Sunday 22 May – Spring, Apparently!

Apologies for posting my blog late.  At this time of year we always try and make the most of the light evenings and work until quite late – especially when the weather is dry which sadly hasn’t happened so much in the last week!

This week has been very mixed and weather affected.  However, for those who are interested in whether I have started the boot room conversion project … I actually have (sort of) but haven’t made what could be called significant progress.  I have started to clear out the space which has meant that I have had to repair our large BBQ which got damaged in Storm Katie.  All functioning now but sadly haven’t been able to put it to use yet!

There will be more progress next week but at the start of this week it looked like this …

Boot Room before conversion

Last Monday was a public holiday in France which meant that there were a lot of activities taking place in and around the region.  We chose to visit one of our closest villages, Commana, and watch their cycle race.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog, cycling is huge in France and Brittany is no exception.  The Commana race used to be a regular Pentecost weekend event although it was not held for a decade before being reinstated last year.  This year the event re-used the old 3 km circuit starting and finishing at the village centre which the field of 60 cyclists had to ride 22 times.

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The event was a good distraction to watch sitting outside the Crêperie des Monts D’Arrée enjoying a beer!

We collected our car on Tuesday from the Audi garage it having had its first repair.  We now need to drive it for 1000 kms to see if it has done the trick.  The garage is in Morlaix so we both headed in to the town as we wanted to visit a couple of nurseries we had seen before Dave had to head to the gym to teach his new class.

We bought a wisteria plant at one of the garden centres which we will plant in front of Priory and had lots of ideas for other things although didn’t get everything that we wanted.  While the shopping may not have been as successful as we had hoped Dave has evidently had a big impact at New York gym as they have asked him to teach 7 other classes – starting from June!  He is delighted.

The remainder of the week has principally been spent avoiding showers and rain so I got a lot of admin done but very little practical things until Friday when I started a job that I expected me to take a couple of hours!  Following our desire, and work, to improve the entrance and make a better ‘first impression’ I planned to replace a couple of stones which had fallen out of the very old wall that divides the drive from Granary’s garden.

Entrance Wall

Over the years the wall had started to bulge and collapse as the amount of roots had increased and animals had pulled the dirt out from between the rocks.  Classically, having dug out the space where the stones had fallen, more stones became loose so I thought it best to remove these and replace them leading to more stones falling out or coming loose and needing to be replaced leading to  more stones …

A job that I had anticipated would take a few hours became almost 3 days (with other distractions and rain delays) and took the rest of the week but I am pleased with the results (I’m getting a dab hand at walling!)

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In terms of guests, our Australian  couple in Hayloft have their second week with us; we said goodbye to the German and English couples in Granary who had been here fly fishing with Philippe and we welcomed the parents of some very close friends of ours in the UK who have been sailing with a friend around Finistère and have come to see our new venture (before our friends / their children!!)

Lots more to do next week – and the forecast looks like it may be kinder to us!

Salut.