Kitchen past, present with future not yet planned!

 THEN and GONE

The wall tiles allowed water to seep into the plasterboard on which they were stuck. The dishwasher and under sink cupboard died four years ago. Kitchen was built in 1985 - an excellent oak cabinet quality. The four 60cm doors and cabinets were recycled to the laundry room. The extraction unit stands in the garden ready to be recycled ... not sure how, but the copper can be cleaned and maybe used as a work surface?  The pretty 40cm deep wall cupboard can be separated and awaits helpers to repaint it, or me to find coincidental time and energy to do so.

The single glazed windows have been double glazed without battens. These small battens on brown woodwork blocked out light from the west south facing room as does the wall. Thank goodness that tree in the courtyard has gone as well so that light came into the room. The walls were stripped of wallpaper in 2010.  Here's a final fragment!

There used to be a fitted fridge by the door which used to work as a freezer until I inherited the former joint owned freezer in May 2014.

 

The oven died the day we finished painting the room! GOOD! 

Dark beams bore down oppressingly, now they are light and airy! I couldn't do the sanding and prep work but I did paint the ceiling and beams. The lampshade is an early IKEA.. it has a label which I never noticed until now. I am going to sand and repaint it!

It is amazing that someone who knows what they are doing can recycle kitchen units and has saved me hundreds of euros!   I AM GRATEFUL!!!
MIDWAY

 Up goes new plasterboard

NOW- the kitchen room in F&B Strong white over Dulux Indian White and Roman White! Woodwork in F&B Skimming Stone.  The walls need one or more coats because we ran out of time!

Central heating piping needs to be replaced above the door and window. We cut the pipes out because it covered the architrave around the door and window frame. It was not aesthetic.  I think I shall keep the 1985 tiled flooring. It has a rustic rural French retro feel in the modern world that I dream of! Grouting could be cleaned and perhaps re grouted!

Pics Bordeaux

Bordeaux...

 

 La Porte Cailhau built 1494

Bird box and bag colours...

Playtime Bordeaux

I was fascinated by the sunshine yellow dress and the red ball or lollipop in the distance having fun!

Quite honestly

I've been exhausted from my involvement with stripping out a kitchen aged 30 years.  Since the start of June a friend recycled, repaired, repainted most of the kitchen units for the Laundry room. I emptied the rooms and had to reorganise the contents so that I could have workable kitchen space in the living room.
The kitchen room has had two new plasterboarded walls and many layers of paint on all surfaces exceot the floor! Soon I shall provide comparative photos.  I am extremely happy with both rooms.

The best fun time was a short break in July, camping and cycling whilst he looked for a liveaboard boat to buy.  
The next best time was seeing cupboards and a dishwasher installed in the Laundry Room.  Better than washing in cold water in the outhouse sink whilst waiting for the electric kettle to heat water and walking back and forth with dirty, wet, clean and dry crockery, cutlery, pots and pans in buckets!
There were jolly moments in long hours of hard work. One has to laugh at Life!
Best times were appreciating someone who starts work at 8, who is motivated to not flinch until the task was achieved to the satisfaction of a high, high standard despite his own exhaustion levels. 
Bad times were me feeling exhausted, depressed, deprived of solitary time, all the while telling myself that I would only feel more lonely and sad when the helper had left.  One can feel lonely even in the company of others.
Worst times were spent with bizarre emotional buttons being triggered, pushed and pulled and me wondering why, how it happened and what had I done right or wrong!! Three months passed quickly by!
Having returned from two weeks on the English highways visiting three cousins and a friend plus going on a two day art course I am shattered.  I KNOW that.  I know I am re-adjusting to living alone!
I spent a week in between sleeping, crying, aching, yearning, cleaning, re-organising and packing.  Packing too much again!  I must pack that in! I must just take a backpack! There was art stuff which I didn't need to have taken, and wine as gifts to appreciate 'herbergement', and winter clothing and shoes and coats, but mostly I stayed in summer clothes layered with a winter jumper and a favourite shawl.  I slept so well everywhere without waking in the middle of the nights. Everyone was so lovely. People generally are!
In all I drove 1100 miles and 400 I think it was to Bordeaux and back the week before!
However, I must get a car with GPS or a phone with GPS as I spent an hour and a half driving up and down and around and around the outskirts of Dieppe before I found a public place in darkest rural France where I could ask HUMAN BEINGS the direction. Eventually at midnight Hotel Kyriade was discovered behind the road I'd been up and down at least six times the night before.  It was so, so, so comfy that I slept for nine hours.
Back home, after another pair of driving glasses had been lost en route, I had a fabulous meal with friends at the closing of the lovely Auberge with traditional seasonal menus! Ending of an era!
I'd left the spectacles on a meal tray .. yes it was my fault .. and when I returned the tray was there with plates etc but NOT the glasses... so some ******* had stolen them... not even given them to the PAUL restaurant or the cash desk at The Aire of 'Les dentelles d'Alençon'.   I made a big song and dance about the fact that someone had taken them ... There were plenty of Brits and French in the seated area! The spectacles were GUCCI and 20 or 30 years old!!!  Ggggrrrrrr!
The following day as well as all the unpacking I managed two or three hours mowing.  The next day three hours of courtyard weeding / re-organising garden pots etc, plus two to three hours more of mowing in order to have it done before the rains came! So it is no wonder I am tired. THIS IS SOUNDING LIKE A DIARY ENTRY!  Quite honestly, I don't mind revealing daily dramas but the summer of 2015 passed me by and now 'tis Autumn with just a few more dramas to be solved before the end of the year!  Quite honestly it was good to be away from the computer! 

A month later

than my last posting, I write today about a phrase that is 'bugging me', as in, 'irritating me'.
On the return ferry of DFDS, Newhaven to Dieppe, I ate fish and chips.  The chips were dry but the fish and batter were excellent. I rarely eat fish and chips.  BUT, I had to eat something 'to get me through', as in, 'to help me fall asleep as soon as I had finished my meal yet keep me awake to drive after 23h that night'.   I'd eaten a delicious M&S chicken sandwich for a late lunch on the three hour route to the ferry port. Breakfast had been late with freshly squeezed orange juice, a fried egg on toast and mushrooms (cooked breakfast for me is unusual ), tea, coffee, toast and marmalade.

After my meal washed down with ONE glass of red, the cork going back into the bottle and driven home in both senses of the phrase, the naval waitress came to collect my tray.
She said, "Are you done?"

I am not at all ever perfect with my own spoken or written English and certainly am not strong on knowledge of grammar but I found this colloquialism difficult to accept!  I understand that English people, British people and other nationalities use this expression, but in this context I had to say something!

I explained that in my opinion it was better to say "Have you finished?"  or  "Have you finished your meal?"  She was very good to not take offense.

I also explained that there is a phrase used in UK that I cannot abide. When one is in a shop or elsewhere, the server/shop assistant, etc, says "Are you OK?" or something similar,  and I stand and say, "Yes I am fine thankyou", whereupon they look a bit surprised. If they don't lead on to ask how they may help me, then I continue to say, '...but if you are asking how may you help me then...'dah de dah de dah...', explaining my needs!

There's also another annoyingly weird East Anglian or English expression which for the moment escapes me!

However, I love linguistics and the use of vocabulary.  I realise that the usage of words and phrases has developed over time.  English is very much a living language and I like that.  French is becoming progressive too.  There are borrowings and conversions of spellings, grammar, definitions and the rest every day from international countries and cultures and this is what makes Language so very fascinating and 'the devil of a job' to learn and master!

Now... "I'm done!!!"  ... as in, "Now I have ended my posting of rambling thoughts, as well as ended my one month sabbatical from such efforts!" 

N.B. Maybe the word DONE, also being used by GOOGLE BLOGGER on a button to click to say, 
'post is ready to publish'  is another area from which words and their meanings are evolving!

P.S. Words and communications are often inadequate, fraught with misinterpretations!

When I was about 14...

we watched a movie in school... The Red Balloon. It  must have been quite 'avant garde' in those days for our French lessons to have included a movie and indeed it is very wonderful...
I am not sure NOW why we watched it... i suppose because it was so very French.
Maybe the message within the story of the film is that there is always HOPE within dreams...and that the unexpected can bring magic and joy into our transient lives, and how JOY and HAPPINESS can be punctured, destroyed and lost, bringing forth sadness, ruling out happiness.  Of course, in the film the death of one brings life to so many...
Of course none of THOSE THOUGHTS were ever relayed to us as young teenies....but still i wonder what was the reason for showing us as without much spoken word there was only the magic to entice us and so maybe that was it! The Unspoken Word!
Maybe on reflection I was destined to live in France.
Maybe I am happy to be here!
Now I hear fireworks in my village and I wish to be part of whoever's celebrations they are part of!

July Cake Event from my Perspective

I didn't fancy making a NOVELTY Cake or even a Party Cake when the theme became modified. So I made a pun of it!  The first tea cake I made was a disaster and me thinks I binned the photo. I made a layered sponge with Japanese Green Tea powder.  The oven wasn't on the HOT mode that it usually is and anything on the dial below that is very unreliable, so in actual fact the thin layers of sponge were not baked and when cold were nasty grey, and decidedly rubbery. Ooh and that was a six egg mixture!  Following that disaster, whilst others were in the kitchen sanding down the walls etc and whilst the contents of the room were in my Grand Salon and the only kitchen sink providing accessible cold water was in the outhouse, (laundry room inaccessible due to workmen in the kitchen as aforesaid creating dust!) I attempted to follow an Earl Grey Tea cake internet recipe.   It was OK but very dry... I didn't follow the icing part exactly as I was pressed (an understatement) and did not sandwich the cake with something moist. I noticed it didn't have any yummy factor with the tasters and I took 3/4 of it home!  (it increased its flavour after a few days and made a great scone with jam and cream!)
At the Clandestine Cake Club each cake DOES have to be presented before anyone uses a knife,  so I displayed the NOVEL about Living in France "Bon Courage" ('cos I needed it) with a PLUS symbol followed by the Chocolate and Lavender iced Earl Grey Tea Cake on the stand... and hey ho we had a "NOVEL TEA CAKE!!"  I obviously need to emphasise the pun!!!
Best to go here if you wish to see pics of all the other wonderful Novelty and Party Cakes and to read a very good and funny report of the event!
These are some of my better photos:

I loved the stories behind the makings and designs of  all the cakes: 2CV, Pina Colada Cup Cake as well as the animal cakes (hedgehog, dog, fish, butterfly, caterpillar), not to mention the French themed Honeymoon influenced Eiffel Cake complete with Champagne tops! The speakers, the bakers grow in confidence in telling a tale!

Angles sur L'Anglin Painting Competition

A few weeks ago in July there was a village 'one day' painting competition. There were few participants as painters were perhaps deterred by poor weather. However, as this is a new event organised by the village and not by any particular artist or business, I was told that there would be better advertising next year. Evidently, some promotional information was not published in the local press or elsewhere.  I could only find two painters during the afternoon. In the photo below my favourite art work is on the lower level to the left.  The painter was from the south of department 86 and of Asian extraction. She talked to me about the difficulty and pressure to produce a worthy creation within only a few hours. I loved the way she daubed colour onto the canvas with a palette knife to represent reflections in the river.  In fact I am sure she had erased quite a few by the time they were displayed for the public to view.  If you think you would like to participate next year then contact the Mairie or Tourist Office.

Canal du Garonne - Posting Five

 More lock houses...

The light and green foliage amazed me with joy.

More ancient tobacco drying sheds...

 another eclusier..

 We stopped for refreshments at Mas d'Agenais

where water flowed into the Lavoir...it was refreshingly cool in the shade compared to the heat we had cycled in...

 Who's this?

 We went inside the church called Collegiale Saint-Vincent.

 where there is a REMBRANDT!!! 1631 Christ on the Cross

on we cycled!

 This was our reward on the morning we departed...the small bakery was in the same village where we had arrived and so it was fitting to say GOODBYE...

and this a not very good photo of an amazing lunch..
chicken kebabs with sundried tomatoes, carrots braised in stock, potato souffles...7e at le Commerce in Castelmoron.

 The market hall was made of metal and iron...quite unusual...memory fading a bit here!!!

 There was beautifully restored architecture near the river...

We traveled the return journey without air con in the car on the hottest day of the year...
we stopped with this view for the last of the choc ice and camp tea.
I was bushed and went to sleep for an hour!

THANK YOU world for letting me be here when I'd heard various comments which had made me decide that I would not make the effort! I am so glad opportunity opened a door and I hope that one day I will return now that I know I could cycle alone the two canals over a period of a few weeks enjoying the views and villages on the way.