Monday

Matt was up early and off to Luchon to get some bits to connect up the hoses in the garden as some of the pool guys are due over later, not sure which ones though as seems that they haven’t received the tiles yet.

He’s back with a few little presents, 6 handy new buckets (just like the ones Monty uses) and only €4 for 6.

After various calls it was time to head up to the station. There were a few other bits I wanted from Lidl (to be honest I wanted almost everything from the garden section) but since we’re already going to Montrejeau we may as well see what they have. I managed to get another pair of work trousers, this time in green, at least I can try to stop ruining my ‘good trousers’ working on all the DIY and garden jobs. Got Matt a top too but it was time to head to the station and drop Matt off.

Back home and I had a few emails to do and a quick call. A few more emails and I realised it was already 7pm but I hadn’t started any of my tasks while Matt is away. The first of these is to start clearing the garages as we need to have Shed 2 fully cleared by the 9th ready for the new boiler install!

Before we can clear shed 2, I need to clear shed 3 so that we have somewhere to put things. Matt wants to get some good bracketing along the length of the wall to store the big long things like they do at the wholesalers. In the meantime however we need space to be able to get to things, and it might even be helpful if we actually know what we have… I started by writing the size on the tops of each board – helpful so we don’t have to measure them every time but still leaves us running back and forth to check if we have ‘x’ when Matt needs its so decided that a full inventory was in order.

Decided that breeze blocks under the panels would be a good idea to help stop them from absorbing moisture from the ground so that they become weak and useless. Before I knew it, it was almost 10pm and probably explained why I was getting rather hungry. So time to quit for the evening, water the very dry plants in the greenhouse and get some dinner on. Leftover roast dinner isn’t a bad start to the week, then time to settle into a couple of episodes of casualty and get the blog updated.

Already 12:34 so time for bed. Night.

[25 April 2022]

Tuesday

Been very busy today but was a nice day outside so spent most of it on the veranda. Managed to squeeze in 10 mins to make the other cold frame, thankfully this one was much easier than the previous one. I haven’t yet added the supports to lift the lid but I had another call.

Somehow though I seem to have filled it up without adding anything and still don’t space for the new strawberries.

Back to work. Finished work a little late but then had to get back out to shed 3 to finish clearing up. I was a little waylaid by a massive hornet, potentially an Asian queen. No chance I was hanging about with her in the shed so just had to stand around and wait for her to leave I’m pretty proud of it and have been looking forward to pizza, I’m starving.

Oops. Just as I was getting cross that I had to go shopping I realised that it pointless being cross about not having pizza, instead I should be cross that it is after 9:30pm and the shop isn’t even open. Damn it. I’m starting to understand why we don’t work after work and Matt goes to the shops during the day – that’s when they’re open! I don’t even have bread so beans on toast is out of the question as I’m not waiting 3 hours for a loaf to cook. Time to raid the cupboards and realise that it’s going to be pesto pasta.

Eventually it’s 10:30 and time to finally sit down today and relax, and update the blog.

[26 April 2022]

Wednesday

Busy, busy, busy. Thankfully the toot from the postie came just as I was wraping my call and managed to catch her. Boring signed for letter to be sent to the accountants – I was hoping for a lot more. Eventually I got 30 mins at 3:30pm (local time) to pop to the shops to get some breakfast/lunch and the pharmacy to get the stuff for my appointment with the wise lady next week. Unfortunately, this meant that I didn’t actually have time to eat when I got back – and I realised that I had leftover pasta from last night that I could have eaten.

Extremely grateful that my meeting finished early though so managed to wolf down the left over pasta before my next two meetings. Finally finished with calls and emails a little before 8pm ready to tackle shed 2. Naturally however, since this one has to actually be entirely cleared, not just tidied it means that I’m going to have to expand my scope to shed 1.

As I started to move some key things – such as Matt’s bike – it dawned on me that shed 1 (the wood shed) wouldn’t work as it doesn’t lock and I suspect that he wants his bike in a shed that does. Darn it, change of plans.

Probably not the ideal place to have the heating fuel either, but they’re almost all empty. The actual petrol however I figured should probably be locked away. I still have to ensure that there is enough space to get the ride on lawn mower in – and having taken one of the green boards up to the third floor alone there’s no way I’m carrying the rest up, they can wait for Matt. He’s also going to want to have some space so that he can make the racking and work bench.

Cat is being very shouty, seems that I may have forgotten to feed her.

It transpires that to lock away all the tools etc I’m also going to have to sort through my potting shed (shed 4). FFS, I only scoped work for 2 sheds and seems that I’m going to have to do all 4. I’ve made good inroads though and I’m off to make some dinner, now that I have pizza.

Cat still behaving oddly, getting on the arm of the sofa, putting her head against me and meowing. Problem is I have no idea what she wants, I offered cuddles and outside and she’s had extra biscuits. Eventually I got her to play despite initial disinterest and then on Matt’s advice gave her another food pouch. She’s been asleep on the blanket next to me ever since so guessing it was the right answer.

Anyway, the blog is now updated so I’m off to bed as I have an early start tomorrow.

[27 April 2022]

Thursday

Early start today as have an 8:30. Since I’m up early I got quite a lot of work done so finally managed to make time for a lunch hour at about 3pm and enough time to get down to Luchon to get a couple of bits. They didn’t have the gloves that were promised in the brochure which was a shame, however I managed to get a whole load more buckets – just like Monty uses, the knife that I wanted and I finally remembered to get some more sugar for my tea (phew). I also managed to get rid of most of the recycling.

More work and then back to the sheds. We definitely decided to put the new boiler in the wrong one. I’m still wondering if we might have time to change plans on this but that will have to wait on Matt’s return. In the meantime I will continue to plug away and do the best I can. If we do swap them then at least they’ve had a good clear out.

It was much more fun clearing my shed. I think it’s the satisfaction of knowing how much nicer it will be for me to work in. I’ve been putting it off since the great mouse seed attack when I basically withdrew from the space in shock and horror. Now my little seedlings are starting to come through I had the renewed strength to tackle the problem. I also got to demonstrate why I had bought quite so many buckets, (as if – ‘they’re just like the one’s Monty has’ wasn’t justification enough’).

The back of my shed might look like a Stihl showroom, it is however a more akin to a bone yard. I think that only one works, and even then only sporadically. I have also made a very nice little shelf and it took about 1 minute to work it out and put it up – now that’s my kind of DIY shelving unit.

Eventually however I have had enough. I’ve probably put over 10 hours into this so far so Matt can do a couple of hours when he gets home of properly sorting through the last of the rubbish left in there. There’s still a few things that will need my help though – notably moving the green bathroom floorboards to the second floor and unloading whatever might be in the roof space.

Took me ages to find the leftover pizza that should have been in the fridge. Apparently I did put it in the tupperware which is something, however I then put that into the oven rather than the fridge… Thankfully I didn’t turn the oven on! Time to relax, have a shower and settle in for a rest (and another blog update – I’ve been pretty reliably good at this when on my own).

[28 April 2022]

Friday

The boy should finally be coming home today. I’m not saying that I missed him, but.. well he’s not so bad. Work was busy and tried to get the last few bits finished but before I’d finished my calls I should have left already. The delay was mostly due to Pete who seems to have forgotten how to sack off important meetings to talk rubbish with ‘the hottest girl in infrastructure’ (that’s me by the way).

I didn’t make the same mistake this time, the weird queuing outside the terminal’s ’10 min stay’ still confuses everyone as far as I can tell, but this isn’t my first rodeo. Eventually he’s out and an hour and a half later my boy is home; completely knackered.

[29 April 2022]