DLCI 2021 Magazines - May
May
2021
Spring in Sainte Foy
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT
The weather has certainly been very unusual in April! On one hand, the driest for over 20 years and we have seen farmers watering already – on the other hand, after unseasonably warm weather, three nights of hard frost and the tragedy of serious losses for farmers and vignerons alike. I am reminded of the English saying ‘ne’er cast a clout ‘til May be out’ and the marker of the Saints de Glace (11/12/13 May) which French countryfolk use to plan when to plant out tender crops. There are lots of birthdays in May in my family and there is great excitement at the prospect of not having a lockdown birthday!
Although I am writing this before the official end of lockdown on 3 May, the general mood appears to be more buoyant and optimistic. Liz Berks and I have spoken and as things stand, we would like to go ahead with the Orchid Walk she had planned for last year. Provisionally, this will be on Friday 21 May at Serres et Montguyard (east of Eymet, north of Lauzun and west of Castillonnès). At this stage, please email me to express initial interest at kathyjohn0803@gmail.com and when we have confirmation to go ahead, I will be in touch to let you know arrangements. There would be an option to bring a picnic to eat in the gardens of the mairie (toilets nearby) or perhaps even have a snack at a local restaurant – I’ve almost forgotten what that is like! I would be grateful if you could advise me by Friday 14 May if you would like to come. Needless to say, Hector will NOT be invited to look at orchids. I think they would not survive.
Please keep your recipes for our 35th anniversary coming to Lin please – at lin.green100@gmail.com.
This is a reminder, too, that your membership renewal is due in the next couple of months and if possible, we would like you to pay online. I have managed it – although I committed the sin of omitting my name and ‘membership renewal’ as a reference. I am sure you will be more competent than that! Here are the details:
Dordogne Ladies Club
IBAN: FR64 2004 1010 0108 1834 1V02 211
Swift code: PSSTFRPPBOR
Despite lockdown, your committee has not been idle and a small group of us has been examining data protection issues. This is becoming increasingly important to every organisation, however small, and we must take every care to protect personal details of our members. Therefore I would ask you please not to forward the newsletter in any form to friends who are not members of the DLCI because this could constitute a breach in DP laws. I am sure I can rely on you to understand the importance of not sharing this type of personal information.
Many of us have now been vaccinated, at least with the first dose, and we hope that as the vaccination programme gathers pace, the committee will be able to get cracking with planning the events we have been dreaming about! We are very much looking forward to seeing you soon.
Warm regards
Kathy
May Birthdays
Sandy Scovell
Melinda Lamb
Sue Fairweather
Jan Dixon
Greta Knott
GARDENING IN FRANCE
BY CHRISTINE LEES
Right plant, right place
Right plant, right place' is a phrase coined by the famous gardener and plantswoman Beth Chatto, who died 3 years ago at the age of 94. Her garden and nursery at Elmstead Market in Essex are beautiful and well worth a visit. She was one of the first people to recognise and publicise the importance of selecting plants which will thrive in the particular conditions of your garden, or areas of your garden.
As well as climate and aspect - sun or shade or partial shade, the important features of your garden are soil type and acidity/alkalinity. This is a large subject, but the main types of soil are sandy, silty, loamy and clay soil. This may be different in different areas of your garden. If you take a small piece of soil and roll it into a ball, and it stays in that shape, it is clay soil. Other types do not do this, and sandy soil is very thin.
I have loamy, clay soil in my front garden, which has probably had topsoil laid on it when the house was built. The rest of the garden is very heavy clay, basically a field, apart from the woodland border, which has layers of leaf mould on top of the clay. Alkaline clay soil is very common in this part of France, as the underlying rock is limestone.
Acidity/alkalinity or the pH value is another important factor. The ideal pH value is 6.5 - 7, slightly acid to neutral, the best type of soil to have as it gives you the widest range of plants to grow. Many plants prefer normal or slightly acid soil, very few prefer alkaline soil. So if you want to grow for example Pieris, Rhododendrons, Azalea, Camellias, and you have alkaline soil, it is best to grow them in a pot with ericaceous compost (Bruyere in France). You can find out the pH value of your soil (which again may vary throughout your garden) with a cheap soil testing kit. I have found these difficult to buy in garden centres here, but it may be possible to buy them online. If you have Hydrangeas in your garden, they will have pink flowers on alkaline soil and blue flowers on acid soil.
For me the most difficult aspect of gardening here has been dealing with the heavy clay soil which is dry and baked hard in summer and boglike with standing water in winter and spring. Mediterranean plants, especially grey leaved plants, will thrive in the summer and die in winter, with their roots in water. By trial and error I am gradually finding plants which will grow here. Putting some grit in the planting hole helps with drainage, and at least clay soil is very fertile - the roses love it, and I have grown fantastic cauliflowers and celeriac this winter.
When choosing plants, read the labels or the descriptions on websites, or look at RHS Plantfinder, or read good gardening books, to work out which plants will thrive in your garden. Beth Chatto wrote many wonderful and helpful books on this subject.
Many thanks to Pat Machado for suggesting the topic for this month's column. This month is probably the busiest time of year in the garden, and from mid-May you can plant out tender flowering plants and tender vegetables. You can start sowing French beans, sweetcorn and other tender vegetables as well. Keep deadheading your roses, and water your plants in dry spells, prioritising recently planted trees, shrubs and herbaceous and vegetable plants. Mulching around plants will help the soil retain moisture.
DORDOGNE LADIES BOOK CLUB
Dear Book Club members,
I chose an Indian author this month, that great country is close to my heart right now as friends and their families suffer terribly in this pandemic..
Pat Machado
Quote of the month
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.
That is their mystery and their magic.”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
published by Harper Collins USA
To join the Book Club or for more information please email:
Once you join you will receive a copy of our book list and have access to our Facebook page
Just for fun
Best wishes and take care.
Patricia Machado
Sue Morrison
POETRY CORNER
John Clare 1793 – 1864
(oil on canvas portrait by William Hilton 1820)
The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption.
‘The Northamptonshire peasant poet’ is on his memorial
His first published work ,in 1820, was greeted with … ‘There was no limit to the applause bestowed upon Clare, unanimous in their admiration of a poetical genius coming before them in the humble garb of a farm labourer’
The exerpt below is from the much longer original (Clare did not use punctuation).
MAY
Come queen of months in company
Wi all thy merry minstrelsy
The restless cuckoo absent long
And twittering swallows chimney song
And hedge row crickets notes that run
From every bank that fronts the sun
And swathy bees about the grass
That stops wi every bloom they pass
And every minute every hour
Keep teazing weeds that wear a flower
And toil and childhoods humming joys
For there is music in the noise
The village childern mad for sport
In school times leisure ever short
That crick and catch the bouncing ball
And run along the church yard wall
Capt wi rude figured slabs whose claims
In times bad memory hath no names
Oft racing round the nookey church
Or calling ecchos in the porch
WITHDRAWAL AGREEMENT RESIDENCE PERMIT (WARP)
Some of you may know that I have been doing some work with an organisation called Remain in France Together (RIFT), which advises UK passport holders resident in France on the necessary paperwork following the UK leaving the EU.
You will be aware that a new residence permit (WARP) replaces the Carte (or Titre) de Séjour that many of us possessed earlier. In recent years, it was not necessary to have a CdS but now it is mandatory, in order to protect our rights after Brexit. Even if you have a fairly recent CdS, unless it is the one for which applications opened in October 2020, then you must apply before 30 June 2021. The new cards have ‘ARTICLE 50 TUE’ under ‘CARTE DE SEJOUR’ on the front.
https://contacts-demarches.interieur.gouv.fr/brexit/brexit-demande-titre-sejour/ This is the link to the application form, which can only be completed online. It is also in English. It normally takes around ten minutes to upload the necessary documents and if you don’t have a scanner, you can photograph the documents on a mobile phone and add them directly from your phone.
Once your ‘demande’ has been submitted you will receive an acknowledgement almost immediately. You should keep this safe as it confirms that you have applied for residence under the Withdrawal Agreement. If you need to return to the UK, for example, it is recommended that you print it off and carry it with you as proof of your residence in France.
The Brexit building at Périgueux is next to the entrance to the Musée Vesunna in the centre of the city (copyright Tripadvisor)
At a later stage, you will receive an email requesting you attend a ‘rendezvous’ at your Préfecture. This is not an interview and you won’t have to justify your application or pass a French test - once you have your rendezvous, you know that you have been accepted and the rest is a formality (fingerprints and signature). If any other supporting documents are required you will have been asked to supply them before the meeting.
Périgueux is processing applications quickly because it was chosen as a ‘pilot’ for the scheme, however, all the other Préfectures nationally are now working on them so if yours is Bordeaux or Agen don’t worry if you haven’t had your rendezvous date yet. Your turn will come soon! In the meantime, check your spam inbox regularly just in case an email has ended up there.
I am sure that all DLCI members will be up to speed on this but RIFT is concerned that there are residents who don’t know they need to apply for the new WARP card, or who are delaying their application because they are worried about the technical aspect of making the application or for some reason they don’t think that they need to change their Carte de Séjour. If you know anyone like this, please let them know that every UK citizen (including those married to French citizens) needs to apply and reassure them that it is not difficult and that there is help available.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me in confidence. More information can be found on https://www.remaininfrance.fr/
Kathy
RECIPES OF THE MONTH
No Recipes this month, as we’re keeping them for the DLCI Anniversary book – but we really need you to keep sending them in (with photos) please
IN MEMORIUM
HRH PRINCE PHILIP, THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH 1921 – 2021
HRH PHINCE PHILIP, THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH
A memory by Melissa and Toby Maddison
Prince Philip was the Colonel in Chief of my husband’s regiment The Queen’s Royal Hussars for 68 years and remained so despite his retirement from royal duties.
During this long relationship he visited the
regiment once or twice a year including during those times when the Regiment was employed on operations in many different countries including the Middle East. His visits were always appreciated by the whole Regimental family because he invariably spent most of his time speaking to the soldiers and their families where his charm and wicked sense of humour put everyone at ease.
In the photo he is wearing the Regimental “Tent Hat” inherited from the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars, one of the antecedent Regiments, that is unique in the British Army and which he enjoyed wearing.
The Queen’s Royal Hussars had the honour of being involved in the funeral parade leading the procession of Guidons and Standards (flags showing the regimental battle honours of that Regiment).
One of my lasting memories was when Toby and I lived in Uganda. The Queen and Prince Philip were there for the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit and we were invited to a lunch given by her for British and Ugandan businessmen and women. After a long wait in the queue to be introduced it was our turn. Before the formal introduction was made the Duke looked up at Toby, who was wearing his Regimental tie and with a huge grin on his face exclaimed “What on earth are you doing here?”
After a quick “catch up” on what we were doing in Uganda, we owned a flower farm, we were ushered into lunch where Toby spent a most enjoyable time at his table.
He was a truly remarkable man and will be greatly missed.
MEMBERS PHOTOS
The stunning Chateau Ribebon close to Pessac sur Dordogne was built in the XVIII century. It has has its own vineyard and welcomes visitors, there are also wonderful walks along the river …..what more could you ask?
Sent in by Florence Astarie
The newly built ‘Hobbit House’ in Saint Avit!
Sent in by Lin Green
PETS CORNER
‘Innocent until proven guilty!’
Muffin,Tyke and Fumble (Tykes mother) enjoying their favourite pastime…digging!
Sent in by Carelle Sherwood
Archie as a kitten in his favourite ‘duck’ basket…….
….‘The basket shrank!’
Archie now aged 7!
Sent in by Christine Lees
PHOTO REQUEST
We would love to include more of your photos inluding those for Pets Corner in the next Newsletter. Simply email me lin.green100@gmail.com (no later than 27th May) with the photo and where it is. They will be published in the May newsletter.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Orchid Walk with Liz Berks on Friday 21st May
Serres et Montguyard
Please see Kathy’s News from the President for more details
These photos of Hurlingham bookshop in Putney were sent to me by my son as he knew my idea of heaven! It did remind me however that The Phoenix Book Fair is on Saturday 29th May 9am – 3pm
