Well, we’ve sprung forward into Spring. With a soggy start. Yesterday, we were wandering around in flip flops and sunglasses with sunshine aplenty and today, it’s back to boots and jackets. One shouldn’t complain, river levels are still very low but I am starting to get a little bored of my winter wardrobe now. Looking out from the terrace this morning and seeing the abundance of green lawn (it’s actually couch grass but who cares) covering the terre and the little lettuce leaves soaking up the pluie did make me want to do a little happy dance – a short-lived one as my eyes were drawn to the pool’s steel-barred cover. Bit depressing really.
We had a sibling Zoom last Sunday. Such events don’t happen very often but as we all have equal shares in the house, any potential projects or problems with current ones, have to be discussed and voted on. My idea to renovate the space above the apartment this year was one of them – I got the thumbs-down. At least for the near future. I hate to admit it but my younger brother Moth was right in his concern over how much my budget would likely over-run and the amount of disturbance it would cause to both myself and Mumo. The last two and a half years have been non-stop builders and trucks clogging up the driveway so we are all in need of a bit of renovation respite. I am surprisingly okay with it (Ikea were very good about refunding the kitchen cost) especially as Denis and I have already come up with a few ideas for my little apartment garden. Lionel still has a list of outdoor jobs to tick off including the back part of the pool deck and Max chauffagiste will put the new solar panels up on Tuesday, the concrete ‘capture’ base carefully laid by Lionel and his son yesterday. I did suggest it might be fun to add a few paw prints on the top of the perfectly smooth surface for added appeal but the looks I got meant I was out-voted again. I’m not going to lose Roy and Nick anytime soon either, we have yet to start on the ‘dog shower’ room which will be in the space below my main outdoor staircase and both my bedrooms need quite a bit of TLC. Cracks have formed in the dividing wall and over the doors all caused by the work that was done in the main house’s living room directly below them. Roy is going to put in new sockets and switches as the current ones are ancient and in the most ridiculous places- having to turn on a bedside light by flicking a switch three meters away for example. And the former boiler/utility room downstairs is now completed and I’m very proud of the result. The calm, airy space is perfect for exercising in or just chilling out and has a hidden bed for guests of which I hope there will be many in the coming months.
The bulk of the building work may have been all but finished here at Rouffiac but at L’Horte, the opposite has started. Denis and I popped over earlier in the week to say hello to Nicolai and Severine and coo at the latest additions to the pygmy goat herd. We were on our way to do some wild asparagus foraging in the nearby woods, his idea of a fun day out, when we made the detour onto the former family homestead only to be greeted with the sight of a huge mechanical claw pulling down the smaller house – the demolition has begun. A building constructed in 1698 was a matter of rubble in a few hours. It was hard to see so much history disappearing under the clouds of plaster dust but I was oddly unemotional about it – as though another chapter of my life had been closed. As I said to Denis, if we hadn’t moved to Rouffiac, I wouldn’t have met him and been exposed to the delights (sarcasm intended) of scrabbling through brambles and sliding down muddy banks on my bum just to find the odd green stalk the same of which can also be found in the corner of our front garden. If I did have any city girl left in me, it’s now firmly buried in a bog somewhere to the South of nearby Preixan. I’m reliably informed that the other house, the mill that Pop rebuilt, will remain standing for now as there is a team of archeologists itching to find hidden treasures around the foundations. I’m not sure they’ll find any Roman remains but there are probably quite a number of china dinner plates buried as a result of the 2018 flood. A few flip-flops too I expect, reminders of summers past and with any luck, the summer to come…
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” (Audrey Hepburn)
Widow plus woofs 