Once again I didn’t post a blog last week (sorry) as we didn’t have the most productive week. We were entertaining Dave’s uncle and aunt but I can’t blame them for the lack of progress!
It did mean we had a couple of days off when we went out to lunch at a couple of our favourite restaurants including the Crabe Marteau in Brest and Chez Gabi in Carantec on one of the many public holidays the French have in May.
Thankfully, while we were out having fun, our tiler did return at the end of the week and managed to complete the pool and pool house terrace.
Last Sunday, we did manage a Sunday stroll and walked a new circuit around a meander in the Aulne river which forms part of the Nantes – Brest canal. We began at the Chapelle Saint-Exupère, a pretty little chapel in the middle of nowhere and walked down to the river.
This part of the Aulne is evidently rich in birdlife and wetland areas and we stumbled across a hide on the river. Sadly we weren’t able to stay long enough to see much wildlife but it looked like a perfect place to do some serious bird watching.
We will remember the walk mostly for the scramble it became on our way back to the car. Evidently there had been a huge amount of damage caused by Storm Ciáran and no one had come since to clear the fallen trees. The last kilometre or so became a real challenge to get through and Garratt appeared a little traumatised by the effort as it was so blocked we had to resort to lifting the dogs over some of the fallen trees.
The route we followed was a ‘lollipop’, a circuit with a stem leading to and from the chapel where we had parked. To be fair to the commune there were signs discouraging passage on the stem of the lollipop which we saw and ignored (Storm Ciáran was 18 months ago after all and we’d have thought someone must have cleared a path) and passage was simple on the start of the circuit. However, being a circuit, we could have parked anywhere on the route and begun the walk and we would not have seen any signage or discouragement to walk!
On our return I had to clean off the newly-completed pool terrace, the first slabs having been laid in late March and so been ‘christened’ in the meantime by our local birdlife. The reason for this was the tiler returned for the final time last Monday to seal the travertine slabs to provide some protection to the stone. Something I will need to repeat every few years to keep the stone looking at its best and as amazing as the terrace is now it is complete.
This week we have been more productive – a bit – and got one major task done that has been hanging over us for weeks.
While it has been too dry to lay the lawn seed and expect it to germinate, it evidently hasn’t been too dry for the weeds to grow rapidly. Having spent days preparing the lawn a couple of weeks ago, I still needed to take all of Monday and some of Tuesday to dig out what had re-grown.
We did this as, unfortunately for our guests, the weather was forecast to become wetter last week and it was! The rain arrived Tuesday morning which meant I had to pause the weeding but it did soak the ground.
Wednesday was drier and allowed us to finish the weeding and get the seed laid on newly raked soil, which we then rolled again to give the seed maximum contact with the damp ground.
Almost the second we finished, the rain started again and continued on and off until yesterday afternoon giving the seed a good soak in. We have bought seed that states (but doesn’t guarantee!) germination will happen within 7 days. If true, we should see green shoots in the next few days – assuming we can keep the hungry pigeons off!! A new green lawn by the summer would be a huge step forward.
Today’s Sunday stroll started in Logonna-Daoulas. A town which is the start of one of our frequent short walks, but today we headed in another direction and followed a circuit out to the Pointe du Bindy. The walk gave great views over the Rade de Brest and passed a number of small beaches that could be fun to visit in the summer.
Starting, and ending, in Logonna-Daoulas, meant we could have our post-walk refreshment in one of our favourite bars in Daoulas itself, the Paul Arts Café. As it was sunny we were able to sit on the terrace overlooking the river and watch the ducklings paddle by.
The lawn having been seeded, we can now shift our focus onto other projects which will be a combination of hedge cutting, weeding and more lounger sanding and staining. All being possible as the next few days are forecast to be dry and warm – ideal conditions to kill newly germinating grass seed!!
À bientôt.