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Post by bjd on Apr 3, 2024 17:56:55 GMT
Your bird is a gallinule or moorhen.
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Post by bjd on Apr 2, 2024 15:40:45 GMT
Land's End Town in Cornwall at the extreme southwestern point of the country. It has equivalents in Spain - Finisterra and France, Finisterre
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Post by bjd on Apr 2, 2024 15:37:32 GMT
Roy Rogers American TV cowboy
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Post by bjd on Apr 2, 2024 15:07:49 GMT
Since young people are back to buying vinyl records, the comment about sounding like a broken one might mean something to them one of these days.
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Post by bjd on Apr 2, 2024 6:52:38 GMT
That definitely looks like a pleasant holiday. The rental houseboats on the Canal du Midi are wider and more modern-looking than your narrow boat and are also popular in the summer. I think some of the major locks have full-time lock-keepers, at least during the busy season. The Canal du Midi page exists in English but the photos are better on the French page.
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Post by bjd on Mar 30, 2024 20:07:30 GMT
It was sunny and windy today but clouded over progressively. As we headed home from the park with our grandchildren about 5:30 we got caught in a downpour.
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Post by bjd on Mar 30, 2024 20:05:45 GMT
When we moved here I bought a compost bin at Lidl and have been using it as well as the contents of a big heap of garden waste beside it. Then about 2 weeks ago I learned that if I go to the local dump with proof of living here, I can get a free compost bin.
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Post by bjd on Mar 30, 2024 20:00:14 GMT
hey must have been really devoted to that barge to go to all that trouble. Not that devoted after all. They totally renovated the thing, then decided to move back to England so that their daughter could go to an English university.
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Post by bjd on Mar 30, 2024 6:36:42 GMT
You can still rent boats to sail along canals in France. It's very popular on the Canal du Midi in summer.
Last weekend in Toulouse, I noticed a lot of permanently-moored barges on the canal near where I stayed. Many more than a few years ago. Several had taken over the shore beside their mooring, put up a fence and seats or planted flowers. I'm not sure that is legal since it's municipal property but several had done so.
I used to know some Brits who lived in a barge on that canal. They had bought a sea-going barge in La Rochelle or somewhere but it had to be cut into 3, the centre removed and the front and back soldered together in order to fit under bridges and along curves of the canal.
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Post by bjd on Mar 29, 2024 7:59:29 GMT
It started to rain yesterday late afternoon and has been doing so ever since. Not heavy, no wind but it is supposed to continue all day. 13° this morning.
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Post by bjd on Mar 28, 2024 20:13:16 GMT
Seven years already??
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Post by bjd on Mar 28, 2024 15:38:18 GMT
I'm happy to see what a narrow boat actually looks like. I have a book called "Narrow Boat to Carcassonne" about an English couple who took their narrow boat across the Channel and then sailed through canals to Carcassonne in southern France.
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Post by bjd on Mar 28, 2024 12:07:23 GMT
17°, very windy, mostly sunny.
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Post by bjd on Mar 28, 2024 8:03:27 GMT
Back at home after being in Toulouse for 5 days. The garden looks about the same other than the wisteria has flowered and there are a few more tulips, some of the recently planted gladioli are pointing their heads out of the ground. A mix of not too hot weather and some rain obviously. New weeds, of course.
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Post by bjd on Mar 20, 2024 19:07:52 GMT
It was sunny and 23° yesterday, overcast and 17 today, cooler every day, rainy and below 20° every day for the next two weeks.
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Post by bjd on Mar 20, 2024 19:06:02 GMT
Thanks, Mich. I talked with my son who lives near Ottawa today and he said there had been no snow left and that the river was not frozen, then it snowed again yesterday afternoon and temperatures were around 0°. But at least, by the end of March, you know it won't last too long.
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2024 18:59:50 GMT
Interesting slip of the typing finger, Whatagain! "Purin" in French means liquid manure.
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2024 17:34:52 GMT
That shrub is a loropetalum, a member of the witch-hazel family. Also called fringe flowers. I have others in the garden but that one is the biggest and nicest because its leaves stay dark. I have two older varieties and the leaves are more greenish. They come with pink or red flowers on dark leaves, but I also learned there is one with green leaves and white flowers.
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2024 6:35:53 GMT
Ambarès-et-Lagrave Town in the Gironde department of southwestern France
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2024 6:34:29 GMT
Ava Gardner 20th century American actress known for her beauty
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Post by bjd on Mar 19, 2024 6:32:26 GMT
Aren't there some cases of measles in the States these days? Probably a result of anti-vaxxers, or perhaps being brought from elsewhere. After years of measles being one of the success stories of vaccination.
I caught mumps in my late 30s but had it very lightly. Didn't know what it was, in fact. But I had been vaccinated as a small kid.
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:54:00 GMT
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:43:48 GMT
A few photos from my garden this afternoon
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:27:01 GMT
I like that dark blue agapanthus. Mine has leaves but is a long way from blooming.
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 19:21:26 GMT
What does a l'ancienne mean? Old style or traditional.
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Post by bjd on Mar 18, 2024 6:00:13 GMT
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Post by bjd on Mar 17, 2024 18:06:26 GMT
I'm reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I usually really like her books but keep stopping this one and looking for something more light-hearted. It's the story of a poor Appalachian orphan after his young, junkie mother dies and the kid's life is so depressing. Well written though, like all her books.
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Post by bjd on Mar 17, 2024 9:10:41 GMT
Peat not being a renewable resource, you won't find it at all in a few years.
Cheery, I saw on a gardening video that dahlias also grow well from seeds.
It has been warm here (20-21°) so I finished planting some new dahlias in the places where I removed the dead penstemons. I went to the local garden centre but they hadn't received many new perennials in little pots. I read that summer is probably going to be hot and dry in Europe this year so am trying to limit new plantings.
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Post by bjd on Mar 17, 2024 9:05:41 GMT
I too am most impressed by those trees that seem to be growing out of stone and bricks rather than earth.
Bixa, have you read Malinche by Laura Esquivel? The story of a young woman, Malinche, who became Cortes's interpreter and lover.
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Post by bjd on Mar 14, 2024 17:21:27 GMT
Still 19° and sunny at 6pm. I spent the afternoon in the garden.
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