Hello little Digger

The barn opposite us has been sold and the new owner is now busy working to convert it into a house.  He's a local man and is getting a number of his friends to help.  He is demolishing a part of the barn prior to rebuilding it but he intends to do all of the work himself and estimates that it will take about 3 years.

I then realised that the mini-digger looked familiar and lo and behold, the chap who bought our digger is there helping.

It was good to see that it is still in use as we had heard that the engine had given up and had to be replaced!

Excuses, Excuses

We are conscious that we have not reported for some time so I will try to bring you up to date.

We have been progressing in the salon, i.e. buying bits of furniture, rugs, lamps etc. We have made some mistakes en route , check ebay for a selection of rejected items. We try to envisage things in the  room before purchasing but it isn't until you actually see something in situ that you know if it works. We have things on order and have to make/buy a number of small finishing items but most of all, our resident Michelangelo has to get his finger out. He hasn't actually got to paint the ceiling but he has a number of large projects to complete.

However he has to juggle his creative duties with his labouring duties. Like most men of a certain age he likes the grass to look good. As we have had 3 weeks of glorious weather with a lot of moisture in the ground this has meant that he has had to cut the grass every third day - yes we know he needs to get out more. However 2 weeks ago disaster struck when the mower blew up. After all his hard work I couldn't bear to see the grass grow 2 foot high whilst we waited to see if it could be repaired, which didn't seem likely, so we bought a new one.

 

So he has been playing ever since and the spring garden looks lovely.

 

 

 Meantime the summer bedding is charging on in the porcherie.

Excuse number three is that we have had Guy and his new girlfriend Tara staying so we have been doing the tourist thing. We enjoyed having Tara around and got on with her very well.

No photos of the salon will be published until it is finished, so there may be some delay!!

Those Clever Chinese!

Yes folks ... the salon is nearly, nearly finished.  So near that we've started to break out the furniture, some of which we bought 2 years ago.  But ...... when I opened the first box there seemed to be something missing; like the feet and 2 cushions!!!!!

We couldn't believe that, after 2 years, we had bought half a sofa!  Sue was insistent that she'd sat in the sofa to see if it was comfortable ... I couldn't remember.
After a lot of tut-tutting and head scratching and thinking of how she could make some replacement cushions I had a brain-wave and investigated the underside of the sofa.

And lo and behold ...

... cushions and feet!

It was obviously worth fitting a zip to access the interior and reduce the size of the package and so reduce the shipping costs!  It's just a shame that they hadn't included a leaflet to explain where they'd hidden it all!

Spring has Sprung

  All of a sudden, the sun is shining and we are overpowered with the delights of Spring.

 The plum tree in the front garden has a lot of blossom this year although we are forecast to have very high winds tomorrow so we hope it doesn't blow it all off before the bees find it.

 The tulips are providing a lovely contrast to the pansies and the 'white' tulips which we've had for about 5 years now are still brightening up the beds.

 

We've seen the Black Redstarts for the past couple of weeks and then last evening we heard our first Cuckoo.  We've also seen a pair of Hoopoes looking for a nest site; they seem to return every year.

We are both busy in the garden (although I seem to be mowing all the time!) and the head gardener is very pleased (thank goodness)