French Fancy

AZAY-LE-RIDEAU



MONTRESOR


SAUMUR CHATEAU


SPOT THE LIZARD


BEAUTIFUL WISTERIA



It was a good week, although the weather was a bit iffy. I suppose if it had been sunny every day we wouldn't have moved very far from the vine-covered pergola and the bottles of champagne and wine (which is how we spent Thursday and Friday).

I am so amazed at how long it has been since I last blogged and how few I have done over the last couple of months. It's the Drifting In Brittany syndrome I think; there's always so many little bits and pieces to do that the days fly by, even though nothing I do is mega-important.

The Open University course takes up a large percentage of my time. I have an exam in Paris in mid-June and I've already started revising for it, even though my course is still going on. I've begun going to an atelier to do craft type things - I've taken up the knitting needles once again - Been growing seeds to plant in the garden later this year - seen people and done Stuff.

The more I see of the UK on the news the happier I am that we are living in the French countryside.

We are now four injections away from Poppy finishing her course of desensitisation for the many allergies that she has. I can't say she is much better but this treatment is meant to be something that can take up to a year to show results.

We've done a few other things to help modify her behaviour and surroundings. We've used an anti-dust mite spray on furnishings and rugs (glad we don't have carpets), I've ordered a DAP collar which is meant to be calming due to its having the power to release (artificially created) pheremones that would have been dispensed by her doggy mum. But best of all we've had a session with two more to come from a dog psychologist (educatrice canine) because we are trying to stop her and Misty becoming hysterical when visitors arrive and depart.

We're at the early stages of this and I'll post more after our second session which is in a fortnight's time.

Literary criticism is all very well when it is applied to literature itself but, for these last two months when faced with two Tutor Marked Assignments revolving around poetry, it has really been a long haul. Thank goodness it is over and the next month's work - involving gender studies - looks really interesting.

It is such a different mindset over here. I've never lived in the English countryside so maybe things are just the same in a small village in the Cotswolds, say. But when I walk around our town, go into the vets/doctors/chemist/post office etc, all the people that work in these places know your name, shake hands with you, ask how the dogs are. It's not a weeny place I'm in; it's a town of 4,000 people so it's not a bled ( Breton slang for a backwater). I used to think it was nice being anonymous and not knowing people nearby but I've changed my mind.

This month has just flown and it's hard to think why days in Brittany drift by like they do. Maybe it's the slower pace of life and the fact that I'm not in an commuter/office lifestyle any longer. I have my set routines involving two demanding dogs, OU studying, housework/cooking and the like, some techy work and all the bits and pieces that make up a day here.

I love my life out here more and more and the London homesickness seems to come less and less. My lovely man is always telling me to go off for the weekend to London or Paris and have some city life, but the urge to do that is not so very strong in me any longer.We're going to explore the Loire in April and that's our next good trip away.

Now off to study more about Lord Byron. I always thought that Don Juan was a poem about love but I couldn't have been more mistaken. How outspoken he was about the politicians and high-profile people in his day. No wonder he left the country.

Well the year has started pretty much as expected - buried in books for the OU course and trying to be a novice techy reading code.

That is the main reason there have been no new entries lately. I realise of course there is nothing worse than popping into blogs and finding nothing that is current. Bear with me; I'm going to try and do better.

It's been a very bitty time lately. Lots of little things going on. Nothing major, just stuff like Poppy continuing with her desensitisation (doesn't that look like an odd word?) shots. No real improvement yet, but I do now have a good and effective herbal spray which is a deterrent against her biting her skin. So, whilst she is not really better with her allergies, her tendency to self-mutilate is disappearing.

Been out and about (like everyone in the world I guess) buying pressies for Christmas, although I do do the bulk of my shopping online. We'll be in Paris for a couple of days next week and I'm planning to go to shops like Fauchon and other little specialist shops around the Madeleine area (that's where our hotel is). So looking forward to seeing the Christmas lights along the Champs Elysee. That will be a first for us.

I'll also be meeting up with a cousin of mine who is now working for a government department in Paris. Yes - a non-French woman who is a successful civil servant - quite a rarity, really. However, she has specialist knowledge of avian flu and mad cow disease and has had a great career travelling the world advising various agricultural commissions about latest developments.

The days and weeks drift by here in a haze of pottering around doing bits and pieces. I absolutely love it.

Hurrah. Feeling so much better now. Antiobiotics getting out of my system; chain-eating clementines and apples; trying not to spend much money so that there will be more to spend in Paris in three weeks time.

Poor Poppy has her third de-sensitisation injection today. It's quite difficult for her atm, as she is being stuffed full of the things that she is allergic to and her system is meant to then produce the natural antibodies (or something more scientific than that)and in the long term she will then have no more problems. Well, long term is one thing but in the short term she is one itchy depressed beautiful dog. She is having extra fuss, much to the dismay of Misty - who then has to have her extra fuss - and so it goes on and on.

Would you believe that a toothache could get progressively worse over three weeks despite that number of visits to the dentist - well, it has. It began with a broken filling that was impacting on a nerve. There was a small amount of inflammation so the dentist preferred to put in a temporary filling and I had to go back the following week. On the second visit it turned out there was more inflammation so she just put in a second temp filling.

All was going well and two days before the third appointment dreadful dreadful pain began, much worse than the initial problem. It turns out that I now have a gum and tooth infection and have very strong antibiotics; I was also given strong pain killers, as even paracetomol mixed with codeine was not working but I'm not going to take them. Pills that strong can just mess up your insides, as I found out with a lifetime of Nurofen that they think was responsible for all the stones I had removed last year.

So the tooth plus an OU essay that I found particularly taxing has not made for a great time. The essay is now finished and let's hope by my fourth dental trip next Monday that my mouth will have calmed down.

Got a bad toothache at the mo which can't really be rectified until the inflamed nerve has gone down. Living on codeine, which I think has the side effect of making one feel a trifle low.

Never mind. Am off to buy a few hundred bulbs and to make sure that spring will be beautiful for us.

Spent a long while with the vet this morning going through the results of Poppy's allergy tests that she had a fortnight ago. It turns out the results show a bad reaction to so many substances - trees, pollen, dust mites, other mites I can't recall the name of, chicken, duck, pork, peanut oil - you name it, from the sound of it they tested her for it.

Poor little dog; the laboratory that did the tests is one of the foremost animal diagnostic places in Europe. They've recommended desensitisation shots, which have a 60% success rate. Well, it's not a bad statistic so I've agreed and am now waiting for the lab to produce the vaccine that will be used. The first shot will mean she has to stay at the surgery for the whole day to enable them to monitor for a possible bad reaction. They amalgamate all the allergens into one shot so it might be a bit of a shock for her. Plus she also has a slight heart murmur.

The most expensive little rescue dog in the world

For absolutely ages I've been doing home cooking for our two bichons and I add in various vitamins. minerals and oils. Occasionally however I get a bit anxious that they are missing out on vital things and I also sometimes feel that they are getting a bit bored with the same old same old.

Well, I've just found this site and I've done a small order for organic (human standard) chicken dog food and also a lamb variety. I've also ordered some doggy chewing gum as that might help poor little Poppy with her self-mutilation. Yes, she is back with the chew chew chew symdrome, is living with a lampshade collar and we're awaiting some new allergy test fesults.

Maybe this food will help.

There is nothing like sorting out all the papers that one has collected in the course of months and months and putting them nice and neat in little sections in various coloured files and folders. With Amy McDonald playing in the background, two bichons chasing each other around the room and a chilled glass of cider for refreshment. It's been a productive day.

Our recent trip to London was done via the TGV and Eurostar which always means a great taxi ride in Paris, as we arrive from Brittany into the station Paris Montparnasse and have to get to Waterloo from the Gare du Nord. Our taxi ride last week was great, we had a first class driver who was a bit like a tour guide and we went down some lovely turnings that I'd never seen before.

It made us wonder why we don't try and get to know Paris a bit better. We always go to London for our city pleasures and it seems a bit daft really. In the 4.5 years we've lived here we've only had one proper short break in Paris, but numerous aforementioned taxi rides.

So I've just booked tickets for the Nutcracker Suite ballet at the Paris Opera one week before Christmas and it will also be our first chance to see this beautiful city with its Christmas decorations. We'll stay two nights in a hotel just beside the venue and if it works out well I see no reason why we can't go to either the ballet or opera a few times a year. Tickets are loads cheaper than Covent Garden; front stalls work out at about £50 a ticket! Can't wait.

I don't have links on my blog - too many to choose from really but here is a blog that is so very beautiful I just have to tell you about it.

Makes me wish that I took my camera everywhere.

There've been a couple of pics in which I've shown off the gazebo (or whatever it should be called) and the hanging baskets that surround it. If you're observant you might have noticed a mound of earth in front of it. It's because this terrace that began back in early June has still not been finished. It's meant to be done today and we'll just see if that actually happens.

...take my camera on my UK trip last week? What a numbskull! I wouldn't mind but it's tiny and would just have nestled in a corner of my bag. There were so many opportunities for me to have taken just amazing photos.

We spent a week staying at this hotel, which turned out to be pretty good. I got a very good deal; normally it would have been £195 per night booking direct with the hotel but through Expedia I got it for £120. Being above a pub did not turn out to be noisy because it was mainly end-of-day workers that frequented it and they were gone about 9pm.

Right - photos I could have taken;

We were crossing Waterloo Bridge on the way to the Aquarium when walking towards us were about 20 men in - I reckon - their early twenties. They were dressed as Roman centurions - leather jockstraps, tridents, helmets with wings, and very defined chests which looked very impressive from a distance but close up you could see that they were plastic fronts. Still a good effect, even with the (mock) woad with which they were painted.

We also went to see the current Harry Potter (it's hard to see movies in the original language where we are in France; they like to dub everything) at the Leicester Square Odeon - one of the small cinemas upstairs. We went to the afternoon showing and when we came out of the cinema about 7.00pm there was absolute mayhem. It turned out to be the premiere of Stardust and it was (minor) celeb after celeb on the green (when did it stop being red?) carpet. I couldn't tell you who I saw - lots of soap stars I reckon - except for the fact that Take That were standing just in front of me being interviewed.

The day before we'd seen (Lord) David Puttnam having lunch at the table next to us at the NFT. And the day after -again whilst having lunch - we saw Chris Evans and a bit later on had to jump out of the way as Aldo Zilli drove his Alfa really fast down Wardour Street.

One really excellent thing that we did was go and see Lord of The Rings (the musical). It really is a misnomer describing it as a musical. It conjures up all sorts of images that don't do justice to what is a sensational show. I know the reviews have been mixed but if you get a chance to go and see it, go!. There is much that reminded me of Cirque de Soleil and the costumes and settings are glorious. There is much audience interaction with hobbits and orcs (I had a firefly taken out of my hair by a hobbit) and I think we'll come and see it again next year. This time from the front row of the Dress Circle as opposed to the front row of the Stalls.

It's good to be home but I adore being in London. It's where I grew up and I feel totally alive when I wander around. Where we live in France is beautiful, but quite quiet and calm. I wouldn't want to live in London any more but I think I will visit it a bit more often that I have done

My glamorous parents in their heyday

these are very cheery to wear.

This is with a longish skirt, but I must do a pic with my baggy trousers because I think it might work better.

Still got loads of colour in the garden

Why do these Hollywood hotshots insist on remaking foreign films that are just so good and effective in their original language that there is no need for an inferior imitation,albeit with 'big' names. What's made me cross about this today is the rumoured remake of the German film The Lives of Others. Now I've not yet seen this, but by the weekend I will have because it left Amazon on Friday and I should get it tomorrow. It is meant to be a superb film, so why bother redoing it. What is wrong with watching a film with subtitles?

Now I've started on this rant I will talk about one of the most effective films I've ever seen, the ending of which I still think about some 20 years on - the Dutch film The Vanishing. This was remade with Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Sutherland with a totally different ending. I didn't see it but heard that they'd totally distorted the original film and it made me so mad.

I love foreign language films; I probably prefer them to most commercial Hollywood movies except for anything that features Meryl Streep. I know that a lot of people find her a bit too mannered and stylised, but for me she can do no wrong. I think she is the best actress in the world.





continued on Sunday.
last night we watched The Lives of Others and it truly is a remarkable film. One would think that a German film set in the 80's about the Stasi would be of limited appeal and interest but trust me on this - it is a superb engrossing film and when it finished we were so stunned that we sat watching the credits in German, too moved and into the experience to actually get up. I'm going to give it a score that I have never given to a film - a full ten. When I've done my French Fancy Film Score previously I've always felt there was a little something that the director or those involved could maybe have slightly improved on, but with this film it is as
perfect as perfect can be.

Found this quite good site which gives you an overview of all those famous books that you once thought you might read but never acually bothered to do so.

My favourite guitar man is No. 19 on this list and, even though it's a few years out of date, it's probably still pretty representative of people's taste.

Not bad for someone that most people have not actually heard of.

I regularly check my blog counter on the left of this post to see where everyone that has popped in comes from. It can be quite educational because there is a place called Burkina Faso that I've never heard of but I've just found out it is near Nigeria. Mind you, geography was never my strong point.

I seldom cover serious things in my blog, not because I don't think about them but I prefer to offload the trivia from my brain on to here and leave the serious stuff behind for me to dwell on at length. But I keep thinking about the McCann case, well it's pretty impossible to ignore it.

I don't have children, just dogs, but I really don't think I would ever ever leave three children under four alone in a hotel room. I very much doubt if I would go out and leave my (hypothetical)children alone in their own home and that's a place that they would be used to, with their familiar things around them.

Steve Allen, the LBC presenter, said recently if it had been a single mum, living on an estate, overweight, unphotogenic and none too bright and she'd gone down the pub (but popping back at 30minute intervals to check on them), then she would have been hung out to dry.

And how come the Sunday papers are full of pictures of Kate McCann as a child? What on earth is the point of that? Why open up the family album?

As to their guilt or innocence, if it were me that had been charged with a crime that I had not committed and there were certain questions that the police wanted answered, then I think I would answer everything put to me. I would not refuse to answer anything.

Have fallen in love with this bag and I'm really trying to forget about it. Why? Because it's over £200 and living in our French backwater I really can't justify having such an expensive bag. If I was still working in London I wouldn't hesitate for a moment, but times have changed.

for these to arrive and I really hope they come before we set off for London in two week's time. They're very casual and fun and will suit what I usually wear these days. All the smart shoes I used to wear are just in their boxes gathering dust.

Of course I could have waited and actually bought them in person but then there would be even less room for me to bring back other things. We're not driving this time but going via the good old TGV/Eurostar route so I don't like to be too weighed down with shopping bags.

who this is.

Now that we've lived here for well over four years our knowledge of French has increased to a level that we once never thought would be possible. During our first couple of years we went down the traditional route of going to classes and reading lots of grammar and verb books. These days we watch a bit of French tv, read the papers regularly, speak often to our neighbours and dip in and out of various rather light-hearted how to books and it just seems to come much more readily.

There is also the tried and trusted method of just saying a particular English word but with a French accent or taking a guess at what a word should be. It's amazing how often that works but now and then one can slip up. For example the word deadline in French is delai ; the verb to stay is rester; the English word sensible is sensitive in French.

I've met some expats who have been here for about 15 years and yet they can still barely pass the time of day in Fench. I've got no time for this because I think if you are going to live in a country then you've got to speak the language.

Lovers of the Pullman trilogy know that it's about a world where people have daemons - an attendant spirit/soul usually in the shape of an animal.

Try this quiz to find out which daemon you would have,

In the last week I've been out on my trike a few times and absolutely love the feeling of being out in the open air in a much more fun way than walking. We're very close to the Nantes-Brest canal and the paths alongside it are ideal for a learner cyclist. We hardly see a soul and when I can totally relax during my rides we will probably put the bichons in the huge basket that it is attached to my trike and go out en famille.

All my OU books arrived the other day and my man keeps calling me a Hermione because I've begun the course already, even though it doesn't officially start for about another three weeks. I've not been sent details of my tutor yet and I really hope whoever I get has a better rapport with me than my previous one. Maybe it's sour grapes - I ended up with 65% and thought I deserved a better mark - or maybe I just wasn't as good as I thought.

Having said that, 40% is the pass mark so I did reasonably well but I worked so hard and did my home exam absolutely honestly, even running out of time but not going beyond the required two hours which, with hindsight, was a bit silly. What difference would another 15 mins or so have made, except to maybe give me a higher percentage.

My first year was a basic bit of everything Humanities course and this year is just literature, beginning with the realist novel, my main four for the first two assignments being Frankenstein, Fathers and Sons, Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice.

Well, not Christmas really but for the end of the year when The Golden Compass is due to be released. It's the first of the Pullman trilogy to be filmed and, just as fans of Potter have waited with excitement for these last few months until we all knew what happened to Harry, so am I waiting with such excitement to see what wonders New Line Cinema have done.

Here's a little teaser from Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRJ8fiODPEc&mode=related&search=


And here's quite a good interview with the actress playing Lyra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwdWb1p5hGM&mode=related&search=

Come on now - do this quiz and find out your score. I got 27.

Lots of people tell their friends and relatives about their blog and stay in touch with family news and happenings that way. I'm quite the opposite. Not a soul that I know in real life (well apart from lovely husband and a few net buddies that I've met up with once or twice) know about my online thoughts here. Now and then I'm tempted to let people know but then I'd have to worry about things I said or secrets revealed.

The downside of this is that I don't very often have comments left. There are some blogs with hundreds and hundreds of comments but I have to realise - and remind myself - that I'm doing this for me and not for glory.

I know you can't always believe everything you read but I've just read a news item about Doherty's cat giving birth to kittens and one of the kittens having cocaine in its blood. Apparently the mother cat was given some cocaine by this imbecile and I don't care what he does to himself or his mates but to give drugs to an animal is the lowest of the low.

The most annoying earworms keep happening to me, the latest being Mika. Yes, I've downloaded the album and keep playing it very loudly. What an admission, eh

It's been a calm and lazy time lately. Friends have come to stay; picnics have been taken; lots of champagne drunk (it's so so cheap over here); books read; dogs walked; gardening done.

and that's about it!

I know that this has come to us much later than most gamers out there, but at last we have a Wii. We'd looked in loads of shops in our region but for some reason it proved so difficult to find. Never mind, it's with us now and we've both become pretty addicted to the tennis game that is on there, eagerly trying to build up our rankings; I've even ordered some rackets from Amazon to add to authenticity. I've drawn the line at a tennis skirt though.

How hard it must be for a dog to show that it has problems or is in pain. As regular readers (if I have any) will know, our rescue bichon Poppy has had a lot of trouble with her skin. She wants to bite or lick her paws, shoulders, anywhere she can reach and most of the time has to wear one of those lampshade collars. We thought we had the problem sorted when our local vet prescribed some treatment which suppressed her immune system and for a short time it did appear to work. Prior to that I'd had some minor success with a pill called Atarax, a calming agent, but that too only had short term victory. She's had endless other treatment, most of it very unsatisfactory and I was getting very low about the whole thing.

Yesterday we went further afield to see another vet that many people have recently mentioned. He spent some time examining her, touching her little trembling body, looking and tutting about all the medicine she had taken in her short life and has come to the conclusion that it isn't a skin problem at all. This little bichon had a very tragic start in life and suffered malnutrition and neglect and he thinks the problem is a skeletal one and that she is only biting herself as a displacement activity.

We have been referred to an osteopath who deals with animals; it's very very far away but I'll be making the appointment this week. As a coincidence, the vet we saw yesterday also knew about Poppy's sad story because he was one of the vets involved with the fall-out from the house in which she spent her first two sad sad years. He prescribed a pain killer for her back, asked us not to use the lampshade collar because it would have been bad for her neck and also for her soul (his words) and let's all hope that we are at last on the right track. Needless to say, we'll be going to this new vet in future.

It's been a while since I've paid a visit to my home town of London and I thought I'd go through the theatre listings to work out when to go (according to what is opening when), see a few shows, meet up with friends and family and generally have some hustle and bustle. Apart from something at the Royal Court and Michael Ball cross-dressing in Hairspray, there is very little that fills me with enthusiasm.

Of course if I was still UK-based there would be some things I'd half-heartedly go and see and no doubt enjoy them tremendously but, considering the amount of effort involved in us driving over from Brittany to North London (about ten hours solid in the car), I just can't be bothered.

Most of the musicals currently on offer I either saw first time around and with a better cast or else I have no interest in them. The dramas - on paper anyway - do not sound my sort of thing.
What a shame. Oh well, maybe much later in the year there will be something. Perhaps Stephen Fry's Cinderella will be worth a trip.

"Why I hoarded up this wretched little rag of the robe of hope that was rent and given to the winds, how do I know! Why did you who read this, commit that not dissimilar inconsistency of your own, last year, last month, last week?"

( Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, page 348, Penguin Classics, 1994).

It's one of my set books for my next course - Literature - at the Open University. It doesn't begin until the end of September but there's a lot of reading to be done during the course and I thought I'd spend as much time as possible making a head start.

When I saw it was this particular Dickens on the reading list I wasn't overjoyed as it has never been one of my favourites. But maybe it's because I've changed since I last read it or perhaps it's the benefit of the course I've just finished which dealt a lot with how to read and interpret texts. Anyway, I'm loving it this time round and for anyone interested in the other books I'll be covering, here is a link to what I'll be doing

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01eA210

Because all commercial dog biscuits and treats seem to have so much garbage and additives in them I thought I'd have a bash at some home-made titbits for our two little bichons. They've come out ever so well, too well in fact because I find them quite tasty.

They're little balls made from flour, olive oil, a can of drained tuna, some chicken stock and some mashed potato; baked in the oven for about 30 mins on 170 and then left in the warm oven for about three hours to dry out and become crunchy.

Goodbye Markies, Friskies, etc etc. You're not needed in our house.

Is that a word? Parcel-less?

For the first time in ages I've got absolutely nothing on order (apart from the Hot Fuzz DVD which I've pre-ordered, but it's only little so doesn't count.)

Because the dogs go absolutely crazy when the bell goes, if I'm expecting a delivery I hover within sight of the window so that I can gesture to whichever driver has turned up to pass it to me through the window. We still get a lot of noise and excitement when the dogs realise I've foxed them again but it's a lot easier than controlling them with the door open, especially Poppy - the rescued bichon with a troubled past - who lunges at arrivees and is a bit overwhelming.

She's becoming a bit of a problem in other ways lately. One of our neighbours popped round last week and went to do the bisous on the cheeks (4 kisses for special friends) and Pop lunged at him and tried to bite his ear. Very worrying and I'm searching all my books (and trust me I've loads) on how to proceed with some behaviour modification for her.

We've got a new hideaway in the garden - not sure whether you call it a gazebo, pagoda or pergola. Anyway it is lovely and photo will follow, as and when the patio that it needs to stand on will be completed. I'm waiting for the devis to arrive. A devis is the written quotation that needs - by law - to be signed by both parties before work can be undertaken. Of course you do get some workers here (both English and French...and probably every other nationality that is living here) that do work 'on the black' but, without sounding too much of a Proper Person, I do not like to do things that way. There is no comeback if there's a problem in the future and if you ever have an accident and there is no devis to show to the insurance people then, not only will you not get a payout, but the authorities can prosecute you for going to an unregistered company.

Well now, this gazebo or whatever has little curly bits all the way round so I can at least indulge one of my gardening weaknesses - hanging baskets. I adore them and have never really been able to satisfy this indulgence. But now I have nine baskets hanging all the way round and the only downside of this is the dead heading that I need to do pretty much all the time. It is getting to be a mini-obsession and not a bad one at that.

So surprised that Melinda Doolittle didn't become the winner. She has such a lovely voice and is easily the most talented amongst a pretty average bunch. I think she'll still go on to have a fantastic solo career and I'll be buying her CD's.

The OU course is all finished now and all that I have left to do is send off the test paper I completed yesterday in as near to exam conditions that one can achieve at home. I ran out of time to complete it and maybe I'm the only person in the world that stopped the clock at precisely two hours after starting, without anyone to witness that I did obey the rules. Perhaps I'm just stupid and I should have carried on until I felt that I'd written everything that was in my head and that might get me a better mark.

What else? Well, the garden is looking very wet but very beautiful and all our hard work has paid off. It's been worth the backaches and muddy jeans when I look at all the pretty shrubs and bulbs poking their heads through.

Poppy is now on new medication from the vet, just three days into it. If she was a human it would definitely help her because these pills cost €51 for a month's supply and if you know that something you've been prescribed is very expensive then you think it must automatically be brilliant. Sadly of course this is not the situation with our little number two bichon with the itchy skin.

At least I can begin blogging more regularly again now - my time is more my own but I do miss studying. I'll begin again in September and I think I'll do Literature for my next course and maybe begin a second one halfway through, this time in History which doesn't start until February 2008. . The trouble is that when you are not UK based they really wack the price up and each course costs £1,340! By the time I get this OU degree I might be clever but I'll also be poor!

I've been a bit of a preoccupied blogger of late. An OU essay to get on with, a holiday in the French Alps, lots of jardinage and life just getting in the way really. Which is not such a bad thing. So different from ten years ago when life was internet based and, apart from going to work, mostly centred around online forums and the like.

So, just as the media are reviewing Blair's ten year occupation of office, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my own life. I'm (as the parlance goes) in a very good place.

Still awaiting results from Poppy's allergy tests on Wednesday but, in the meantime, I've been doing yet more net research on skin problems in dogs and am now using a (human) pill that has had a lot of success in the USA. It's called Atarax, is an anti-histamine and anti-anxiety pill; I've got loads from when I had prurigo about two years ago (a bad allergic reaction following an insect bite that made me want to scratch my legs continuously). Just three days into treatment she seems s0 much better and I'm going to carry on with it for the time being.

I regularly buy online from a great UK company called Lakeland (kitchen and household product company - one of the best in England) and they give free gifts when you spend a certain (not a lot really) amount.

My free gift with my order last week was a cloth for cleaning windows. It uses water - nothing else, no sprays or chemicals or creams, just water. You spray the area with a light mist (I used my plant mister) and just one quick wipe with this magic cloth eliminates all dirt. It is absolutely brilliant. I've just used it and been totally amazed. Lakeland are very clever to give this as a free gift because cynics like me wouldn't buy a product that said it worked well with only water.

It's called an E-Cloth and the ethos behind the company is trying to get everyone to stop using household chemicals by producing this fantastic cloth that can make cleaning safe and quite fun - yes, I have to say, it was quite fun to clean the windows, a chore I loathe and detest normally.

I've just gone to their website and ordered the car-cleaning cloths, floor mops and some bath towels.

Try it - can't recommend highly enough http://www.enviroproducts.co.uk/

Our rescued bichon is having so much trouble with her skin. I thought changing to home cooking might have produced some sort of improvement but there are more and more itchy spots on her body and she is having to wear the Elizabethan collar more or less all the time now.

She's had conventional treatment from the vet, homeopathic remedies for skin and nerves and now I've just sent away for a couple of other products. There's nothing I won't try and buy to help this sweet dog so let's all hope there'll be an improvement soon.

I find it quite interesting that if you look how the amateur reviews are scored on Amazon (as in 2 out of 16 found this [review] helpful), people singing the praises of anything will get (usually) '100% of people found this helpful' whereas if you express displeasure or disappointment then only a few will say that they found it helpful. Surely it's better to be more discriminating, not just blindly enthuse about something?

Feel a little surprised today. Have been browsing the web looking for guidance on the techniques of Compare and Contrast as regards writing an essay and there are so many sites where you can pay to download someone else's essay and pass it off as your own. What a shame that this goes on or am I just a little innocent person lost in the field of academia. Maybe everyone does this and I'm one of the few left trying to write my own essays.

After years of buying gardening books and looking at pictures of the beautiful gardens that people have created, we've now begun to really beautify our plot of land. We back on to a wood and our garden was really a fenced off piece of woodland, very attractive in a natural kind of way but we had no flowerbeds. A couple of years ago my lovely man added a pond plus a fountain and we planted around it, as shown here.


Last weekend we added two big and wiggly flowerbeds and when the plants arrive from the nursery and they've begun to show a bit of colour, there will be more pics.