And quick as a flash we’re in September. How did that happen?!
When I wrote my last blog, 2 weeks ago, I mentioned that we had just had some very good friends arrive with us for their summer hols and we may have lots of distractions. The fact that there wasn’t a blog last week may tell you how distracted we became!
These friends, who we knew before moving to France, have been coming to Kergudon every year since we opened and are generally here for David’s birthday. While they are with us we also use have a bit of ‘down time’ so we can spend it with them and have a few beach days.
While the weather in the first week was a bit hit-and-miss, the second week was better and we managed to take them to some new places we had found, and we re-visited some of the beaches they have discovered in their years with us.
The new places included the Sunday market at Plestin-les-Grèves which was slightly larger than when we went for the first time in March as they had additional stalls which are there for the busy summer period – including a Haribo sweet stall. Turns out, not the cheapest way to buy sweets! However, there was also the usual amazing produce stands including fish, cheese, olives and saucisson.
This time, we combined the market with a visit to Le Petit Bain, the beach bar opposite Locquirec we had found during a weekly walk in July, only this time it was slightly chillier with a fresh wind making it feel less than summery!
Thankfully there were many decent days to go to the beach and we chose where to head depending on where the best weather would be. To the north, we visited Plage des Amiets and Carantec; and to the west Pentrez Plage in Saint-Nic is preferred. Some days when the weather was perfect and we didn’t want to drive, the beach at Lac du Drennec was ideal.
This year our friends stayed in Priory and we made the most of the warm evenings either on the Priory terrace or our own, and they made the most of the garden furniture to create the perfect BBQ and bar spot.
I did manage to make a little progress on my projects. I did clear the garage a little bit more – although this is obviously not finished – and I have started the process of cutting all of the hedges (again) now that nesting season is over. I started with the pétanque pitch as it needed it the most. This task does seem to take up an inordinate amount of time each year.
The last blog also spoke about the frustrations of things that weren’t working properly or needing to be fixed. Thankfully I did get my mower back from the repairer, although he took a little longer to fix it than he’d hoped, although no sign of the roller iron!
Just when you think we’re on top of things however, something always conspires to knock you back! Last night, we had a major thunder storm pass directly over Saint Cadou which gave 2 huge lightning flashes with their associated incredibly loud thunder claps simultaneously.
When we woke this morning, we found the power surge had tripped a couple fuses, great, that’s what they’re there for; but that it had also fried a couple of bits of electrical equipment where the fuses had not tripped. Amazingly, the internet routers survived (hence I am able to write and post a blog) but the switch that allows us to transmit the wifi signal to other gites has packed up; the LNB on one of the satellite dishes has stopped working so we and a couple of gîtes don’t have reception; 2 televisions seem to have totally failed as too one of the Freesat boxes. Really irritating and has now changed my plans for early next week as I will have to go shopping and get the things that have been added to the ‘must buy / replace now’ list. Thankfully, we hope, it is all easily replaced but, needless to say, we are now looking at ways to prevent it happening again.
Now that our friends have returned home, assuming I can do the repairs quickly next week, hopefully I will be able to progress with other projects – more hedge cutting among other things.
Kenavo.