After a very long trip to Hastings yeaterday, today I'm ready for the timber framing.

Cornworthy

The deck/car port is nearing completion, should be ready to start the timber frame building soon.

Home produce

10 litres of elderflower champagne on the go and the allotment about to bear it's first fruit (a single blackcurrant).

Meanwhile the tremendous snowfall of last winter in the Pyrenees is starting to melt and there are disastrous floods on the rivers which take the snowmelt away from the mountains.

Photos

A walk on the moor with Susie today and one with Ruby yesterday in the Dartington Estate...mostly talking and taking photos.

 Wild yellow iris

 Susie

 Me

 Susie

Blue glow of bluebells

 Ruby

 Tiny blooms

Splash

Concrete pumped and tamped

An hour trip to Brixham in the afternoon, but no fish...only flowers.

Cornworthy Update

Concrete slab ready to pour tomorrow.

Sea food

Another week of exceptional early June weather here in Devon and so a trip to the beach was in order. Mattiscombe was sheltered from the wind, so the girls sunbathed whilst Jasper and I walked to Lannacombe and back in search of a fishing spot.  The tide was nearly in and we didn't find a spot. Eventually we had to scramble to safety to avoid wet feet. Friends arrived and after a barbeque, as the sun set, I threw out a spinner and caught 4 mackerel, 2 sea bass and a couple of baby cod (I think) which I put back.

Stormy weather

Atrocious weather for the past few days, but managed a long walk in the rain and been stripping our bedroom door, painting the bathroom door and carving an oak stair newel.

This side might stay wood...

Other side is painted white and gold

Quelebu

Back in France for our anniversary.

Dig, dig, dig.

Excavations underway

First time with a micro-digger

Another day another bathroom..

Works on a bathroom extension are nearly finished and just as well, as the ground works on the next project in Cornworthy start on Tuesday.

In between times I've been knocking a project in Hastings into shape before it goes to planning.

Eight tours walk

Some great weather here in the UK after all these months of damp and darkness. Got out on the moor with Dommy and did the eight tours circuit around Burrator Reservoir in the reverse direction to last time. A pleasant 4 1/2 hour stroll.

 Dommy

 Aqueduct where Devonport Leat crosses the River Meavy

Sharpi Tor with Leather Tor and Sheep Tor in the distance.

Back to UK

Back to the UK and straight on with building regulations drawings for the project at Cornworthy.

Then back to Bath where my tenant of 6 years has moved on (she's 82 and the steps were too much). The flat need some refreshment. So a very busy weekend installing a new kitchen sink and tap, repainting every surface except the ceilings and re-varnishing the floors. Another trip to repaint outside soon. I've put tenant finding with a local agent so hopefully it won't be empty for long.

The septic tank pump saga

Well I managed to remove the cracked part of the septic tank. On arrival at the main drainage retailer in the area i t became apparent that the connection on one end of the pipe was not standard. Whilst we could make up most of the piece (various bends and a one way valve) from standards off the shelf bits, the final connection was impossible. After calling the fabricator they told us that the design had been changed and they no longer made that part. They promised to track one down by lunchtime, and if they had one, they courier it to the wholesaler. It had to arrive in 24 hours because the following days my tenants move in and it was a bank holiday! Whilst waiting for the call I decided I needed a plan B. I got a price for hiring a pump from and hire shop and went to see if my insurers would cover the cost  - no chance.

By 12.00 still no call from the fabricator, so I headed for Pont as there was still lots to do and to try to find a Plan C. I had a plan to move the pump in the tank and make a whole new connecting pipe. After bailing out more "grey water" or should that be "brown water" I discovered another detachable connection and this was standard - so it would be possible to make up a relacement part from standard items!! I called the wholesaler and although the fabricator had by now found the part, it was ridiculously expensive, so plan C it was.

Next morning I collected the pieces, and had soon assembled and installed them in the tank. Now for the test. I ran all the taps in the house and slowly the tank filled. But when it got to depth that triggered the pump it whirred but no water moved. I quickly realised that the pump had an air block and need to be inverted. Only problem was that the pump was at the bottom of a two feet deep (60cm) tank filled with "brown water". Nothing for it but to roll up my sleeves and take the plunge. YUK - truly disgusting but I had no alternative as time was running out and bailing out the tank would take me past closing time of the wholesalers if another part was required.

Fortunately it worked, but despite washing immediately with bleach and soap, the smell on my arm didn't go for another day.

It was a long day's work (and the following morning) to get everything done in the house and to empty all the outbuildings, but finally it was done and with only minutes before the new tenants arrived. I hope they prove to be reliable!

More snow!

...but I have problems at Pont to solve today!

Pont troubles

The snow continued until about midday, but has since melted below about 900m. Four days working long hours at Pont and although most the work is complete there have been a few set backs.

Yesterday the light in the downstairs hall decided to die. After much checking, the fault lies somewhere hidden in the buried wiring - perhaps a loose connection or faulty wire. Nothing to be done but to safely terminate the existing wiring and pull a new wire from another circuit or the fuseboard. That's where the fun started. The hall is on the opposite side of a 600 thick stone wall to the fuseboard and now the floors and ceilings are long since finished, there's no way to pull another cable through the only hole that carries all the cables. So I eventually found a lighting cable for the kitchen which I could just reach in a ceiling void over the utility room and after hours of fiddling (because there wasn't enough slack in the cable to easily make a connection) I connected everything up and hey presto NOTHING. No light and after checking the cable no current! Bizarre as I know the cable serves the kitchen light. To cut a long storey short I'd connected to the cable after the kitchen light switch (the cable had to come back through the utility to get to the only hole through the stone wall I mentioned earlier). So the light worked but only when the kitchen light was also turned on. If this sounds confusing, good, because it was and I was there!! Plan B involved hours of trying to pull another cable through the utility room ceiling void and up into the kitchen. Eventually success, but 6 hours to wire a lamp!

Set back two involves the septic tank. The overflow from which enters a small tank which once full pumps the liquid up the hill to filter beds. The pump is working fine but there's a crack in the pipework built into the tank which is allowing the water to flow back into it once the pump stops, eventually it refills the tank triggering the pump once more. Not sure if the part with the crack is replaceable, mendable or if I have to get a hole new tank and install it - I only have 2 days before tenants move in!! Will need to bale out the tank tomorrow to have a better look - yuk.

Fortunately the bath at Quelebu is now fully operational after some late night working, with new taps and larger bore pipework (22mm) it fills quickly and effortlessly.

8.00am and here comes the snow!

Snow?

Crazy - but snow is forecast for the weekend!! The leaves are out on the beech trees so I hope it isn't too heavy, a few years ago it was catastrophic.

Morels!

Back to France. It was a shame leaving Devon, which for once was basking in sunshine, but fortunately the weather is the same here. Today was glorious, 36 degrees at 6.30pm - which was the time I got home from Pont where I had been installing 2 new double glazed windows.

After a quick wander around the woods near home I remembered it was Morel time...so after visiting my secret Morel location I came away with 3! I think I'll dry them so Susie can try them.

The cuckoo is here, the songbirds are singing and everything is bursting into bloom!

Sadness

It is with much sadness that I heard today that my dear friend Dédé Asso died a couple of days ago, just a few days short of his 90th birthday. Dédé fought in WWII and was twice injured (he had shrapnel in his legs and had lost a finger), he loved to ski (he was originally from the Savoie I think) and he continued to ski until he was in his mid-eighties.

Our love goes out to Minsou and his family.

Mothercombe

There's been a lot of talk about a forthcoming "heatwave" in the UK...but it is just talk. The forecast remains overcast and rainy for as far as the forecasters can predict.

Susie and I had the lovely beech at Mothercombe all to ourselves on Friday lunchtime but we did get soaked in the heavy showers.

We now have a small south facing allotment in Totnes so hopefully we can grow some fruit and vegetables this year.

Sun and snow

 Lovely weather above the clouds

Jasper and Ruby making a giant snowball

Susie

Spot the ball

This evening on a walk through the woods Susie and I saw a large wild boar. Susie collected some wild flowers and I collected the now abandoned hornets' nest from the barn toilet.

..and below inside when I sawed it in half.

All Change

Yesterday a change in the weather was on it's way

Susie and I crack on with some concreting (Susie's first!)

A screed topping (gentler on the feet)

All done, time to get cosy inside

This morning the shuttering is off and we head to market, but the snow starts to settle

Still dumping it down - tomorrow will be sunny so it'll be off to Guzet for some serious snowball fighting!