Sunday 4th June – More Grange …

This week has been an odd sort of mix and, while looking back I can’t always immediately recall what we did each day, the time does seem to have passed extremely quickly and we are back at Sunday again.

I had intended to assist the Assomniak team dismantle the Fête du Bourg event on Monday but, shamefully, I got engrossed in a number of other activities here and didn’t participate.  I get the impression I wasn’t essential as the village is back to normal now with little evidence of the party that was here last week.

I mentioned in last week’s blog that our remaining roof windows had been delivered to the store so, on Tuesday, I went to Brest to collect them.  As we just have the one car and Tuesday is a work day for David, I went via Morlaix to drop him off and back again to pick him up.  However, before picking him up, I agreed to video one of his Body Attack sessions in the gym which he has posted on his Facebook page.

While in London I did the same for a couple of his classes and was always amazed at how seriously some of his participants take the sessions and how coordinated they were for these classes which look seriously hard work aerobically.  The level of coordination is not quite the same for his Morlaix group!  As I have never participated in Dave’s Les Mills classes I am in no position to comment other than to say they did all enjoy the session and participate enthusiastically generally doing what David was telling them.

David has been making videos of his own this week and compiled some images of our family gites, Priory and Granary, which we will put on our website.

The remainder of the week was spent installing the new roof windows to Grange.  The rear is now almost completely finished and only requires the guttering to be put up in the north south end before we can dismantle the last of the scaffolding to the rear.

Rear of Grange almost complete - both windows in and fully slated - just needs guttering

We have managed to put 3 of the 4 front windows in, and cut the hole for the 4th, but these do not yet have their flashing completed so are not watertight – hopefully next week weather permitting.  We do feel as though completion is getting closer now as we get to certain milestones and, you can see in one of the pictures, I have also started putting up the cladding on the north end.

Front roof of Grange at Kergudon Gites in Brittany - making progress

Cladding started on the south end of Grange at Kergudon Gites, Brittany

No cultural activity to report this week that we attended but lots on this month including the Fête de la Musique on 17th June – Commana always has a big event in the town square – and Saint Cadou’s Tantad on the 24th – big bonfire and Fest Noz in the Salle des Fêtes, a great night.

However, today was the annual Kermesse (village fete equivalent) at the Morlaix Downs Syndrome school that we have been to each year we have lived here, principally as they have a fantastic plant ‘lottery’ where they raffle off flowers and shrubs which have been donated by local nurseries.  While you don’t always get the most unusual of plants or exotic species, they do work out much cheaper than buying them from a garden centre and we have a lot of planting that we want to do as we continue to improve the gardens.  Perhaps one day we will be able to open the gardens to visitors as a number in the commune are doing next weekend for the first time, including our neighbours who are avid gardeners and have turned an old cow field they bought when they moved here 5 years ago, into a lovely garden.

These are this year’s haul which we hope to put in the ground a lot quicker than previous years!

Plants and shrubs 'won' at the Morlaix Kermesse to help us improve the gardens at Kergudon Gites

Focus for next week, what else, Grange – avoiding what looks likely to be a lot of showers!

Salut.