stocks. Supermarkets store food with shortest use by dates to the front. So check use by dates.
I bought some fresh noodles last week that generally have a 3 week use by date but mine had three days. So we adjusted meals to eat them straight away. Not a usual event...

[Sue]

Even those of us who do tend to have high pantry and freezer stocks will eventually suffer.
I cut into a cauliflower today that was less than perfect. I’m thinking of making soup tomorrow after cutting the heart out. That will only happen if, after chopping and rinsing, it passes close visual inspection and “the sniff” test.

Just one more thing to note at the supermarket ( if I can be of any help)...I noticed folk stockpiling food from the back of food stocks. Supermarkets store food with shortest use by dates to the front. So check use by dates.
I bought some fresh noodles last week that generally have a 3 week use by date but mine had three days. So we adjusted meals to eat them straight away. Not a usual event...

Yes we are working through our freezer, but still loads in there. We have plenty of dry products like flour, pasta, rice. We use very few tinned items. Tomorrow we plan on shopping for the week mainly essentials like washing powder, fresh fruit and veg, cereals, all stiill abundant here. ( we hope ) We shall buy some frozen veg because the variety we have left is mainly corn on the cob ( several bags) , a few kg of runner beans, one small bag of spinach and diced leeks. We have several bags of chilis, the result of an abundant crop two years ago, and one bag of cauliflower florets. We need some variety. I have loads of diced courgettes but those are usually added to other things rather than a veg by itself.

[Stanley]

Maz, I think 'suffer' is a bit of an exaggeration. We'll notice but no evidence we will have a third world experience. They know about suffering.
No shed yesterday under various pressures none of them bad.
Today is butcher's day, just the normal spend.....

[Sue]

Agreed Stanley and once I have found a recipe for several kg of red hot chilis we will be fine especially as we have loads of toilet paper. on a less humorous note I have nearly run out of Imodium, which just about controls my permanent gut problem ( ever since I lost a lot of intestine after a perforated appendix) . I can only get it here at the pharmacist and I have no intention of going and queuing. Eating all the veg out of the freezer doesn't help. Yesterday we had a more or less veg free day to calm things down. Home made pizza left over from last summers pizza party using our pizza oven and tuna macaroni for tea

Today we shall attempt a weekly shop clutching our special permit that allows us out of our home. We haven’t been out since total lockdown but I understand junctions are being manned by police and army. We are bound to be stopped in our brand new English car. Our neighbours say the shop is still fully stocked, we shall see.

The garden and orchard are looking smart. We are busy pruning ornamental trees on the lawn. I have moved the old compost heap and this afternoon will tackle a pile of soil that was going to be a raised bed for melons and pumpkins. We changed our mind as it is too far for the house pipe to reach and too far to keep carrying watering cans of water ( its about 50-60 metres down the orchard/ field). Its really a field we are trying to make into an orchard.the fruit trees we pollarded last autumn have leaves coming and in some cases even blossom .

Keep well everyone, keep smiling

[Stanley]

The Imodium situation must be worrying Sue. Post it to you from the UK?
I like your thinking about the melon bed and carrying water.
Has Bob started on the railway yet? Pics if he has please.

[PanBiker]

Doing more painting, maybe go for a walk but it's the dentist first, 9.15am.

[Stanley]

Second walk in beautiful sunshine!

[Marilyn]

Gosh....Imodium is kind of important then , Sue...
I always carry “gastro stop” in the campervan in case hubby gets stricken. I never seem to get gastro upsets, but he does occasionally need them... but he eats a lot more than I do and is more inclined to try different things in remote locations. He rarely needs them at home.
But if you need them, you NEED them.

[Sue]

The Imodium situation must be worrying Sue. Post it to you from the UK?
I like your thinking about the melon bed and carrying water.
Has Bob started on the railway yet? Pics if he has please.

He weed killed the patch yesterday Stanley. Watch this space.

As for the Imodium you are right, we have done our shopping trip for the day but there is a small pharmacist near the supermarket I could try on another day. We just got back from our shopping experience, we weren’t stopped. It was all very organised and calm. One person per trolley, one trolley per family. No more than two of essential items. Everyone was polite and helpful. I tried to ask one lady where deodorant was in my bestest french but had to resort to pretending to spray under my arms she laughed and said now she understood and showed me. Most things were there, masses of tinned stuff, milk, bread , eggs etc but next to no pasta. The french love pasta but most don’t normally cook a main meal as they eat at cafes and canteens with luncheon vouchers from work. I felt I had to apologise to one lady behind me in the queue. Everyones trolleys only had a couple of items but mine was full. As you can imagine our cupboards are bare having emptied them at the end of the year. This trip is the one where we stock up on essentials. We should be ok now but as I have several packs of home grown extra hot chilis in the freezer I am looking for interesting recipesany suggestions. The emoji there is meafter eating the chilis.

[Sue]

Life is getting very laid back. Up late, casual morning, gardening in the afternoon, late evening meal, TV then bed.

Thanks for the offer of posting Imodium Stanley, will see how I get on

[Tripps]

Life is getting very laid back. Up late, casual morning, gardening in the afternoon, late evening meal, TV then bed.

Welcome to my world Sue. Except for the gardening. A bad back after gardening could be more than an inconvenience at the moment so I'll give it a miss.

[Sue]

I am not used to it! But this gardening is energetic stuff and playing havoc with my nails.