Cat crazes

Meet Cookie.  This evil cat made us worried last week.  Like most male cats he would do his rounds of 3 days and come back starved and dirty.  Last Thursday, he smelled horrible and was really dirty.  We even washed him.  He tried to eat and drink but just stayed in front of the bowl.  The next morning his condition deteriorated, so we had to take him to the Vet.  If we have waited he would be gone.  We lost a few cats on the Farm because some are half-domesticated, they would never let us catch them.  Last year, one half domesticated cat died in our house.  It was the first and last time he let us hold him.  

The Vet did some blood analysis on Cookie and he said he was dehydrated.  He stayed overnight in a crate and had glucose perfusions, by intravenous. (see the shaved paw). He had a a glucose pouch attached to his paw.  It was ridiculious funny, I couldn't help but laugh, but the Vet said he could have died just of dehydration. Too bad I didn't take a picture. He has accumulated too much urea in his blood, and this made him nauseous, hence the lost of appetite.  His condition improved rapidly after his overnight stay at the Vet. This cat will be 4 years old on July first.  He was born a week after we moved in the Farm. 

Damn Cookie you scared the hell out of us!

Rien de neuf

I haven't post since posted for 2 weeks.  The main reason for this blog is to keep a journal and practice my writing in English.  To be honest, nothing really exciting is happening here.  We had a few warm days and there were go autumnal weather again.  I can't believe summer is around the corner.  Last night it was 11pm, the sun was still up.  That made me think about Norway, and the light they might have during the evening.  Don't know if they have a hard time sleeping.  I remember when we went to Denmark more than 10 years ago, we went camping and woke up at 5am, because the sun was so up and bright.  We thought it was 7am.

We have the travel bug again.  We want to go back to Wales, in the UK for a few days, but we are not sure yet.  I'm actually planning a trip to Thailand and Cam.bodia, we will go at the end of the year.  We are excited but a little scared.  I've never went back to my homeland since I was born.  A lot of preparations awaits up.  Passeports renewals, vaccines, etc.  I might even ask for my birth certificate, as well as for my parents when I'll get there.  I don't know if I will succeed in getting them, but I will need them if I ever apply for French citizenship. Dun Dun Dunn!

Combien y'a-t-il chats?

 

 hum, this is only moss that fell off the roof

There are a least 7 cats on the farm.  Some are even half domesticated, but I don't think they would be able to feed themselves.  The white cat has decided to live inside the house, much to dismay.  The owner wanted a lot of cats so they can chase mice.  Only the female cats do the work. lol

Snow stom and Flood in the North of France

I have only realized today that the North of France is 200 km long, as much as the distance from Ottawa to Montréal.  For those who live in the North region, they would say : "I'm from the South of the North, or the North of North."  (je vis dans le sud du nord ou le nord du nord).  That's how long is the region, it is narrow as well. 

You can have two different weather conditions in the same region.  Yesterday was terrible.  In Lille, they had snow storm and blackouts.  From were I am, almost of the tip of the North region (near Dunkerque), we didn't have snow but pouring rain all day long.  We were flooded!

This is a little cascade in the garden.  I couldn't even get my mail.

When I woke up this morning, most of the excess water has disappeared.  I must say, I was relieved.  I could have been worse, we didn't have any blackout.

Writer's block

I haven't posted since last Saturday.  There is nothing new worth writing about. I have the writer's block.   I am not in any way a writter.  The purpose of this blog is mostly to write more in English.

All I can say is that the sky has been grey for several weeks in North of France.  At least, it's not raining.  I hope the weather will be nice this weekend, so I can go to the shore, De Panne, in Belgium.  It is not too far from were I live.  http://www.depanne.be

photo from : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:De_Panne_Dunes_et_plage.jpg

My husband and I enjoy going further North, (Belgium and Netherlands,..).  It is closer for short  weekend getaways. I have relatives in Dijon, in Bourgogne region.  It takes more than 5 hours to get there by car.  And taking the highway is expensive: it could cost us up to 80 euros of tolls for roundtrip.  You can also take  the high speed train, but it will cost you as much.  It is not cheap to travel across France. So for now, it will be Belgium and the Netherlands.

Anyway, Happy March to all, hope it will be sunny!

What brought me here

Some of you may be wondering  how I ended up in France.  I've been here for 6 years already.  I must admit, I have a love-hate relationship with France.  When I was younger, I have always dreamed of France, I was a francophile.  I even got married with a French guy.  But the more I got to know the country, the less I was enthusiastic about it.  Their administration, the way of doing business, are unproductive.  French people have the tendency to complexify everything. Everything takes a long time : opening a bank account, going to the Post Office, renting an appartment, etc.  If I had started my blog 6 years ago, I would probably have a lot to say about what I have endured.  After all theses years, I've become accustomed with the way things work here.  My husband has started a business 5 years ago, so we have to stick around here for a little while. We have dealt with demanding employees.  They are protected by the French Employment laws, so it was really hard for hiring and laying them off.  In my opinion, this is part of the reasons why France unemployment is so high. Besides the rough paths encountered, being in France brought us a lot of professional experience.  We got to work with Germans, Belgians and Dutch. 

This is a sneak peek of what we do:

Winter is over

Nothing much new today.  
Winter is coming to an end here, in North of France.  It has lasted 2 weeks at the most. Flowers are already coming out. 

 

 

One of many fur balls on the farm

On a complete unrelated subject, we've received freebies from our solar panels supplier: a trolley case, a mug, a clock, baloons and candies, etc.  Totally unexpected.