Uncertain days ahead

What a difference fourteen days makes to my world.  Who would have ever thought that the UK would be leaving the European Union?  For me, it was unthinkable and having done my postal vote I felt confident that the Remain side would win.  I felt physically sick on Friday, 24 June when I woke up to the seven o'clock BBC Breakfast News to hear the very sad and misguided result.  We have, of course, a couple of years of uncertainty until we find what effects it might have on those of us who live in Europe with the rules that applied while Britain was a member of the EU.  Financially it could be difficult for many British immigrants in Europe if pensions are frozen at current rates, if our medical situation changes and if the exchange rate goes against us.  I am still hoping that Article 50 will not be invoked and that we will not leave.  The lies told by the Leave campaign and believed by vulnerable people, were so enormous and serious that the referendum result should be declared void.

I have completed, in pencil so far, the forms for me to apply to become a French citizen. A friend, Nicky, who is also doing this is coming to lunch this week to discuss all the details so we know what we're up to with the documents we have to provide.

The Workaway I picked up when I took the boys back to Roscoff turned out to be a lazy, swearing and shouty person and I felt very threatened by him.  Two days after he arrived I took him to the train station to leave, I had already had to say I would call the police if his aggressive and frightening behaviour continued.  I have never had a bad experience like this and hope that I don't again.  My next Workaways are two French girls arriving later this month - I look forward to meeting them.

The weather was not kind during the last half of June.  Everything in both the veggie patch and garden has grown like mad because of the rain and the warmth in spite of very little sun except for in the late afternoon and evening.  

Some of the roses growing on the pergola have really suffered in the rain with the blossoms looking very tatty even before they are fully open, but on the whole the garden seems to have enjoyed the regular natural watering.

My chick, Annie, continues to thrive and spends her day between the terrace and the house and her nights in the garden hen house, which she hates and is always first out of the pophole when it's opened in the morning.

She likes to sit on the top edge of the laptop screen and peck at the cursor as I move it. It must look like a fly to her I think.  Whenever I swat a fly I knock it from the swat onto the floor and she rushes over immediately for a small protein snack.

My current book club book is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - I am just over half way through the 327 pages and am thoroughly enjoying it.  

I usually do all my reading in the garden while lying in the sunshine, so it has been difficult to get enough hours in so far.  Hopefully July will provide better reading possibilities with seriously sunshiny weather.

The second book I have to complete before the group meeting is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.  The story takes place during the second world war and is mostly located in Brittany.

I have employed a great worker to do the more skilled tasks which most Workaways might not be able to tackle successfully.  Dan came for two days last week and cleared up several outstanding items on the To Do List.  He's returning on Monday to establish what is wrong with my leaking chimneys and hopefully to resolve the problems.  

My Land Rover - safely back home again having been to Garage Barrington at La Cheze and

got through it's CT (MOT equivalent) last week so that's another two years sorted, under the French system.  I completely forgot that the registration document had to be presented with the vehicle, so found myself driving nearly an hour back home and then back again to collect it before the booked time for the test.  I took the opportunity of being much further east of where I live to visit a friend, Colin, who I hadn't seen for a while.  We had a pizza and a coffee inside as the weather was not being kind.

Yesterday afternoon I visited, with other members of Gardeners in Brittany, a Facebook group, a garden in Gouarec.  The weather was kinder than it has been and at least it didn't rain while we were there.

I didn't take many photos of the garden but seem to have taken some of the buildings there and of members of our group.


















We hope to do more visits in the future to other gardens in Brittany.  There don't seem to be many open gardens in my department, 22, but I'm not far from departments 29 and 56 so we have a fairly wide range to wander in. 

No gardening here as it's been drizzling all day.  I bought two plants at the garden yesterday but they'll have to wait until the sun comes out before they find their homes in the earth here.  

Three things I like:

1.   Picking my veggies which are now growing up on the field.
2.   Meeting new like-minded people.
3.   Watching Annie getting bigger and stronger.