Blog 27 / October 2015
It has now
been a year since the blue tarp was drenched over this roof and this ancient
building is oh, so slowly, having work done to it. This monument of a building is
on the way to Carentan and we always comment on how tragic it is, to have left
it to be taken back to nature’s way. There is however evidence of recuperation
and there are ackro jacks in the windows and we have seen rotten wood being thrown
out of the windows into skips. What started as an interesting grand design project for us
to watch and wooh at, is going to be a long and drawn out event.
so when
Shirley sent me commiserations for knocking us off the imperial column of
scrabble winners, I sent her the proof that we are actually well educated have
all the books to play fair and square. The bottle of brandy in the back ground was
a joke, we only drink wine when playing scrabble……
The ongoing
extension to the Gate Garden is oh so very ongoing, and a simple little job
like pulling out a flower bed to make way for a BBQ took all morning and an
immense amount of energy. We pulled out the lavender which was old and past its
best then came across a poplar tree stump we had planted as a twig four years
ago. We found roots as thick as our thighs, so Mike sawed and cropped until the
roots were free and hauled it out. We stood back to marvel at the speed and
robustness these fabulous trees grow at, and that in four years we have
planted, harvested and grubbed out.
Here I am
in my tiny kitchen making chilli for ten, in preparation for my birthday
supper. We have often spoken about
updating the kitchen and making it modern and slick but as I work away in there
I feel in the right place at the right time, so perhaps best not to make
changes if it is not going to change our lives.
We gathered
on the 16th October for a lively social evening around our kitchen
table, my sister Mim and brother in law Dick sharing our joie de vivre in the
bosom of our friendships.
I photographed
Mike in the wood using his new leaf blower, that we think is the best thing
ever we are now always looking for tools that will be easy to use as we get older and
less able to manage heavy equipment. This back pack petrol blower means that
Mike can work for longer and we are achieving so much more since we have taken a ‘make it easy’ approach to
maintaining our three acres of garden.
Whist we
had Mim and Dick over from the UK we spent hours around the table talking, did
a shopping outing and took Monty for a little run. I am always pleased when Mike gets the old
fella out and we trundle through the streets of Carentan just because we can. We will need to winterise the hobby cars and
look forward to next spring when we can start all over again
Mike had a
floater appear in his eye with a flash of light and we decided to treat it as an
emergency when our local ophthalmic doctor gave us an appointment for 6 months’
time. We both had a feeling this was important so we drove to St Lo Memorial Hospital
casualty unit. Within an hour mike was
checked out for a stroke and head trauma but happily was clear so the doctor
arranged for him to see an ophthalmic surgeon for the next morning. We
dutifully made the appointment where the surgeon did a thorough check of Mike’s
eye and said it was a very good thing we went ‘Urgences’ because Mike’s retina
was detaching and proceeded to perform laser surgery to reattach it. We would
have expected to wait, but were relieved that we were in the right place at the
right time and two and half hours later Mike’s eye was mended and is now in the
care of a real life ophthalmic surgeon who sounded confident that he had
recovered the eye and saved mike’s sight…..thank you French Health System ….you
did it again
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