Update 11 May 2011

Well, they were chirpy last night, weren't they?  This warm weather is certainly keeping the crickets and their ilk awake all night,.  We stoically didn't give up trying to sleep though until half six this morning when the crickets were joined by the cockerel from the neighbouring farm.

The good news is that we were down in our veggie patch by 7.  We have lots of vegetables in here, including peas, beetroot, beans, courgettes, parsnips (which the French think are only good for animal feed), cucumbers and loads of tomatoes.  However, we want to make sure that the vegetable patch is sufficiently large to grow enough food for us to freeze for the winter as well as eat during the summer, so we are digging out a larger area by hand.  We could use a Rotavator or even the tractor but we are trying to do as much as possible without powered tools. Why? Because we want to reduce our carbon footprint and costs, and we think that it brings us closer to what we are growing because we are having to put so much effort into it.

Tightrope walking on a pylon

With the sun climbing rapidly, we retreated into the house for a drink and then we strolled down to the woods for a bit of log splitting.  Unfortunately, it was crawling with flies, the sort that go into your eyes, ears and mouth, so we retreated as quickly as we could.  On the way back to the house, the EDF network guys arrived to inspect a pylon, so we chilled out for an hour watching them.  The balance and confidence of the guy, or is that lunatic, up the ladder was awesome.  I would have been more nervous at 10 feet off the ground, not more than 80.

Danger de Mort - Electrical line maintenance about to begin

They are back in the morning to change something at the top of the pylon, so they've left the ladder in place, with instructions to us not to climb it.  Oh, and they've put a little red flag at the bottom saying Danger de Mort.  To be honest, the fact that the pylon is 80 feet high is enough to stop either one of us being foolhardy enough to contemplate doing anything other than sitting at the bottom with our mouths wide open.