Uncategorized

Laying the groundwork

March 21, 2021 by Chantal Chaney

Monday

No rest for the wicked. Back to work. Had to take a quick break at lunch to head down to Luchon and collect some more supplies as we’re going to have to take the car into the garage so need to ensure we have everything to build the new walls once the floor is out and then in again.

Seems that Matt is slowly chipping away the space in my potting shed.

After work Matt puts in the rest of the bolts into the floor. He’s also had a go at chipping away the rotten bits of beam. I think that there is still enough and it will be ok but looks like I may have to ask Peter before Matt will be happy to leave it alone.

Time to finish taking up Matt’s new trousers so that he has something else to wear. Still not convinced that Lidl’s clothing line is exactly what people were talking about when they said ‘French chic’ but there you have it. Quick chat with Heather this evening which was nice. Time to relax for the evening and get the blogs finished.

[15 March 2021]

Tuesday

While I was on a work call Matt has been prepping the beams by spraying them with Xylophene (insecticide + fungicide) to protect them and prevent any further degradation or insects, it’s hard to know exactly what has caused some of the damage. Either way it had to be done in a very ventilated space with all the windows and doors open so needed to be done before the snow. He did put some sheeting up to stop it spreading into the rest of the house which was pretty good thinking.

With the weather forecasts looking so bad for the end of the week I grabbed a bit of time at lunch to finally play with my new toy. I now know what Monty means by a ‘fine tilth’ and it’s definitely not been seen in one of my gardens before. Was pretty exciting though. Matt gave it a bit of a go on the area that I hadn’t taken the grass and weeds off yet and was definitely less successful, but those are going to need to be pulled out by hand anyway or they will basically just be replanted to grow back stronger.

He did however take the wifi extender from the hallway to his shed and seems that the signal now reaches the veg plot. This meant that after I was done prepping for the big meeting today I could take the laptop outside and listen to the AI centre launch event while digging out the ‘final’ bed.

Definitely been a bit of snow up and around the Pic du Gar in the last few days too (at least on the bit that you could see below the clouds anyway).

After a bit more work I figured I’d leave Matt to his call and get a bit more clearance done out the front. I reckon it’s just under 1/3 done. Looks much tidier though. Current thinking, once we have seen what pops up here, is to make this part of the garden a wildflower meadow. There appears to be a couple of foxgloves in it though and keen not to lose those, the bees love them!

Just as I was running the wheelbarrow back I was stopped in my tracks by these primula. They are so dainty and pretty. Never did manage to do anything with the wheelbarrow though.

Some more work and presentation notes prepped for tomorrow it’s time for fish tacos for dinner and a nice relaxing evening.

[16 March 2021]

Wednesday

Probably the last day before the cold snap and the weather was definitely showing it this morning. I had my big wigs meeting though so had to prep for that. Must admit that I am getting quite good at talking for an hour or two to senior execs now. It’s a little different virtually and accidentally took over chairing for a few minutes too. Still ended up with almost every bloody action, and having to organise a half day workshop, so maybe I am not as good as I think…

Sadly it seems the ‘cherry’ in the back garden has now lost its blossom 🙁 A few other plants however to keep the spirits up. Weird how this one tree has almost espaliered itself. And, oh my god, how that prickly holly bush smells.. it’s like a super strong, like a massive pungent hyacinth.

Had a quick go at clearing some of the rubbish at the back of the house. It gets the morning sun but is shaded for more than half the day so mixed up some shade loving foxglove seeds with a bit of compost to see if they might do anything in this space. There are signs of a few little ones in the surrounding area so fingers crossed. Also threw in a few hollyhock seeds just for good measure. Probably won’t work but I collected plenty of seeds in the summer so worth a shot.

So, after a bit more work, I snuck off to the garden, laptop in hand of course to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I know I am going to have to make up for it later but you can’t garden in the dark right! Might as well take a French lunch break and enjoy it out here. What I also realised was that my veg garden wasn’t nearly big enough. So I made a start on making it bigger. Needs at least 75cm to get the wheelbarrow through, but maybe 90cm at the post due to the block – yes, it will be wonky but it already is.

In the meantime Matt has finished spraying the beams in the kitchen. Pretty much looks the same but the noxious fumes tell a different story.

Later and Matt has finished his call. Having had time to get my head together I was all ready to tackle the French garage again. Next available appointment to look at the tapping from the engine is 29th, so that’s what it is. Back at the house and I was buoyed by calm, thankfully so as we have an unhappy message from Castorama asking us to book a time to collect our kitchen (which was supposed to be delivered). WTF! They are 3 months late and now this. So I tried three times to call them with no joy, hold, hold, hold, get hung up on.

Also trying to make the most of my good mood and positivity about trying my French I tried to call a few French stone masons about the expanding the door to the kitchen. Unfortunately we have issues getting credit onto the phone and they don’t (unsurprisingly) answer a UK number, so that too was a bust. The voice recorder/translate of the messages I left were funny though. I think I might need a bit more practice.

Matt wanted a quick trip around the garden so started to clear out some of the dead leaves on this thing while we were out. Can’t say it’s looking a great deal better yet to be honest and it has an odd sticky texture on the leaves so might wait to finish it till I have some gloves on.