Below are the 8 most recent journal entries recorded in louise_e_f's LiveJournal:

Saturday, January 5th, 2008
5:13 pm	Christmas, New Year, Pets Christmas was busy with family arriving and departing in dribs and drabs. Isobel first on 16th Dec to Limoges, then Simon, Lucy's boyfriend, on 19th to La Rochelle, then Tony, Rachel, Charles and Lucy on 21st to Poitiers train station and Conrad on the same day under his own steam, then Alex, Izzie's boyfriend, on 26th to Limoges. My poor car needs a service! We had a lovely Christmas day with two more local English friends joining the throng and the biggest turkey I have ever cooked - once stuffed it weighed in at 28 lbs and took up the whole oven! Luckily I had kept the old independent bottle gas oven, so the potatoes could be cooked in that in the barn next to the house! Then Conrad (independently), Tony, Rachel and Charles (to Poitiers again) left on the 27th, Izzie and Alex on 30th (back to Limoges) and then Simon on 3rd (back to La Rochelle). Phew. Lucy is with me till next Saturday when it will be my last trip to Limoges for a while. It was lovely to have fanf and rmc and my grandson Charles staying for a good length of time, but it would have been nicer if I could have spent a bit more quality time with them and been less busy. But we did get in quite a lot of good card and board games and conversations. Charles can be very screamy and imperiously demanding at times, but is totally enchanting when bumbling about entertaining himself and when he giggles which is totally disarming. I can't wait to sit with him and read all the children's books that I have kept and have finally got out onto new bookcases on the landing. Sadly, one of my kittens, Chance, was killed on the country lane near my house before Christmas, and my darling old Rocky-dog went to Rainbow Bridge last Saturday 29th Dec. He was 13 and 3/4 years old which is a good age for a big dog (GSDX). He had been going downhill pretty steadily for some weeks and latterly didn't get up to greet me in the mornings. He stopped eating and then stopped getting to his feet (his back and legs were getting weaker and weaker) so it was obvious that the time had come. Dear old boy had a last small meal and drink, we got him up for a pee and then off to the vet. He went off quietly with no fuss and I was so sad to let him go. Lucy, Izzie, Simon and Alex were with me so the poor vet had an audience of weeping women and concerned boyfriends. They were so sweet, and thank goodness they were there or I would have been really miserable all on my own. After Izzie and Alex left, Lucy and Simon persuaded me that I should get a new dog asap to keep me company and get me out of the house walking with her. So we went to see a puppy that was advertised at the vet's. Her mother is a black labrador with a bit of GSD and her father - well who knows? Possibly griffon, maybe shizhu, a bit of spaniel? She is three months old, has longish, soft black fur, a terrier-ish face, lab-ish tail, short legs and huge paws. I have no idea how big she will get. The postman said did she have newfoundland in her? OMG - no, I hope not, I said!! Her French name was Mouffe which I liked, but I have been overruled and she is new called Rosie. She is very sweet and good natured and the cats are gradually getting used to her although not impressed. The two young kittens have taken to her the easiest. It may seem too soon after Rocky, but I think it's a good thing and will keep me from brooding too much. Rocky was with me for over 13 years and will not be forgotten, just as Jessie (who was 15 and 1/2 when she died) is never forgotten. I am glad I have Lucy with me for the next week and we are going on short walks with Rosie together and Lu is helpful with taking her out for pees. She will be settled in properly by the time Lu has to go back to Uni. We are getting her used to the car because I want her to be out and about with me and not shut in the house, so she will have to learn to be a well-behaved dog. I am mad, but then all my friends and family know this!! Bonne annee a tous. Come and stay at La Charronniere in 2008 and help me earn money so that I can stay here. Current Mood: busy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
1:17 pm	More cats! Since Chance came into my life I have acquired a few more cats! One of the outside cats keeps bringing me her kittens and it is getting ridiculous. She brought Cosmo to the food source in August - he is now about 5 months old. Then one of my 6 month old kittens produced a baby, Albert (Bertie), on 16th September, the day before she was due to be sterilised. (Silly me, I thought she was just a little round. Most of the queens round here look like footballs with four legs, a head and a tail before they drop their litters of kittens.) Baby Bertie has been bottle fed from about day three as his mother was too young to take care of him properly. He is thriving now at 7 weeks old and a real character. He is named after my neighbour here in France as he was born on M. Albert Font's 80 birthday. Then this week, as I was closing the shutters across the kitchen door late one night, a little fluff ball turned up by the steps, shivering with cold and covered in ticks. I brought her in and removed as many ticks as I could, then smothered her in flea and tick spray - what an introduction to the household! She has already settled in and is playing with Bertie and eating at every opportunity. As I put her in with Bertie in the dog cage I have in the kitchen, Bertie had to be smothered in flea and tick spray too. She is a lovely mottled mouse colour and very cute. I think she is one of the litter that Cosmo's mother has brought to the little barn next door to the house; the remaining two are grey tabby and white and very timid at the moment. I want to catch them and get them all re-homed asap because I cannot, simply cannot, afford to keep 10 cats, not to mention the outdoor cats who need catching and sterilising. So now there are Kitty Cat, the original cat, her three kittens Tigger, Cleo and Clementine, Chance, Cosmo, Bertie and Fleur. The four outdoor queens Mum, Miaow Miaow (she yells for food and is the current mother), Blanche and Pansy all need to be caught and sterilised. They keep having litters of kittens - at least 4 each per summer season. If we have a warm winter, they could simply go on and on reproducing. Current Mood: Poor (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
2:48 pm	Clingy baby Last Tuesday, as I was opening up the swimming pool on one of the few sunny days recently, a little scrap of a kitten came up to me, tail up, very confident, but full of snotty nose and runny eyes. So off to the vet we went in the afternoon and she had three injections - antibiotic, anti-inflamatory and steroid - worm treatment and was sent home with a course of antibiotics. She only weighed in at 800 gms and we reckon she is about 8 weeks old. She has a nominal birthday of 1st April and I have called her Chance as in Lucky! I have been bottle feeding her exclusively till yesterday on a 4-hourly schedule except at night. I went to the vet's again yesterday morning to say that she is much brighter but was not eating solids and has diarrhoea and fleas. So I left again after more expense with special concentrated liquid food, flea spray for her and frontline for the other cats, and was told to continue the antibiotics till the bottle is finished. I managed to persuade her to eats specially bought kitten food last night and she's had the other half of the little tin this morning as well as her 20ml 4 times a day of concentrated food. Next thing, what's the betting, she'll be constipated! I might give her some watered down formula occasionally just to get more liquid into her. She is tabby and white with slightly long-ish fur, is now flea free thank goodness, and spends as much of her time as possible either on my shoulder, the back of my neck or under my chin where she is snoring at the moment. Still snotty, but much better. She is so teeny next to my much pampered and well nourished three 16 week-old kittens. Tigger is gettng to know her, but the girls, Cleo and Clemmie are still out as from last night because it is raining and foul here. No doubt they will turn up later. I haven't mixed Chance with them till yesterday a little bit, because whatever she had might be passed on to them. When the girls did see her they hissed and growled, so we'll have to see if they will take to her or not. If not, I will try to re-home her, although there are so many kittens looking for homes at this time of year in France. The mum of my kittens has been neutered and so will they all be. I can't take on any more cats - they are costing me a fortune. Kitty Cat has shown no interest in Chance so far. I doubt she will be thrilled, just like Rocky-dog who gets up every time a cat tries to snuggle up to him, silly old git. Tigger again marked his territory (I think that's what he is doing) by peeing on my duvet at about midnight, so I had to hurridly strip my bed of everything and put the duvet into the wash yet again. Bloody animal. Then, because he was without his sisters or his mother, he wanted to be with me - no duvet to pee on, so stupid me let him in. I had to have a hot water bottle because of no duvet and spent a pretty restless night trying to keep warm and trying not inadvertantly to kick the kitten off the bed! I am such a sucker!! My poor gite guests, a nice couple from Worcester, have not had very good weather this week and today, their last day, is foul. Wet and grey and dismal. I hope they have had a reasonably good holiday nonetheless. Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Friday, June 22nd, 2007
4:59 pm	Time to relax a bit Had a friend staying for a week and, now I am used to being on my own most of the time, it is tiring making sure another person is adequately entertained and fed. She was very good and did all the washing-up as I did all the cooking. She cleaned the inside of the car, did some weeding, washed up the animal bowls far more frequently than I ever do (!), and was generally not much trouble, but I am tired today. I have gite guests for the week-end, so I had to cut rather a lot of grass in one hit on Thursday afternoon in the one properly dry (and therefore hot) spell we have had this week and make sure the gite was properly clean and prepared and extra duvet and pillows covered for the sofa-bed. It's a lot of work for a two-nighter. My usual terms are 3 nights minimum, but I need the bookings and the money. These guys are Swedish, so that's a good change. Perhaps I should have charged a bit for laundry, but never mind. They also arrived much earlier than expected...... One lives and learns. I drove to Limoges and back this morning to drop Lin off at the airport. It's 1.5 hours each way with a lot of spray and heavy goods vehicles on what is mostly an ordinary trunk road, so that has added to the tiredness. I shall watch rubbish telly and chill out with a hot water bottle (if that's not a contradiction in terms) and probably fall asleep. Paperwork and filing tomorrow, joy and happiness. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
5:53 pm	Atrocious weather and my first proper paying gite guests arrived yesterday! It's such a contrast to April when we were out in the pool. I think May and April have been reversed. There has been so much rain in the past couple of days that the entrance to l'Ecurie No.1 was nearly flooded and I expect I shall have to empty some water out of the pool. And because the temperature is still reasonably warm, the grass is growing very fast and both my mowers need attention. Sigh. I want to sort out my website and my webmaster has managed to block me out of all of it for the week-end so I am suffering from frustration. It's a bank holiday here, too, so he won't be back at work till Tuesday, drat it. So I spent the morning on the sofa with Kitty Cat and the three kittens asleep on my knee while I read my book, being very lazy, and then I went across to my neighbours in the rain for champagne and lunch and then a lovely sing-song in French and English. Great fun. Main course was not to my taste, but starter was lovely garlicy aubergine pate thingy and pud was home-made strawberry tart. Most things came from Albert's potagere - the fruit and veg. Now I am having a cup of tea and computing, and then I am going to laze away the rest of the day in front of the telly. Work will resume shortly! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
8:22 pm	Weather and more kitten stuff After the lovely week of weather when rmc28 and fanf and Charles and James and Rosie came to stay and we swam in the pool, it's now cold, damp and wet here in lovely La Charronniere. The paraffin heater is on (can't be bothered to cut more wood for the burner, lazy woman) and I am chilly. Keeping inside, I have managed to create a flyer for my business - how do I post a link to it here? - after having downloaded and bought Swift Publisher. It works, but isn't 100% intuitive. Perhaps I should just have used PowerPoint as I can manipulate that perfectly well. Anyway, it's done with the help of the kittens using me as a climbing frame and bouncing around on my desk. They are so funny. It won't surprise my family to hear that I am going to keep them all. Not for nothing is my nom-de-plume on most of the French forums Loopy Lou!! Cleo in a basket! Current Mood: cold (Comment on this)
8:15 pm	Weather and more kitten stuff After the lovely week of weather when rmc28 and fanf and Charles and James and Rosie came to stay and we swam in the pool, it's now cold, damp and wet here in lovely La Charronniere. The paraffin heater is on (can't be bothered to cut more wood for the burner, lazy woman) and I am chilly. Keeping inside, I have managed to create a flyer for my business - how do I post a link to it here? - after having downloaded and bought Swift Publisher. It works, but isn't 100% intuitive. Perhaps I should just have used PowerPoint as I can manipulate that perfectly well. Anyway, it's done with the help of the kittens using me as a climbing frame and bouncing around on my desk. They are so funny. It won't surprise my family to hear that I am going to keep them all. Not for nothing is my nom-de-plume on most of the French forums Loopy Lou!! Current Mood: cold (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
4:14 pm	Cats! My cat has just joined her three 5 week222222222222iiiiids//////ui../ (kitten on keyboard!) -old kittens on my knee. It is totally impossible to continue typing with all those claws digging into me, kittens falling off the desk with the mouse and committing hari kiri off my legs! Current Mood: amused (3 Comments |Comment on this)