No pool steps.... but strides in other ways..

As you may well deduce from this post's title, the new pool steps which were to have been delivered "in a week" have not yet materialised! But, as you have also probably deduced, we have leapt forward in other ways this week!

To begin with, the weather has changed dramatically!  From weeks of almost incessant rain, we suddenly have glorious warm sunshine.  What a difference it makes!  Our spirits are lifted, we can start working on 'outdoor' jobs, John is able to work without the encumbrance of his waterproofs and generally, the world seems a better place!  Even the animals seem to have taken advantage of this sudden burst of spring weather...

So what have we been doing?  Well, in terms of the building work, John continued with the new doorway from the kitchen to the garden (or more accurately at the moment, to the building site!)  The job has been far bigger than any of us imagined, mainly due to size of some of the boulders that John has had to remove from the wall.  I took this picture of some of those boulders this week and hope it gives you some idea of the size of them.

Anyway, the doorway progressed in the following way, this week...

There has also been progress on the utility room this week. Thanks to the fine weather we finally got the chest freezer moved out into the small barn.  Danny was convinced that I would be able to move it with him but as usual it proved too heavy for my weak little arms!  Thankfully John was around so he helped with the move (in a matter of about two minutes!) and here is the freezer in its new home.  The plan is that this freezer will be for "long-term storage" and I hope it will come into its own when my potager (kitchen garden) is up and running and producing fruit and vegetables. (Watch this space!)

Now that the utility room is free of the big freezer, I was able to move all the other 'stuff' around and get to all the walls, which are now all stripped of the wallpaper that was our predecessors'.  The ball is back in Danny's court as his job now is to go around the walls, filling in various holes and generally preparing the walls so that I can paint them.  We bought the filler yesterday, so that job has moved a step nearer!

The improved weather has given me the impetus to get out and start tidying up the garden.  As I look around, I see countless tasks waiting my attention but I am just taking it in stages and doing it as I fancy.  For example, late one afternoon this week, after doing some wallpaper stripping, I decided to go and trim some of the hydrangeas.....

And yesterday, in glorious sunshine, I did quite a bit of weeding in a couple of the flowerbeds in the front garden.  Unfortunately, it showed up the distinct lack of colour in one of the beds, but I have made a diary note to buy plenty of spring bulbs later this year!

 

Perhaps the best thing about this glorious weather, is that Danny and I have been able to simply ENJOY being here.  Not that we don't love being here in France all year round.  We do.  But for the last few days, we have eaten our lunch outside and of course, partaken of our early evening apéritifs in the garden!  And as we sit there, in every direction we see rolling green fields and blue skies.  And simply space.  It just reminds us how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world and that we are blessed.

On that note, I am now off to carry on with some gardening!  First, I need to put on my shorts and some sun protection.......

À bientôt!