requires a gentleman’s touch………

Blog 6 March 2015

There is a great philosopher somewhere who once said ‘when you are on a role, keep running’ so if you are not a petrol head by nature,  turn away now, because this blog will leave you wondering whether Mike and I  have totally lost our marbles.







Mike saw this 1958 Morris minor 1000 on le bon coin and asked if I would call the venders for more photos. They live 2 hour drive away so I did the call knowing that Mike would not normally travel so far and that would be that. The pictures came through on e-mail and when I came home from my visit to Genevieve on sewing Wednesday Mike asked me to PPPPlease call these people again and get more info because this looks like it may be a good buy and he really really wants it.  I know I have the knack of talking Mike out of unreasonable activities I don’t want to get involved in but I spoke to the seller and had taken his address down and made an appointment before I could take breath and we found ourselves on the road at 7:30 the next morning on our way to see this little gem.

Our GPS took us directly to the door of a very nice and chatty French couple who bought this car because it was built in the year he was born and they wanted to cruise around their little town of Janzs with their grandchildren on board.  They did not realise however that it is an all singing and dancing English car that they did not understand and lost interest when the French MOT came back with a list as long as your arm and when they could no longer get it to start , locked it away in the garage for a year. Mike looked the car over, he looked inside and out, then tinkered and poked and finally sat in the driving seat in a realm of nostalgia turned the ignition on and asked the vender if he could just turn it over to make sure the engine was not seized and to the utter amazement of our hosts their little moggie spluttered into action and coughed and spat on three cylinders. The very kind gentleman laughed out loud and asked how that was possible as the battery was flat and he had been unable to start their Morris  or even get close to starting it all year. I shot Mike a knowing look and explained in my proudest French that Mike has the knack and their little gem was now in good hands and will see another day on the road after a good seeing to, in English.

On a foreign drive with no tools Mike continued to  work  his magic and could see what needed doing  but decided that it might be better to push the car  into the road and winch it up onto our newly acquired car transporter trailer and bring it  home for a better inspection








The trailer was all part of the big plan and we were forced to make   the purchase quicker than anticipated just to get Moggie back to the garage which will be its home for the next year that we have allocated for the rebuild, and relaunch onto the roads









There is a bit of rust and Mike has polished up his welding kit to accommodate that aspect of the renovation, the seats will need a total rebuild but there is nothing too scary.  Mike has now spent the last three days going through the parts catalogue making costing and availability lists as this sort of project needs to fall into a budgetary plan and I for one will be paying attention to that aspect of the project.  I am excited at the prospect of Mike loosing himself in the garage and can see us off to the car shows to troll for spares and I can see this little part of our youth back on the road moggying along on French roads that we now call home

And what of Monty I hear you cry, Well Monty is good and well,  this is a relic of a past beyond our memory and is a vehicle we have to maintain and keep warm and dry whereas Moggie is to be striped and made good, for its own good, to arrest the deterioration for its future existence. It also means that when both cars are on the road I can drive Moggie and Mike can drive Monty and we can do the shows and rallies as a his and hers team. Besides which, Monty has a 1936 4 speed crash gear box that despite myself I know I will never master and requires a gentleman’s touch………





 

 

  

the joys of early daffs, on a cold and blustery day.

           Blog 5 / March 2015

Our dear friend Genevieve took a fall and has broken her ankle so I did my weekly Wednesday afternoon visit with her and walked our wheel chair up so she can at least get out and about.  I spend an hour a week with Genevieve and Jean-Marie chatting in French and it has given me an opportunity to relate to the everyday stuff of living here in France in French. Since I stopped going to choir I only talk to shopkeepers and online complaint centres so this friendly hour to catch up with the goings on in the village is something I look forward to every week.

 

 

 

 

 

Genevieve and Jean-Marie live in the old village bakery opposite La Colombiere Manoir, now a gite complex and run by Belgians and the little water outlet you can see on the right of the picture is our water level gauge. When the fields are water logged the water gushes out and when the fields are dry it becomes a trickle. We pass La Columbiere on our way to Carentan and often make a comment about the water levels and as we are gardeners in the water meadows it is quite important to have a handle on that sort of information albeit un-scientific.

In the big clear up to make space for Monty we got really brave and chucked out things we thought we needed to keep, but actually we don’t. We bought this leather sofa in 2000 for our move from family home to posh Marina home and 15 years later we still have it but have changed our seating arrangements in the lounge twice since, but it was still stored  in the barn, just in case. We finally threw it down the stairs and into the trailer and off to the decheterie before we could change our minds.

 

As a child growing up with two languages I remember reading the comic book version of Tintin, Asterix, luci luc and Hublot chien Matalo when we visited our cousins in Belgum. Mike and I then make our life here in   France and I am always attracted to the book shelf in the supermarket with these comic books on sale and realised that this style of book is more than just a cool way of getting a story over, it is a way of communicating to adults who do not read. I was shocked to see a serious comic book on how to make your tax returns, and the book that is open in this photo communicates in pictures and bubble speech, with  minimal words’  what the gendarme can fine you for if stopped in your vehicle….  I can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing. It undoubtedly  helps those who can’t read,  but should the education system ensure that this basic skill, is at least, past comic book level before the kids are let free from education……..!!

Then the day came for Monty to come home. I had been watching the weather forecast for a dry day, bit like our sailing days when we watched for wind directions and speed, and it was decided that Friday was the day. John got Monty out and parked him in front of his house so when Mike and I turned into their drive we both said, awww look at that. John and Lyn are sad to see him go but they know he is going to a good place.

 

 

I followed Mike home in Beryl at a hair trailing 40 miles an hour and we did turn heads and annoy lorry drivers but we made it home and then Monty promptly decided to have a little sulk and just stopped running before we could show him his new garage. Mike fell into master mechanic mode and got his fault finding head on and started by removing the petrol pump and looked at the plugs only to find the needle damper in the carburettor was stuck and here starts Mike’s hobby of keeping this perhaps temperamental old fella on the road and running sweet.

 

HOSS sat reluctantly in front of this upstart who is getting all the attention.  As Mike drove onto the drive I shouted NO JUMPING as HOSS  came forward as welcoming committee. I know at this early stage that a claw scratch on the door would not go down well…..!!!!!

 

 

 

And finally the combination of cut flowers and roaring fire in the back ground just makes me chuckle. I was boasting to Lyn and John, when they came over for afternoon tea, about my one daffodil showing its head at the front of the house. Later in the day  Mike took my hand and walked me into the court yard and behind the camper was a host of golden daffodils loving the shelter of the camper and the warmth of the sun in the mornings, out of sight, out of mind and therefore out of boasting range as well. I picked fifty percent of them and brought them in so we can at least enjoy, the joys of early daffs, on a cold and blustery day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

without too much of a fuss…how fab.

Blog 4 / February 2015

 

 

 

Just to keep you up to date with the development of the manoir in Catz. Over the Christmas period the brave owners covered the roof with blue tarp and made very conscientious attempts to fill in the wide open gaps where the windows should be. The wind has blown and the rain has lashed and we watch with very concerned enthusiasm to understand what the plan is and who it is that has this great imagination and commitment

 

 

 

 

So I will keep taking pictures when we pass on our way to Carentan so at least we are full of hope and enthusiasm for the future of this lost monument of a home that has been this derelict since the day we moved into Brevands in 2007

 

 

 

Mike and I were 39 years married on Valentine’s day and we celebrated as always with a few buddies sat around the table until late in the night just talking, putting the world to rights and sharing the how to, of living in France

 

 

 

Shirley is a blogger like me and is much quicker at getting the camera out and it is thanks to her that we have a lovely picture of us on the day to mark the occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

We were splashed on facebook and got lots of good wishes and banter and it made for a lovely celebration weekend.

 

 

 
 

 



I was able to justify to myself the cost in time and Euros of putting all our digital photos on paper and into albums when we were proud and a little smug at being able to lay our hands on the 1976 album with all the everyday pics of our wedding and the honeymoon. I also got our 39 year old wedding album still with its tissue wrapping and copper plate written guest list. It felt like the event only happened last year and having these beautiful pictures to flick through I know I am doing the right thing to get our albums up to date. We all swooned and laughed at what we were then, and who we are now, and it is good therapy to getting old to see that actually there is so very little difference and we are all basically the same despite a whole lifetime under the bridge.

And then life gets very serious and Mike has at last found his investment in the guise of a 1936 Morris 12/4. The Owner and seller is a pure blood enthusiast and has an interesting background in restoring old cars and oozes mechanical knowhow. Mike and John just clicked and they were off on a friendship we hope will last of ever talking about old cars and bikes…. right up Mikes street.

 

Monty …..cars name, is a French registered Morris and is in lovely condition, we intend to use her for picnics and meetings with likeminded folk but we really intend to  look after her during  our ten year plan and hope that by then she will be even more rare and there just may be a little profit. Certainly better than putting the money in the bank, you can’t have a picnic with the chaps at the bank

…..oh no you can’t.

 

 

My garage is the best place to park such a gem so we had to bite the bullet and empty 8 years of collected junk and 300 bottles of cider.  We cleared out the woodshed to house the cider and had to break down a mountain of boxes that were stored in there for no apparent reason….why do we store boxes?  Is it just in case we need to take the item back one day? Well if it is then we need to have an annual clear out because there were boxes of items we no longer own, utter madness. I had to rehouse all the spares we carry for the mobile homes and in the same cupboard I found a hoard of jam jars that I did not have the heart to ditch.  At the end of a growing season you never quite know how or what you are going store so keeping a collection of jars and caps is essential, well that is how I explained this daftness to Mike.  There was a very nice desk in the garage that I took a fancy to and it is now my sewing machine table leaving my work room table empty to have yards of fabric thrown over it on sewing day.   

 

 

The cider was all stacked by date, 2009, 2010 and 2011 we have actually drunk all of 2008, but   I still checked with a true Normandy cider drinker that you can still drink old cider and she smacked her lips and said of course you can.  I emptied the iffy looking bottles and gave our amber stock a new home and hopefully before we die we will have drunk all of this stufffff.

 

 

We now have the fire, kind of, under control at last. When we had the new chimney liner put up last year the installer insisted that we have a new and obligatory trap at the bottom of the down pipe which enables the fire monitor,  i.e. Mike, to open the bottom of the pipe  and empty the hard soot and muck that has collects there.  Mike had a dreadful headache in the week so we did without the fire for a day but when I did light it as the night temperatures went into the ones and twos the fire was not drawing well and as I opened the door it billowed with smoke, so the to-do list, was to clear the trap and hey presto I am sitting by a roaring fire that is most definitely behaving better than yesterday.  When it’s time to put a log on the fire we say up up HOSS who reluctantly, like a very grumpy old man vacates his position on his rug at the foot of the wood burner.  He does not however tolerate any romantic moments for looking into the flames because it is good for the soul, and barges his way back into position even if Mike is not quite finished and claims his right to his rug and his position of supervisor and Head Of Sight Security

 

 

 

And finally.  The photo project is back on track after a small delay when I realised that originally I had not downloaded December 2006 onto disc and consequently did not make prints for that month. It was at the end of putting all of 2007 prints in the album that I realised my mistake. I took all the 2007 prints out of the album, ordered the lost December photos and had to wait for the postman before I could get started again. With all that done, and I was feeling very pleased with myself and started to prepare 2009 but the first CD did not work and was corrupt.  I needed to go back to the Apple Mac which is set up in the back kitchen only as a photo store. My Mac is very old and is totally unusable as an online workhorse due to the fact that it is now unsupported by Apple and is deemed to be redundant.  My Mac no longer reads CDs so I went with my memory stick in hand started her up to much steam and kerfuffle with messages about dates and times and things not loading but finally she hunkered down and started to reply to my requests to export photos to the memory stick. This Mac never played to her full potential with me as I bought her in a fit of misplaced need to return to a career as a Graphic Designer way back in 2004. I was not that good at in the first place but coming back to it with new technology really made it quite obvious I was not up for the fight.  No regrets on the purchase as she taught me a lot about computer functionality  and she now sits in the back kitchen holding the backup of 14,000 photos of our life since 2004…….and she still replies to my request to export to memory stick without too much of a fuss…how fab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 !!!!!