NO MORE WATER FROM THE WELL

Apparently most wells dry up each year and so has ours - this week. (Not a big problem, you might think, but the French are parsimonious and well water is free, whereas mains water is metered.)
10 days ago I could water the whole garden. a week ago I either did the vegetables or the mixed border and pumpkins.

Very soon I could only fill 5 buckets, then just one watering can.

It is very hot - about 36 - 40. No point in holding your breath for a thunderstorm as they are always miss us and are just a field further away.

I thought I would have to watch as the garden died from drought and disease and stress but -

John has made me a tap for the veggie garden from the mains water. It has very little pressure so after an initial brave squirt of 8 ft it dwindles to a dribble and I am back to filling watering cans from it and putting little amounts on individual plants.

New gardens must be watered to get established.

Hopefully in a year or two most plants will survive the summer and I will just nurse the veggies like M. Blandin on the next farm who can grow 20 metre rows of cabbages with one can of carefully administered water.

It is like Lusaka and Zambia again and my childhood in Zimbabwe where water was always in short supply and a reddish colour. I still cannot bear to see a tap running while someone cleans their teeth even if it is me!! <

MAIZE, MAIZE, MAIZE, MAIZE AND MAIS AND FOOD SECURITY

So its monoculture here as well and no food security.

We are surrounded and dwarfed by the maize that grows all around us.

We chose this place because at least the rural economy was alive even if not well.
We were somewhat surprised that nothing was planted until late in April - only one crop a year? In spite of all that heavy machinery! Well that is because it is maize.

What is maize good for then? (Maize, huh! What is it good for?)

Basically it is for fattening cattle and animals. In Africa maize feeds Africans - by the way - not its primary purpose.

Fact is maize is not a good staple unless you also can get fresh fruit and veg and some protein. In Africa where people can't it is one reason why people succumb to HIV/AIDS. It needs to be supplemented with Soya etc.

Why were so many poor South African women both fat and not very strong - too much maize pap and no real food! It is a serious health issue.

Well it pays to grow it - BUT - IT USES VAST AMOUNTS OF WATER - and it dries up rivers, wells, lakes and artesian basins. (It dries up our well, too. Right In My Back Yard.) (Cultural Note for our male readers. The word "artesian" comes from Artois in Belgium. So Stella Artois actually uses water from doubly Artesian wells.)

So it is bad news. Here people used to grow several varied crops a year - none of which needed this kind of irrigation.

What does maize also do?

It makes people obese. Scientists and physicists are changing the structure of corn starch - modifying it - so that it makes food look lovely and not disintegrate - so ice cream doesn't melt and baked beans shine.

go -on - get a packet of corn starch - moisten it and see how it behaves. It is useful for cooks in small amounts -

You it makes fat and you didn't know how much you were eating did you? Have a look at food labels - go on!

All the way across Europe on our travels there was maize or there was nothing! Only Turkey has a sustainable agriculture.

Hungary had maize. Poland and Romania rural poverty. Maize is taking over the world - wasting water and killing people with malnutrition and obesity.

THE MULTI PURPOSE VEHICLE

Here it is!

Our new useful and air-conditioned Opel left-hand drive MPV which we collected while back home.

Much cheaper that anything we could find in France and it does all that we need. We now look as if we belong here as every local person seems to have something similar.

JAZZ IN MARCIAC

We went to the Jazz In Marciac festival - JIM! (Why did they call it Jazz IN Marciac - in English - and not Jazz a' Marciac - JAM? much more appropriate!)

We heard some fantastic jazz - saw some great performers!

Concerts start at 9 at night. The first night we left around 1.30.

The last night we were there - our fourth concert - we left around 3am, and there was still an encore to come!

We kept going on ice cream and booze in the intervals - no matter how great the show it is still possible to fall asleep in the middle of it after 4 or 5 hours! (Not too much booze luckily. On the way home on the the third of the 4 nights we were stopped by the Bold Gendarmes and I was breathalysed - for the first time in my life. Naturally the verdict was "c'est bon". What would you expect?)

We saw Wynton Marsalis, the Buena Vista Social Club and Omara Portuondo, Milton Nascimento, Avishai Cohen, David Krakauer and Kletzmer Madness, Laurent Cugny and the Enormous Big Band - had a astonishing singer - among others- all really enjoyable. We should also mention Marcus Roberts an American pianist. Wynton Marsalis was right. He is a genius of the piano. You should hear him.

Go on line and check out the festival and come and stay with us next year!

AND THE GARDEN . . .

What a lot of pleasure -
and what a lot of work!

I look at the way things grow and quite unreasonably feel proud. It is after all a felicitous outcome of earth and climate rather than my green fingers though until John put in the pump on the well I did carry about 15 - 20 watering cans of water a day!
It wasn't for too long however.
John also made the raised beds which is without doubt the easiest and pleasantest way to grow veggies.
Homegrown vegetables taste wonderful - if they have enough sun and water.
Garden produce is still a gift - so much richer and more abundant than hoped for and also astonishing. Reminds of my babies at 6 months when you look at an infant sitting up and gurgling and you think did that miracle really result from breast milk?
I am being green and as organic as possible which is actually laziness too because trying to cope with pests is really hard work apart from killing slugs which must be done.
The climate does help. I have been able to grow and harvest plants from seeds which is a first for me but then again it is all about learning new and different ways of doing and growing things.
I am a "une debutante de le potager et de la jardinaire"

WELCOME TO THE GUEST ROOM - ALMOST

John has worked hard - even obsessively to get this room habitable. It probably is comfortable temperature-wise now but more work needs doing to make it smart.
It was a hot, tough and exacting job. It is likely the neighbours kids have inadvertently learnt a few old English words when John was. shouting at the wall.

Yes I know -
It isn't finished
BUT
it has come a long way. John is being very thorough and careful - about the measurements at least.

There has been some anxiety from family phoning me and asking if I am really sure that it is safe to be with someone who shouts at the building as John does.

It can almost be stayed in. It lacks a skylight and will have a dormer or a velux depending on planning and the mairie.

The thing is that the temperature should be comfortable all year we hope!

ISOLATION OR KEEPING THE KITCHEN WARM AND JOHN HOT

It was 40 degrees under the kitchen roof while John struggled to insulate it and do the wiring to the kitchen ceiling. He could not reach under the beams and could hardly sit upright in much of it.
Need I say more?