Another 2 weeks since my last blog, I don’t intend for them to become fortnightly but we have now definitely entered into our busy summer season. Very encouragingly, this week is another where we have a truly international clientele with Dutch and British families in the family gîtes, a French couple in our B&B and an Australian couple in Hayloft.
This means extremely busy Saturdays as we say goodbye to guests, change gîtes over and welcome new visitors. With all the accommodation occupied I can’t do work inside the cottages other than any immediate problem rectification (touch wood, not too much of that required as yet!)
Also, I try not to do too much outside that may make a lot of noise that will disturb the peace and tranquillity for our holidaymakers. That said, I have managed to cut the pétanque pitch hedge for the first time in a while. It looks a little bare as we have decided to reduce it in size a bit, both in height and width, so we have cut in hard. The beauty of griselinia is that is a tough old plant and will recovery quickly.
I had hoped to actually clear the pétanque pitch itself of weeds which we hadn’t managed up to this point this year but have only managed to get half way through so far having had a disagreement with the hedge trimmer while cutting the yews in front of the building that put me out for a couple of days! It should be finished early next week.
One of the quiet jobs that I am able to do is give the wisteria its summer cut. This helps maintain its shape, apparently encourages flowering next year (although amazingly it is in bud in places even now so is obviously a little confused) and, possibly most importantly from my perspective, means I can cut off all the tendrils that grow under the roof slates and into the fabric of the building!
It looks good for its trim (as too the yews) and has certainly increased the light getting into Priory as I have cut away all the vegetation that was growing over the windows!
It has been a bit of a spendy week too as we acquire things that are either to be used in the pool now, or will eventually go into the pool house when I fit that out in the autumn.
One thing we ask guests using the pool, is not to take breakable gîte crockery and glasses to use on the terrace. We have decided to buy unbreakable crockery and ‘glass’ ware to use poolside (all colour coded for each accommodation) and have made up hampers to store it.
Our friend who lives in the next village, Saint Rivoal, who made us some amazing drinks coasters earlier in the year, has made some lovely hamper labels for us to attach to the baskets.
We also took delivery of 3 amazing chandeliers we had bought some weeks ago. Finding something we liked at a price we could afford was a challenge. The pool house is relatively high so we needed something of a suitable size that wouldn’t look silly and too small.
We eventually found something online that we liked the look of and ordered, then realised they would need to be shipped from the Far East.
We hadn’t looked at online reviews of the company selling the lights before we purchased but, had we done so we probably wouldn’t have bought them as lots of people posted very negative experiences of the quality of the products, the damaged state they arrived in, many saying they never received anything at all and lots saying it was a scam company. Once we’d seen these we were quite fearful.
The company had sent us shipping details which included the name of the container ship the 3 packages were being transported on (OOCL Luxembourg) so we were able to track its voyage around the world (sad but fun!) and see when they arrived at Rotterdam where they appeared to stall for days! Was this the start of the scam and nothing had ever been sent?
Their client service team told me not to worry (they would, wouldn’t they) and that it takes a while to clear customs. So we were delighted when, one Thursday, one of the packages arrived. But just one. Was this the scam – pay for 3 but only receive 1?
Thankfully, the other 2 boxes were delivered (by a completely different courier company) last Monday and thankfully we are among the 15% of their customers who seem to have got what we ordered in good condition!
I can’t wait to put them up and see them working.
There is lots I am able to get on with next week outside which makes minimal noise but I will probably also have to do a bit more hedging if we have a time that all our guests are out at the same time! I will tell you all about it next Sunday – promise!
Kenavo.