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Contents of article "My Life in the PO - May"
Friday 7th May
Friday 7th May
May smashed in like a clenched fist when we woke up in the middle of the night to find Bisou having a type of epileptic fit. It was terrifying. Stiff body with jerking paws, crying, keening and foaming at the mouth…. Olivier more or less kept his cool (compared to me) and picked her up, hugged her tight and reassured her until she stopped fitting and went limp. When he put her down, she couldn’t stand and kept falling over sideways. We called the emergency vet in a panic at 3am in the morning. Of course, by the time he saw Bisou, she was relatively back to normal, tho weak, and all he could do was give us a list of sad possibilities, each one more critical than the last, until we were convinced that today was the day we would say goodbye to our beloved hairy daughter. After a second fit in the early morning, we left her weak and frightened, at the vets in Le Boulou for a day of tests, in the sure and certain knowledge that the five o’clock pickup would be an emotional last farewell. In fact, by the time we got there, she was pretty much herself, starving and stinky, tail-a-wagging, licky licky with familiar fish breath…… and we were laughing and dancing… We know she’s on borrowed time but intend to make sure that every minute of that time counts, spoil her rotten, and ensure that her last days, weeks or months continue to be as full of love and cuddles as her life has always been.
And as for the weather. Wow! South of France? Nah! More like North of Russia! Three weeks ago, I wrote “The wind has finally dropped, the sky is a flawless wedge wood, marred only by a minute scattering of fluffy white clouds standing sentry over the Albčres. Brand new leaves, marshmallow blossom and wild flowers are whispering gently that spring is in the air and summer only a heartbeat away.We do tend to take decent weather for granted here in the ‘sud’, so a gust of Tramontane whistling up your trouser leg and a day or two of rain are needed to put everything into perspective. The good things in life wouldn’t mean anything without the bad! April so far has certainly built up a bubbling anticipation for the warm weather to come.”
OK. You can stop now. Everything is in perspective!! Between snow, heavy persistent rain, cold and gusting winds, it would seem that the weather has completely lost its senses. There is snow on the Canigou – that’s still fairly normal at this time – but there is also snow on the Albčres foothills just behind us, separating France from Spain, and that is quite rare. Have to say tho’ that everything is very very green after all this rain, the wild flowers are sparkling, looking dashing in bright fragrant colours of every shade, and the mountains have boldly dressed themselves in a hundred variations of green – pretty….but chilly!
ScaramoucheJust before the cold snap started, the swallows launched a full frontal attack to take over our front porch as they do every year. Having failed miserably in the past to train them to poo on unwanted visitors, I have decided that I am not prepared to run the gauntlet of mud, poo and Hitcockesque squawking that transforms our front doorstep into a battlefield every early summer…. and I am fighting back! Being rather arts, craft, and technology challenged, I have done the best I can with my severely limited skills, and created…. Scaramouche scarecrow!! (Thunderbolt and lightening, very very frightening....) A standing coat hanger and an old t-shirt might well fool them n’est ce pas? The weather has been too cold for birds this week, so I don’t yet know if my fiendish plan is going to work. Nyahahahaha. Time will tell.
Notice the lack of photos? Olivier has accidentally wiped my memory card clean – photos going back two years deleted off the face of the earth. Never mind darling, it was an accident. I haven’t changed the locks. You can come home next week!
