Winter has arrived!

A couple of pictures to tell the tale....

Yesterday we had a little dusting, but it was bright, sunny although definitely on the chilly side - that's our little house with the blue van out front

Then today the snow is really coming down, it is grey and wet out there

It is very hard to tell, but there were huge fluffy snowflakes falling when I took this. And to think I thought I had left this all behind on the other side of the Atlantic! I think it might be time to put away the sunbed........

Early Riser

I find that the older I get, the earlier I wake up. I have always been an early bird rather than a night owl but it is getting worse. Usually I am awake and up (because I cannot stay in bed!) by 6am. Here in deepest rural France it is very dark at 6am, currently I think sunrise is around 7.45am.

I was just letting the dog out and opening the shutters when I heard the 7am carillon from the church bells here in the village and it struck me that I have already done the following:

Re-set and re-lit the fire

Hung up the overnight wash (indoors as more rain/damp is forecast)

Swept through to get rid of all the firewood mess and dog hairs, a daily if not twice daily chore

Checked my emails

Made the first cup of tea of the day

Oh yes....and written this blog

Is this sad or industrious?

I mentioned in my last post I have started on the bedroom and here are some photos of my progress:

The before shot, lots of mud and dust everywhere

The during shot. I love the look of the stone in this state but due to structural, cleanliness and insulation reasons we have to point it. That will be a learning curve for us so stand by for the after photos. The brick on the chimney is not very attractive so we are going to render that to give some contrast.

The rest of my day shapes up as follows:

Shower, dress, breakfast, walk dog, post Christmas cards, drive to next village for bread, maybe pop into neighbour on way back for coffee, then back upstairs to carry on painting the bedroom.

Little by Little

I cannot believe it has been a month since I last posted! I have been keeping myself busy so I thought I would post a few pictures ...... I painted the living room before all our "stuff" arrived on 2nd November. It is a warm cream colour and just having all the walls the same colour made a big difference. Here is the before..
And after...

It is a lot nicer snuggling down here after a hard day! I have to say the black and white checkerboard tiles are getting me down though, just too busy so we are going to change them for a uniform terracotta tile. So as usual two steps forward, one back!

My next job is to do the bedroom, which needs the un-plastered chimney wall taken back to the stone for rendering and pointing. A very messy job. So I have today packed up the bedroom ready to start that, then the beams and A-frame need brushing down with a wire brush, treating against infestation and then oiling with linseed oil, before I start the marathon job of painting all the walls and varnishing/waxing the floorboards. Somehow I don't think we are going to be sleeping up there for a while but there is still a bit of a deadline as our builder is due back around Christmas to install the ensuite bathroom fittings and fixtures.

This is the bedroom before .....

Let's see how long it is before I can post the after photos.

As I mentioned all our stuff arrived safely, goodness me, two weeks ago tomorrow. We had shipped our car as well as some furniture and belongings and getting the car OFF the container was causing a bit of a headache. It had been driven on off a loading bay in Canada but no such thing exists within 20 km of our village so we had to improvise...

As always our great friends came to the rescue and we managed to borrow a low loader from the local builders' merchants and some 3 metre long ramps, those together with some planks and lots of ingenuity, the car made it safely onto French soil.

Now just the registration to get.....remember - this is a vehicle which has come from Canada and was constructed in Mexico!! Fellow importers will understand my trepidation. :)