The French Renovation

The summer onslaught of vide greniers continues, this time in our neighbouring village, Naves. There weren't many stalls, but there was a token 'classic car' exhibition, as is typical at these events. The only fly in the ointment of this particular visit, was a rugged, toothless stallholder who kept insisting that I needed his ancient metal watering can with no end piece. Even though I wanted to look at some of his wares, I was driven away by his 'face far too close to my face' zealousness.   While visiting Brico Depot in Brive at the crack of dawn, because Kevin likes the free coffee that's served at 7am, we thought we'd pop into the swimming pool store next door. It's nice to dream... Did we buy a pool? No. The cheapest inflatable types are still not cheap!  We've been harbouring a secret interest in keeping bees, so we attended a beekeeping taster session at 13Bees at Confolens. It's run by Kevin and Amanda B...

It was unbearably hot working in the roof, so we met up with friends at Lac de Bariousses at Treignac for a spot of kayaking. While we were out, the tree surgeons came to deal with the neighbours' fallen tree, which had propped itself up on another of their trees, presenting a double-tree threat to our phone and internet line. There were two men, youngish, and they were working like monkeys, suspending themselves on ropes up in the highest branches. I expect you may be wondering why there is a ladder (ours) propped up against the telegraph pole... Yes, you've guessed it; part of the tree had fallen onto our phone and internet line and disconnected it. It was, I suppose, inevitable. Kevin went to talk English at them and see what they were going to do about it. On eof the lads got his phone out and typed something into Google Translate. Was it 'Oops' or 'Sorry'? No. It was, 'Can I borrow a long ladder?' Luckily, we were only without in...

Argh! I'm melting! Kevin and I have spent two days in the roof, and the rain has gone. I'm making good progress with the re-pointing of the end wall; I actually am dreaming about the act of pointing with my hawk and my tiny trowel, in the same way that I used to dream about Candy Crush. (I stopped doing that a very long time ago.) It was around 50 degrees Celsius up there today. By the time 'beer time' arrived, I was coated in a sweat-glazed layer of sand and lime- it's going to take ages to moisturise! Kevin lowered my platform before work today. I'm still quite high! I use a cut-down Vanish container to measure my sand and lime, and a Skip (washing detergent) bottle for dispensing my water- it adds a gentle laundry fragrance to the earthy aromas. One of my favourite things is laundry odours. Odd, but true. The cardboard is not sufficient for my droppings... And what has Kevin been doing, I hear you ask... The second Velux window is now in a...

Our particular cloud with a silver lining is that the weather is so wet and cold, that we can comfortably work in the roof space! There's SO much to do here, as this is the location for the master bedroom. We're currently using the guest bedroom, but we actually have friends and family coming to stay soon, and we can no longer bear to shove them in the caravan. So. Hard, dirty work is the order of the week. Welcome to the still life that is our life. If you peek down in the distant lower right corner, you can see my sample patch of re-pointing using my special (secret) lime mix. Meanwhile, Kevin is tackling the walk-in wardrobe end of the room, making holes for switches and sockets. Still Life with Fluff Puff and Off Cuts June 2017 And now a bit more... It has been a mistake to work from the bottom here, as there is so much orangey-coloured mud to chip out, that it's staining the previously completed lime mix. I need to bring in the tower! ...