As last week, this has been another where we have been working but have minimal things to show for it. We managed to get some personal admin done with a haircut and visit to the dentist. One being considerably less painful than the other! I am a real dentophobe but, thankfully, not much work needed to be done so after a quick clean and polish we’re done for another year.
This week included another of the many public holidays (jour férié) so we welcomed guests into all of our gîtes which included opening Stable for the first time since New Year. This meant a day of preparation to make sure our Chambre d’Hôte was as beautiful this year as it was last. A little painting inside and lots of weeding brought Stable back to its charming state.
Having widened the entrance and built a more attractive wall opposite Stable, we next plan to do something with the terrace. As you can see, at the minute the terrace, which is made up of stone blocks is not completely level, and also not very large. We have big plans for the exterior of Stable, hopefully that we can realise next spring when we have worked through all the other higher priority ones! You can just see the new lonicera plants we planted last year at the front are starting to make a hedge. This will provide a little more privacy and will be larger again when we get round to the new terrace.
After a trip to Brest early in the week I did buy some appropriate brackets to erect the fence element of the new division between Granary and Priory in time for their guests to arrive. Sadly, I could not erect the new gate post as, when we tried to put it up we discovered a large block of concrete which was evidently the base of a previous fence in exactly the spot we wanted to use. You can just see it next to the hedge in these pictures. A(nother) job for next week.
Diving fence between Priory and Granary’s front terraces Diving fence between Priory and Granary’s front terraces
While working in the garages I have been distracted (a bit) giving some TLC to an item we have acquired as an interesting piece of deco in the boot room / laundry. I’ll show you next week when complete and in situ.
What I have managed to progress is sorting the garage bays in preparation for their clearance. I have managed to put up the kitchen wall cabinets we removed from Priory last spring and our utility room in the autumn, which were themselves originally in Hayloft and Granary when we arrived. This both clears them from the amount of ‘stuff’ that is filling the bays at present and gives me storage to sort other things.
I have also started to construct a workbench at the end of this garage bay which will, with the one in my man shed, allow me lots of space to work. You can never have enough work benches!
An early blog today as we’re having a lazy one – lots to do next week however before, I’m delighted to say, we’re full again – another jour férié for Pentecost.
Salut.