Friday

Matt was off early to go to collect some exciting presents from Lidl – yeah I know I’m a classy bird clearly. It does all have a quality that I can improve on though and I hope that my sweet peas will help with this. I have been working most of the day but I have also been potting up as much as I can so everything needs moving around.

I’m pretty sure I know where the tree is going to go but there’s a lot more work to do before that. The veranda stairs used to be seriously over wide so I think they need a bit more ‘decoration’ (and they’re the only ones that are south facing so things go crazy there early in the season).

Despite my efforts at potting up I still seem to have stacked windowsills. It was nice to chat with Joelle though and see the progress they have started to make in their garden. It would be overly bold to say I’ve helped inspire them but hopefully I’ve helped with a little advice here and there (mostly passed down from Monty Don of course – I’m still a novice myself).

I suspect that is as much as I can squeeze in for one day. Matt won’t let me take over the rest of the house, for now anyway.

But it’s Friday and we had to work, you can’t do everything and we deserve a break.

[22 April 2022]

Saturday

Matt has decided that today is the day to adjust the location of the new hob he put in recently. However, despite having moved the hob across a bit the runners for the drawer now work but the downward extraction still prevents the draw from actually closing so we aren’t in fact much closer to solving the issue. We’re going to need to significantly reduce the height at the back of the drawer due to how low the extractor goes. It’s not ideal and will dramatically reduce the amount of space in the drawer but better to have a very shallow drawer than none at all. As such, I suspect it may look like this for some time, until we finalise exactly what we are going to do with the island and purchase the wood for the top. I’m sure mum will disapprove but the upside is that it is easier to empty the dishwasher/drying rack – every cloud and all that.

Next job is another dechetterie run. Before we can do that it seems that we need to ensure that the car’s battery is good and just so happens that we appear to have a fluffy mechanic on hand. I’m not convinced that look is saying that it’s all good but we’re going to run it anyway as the dechetterie isn’t far. I wonder how we’d jump start it though as that’s not going to work from the Tesla… anyway that’s a problem for another day (and I suspect the aid of the Huxtables).

Still lots more to go and will rapidly refill it but at least the pile is a little smaller, for now. Clear to see why we continue to use this car for these runs as it leaves quite a mess, but since we only seem to use it for this purpose there’s little point cleaning it out.

Once we’ve swapped cars we’re off to Action to get some cutty things. We also managed to get plants at almost every stop – some strawberry plugs, aloe plant, apple tree, and a random light fitting (from the vide grenier) – it needs a bit of work but I think with some wax/varnish and a good clean up it could look pretty good.

Back home and Matt wants me to take up the hem on his new overalls. Since the French are meant to be very chic, and after over a year of living here in either pyjamas or overalls, I felt that his Lidl wardrobe requires a little more ‘je ne sais quoi’. So I added a lovely little pale pink ribbon trim, with some (un)help(ful) support from the cat. Either way I think it looks great, even if I created a much bigger job than planned and was massively unnecessary!

Finally time to relax and for random chats about everything and nothing. The current kitchen set up isn’t ideal for late night cuddles in front of the TV (unless you’re a cat), so we made a camp bed on the floor, snuggles are very important when you work so hard! 🙂

[23 April 2022]

Sunday

Looks as though we relaxed too long last night/this morning and were feeling pretty lazy today. Worth it though to have extra cuddles before Matt heads back to London without me again.

While I prance about looking at pretty things in the garden, Matt is trying to re-uncover the water connection that used to link the house to the garden sink – the pool guys accidentally broke it when they were digging the trench for the pool house but didn’t reattach it. I came back and told Matt where I thought it was, and I was kind of right. He found the sink end but no sign of the incoming pipe which is an absolute mystery. It was definitely there when they cut it and we seem to be in fresh ground so where the hell did it go?!

Anyway, I’m on washing duty. I’m also on dinner. Roast chicken again. It is a faff but also – YUM! The skin went reasonably crispy and so did the potatoes so calling that a win. Matt was happy after his hard work digging too.

Time to relax and go to bed early.

[24 April 2022]