Acer and Internet

We have a Maple in the garden, sorry, not just one but three Maples. I do not know the names of them, just that they are Acer ‘something’. Two are absolutely stunning with dark red leaves. At the moment they are housing the families of Wood Pigeons – I don’t really have a problem with that at all but they do leave some ‘cr*p’ on the car…..

The other Maple has pale green leaves (see picture), not exactly Maple shaped, but we have been told by a superb French tree surgeon out here that it is an 'Acer’.

I think that this particular ‘Acer’ is causing me some problems….

I remember reading some time ago that anyone out here in ‘La Belle France’ has a responsibility to maintain trees that could interfere with either overhead Electrical or Telephone lines. The maintenance being keeping the branches and foliage clear of the cables….

Well, this particular tree has not been ‘maintained’ for around 3 years and as you can imagine the branches are very well developed. I did suggest to my ‘other half’ the beginning of this year that maybe the branches should be cut back… What was the response? “No, it is OK for now!”. (Also, looking at the tree it had been severely cut back prior to our purchase of the property so that tells a tale!!!!)

And so the branches have grown and are well populated with leaves, sparrows etc… I do not mind the leaves or the birds but I do mind the fact that the telephone line runs through the tree and we keep getting problems with the internet…. Lots of problems with the internet!

My theory is that if there is slight movement (via the wind maybe) it will interrupt the signal we are getting (bearing in mind we are the end of the line!) and knock out the internet (briefly) through the modem in spite of the fact that the modem’s lights are all on. Once the signal is 'upset' then we lose internet connection. And I do not want to get France Telecom involved in this!!!!

I am having the devils own job of getting an 'instant' connection at the moment. I have to constantly ‘refresh’ to get a page up – and this is on not only Google Chrome but also Internet Explorer and through Mozilla Firefox… And it is happening on not only the main computer but also the laptop and my iPod.

I am not an unintelligent woman, I do read up on things and keep up to date and don’t like it when ‘he’ sighs and looks at me with the though of “what the ‘f’ does she know, she is a woman after all!” And no, he does not think it is anything to do with the tree……

He has agreed to lop some of the branches from the tree… fingers crossed!!

And I am amazed that I am able to post this................