end of the Phone waiting for our call ……phew !!!!!

 

Blog 3 February 2015

 

I put a picture of my ducks in this week’s blog just because I love them and they make us laugh every day.  The girls have started to lay eggs so I went  into the pond enclosure and spread straw in the places I have seen them settle, leaving  a  white wooden egg behind  to give them a clue as to what is expected of them. Now that swanny is no more I can walk freely in the pond area and play at being mother duck as they quack quack about my feet and follow me where ever I go, these are truly fabulous pets.

 

 

 

 

The ceiling went up in the Gym and was made a million times easier with the loan of a plaster board lift. The last time we put up a ceiling was in the back kitchen and I swore that I would never do it again. Mike and I divorced each other after each board went up and when Mike suggested we use the same method in the Gym I told him to talk to the hand and find a better way to do it or I’m out.   It’s really amazing how a gadget can change your view on a job and Mike and I worked as a couple of odd job blokes manhandling these large sheets up a flight of stairs onto the lift and then while one ratchets up the other manoeuvres into position and then Mike had his hands free to put the screws in with a  calm and rational approach ……et voila ….perfect

There was a melancholy moment as the boards started to cover up the view into the eves of this wonderful barn roof, but you can’t have everything and although we can still see the structure from the other side of the hay loft it did break my heart to see the straight above view, gone. To get over it though, I got on the treadmill walked for 10 minutes got my heart beat up to fat burning speed and all the melancholy disappeared along with the view of the roof

 

 

Mike and I have been watching the weather forecast as I have been waiting for a dry spell to attack the lawns. I saw that we were going to sit under a pleasant high pressure zone with a promise of no rain for a week so I started to make urgent enquiries about how we take the collecting box off the new mower and bodge the on off switch so that I can just drive at high speed and scatter all the cut grass high into the air and distribute it. I was in heaven when after 2 hours the lawns were mowed. The first cut of the year is always a knife and fork job and we were not disappointed but I have just come in from a walk around the garden with HOSS and I feel another shorter cut coming on tomorrow, if the rain stays away. The morning after a cut like that is the best experience as I opened the shutters to that sweet smell of newly cut grass and the promise of spring in the air despite the morning temperate holding at 3 degrees.

Mike joined me with his mowing deck attached to the tractor and did the outer edges of the garden and the wood and later I went out to see what else he had found to do and I thought I had caught him multi-tasking and rolling as he mowed but actually the deck was lifted as the roller has a mind of its own and needs a keen sense of direction to get it to go where you want it to go…..bit like reversing a trailer which Mike manages to do with irritating ease.

 

 

 

This picture is not strictly about our life in France but it has a real impact on our happiness and wellbeing. Here are our grandchildren with their Daddy and their beast of a dog in Canada. We talk to Georgina and the kids every week on Skype and sometimes twice if there is something special to say. We have got to know them and their lovely ways despite the distance between us. Little Alex asked us when we were going to come to his house so we have decided to make the trip and it is all booked and arranged for Spring. We are looking forward to living with them to get a real hands on appreciation of their wonderful life on Vancouver Island.

 

 

And finally, we popped into our depot vends and  found this very average side board with  mirrors  and it is  exactly what I was looking for to house the music centre and store all our party equipment that we leave in the barn like plates, cutlery and glasses. This gym area has given me a hygienic environment to have the party food in and have the games and partying in the open roofed area. I am very pleased with the Gym and I go every day, I don’t work out to the point of destruction as that would be silly but a little bit of muscle toning every day is good. I put the treadmill on programme 7 the other day and ended up running for 3 separate minuets and for one who never runs or sweats without good reason this is a good start. The very average sideboard weighed a ton and it took all of Mike’s appliance of science and strength to get it up the stairs.We feel that strength and stamina is sometimes just borrowed for the day and returned by taking three days in front of the TV, but we managed to get it up to the first floor against all odds and the worry that our friends and extra muscle are away and not at the end of the Phone waiting for our call ……phew !!!!!