Last week’s blog said that I had been spending hours splitting the vast amounts of waste wood that have been accumulating in our garage bays as a result of all of our projects. This had the advantage of clearing the garage while keeping me dry and not churning up the lawn too much transporting the wood whole to the serre.
This week has been much the same! I won’t show you pictures of the garage as, with luck I can do that next week when it will actually be considerably emptier. What I will show you is the stack of kindling I have created in the last week which represents about 70% of what I have generated in the last 2 weeks – the rest managing to get in the serre.
I probably should have put David in the picture to give you a sense of scale. Each of these stacks is over my height (1.8 metres) and I have used many empty veg boxes that a neighbour has been kind enough to give us – thank you Sarah. I should probably go into business selling this and recoup my time and the price of all that left-over wood. Failing that, at least we have enough kindling to last us until, and through, the next ice age!
There is probably only a few hours left of actual cutting and splitting and then some clearing out and the central garage bays will be as clear as they can be for now. Which means I can start clearing the end garage bay which we will eventually concrete. And, of course, a number of the items that I need to keep but can’t store elsewhere from here will go … in the central bays of the garage(!) but neatly and so we are able to park things – like cars. Sadly, the weather is looking like the temperature will plunge next week as a ‘beast from the east’ is due to return. Being almost as far west as you can get, thankfully we won’t experience it as badly as other places and, sadly, we are unlikely to see snow. However, there are likely to be a few days of freezing temperatures which is certainly not concreting weather.
While I have been working in the garage, Dave has been busy too on his personal training business. With the lovely feedback we have received for our new Kergudon website, which Dave did all the work for, he has been re-vamping his Personal Training website.
When we moved to Kergudon we changed the old kids’ games room into Dave’s fitness studio where he has been able to provide personal training. Since moving from London he has also continued training some of his old clients via Skype, initially though from our lounge as we didn’t have any internet connection in his gym.
During the first period of lockdown last year we spent a couple of very hot days digging a trench so that we could get an internet cable to the studio. This allowed Dave to do his online personal training from there as well as deliver the group exercise classes for the gym in Brest while that was closed.
During this second period of confinement Dave’s set up has become even more professional with a mixing desk to allow for better music quality in his classes and he has generated a truly international client base for personal training with clients in the UK, France and Switzerland.
As most gyms remain closed and people are becoming more familiar with doing things virtually, personal training too can be very effective online. An imaginative trainer, such as David, can ensure a full and comprehensive fitness program for you at home without needing the complex gym equipment and expensive gym membership.
Online personal training allows you to have a full package from the comfort of your own home – wherever you have internet access – at a time convenient for you. If you’re looking for a new trainer, or know someone who is, do have a look at Dave’s new website and give him a call.
Thankfully, to have a break from the tedium of splitting wood the weather allowed us to do one of our Sunday walks. For a number of reasons we decided to stay local and rather than go somewhere new, we returned to the forest of Huelgoat about 15 minutes from us.
Arthur’s Grotto in the Forest of Huelgoat La Gauffre waterfall in the Forest of Huelgoat Interesting rock formations in the forest of Huelgoat Interesting rock ‘chaos’ in the forest of Huelgoat Forest of Huelgoat
The forest is the site of a number of settlements dating ever since the iron age and includes some amazing geological features, caverns and grottos as well as an impressive waterfall, full at the minute after all the rain we have experienced. It has acquired the nickname as the ‘land of legends’ and, while it isn’t huge, it is criss-crossed with so many paths and tracks you can walk for hours and explore its history. Well worth a visit.
The other distraction is the welcome return of the Six Nations rugby for the next 7 weeks. While not the most inspirational of performances by the England team losing to Scotland this week, I vaguely remember saying the same thing last year when they’d lost to France in their first match only to go on and win the tournament a mere 7 months later!
Stay safe, stay warm.
Salut.