Tuesday 22 September 2009

With a bang and a clatter


With a bang and a clatter and a squeal of brakes and a plethora of French words shouted up to the Heavens, our top beams arrived.

Coughing its way across our back field came Dani's lorry, supposedly having been mended but whatever was wrong was nothing to do with the engine or exhaust because that was still as was: fuming and smelly.

Reversing, the lorry arrived at our back entrance, stopped, then upended its back and shed these huge long planks of wood, but in separate piles. Et voila! Our roof beams are here! But hope the wood will be OK. It send up a hell of a moan as it slithered off the lorry.

Message from Gus: Bonjour et bienvenue à mon blog. Je suis resté ici pendant trois jours, mais je n'ai dormi pas pendant la nuit avec Monsieur, Madame, et le grande chien dans l'autre caravane. Mois, j'ai dormi dans le Hut. Ce ne'est pas desiable pour moi. Je suis un chien francais, et je pense que je doit dormi dans l'autre caravane parceque je suis très malheureux ....

Now what's this! What is this dog doing! Saying that this is his blog, and then going on to complain that he has to sleep in the Hut while the rest of us sleep in the other caravan! Enough!

You will probably have to enlarge this photo, but in the middle is one of the huge number of wall lizards which share our home. When we arrived there weren't too many around, and they were very nervous and most times could only be seen from a distance. This was probably because of the large population of feral cats which inhabited the house before we arrived. Now they have fled, the wall lizards have started coming to life, and can be seen everywhere. Still shy, they scuttle away slower than what they once did, and take longer to do so: I think they are relaxing now they aren't being hunted by the cats. It's nice to see them around, the same as the bird population which is increasing, and is very good for the soul. Watching the lizards and birds go about the doings of their day is very calming.
"Et pour moi aussi. J'aime les lizards aussi......je voudrais jouer avec les lizards...." Gus, get off my blog!


Talking of birds, out front this morning, and there was hundreds of swifts parked up on the electric cables and in the nearby trees. It was heavy mist, so I think they weren't able to feed. An Internet search posted up the info that they normally sleep on the wing, and hardly ever 'park up'. Perhaps their sat-navs were confused by the weather, after all they have a long way to go - down to Africa which is thousands of miles away and they have to cross the Sahara, so perhaps they were taking time out. They normally fly at night apparently, so were either regrouping, or even perhaps wanting to come visit with us!

I feel very humbled by the swifts. Such small birds, and to travel so far, well.... I find them inspiring. They can live for up to sixteen years, and that is a huge amount of commuting to do between Africa and Europe. What courage for such small creatures.


Et voila! Mon photo!

Merci pour visiter mon blog, et au revoir pour le moment.

And with that, I think I will give in and say bye for now. Obviously Gus is settling in and Lester's hand has been patched and is now mending. Bools and Gus continue to argue, as any males together will do whether they be humans or doggies, especially when Fleur comes to visit. Both of them, it would seem, have the hots for her.

The rain has stopped, the main roof beams are here, and we are now four.

6 comments:

DUTA said...

Congrats for getting the top beams!
Vera, your French is very good.
The second picture, that with Gus standing on his tail on the white slates is superb! He's very cute.

Land of shimp said...

Not to be indelicate, but aren't the dogs neutered? That generally cuts down (har har) on the dating life of the average dog :-)

Gus is quite the handsome dog, and I'm sure it a fun addition to the family.

By the way, I'd never get my husband out of the ruins of the wall, as he's rather fascinated by lizards. We have a large pool in our backyard, and a few weeks back, as we were doing some maintenance, there appeared to be a sizable bug moving rapidly in the water. On closer inspection it turned out to be a tiny toad, taking a dip. We fished him out, as he almost certainly fell in (and were grateful as the poor thing was too tiny to get himself out, and would have drowned).

Since then he peers around the yard, hopefully, looking for more tiny toads with whom to make friends. The toads seem to object to these overtures.

Fun post, and good luck with your roof beams!

Vera said...

Hi Duta, Gus is cute and becoming a wonderful part of our family. Nice to have you visit.

Vera said...

Hi Land of Shimp: We don't have our male dogs neutered because we think that it takes away a lot of their character, sort of makes them into half dogs. But they aren't over sexed, and haven't as yet fallen in love with shoes and cushions and things. Just Fleur, our neighbour's dog who is an absolute flirt of a dog and encourages our boys on, then sits down on her tail end and says 'no'. She is naughty.
Lizards are very interesting, and we love watching them as well. It is lovely to see the population come alive this summer, after their decimation by the feral cats. I am endlessly having to rescue them from the various water containers we have around here - they fall in and can't get out. Also do frogs here as well. And also have a frog which sits on the wall and makes a hell of a din, but have never seen it although my husband has after having rescued one which had got into the bedroom caravan and had nestled itself down on my pillow. Hope your froggy finds some pals and makes more froggies for you to enjoy.

Anonymous said...

I've noticed the swifts all gathering together too,I think they're getting ready to fly south.

I'll miss them. I love it when they arrive in May as the herald of summer.

FF

Vera said...

I miss those swifts now they have gone. Just like I do when my family have visited. Strange that. But I keep thinking of them flying down over the Pyrenees and then on to Africa. Such little creatures, and such a long way. I know that it is in their genetic inheritance to make this journey, but I still feel for them.