Compare and contrast



The terrace is slowly advancing. Spending two weeks back in Blighty didn't really help, but we had parents to check up on! 


I spent most of yesterday doing laundry and weeding the potager and mowing, even though the ground is still very wet from (must be) record-breaking rain here in the south west of France. I mowed about an acre; the other seven will have to be attended to by Farmer Joel, as it's moved to a level of rampant wildness that's beyond all of my equipment. The new monster veggie plot on the top field is such a horror, that I'm not going to show you its current state until I've got a photo of the manicured version to share/compare- it may take a while... The potatoes are doing excellently. But the beans and spinach don't appear to be keen. The growth-spurt winners are definitely the weeds! And maybe the sunflowers.



Kevin felt motivated to move the caravan from the top field to right by the terrace. His mutterings about a 'garden room' may have some merit... His main mission was to wash it, as it had started to gather moss. I moaned about it potentially spoiling the view, but I think it may be okay tucked in there. We'll see.

I don't know what's going on here, but, apparently, it augurs well for the heating system. I suffered repeated bouts of outrageous noise from Kevin's compressor as he tested the system, but I guess it's going to have been worth the torture once we can enjoy a warm house in the winter. Now, all we have to do is link all of the radiators to the back boiler of the log burner. And attach a chimney to the log burner. We have all of the bits- we simply need to drill a 150mm hole diagonally through a metre-thick wall of stone. More noise.


Willow the wild cat never returned, but we do have a cute pair of pied wagtails nesting at the back of the house. They seem to enjoy being talked to in a squeaky voice, so I'm happy.

Before returning to the UK for a fortnight, we devoted a week to a job we'd long been avoiding: filling the gaps between the beams and the plasterboard and painting the ceiling. This means that we can now re-nail all of the floorboards in the room above, which have warped, without dusting the sitting room with particles from above. Kevin's up there right now, beginning the job, while I'm downstairs watching clouds roll across the lawn... I need to re-point the little window recess up there, so I'd better get going! See you soon!

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