Springtime walk to Dartington

 Wild garlic

 Bluebells

 A solitary cranesbill amongst the predecessors

Swan fountain at Dartington with petals from the azaleas

A spate of flooring work here in Devon...tough on the knees. Otherwise busy planning a treehouse for Quélébu, trying to pin down dates with the thatcher for the proposed dormer in our bedroom and looking forward to a trip home in a few weeks time with Susie.

Great Mattiscombe Sands

A midday trip to Mattiscombe sands as the weather on bank holiday Monday was fine. Amazed to find the beach deserted. After a spot of fishing we collected all the detritus on the beach - mostly remains of plastic bottles, some rubber drive belts, odd shoe soles, fishing net fragments and bits of tin can.  Three full carrier bags worth plus a full rucksuck. Shocking how much junk we throw in the sea and of course the plastic is there for thousands of years to come.

Probably the evidence of humanity in the fossil/geological record will be thin layer of plastic and pollutants from burning hydrocarbons. All we deserve frankly.

Cold

Cold and rainy today, so finished the oak bathroom door, replaced the prayer flags (which had completely worn away), varnished some oak tops and window cills, hung the donkey skull, did my French tax return before carrying on with architecture work.

My head hurts

An exhausting couple of days preparing for and in meetings, culminating with a tender analysis and pre-contract meeting this afternoon for a project here in France - all in French of course. My French is pretty good (but a bit rusty at the moment), but after 4-5 hours of discussion my brain just wants to shut down, especially with strong regional accents and technical language to contend with. A bit of a headache this evening!

Tomorrow some more drawing revisions, some DIY and a rest before departure on Friday.

Susie has her dance showcase "SPRUNG" in Totnes tonight. It's the first time I've missed it since I met her. Good Luck Darling.

Back to France

Usual Pyrenean spring weather with April showers and sunny spells. No worries as it's always lovely to experience the incandescent green when all the beech leaves burst open! The fields are starting to fill with the lime green of starwort and the usual succession of wild flowers. There were chevreuil playing in the meadow and the garden this morning, practising for the rut and trying to remove the velvet from their antlers.

 Early purple orchids

Squill

Lots of architectural work to do this trip, but still time in the evenings to hunt for the last of the morels (if there are any) and a bit of DIY.

And finally, the bigger they are the harder they fall...this tiny (bodied) spider clearly got the better of the big hairy beast it's currently eating!

Seals at Start Point

In between work appointments, we tidied the allotment on Thursday afternoon and then the garden this morning. 

With the weather sunny and warm we snuck out to Start Point and watched a couple of seals playing the sea. A spot of fishing at Mattiscombe bay, but lost my spinner after an hour or so, so we retreated to Slapton for a half.

Home time

 Just time to finish the white paint in the bathroom then it's back to (rainy) UK. Called in on Minsou, who is well and having her roof re-slated. She told me that Michelle (AKA the Suisse) found lots of Morels at the weekend...grrr! Seems I've missed them.

The new tram terminal under construction at Blagnac

New door to bathroom made and hung - needs to be sanded to get it back to clean wood, then oiled to bring out the grain (which is actually very nice, plus the wide boards are book-matched). I used the other brass suffolk latch that I got in Totnes market, and managed to mend the broken lever with a piece of cut down brass hinge that I soldered into the stub.

Bathroom is also sanded, caulked and painted. It's been a productive week all in all.

Bathrooms again

This one needs a bit more sanding and fitting tomorrow

Rain continued most of the morning and into the mid-afternoon. I had to wait a couple of hours for the man from the ERDF to arrive to discuss the devi for Gilbert's grange in La Trappe, but then I pressed on with the oak joinery working under cover of the entrance canopy. The upstairs bathroom window and door reveals are fitted and there was enough left over to replace the painted plywood shelf in the downstairs bathroom. I have two remaining book matched boards which with a narrow board between, will make a lovely door for this bathroom too - replacing the one I made from left over floorboards, which has always been warped and a swine to shut.

All done by 8pm. : )

Bathroom works

The hot wind continued to blow yesterday, so I continued with bringing down more hung up trees (the not so threatening ones), though they were still challenging trees to bring down safely. Ian arrived in the late afternoon with some oak for the bathroom and I headed over to his to help unload his wood and stay for supper.

Overnight some wet weather has arrived, so today I cracked on with plasterboarding the bathroom and plastering the joints. I managed to get the first first of the oak in place (the window board) but the continuing rain called a halt to proceeding before I could do the window and door reveals (I have to cut and plane the timber outside).

Sandrine and John over for Dinner tonight.

Architecture work in the morning, the last of the dangerously hung up trees in my fields brought down, logged and branches burnt in the afternoon and an evening stroll in the hot south wind.

Spent the morning finishing off the loft hatch, then headed out to split logs from the recent tree clearances. Was hot and humid and I ran out of steam - so headed off for a walk in search of morels (3 weeks early but you never know). None to be found but a made a circuit around Biech, Col de Bologne and Cane.

Hepatica

Mr caterpillar, he'll turn into a scarlet tiger moth (below)

Mr Wild Goat can you spot him?

Haven't seen him for a few years, so was good to know he's still alive. 

It's a long camera shot - couldn't get any closer

Ladder in place

Ladder gone! The trap doors should keep the bedroom warmer in winter.

Some opening up for the dormer window....next project!

Up early this morning, two more bonfires lit, all around the house strimmed, some more fallen trees logged and tidied away. 

Both the newly cleared area down near the barn and the field in the woods were also strimmed to clear the brambles and saplings that had started to invade.

Then it was on with installing an outside light in the porch, it's been annoying me for sometime that when I have to split logs or kindling in the winter I can't see what I'm doing.

In the late afternoon I went for a stroll with camera in hand. There a lot of big trees down this winter, difficult to photograph and get a sense of the devastation, but torn and smashed oaks boughs of 50cm diameter give an indication of the forces involved when big trees fall.

With the warm weather there are many flowers - it's very early but is it worth a look for Morels?

 vetch

 cuckoo flower

 spurge

 early purple orchid

 oxlip

 stellarium nemorum

 lungwort

 sedge (not sure which)

willow

helibore

Paddle stair

From the remnants of the old attic stair (which got cut into two to make a temporary stair for house) I've built this paddle stair. More of ladder than a stair really. It will give access to the attic but being portable it will also give access to the deck over our bed (where it'll live most of the time) and the little attic over Jasper and Ruby's bedrooms.

Hot gusty South wind today, so no fires.