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Childhood hobbies

Raining just about all day and the kids were at a loose end. Caroline had an inspiration and thought of French Knitting. Remember that, the cotton reel with pins in the end ? The only slight hitch was the cotton reels, I don't think I've seen a wooden cotton reel for over 10 years. The only thing for it was to make two cotton reels out of some scrap wood. A trip to the workshop, a bit of drilling, sanding and hammering and voila, two French Knitting kits.

Neither of us could fathom out how to do it, so a quick search on Google and here are the instructions for French Knitting.

Brittany Ferries plans increased service to France

Brittany Ferries plans increased service to France
However BF may fill the void left by P&O, but I doubt prices will fall.

BBC NEWS | Business | P&O to slash workforce by 1,200

BBC NEWS | Business | P&O to slash workforce by 1,200
Not good news for those of us running a holiday business in France that caters for English tourists.

Mole shotgun

I have been having terrible problems getting rid of moles in the garden. I've tried gas, poison, traps but still they come back. A friend lent me Le Detaupeur, a mole 'shotgun',and it seem to be working. I've had three charges go off recently and another explosive charge went off this morning and the number of mole hills is reducing. There is a bit more certainty that you have scored, because the only way the charge fires is when one of the little blighters pushes up the plunger. Adds a bit more excitement to my day.

Mushrooms

Today we went armed with a wicker basket and the Edible Mushroom Guide and we all ventured out to some local woods mushroom picking. Unfortunately, not a very successful fungus foray, only bagging a couple of edible mushrooms. The most frequent find was the Common earthball (Scleroderma citrinum), also known in the U.S.A. as 'pigskin poison puffball', marked as poisonous in my book. The other specimens looked like Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) or Autumn chanterelle (Cantharellus tubiformis), both edible, but we couldn't make a positive id considering the number of lookalikes. We have been told that in France you can take a mushroom to the pharmacy and they will identify it for you.

Move to France, maybe ?

Just as an alternative to this site I found the web site Don't move to France. Life is not a bed of roses here, and here is an alternative view.

It's a bit ironic that after France Telecom phoned about ADSL last night our telephone line has gone on the blink. It's still useable for voice but it's so crackley that modem speeds are way down and we keep losing the connection. Caroline phone FT this morning and they arrived this afternoon to fix the problem after testing the line remotely. Unfortunately, Caroline was out and I was round the back and missed them. They are coming tomorrow morning to have another go. Pretty good service really.