Sunday 13 October – Store-my Weather

I mentioned at the end of last week’s blog that, while we had made some momentum the previous week, the weather forecast for last week was likely to stall that – and so it proved to be the case.  As such, this blog won’t be terribly long …

We did experience some damp autumnal weather interspersed with a couple of bright, warm, sunny days.  David’s parents were still with us at the start of the week and, on Monday, one of the wet days, while they visited the Leclerc exhibition we had seen with my Dad, not wanting to waste an entire day, we started a good ‘wet weather project’ – clearing and sorting our store room.

The store room is the half of the first floor of the garage (Grange) which isn’t the games room.  Since completing it, it has made a huge difference to our lives.  Not least because we have been able to store things previously taking up space in our home but because, when we change the gîtes over it gives us a single space where we can gather everything we need.

However, being a large useful space, it has also become an area where we can accumulate things that perhaps we don’t need to hang onto (I may have mentioned that I don’t throw much away!)  Now seemed like a good time to empty the space out, remind ourselves what’s in it, and then restock it in such a way that we are able to better see what we have.  It is the first time the room has been empty since I built it.

It is amazing how much ‘stuff’ we have managed to accumulate and is quite therapeutic sorting it out.  Amazingly (for me) some of the items, which we will never need, will be thrown out and others, which we may need but irregularly, will be stored above Dave’s gym.  What this means is that we will need to do the same sorting to that space next week.

Tuesday was the best day of the week by far, but it was also a significant day for Dave’s Mum so we took the day off and went with them to Camaret-sur-Mer at the end of the Crozon peninsular for a lovely lunch.  There are a number of great restaurants at Camaret and we tried a new one, for us, which was part of a small spa hotel but ideally located with a terrace overlooking the marina.  It was actually really hot and we had a lovely meal before coming home where David produced an equally amazing dinner in the evening.

David’s parents left us on Wednesday morning and we’ve not made any great strides since.  On the only other fairly dry day we have started to clear a wood pile in front of the Dairy building.  The wood is principally the remains of the apple trees which were either blown over or we have cut from the orchard.  It is starting to season, having been cut down a couple of years ago, but is open to the elements so gets wet and then dries on a regular basis which is not good for it, or terribly attractive just inside our main entrance.

After an afternoon of cutting and splitting we have made a significant dent in the pile and should have it cleared after another day or so of work – when it dries up!

Today has been a reasonably good day as well but, being a Sunday, we don’t like to make too much noise so didn’t want to start using the chain saw again.  The ground is also completely sodden so I didn’t want to do anything in the garden (at least that’s my excuse) so we have had to take the tough option and watch some amazing games in the Rugby World Cup.

We think it can be windy here but watching the devastation in Japan yesterday really puts things into perspective.  I have only visited Japan once, and found it the most fascinating place with wonderfully hospitable people, and our thoughts go out to those affected by Typhoon Hagibis.  We were amazed that they were able to continue to stage the rugby and Formula 1 race today after such an event, and watched the most fantastic game to rugby between Japan and Scotland which was the best advert for the sport we could imagine and one that Japan thoroughly deserved to win.  Our thoughts go out to the Scots too – to a much lesser degree.

As we have made it to the end of the summer season, we are looking ahead to the Christmas break (already, I know!)  David has put a new video together to highlight our gîtes as the perfect place to spend your festive break as a couple, family or extended group.  Please do share with your friends.

Next week’s efforts again are determined significantly by the weather which isn’t looking great – where have our crisp, dry autumns gone?  I hope we will be able to find sufficient things to keep ourselves occupied.

Kenavo.