Le noyer et les pommiers qui dorment - Winter 2017

15 January 2017

We received a very special gift recently: an original ink and watercolour of La Fromagerie done with meticulous care by our friend M, (he of window-washing enthusiasm, kitchen skirting board prowess and fellow survivor of the Paddling Pool Summer of 2016). The barn is depicted circa 2015 (sans porch extension), but every detail is carefully represented: the blue and white chair/table set, the staircase that can just be glimpsed through the open French doors, the grape vine... We were thrilled and touched, as you will understand.

Ink and watercolour by M Kelleher

It's been a wild few days, weather-wise, and one of the shutters from the upstairs window was ripped off the wall in a particularly vicious gust of wind. It's heavy, so it hit the ground with a crash. Luckily, C was indoors, and not sunning himself on the terrace...I sound flippant, but actually, I feel pretty freaked out about what might have happened.

Looking pretty naked. Check the reflection of the sky in the window, and the colour of the sky overhead. 

The shutter fixing has been torn and rotated clockwise about 120 degrees...

...and the shutter didn't get away without damage, either.

Gregg and Tom will survey the damage, ensure that the the shutter is re-mounted securely (and will hopefully ascertain whether the other shutters are OK)...

So, after what he assures me (despite wayward heating and shutter dramas) has been a pleasant and peaceful time dans la France profonde, C is coming to the pointy end of his sojourn at the barn. These are his latest photos...:

Objat market one wintry Sunday morning

C's caption: 'The beast is hungry...'

The beast

Local residents

The fallen apples are still delicious, and those that are damaged are perfect for stewing.

C's caption: 'Beautiful sleeping trees' - Le noyer et les pommiers qui dorment

And 'Different time different mood' - (le noyer again, in all its glory)

This one is taken from the road; a better view of the barn itself.

We are starting to rev our engines for our next visit, 5.5 weeks away now. Between now and then, Tom is hoping to point the long wall that faces the orchard (assuming the really cold weather gives way to slightly milder temperatures), and Brian should be able to finalise the electrics (i.e. hide the junction box) in the dépendance, so that we can set up a study/office in there.

Working from home has never looked so inviting.

Small details

23 May 2014

It's been hard, letting go of the barn and getting back into life on the other side of the planet. Two parallel universes, each so utterly absorbing.

On our last day at the barn, we left Tom and Gregg fiddling with the closure of the shutters, which we had not been 100% happy with - there were places where the wood clashed with the stone and the fit wasn't quite right. Also, we all agreed that the shutter fixtures could have been more sturdily fixed to the stone walls (one had fallen off while we were there) - it had proved tricky because of the uneven stone and crumbly mortar.

So, in the week after we left France, Tom and Gregg made fine adjustments to the shutters and re-fixed the hinges using cement and Gregg's secret mud-and-eye-of-newt recipe, so now they are both strong and aesthetically pleasing. Always a good combo.

Tom has finished the upstairs modesty wall (including skirting) and the storage unit next to and behind the toilet. It's lovely, don't you agree?

Still to do:

Brian needs to install uplighters downstairs, and move a switch in the kitchen (which we belatedly realised would clash with the fridge).

Tom says that his plasterer cannot come until September to make good any damage done to plasterwork now. Which means that we've had to ask Charles to go easy when he instals the basins etc. Hmmm.

Chas is talking about finishing his work in June. We can only hope.

Random images

6 May 2014

Call me weird, but I rather like the view through the side window of the rusty cabine next door.

Misty morning #1

Misty morning #2

These wooden structures were used traditionally to extend a wagon's load capacity. 

Aunt + apple tree

Room for growth, then.

Happy camper #1

Happy camper #2

This old nest perched precariously under the eaves of the dépendance.

The walnut tree stump. Gregg suggested we auction this image of (SpongeBobSquarePants/Mother Theresa/your preferred significant icon here) on EBay...

Always a style trendsetter, I fashioned an apron from rags to save my jeans.

Little red cutie and camera-shy occupant

Butter with a hint of honey

30 April 2014

The meeting with Chas went well. We are reasonably confident that the plumbing will all go according to plan, though once he has been in and fitted things, there will be a fair amount of plaster repair work to do, which Tom is grumbling about. Ah well.

We had a very productive afternoon in the ZI (industrial area), home of the megastores, ticking off various things on our must-do list: towel rail/radiator, bolt for the barn doors, tarpaulin and strapping for the dépendance... Also, convinced by everyone that we'd bought an inferior shutter paint, we chose a different (more expensive) brand (like ours, with a ten year guarantee), only this time in lavender blue, since our dove grey was not an option.

After an early start on Tuesday, we began on the shutter painting exercise by taking three down and setting them up on trestles in the barn. Thankfully the light inside is good; outside it was raining buckets. While G sanded and then applied a first coat of vitrificateur (varnish) to the stairs, I began with the shutters. After only one or two brush strokes, it became apparent that this paint was every bit as thin as the last. And it was too intense a colour. So, I wiped it off and started on the 4th coat of the original paint. MUCH better.

Lunch break

Phil arrived and began to hang the lovely oak door he has made for the shower room. There was a lovely companionable atmosphere in the barn, with the three of us working away on our own projects, and conducting a desultory conversation. G even dug out the camp stove and some mugs and we enjoyed a cup of tea. Then, while the shutters were drying, I put the first vitrificateur coat on the door.

Brian stopped by in the late afternoon and G and he went over all the electrical details while I continued to paint...and paint... and then together, G and I tidied and cleared the barn in readiness for Tom and Gregg, who were coming early to paint the floor. The last thing we did was open one of the tins so that we could see the colour.

Butter, with a hint of honey. Maybe more butter, less honey.

Another early start this morning: on the road to the barn, skeins of mist rising from the forests. Gregg had opened up and we hung the shutters together before Tom arrived. A cup of tea and a chat before the day's work began; theirs is not a high-stress lifestyle :)

Before they began painting, Tom went upstairs and handed the upstairs shutters down to Gregg, so that I could paint them.

G climbed the rogue walnut tree that had been growing sideways out from under the dépendance and, after clipping off the smaller branches near the telephone wires, set about using Gregg's chainsaw to cut down the tree in earnest. It's something we've been planning to deal with for ages.



I set my shutter painting workshop up in Jean-Marie's cabine next door. Surrounded by the woodpile and generations of tools, I spent the morning painting happily in the gloom, listening to the sounds of the hamlet: birds, children playing, church bells... Every now and then there'd be a little commotion as a tiny bird swooped into the cabine, returning with a morsel for her chicks, whose straining beaks I could just see if I stood on tiptoe.

Before you all say it, yes, I have messed up my jumper (an old one chosen for the sacrifice).

By noon, the first coat of paint was down on the floor, the walnut tree was history, and I had painted one side of 5 shutters. Very satisfying. After lunch, G went off to get things on the list, leaving me to continue with the shutters, while Gregg and Tom began on coat #2 of the floor.

Sanding the floor

First coat

Finished!

Spot the acorn detail

At the end of the day, the floor was done and Tom had gone off home in his little white van. Gregg stayed back to fit our lovely new bolt to the barn doors and then wandered off home. G and I were weary but still full of beans, so we spent a while clearing up and laying weed mat around the new plants and only reached home as the 8pm bells were chiming.

Newsflash: every single new plant has new, bright green leaves.

Tomorrow is la fête du premier mai - a public holiday - so we are looking forward to a quiet day, working at the barn. I have three more shutters to paint; G wants to put another coat on the stairs and shower room door...

Pointing, driveway...

27 March 2014

A few days turned into ten, but it was well worth the wait. Tom emailed us to say that he didn't want to send photos of lots of half-finished jobs and would wait until the barn was looking neat, demonstrating once again his pride in the project.


The digger guy has been on site to dig the drainage trench. He picked a nice day for it.

Apart from that little break in the weather, it's been a wet couple of weeks on site, which has provided a perfect opportunity to do the pointing...

... and the self-levelling flooring, which Tom says is much smoother.

PS. Has it changed inside?

In the end, Tom wasn't happy to leave the shutters with only one coat of paint, given the weather, so Gregg applied a second coat and the shutters are now up and doing their job of protecting those lovely windows. The colour looks a little pale to me, but maybe that's just the photos, and, as G points out, when they are shut, they don't make the room gloomy. Beautiful shutters, aren't they? 

The oak flooring is at the barn now, and acclimatising happily. It is scheduled to be laid in early April, before our arrival.

The little vertical iron bar has been fixed to the casement of the shower room window...

...and the geotextile membrane and gravel has been laid on the driveway and terrace. (The yellowish colour of the dust will wash away in time, revealing the white gravel.)

Forthcoming attraction: the stairs!