Have I been idle over Christmas? NO!

Here's one of my recent efforts with an old window frame. This time for my brother in law. It's a great way to make a living. (That was irony or sarcasm or something, I was never very good at explaining grammar.)

Merry Noel and all that

I'm two minds more than usual at Christmas. French and British. Usually I automatically choose one mind for each activity. But Christmas is different, since it's almost always shared French and British participants. So it takes longer to recover. While in self-imposed therapy for this recent dose, I've been reflecting on the things that are the opposite way round on either side of La Manche/The Channel. Here's a few examples:

Obviously, which side of the road we drive on;
Which way round the spine of a book reads;
Which way round the brakes on a bicycle are;
Whether your light switch goes up or down for on;
Does your adjective go before or after the noun?
etc.

Let me know the things you've noticed ...

Window frames

Imagine one of these windows in a completely ruined state; no longer in a building, lying on the ground, glass cracked etcetera etcetera etcetera. Now imaging sanding, cleaning and polishing said frame, choosing a photographic subject, and bringing the two together and you have ...

Hardly a cheery note for Christmas

It's harder and harder to look forward to Christmas while having stomach-churning moments in the face of consumption consumption consumption. We do what we can. It's not much.

On 21st we will have a modest camp fire. More CO2 - true. But also a genuine celebration of the winter solstice and the start of the sun's return. A recognition of the importance of the most basic elements of life. Our increasing self-sufficiency for at least our vegetables relies on following and understanding seasons and growth. Our heat comes from burning wood grown locally and replanted in biodiverse patchworks.

We have continuously reduced our electricity consumption over the past four years.

It's a journey.

Photo project

This project takes a bit of getting into - it's not a bite-sized experience. But it's well worth making the time for, being aware of what you feel as you watch it.

The whale hunt.

Eating the harvest

After a swings and roundabout year in the garden, we're digging into "la cave" and the garden for meals. My better half is about to embark on a day of quiche-making and freezing, which will no doubt include the above in some form. No fresh tomatoes of course, but sauces made and bottled during the summer are coming in handy. The leeks are still in the garden and falling to temptation from time time. The carrots, spuds (Manon and Rats), onions, garlic and shallots are all taking part. Add to that lot a few frozen beans and mushrooms and an indian or caribbean recipe or two and the possibilities are endless and mouthwatering.

More cafepress stuff

Following some great feedback from folks about birdinabox, I've also opened oiseauxmignons - a kind of french birdinabox, and sunflowergems with a smaller number of cracking images. Links are also under my profile photo on the right. Some sheep stuff to come soon.

Birdinabox

I've been producing little (mostly) square cartoons that I've referred to as birdinabox for a while now. Al started by having some redundant business cards that I'd cut the address off after I moved, combined with an idle afternoon making finger blobs with my daughter. A set of them is on my flickr pages. Now I've just started to make them available through a cafepress shop too. Have a look. Let me know what you think. There are more images and more formats for other products to come.

More on sustainable consumerism

Some very interesting ideas, but ...

Mole hills at minus 7

The chilly start this morning didn't encourage me to leap out into the great outdoors, and indeed quashed my plans to hit the trails on the mountain bike. But it did have one unexpected benefit, which is that the mole hills stick together in convenient lumps, making it much easier to pick up and move. Half an hour of pottering about like that and I'm back indoors for a hot lunch in front of the log fire with a tolerable sense of merit.

Winter Fields

A recent posting to my flickr photos.

Local singular art

Well, it's not (very) local, and 'singulier' doesn't usefully translate as singular; but never mind all that, here's a couple of links that were available at the opening just now. What do you think?

Evelyne Postic

Bernard le NeN

And Galerie La Rage

the facebook phenomenon

Twitter, facebook, myspace etc. etc. etc. What's it all about? This struck me as one answer from
quotesoftheday " The easiest kind of relationship is with ten thousand people, the hardest is with one." -Baez, Joan

Perspective

If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep... you are richer than 75% of the world's population.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the wealthiest 8% of the world's population.

If you woke up with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week...

Source unknown, via Evelyn Rodriguez

More photos from the woods

In the woods

After a heavy weekend with my better half's family it's taken a couple of days to repay the sleep overdraft, but a good blast on the mountain bike and exploring on foot got rid of a few more cobwebs just before lunch. There's a ruined abandoned hamlet in the woods that i went to have another look at with fewer leaves on the trees. The owner might be persuaded to sell, but I wasn't sure about its siting on the hill when I first found it this summer, so I went for another look. It would need a lot of plantation trees cut down around it, but after that it could sit quite nicely, although it would get little morning sun.

Later on I passed a track that I seemed to remember headed down to a ruined mill complex alongside the Doulon. I was a bit out in my mental map, but found it anyway. It's more complex and fascinating than I first thought, and seems to have several layers of development and the remains of a small footbridge, maybe big enough for a horse but not a cart. I don't know what information I can find out about it (or water mills generally) locally or on the web. Worth a try. It reminds me of neighbours who have built their own house having failed to find a water mill in anything like restorable condition. It would be ambitious, but ...

Flickr Photos : French Landscapes Slideshow

Slideoo (found viaEmily Chang's ehub) have got this slideshow trick up and running, so I thought I'd try it here and let you see one of my photo sets from flickr; others are here.

Be yourself

It's always nice to come across another reminder to be yourself. It may be hard sometimes, but it's who you are, and if you're lucky you find a place to be yourself too. Aaaah! Should be a Friday afternoon post!

Gingerbread Haka

A fun turn on this traditional prelude to All Black rugby matches.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

My current reading. The language is dated, but there are themes that are very very current in debates I'm reading now about conservation, society and consumerism among other things.

These from an interesting passage about life and experience...

"Age is no better, hardly well, qualified for an instructor as yout, for it has not profited as much as it has lost."


"Man's capacities have never been measured; nor ar we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried."

"Whatever have been thy faliures hitherto, 'be not afflicted, my child, for who shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone'."

Walden: or life in the woods. Henry David Thoreau

New angle on photos

This photo is a new idea to me. What do you think?

Hang drum

These are great. I want one.

Ousmane Sow

What a guy. The sculptures are stunning. You look at them one way, they look not quite primitive enough. Another view, and the subtelty of the faces and postures is unbelievable. In the book I saw yesterday, some of the photos of his sculpures in African villages looked like folks were living with their departed spirits. I want to see more.

One the move

Another of my little expeditions starts tomorrow with a drive up to Caen-Ouistreham to get the ferry to Portsmouth.  After that I’ll be in Lincoln, Sheffield, Winchester, Farnham, and Newbury before heading to Stansted for a flight to Prague.  I’ll be at Europarc 2007 in Český Krumlov for a few days, and then heading back here to the hills of the Massif Central, and hopefully to some more Indian summer weather.  I think I’ve cracked blogging, tweeting and flickring away from base now, so keep your eyes peeled.

A little Carlinhos Brown to bring out the sun (No.3)

Along with a few others from my World Music Deezer Playlist ...

Evelyn

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." - Oscar Wilde From Evelyn on twitter

Pangea day

This looks like a great idea, spread the image.

Batala at Notting Hill 2007

Another clip, longer, with one of the new tunes for this year. Luvverly

Rhod Gilbert

I got a video clip sent to me of a wonderful luggage stand-up spot, and have now sleuthed enough to discover it's someone called Rhod Gilbert.

Li'l lamb and pig

Sounds a bit like that dozydotes an marezydotes an lilamsee divy etc. thingy.

In fact me an l'il lamb made a pig at the weekend. i think he turned out pretty well. Shame we can't animate him; he's got a future this guy...

Deezer

The more I use Deezer, the more I like it. Listen legally and free to streaming music.

Guerrilla eating out

A link from twitter's panmesa to this article from the San Fransisco Chronicle about speakeasy style restaurant experiences in California. The phenomenon builds on a kind of rave-like secret word of mouth network taking advantage of ad-hoc opportunities to eat together for a price. It's spontaneous, unpredictable, and seems to be getting popular. I like the idea and maybe it's worth a try here. I'll see what mrs francerant thinks.

More from the festival des creatifs

These are the two stone sculpture pieces I worked on over that first weekend of August.

Batala at Notting Hill 2007

I wasn't there. I wish I had been, but I wasn't. Next year I will be. This clip, like most of its type, lacks the sound quality to do it justice. This is just the warm-up!

Sea Otters and Their Stones

While surfing through LinkedIn contacts I came across a guy called Tim, who has a website. And on this website he tells us why the site is called otterstone.

Sea otters feed on clams and sea urchins from the sea bed. To crack open the tough shells, the sea otter pounds them against a stone which it balances on its chest. An otter keeps a favourite stone in a 'waistcoat pocket', which is a fold of skin under its armpit. Otters carry their favourite stone with them at all times throughout their life no matter what else happens.

I've had one or two breathtaking moments watching sea otters do this, when I lived on the shores of Loch Etive in Argyll, but I didn't know that they kept the stone! That's outstanding! Thanks Tim.

(Credit to Mathew for the photo.)

Sketching

Been sketching with li'l lamb since she got back from her first day at school. This is my effort, it's not Leonardo but it whiles away the time and keeps the eye hand coordination in use. Lamb didn't like her effort, but I might get permission to show you a part of it. Don't hold your breath.

Festival des Creatifs

I mentioned the festival recently with a view to putting up a photo or two of what I got up to. Here's the first one. A print from a lino cut. Great fun to do, absolutely compulsive, transported be straight into 'the zone.

As yer man Fraser said, 'we're doomed, we're all going tae die'

Listening to this after a trawl through my old tapes, I found it hard to believe that when this was a round I really believed it was likely to happen ... Was that just me?

Trade a paperclip for a house

Here's the full story - chapeau, as they say in France

To be human

...

To remember
the other world
in this world
is to live in your
true inheritance.

...

What to remember on waking by David Whyte

Creativity

Somehow I didn't find the time to mention all the creative workshops we managed to enjoy over the first weekend in August. One of our friends organised a 'Festival des creatifs', with 25 workshops of various sorts to enjoy, for an all-in family price of 10 €. Bargain. I spent most time sculpting stone, and had a ball with that. (Photos to come when I've collected my camera from where it was left on Saturday night.) But also managed some lino-cutting and printing, (fantastic) ; and woodworking, (too many machines involved). The rest of the family did kite-making, making paint from natural colours, and scultpure using stuff from the tip. We had a great time. Being able to play and create without pressure as an adult is a rare enough experience. I have dreamed of getting some buildings together to make supported adult creative play an opportunity all year round. You know, nice place to stay, great local food and booze, and a nursery play room for grown ups and children to get stuck in and messy. What do you reckon? Should we try?

Animoto - create your own videos from stills

just came across this site, and tried this one out. Bit of a mismatch between the music and the photos, but you get the idea!

Uplifting

Music I mean. Here's a clip of Rodrigo y Gabriella, wonderful stuff. Buy it! Go and see them live! You won't regret it.



I also came across a new composer at the annual concert in the local church. Two Dutch guys, Pieter Grimbergen and Erik Lips, have put this on every year since 2002, and it attracts a full house every time. The new (to me) composer is Carlos Guastavino. I'm looking for some recordings to listen to.

And we're doing a local series of our first gigs as a Batala band - Samba Massif, at Langeac, (today), Brioude, (Saturday), and Blesle (next Tuesday).

ipernity

I also came across the Flickr-like ipernity photo sharing place, and can be found there too.

Facebook

I got onto Facebook recently, and will be putting a bit of time into that over the coming weeks. These posts should feed into it too.

Brasserie Barbaroux

Well it finally happened over the pas few weeks, Monsieur Barbaroux (RedBeard), aka Jeremy the Beer has opened his brasserie to great acclaim and high demand. Long may it continue. He is the only organic brewer in the Haute-Loire, and well worth the short diversion. The man lives and breathes his beer-making, and it shows. He brews four types, and has chosen to name them after himself, after a fashion. Hence Barbe Rousse above, followed by Barbe Brune, Barbe Blonde, and Barbe Blanche, with the expected variations to the beard on the label as well as the name.

A recurring theme - schools and creativity

Lots of nice stuff from TED. This one on a subject occupying my wandering mind a lot as my daughter heads for the treadmill of secondary education, already showing signs of waning enthusiasm, boredom and the hunger to create she has shown to date. Ken says it funnier than I can

Beats the pint down the pub on a wet Friday night

A little clip of fun.

Sarkozy and the children

There are many and varied responses to the recent election of Sarko, including many asides during a recent concert by Renaud. But this one made me giggle a bit.

I found it while looking through the other acts that will be at the 6th Aperos Musicales in Blesle from 10th to 14th August. It looks like a great long weekend, and one that includes our newly-formed Samba Massif. We will be leading the torchlight procession to the last night firework display.

Our first booked appearance will be a little before that though, at the 'Festival des Créatifs' on the evening of 3rd August at Domeyrat where this photograph was taken at a rehearsal in May.

Sarkozy's reign has started

France is a place for strong-minded individuals. Pig-headed, stubborn, selfish and utterly incapable of taking a collective view of the world, even at a very local level. If I've heard the expression 'J'ai le droit', ('I've got the right') once, I've heard it many many hundreds of times. Rights impose themselves upon other rights. And when they overlap, those that shout loudest, or otherwise impose themselves most effectvely, win. It is a dog eat dog world.

Which is why I think that the French state is so controlling, interventionist and even socialist at times. With such an anarchic mix of individuals battling out their rights, it would otherwise be very hard for anyone not prepared or able to fight for their right to live, eat, learn or whatever.

My rants are often about this very controlling culture. But this one is about the strident, polemic individuals, and what releasing them from their social bonds will do in France under Sarkozy. I fear a post-revolutionary anarchy in some watered-down 21st century form.

Speaking of watered-down, surely the definition of tee-total needs to be re-written after this recent display at the G8 summit.

Mobile phone masts - and mobile phone service - and politicians

The whole set came together today when one of the candidates for the legislature in France came round to the Mairie to press the flesh and listen. Some of those who want our new mobile phone mast moved to more than 500m from the nearest house were there to raise that issue. All that on the day that one of the new kids on the block in the mobile phone market, well round here anyway, started getting arsy with us for being wholly unimpressed with their complete lack of service. This reminded me of a post by Seth here.

So we've got a strategy for the mobile phone company's lack of service, either the contract never existed, since they never, ever, even for a second provided anything resembling a mobile phone service, a technical service or a customer service. In which case we will pay them nothing. Or, the contract does exist, or will exist when they supply some kind of service, and when they provide it, we'll pay for it.

The strategy for the mast is more tricky. As I've said, it's turned into a bit of an us and them stand-off in the 'commune', although we do still have two vociferous locals opposing the thing. The rest of the population, or at least the council and their fans, are not interested in any kind of discussion about it.

What's our stratgey? Well, the aim of the Association is to get the thing at least 500m from houses. So that's clear enough. As for what we do to achieve that I don't know. Finding out more is one thing. Tagging along with any other similar efforts in the country is another. And in the meantime, do we wait until anyone discovers they have leukemia? Or do we move? And what if another mast turns up there; the area still has its coverage gaps.

One thing we won't be doing is counting on the support of the local deputy who visited this afternoon. He shrugged his shoulders about that, about the elderly population's increasing isolation as services in rural areas fall away, about the 1,000 farmers (25% of the district's farmers) who are on the brink of bankruptcy this year. He shrugged his shoulders at just about everything. He's been the incumbent for the past 30 years. I must assume his constituency is urban dwellers in work and paying taxes. He's not interested in anyone else.

Do I sound cynical? I suppose I do.

Round 1 to the bullies

I'm wasn't really surprised to see the crane roll out of the village yesterday having hauled the new telephone mast to vertical while it was bolted into position. The public meeting involved well-prepared bullies shouting down any opposition with a mixture of technical language and flagrant lies. Between the demonstartions stopping the work and the public meeting, the locals in the quickly-formed association who opposed the siting of the mast within 500m of houses were also nobbled. The association immediately became incomers versus locals, and that sealed the mast's fate. The clear divisions in the local community brought a smug smile to the faces of the guys from TDF and Bouyges Telecom.

So we have a new generation mobile phone mast capaple of delivering TV and streaming video to mobile phones locally, and of course transmitting signals around 20 miles to the others in the network. The nearest houses are 200m away, while in other parts of the world a precautionary distance of 500m is increasingly being recommended or imposed as part of planning consent.

The question now is what we do here. The association still feels that it's worth trying to inform the rest of the local community about what research we've found about the biological effects of these things, not least because there are still places where there is no coverage that will no doubt see the siting of more masts in the coming months. Some also feel its worth starting or contributing to a national campaign to get a precautionary distance of 500m set at national level.

Mind you, this is the country that denied for years that there were any effects from Chernobyl on France. The cloud somehow mysteriously passed throughout Europe, leaving France completely untouched. I'm not optimistic that they will go for a 500m exclusion zone for mobile phone masts.

If folks are interested, I can post links to the research we've found...

Wave good bye

Consternation reigns. Over the past few weeks there has been much discussion and debate, recriminations and disaccord in the village.

A temporary mobile phone mast has appeared about 200m from the houses, and the installation of a permanent one started. And stopped. By the judicious placement of tractors. And a hitherto unkown type of French legal person called a "huissier", which is apparently some kind of bailiff.

The local council have been happy to sell the little patch of land and give permission to install the thing up until now. And then one of the holiday-home visitors turned up and took a different view.

Since then we've had several meetings, an association has been formed, two articles in the local papers, and a petition started. And the work stopped, as I said. In terms of campaigning, this seems pretty good.

But there has been a fair bit of fall-out too. Public arguments between family members, tears amongst the families of local councillors, and lots of people turning away from the issue as a result.

This kind of process seems to be the way of things in France. No prior consultation. People wake up and find something's happened that they know nothing about. No time to find information, no time express an opinion, the panic is on to mobilise and demonstrate. Then the bad feeling, inconvenience and inertia start to kick in. And there's a very rapid demobilisation. The protestors back down, and the deed is done and put down to experience.

Bullying, imposing, destructive and unpleasant.

We're in the middle of the process, and maybe my theory will not apply this time.

But I've been digging around beyond the headlines on the issues of microwaves and their effects and have concluded that:

There isn't proof yet of direct links to cancers or other illnesses.
There IS proof of various biological effects of mobile phones, mobile phone masts, TV masts and wireless networks on the human body, including non-thermal effects at low intensity.
I recognise some of the symptoms in our experience here over the past year.
The international guidelines for public protection only deal with thermal effects.
Around the world, various public authorities are adopting the precautionary principle, and recommending or requiring a zone of 300 m to 500 m between mobile phone masts and schools, hospitals, houses and workplaces.
I want to see that applied here.
My wireless router is going and a non-wireless modem is coming.
In the meantime I'm using my router for three short periods a day.
If the mast stays, then we will go somewhere a bit further away.

Samba Massif - Massive Samba

With a little help from our friends in Portsmouth - those of the donkey riding fame - we have successfully started Samb Massif, one of the two new Batala kids on the block. Four rehearsals later, we're having a lot of fun and it sounds pretty good to me. We're hoping to confirm our first gig at Blesle when the organisers come and see us rehearse sometime in the next few weeks. that'll be at their 'Aperos musicales' on 14th August.

The other new kid on the block is in Washington DC, where I passed some interesting time while involved with the MASSE project.

Your life is what you do

I've had a lovely couple of weeks. Friends visiting, new friendships starting through a shared interest in music, and lots of time in my garden. All that with work mixed in too. A pleasant phase in my work-life balancing act.

As the land begins to transform the views in response to the lengthening days and rising temepratures, it's been a pleasure to rediscover the simplest of sensations. A warm breeze on my face, early morning sun and bird song, and an outdoor fire to help make breakfast a bit more interesting. All shared with children and their delight at sometimes new, sometimes familiar, but always simple experiences.

I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see children abandoning the DS (the Nintendo not the Citroen!) for a toasting fork and some bread. When the 'Bang-bang' of plastic guns and the 'Mummy mummy' of plastic dolls is replaced by the 'What a wonderful day!' , I am reminded of the reasons why I took the hard steps to move here. I remember why I travel back and forth to sustain this bizarre work-life balance.


Perhaps a little less travelling and a little more local work wouldn't go amiss. That would be a nice thing to look back on at the end of they year. Along with a successful debut year for a new member of the Batala family, if that all comes off.

The biggest tree in ...

OK OK, I did say it was the biggest tree in the world, but I didn't mean it. I corrected myself to the Auvergne, and maybe just the Haute-Loire. Even that was a wild stab in the dark since I'd only seen it twice, and have no idea what else is knocking about the region in the way of big trees. But it looked very big to me. No-one believed me, but everyone seemed to be happy to go and see it anyway. And here it is - a sequoia or giant redwood ...


Not easy to appreciate its size this way, but how about this one?



Still sceptics, I decided to have a wee scan on the Interweb thingy, and guess what? A marvellous site about notable trees in the Auvergne. And our tree is listed at about 250 years old, a circumference of 7.8m, and a height of 42m. From the list it appears that there are two trees up in the Puy de Dome in La Bourboule that are 43m high. But otherwise, ours is the tallest! And who measured them and when, that's what I'd like to know. I was probably a bit too chuffed with myself at this discovery, but since no-one else seemed to be in the least impressed I quickly lost the self-righteous glow that developed ever so briefly.

Splodges

Our regular Wednesday (no-school) extra curricular activities involved splodging paint this week. We resisted the temptation to get our fingers in amongst it, unfortunately. ('and make up for the sobriety of my youth')

Anyway, here are the results, numbered, which are Chloe's and which are mine?

Number One

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four


We're seeing all sorts of things besides butterflies, and with a bit of tinkering with the graphics tablet, we might be able to get a few other animals out of them. Any suggestions?

throwing it about some more

Chloe had her first judo tournament yesterday, and the difference from the last collective session apparently couldn't have been greater. I couldn't be there because I was travelling back from the UK; not something I allow to happen usually, but it was a positive choice to be able to watch a friend perform in a show on Friday night. No regrets there. In fact, given the stress of the event, and the thought of watching people attack my only daughter, it was probably a good idea I wasn't there. It would have been hard holding myself back from launching onto the mats and giving her attackers a good slapping. Anyway, tough as it was ...


... the pride is almost palpable. That's my girl!

Sand and lots of it

The last week or so took me down to (and up and down and up and down) the Dune de Pyla - the largest sand dune in Europe near Bordeaux.

Done and eating!

It took another hour or so, cost me a new blister, a few scratched knuckles and a soggy knee from kneeling on the grass; but we got there, and Chloe's delighted. We started feeding him from the mountain of compost material that's been piling up in the garden for three years. he's called Clifford by the way. Not the big red dog, but the huge orange pig. As Chloe said, it beats watching TV.

the rolypig has arrived

Chloe and I entered a competition to win a rolypig composter. We're putting it together in true three steps forward, two steps backwards MFI/Ikea fashion. But we will win, and we'll have a photo up here soon!

Hitting the spot

Taken at last week's Batala Portsmouth rehearsal. I get there whenever I can, but my back's been too dodgy to strap on a drum for the last few months. Still, it's fun. There's a bit of interest in the idea of a band here in France, and I'm planning to run an afternoon workshop to give people who've expressed an interest a go at hitting the spot. If that goes well, I'd hope to run a short project of say 10 weeks, aiming to perform in public once or twice. Since talking about it, we've had two offers of gigs and one of a workshop. And we haven't even started yet!

Throwing it about a bit

Chloe's judo club had the parents in for a bit of a demonstration at the weekend, and this is one of the shots I've played with since. I decided not to show the ones of Chloe tackling the massive black belt 2nd dan, but this one, who she actually managed to throw. Once. I don't think he underestimated her a second time. After all you don't learn anything the second time you're kicked by a mule. (Country boy's law.)

Snow at last

It makes the investment in my snow tyres a little easier to bear! Although I don't suppose the daffodil has any such positive sentiments. Chloe on the other hand ...

Daffodils instead of snow

Taken a couple of days ago; where there should be snow, there are flowers thanks to an exceptionally mild winter so far.

Happy New Year

Celebrate with this CAS podcast ...


Click here to get your own player.



Cheers to Angus 45RPM for the link