Apologies for not posting a blog last week. The previous blog said that we were expecting Dave’s aunt and uncle which would lead to a sociable, if not very productive, week.
The not so productive bit turned out to be true and, to a lesser extent, the social bit – at least for me. Sadly, the day after they arrived I started to suffer from a nasty bug that wiped me out for most of the week they were with us and meant I ate very little. This was especially upsetting as we like to visit some of our favourite restaurants with Dave’s aunt and uncle, and try some new ones when we get the chance.
We did eat out a number of times and managed a couple of places we hadn’t been to before but had wanted to try. One was a lovely little bistro in Morlaix, L’Embellie, which had simple but delicious food; and Le 21ème Commis, also in Morlaix, that David found in the new Michelin Guide. The 21ème isn’t Michelin starred but is mentioned due to the quality of its food (seafood principally), if not its choice as they only offer set menus but don’t tell you what’s on them before you arrive!
The bug also meant that I achieved even less that I normally would when we have guests but we were delighted to see some of the pool team return for a few days and make progress on our project – albeit not rapid progress!
In the first week the builder, who will construct the concrete base for the terrace and build the pool house, returned with the landscaper. They dug the foundations for the building and the small retaining walls required for the terrace and last week the concrete arrived and was poured using a huge arm that meant the concrete mixer could wait on the lane and concrete could be poured to all corners of the pool area.
The weather has been against us most of this year and, having dug the foundation trenches some days before the concrete came, there was a bit of manual re-digging required as the soil was washed back into the trenches during a couple of the heavier downpours!
Thankfully the concrete is now set and, we understand, breeze blocks will be delivered tomorrow and we will see the pool house start to come out of the ground. The foundations provide a better visual of the footprint for the whole project.
As I continued to improve this week I managed to make some progress and tackled the back lawn, or what used to be the back lawn but now more resembled a field. I hadn’t cut the grass since at least last October, other than an area around the flower beds and immediately behind Priory a couple of weeks ago.
The wet and relatively mild weather since March had meant the grass had grown extremely long – almost doubling in height even since my cut behind Priory – the weeds benefitting the most and shows that, while we thought the lawn looked OK last year, just how many weeds and wild grasses were in it.
Now I have managed to tame it a little, I will be able to use some of the huge pile of soil we have generated to level out the bits where the works have created trenches and depressions, not to mention the damage the moles have caused in the last 6 months. With luck, if I manage to level it now and seed it, we will have something resembling a lawn again in a few weeks.
I am pretty much back to full strength now and we don’t have any personal guests for a while so no excuse for not making some good progress next week …
À bientôt.