The French Renovation

Of course, it's extremely important to ensure that the pool base is utterly pristine, with not a sharp nibblet in sight. Kevin and I spent nearly an entire day armed with shovels, trowels, dust pans and brushes, removing the slow creep of the land from the outer edges of the circle of blue liner. It became apparent that the blue liner had become quite weathered and fragile, possibly damaged by the repeated drenchings from chlorinated water, so up it came, and there began the re-perfecting of the sand layer, which is on top of a sort of plastic-coated chicken wire layer. We knew we had the perfect sized tarpaulin ready and waiting to replace the weathered blue one, as the original central section of the pool cover had ripped away from its perimeter section during one of our wild storms, leaving a fortunately-sized large silvery disc. In addition, when we were sorting out the hayloft, we came upon two plumptious rolls of black, cushiony material, and we decided that they might provid

Have you ever watched  I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here ? For those celebrities who reach the final day, the Celebrity Cyclone must be endured. This spectacular event consists of a long wet slope furnished with slime, water cannons, massive fans, and a plethora of various-sized balls, which are fired at the participants. Dressed as super heroes, they must ascend the slope and hold a big yellow star on a star marker. Inevitably, all of the celebrities are washed to the very bottom of the slope after just about all managing to get into position. We're having to contend with similar conditions. Yep. All we're trying to do is clean up a bit, clear some land, get the pool up and prepare to begin the serious building tasks, but the extremes of weather we've faced in just a few days are repeatedly washing us to the bottom of the slope! But, we're getting there. The stars are starting to stick. Despite the topsy-turvy weather, I managed to get on with reclaiming my veget

We've been waking up bright and early,  the tiny chink of sunlight on the bedroom wall penetrating our eyelids, and  the lilting song of the chaffinch encouraging us to seize the day. Our priority was to clean the interior of the house and clear the garlands of silken cobwebs from every room, and then unpack the overladen car and trailer. Before we could fill the house with wonderful things, however, we had to cart all of the carefully-stowed garden furniture outside. This series of 'me to you' exercises took a whole day! Before our return to France, our farmer neighbour asked if he should cut and bale the grass on our larger fields, and we agreed quicker than it takes to say 'hay'. The grass had already been cut when we arrived, and it was a joy to see Farmer Joel's tractor appear over the brow of the hill, all kitted up to herd the hay into lines.  Meanwhile, having discovered two broken mowers, Kevin set to work with the strimmer, his focus areas being around