Valletta

We are just back from a short holiday in Malta.   Anita found us a nice hotel in the centre of Valletta, the capital city.   It was unusual to find myself on a warm foreign holiday where everyone speaks English (no need to mentally rehearse every conversation), they drive of the left and they take euros.   It was busy, even in this off-season.

The first day it rained continuously, so we went to visit the Grand Master's Palace, the seat of much political evolution in past centuries.   There's not much point in my trying to summarise its history here, but let me  tell you that the armoury is amazing.  I have visited Scottish castles and the Scots know a thing or two about armour and have some impressive displays, but I've seen nothing like this.

Incidentally it was in this building that I found two uses of English that are a bit out of the ordinary.  One of the displays had a notice that talked about the use of weaponry to "offend" the enemy.  I know we talk about offensive weapons but I've never seen the verb in that context.   They also spoke of mortar cannon being made by bronze founders.   They worked in a foundry of course, but again, a use of English I had not seen before.

Boiling frogs

I read that the UK government is thinking of creating an energy rating for houses.   This is to encourage people to take measures to reduce their energy consumption, "for the planet",  (and install heat pumps).   The french government has such a scheme that has been in place for a few years now.

Every house that is put up for sale in France must have an energy rating A (good) to G (bad).   If you have an electric heat pump, this results in a better energy rating than you would get otherwise, regardless of how well or badly your house is insulated.   (Unless the heat pump is reversible so it cools the house down in Summer, when it doesn't get you any credit.) 

More recent legislation means that if you are a landlord, it is now illegal for you to rent out a dwelling that has an energy rating of G.   And from early this year, if you are selling a house with an energy rating of E or worse, not only do you have to pay for the energy rating study itself, but you also have to pay for a deeper and more expensive study to determine what work would be needed to be done (and how much it would cost) to make the energy rating "acceptable".   This of course is used as a stick to beat the vendor down on price.

(For some reason the government doesn't care if you cook with electricity or not)

Of course heat pumps are a Very Good Thing, and people should be discouraged from using any other kind of heating.   So gas boilers, that used to have VAT at 5.5%, and then more recently 10%, and as of yesterday, 20%, are being made more expensive so that heat pumps are more financially attractive.   An item on the main news on Monday pointed out that despite their higher initial cost, heat pumps, with government subsidies, can offer a payback period of only 15 years, (this is at current electricity prices that aren't going to increase, are they?) so they are in fact a real bargain.

I'm sure that this is all about saving the planet, and nothing at all to do with the fact that individual households can be denied electricity at the click of a mouse.

Cars of course are big consumers of energy and the government in France has a bonus/malus system in place - a subsidy on the price of a small new car, and a tax on the price of a big one.  In its original form it was very successful and cost the government a fortune.  Yesterday the definition of the size of a big car was reduced so the most popular mid-sized car in France now costs more than €1,000 more new than it otherwise would.

Cars also have a rating on the level of pollution they create, a "crit'air" rating (1 good, 5 bad).   Cities such as Paris, Marseille, and others, with more to come, prohibit cars with a crit'air rating 4 or 5 from entering the city.

How's the water temperature these days?

Storm damage

We spent a few days in England recently, family visit, swapping of Christmas presents, etc.   We took the ferry over on Friday afternoon and the storm arrived the next day.  The ferries were cancelled over the weekend, but the one we booked back was the first one to run once the storm had passed, on the Monday night.   

There was no major damage to anything at home, but one of the Garria that had be trained up the wall of the grange had been flattened, as in horizontal, and another had become disengaged from the wall, and was leaning over the path.   I was surprised; fixings had been pulled from the wall, steel eyes that had been holding wire supports had been bent.   I'm using new fixings, chemical (resin) wall plugs and stronger steel eyes.

I had to hard prune the flattened one (the near one in the picture), in order to get it back against the wall, and so I had to do the same with the other two plants so it doesn't all look lop-sided.  Nearly finished.  Next job - shredding the removed wood.

Nailed it

I got a nailer for Christmas, and a very fine nailer it is too.

Got some extra nails too, they come in packets of a few thousand.   So I'm thinking that that's enough to see me out.   Then I'm thinking that that thought comes a bit more frequently these days;  something to do with age I think.  I'm not sure if I'm being positive or negative.

Figs

A few years ago I managed, after several false starts, to get a fig tree to grow from a cutting given to me by my musical friend Sandrine.  It is beside a South-West-facing wall that backs on to a shed that backs on to the boiler room.  It is probably the warmest spot in the garden in Winter.  I took 8 cuttings from that tree this Autumn when I trimmed it back a bit.

Meanwhile, some cuttings I took last year have grown and I have planted them out.   The warm spot by the wall being occupied, I have had to find somewhere else for them.   I have put them beside a low South-West-facing wall, and made little dry-stone shelters for them that I hope will keep the worst of the cold off while allowing them to get some sun.   They have a hay mulch for extra protection.   Fingers crossed.

I have had good crops from the one mature tree, but it's clear that figs go off very quickly.   So I'm wondering how they preserved figs to make figgy pudding (that we all like) at Christmas.   Did they dry them, or maybe make the pudding in October, or what?   For my part, this year I made fig wine.

River's high

It has been raining heavily during the last week or so, but that day was bright and dry, so I took a walk along the river.  It was high as expected, and the path was muddy.   First obstacle was the river  blocking the footpath.  I did the lumberjack thing, swinging from tree to tree....

The stepping stones at this point were underwater too.   This is a winterbourne; perfectly dry in Summer, now gurgling away happily.

 

Walkers and ramblers are like rivers: they find the path of least resistance.   This style was bypassed months ago and is in disrepair.

This pool is filled with river water in Summer.   I'm not sure that it's officially a swimming pool, but people swim in it.  I avoid it.  Lyme disease anyone?  I'm not sure what that shower-like thing is in the middle - I've not seen it before.

A bridge over a muddy puddle in the path, a repurposed palette.

And so, back home, via paved roads and paths.

Snow and visitors

In common with much of north-west Europe, snow arrived here yesterday.   And today we have visitors.

There were three deer, but I only every got two of them together.   They were eating leaves from the trees and the occasional fallen apple.