{"id":9266,"date":"2024-10-20T13:07:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T13:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/?p=9266"},"modified":"2024-10-20T13:07:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T13:07:08","slug":"sunday-20-october-up-on-the-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/sunday-20-october-up-on-the-roof\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 20 October \u2013 Up on the Roof"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am posting this blog a little early as the weather outside is miserable (we are, thankfully, on the periphery of Storm Ashley) so I am not getting anything done in the garden.\u00a0 We are also out later today to say farewell to some friends who live here in the summer months but return to the UK for the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t post a blog last week as, being the social whirlwind it is here, we were also out, this time at another friend\u2019s birthday bash, so there is 2 week\u2019s of work to update \u2013 and there has been work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my last blog<\/a>, I said that we hoped the roofers would arrive who we had asked to replace the roof of Hayloft.\u00a0 They are the same roofers who replaced Stable\u2019s roof in April 2023<\/a> and, as we were pleased with the work, we asked them then to do Hayloft.\u00a0 Hayloft\u2019s roof wasn\u2019t urgent\u00a0 (at the time) although it had previously leaked, but is covered with very ugly concrete tiles that don\u2019t match any of our other roofs or those in the local area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For various reasons they hadn\u2019t appeared on a couple of previous occasions we had expected them to start and the roof had sprung a couple of new leaks since so the need was becoming greater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I spoke to them the previous week, they confirmed we were in their diary and they would start on Tuesday morning so I wasn\u2019t concerned when they didn\u2019t appear on Monday and we were delighted wen they turned up – first thing Wednesday(!) but just to erect the scaffolding.  They then needed a day off so started stripping tiles on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unlike Stable, where they had to effectively build a new roof with associated concrete base and new charpenterie, the wooden \u2018A\u2019 frames of Hayloft are relatively sound, or were able to be made so with some reinforcement, so once the old tiles were removed it is a relatively quick task of nailing some volige (horizontal planking) to the frames before attaching a waterproof membrane and then the new, slate, tiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last blog said that we were forecast every season in the following week although the roofers were fairly fortunate and were able to make good progress.  The south side is almost totally re-tiled, the north is prepped for tiling and waterproof (we hope) as today is the wettest and windiest we have had for a while \u2013 the tarpaulin they covered the north side with on Friday afternoon is almost totally detached!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hopefully they will be able to complete their work next week allowing us to clean up after them (their telehandler has churned up our drive and utterly destroyed our neighbour\u2019s field next door \u2013 we have some very understanding, and forgiving, neighbours!), and give the interior a bit of TLC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our other builders, on the pool house, also made good progress and completed their \u2018bit\u2019, or at least until our Charpentier has done his work.  Despite having all his wood delivered 2 weeks ago, of him no sign yet \u2026!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David\u2019s Dad, Roger, was with us until last Monday so we took a day off our own work and headed to Quimper for some Christmas shopping (for the gifts Roger could take back to the UK with him).\u00a0 We like Quimper which, even in the rain is an attractive city, and has some amazing independent shops and a number of Epicerie Fine shops selling amazing produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tend to favour one \u00e9picerie<\/a> near the town centre where we bought some lovely gifts which are beautifully presented and, we hope, taste beautiful too. There are so many amazing producers in the region that make for lovely gifts at Christmas<\/a> – and any time of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also found a lovely restaurant for lunch that we hadn\u2019t eaten in before \u2013 Le Cosy<\/a>.\u00a0 Both are recommended if you\u2019re in town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When at home, and the weather wasn\u2019t too wet, my time was principally spent hedging \u2013 again!  I cut the lonicera hedge behind the tropical bed on our main drive and then got distracted by the space in front of the flower bed that we have neglected for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since we arrived, we have used this area to store (dump?) various pieces of slate, including a big bag of small pieces while we decided what we could use them for.  Since then, the area had been taken over by bramble and weed and is given an infrequent clearance.  The last I started in the spring and continued last week because we have now found a use for those pieces of slate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My last blog spoke about needing some items to prevent erosion under the talus on Hent Gorreker which we\u2019d ordered and which arrived very quickly.  The items were gabions and, satisfyingly, they will solve 3 problems at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have ordered 3 and, while I have put all the cages together, I have only had the opportunity to put one in place.  As well as protecting the base of the talus, the gabions can be filled with the small pieces of slate stored on the drive and it will give me a solid base to stand on when I cut the hedge in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I continued cutting the hedge along Hent Gorreker giving it its second cut of the year, this time continuing along Streat al Louarn where the yews and hollies have started to thrive having cut down the large leylandii.  We hope they will continue to do so when we finish removing all the self-set sycamores on the bank which we hope to do over the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The pool house, which is quite tall anyway, looks large from Streat al Louarn, which is almost a metre lower than the level of the new terrace but will be hidden (a bit) when the hedge has grown and we clad it in the same style as the garage \u2013 which won\u2019t be for a while yet!<\/p>\n\n\n

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While we missed this year\u2019s annual apple and mushroom festival in St. Rivoal which was last Sunday, we have seen a profusion of mushrooms on our boundary.  While they look amazing growing on the dead wood left having cut down the many self-set trees, I fear these are the above ground evidence of the dreaded honey fungus which is killing the privet around Granary\u2019s garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the RHS website, the holly and yew should be immune to the honey fungus but the liquidambar trees we have planted may not be.  We\u2019ll have to wait and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in a blog I posted a few weeks ago<\/a>, I mentioned the EU\u2019s imminent introduction of the Entry Exit System (EES) to access mainland Europe.\u00a0 In the blog I mentioned that this introduction had been delayed a number of times before and may well be again.\u00a0 A couple of weeks ago it was announced that the planned introduction had been delayed again \u2013 indefinitely!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not dead as a concept, the EES will now be phased in and, it looks likely that the requirements will change too with the biometric requirements being changed from having fingerprints AND facial images taken to EITHER fingerprints OR facial imagery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t heard any impact on the ETIAS system but the original intention was ETIAS would follow EES by at least 6 months.  With EES being delayed, it is probable ETIAS will be too.  I\u2019ll post anything I see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another mixed week of weather to come but still lots to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c0 bient\u00f4t.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am posting this blog a little early as the weather outside is miserable (we are, thankfully, on the periphery of Storm Ashley) so I am not getting anything done in the garden.\u00a0 We are also out later today to say farewell to some friends who live here in the summer months but return to…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ben-and-daves-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9266"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9269,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions\/9269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}