The French Renovation

Today, I was instructed in the art of felting. I didn't know that felting was a thing, but it is, and I think I like it! I spent a day with art guru, Sally, and champion spinner, Jan, and here is the story of our day... Step 1 Gently pull apart dyed skeins of lambs' wool, or llama, or alpaca, and arrange in three or four subtly mingled rows to form a roughly rectangular shape. Do this on a piece of bubble wrap. Keep all of the threads going in one direction. Feel free to mix up your colours and materials. Silks are encouraged. Try to have a rough idea of what your final piece will look like, for example, will you opt for a floral festival, or perhaps a landscape, or, if you're feeling particularly bold, a self portrait...  Step 2 Repeat process in opposite direction, across-ways. Step 3 Repeat process in the original direction. Keep patting down and avoid windy blasts. Step 4 Add decorative bits.  Mine Step 5 Generously apply soapy water all

One of the joys of home-grown vegetables and fruits is the unfolding of unusual formations. You wouldn't find a tomato with this much character in a British supermarket, would you?  It's always nice to keep some Haribo sweets in the car, for those long, exhausting journeys across France. This brand new, unopened selection of fruity chews was carefully stowed in the map pocket behind my seat. It doesn't seem quite so appealing now that it's one giant blob... or does it? We purchased some sheep's cheese at the local farmers' market. It was delicious, but its crust was one of the most 'textured' I've seen! We were presented with a few problems when trying to affix guttering to the rear of cottage #1, mainly due to the fact that there wasn't really anything to attach it to. So... Kevin cut off the ends of some of the overly jutty beams and added little wooden blocks to the side of each beam, to which he has now fixed a great

Barney is feeling the pressure of Kevin's constant attention. Not you again? Just go. Please... When you live fairly remotely, up a mountain, visitors can be a bit thin on the ground, like the air, so it was lovely to have a visit from friends from Blighty, Helen and Mark, who holiday up a much higher mountain than ours, three hours' drive away. We shared a lot of lunch, and a lot of laughs! To ease the loneliness*, we play a lot of Skip-Bo. It's addictive. If you're ever considering being an ex-pat/immigrant in France, you will need to get used to this game. As you will have noticed, this blog is intended to be about our renovation project in France. Socialising and owl-pestering do sometimes interrupt the work schedule, but, to keep to the subject of the blog, here is a little update on today's works. Kevin has been installing a wooden framework to support the back guttering, which had proved difficult to fix directly to the existi

There aren't many people living in the two adjacent hamlets of Cousein, and it was Brigitte and Alain's ambition to bring everyone together for a little summer party. Everyone brought a selection of glorious food to share, a lot of it made from home-produced fruit and vegetables. The event was a great success, going on until the early hours.

I'm indelibly clumsy, and today that involved breaking the toe that 'stayed at home' on my left foot. Not through any strong and daring escapade, but through stubbing it forcefully on a concrete step while carrying large items that obscured the down view. It's gone blackish, as expected, but what on earth are the toes next to it doing? They seem to be leaning away from the injured one. If any of my doctor friends would like to explain this phenomenon, I'd be grateful. The burn is progressing well, becoming more sore by the day. Day 3 Day 4 I'm told that its shape is less exclamation mark (that's only from my vantage point), but more: a) lighthouse b) volcano with little puff of pre-eruption smoke c) girl symbol d) megaphone I'm happy for you to make further suggestions, but at the moment, I'm rubbing in Savlon to keep it from going septic; there's a growing pink aura encircling the design. Kevin is spending quite a

The kitchen sink is coming along. It works. It looks quite pretty. We're happy with that. Kevin seems to be permanently at the top of a ladder these days, whether picking pears, putting up guttering, or illegally (probably) attaching the ridiculous satellite dish to the EDF post. We do receive an excellent signal! Not that we have time for TV. I often drive through a barely there village called Ceyrat on my way to Uzerche, and I'm always distracted by this 'bear leapfrogging a sheep' statue. This week, I decided to stop and find out what it's doing there. Could I find any explanation? No. So, if you know what it represents, please do let me know. I've burnt a lot of pear desserts recently, and now I've managed to burn an exclamation mark onto my inside upper arm. It's so perfectly formed that people think it's a trendy 'brand'. It hurts. It's hideous. And it's beginning to blister up now. I'll keep you inf