More watery reflections

An evening walk to a sax performance meant crossing the bridge and river.  Look up and down.

Water scum was like 'oil on water' prints that I learned when I as a junior girl, when in school we made hard binders as a book cover. For me it included poetry and recently it was again unearthed and again I believe I have kept it!  When I was a teacher I taught the technique at school.

A willow tree had fallen from a private garden and blocked the passage of flowing river. Oh weeping willow, let me cry for thee.

High above, majesty reigns in an evening of glory. Look at the curved and rounded corner on the left.  Has anyone ever seen that before and if so, where????

The church tower can be seen from the bridge.

The vestiges of a chateau residence on a rocky falaise calls one back to stand and stare in awe at HISTORY.

Midsummer evening was a splendid view of blue blue sky...

Al Fresco

A temporary garden table is created with temporary recycled kitchen worktop for the overspill of al fresco dining when the small orange table can just about have a setting for two.

On this particular day in June we ate home made rye bread with pick 'n mix food of jambon, (not for me), a cheese with hay on top called 'FOIN', olives, nuts, crudites and fruit, wine and fruit juice.

A handful of peas cropped just before Midsummer's day.  The spidery pea plants produced two more handfuls before yielding no more, despite being watered abundantly in the early days of summer.  Broad beans and runner beans seem to have come to nothing at today's date!

Another gutted picture of the gradually emptied kitchen!    Oh what fun!

Kitchen grot

Cabinets were emptied and doors removed.

I quite like this unit even with open shelves so it may get repainted and re-used as it is quality 1985 kitchen furniture

 Down it comes to reveal the wallpaper!!!

It must have been splendid to have this copper extraction hood.  Buyers are welcome to make an offer. I ought to be cleaning it!

Once we lowered it we discovered that the hose was not properly attached to anything but anyway I did know that it discharged into open air into the grenier.

 and these are the chocolate boxes (not Terry's) that connect electricity!!!!! and I am told they would not pass diagnostics five years ago... somewhat missed as they were not mentioned... hidden up they were!!!!

 Big Feet seems to have invaded my camera stream!!!!

Down it is.. and feel the empty space with the sun tunnel!!!! Those wall tiles came off very easily and out has gone the worktop, solid as it was, the tile grout was disgusting!

June Amateur Music Day in France

When it was Music day in June in France I went to the parking area of Saint Savin Abbaye to hear a group playing 'bal musette' ... there were not many dancers but the group was individualistic and I liked to hear my accordion pieces played by others.

I liked her dress!

Amazing couple who danced every dance!

One woman of a one man band with her stockings and her shoes!!!

I just love the restoration work that has been carried out on the building where the monks used to live.

This was my kitchen

This was my kitchen......a good quality kitchen for its day, installed in 1985.  I inherited it five years ago. These photos were taken on the morning of gutting out.  I have enjoyed cooking in my lifetime and this room is the last to be renovated. It has scared me! A door on every wall plus a window to the outside world!
Casements worn around the edges, wall tile grout crumbling, worktop tile grout falling out, ceiling with torchis needing attention, beams shiny brown, oppressive to me, copper hood with not connected evacuation unit discharging into the grenier space above can be recycled,  oven works but I have no idea what temperature it bakes at!  The dishwasher looked as if it was new but quickly broke four to five years ago and was recently disposed of. The built in fridge froze foods every four weeks or so when I had to defrost the tiny freezer cabinet with water water everywhere.  Ten years ago and more I used to have a fridge that cleaned itself. What a joyous invention that was!  Last year I inherited the joint freezer and our joint Bosch larder fridge from my former partner who gave all the joint owned possessions to me when he sold his house to go travelling. 
Currently, existing kitchen furniture is being recycled, repainted for the laundry room which sits behind this kitchen.  La Buanderie,  as it is called in France, is in the part of my property that is on the Napoleonic cadastral plan.

I like my Ikea trolley but it did not normally live here!

Oh my.. I have detested that hanging lampshade!!!! It is I believ number two and saved from a house I once part-owned forty years ago.

and then we started to pull the oven from its housing and the wall...

like a Victorian camera...

and lo, behind the cabinets is a vestige of wallpaper, circa French 1985  (vraiment akin to English 1965!!!)  which I thought I had eradicated 5 years ago!!!  It really is an art form of its time.  One can see the colour scheme in harmony with the retro floor tiles!!!!!!! Then, this kitchen was amazingly modern in this French village. Then this kitchen was very very expensive!

I wonder what the flowers are....
VOILA... all to be renewed for someone in the next 30 years or less to say "Quel horreur!"

Oh Gosh July

No time for The Mad Hatter.  No time. No time. I dally and am late on many things. Time slips by for that is what Time does. Time doesn't wait for Man or Woman.  Time flies so fast one is not aware, even when living in the moment, or forgetting or remembering the future and the past.   It whizzes faster than Light or Sound.  Now past the middle of the year are we, and in a canicule, a heatwave, which I just love at 35C in the shade at 4pm or so, if only I could be by water. But water is a precious commodity and today it has been reinstated without leaks but still there is more plumbing to do before the washing machine can be used.

Now almost midnight, before the passing of the day and night of the first of July it is 25C in my courtyard and indoors here by this hot machine, 28C.  Every now and then I walk in the full moon moonlight in my spacious garden where sweetpeas, roses and lavender bloom in the darkness, where if I was brave I would sleep in the hammock at night!

I am indeed grateful for water, space, air to breathe, gardens, my house, land and village AND THIS MY FRIEND who is helping 'my house' for reasons he has explained!  Why he should return to this sometimes difficult and unreasonable person is a mystery when I have made so many mistakes in life and have been so wretchedly unkind to some people.  Perhaps it shows me faith in humanity.   I have accepted his return despite the fact that he too made mistakes of a volatile nature; been my enemy as well as a friend.  In a way it shows me that perhaps there is forgiveness on each side.  Even so, I have been on guard and am learning not to let that, which is fear, affect me.  Fear must be cast aside. Maybe I have been wrong about many things for which I am sorry! Often I have been right and not praised myself enough.

Fortunately we have been able to turn on the water for showers and baths and have been able to wash up dishes with cold or warm water as one wishes out in the outhouse 

Who would wish to be a plumber with different copper pipes and fittings or different systems? In and out water! Awkward spaces. Soldering and parts that do not work! A lorry load of bits for every eventuality.

Patience is what I keep.   I watch and heed that Time is slipping by, but know I am not in control and do not care.   Summer slips by.  I do what I can. What would REALITY do?  This is THAT!  This is Now and I wait for Future when I can make decisions and choices.  I already know that my home is my chateau and like he says I am the Queen of my Maison and not just the Client!
I if i could Master Time I would be a rich woman!
I am going to take my time to plan this kitchen... behind me and ahead of me is Phase One and Two.
I have not much time for much else. This is my work!