Wednesday

Work project was in yesterday so am cracking on today outside and the sun is finally shining again. Flowers, butterflies and bees!

Tonia is trying to pull out some of the big weeds from the games lawn while I try to plant up some calendular in little pots we could put on the outside convening tables during the wedding and get the delphiniums into the ground. I really don’t know that with the weather we’ve been having that these are going to grow and be usable for the wedding but you can’t seem to buy the stems from the florists. Heavens I wish I had access to the flowers here that I would in London or Sussex. Anyway, fingers crossed for me. Obviously someone is helping/crushing things as I go too, thanks Meow.

A load of the lilies are starting to come up and hopefully this is a good sign. I cannot imagine how the nurseries for Chelsea do it, this whole trying to get things to grow and do anything when you want them to is a nightmare.

There’s also a few little tomato plants I’ve been working on for Ollie. I know how much he loves them straight off the vine. So hopefully a few should keep him happy and give me something other than flowers. Matt came to inspect and seems that Meow has also found a new vantage point.

Finally Matt and I need to finish putting the hole through the wall from the water butt to the pump to feed the automatic watering system. It looks much easier than it was I can assure you.

[17 May 2023]

Thursday

Some pretty cool birds of prey round here.

Time for me to crack on with a few more jobs – well one really, potting up, again!

Tonia and Anya have been spending her time making borders. One rock at a time slowly whittling down the huge pile.

[Something happened with the door I assume]

La Guinguetta is finally open today so we’re taking Tonia up to the pub to see some live music

[18 May 2023]

Friday

We’re table planning but there are strange noises outside. It seems that another dog has turned up in our garden and they’re playing.

Received a notification that my bare root delphiniums are ready to be collected. I have to say that they seemed to look a bit sad. Maybe that’s what they were meant to look like. Will just have to keep my fingers crossed that they do their thing.

[19 May 2023]

Saturday

Matt and I are off to the shops. Crazy thing a wedding, you never know what you are going to come back with. Apparently the answer that question is a bit of everything.

One thing we did get was extra parts to fix up the ‘new’ bikes we’ve been buying. And once Matt has had time to get them up and running we’re both keen to give them a test run.

Matt and Tonia then take to the basement to put up a wine rack. While Matt then goes to work on doing the final sand of the downstairs cloakroom (I have no idea why we call a downstairs bathroom with a basin and a toilet a cloakroom in English but we do) I sort some of the wine. The cave is coming along nicely but I think Matt might need a shower.

[20 May 2023]

Sunday

With Matt having finished in the cloakroom I can now start getting the scaffolding up, move on with brushing off the last of the dust and start the painting.

Time for a spot of lunch and then to build the new arch for the old vine to grow up.

Tonia has finished the rocks and is off working on the patches on the lawn at the back of the pool so hopefully it looks a bit better by the time the wedding rocks around. Anya is obviously playing supervisor and checking on it as she goes.

[21 May 2023]

Monday

First things first and I have to get the sheets in the washing machine. A new project started today though so need to get cracking on that but good to have Rane back. Spent most of the day working but was also very pleased to hear that Cressida is on her way home. It feels as though they’ve been away for ages. Tonia has done a second coat on the first set of doors in Room 2 and the door to the salle a manger, she’s even managed to get on and start sanding a few others.

Matt has been looking at the old chainsaws to see if he can resurrect any of them, I’m not sure but it’s certainly worth a go if he can.

The sun finally popped out as Matt went off up to Montrejeau. I took the opportunity to get the cosmos in, hopefully they will thank me for it. I also need to get the second planter done and the clematis in. Tonia helped mix up the batch of compost, coir and terreau and I finally got them in. A couple were somewhat fragile but hopefully they will thrive in their new home.

We also got a load of the pots moved off the lawn by the pool so hopefully that can recover quickly and get a bit of a cut soon. Matt’s back so it’s time for me to go and make a start on dinner as I did say that I’d make roast chicken yesterday and we got sidetracked but he’s going to be very hungry unless I get on with it soon.

Finally dinner is ready, didn’t crisp up as much as I’d have liked but it was fine and all tasted good. Time to serve up.

Time to get the washing out and make the bed before having a shower, sending a few work emails and updating the blog.

[22 May 2023]

Tuesday

Oh my god, will this rain ever stop. It’s not just rain it’s a rubbish type of rain. The type of rain where it rains for a bit, then the sun pops out and it’s lovely warm, but only for about 10 mins, then the rain starts again. Just pour all night and morning and be sunny in the afternoon would you, this is highly inconsiderate. I’ve got lots of work on but I’d far rather be doing it in my outside office.

After work there was a brief break in the rain so we decided to go to the materiaux place down the road to get the breeze blocks to do the main structure of the summer kitchen. 1 pallet = 70 blocks and 1.4 tonnes – our trailer is rated for 750kg..! We didn’t have the key to take the side off and seeing him put it on the back before pushing it forward across the centre axle had me very anxious. We were in the Beast and the whole of the back of the car was nearly lifted off it’s back wheels. Eeek!

Eventually he managed to push it into the right place and we were just about able to eek it up to our house. To be honest if we didn’t live around 300m away I’d have pulled the plug on doing it. We were keen however to get it unloaded as soon as possible on return though as not sure how much of this our trailer will take.

Obviously this was then followed by some discussion about the height they would be used to and how we would get the working level flat at the height that I want it.

Tonia has been working on making sure that the window frames are prepped ahead of the wedding. Unfortunately later on I heard shouts from the salon and it seems that the rain has closed in on us with a vengeance. The problem is that the wood paint is water soluble until it’s dried so it’s now all washing off the frames and onto our hardwood floor. I helped to quickly rig up a cover from random bits of plastic to try to keep the worst off and Tonia got the mop to tidy up.

My osteospermum have been taking a beating like I’ve never seen before in this weather. All the bottoms are looking almost dead with their straggly leaves at the bottom. I think the best thing is to start to trim the old leaves off and found some small sprouts at the bases. Not sure if I should just cut them right back or whether these will flesh them out but guess I’m going to leave it be for now and see what happens next. The snapdragons seem to be happy enough though.

I’ve only done one by the time Matt is back from the shops so time to get going on dinner. After dinner Matt informs me that we need to agree the planing of the tiles for the ground floor washroom. I wish he’d said so before I got into my PJs. Anyway if Steve 1 is to start on it tomorrow then apparently I need to be 100% clear about what I want and how I want it done.

Obviously it had to line up with the door but also the hallway to create a continuous visual from one end to the other. Of course however just as we were making progress the laser level ran out of battery. Thankfully Matt managed to get it plugged in so we didn’t have to wait for it to fully recharge. Having then tried a number of options, lines and pattern rotations we were finally agreed and the key guidelines were drawn. Finally we can sit down and relax, for about 10 mins before Matt goes to bed at least.

I could hear him talking upstairs though. Seems Mumma Camp is on the phone so I went up to say hello and have a chat before finishing off my work and going to bed myself.

[23 May 2023]