Wednesday

Since it’s the first day back and I had some work to make up from spending yesterday travelling we didn’t get a great deal done, I was just glad to be back. Matt however seems to have been measuring up the pipes to the radiators in Rooms 3 and 4 as they have odd old fittings that as far as we can tell you can’t get anything to fit onto, from anywhere.

[28 September 2022]

Thursday

Some more insulation action in Room 3, unfortunately my necklace also snapped. It could have been worse though, at least I found it in my jumper and didn’t lose it in the wall or something stupid.

After work I decided that since I had now returned we deserved a treat, and we do have to keep testing the bubbles. It was a bit of a scrap however to be able to keep my ice cream to myself

[29 September 2022]

Friday

I was going to get some work done up on the second floor but when I took a closer look I wasn’t going to get any closer than I needed to as the ceiling was disgusting.

Still the floor to clean up but like the cat I was over it.

It’s not a bad day outside so I went out to the garden with Matt to go and see what there is to harvest. After a search of the grounds and two huge heavy buckets later we are laden with all the quince we could possibly need, all the more so as we don’t have a clue what you do with one quince, let alone this many. Yes, we have heard of quince jelly, but has anyone actually tasted it and what do you even eat it with?!

One of the other jobs that needs doing is to move the jasmine and get it planted up so it has plenty of time to work on its root system ready to go mad in the spring and takeover the arch. It was hard work digging the holes though and I needed Matt’s help to transplant it and widen the hole a bit. We’re not actually 100% certain that it is winter hardy but hopefully if I protect the roots well with plenty of mulch then it might stand the winter, only time will tell.

Time to finish off the canapés and then to cut Matt’s hair again. I think he’s looking pretty sharp!

[30 September 2022]

Saturday

Up to Action and Noz to see what’s up, not a lot was the answer. Back at the house, the weather forecast is looking good and since it was raining yesterday but is clear today the ground is relatively soft so a good day to start on the final bed for the potager.

Meanwhile Matt is starting work on the pool lights finally. It doesn’t look like he’s getting very far or that he’s having much fun doing it but obviously I’m there to help him decide where it goes and oversee some of it, in between the back breaking work I’d been doing in the potager.

Since I’m not long back I’d promised to make up for it by making some nice dinners for him. Tonight I’m making Roast Pork to use up the last of the apple sauce from last year, ready to make some more this year. As with any roast however it does take its time so it’s going to be 20:30 before we eat. It was worth it though. Afterwards we had quite the laugh at the cat in the box.

[1 October 2022]

Sunday

Matt was up early working on the pool lights again. It’s turned out to be a much bigger job than we’d first thought. The larger street lamp style have required Matt to remove a number of stones and set them into concrete. We get some pretty strong winds and since the stones aren’t concreted down they need something more.

I slept late of course, but when I got up I felt worried that Matt hadn’t woken me up so I went off to the second floor to finish the cleaning – a job he’s never going to want to do. Room 7 ceiling was done so back to Room 5 to do a few bits Tonia had missed. It’s still not perfect as we need to take out the old insulation first but I’m reticent to do that until we’re ready to put more back in. More is more.

I found Matt outside still working on the lights but he was almost finished. Until I noticed an odd finish at the top of the street lights, the top finishings had been turned inside out for shipping so they all needed to be taken off and reversed. Looking pretty good if you ask me, can’t wait for it to get dark.

My next job was to fill in the big hole while Matt boxed up the external pipes from the pool house. It needs to be done soon and insulated before winter sets in and they freeze and burst. Of course there wasn’t enough soil but I’ve been keen to extend one of the beds beside the pool so this was a good opportunity to pull some of that out and use to backfill the hole. At least nobody can break their leg in it now and I’ve marked this bit at least to prevent damage from digging it up.

Time for a swim after all this hard work, spent a lot of time watching the dragonfly that had come to visit and had a lovely lunch of leftovers. A bit warm for a roast but sometimes you have to roll with the punches.

After a swim we were discussing how we are going to finish the terrace surround so I was deep into research of what plants we could use as a border. No matter what we do we’re going to have a border somewhere and I think I have an answer. Problem is that Matt wants guarantees on how well it will be established by the wedding and you just don’t know, we don’t know how brown the lawn might be, there are just so many variables. There’s time, but there’s also still a huge amount of work to do in the garden before we’re ready.

Time for me to crack on with dinner. I’ m not sure why I offered to do two roasts this weekend. I must be mad. Roast chicken tonight. It took another half hour longer than planned but it was worth it.

Now it’s dark however we can go outside and appreciate all the hard work Matt has done, I have to admit that I think it looks beautiful, at least I think so.

Feeling fat it was time to return to the sofa for a good rest and update the blog.

[2 October 22]

Monday

Mostly working but managed to find some time to get a bit of work done upstairs. Matt has been working on putting the flooring back where we ran the new multicouche through the kitchen and preparing to get the walls finished.

There wasn’t much that I could do to help so I decided to make a bit more progress on the second layer of insulation in Rooms 1 and 2. Annoyingly it looks like it’s going to end up with quite a few small bits of off cuts but there’s only so many ways you can make 60cm widths work.

Time for dinner. Matt had been to Intermarche earlier to get some sugar to test out a new recipe ‘Membrillo’ to use up some of our quinces. We have no idea if we even like quinces but if it goes well with cheese then we’re up for trying it out. It’s a Spanish delicacy apparently and goes well with Manchego or hard nutty cheeses and was very similar to making jam. Finally done and time to put it in the fridge to set. Let’s hope it’s tasty as we still have a hell of a lot more quinces to use up.

[3 October 2022]