It's a wet, wet, wet, wet world!

Imagine trying to build a wall and dig a hole while being flung around in a mixed colours washing machine cycle. The South West of France is not a warm Dordogne-y paradise; it's Borneo. The orangutans will be moving in soon. The weather over the past two weeks has consisted of wild thunderstorms, heavy rainforest rain, and crippling blasts of furnace heat in between times. It's always humid, so we're always sweaty. And a bit grumpy. And smelly. Despite the unpredictable washing cycle, I've continued to dig the hole for the swimming pool. Sometimes, it's already a swimming pool. I've now reached the ridiculous layer of rock which refuses to budge when hit from above, but falls apart when walloped from the side. My brother's a geologist; he'll tell you all about it. I'm thinking that it's a sedimentary shale affair, but he'd laugh mockingly and punch my arm if he heard that.

Where there used to be a little vent into the cellar, Kevin's plunged a length of pipe that leads all the way to the outer edge of the terrace. I'm going to go and ask him what it's for. It's for electricity to power the pump and other things. And maybe water. It's all filled up now (yes, we've put in another vent...) and covered in stamped-down earth.

The earth I'm removing from the hole makes its journey to the terrace surface, where I rake it out and stamp it down in preparation for the hardcore layer. The journey to the terrace usually involves me tossing shovels-full of earth and shale (?!) on to it from the hole, but when Sue came to help me dig, we produced more earth, so we used a wheelbarrow.

And then the rain comes...

 


And goes...

You thought the hole would be deeper? Well, it feels deep enough when you're in it.

And now for the placing of stones. It's important that the stones are cemented in exactly the right spot to support each of the pool legs. I've endured two days' of maths. Rain and maths.

You may think that we're taking our time over this terrace and pool base, and maybe you'd have good reason to be disappointed in our efforts. But, the truth is, we work flat out every day. Yep. When it was pouring down, we finished constructing the walls and then decorated the downstairs toilet. I waxed and polished two wooden floors. And, oh my goodness, the mowing schedule using my selection of three mowers on wet grass! And the tackling of the mole problem. My solution to moles so far is to rake flat their hills. I bought castor oil to see them off, but that only sees them off to the next bit of lawn/field. There isn't enough castor oil in the world to sprinkle three hectares.


Wait, what's that in the trees down there?!