Mother Nature goes to town dolled up in hat and handbag

This years spring has been like an old woman entering the cold sea, a tentative toe at a time. I’ve been told it is an El Nino year, so hence the strange lengthy cold and wet spell. Whatever the excuse, I am not bothered, I just wish it would come! The odd sunny warm day pops in, like a friendly neighbour for a cup of tea, but once drunk, disappears again and we are back to grey, damp days. And this is France! Tsk, tsk, tsk is what I have to say, pull your boot straps up Spring and get on with it! I am ready to garden.

We’re trying something new in our garden this year, building truly raised beds, using pallets. (No more bending and kneeling, and less weeds. Hopefully.) There will be more details on this in a later dedicated blog, but suffice it to say, its a slow project as I work between boughts of rain. Yup, I am a fair weather gardener and not ashamed to say it.

But what I really wanted to talk about here is how this year Mother Nature has gone mad. The garden may be delayed in its growth, but this has definitely been made up for in animals. We figure it is the colder, wetter, consequently darker days that have made the animals bored and looking for something to do. But, honestly!!!

Make your own dog (and cat) food – easy peasy and cheap!

We like good food, real food here at Pumpjack & Piddlewick, so when we got a cat, and then a dog we felt it only fair that they get good, real food as well, e.g. no preservatives, fillers, etc. so we took the decision to give them natural, home made food.

With our cat, as a consummate carnivore, it was quite simple~ fish, chicken or beef. When I cook for us, I make sure some is set to the side for her (which I simply sautée up). When I buy for us, I simply buy extra for her. And when we have vegetarian nights? I often make double batches of meat and store in the fridge/freezer ready.  And the difference in her! Her fur in particular, amazing! So beautifully soft and shiny. And then life got easier when we got a dog.

Stealing healing time – take 20 minutes

When we changed our lifestyle almost the first thing I noticed was ‘time’. I suddenly seemed to have lots of it. And that is something to savour.

I have found that when one changes location, job, etc. it gives you a sense of having more time. Maybe that is why I like to embrace change. And I have also found it takes time to fill time. (Sounding very profound here.) That once I settle somewhere, after a fashion, after one has started to make friends, started to understand the new needs of work or found new projects to undertake, that time seems more fleeting.

So every now and then, fairly regularly really, I like to steal time back.