iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11h

Heh. I wanted to join the RAF too, but have a dodgy middle ear and thus no balance. Also, women in the RAF in the 1970s-80s tended to be stuck in offices. I wanted to write, translate,and travel, too - and did. So there's that!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12h

Yes - we get fruit and veg from local growers - very generous of them. We can store them in our cold room (another donation) for a while as we distribute 2 days a week. We're more fortunate than many food banks, I think.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ah - see my other comment. Salto too. Our vet isn't that expensive, tbh compared with horror stories I hear for the UK.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

At least he has two! His twin hereabouts only had one appear and needed an op to identify and remove the other. He sailed through it all, though. Hope all goes well.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

They most certainly do exist - we have quite a few right here in town. Known as 'SDF' - sans domicile fixe. Some of them come to the food bank.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

What we look for is more like tins with French classics like cassoulet or sausages and lentils, or microwavable dishes for single people. Some people have really limited cooking facilities (or for those on the street, none at all, which makes it even harder).

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm often on the fruits/desserts section and yes, treats like chocolate or good biscuits are so popular. You should see it when we have Nutella or honey in! But we wait until we have enough for all, or most, families to have a chance at something before putting it on the shelves.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Thanks to people who reacted to the food bank post. We collected 6.4 tons (same as last year). Town of around 8000 people. We feed over 270 families of between 1 and 7 people. Weekly. Excellent atmosphere at our centre - we're very fortunate that the locals are generous, too.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Very similar here. Quite honestly, at this point we'll take anything! We have a cold room for fruit/veg and yoghurts, etc. The biggest need is prepared meals plus all you mention. Yes, and treats! Biscuits (cookies) are always really welcome.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Fresh food isn't something we can keep for more than a week. We get fruit/veg from local firms (luckily). What the collection focuses on is stuff we can stock. No fresh meat at our centre, but we get frozen stuff through the département. They should say what they need!!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We do distribute non-food a couple of times per season (and always give babies nappies monthly). Same with things like coffee, oil, flour. Priority is basic staples, though. (The French just LOVE tinned haricots verts, for example).

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We stopped with the flyers as people dropped them at the supermarket or in the car park. We now just wave signs at them, smile at them, and have a huge 'totem' showing pictures of what we need. It works!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The food bank association, Les Restos du Coeur, will be doing one of its twice-yearly collections around this month. Ours is this weekend (I shall be lurking at supermarkets, begging). We REALLY need donations of food so anyone in France, please consider dropping some extras in your trolley. Ta!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I was at school in the 60s and 70s and we were taught grammar in English - which was so very useful when I started learning other languages. Mind you, some of the 'rules' we were taught are conventions, styles, or just plain wrong. It took me decades of translating and editing to 'unlearn' some.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This has been discussed on the FB grammar group I moderate. Not sure that the misuse is increasing - I suspect it's been around for a while. The current 'big issue' there is flat adverbs, which the prescriptivists (wrongly and loudly) imagine is a 'new thing'.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I was having a download binge (Amazon is still a good option when one lives in Forrin Parts) so I popped yours into the, um, other 17 I had queued up on the wishlist. Binges are binges. Looking forward to it. Not even sure how to download from other sites to a Kindle. IT failure here.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Yep. Still a Brets fan as they are really good but there's a little local company who supplies our local fruit/veg place whose plain crisps are just wonderful. Pricey, but wonderful. Brets plain 'à l'ancienne' are my favourites of theirs. I'm clearly just a sort of POTATO crisps person!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

J'ai plusieurs flacons avec des bouts de verre dépoli, trouvés au fil tu temps. Plus intéressant que le bouts de pierre, pour moi. Mais trop de promenades au bord de la mer avec la tête en bas à chercher du bleu (les plus rares). T'es bien placé pour en chercher, non?

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I remember that. I put recipes in my contemporary fiction novel (pen name, zero marketing skills, so not next year's best seller) and enjoyed doing it in my main character's 'voice' (well OK, my voice). Same for the sequel which is gathering dust (see 'no marketing skills' above) on a hard drive.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

New yoga class 'hatha yoga doux'... Gentle? Hah! I've done a year of yoga for old biddies but this was challenging. However, in the ongoing quest for sanity, I've signed up for 10 classes. Definitely the oldest biddy there. The instructor sang for us during the 'final relaxation' bit. Nice.

Yoga - because punching people is wrong.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I rarely repost but I reposted that one this morning. Definitely a good 'un. I have a Syrian dermato, a Lebanese cardiologist, a Moroccan plumber, and the (reliable) delivery guys are from Mali and Algeria. I don't want any of them to go home!

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Reposted by Bren Kübler

MDW @clevercomma.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Worth watching!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

#caturday - Tyke (tabby) and Salto (ginger, all grown up now). They do have soft, snuggly places to sleep, honest, but love this ancient watchmaker's bench. Missy (black and white) does not associate with the lads.

Tyke the tabby and Salto the ginger spread out on a watchmaker's bench.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Ours was last week. I manned the food bank stand for part of it, signed up as a volunteer at the recyclerie, and hummed and hawed about a year's worth of Yoga for Old Biddies. It was PACKED (and yep, some odd stuff).

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Now that's one happy band of felines!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Sadly, no LeClerc hereabouts. I love little sablés but Mr K does not. I buy them when we have guests or I end up eating them all on my own!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Thanks! We've had some Brittany butter ones (pretty good) but not those. There's a local petrol station that buys in the unusual ones but I rarely go (too expensive to fill up there) but it's also a point relais for packages so I always indulge. Discovered the falafel ones there.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I've never, ever tried a sarnie like that. Hmmm. Being from Yorkshire I *did* eat chip butties now and then but my mother (daughter of domestics) found them 'common'! Tyrrells cheddar and chives are wonderful but rarely stocked. Their salt and vinegar ones are a bit over-vinegary for me.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Our big Intermarché stocks very few of the 'new' ones, so I was quite surprised to see that. They also had Falafel ones, which I quite liked when we tried them.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I dunno. I presume they wait and see which prove popular. One flavour, a while back, was goat cheese/wild cherry. Loved that but it disappeared! Our local Intermarché rarely stocks 'unusual' ones. We usually try one packet of them when we see them. Many seem a bit 'meh'.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Despite my life being basically far too boring to talk about on Bluesky, I'm going to try. Usually I just comment a bit. Starting with a minor discovery for the Brets gang. I like these!

Hitherto unknown type of crisps/chips for me but they actually taste like gyosas with chicken.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Probably because of the ferment. I make my topping with milk, but add a couple of drops of lemon juice (fermented milk isn't that common here and I always forget to get it). Now I want a pot pie. I use Dave Lebovitz's recipe.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Haven't posted for YEARS. But I use it for the local info page (very useful). Oh, um, and I'm a moderator for an international grammar group with 373,000 members (!). That's actually interesting, but I keep all personal stuff WELL away from it all.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Congratulations! Our 43rd is coming up (civil wedding). The church wedding was in December of the same year - the day after my birthday. It often meant that Mr K forgot BOTH (and yes, even since he retired). He was in finance. December was annual closing. That's his excuse.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

YES! Then, as a postgrad (1979) I learned shorthand and it came in SO VERY USEFUL for transcribing songs! It was supposed to be for writing reports/orders in 3 languages but hey... lyrics on tap! (Better than 'please send 12 multi-bucket excavators and 6 tractors').

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Veg, herbs, citrus watered (10 minutes later than allowed because lingered over coffee.) Already hot. Over 40 yesterday. However, a trip to Intermarché later is pretty essential if we are to eat our greens and fruit (our own are mostly fried). So sick of this now. (Waves to Salto lookalike).

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

In the 18 months I've been moderating for a huge international grammar group (on FB) I'm constantly amazed at things I'm finding out (in both a good way and a bad way)! I was an editor for over 40 years and STILL discovering stuff :D Sadly, I have to use the delete/ban buttons rather a lot, too.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The weird thing is that 'grown peppercorns' is the one thing I have done. Timut and Sichuan (both 'false' peppers but both excellent).

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

One of them is near to us (near Die, where they already had a huge one before). Same temperatures here. Yippee. Not.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Trouvé où? (Amie coeliaque). Ai trouvée la pâte feuilletée SG à Intermarché - pas mal mais un peu friable. Tu avais posté sur la socca il y a un moment. Ai acheté de la farine de pois chiches pour en faire (aussi pour elle) bientôt. Tu le fais toi-même?

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Imagine, if you will, a completely blank page that has nothing to do with a faulty graphics card. (I slept badly. I'm grouchy. You don't want today's 'energy').

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I KNOW I'm not a good person. So I laughed out loud.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I wouldn't know where to start with putting a pic up on mine. Pathetic, right? (Worse, I don't even know how to lock my phone). Yours, IT-challenged old biddy.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Yes, well. Why doesn't this 'response' even surprise me?

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Mind those tiny little teeth, too. Salto, when very tiny, nibbled my hand and I ended up with a HUGE infection. Tyke loves to claw at my, um, upper half when demanding treats, so I have a 'speckled torso' that the doc once took to be some sort of rash!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I'm no expert in nuns/ancient French but it would seem possible. A 'journée' indicates an entire day, from getting up to going to bed, whereas a 'jour' is less specific, as in the 'days of the week' or 'Labour day', etc. @olivierroth.bsky.social might know (about the language - nuns not sure!)

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

We do save washing up water and shower water, yes. We use that on the potted plants on the terrace. Many of our bushes and flowering plants elsewhere look very sad, though. We *may* get a little rain today but right now it's scorching yet again.

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

So kind! We were too close for comfort to one of the major fires a couple of weeks back (smoke everywhere) and we're just hot and tired like everybody else, I guess. Garden suffering, pool disastrous, but it's worse elsewhere (and we have A/C)!

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Bren Kübler @brenkubler.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

But glamour? No. There was no glamour. Two-star hotels in rather unpleasant places, 18-hour days, etc. etc. Cheapest possible flights (and seats). Sound familiar?

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