Tuesday

Generally busy with work but saw Grumps again after a long time. She didn’t come too close so unsure whether or not she might be pregnant again, Meow had a quick nap in the one of the boxes outside while I was working and before we finally got a chance to get rid of the recycling.

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[4 May 2021]

Wednesday

Walk around the garden to look at some of the wildlife and rather large daisies

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[5 May 2021]

Thursday

Clearly not quick enough to the table today as someone had stolen my spot by the time I was off my call.

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Mostly back to work, with a small amount of potting up a few of the larger beans that are gradually starting to erupt out of their little modules and I’ve run out of old plastic milk bottles. Hopefully the new pots will arrive soon as I suspect that the black and white one needs potting up soon…

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[6 May 2021]

Friday

Matt is super busy again, he’s had a crazy week, I think the teams are all the more stressed after a bank holiday than usual trying to catch up. Thankfully my teams all have a day job so what I am doing is just an after thought, but I’ve done a lot of boring business cases this week and secured my first £100k funding so that’s a start.

The mason guy finally came today to do a quote for widening the door to the kitchen so hopefully we might get that moving soon. Matt has also asked him for a quote to take the central wall back to the original stone and repoint it. While I appreciate that it would be a lovely original feature to uncover and show off I suspect that the cost of doing it may be prohibitive but worth knowing at least I guess.

Once my calls are done I’m almost ready to go and waiting for Matt, his call seems to be going on forever, which is lucky as I appear to be pinned down with no way to escape.

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Finally released we have missed the chance to get most of the things done that we had planned however still time to head up to Super U and at least get the shopping out the way. Back at home and it’s time to start potting up. Managed to get all the sweet peas and most of the sweetcorn done – ruined one of the sweetcorn by pulling too hard on the leaves and taking them clean off but hey ho, there’s still time right.

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Matt is back off in my potting shed and appears to have had a breakthrough. After using all the modern gunk etc to try to seal the pipes it seems that using old school hessian fibres is the key. Finally we have ‘No More Leaks’. Still a long way to go to add it to the cold side of the manifold but it is progress.

Kitten has been off hunting again. First another mouse but then a vole. Those things are much bigger and more vicious it seems, however it will stop them eating my veg so all up for it.

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Back in the house and seems she’s been checking under some of the furniture.. maybe we need to clean more often although she does make a good duster.

Finally it is flat pack time as Matt wants to measure some plumbing stuff up for the sink. Obviously I am a pro but was thinking how much Tonia would enjoy doing this. I also got bored before the end so will have to finish it later.

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Time for Gardener’s World and a quick chat with Muma Camp.

[7 May 2021]

Saturday

Up reasonably early as Matt is keen to get out and get the shopping part of the day out of the way. Unfortunately, having abandoned the unit making yesterday we have to finish that before we can go. Well that and have a cup of tea of course. While we are preparing I ask Matt to double check whether the swimming pool shop is actually open, we are only meant to have ‘essential shops open’ currently after all. Apparently in Southern France this is an essential shop..?!

Finally we are off. Emmaus is closed so off to chat to the pool guys. Not sure how much of it I got but the gist was there, it has to be a metre wider than the pool to allow for the blocks and a load of other bits and pieces, alarm, cover, lights, jets, etc. They seem super nice and very helpful, we expect a quote sometime next week.

€145 spent at Action but got lots of random bits, including (vitally) some nice reclining chairs for the garden and some more pots of course. Bumped into Elvina at Noz which was good as we were planning to drop round to see them after the shopping as they have a sink for us. Good to catch up and have a tour of their wood, they also have a lovely well.

Back in the car and we are off home, via Rural Master for the plumbing. Sadly they didn’t actually have the bits we need so Matt is going to have to go down to Luchon on Monday. Once back at the house Matt gets on with moving all the branches off the front garden from our pollarding adventure. Seems my recently cleared pile is more than restocked now. This is definitely going to take me a while to deal with, so I’ll do it another day.

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Spoke to Tonia but she was out with the dog so will call back later. Rang mum. Then Tonia again. Time for dinner. Still really warm so dinner on the veranda, chicken caesar salad with fresh anchovies, yummy!

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Such a warm night we put out some of the 69c solar lamps and sat out for the evening. The sunset was beautiful and it was lovely but all good things come to an end and it was time for bed.

[8 May 2021]