We're raising the roof.................

So, Rory the roofer & his son Simon arrived on Monday morning to start work on replacing the roof. That's right, after patching and making do for the past 12 winters we're taking the old one off and putting a brand new one on and we'll look so smart when it's done.

6 tons of spanish slate, a whole forest of beams and all sorts of other accoutrements were delivered late last week, we have still to pick out the terracotta ridge tiles that will complete the look.

We didn't have long to wait before Rory discovered the first unexpected problem.

Seems a previous roofer had not weatherproofed the join between the gable end and the roof line.

Result? Years and years or rainwater seeping through had rotted the timber joists and completely loosened the large stones (quoins?) on the top of the end wall.

Off Simon went to the lumber yard to buy wood for new joists, Rory cemeted the stones back in place and by the end of the next day all was well again.

Can you say money pit?

Of course Roger is always keen to climb up the scaffold to inspect the work and have a crack with the lads.

I have been making myself useful as tea lady. White tea with one sugar for Rory and black coffee and two sugars for Simon.

They estimated that the job should take three weeks but I think it will be nearer to five, watch this space for a roof update next week.

First sighting: Fox Cub

Back in February I blogged about how thrilled we had been to spy a fox strolling along the back of the garden and I referred to it as a "he".
Well, I may have been wrong about that because just a couple of hours ago I looked up from doing household chores to see a small russet coloured animal sniffing around the back garden.
Was it a small dog er.......no.................!
It was a fox cub!
As long time dog owners we guesstimate his age to be around 3 months, which probably means the fox we spotted earlier this year was a momma.
We watched from the window for a few minutes as he ambled back towards the fields then rushed outside to see where he went. Caught up with him sitting on the compost heap watching us approach, then he turned tail and walked off into the field.
Although the grass out back is fairly tall we were able to track his progress as he followed a path of flattened grass before disappearing from view.
About an hour later the farmer who uses those fields for his cattle arrived on his tractor and commenced to cut down the long grass, probably in preparation for bringing the cows in, so I wonder if we'll see the fox cub again or if the disturbance will send him off to pastures new?
I really hope he sticks around as I would love to see him again and maybe he'll bring his brothers & sisters next time?

The dechetterie, an experience not to be missed!

Every country in Europe has it's own rules & regulations regarding recycling, it seems.

When we first moved to France, almost 13 years ago, our household garbage was collected every 2 weeks (!) after a couple of years this changed to weekly.

There were also twice yearly collections of old/unwanted metal items. These had to be placed in the street for collection and reminded us of the "sperrmuhl" collections we enjoyed when we lived in Bavaria

Things remained that way for a long time and then we received a letter telling of a special card/permis that we could obtain from "la mairie" which would entitle us to use the local "dechetterie" or as we like to refer to it "the dump".

This certainly opened up a new world of special containers in which we could dispose of all those tricky items we had stashed in the outbuildings. Hazardous products such as old paint cans & aerosols, polysterene chips (the bane of my life), unwanted clothing, broken electrical items and much much more, the list was endless.

The "dechetterie" is very strictly operated by the "Gardien" who demands to see your "permis" when you arrive and then watches like a hawk to make sure that, heaven forfend, you place something in the wrong container.

So.....we loaded up the car at the weekend and went to the dump and as is the case with almost everything we do these days I captured the moment with my trusty Nikon Coolpix for a scrapbook LO. I think it turned out quite well, n'est pas.

I'll tell you about the bottle bank another day..............................

Mistletoe

Whilst enjoying our walk through the French countryside this morning we came across a huge oak tree just covered in balls of mistletoe.
When I got home I took these pix of our gnarled old apple tree which hardly bears any fruit in the summer but plays unwilling host to mistletoe in the winter.
For more info on mistletoe check out this link.
http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/

Make a Smilebox slideshow

9/11 Exhibit at the Peace Memorial in Caen

Last weekend we visited the Peace Memorial Museum in Caen to view the 9/11 exhibit which opened on the 6th June 2008 to coincide with the D Day Landing Anniversary.

It was very moving and I have created a Kodak Gallery to show the photographs which I took of the exhibit.

If you wish to see it email me for a link to the site.

a bientot