Saturday 26 January 2008

To photo or not to photo, that is the question


Well here I am again and this time I will try a photo. Should it work, it is a photo of the old farmhouse we bought and are now renovating. It is a long term project, but we are in no hurry we are just enjoying doing it. The walls are mud and river stone and are about 18-20" thick, I think that is 50cm, and there are a lot of old beams inside. We are learning such a lot and now we know how to make up and use mud walling and we know we can't use normal emulsion paint indoors, we have to use a lime wash mix so the walls can breathe. Personally I will be pleased when I can do some fun bits like making quilts and things for indoors, but as yet I haven't got my sewing cupboard here and even if I did, I have nowhere to put it!! Mmmm the caravan......... Could make a very good sewing room, never thought of that.

Another glorious day today and apart from still tackling the brambles, I had my first attempt at taking hardwood cuttings from a mock orange. I can hear cries now of "It's the wrong time of year" I realise I'm a bit late but unless I try I won't know I keep telling myself, so fingers crossed on that one. I know I am going to run out of fingers soon.

Poor Richard has been scratching his head a lot today because he is not sure how to make a staircase, so we have called upon a friend who is going to come for an afternoon to get him going. What we would do without our friends here I have no idea.

At some stage I am going to count the differenct species of birds in the garden, there were so many today and they have finished 3 fat balls in two days. Also, everytime we go anywhere near the pond we hear the splashes of the frogs, so spring must be on its way. Oh the noise of the frogs when they are in full swing, they are so loud; having said that, I always go to sleep with a smile on my face because it makes me laugh. You can tell it's been warm today because the little lizards have been running up and down the outside of the house and then vanishing into every little crevise there is. There must be hundreds of the little things running about the house and we don't even know. They are so cute.

5 comments:

Debra in France said...

Hi Hazel, welcome to the world of blogging. I love your blog!!! You have done really well, and everything you have written is really fun and interesting.

I will put you on my list of blogs on my blog, and hopefully you will get some more visitors.

Well done to you both, you are doing brilliantly. I think it was much easier for us as we don't have children and grandhildren to consider, but just think of all the lovely holidays they can spend with you. love to you both Debra xx

dND said...

Welcome to France. I'm a little up the road from you in Lot et Garonne. It is beautiful here isn't it.

Re renovating, I would set yourself a time scale and then throw it out the window! Things happen when they happen here or at least they do in my neck of the woods.

All the best with your adventure. I'm just about a year into mine and not regretting a bit of it.

Deborah

softinthehead said...

The house looks lovely - the weather sounds heavenly, I write this from Canada where here it is snowing and the temperatures have been in the minus teens C this week. You are now on my list of daily visits.

Almost American said...

I second Softinthehead's comment about the weather. There's light snow here today, and still several inches of snow on the ground from the last storm. Retirement to the south of France sounds like a great idea! I must say though, I'm hoping that by the time I get to retirement it will not involve renovating a house! I want the house DONE by then, so that I can get on with other things - like quilting and weaving perhaps.

aims said...

I've come over from Debra's blog -

Your house is divine! I just love old houses!

The weather here is cold and snowy as I am in western Canada. We will not see spring for another 3 months. I have noted for a long time that there are not any frogs here either. How I miss that sound having lived in southern Ontario for half of my life. There the frogs and the loons were a daily part of life...sigh.

I hope you get lots of visitors. It is always nice to get feedback on what you write!