Wow - Where has the last month gone ?

We have been very busy outside and inside La Picholine. The good news is - the outside is now ready for the guy's to come and do the rendering. The bad news is- that they are behind with their work and will not be coming until the end of December !!  The other bad news is - The bathroom window is still AWOL. Grrrrrrrrr.  Mr window man has not been answering our calls, so we paid him a visit late last week to find out what was happening and apparently the window and grill will be here at the end of this week -  I will believe it when I see it.

We have also finished the patio and steps. They are now ready for tiling - if I ever get around to buying the tiles. Finding time to go off on a shopping spree is proving rather difficult.

Inside we now have a ceiling, with insulation, and plasterboard on the walls (except for the bathroom because we can't fit the board without the window - Agghhhhhhhh).   I have decided in my next life I am not coming back as a roofing insulator- What an awful job that was - Still it's another one crossed off my long list of to do's......Poor Bryan.

We are going tomorrow to pick up the rails etc to enable us to put up the partition walls. I am looking forward to seeing rooms instead of one big space.

The colour of the autumn vines this year has been stunning, but the weather has been changeable and we have not had too many sunny days. So Bryan decided to make the most of the sunshine the other day and sneaked off on his bike (with camera) for a little jaunt. At the moment it seems like all work and no play.

The other job I have managed to fit in has been to pick our Olives. The crop has been a good one and we took 100 kilos (220 lbs) down to the local mill. We have to go back in 8 days when they have been processed into our own olive oil. I can't wait. Guess what our family are getting for christmas this year.......

Progress.........

Its all happening at once this week. We are still on with the first fix electrics and everything else that has to go up in the roof space before we put the ceiling up. The bathroom fan & all lights have arrived safely, so we now know where all the wires are going.  We have made our decision  on the type of air conditioning/heating to put in and, after a site meeting, have decided (to save time) to let someone else fit this - it took us ages to fit the one in La Luques, the 1st villa, and we now have a deadline of May to finish this one -I have promised a dear friend, (and Heinz Baked Beans supplier), it will be ready for his holiday - It looks like Bryan may be working on Christmas day.




The digger man has been back to dig a trench across the track for us to put in the water and electric supply and make a mess in my garden for the waste water and drainage pipes. Bryan is down the trench fitting pipes together as I write this.










The guttering arrived this morning. It comes on a roll in the back of the van and is put through a forming machine and then cut to size. Hopefully we will fit this when Bryan has connected the drains.






Just to make our day the window man has just arrived with the last window we are waiting for - alas it is the same size as the one we sent back 5 weeks ago. Grrrrrrrr. I hope it is just a picking mistake because it has to be fit before we do the rendering on the outside of the building and the guys are coming to do this in the next few weeks. I am not a happy bunny, we can't put them off (Its taken 12 months for them to fit us in).    Mr  window man has gone to check his warehouse to see if he can find it - No comment from me !!!!!

We are recovering from a hectic family/ friend seeing weekend. There are always too many people to see when we go back and not enough time to get round everyone.  It was nice to be able to go to a friends 60th birthday and meet up with some of the gang we played badminton with for over 20 years. We miss them, and it, a lot.  It was also nice to catch up with family and spend some time with children and grandchildren - Taking some of them to school was a treat not to be missed.

We have had a few wet days this last week but yesterday Mr Sunshine was back and it was nice to be eating our lunches out on the terrace once again, the air temperature is about 22 degrees but sat in the sunshine it feels much warmer,  I wonder how long we will be able to carry on doing so ? I will no doubt let you know.

Work on La Picholine is ongoing. We now have the windows in, (well the ones that are here). We are still awaiting delivery on the bathroom window and the sill for the kitchen window has not arrived. It has been promised for later this week but we have a little trip to England planned so it will be later next week before we pick this up (and hopefully get it home and fit without breakages) . The shutters are on and working too. The gutters are on order and should be here for fitting the last week in October. Bryan has also started on the first fix electrics so I am getting bombarded with questions about where I want plug sockets and which walls are the beds going etc. All the light fittings are en route and the kitchen is designed. Hopefully it will all turn out as we have planned but it's work in progress and things could change......

We had our first days rain since May last Saturday, so the photoshoot we have to do of the grape harvest has been postponed due to the conditions underfoot. The red clay soil sticks to your shoes and you end up feeling like you are walking on stilts. We hope it will have dried up enough before Thursday or it won't get done.  We also did a shoot on Friday in nearby Neffies. A beautiful Chambres d'Hotes called "Maison Dix". Well worth a stay if you visit this region for a holiday. Bryan is working on the post production as I write this.

Yesterday morning was spent in the veg garden digging up the last of the tomato plants and planting up a new strawberry bed. We have to do a daily tour of the cabbages to check for caterpillars (or eggs). The butterflies are still around due to the warm weather and although they are lovely to watch their offspring can eat more cabbage leaves than you could imagine in one sitting. I have also taken some lavender cuttings to increase our planting stock for the new part of the garden around La Picholine.

A neighbour/friend passed on some spare quince so I have been busy making quince jelly to add to our growing store cupboard. It was my first attempt and it now needs a little time to mature so I will let you know in a few weeks if this has been a success.

The Olives are nearly ready for picking so we visited the nearest mill to us to find when we can take ours to be made into olive oil - Guess what my next job is for November........

Next on my list is packing. I hope all the little ones are ready for our visit. We are so looking forward to seeing them once again ( and the big ones too).  Here's hoping that the weather is kind to us and it's not too cold - we haven't worn long trousers or jackets since March so we are not used to it.                      

The roof was finally finished before our holiday, but there was a bit of a disaster with fitting the windows and doors. - We got a call from the builders merchants to say that the sills we ordered 6 weeks ago, (with a promise of 2 week delivery), had arrived and off we went to collect them. Needless to say one  broke on the way home in the car, (Bryan's words are not printable here), so now we have to await  delivery of a new one. Tantrum over Bryan started to fit the sills we had and on measuring to fit the bathroom one he found that the company that measured for the windows had made a mistake and the window they were supplying was 20cm too small - (more unprintable words followed)......We now have a 6 week wait for a new window and grill. We had a "staff meeting" and decided to put some beers in the fridge, have an early finish and pack the camper. The rest of the windows are now being delivered after our holiday.

Llafranc Costa Brava

The changeover was done on Saturday for our next visitors and then we were on holiday for 6 whole days - bliss.  A lovely time was had by both of us and we spent our days relaxing by the sea and eating lots of Tapas. The weather was fabulous and the scenery stunning.  Sadly all good things must come to an end and we arrived back late Friday evening and we were back to work on Saturday morning.

My petit potager is still providing us with lots of vegetables and tomatoes so I have been busy preserving them any way I can. We have tomato sauces, pickled beetroot, ratatouille and various chutneys all in our store cupboard. We also did a photo shoot in the Tarn region and the garden there was full of plums, peaches, apples & pears so I came home with more work than I bargained for.  The freezer is now stocked with pies and crumbles that should keep us going throughout the winter.

Harry Bear

Last week saw the last of our summer visitors and what a super week it was. The sun shone and we spent the week visiting various rivers around here, lazing around with the dinghy, watching Oliver fishing and the dragonflies whizzing by. The little ones also spent quite a lot of time in the pool.  Our youngest grandchild, Harry, proved to be a bit of an ace shot with the water guns as our friend Sue found out.
Sadly all good things must come to an end and we took them back to the airport on Monday. It seems a little dispiriting now, we know that it will be next year before they are back. Still at least we have a short visit to England to see them all to look forward to.



It has been incredibly hot and humid this week and we are on an orange alert for the canicule (heatwave). We have gone from eating outside for every meal to just having breakfast outdoors. The plants in the garden are struggling and it is taking up a lot of time to keep them watered - on the plus side the weeds have stopped growing.

The one that got away

The gite is fully booked until the middle of October so I live in hope that everyone vacates early on a Saturday morning so that I can do the cleaning while it is still a little bit cooler. We have thunderstorms predicted for tomorrow so it may be a little better after that.

Last weekend was fete weekend in our village and after giving Friday night a miss we were ready to party on Saturday. (We are getting too old for 2 consecutive nights). We were invited to a neighbours/friends house for aperitifs before going down to the village hall and Harry and Oliver kept everyone entertained and even managed to teach them a little english.  The next day when we asked Oliver "what do you want to do today" he answered "go back to the party".



Bryan is still working on the roof. It seems to be taking forever to finish, but hopefully by the end of the weekend we will be done, except for the hips - we need cooler weather for these so it will have to wait until after our holiday in September. The windows are ready to be delivered when the factory goes back to work from their summer break, we just need to find a front door that we both like. Maybe thats a job for next week. With a bit of luck and some hard work we hope to get the doors and windows fit before our holiday.

Dragonfly

We ventured into Beziers yesterday to the Sous Prefecture to try and sort the paperwork out for importing the motorbikes over here - we needed to know if the certificate of conformity we can get would be acceptable - surprisingly it is -  its now on order, but I'm not counting my chickens that its going to be as easy as the lady said, its only taken 8 months to get most of the paperwork sorted. Watch this space. On the way home I spotted the first machine out in the vineyards - the vendanges has started. I don't think I have known it be so early, still it means that we will be able to help with the grape picking before our holiday.

Tomatoes Galore

We now have a glut of tomatoes, far more than even Bryan can eat! - so I have been kept busy making tomato sauces and chutney's to save for when we sadly run out. I have also harvested the red onions and garlic which I have used in the recipes too.  One of my next jobs is to take lavender cuttings to increase the amount of plants we have so that in autumn we can put them down each side of the driveway through what will be our little holiday park. The ones I planted earlier this year have been stunning and the Butterflies just love it.

Bryan is still plodding on with the roof on villa 2.  We now have it felted and lathed and roof tiles are on half of it. It is a big job to do alone and I think he will be glad when it is finished and we can work inside in the shade (note to self - on the next house the roof will be done in winter !).  Once the tiles are all on we can fit the windows and doors. Phew, then its down to the wiring and plumbing - Oh joy.......

La Picholine

One of our photo shoots over the last few weeks has been to take pictures for Laurent Miquel wines at Cazal Viel for their new web site. They kindly donated us a bottle or two of their red wine, to try, and it is amazing.  It is sold all over the world and can be found in the UK in Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Tescos and Wine Rack. If you get chance to try some I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.

We have had visitors last week of some of our 'little people' and it was lovely to spend time with them. But of course they too were set to work, breaking up all the old blocks and roof tiles, with hammers, to make ballast for in the patio. They thought it was fab and it kept them amused for a while. We also spent some lovely afternoons lazing about by the river in St Chinian. Bryan found us a wonderful shady spot with something for everyone. A pool deep enough to swim, excellent paddling and a waterfall.
We are now back to a quiet, calm, tidy house for a couple of weeks until the next lot arrive. I love summer holidays.

The war on weeds is being won - for the moment.  The hot weather has almost stopped them growing and we have bought a new strimmer for me to play with, so most of the stubborn ones have been chopped down.  The (very) early part of my day is spent by watering anything and everything thats growing in the garden. the lawn we seeded is looking a little bit worse for wear with burnt patches. I hope it will green up again. My petit potager is providing us with lots of veg at the moment and Bryan is now happy because the tomatoes are ready to eat. The taste of them are so superior to anything bought in the shops. The courgette has grown a little larger than I thought it would - maybe I had better pick the rest of them a little bit sooner rather than later..

We were going to try to sneak off in the camper for a weekend (before the rest of France descended upon this area) but last Saturday was fete night here so we spent Sunday nursing our hangovers and vowing never again.....But what do you know this Friday is - yes you've guessed it "fete night"..... so we have to do it all over again. It will, no doubt, be another late night ending with a firework display to celebrate Bastille Day. The French sure know how to party.
Last year Bryan went to Carcassone for the firework display to gather stock images for our web site. The results made me wish I had gone too - until he told me how busy it was. I don't think he will be repeating the exercise this year.

We are still plodding on with the 'genoise' (the pelmet around the bottom of the roof) but it's a 5.30am start each day and it's far too hot to carry on after lunch. Afternoons are taken up with office work and post production on the pictures from the last lot of photo shoots.  We are also preparing for visits from a few of our 'little people'.  The pool, dinghy and numerous other playthings are all awaiting. Lets hope they all have a magical holiday.  I can't wait.

Little by little we are winning.............

We have spent the last week putting the timber work for the roof on the shell of villa 2 and as I write this Bryan is fixing the last bit of wood to the frame. I am glad it was calm the day we put the trusses up - I am not good with heights and standing on the top of the scaffolding, holding them until Bryan fixed them, was not my idea of fun. Still it's done now and it's another job crossed off the list. Bryan now has to fix a row of thin bricks all around then cement the first row of tiles on then we can start to felt & lathe it.  I am battling with an advancing army of weeds in the garden. we have had showers a couple of times in the last few weeks and with the warm sunshine they are growing faster than I can pull them out.

Things are getting busy with the photo shoots now its sunny and warm and I am currently packing the camper ready for the next lot. Friday its off to Peyriac Minervois and then a 2 day shoot in Lagrasse, back on Sunday evening and then 2 local ones in Roquebrun & Pézenas next week. Fingers crossed for sunshine.

The veg garden is now supplying us with lettuce, potatoes, green beans, beetroot etc., I enjoy walking around it daily & picking fresh veg for our meals. The strawberries are just about finished but they have been so sweet and juicy - I will miss them.

All winter I was feeding the birds, mainly with sunflower seeds, and under the bird table in the garden I now have a mass of sunflowers that have seeded themselves. They look wonderful when they lift their faces up to the morning sunshine.

Tonight its time for a rest. We are going to a BBQ at our neighbours house. Now where did I put my French dictionary..........

It takes a long time to grow an old friend. ~John Leonard

The house is up to roof level and Sunday was spent mixing concrete to cap the walls & fill the pillars. We thought if we got an early start (7am) we would be finished by just after lunch - no chance. It was 6.45pm when we came in for a shower. - 14 mixes of concrete, 42 shovels of ballast to a mix and it all had to be wheelbarrowed into the house and lifted up to Bryan on the scaffolding for him to pour. Needless to say Monday was a lazy day.

This week we have been putting the drains in around the house and backfilling the trenches so we can move the scaffolding outside ready for us to fit the roof timbers - which should hopefully arrive early next week. Its an early finish for us today. We have 2 photoshoots booked. Friday in Mazamet and Saturday near Carcassone. We are going in the camper so maybe Sunday will be a day of rest.

The veg garden has been providing us with copious amounts of Strawberries - It has been a very good crop and they are beautifully sweet and juicy.  I need to find a recipe for jam, there are too many for us two to eat.

Sadly, I have to say that this week Charlie dog took a turn for the worse and lost his fight for life.  He will be missed so much by us. He came with us everywhere and the house now seems very quiet without him. He is laid to rest in our garden, where he loved to be.   Goodnight our faithful friend...........

Good News.....

Charlie dog is making good progress and is much better than he was.  He is still a bit wobbly and on medication but he can get about the garden fine. He can even manage a scamp on his favourite vineyard walk. It is looking like he will manage to make the grand old age of 14 after all - we are so relieved.

La Remise

The gite looks so pretty at the moment with roses round the door and is now fully booked until the middle of July so my Saturdays will now be spent doing changeovers. 

The house is up to roof level except for over the kitchen window and the patio doors. We are waiting for delivery of 2 lintels - they are special ones for the roller shutters. - the roof timbers are also ordered. So while we were waiting we decided to have a few days away. The camper was duly packed and we set off, direction Italy. The first night was spent in the hills just above Monaco and then a few nights on the shore of Lake Maggiore. Charlie even managed a paddle. Bless him. Then it was over the Simplon Pass into Switzerland. The scenery was stunning. We were going to take the mountain pass back into France but the weather was against us with snow forecast and temperatures of minus10. Not wanting to be snowed in, it was back to planning with the map and we took the valley route instead. The last night was spent in the Ardeche before arriving home Monday lunch.  Thankfully the weather here has not been too hot while we were away and Joël has watered the veg garden for us so we have come back to a nice crop of ripe strawberries and the tomato plants have doubled in size.  

We are nicely rested and ready to commence with the building again. - Bryan has just gone to pick up the lintels, the cement mixer is back on the tractor and all is well with our world.

Sad Times...........

This week had been a sad and stressful one. Our beloved Springer Spaniel, Charlie, has had a stroke. He is still very poorly and we are keeping our fingers, (and everything else), crossed that he will get better.  There seems to be a little improvement every day so hopefully he will be back to wandering round the garden in a few weeks.

The windows and doors are ordered for the house and the walls are rising day by day.  We have had visitors again this week so we have not been working all day every day. Still, good progress has been made and we are now beginning to think about ordering the roof timbers.

The weather is still changeable - not like what we have been used to but it is good for building. If it is sunny and hot the cement dries too quickly for us to carry on in an afternoon so we need to make hay while the sun doesn't shine.

We have a glut of radish from the veg garden and the tomatoes are planted and growing nicely - despite Charlie digging them up because he liked the taste of the organic fertiliser I put on them.  If the sun comes out to play we will be eating fresh strawberries. Mmmmmmm I can't wait.  The potatoes should be flowering any day now and the beetroot and spring onions are growing happily.  I have also planted butternut squash seeds so that they will be ready to go in when the potatoes have been harvested.

The weather continues to be changeable with a few April showers and sometimes a cold sneaky wind. Not the kind of weather we are now used to. But it hasn't stopped us working. We have started laying the blocks for the walls this week and things look different every day.

We had a visit from some of our family last week so, of course, we had to have a couple of building mornings so that the "little people" could help grandad with the block work.  We also spent a few afternoons at various riversides around the region checking out the splash quality of the stones......Roquebrun always comes out the best.
It was a lovely week, but sadly all good things must come to an end and we now have a clean, quiet house, but I think I liked the noisy, untidy one. - Well for a short while anyway.  Maybe by next week I will be able to let Bryan clean the "Harry Bear" handprint off my patio door.

Another job crossed off my "list" (I have lots of these lists, much to Bryan's disgust) today was potting up all the lavender cuttings I took last autumn. These are eventually going to live down each side of the driveway when they get to the right size.

Amongst tomorrows jobs is a trip to order the doors and windows - not my idea of shopping but at least its a few hours off.

April Showers

Well we didn't manage to get the floor down before it rained but it is now done. Phew!  This time Bryan's calculations were perfect and there was no need for us to mix anymore concrete so it was an early finish for us- for once.  We now have a little respite until it has cured and we can start to build the walls.

Not too much time off though - last weekend saw the arrival of our first paying guests in the gite, so Saturdays are now "changeover days". Also on my list of "to do's" is to gravel the pathways and to lay some decking before our airport run on Saturday lunchtime. we are picking up the slaves family, who are here for a week. I hope they have packed their work clothes.

There is lots to do in the garden, the showers have made the grass and weeds (my biggest enemy) grow like mad, and hopefully, little Oliver (aged 4) will be my gardening buddy.  The first of our radish have been picked, and eaten and the potatoes earthed up but the tomatoes aubergines, cucumbers and peppers are all waiting for him to plant.

There is also the small matter of Tom's 30th Birthday to address - So a gathering of a few of our neighbours  will be here on Sunday lunch for a BBQ (weather permitting). I hope he has been practising his French.......
Bon Anniversaire Tom.

How Time Flies.

Here we are with over another 2 weeks gone and not much to show for it.  Bryan - being the kind generous  person he is donated all his germs to me and this resulted in me having influenza, along with a rather nasty ear infection, culminating in a trip to A & E last Sunday to get some medication. Thank god for antibiotics.  1 week on I am beginning to feel a little more like building again.

We also had 2 days of rain, (the first since November,) which has held us up a little. The soil here is a very sticky clay which when wet is terrible to walk on or do anything with. So it was a case of sitting it out and waiting for Mr sunshine to come out to play. When I say sitting it out I meant 2 days spent in the office cataloguing photo's for our website - No rest here.

The garden appreciated the rain and we have now got potatoes peeking out of the soil and the garlic, onions and radish are growing well. We even have some flowers on the strawberries. The tomato plants are hardening off on a sunny windowsill ready for planting out when we have a visit from two of our gorgeous little people in April. That should keep them busy for a morning.
The landscaping around the house is progressing and we have sown some lawn seed and also put in a few flower beds, so hopefully by the time we start to have visitors it will look more like a garden and less like a building site.

There is still lots to do. The sun is just peeping its head up and I have just heard the concrete mixer start up - so onwards and upwards..........

On Schedule.....

The metalwork has been tied together and hidden in the trenches. The concrete was poured late last Friday afternoon - our calculations erred on the light side, so it was a mad dash, for me, to the local builders yard for cement while Bryan put the mixer on our (borrowed) little tractor, and voila our Friday evening was spent shovelling sand and gravel into it. - Who needs a gym membership?

This week we have been building the foundation walls and they were finished ahead of schedule, despite Bryan feeling under the weather. The weatherman has given a good forecast for the weekend so after a quick shopping trip to Beziers for next weeks materials the motorbike, cameras and of course Charlie Dog will be loaded into the camper and a couple of lazy days will be enjoyed. Maybe a meal or two in the promised sunshine and of course a nice bottle of the red stuff.

Here we go again........

The foundations for Villa number 2 have been dug. Now all the hard work starts. We spent last week desperately trying to finish the steps on Villa 1 and marking out where exactly we wanted Villa 2 to sit on the land. Thank god we were on the ball because the digger man arrived Friday instead of Saturday - just as I was pulling the last marker out of the soil. Good timing or what ?

The next job is to get all the metalwork into the trenches and the concrete poured - Before it rains. The last time we dug trenches it rained for 2 weeks solid and Bryan had to bail out by hand - not a job to relish !!  The forecast is good for the foreseeable future so fingers crossed.

We have been busy in the garden too. The Onions and Garlic are planted and also Beetroot, Radish, Spring Onions & Green Beans.  The potatoes are next to go in in a couple of weeks and my Tomato seeds are sown & sat on the bathroom windowsill where they get the early morning sunshine.

We took up an offer of supper last week from a friend who lives near Berlou in the Haute Languedoc Parc Naturel.  Bryan decided it would be a good idea to take his camera, set it up outside and leave it to track the night sky while we enjoyed our meal and practiced our French.  After 3 hours, 250 exposures and a scramble down a steep banking to retrieve all the gadgetry he has. The end result is pretty stunning.

Brrrrrrrrr........

Today has seen the mercury on the thermometer back above zero. It has been cold here for the last 2 weeks - too cold to work outdoors in the mornings and it took lots of courage to venture outside even after lunch. But we have soldiered on with the few jobs that could be done in the cold weather.  The car port for our camper is nearly finished (we just have to put the doors on), the plans for the foundations and the floor for villa 2 are finalised and we hope to start digging out early next week.  Also the vegetable garden has been dug over (numerous times) to get rid of all the couch grass and we hired a rotovator last Friday to work all the compost in and to break up the last few remaining clumps of clay.  Now we need a little bit of Languedoc sun to warm up the ground so that the onions and garlic can go in.

The days are lengthening at last and even though its cloudy it is still light at 6.30pm. Valentines tea tonight is Civet of Sanglier . It has been sat in the slow cooker all afternoon and is awaiting some lovely mashed potatoes .....
Happy Valentines Day everyone.

Here we are back from a quick trip to England to catch up with family and friends. A lovely few days but they passed in a flash.

A photo shoot preceded in the Tarn region. A beautiful farmhouse and buildings converted into holiday lets. We were lucky with the weather - cold mornings but sunny days, hopefully the pool and outside shots don't look like its the middle of winter.

We are sat doing post production looking out of the window on a lovely sunny day, wishing we were out in the garden. Our daughter bought us a bird table for Christmas and while we have been away the birds have started using it. we are now watching 40 plus birds falling out over what it has to offer. They have been perching on the new balustrade around the terrace and it is now covered in bird droppings. I suspect that when the post production is finished it will be moved further into the garden.

A walk with Charlie is imminent - That's if he has finished sulking after a few days in the doggy home.

2012

Well we couldn't have wished for better weather for New Years Day. 17 degrees with wall to wall sunshine.  A mornings hard labour in the garden, lunch on the terrace & a walk with Charlie Dog = a perfect day.

What a difference a day makes. Only 10 degrees & cloudy - still it's better for working in.  Bryan is working on the dry stone wall at the entrance today & I have had a productive day placing large stones along the driveway for borders.  We are desperately trying to finish all the jobs on our to do list before we get the paperwork through to enable us to start on house number 2.