More hours in the day please

We seem to be hectically busy at the moment, with demands on our time and energy coming from all different directions. Work on the house, work on the potager area and 'business' work are taking up most of our time, although we have made time for a couple of good rides on the roadies since the beginning of the month when weather has allowed.

Talking of weather, April has been a bonkers month with wild fluctuations in temperature. We had a gloriously sunny spell earlier in the month when it peaked at 28 degrees but just 24 hours later the temperature plummeted to just 3 degrees and we had snow down to 700m! Last week was the same - I was getting sunburn on my back whilst working outside midweek but then come Friday the temperature was back down to 4 degrees and snow at 800m. 

With Spring knocking on the door, thoughts have very much been turning to the potager and growing more veggies with the aim of being self-sufficient in vegetables by the end of the year. I decided we needed an additional area to be created for growing soft fruit if I am to make more of my own jams and jellies this year. After a word with our lovely neighbour farmer Alain, he came down with his tractor and turned over an additional 250m2 of land at the end of the potager for us....

... part of which I covered in cardboard with a layer of rotted horse manure on top and then a layer of black polythene to suffocate the weeds/grass...

... and then we erected a 18m2 polytunnel alongside the potager where the tomatoes, capsicums, chillis and various sowings are now biding their time until the proper warmth eventually arrives and they can be planted out.

On Friday, just as the weather was turning, we managed to re-fence the whole of the above land (all 400m2 of it) as one plot, which makes much more sense. Andy is going to build me a potting shed in due course which will sit next to the polytunnel. It's going to be a 'proper' kitchen garden by the time we're done!

As far as work on the house is concerned, we have been working on the second bedroom. This weekend, with the arrival of poor weather, work transferred indoors and we have now completed the decoration of the room, which has also been completely rewired and the ceiling insulated and plasterboarded. Here are a couple of 'before' photos;

... and the 'after' shots...

I am really pleased with how it has turned out.... lovely and bright and fresh, but with the warmth of the restored chestnut beam and original wooden floorboards. We just need to rehang the curtains, find some pictures for the walls and add a small rug to the floor at the foot of the bed. So now we just have the stairs and landing to do and that will be the upstairs (at that end of the house at least) finished! 

On the exercise front, the roadies saw more action in April with a couple of lovely 70K rides in hot sun. When the weather plays ball in April, it really is a beautiful time of year for road biking. The fresh green foliage, the frothy white and pink of fruit blossom, blue skies and the snowy peaks.... just stunning

New life

OK, so the start of Spring may be experiencing a bit of a stutter with a sharp drop in temperature and 2 days  of light snow down at our level, but still, there are signs of new life. I am not just talking about the seeds that I sowed indoors at the start of the month, although they are doing very well thank you (all 5 varieties of tomatoes have emerged, as have the aubergine, 3 varieties of salad leaf, red onions, leeks and basil). The other very important new life is that of my first grandchild! Yes, one has become a granny! How amazing is that! My son and his lovely lady are the proud parents of Rufus, born at home on Thursday 7 March weighing in at 7lb4oz.

Isn't he a cutey pie? I have to wait another 2 weeks before I can see him but I can't wait to say hello to the little fella!

Any other news pales into insignificance alongside the arrival of my grandson really, but for my own records as much as anything else, we have been busy. Work has started on the second bedroom....

with the first and most unpleasant job being to pull down the pine panelling that covered the ceiling and beam. Rats had previously had access to that ceiling space and we collected four big bin bags full of dried rat poo, rats nests, dirt, old corn husks and various other detritus. It was pretty foul.

But the good news is that the wonderfully rustic old chestnut beam is in fantastic condition, with no sign of insect or beetle damage. It cleaned up well.....

... and looks fantastic after an initial coat of linseed oil

Next job, the electrics and then we can start work on the ceiling.

During the lovely warm weather that we had up until Tuesday, I was able to get a lot of work done on the potager, preparing the ground for my plantings and sowings. I dug in the green manure of field beans that I sowed back in the autumn and cannot believe the difference that it has made to the soil. Instead of being heavy and claggy and a nightmare to work, it felt light and airy and much easier to dig over. Hopefully my brassicas will appreciate it! Next week, our farmer neighbour Alain will be coming down with his tractor to turn over the section of land that adjoins my potager in order to effectively double its size. I am going to create a soft fruit area and also make use of the extra space to grow more veg. I don't think there's any chance of me being bored this summer!

The end is in sight - hurrah!

Apart from yesterday (Friday), it has continued to be wet wet wet down here but without the light relief of Marty Pellow. Snow has continued to fall thick and fast up in the ski resorts where the avalanche risk is extremely high. Despite the sun making a welcome reappearance yesterday, we opted to stay out of the mountains until the situation stabilises and instead headed out for a run up onto the hill above Aspet. No snow there at 400m

The path up onto the hill was muddy and very slippery but up at the Estive (summer pasture) at 650m there was a light dusting

As we headed further along a woodland track to Gaillardet at 700m, there was more of a covering.

It was wonderful to be out in the sunshine, to breath the fresh air and to feel the lungs working. The legs didn't do too badly either and my knee only started to tighten in the last 500m of the run back down. I have been working hard to try and resolve my knee issue in the hope that I will soon be able to run a decent distance without the pain which flares up around the lower iliotibial band on the outside of my right knee. There is a local trail race that I really really want to do in early June so that is my incentive. I just hope my efforts pay off and that I will be fit to enter it.

Meteo are forecasting much improved weather for the coming week with clear blue skies and temperatures up to 15 degrees by midweek. The mountains are calling. Snowshoes or skis? Probably both!

Thanks to the brief weather window, Andy was able to get up onto the roof yesterday to pull the chimney liner for the new woodburner up the chimney which has now enabled us to put it into use. It's a little Colmar2 5kw/7kw woodburner made by Supra but my goodness, it kicks out some heat! What a difference it makes to the current kitchen/future dining room .... it's so wonderfully warm and cosy now!

All change

As predicted, the weather has closed in over the past week and a massive quantity of snow has fallen up in the mountains which has resulted in a cat 5 avalanche risk. Our local ski station has been closed for the past 3 days and most of the bigger resorts have also been closed. Today, we have heard several 'booms' emanating from up at the Col de Menté where helicopters have been dropping charges to set off controlled avalanches in order to secure not only the slopes but also the access to the ski station. More poor weather is due over the weekend, so goodness knows when we will next be able to head up high.

Here, at our altitude, we have just had rain and lots of it, accompanied by high gusting winds -not the kind of weather in which you want to spend any time outdoors! Instead, we have been busying ourselves getting the big current kitchen/future dining room fireplace for the installation for a lovely little 7kw woodburner that is being delivered by the weekend. The room is 38m2 in size and will be so much cosier with the addition of a woodburner. Here is the obligatory 'before' photo in which you can see the copper cowl that was added some years ago and which was a real blighter to remove!

But it was eventually removed and the cracked back plate also taken out.

Some friends very kindly donated a gorgeous, decorative cast iron backplate which I rubbed down and painted with a light coat of Hammerite - shame it's going to be pretty much hidden behind the woodburner!

The back wall of the fireplace has now been boarded out with fireproof plasterboard and is awaiting a skim and we still need to get the flexible pipe that goes up the chimney, but we're nearly there. It is going to make such a difference to the room - exciting!

In other news, in a weather window today and despite super-saturated soil, we were able to plant up 64 hedging whips along some 50m of the boundary of the orchard. I got whips that will eventually form a stock proof hedge which will hopefully dissuade the deer and other animals from coming onto our land. A mixture of hawthorn, blackthorn, common sea buckthorn, silver berry/oleaster and, strangely enough, some European pear! I am just hoping they will 'take' despite the waterlogged ground. Time will tell.

This afternoon we managed to grab a quick hour on the mountain bikes before the next band of weather moves in. The clouds were building as we rode. It was a chilly, muddy 17km ride but good fun all the same, particularly since I haven't had any exercise in nearly a week!

Bathroom stuff

Opération salle d'eau - it has been a difficult project for many reasons. But it is finally nearing its conclusion. And what a conclusion it is. Judge for yourselves.

The room as we viewed it for the first time before the purchase of the house.... it seemed like a tiny, pokey little room and it was hard to visualise it as a bathroom;

Once cleared of furniture, stripped of wallpaper and with the pine cladding taken down from the ceiling however, it started to feel more spacious;

So here is our new bathroom - it is just *beautiful*, don't you think?

Mum is arriving on Friday to spend Christmas with us and she is just going to love it. I am *really* looking forward to seeing my mum and to having her here with us for Christmas. I think she is just as excited! Happy days :-)

Occupational hazard?

I love mountain biking, even more so since we moved to this area. But it is not without its dangers. I am not talking about the physical challenges and risk of falling off and hurting yourself, which is a given. No, I am talking about risks and dangers that are outside of your control. I am talking about dogs that are not secured. We have frequently encountered loose farm dogs on our rides, not just here but also when we lived in the Ariege, usually working border collies that are often quite frankly nutters. So far, we have managed to avoid a full-on physical attack from one of these dogs, mainly thanks to Andy's swift right foot, but that all changed yesterday when I was attacked from behind. I had no chance to think let alone to unclip and take a swipe at the bugger with my foot. It managed to sink its teeth quite deeply into my right calf. It hurt. Andy was behind me, jumped off his bike and gave the dog some of the same treatment with his fists and feet, which was not appreciated by the old lady whose dog it was. All she could say that it was not 'méchant' (aggressive). Yeah, so that's why it took a chunk out of my calf, was it?!! Jeez! I should say that we were on a public lane at the time. I rolled up my leggings and viewed the damage. It wasn't good. Fortunately the medical centre was only a kilometer away, although only a secretary was around. Fortunately the unexpected but well-timed arrival of one of the doctors saved us a trip into A&E in town. He seemed quite surprised at the damage with the biggest hole being more than 1 cm deep, allowing sub-cutaneous fatty deposits to come from the surface.

Thankfully he did a good job of cleaning up the wounds (Andy was engrossed!) and of stitching the holes

A trip to the pharmacie to pick up high potency antibiotics to try and ward off any possible infection, some good painkillers and a trip to the nurse for tetanus shots before I could head home to a leg-raised position on the settee. I am under strict orders to keep my leg raised and to keep off my feet as much as possible to ensure it heals as quickly as possible. I will have to do as I am told if I am to be back on my bike within the next few weeks. In the meantime, a visit to the gendarmerie is on the cards today where I will be lodging an official complaint. I don't know what action (if any) will be taken. We'll see.

In other news, I have good news. Andy has done a fantastic job on the woodburning c/h system. The job was pretty high stress at times and not without its problems, but he was able to solve all of the issues and it is now all up and running beautifully. It is wonderful to have heat right through the house and to be burning wood again.

One last bit of news, this time more about the amazing birdlife that we have down here. We spotted three great egrets last week which will be en route to warmer climates. No photos unfortunately, but they are very elegant, pure white and bigger than a heron. A lovely sight. More excitingly, we spotted a male hen harrier hunting in a field on one of our local walks the other day too. I have never seen a hen harrier, let alone a male one with its distinctive pure white body, pale grey head and black ends to its wings. It was the most beautiful sight.

A change of wind

Last week, we had glorious weather with temperatures peaking on Wednesday at 26 degrees, all thanks to a mass of warm air coming up from North Africa. It was shorts and T shirt time again - fantastic! But I was watching the weather forecast with a sense of foreboding. A big cold front was marching down from the North which would push away any hint of warmth from our precious North African high. There was even talk of snow at the weekend.

No, no! Not yet! We're not ready! Despite intensive work on the heating installation we were not yet up and running and really needed a few more days before being hit by a cold spell. But sometimes, you have no choice in the matter. On Friday the heavens opened as an occlusion did what it does dumping a UK-style quantity of rain on us, followed on Saturday afternoon by a dramatic drop in temperature ..... but thankfully no snow here at 600m (phew!) although there is a good dusting on Pic de Cagire and snow down to around 1600m. But it is cold now and there is a biting wind in the air. Tonight, the woodburner is in situ with all fixings attached and looking mighty fine....

... but we still need to plumb in the mains water supply, fill and test the system for leaks and undertake numerous other tests before we can light it. But hopefully by tomorrow (Monday) evening we will have a working system and a warm house. I can't wait!

In other news, we have experienced the fantastic spectacle of the migration of the cranes in the past 24 hours. It started last night when it was dark, with a very loud honking low over the house. Against the clearing, moonlit sky we were able to make out the V outline of a flock heading South. Two or three flocks passed overhead in the space of a couple of hours. Then today, more of them. This time I was able to capture them on video. However, for a moment, their flight had me worried as the flock seemed to get confused and started circling in all kinds of directions with no particular pattern. Which way was South again?! But then they seemed to regroup and set off again with a more arranged, purposeful flight. I let out a sigh of relief. Strange that I should feel so protective about a flock of cranes?

Progress report

On Monday, the installation of our new sanitation system was signed off. A 4000L fosse toutes eaux and a 30m2 sand filter bed satisfies the authorities and means that our household waste is no longer fertilising our field! This may or may not be a good thing, as Andy found a cracking tomato plant with ripening fruit in the midst of the lush vegetation down here. Hey ho!

We took a much needed break from work on the house for the week that our friends Jenny and Mike were with us. During that week we celebrated both Jenny's and my birthdays and Andy, as in-house chef, did us proud with some truly delicious dinners. The weather during the week wasn't full-on sunshine every day and was a lot cooler than we have been used to of late, but still only Wednesday morning and Saturday afternoon were wet, which was a darned sight better than the UK weather last week which sounded truly miserable, so our friends were happy. The relative dry weather meant we were able to get out on the mountain bikes on three occasions which was fantastic fun

We also had a lovely walk from Artigue above Luchon up to the Spanish border at the Col des Taons de Bacanère.

One foot in France, one in Spain....

Spain, and the remains of an old cable winching building, probably used in WW2 by Franco's army...

Since the weekend, a wonderful high pressure system has taken up residence over us and we are enjoying clear sunny days and temperatures into the high 20s. It is just glorious! Unfortunately, we know this will not last and the nights are already cold, so we are having a big push to get the woodburner and central heating system installed before the weather turns. Lets hope we don't have any major hiccups along the way.

Guest bedroom finished!

Our friends Jenny and Mike arrive tomorrow to stay with us for a week. We were determined to finish the guest bedroom before their arrival..... and we have done it! The only thing is that I was unable to find a suitable rug for the big floor space. I shall have to keep looking.

So, firstly, some 'before' shots....

And 'after' ......

 Do you like the sparkly light?

I am 'so' pleased with how this room has turned out - it is just beautiful, don't you think?

4 weeks? Really!

Oops. Well, it just goes to show how busy life is these days, doesn't it! Work on the house continues with a vengeance..... which goes without saying really, doesn't it! The most pressing issue? We have got friends coming on Sunday to stay with us for a week, so the pressure has been on to complete the renovation of the 'guest bedroom'. This has involved ripping out all of the old 'non conforme' socket and lighting wiring and replacing it with wiring that complies with current regulations. This naturally involved the creation of more holes in the walls which was a messy business. Then, we insulated the ceiling and put up plasterboard using the most important bit of kit that we have so far invested in - the 'lève-plaque'! It is going to get a lot of use.

We discovered that the skirting boards are actually riddled with woodworm, so they have had to come out. But a serious question for you.....what do you see in the following photo? A work of art depicting a seaside scene maybe? Or just a rotten skirting board? Squint and you may be surprised!

We acquired some lovely chestnut boards from a local saw mill which Andy has transformed into new skirtings which I will be treating with linseed oil to bring out the colour and the grain. Then, the wallpaper can go up and a big clean up before the lush curtain can be hung and the furniture put back in place. It is going to be a gorgeous room, this one. 

Work on the new bathroom is also ongoing, but hampered and frustrated by simple things such as the shower tray that we originally bought getting broken by a falling hammer and then the replacement tray that we bought from Toulouse not being level due to a manufacturing fault .... grrrrr. But the stud wall is in place and all we need now are a new shower tray, some water pipes to bring water up from the other end of the house and some time and patience.... that's all

The new sanitation is in the process of being installed thanks to our mate Bruce from down the road, which will bring us in line with current regs as well as drain the bank account :-/

We have taken delivery of our lovely new Stratford woodburning boiler but obviously the installation of the heating system has not yet commenced as we have got other priorities. Here's hoping that the fine, warm weather continues and we don't actually need heating for another month or so. Cross your fingers for us?

We have not surprisingly had very little spare time to get out on the bikes recently. Once a week seems to be the limit of it which has been frustrating. But one of those rides happened to be my longest and hardest mountain bike ride to date, 38kms/1200m+... which was hard, not just because of the distance and ascent but because of the nature of the riding which included a long section of narrow, rocky single track with a drop off to the left which did not amuse me and which saw me pushing the bike more than I would have liked. The ride profile was like this....

Full ride stats are on the usual site

Next week, Mike and Jen are here and we will be having a bit of a break from the DIY, getting out more on the mountain bikes, getting up into the mountains and celebrating both my and Jen's birthdays. Let's hope the lovely warm weather holds.