Curfew

It's said (but I don't know by whom - is it "who" or "whom"? - cor blimey, brain the size of a planet, albeit a small one, and I still appear to be thicker than thieves, or summink) that people who remark about what they ate at mealtimes demonstrate an extreme lack of imagination, so I'll show what we noshed a few soirées back (cos I like the colours), preceded by the streamside dogstroll of a couple of late après-midis ago, which, in turn, is preceded by a snap from yesterday's supermarché trip where a rather impressive display of locally grown vegetables caught my attention just as a supervisor's voice boomed out from various speakers that there were just twenty minutes left before they shut up shop at six - which is when the daily Covid curfew kicks off - at which point there was a mad dash for the checkout tills followed by an even madder dash to drive home before six in order to avoid a mahoosive fine, or worse, by the rabid cops who we spotted lying in wait on our way to the Aubusson Carrefour supermarché, thus causing us to take avoiding action by taking the back road home at a thoroughly illegal ten past six due to a time consuming petrol stop where I had big trouble opening and closing the car's petrol cap lock (needs a squirt of WD40) and Geo had a teeny bit of trouble remembering the bank card tap-in number thingy. Which reminds moi, some chap was recently arrested for speeding at 190kph and his excuse was that he was trying to get home before the 6pm curfew. Worth a try. Didn't work though. You're nicked, sunshine. Fortunately we weren't, thanks to our devious back roads escape ploy. Was quite busy up there with other lawbreakers having the same idea. Er, where was I? Ah yes, photos...

Back valley

Sundown's noticeably later. Not that we've had much sun lately. Slightly longer evenings mean we go out for late afternoon dogstrolls a bit later. Used to go at about fiveish, now about sixish. Street lights come on at 6.40pm. Roll on spring. When do the clocks go forward? Must be soon.

Anyways..., I'm rabbiting. 

Had a drive around a few days back. Went to look at a property for sale near St. Georges Nigremont. Curiosity. Saw it advertised on Leboncoin. Drove past it, didn't go in, still occupied. Lovely building but slightly hemmed in by a couple of neighbours. They're probably very friendly, but... nah, not for us. Too damned pricey for a start (€112000). And doesn't get the evening sun.

 

On the drive back home we passed an amazing old tree. Stopped and took a photo, not a particularly good one, bit dark, late afternoon.

 

Then stopped off for a dogwalk, down in the back valley, in a field with a stream which is usually occupied by cattle. Never been in that field before. Been past it dozens of times. Sort of faces east so doesn't get the evening sun, unlike our usual dogstroll fields up Sprocket Hill, which faces west so does get the evening sun, but no stream. Swings and roundabouts. Er, what evening sun? Haven't had much sun lately. Have I mentioned this already? Sign of getting old, saying things twice. And dandruff of the eyebrows. And it's said that oldies get more Tory and supportive of Brexit. Strange. I get more and more leftish, and European.

Anyways..., I'm rabbiting.

For the next day's dogstroll I was about to go up Sprocket Hill when Geo said why do we always go up there when there are loads of other places to go? So we went back down the back valley stream, again. Still no cattle there so into the field we waltzed. Dull weather again, but at least it wasn't raining. We're very lucky to be able to wander around such a pleasant beauty spot. Kept thinking of all those lockdown Brits (and Frenchies, and all other global city dwellers) cooped up in overcrowded urban rabbit hutch boxes. We may be poor peasants but we count our blessings. Then Hamish went knee deep into black streamside mud. And I trod in a cowpat.  

 

Amazon Crime

I used Amazon for the first time in December to buy a few shortbread Christmas presents. At the time I innocently signed up for a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime. I've just discovered that they've taken two £7.99 monthly payments from my account without me realising. Daylight robbery Hidden in the depths of the small print of this free 30 day offer is a tiny little statement that if you don't request cancellation within this 30 day period they will automatically start a standing order to take £7.99 per month until such time as you figure out a way of ending this arrangement - not so much Amazon Prime as Amazon Crime. If you don't notice that these payments are being made (as I didn't until I made a rare visit to my online bank account) the payments continue indefinitely. How many people have fallen into this trap, I wonder.