[I hope you now have the minions singing in your head]

Friday

Dad passed away 13 years ago today but what a great time he would have helping us with the house if he were still here. We miss him a great deal and would have benefitted so much from all his skill and experience in renovating.

Matt is back to back again with meetings but my day is a bit slower. It’s a bank holiday tomorrow though so the shops are shut. Oddly for us however Monday is therefore not automatically a bank holiday. Does mean we need to get some shopping in today though and only a short break when both Matt and I are both free.

Seriously, what is with the use of cheques to pay for groceries in this country? We had 25 mins before my meeting to pop down to Intermarche and almost every person in the queue in front of us was paying by cheque, it’s so weirdly archaic. Even at my grand old age I rarely remember using cheques, maybe to pay my rent at uni but that was a long time ago now. I doubt there’s anyone young enough reading this blog not to have had cheques but wonder how many of you in the UK and NZ have used them in the past 5-10 years?

During my afternoon meeting I got pinned to the chair by the cat falling asleep on me so was stuck for two hours. Eventually managed to escape and had a wander round the garden to look at some the wild flowers. Also found an old bag of wild foxglove seeds so sprinkled them at random around bare bits of ground and over mole hills. Not sure whether any will work but I do love foxgloves and there’s the odd Hollyhock knocking around. The one by the woodshed is getting massive, it must be at least 4ft already.

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Matt’s also been testing a free app to look at our swimming pool options.

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It was very funny earlier when Matt asked her name and she did a little ‘meow’ and what do people call you ‘meow’. Vicky has requested however that the cat is now officially called ‘Catan’, in a French accent this sounds exactly like kitten and is very cute.

[30 April 2021]

Saturday

Slow start to the day but Matt has been up making a start on the plasterboard joins while I get the washing up done and then off to the veg patch.

Matt needs to wait for the plaster to dry so comes out to join me. It may be international naked gardening day but it is far too cold for those sorts of shenanigans so we stick to regular gardening. Having cleared the increasing grasses between the onions and had a quick go over bed 5, it was time to go back and redo the garlic bed, properly this time. It’s definitely been a lesson in half-arsing a job. Do it properly the first time and you do it once, do it badly and you’ll just have to go back and do it all over again. Garlic and weeds removed, properly rotavated, and raked to a lovely fine tilth it was time to replant the garlic.

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Matt has made a good start on also clearing around the raspberry patch by the shed. It’s not quite finished but it’s saved me a job and made space for me to maybe also add some of the peas or beans once it’s warm enough. Pleased we had the cat here to help though, sure we couldn’t have done it without her.

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[1 May 2021]

Sunday

First job of the day was to remove the ‘presents’ we’ve been left, 2 on the veranda and one by the front door. She clearly thinks of us as family but that we are rubbish at hunting mice as we keep losing them when they run out the house, thank heavens she’s there to bring them back again.

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Work continues in the kitchen and Matt now has a holster for his drill so looks like a cowboy! Got as much done now as we can without a car to collect the missing boards.

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I left Matt to do some of the taping while I popped out to the garden to finally rotovate the end bed ready for the beetroot. It looks great when it’s freshly done and glad to finally have got these in the ground even if they are a little late. Also got some Habaneros in and some ‘mission bells’.

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Pizza for dinner followed by a call from Mum and catching up on the F1. Washing is all done finally so nice clean sheets for bed tonight.

[2 May 2021]

Monday

Planned for a relaxed day until Matt came running up the stairs to inform me that a French guy was at the door. Jumped out of bed in my jammies and turns out that it is the plasterer so fingers crossed we might get a quote for doing the kitchen soon.

Next up figured that we would have a walk around the garden and finish doing the list of the trees. We’ve got a few good fruit trees so be good to see what we get.

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Next up Matt’s gone to tackle the orchard while I deal with the mass of sticks and twigs round the back. There’s a massive pile of leaves underneath which I’d love to pop onto the leafmould pile but unfortunately I suspect that something is currently living in there so think I will leave that be for the time being.

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Later in the afternoon we popped down to see how the car was going. Almost done, be ready around 4:30 so we head back later on to collect it. A pretty big bill but it is now back on the road so we’ve ordered the plasterboard and are off to Luchon.

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Quick stop off at Lidl while we wait for it to be prepared. It has been a while but picked up a few bits and most excitingly an Abyssinian Canna (false banana). I think it’s beautiful and wanted one for ages, Monty has a great one at Longmeadow. Got to Chausson about 5:10 and they were closed, despite the fact that our pick up was booked for 5:30… Not much doing though so back to the house.

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Evening and time to relax before we all head back to work tomorrow.

[3 May 2021]