On top of old Smokey

In our never ending quest to stop smoke filling the house when we light a fire and the wind is blowing 'in the wrong' direction, Manny, our plumber, calls to fit a mechanical turbine to the chimney. It doesn't take him long to realise that the cowl is too small for our huge chimney. There will be a solution, he promises, and he will check it out on Monday.

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OK, so dido writes and tells me about water divining. I have some simple divining equipment myself and I can do some easy stuff but I don't really know what I am doing. For some time I have been thinking of trying to locate a source to help with watering and pool filling. Dido's tale struck a cord. She wrote:

My plumber announced on Monday that he was also a water diviner and did we want him to search for a source (which would be a great saving on our colossal water bills due to pool filling and arrossage!). Anyway he turned up on Wednesday with 2 pendulums and brass diving rods and after much dangling and twirling (including dangling a pendulum over a map of the garden and waiting for it to turn in a circle!) he announced that we have 6 sources and the biggest would give us 7 cubic metres an hour - not bad! Today he brought his friend, a "maitre sourcier" (and yes I did manage to pronounce it sorcier - in effect calling them a couple of wizards - blush!) who double checked the reading and pronounced that 5 metres away from the original finding was a point at which 2 sources meet, giving us 14 cubic metres an hour (perhaps we can sell it?). All we have to do is get it out of the ground (without alerting the neighbours in case they do the same and drain it before it comes through to us!).

Anyway, thanks for the mention. I hope you all have a great weekend and don't eat too much! (I'm very partial to chicken with tarragon myself!).

Best wishes

Dido

I suspect that finding the water is not too complicated, if it exists, but drilling the hole, especially if it is deep, is another matter. I come up with another solution. There is an old community well that is never used, on the boundary of our property. It always seems to be full of water. Why don't I just ask William if I can use that water?

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It's that time of the month again when, with bated breath, you are waiting for last month's weather digest. September was actually a very kind month, with an average temperature of 24.9c (25.7c in the first half and 23.9c in the second half). There were only four days of wind, the least wind this year, 21 days of sunshine and 29 warm or hot days. Apart from a few days of heavy rain during the first week, it was a very good month. The pool is still at 22c which is far too cold for me but others still venture in - brrrrrr.

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We visited Saussines this afternoon for their Journee a l'Ancienne and in particular to see the Abrivado Bandido at 17.00. Our visitors never fail to be amazed at the sight of cowboys and bulls careering through the streets, something that would never happen in Health and Safety conscious England.

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Smoked mackerel paté (not one of my favourites - but Jan's is delicious), lamb shanks and brioche pudding for dinner tonight.