Kitchen wall

Another long day but the first half of the 'problem' kitchen wall has succumbed to expanded metal and plaster! Another glorious day, shame to be mostly inside. Two tea breaks with Jon and Sandrine who were working in the bottom field ensured I wasn't with my nose to the grindstone for the entire day. The other larger part to do in the next two days along with some other chores.

Plastering

All day plastering with the super fast setting french plaster (and this is the slowest setting stuff they make!). After a cloudy start it turned out to be another beautiful day but I was too busy working to really appreciate it. Still clearing up.

Rendering

Lots of hurling sand/lime render today as I attempted to dub out the window reveals and newly exposed living room wall ready for a top coat of plaster. Interesting how little suction there is to granite! A long wrist aching job...still the huge kitchen wall to do : (

 Loire skeleton found behind the cladding

 Weather approaching from the west

New oak window cills - now for the plastering!

First day back

A walk didn't materialise but the weather has been glorious. Spent most of the day cutting the more field no.1, just two more to do before the winter snows arrive.

There's a lot of rendering and plastering  to do this trip so decided to finally remove the horrible cladding in the living room. The wall and window reveals will be plastered. The windows are much bigger now the boarding has been removed.

France

Back in France. the crappy grey weather in the UK is only a few hundred feet thick - glorious sun above! The skies are wonderfully clear and from 37,000 ft there was an amazing view of the huge dome of the Massive Central and the Alps beyond several hundred miles away. Mont Blanc, the Swiss Alps and the peaks of the Ecrins were all clearly visible.

Weather here is warm, clear and sunny. Passed Ian in the car and then bumped into Minsou for a chat. Saw a purple heron for the first time on the way home too.

Today is one of the few days that the sun sets twice...once each side of Mont Valier. Fire and Rayburn are purring away to heat the house through after being shut up for the last 4 weeks...tomorrow a walk to make the most of this weather before getting down to work.

River Avon

After some heavy building work early in the week (groundworks mostly) the weather at last took a short turn for the better so Susie and I took a walk to explore the lower Avon valley between Topsham bridge and Loddiswell, following the old route of the railway. A look for mushrooms but nothing found.

On Sunday Dominic and I took to the Canadian canoe and followed the Avon again, this time from Aveton Gifford all the way to the sea at Bantham with views to Burgh Island. Fun fighting the incoming tide when we hit the sea, but more leisurely on the way back upstream. Lots of kingfishers on the estuary and some big bass.

Stormy moor

Culm coast

 

Geo-caching

On Saturday a walk around the Dartington Estate with Susie and Dominic searching for geo-caches (hidden objects with a GPS reference and clue to find them). We found most of the ones we were looking for even though we only had a good old fashioned map and grid reference.

Sunday we took Jasper and Ruby to see the latest bond movie "Skyfall" directed by Sam Mendes it's one of the best!

Yesterday afternoon Dom and I wandered across the moor visiting the old rifle range in several tors in the Hay Tor area. Tomorrow we are all off to the Culm coast  (North of Bude).

Dark and damp

Despite the photos in the last post, the UK has to be one of the most dark, damp and sunless places on earth. I can almost count on my fingers the number of decent weather days this year. If it wasn't for Susie and my frequent trips to Quélébu I think I'd go mad. It's no wonder that Finland has the highest suicide rate in the world it's possibly the only place darker, wetter and more sunless than the UK!

Of course I'm not suicidal, but I'm shocked that I managed to live here for so long before realising that you only have to go a 1000 miles south to be in such a different climatic zone that you could be on another planet! Whilst this weather is great for slugs and snails, frogs and other amphibians, I can't believe it's good for the human body.

St Ives

A night away for Susie and I in lovely St Ives. A trip to the Tate and Barbara Hepworth's home and garden.

Ground floor nearly finished

 Myla and Thea watching the "spectacle"

On Sunday a trip to Massat to see Justin, Emily and the twins, who were there at the autumn fair doing a hog roast. All seemed to be going very well and the weather was balmy. The last two days has been spent mostly finishing off the entrance and kitchen as well as a little work in the fields. The ground floor is finally looking near to completion - it's been a very productive trip.

 Entrance lobby nearing completion

Kitchen also looking nearly finished

It's been absolutely glorious today and much of the snow has already gone. A big juicy cep for dinner. For the next few days the strong hot South winds are gonna blow - the leaves will turn and autumn will have truly arrived here.

Snow!!

Internet was down this evening so quickly modified the wine/vegtable rack to fit in the awkward space beside the fridge - perfect!

Wood store

All day building the new inside wood store in the porch. I used to store a few days of wood under the stairs but of course they've long since disappeared. In moving some wood I disturbed an enormous 'Camberwell Beauty' butterfly.

The wood store is built from oak offcuts, but looks the part and is good and solid.

phew!

All finished bar the varnish.