The French Renovation

Our nearest big town is Tulle. It's a fascinating town with a terrible history. Once I'm not so 'breakneck' at renovating, I'll take the time to share some of that history with you, but not now. Tulle is a contradiction of beauty and ugliness, but the better I get to know it, the more beauty I see. There is no shortage of people in Tulle. This photo was taken at around 7.30 am, when everyone is driving to work. Kevin and I were driving to Brico Depot, nice and early again to benefit from the free coffee. We like to stop off in Tulle when we do this, to ease the pain of an early start with a couple of warm croissants from the boulangerie. I'm fond of shadows. Not just any old shadows, I mean the sorts of shadows that become works of art. I've been painting the front door. I've opted for 'Dauphine Grey'. The paint is quite glutenous, and after applying a good thick coat as instructed on the tin, I watched with dismay as big glob...

 I had some milks with my Fruits & Fibres.   The stolen tulip becomes increasingly vivacious! Okay. Enough of these fripperies. I know what you want to see...  The dormer window is taking shape. The plans and wall doodles continue to expand. I even spotted one sketch on the toilet wall downstairs. Kevin continues to amaze me with his ability to construct parts of buildings. This sort of thing is out of my reach, skills-wise, spatial intelligence-wise, and probably literally in this case. The sockets and switches are appearing too.  Meanwhile, I continue to layer paint upon paint...

As you will remember, our 'sometimes superhero' friends, Sue and Steve, to stave off boredom, are renovating an old cottage and a barn near Pompadour. Having stripped the barn wall of ivy, Sue discovered these little peep holes. They're owl holes! And guess what! There is evidence of recent owl activity. Isn't that rather lovely? On a brief visit to Masseret, just north up the A20 from us, while seeking a post box, I realised that there were old photos of the town attached to several walls, depicting that building or landmark in times gone by. It was difficult not to then note that there was no difference in any of the photos. Look at these two, for example. No change. Apart from that there were people there in the old days. Can you see that straggly little line of school children in the old photo? I didn't come across one person on my walk through the town. This is quite a common occurrence in this part of France. Oh, apart from this lady! Lo...

I stole this solitary tulip from Val and Colm's garden. I know that they're away until June, so I didn't think it would matter. Why do I feel naughty? It's spoiling my enjoyment of the bloom! This is the water collected from the nine leak buckets under the not yet finished dormer window in one night. (Sorry about the offensive Crocs...)   Today involved masking tape and undercoat on the sitting room windows.   And staining beams.   Where it was inevitable that a bit of dark oak stain got on the freshly painted white walls!   Kevin got busy with electrical this and thats... And football played a small part... The Hooded Eyrie (Awaiting fine weather in order to rise to full glory!)