Some like it hot

The new water heater was installed yesterday and now we're back in "bidness," as some say. It's a big tank by French standards, but we've never run out of hot water with one this size, whereas we used to run out with the smaller model that we replaced back in 2010. Especially when we had house guests.

Slightly blurry grape bunches.

The plumber agreed to clean our chimney (plumbers do that here) in September. He actually gave us an appointment in writing! This is good because, in France, insurance companies require that you clean the chimney once a year, and homeowners need to have proof that it was done if there's ever an incident. I plan to refrain from building a fire until it's done.

Ouch!

Look at those thorns! And this wild blackberry is not even one of the big ones. Still, getting tangled up in a patch of these will certainly leave marks. These aren't necessarily good to eat. The fruit is small and the seeds inside are big. The wildlife likes them, though.

Wild blackberries starting to ripen out by the pond. One of the sharper images from this outing.

Plants like this populate our laurel and hazelnut hedges and are a pain to deal with every year. That's one reason we're having the remaining hazelnut hedges in our yard taken out this year. The nuts (when there are nuts) are no good as they get pierced by insects that lay their eggs inside. Yuck.

In other news, our water heater sorta died yesterday. It's leaking, and it's not heating water very well. We called a plumber, new to us, to have a look and he declared it basically dead. He's coming back today to install a new one. It was bound to happen. The heater has served us well, but it's just too old. We've had it since 2010, and it was a "previously owned" appliance when we got it. RIP. 

Shake your booty

It's not as easy as it used to be. I'm talking about taking the DSLR out on my morning walk with Tasha. I always carry her leash (a retractable model that we've had since the 1990s), fixed around my waist when I have the camera. However, in the vineyard, I usually let Tasha run free and only attach her when people or vehicles approach. For Monday's walk, I put the 100mm macro lens on the camera. It's a big, heavy lens that hangs from my shoulder by its strap. It's all kind of awkward; I need to figure out a better system, especially for when we go to places like the island in the river where I can't let her off leash..

These yellow wildflowers (wild wort?) grow all around and in the vineyard. Sorry for the blur.

With the macro lens, I'm often crouching when I take the picture. It's not a very stable position and I end up moving more than I should. When I have the dog attached, well, she doesn't sit as still as I'd like. Add to that the low light-levels of a typical morning and you've got a recipe for camera shake. End result: blurry photos. And that's what you're getting this week.

Fading

The daisies are fading already. Maybe it was the combination of our heat wave followed by period of chilly rain. There are still some flowers. And, oddly, the faded blooms are interesting to look at.

Fading daisies.

We're in the period of the grand chassé-croisé of the summer, when July vacationers, les juillettistes, head home and August vacationers, les aoûtiens, head out. The result: heavy traffic in all directions. I'm glad I'm not out in it. 

One last glance

That's it for my recent walk on the island in the Cher at Saint-Aignan. I'll have to go back again soon since I missed a bunch of stuff. Like the beach and the fish ladder. Tasha loves car rides, so I know she'd be happy to go. It takes a whole five minutes to get there.

The château at Saint-Aignan at sunrise.

I haven't cut grass in a few weeks because of all the rain we've been having, but yesterday I was able to get the mower out and cut the strip along the road. I mostly wanted to run the mower to keep the battery charged. Now it's time to wish for some dry weather to get the rest of the property groomed.

And speaking of the property, we got the landscaper's estimate for all the things we wanted done but can't do ourselves. The estimate seems quite reasonable and we're both happy about that. 

What is it?

I don't know what that blue-green stuff is on the surface of the water at this spot. Foam? Algae? Some other kind of plant? I guess I need to go back and have a better look.

The bridge at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher.

I called the ophthalmologist's office yesterday and I have an appointment in about two weeks time. Until then, my old prescription is standing in. It's not great, but it's much better than the new one.

Up a lazy river

Looking upstream from the island in the Cher at Saint-Aignan. The water is so calm because the river is held back in two places to form a reservoir for the now-gone grain mill.

Le Cher à Saint-Aignan.

I went back to the optical shop yesterday morning for my appointment. It was with a different woman, so I had to explain my problem from the beginning. Still, she was very patient and seemed to want to help. She tested my new glasses to be sure they conformed to my prescription; they did. But she was very surprised at the strength of the new prescription, just like the woman I saw on Tuesday. She said that amount correction after only three years with my previous glasses seemed excessive, something you'd expect to see after ten or fifteen years without an update, not three. She told me to go back to ophthalmologist to ensure that the prescription was what he intended, then to get instructions for what to do next. She was very deferential to the doctor's role and said she didn't have the authority to override his prescription.. But I could tell that she became more and more convinced that I should not have such a strong prescription. She called it une sur-correction, an over-correction. I don't want to be one who self-diagnoses with the internet, but my research confirms that I have all the symptoms of a sur-correction..

So, now I have to do that. I'm calling the doctor's office this morning for an appointment, sooner, I hope, than later. In the meantime, the optometrist put my three-year old lenses back into one pair of my glasses. They feel so much better, although my vision is blurry with them. But there are no distortions or discomfort.