Friday

A while back Matt broke one of the kitchen windows white replacing the shutter motor. Since summer is now over the pane is going to need to be changed out. This place is cold enough without adding extra ‘ventilation.’ A quick trip to the Brico to get the glass cut to size and then back to fit it.

The old pane came out quickly and smoothly enough. Fingers crossed that the new pane goes in just as easily. Thankfully it seems that Matt has quite the knack and within about 15mins he’d done it. Good job Matt.

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For me it’s out to the garden to trim up some of the topiary and give the cloud tree a bit more of a haircut. Only managed to get a few bits done before I had to get back to work for a bit.

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Call done and time to start getting the pool packed away finally, well the undersheet at least. Then into the kitchen to get it tidied up before dinner. We’ve got some leftover raclette left that needs using up and time to have a look at all the progress we have made since the video when we arrived – we will make a new one soon so you can compare.

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[22 October 2021]

Saturday

Tried to go to the marble place today but unfortunately it was closed. Did manage to pop in to see Tim and Elvina up at St Gaudens though and all the incredible progress they have been making on their place. Tim is doing a fantastic job on the conversion of the barns and they were extremely helpful in advising us on the process they have been through with ANAH (renovating support in France) and with some contacts. Thanks guys, incredibly helpful and for the beer. They also have the most fantastic views!

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[23 October 2021]

Sunday

Weather was looking pretty good for a wheel about and the restaurant up at the lake will be closed for winter soon so figured we’d best finally head up and try it for ourselves. Thought I’d have a little salad as I wasn’t overly hungry, it was massive but very tasty.

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Jonny and Cressida dropped over later in the day so it was a good opportunity for Basil to check out the new fencing. I think he approved.

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[24 October 2021]

Monday

Busy day with work but the acer in the garden looks spectacular in its autumn colours.

[25 October 2021]

Tuesday

Matt has been out this afternoon on the ride-on lawn mower collecting up all the leaves. He’s made quite the pile next to the bays that someone is going to have to move at some point and I’m guessing it won’t be him. At least during the summer we’ve hardly used any heating fuel, that’s something. Doubt it will last long once we get the heating system connected up again.

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Looks as though the figs have been ripening well so time to get harvesting. Matt was knocking them off the tree while I was ‘fielding’, I wasn’t actually too bad at it either. Then onto the apples. Quite the haul.

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Only thing now is to work out what to do with them… Matt’s chosen Fig Jam to kick things off, I however went with fig liqueur.

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It’s getting late so time for bed.

[26 October 2021]

Wednesday

Plumber is due to come today to provide a quote for moving one of the radiators and to put some valves in the basement so we can fire up the two heating loops separately. He can’t come to do the work until the 19th November though so we are going to be cold for quite some time.

Beautiful colour on this bush and bright yellow flowers, lovely.

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While Tonia was here she started on removing the mural but only got the first part done. Since the scaffolding is in the salon it seems like an opportune time to remove the others. From ugly garden to night garden. It’s still going to take some work to remove all trace but I think it’s an improvement.

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Need to get back to doing something with the garden produce, today it’s the turn of the apples. Apple chutney, apple spiced brandy liqueur, and apple spiced martini. No idea what they will taste like but worth a shot [pun intended].

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[27 October 2021]

Thursday

Very busy day at work today but Matt has been getting some jobs done around the place, including putting one of the curtail rails back up in the salon which had previously torn itself out of the wall.

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Once work was done he roped me in to help get the final bits of plasterboard cut and up on the walls in Tonia’s room. A bit of jiggery pokery and they are finally in.

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Unfortunately something happened at work and it seems that a server at Matt’s company may have been hacked. Since he’s very busy working I made him some snacks to keep him going while I got some of mum’s wonderful lasagne out of the freezer for dinner. Had to give her a call to find out how to cook it though, she was just at Steph’s telling them the story of the crazy expensive meat. Since it’s getting cold it’s time to get the heated mats onto the bed, at least it will give us one warm place to snuggle down at the end of a long day.

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[28 October 2021]

Friday

Matt was up super late working and is back on it again today. I guess it’s times like this which is why he gets paid the big bucks. Since he’s busy doing that I’m off down to the Charpentier to see if they might respond in person to get a quote for fixing the roof joists as they haven’t responded to multiple emails. No joy sadly as the place is all locked up.

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Off into the veg garden and there is still plenty going on. The jerusalem artichokes are flowering away, along with the cosmos and broccoli [we may not have got any before it bolted but the bees have been enjoying it at least.]

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With all the long list of jobs to do Matt has decided that tonight is date night so the priority is setting up the projector screen for movie night. It’s a bit small but it will do the job for now. Eventually we’re going to have to get a bigger one when we get the dining/conference room set up.

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While I remove a few of the last remaining bits up on the second floor Matt is preparing dinner. Tonight we are having tapas – yum.

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Before the movie starts I managed to whip up a quick Fig Vodka. Rather made up the recipe for this one so put a copy on the back so I know what went into it in case it’s any good.

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Now time for movies and relaxation. [What did we watch?? – zombie heist movies: Army of Thieves + Army of the Dead]

[29 October 2021]

Saturday

Matt was basically working all day again, still trying to fix this problem and get the systems all reset to a previous version – or something to that effect.

While mum was here she made a lovely apple sauce to go with the pork. It’s inspired me to make some myself, I’ve never made it before though so called mum to check how difficult it was, then promptly looked it up and made a slightly different version but was nice to speak to her, again. It took much longer than anticipated but it tastes pretty good if you ask me, Matt even dropped in to see how it was going it took so long.

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[30 October 2021]

Sunday

With all that apple sauce made it was time for a true test and some nice pork chops and roast potatoes. Meow thinks it’s been a long day too and she’s exhausted from everything we’ve been up to. So are we so off to bed.

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[31 October 2021]