Did you receive an invitation to the firebug ball?

STICK SHAME

 Some of M. Geneix's stick bundles.

 (On the lower level of the wood barn there are, buried under carefully sorted bundles of wood, an iron gig and a large wooden cart! Who knows what else...)

The difference is clear...

The ghost of Monsieur Geneix will not be proud of me, after all. He painstakingly tied his sticks into bundles and stacked them uniformly in the wood barn. Kevin has pointed out to me that I have just tossed mine in, in a very haphazard and disorganised fashion. This is true.

OUT & ABOUT

Live alongside me for a moment. Here's a quick blitz of the sights of my day... 

While out and about today in Tulle and the outskirts of Brive, purchasing building materials, we called in at E. Leclerc 

for a proper coffee. This was my view. Tres francais, n'est pas? (Yes, a bit of a signage overload, perhaps... A small part of me inside is going, 'Aghhh!' as my eyes flick from one to the next.)

 A proper coffee.

 Like Ikea...

 Centre of Tulle

 Decathlon- have you ever seen such a variety of riding crops?!

On the riverside road between Tulle and Vimbelle looms a leggy monstrosity, that some claim to find beauty in.

 Imagine living there!

 It continues to scare me...

 Firebugs getting together on the side of our well for something undisclosed... 

(Yes, the image above is actually our real fire*. It is interesting to see how the colours and patterning are so similar, and hence, how they get their name.)

I have never seen anything that is not my carved wooden African mask, purchased on the beach in Mombasa, look so much like my carved wooden African mask. In tripziplicate!

SHAME  & GLORY

Installing our fosse and its many metres of drainage channels has left a dreadful rocky scar on our land! I spent so long collecting rocks last Autumn, and yet a whole new generation of rocks has established itself here. I'll be tackling them soon, along with a grass seed attack. That should get it back to its original glory. La Gloire de mon Pere- I loved that book.

Finally, a wall goes up around the toilet! More to follow soon...

More detritus gathered from our grounds waiting at the back of the van, ready to go to the decheterie.

Asbestos-containing tiles (don't worry- they're very low grade) harvested from the edges and hidden nooks of our buildings and land. That's it now, all collected and ready for burial far beneath the swimming pool. I admit that the idea of a swimming pool in this currently very barn-y area is quite a mental leap. But it will happen, nonetheless. 

*Polly is still plonked in front of this...