Monday

Back to work and a lot of work there is. While I was ‘sacking off’ last week with mum I also took on a second job. It should only be few days bidding. It’s a good gig though and with my other contract up for renewal at the end of July it’s good to have a few irons in the fire.

Of course this meant that both Matt and I were both working hard to ‘bring home the bacon’ rather than doing anything interesting. Matt did take a brief break to try to fit the sink in the ‘pink’ bathroom. It seemed to be successful, until he came upstairs, tweaked it slightly and it started to leak. Oh dear, sounds as though the whole thing needs to come apart again with a new silicon seal around the plughole. Better to know now though than to have it dripping into the drawers without our knowledge. Meanwhile I spent the time looking around the garden.

Back to work but he coaxed me out to the pool around 5:30pm (GMT) but only time for 100 lengths as the weather was feeling a bit changeable and I wanted to get out before the clouds really set in and it got cold.

Sausages tonight to use up the chorizo that goes off tomorrow, NZ style (wrapped in a slice of bread). It’s been a long day and I have more work to do while we sat in front of the TV. Hopefully I can break the back of it tonight so that I can send for comment and then focus back on it at the end of the week leaving time for the day job. It’s only a few days.

[20 June 2022]

Tuesday

Busy busy. Got lots of work done today and weather has definitely taken a bit of a turn.

Matt was making a lot of noise upstairs so I thought I’d best go take a look. It appears that he’s cleared a small space in the Adults room and is trying to work out how to fit the insulation that we bought the other day. It also seems that this isn’t a one person job. It needs to be trimmed so it fits in between the channels. My plan was to use the table saw as it wasn’t going to be easy with a knife. Apparently it wasn’t too easy with a table saw either. After multiple attempts we finally made it work but we’re going to need to find another way to make this work or we’ll be at it forever. We have ideas though, it’s just going to take a bit of trial and error. No point doing it badly though or why bother doing it at all.

Time for some more work and pizza for dinner. Then an episode of Taskmaster and updating the blog. But now I’ve done this one I’m off to bed.

[21 June 2022]

Wednesday

After work it’s back up to Room 3 to get a little more done on the insulation. As expected it took a bit more trial and error than planned but we did manage to get the first row in which felt like a mini-triumph.

With that done I have some plants that are in dire need of attention and which I should have dealt with a month or more ago. Of course I don’t have any normal compost left however but did remember that there were some coir bricks in the shed, mixed up with some grass clippings and leafmould they should do the job. Matt’s calling me for dinner but I’m so close I need to get them finished while I can.

Yummy dinner, the last of mum’s pies from the freezer. We’re going to have to lock her in the kitchen again next time she’s over to restock. Matt’s off to the attic to see if he can get some good pictures of the chimney crowns so we can see if we can get some more to match for the missing side over the kitchen. Meanwhile I was playing with the snapdragons, they make me giggle every time.

Time for a well earned rest.

[22 June 2022]

Thursday

Finally the paving stones have arrived and the pool guys are back to start laying the terrace, yippie. Shame it wasn’t in for mum’s visit but if we’re lucky it might be finished by the time Tonia arrives. First job clearly is getting the margelles (coping stones) in and I think they’re looking good, even if they’re not quite finished with them yet. It’s only the middle of the day but the afternoon does get incredibly hot and they were here crazy early.

After work it’s time to smell the roses, well actually appreciate the hydrangeas but who’s nit picking. My next job was to clear a bit of scrappy ground that’s never really had much growing in it to make some space for my peony that Matt got me and for the lupin that I rescued before the crushed the end of the bed when they started work on the pool. I also had a few hollyhocks that I’d planted from seed this year that needed a home so popped those at the back too, hopefully they might flower next year ready for the wedding.

Carbonara for dinner and then looking for the cat. She seems to have found a new spot to hide at the back of the woodshed, she also seems to think that my plant pots are good places to sleep. Not ideal when I’ve just put things in them, thankfully on this occasion that one was empty, I think.

[23 June 2022]

Friday

Lots of work to do but Matt got up early to go run down to Lidl and pick up a big piece of pork. When he got back I helped to prepare the meat ready to go into the smoker. It’s a bit of a changeable day so we’ve managed to pull it under the canopy over the back door, will have to keep the door closed most of the day however or we’ll just fill the house with smoke. Found an awesome looking bug but not sure what it was. Also picked one of the magnolia grandiflora, they really are the size of a dinner plate.

With the pork on it’s back to work. Cressida and Jonny were coming over at 6pm and dinner was almost ready. Apple pork, new potatoes (also cooked in the smoker) and salad. It was pretty good, the crust on the outside of the pork was better than last time but it was much less appley.

It wasn’t going to be a late one as Jonny is off to Scotland tomorrow so they have to be up early in the morning to get him to the airport. We were sitting outside chatting after they’d left and suddenly heard the bells ringing. Oops, it’s 10pm already. The should be lighting the Brandon now. So we grabbed a flask and dashed up to the gardens opposite the Marie. It seems that the dinner (which we aren’t attending) must be over-running. In fact by the time that they came out ready to light it they were nearly an hour late.

We were chatting to a chap called Jean-Michel (yes, of course I made the Jean-Michel Jarre joke, he wasn’t impressed). I was speaking French but his English was pretty good. He’s the head of festivities for the village and informed us that ‘the Brandon is long tradition symbolising the sweeping up all the bad things from the previous year and burn them to have a fresh and prosperous year.’ We also chatted to the Mayor and his wife, Veronique. She had spent some time as an aupair in the UK and has fantastic English. With the margelles in the and the terrace to be finished next week we invited them over next weekend for an apero. When the Brandon had finished burning we went back to the salle de fetes to help them tidy up and were given a coffee and beer for our troubles.

Matt came over to get me as there as a chap who was born in the house and wanted to have a chat. He was very nice, he has a second home around the corner but his uncle is the history buff that lives behind us. Time to head home but had been a really good night and exchanged numbers with the Mayor and Jean-Michel, I then had to go home and text them from the French phone though as of course we’d only come out with our UK ones.

Relaxing in front of the TV it was incredibly late when we eventually went to bed.

[24 June 2022]

Saturday

A hot day for relaxing, swimming and doing very little. I can see this is going to be a very quiet weekend.

[25 June 2022]

Sunday

Yesterday’s day of relaxing included a little too much wine so another day for spending as much time as possible in bed. It’s also raining and generally miserable so nowhere better to be. Matt got up because he was hungry and made pizza. I could smell it from the bedroom so finally relented and came downstairs. Only to grab a blanket and cushion and settle back down on the sofa. I’m hugely committed to doing nothing today and have been catching up on Doctors. Finally Matt wanted to watch something so we watched a rather terrible movie called ‘Spiderhead’, some iZombie, Umbrella Academy, and some Death and Robots. Matt went to bed and so I finally decided to update the blog. Just as I’m about to finish there’s a huge roll of thunder and then lightning. The cat’s just gone outside but I’ll double check before bed to see if she wants in.

[26 June 2022]

Monday

Pool guys were back early again this morning and made a start on the terrace itself. They didn’t get very far but then the rain set in.

I’ve got lots of work to do today but Meow wasn’t having any of it, Matt said she was trying to help but it definitely wasn’t helping. Matt has been making good progress on framing up the first wall in Room 3 which is great news.

[27 June 2022]