It sounds ridiculous that someone would 'crave' work, but we do. Being 'active relaxers' (some would call that a 'workaholic') we have craved the activity for our bodies and minds. Our bodies love (well, until the next morning! lol) the bending, stretching, over-reaching (carefully!) and the mental gymnastics of planning, sorting, learning and also speaking in a language not our own. THIS is what we came here for, and the simple life that we find all around us.
Waking to the sounds of bird life, the distant traffic noise (this is wide (emphasis) open countryside, so sound carries easily), tractors going by the house and the sounds of a countryside waking up.
We are only 100 meters or so from a forest, and we have large hedges (for now) surrounding the property, which encourages the birds.
The mornings are cool but not cold. Likewise the evenings, although they appear to be warming up into the late hours when the sun finally sets, around 10pm.
The morning terrace, so called because obviously the sun is on it! The previous owner told us that she loved sitting out here in the mornings, enjoying the view. We concur!
Despite the urge to do so last night, we didnt go out and finish the mowing/weed whacking, but went for a walk through the vines across the road, instead. Of course I had left my camera behind, but there will be ample opportunity to document our walks, in days, weeks and months to come.
My body was telling me to stop work and relax. Waz had snoozed on the sofa for an hour prior to dinner, so his body obviously had told him to stop also. We aren't good at listening to our bodies, but I think we may have to make it a habit! We are accomplishing huge amounts during the day, with very early starts - even before the sun is up - with jetlag to thank for that. All in good time!
Yesterday we went through the house making a note of the furniture to sent to the Brocante (basement sale) folks. We have Kiwi friends who may be interested in some of it as they are buying their own home here, albeit it fully furnished also. I believe they need inside stuff as they have plenty of outside stuff. We are a bit in the reverse.
The need to complete any small projects is driven by the arrival date of our first container, early June. Lots to accomplish before we have the space to accommodate all the items that will be taken out of the container, on that day.
Waz just yelled down the stairwell that the trash guys took both of our trash bags that were left at the gate last night. Yay! We didnt know if we were allowed only ONE bag per day, as we are for the recycling.
Which reminds me...Yesterday when we were at the Brico (Hardware) store in Barbezieux, we visited the Decheterie (Tip, dump, trash facility, call it what you will) next door to the store, and discovered a whole other well organized facility run by women, it appeared. No men in sight, but the women were adamant about what could and couldn't be left in this place. Well done!
Where was I?
Oh yes, the impending arrival of the first container.
We will get the furniture placed in the house, but the boxes will be introduced one by one, I think, and be stored under the house for now. We need to shuffle the existing items to accommodate the new. Hard to decide what to keep when you have a complete and excellent library that came with the house, and now you have a gazillion of your own books to add to it! Merde! Where to store all the books without making the house cluttered. I want to be able to clean the house easily, and no more musty/damp/moldy smells, which books tend to harbor...esp. the damp!
The morning terrace got a small makeover yesterday with the need for some chairs to go with the table so that we could sit down there. While pulling them down from on high, we also decided to drag out the lovely green umbrella.
That's better! Shade! Well, there will be when the sun is high. This is early morning, yet.
As we bought the house furnished, this came with the house. We have our own umbrella on the high seas, and two more huge ones downstairs. Hmm...where to put them all! My mind has been working overtime to 'place' all our things in and around the nice pieces that we want to keep from what is here already.
We have another incentive for getting things 'going' as it were. This is our first ever (in our 12 yrs married!) bar-b-q. I did take photos of the first view of the inside, but they aren't good for the digestion, so I wont post them! Waz took a long time to get the appliance clean in advance of our first cook-out of some pork ribs French style...well, not exactly...Mon-style, actually. I like to make an Orange/ginger/garlic Asian marinade, so our ribs are in the fridge in their yummy (I hope) liquid, ready for our Saturday lunch guests.
Barb-b-q is now cleaned up and ready for Saturday and beyond. This may well be our preferred method of cooking, during the summer months.
Looking outside from the pink room. That's a bottle of 'degreaser' on the step, lol. Works well!
These slabs are a bit thicker, but still from the same place on the pig, I would think. We will let you know how they taste.
After the dentist visit on Wednesday, we went up to our favorite hillside town in the north Dordogne, Verteillac. The draw card there is several-fold. We needed a post office - we had meant to post something while in NZ to an NZ address, but it ended up coming all the way back with us. We had also meant to post it from the USA< but that option proved expensive. We could have hand delivered the package, but forgot to take it with us! phew! The USA wanted $12 to post a small bubble bag with documents inside - not heavy at all. France wanted 2.60 euros! Eh? And they say the USPS isnt making any money? Bah!
The other draw was a lunch at Le Calice, the English owned pub in the middle of the town. Owner Bex gave us a wonderful welcome 'home', and we enjoyed a chat with her before settling down to enjoy a beer (for Waz) and a Shandy (half 7-up and half beer) for me while we waited for 12 noon, when the Plat du jour would be available. Welcome back to France where you cant get lunch until Chef says it is ready:) Sit down at 10 minutes to the noon hour, and you will just have to wait! We also had to wait for Chef to go outside and have a smoke, before plating our lunch up! C'est France!
The church bells rang out to let the workers know it was time to quit for lunch, then they kept on ringing for another 12 minutes...and they were just across the square, so we got that message LOUD and clear! Not much conversation during this time, as you might imagine:)
We have been filling the pantry each time we have to go out, and little by little we are accumulating the necessities. Our freezer is now full, and the fridge also.
Our visit to Castorama in Angouleme on Tuesday (we arrived home on Monday) resulted in the purchase of a new toilet. We had yet to discover if the old one (upstairs loo) worked and more importantly, why it DIDNT work, but as we intend to create another two bathrooms back to back with the existing one, a new loo would be welcome no matter what. It is just a matter of having it on-site should we need to replace the existing.
Waz seems to have spent years with his head in toilet stuff...first on the boat, where toilets are an issue no matter the craft, due to the nature of the beasts and the environment they exist in...marine!...and now at home. We have a septic system, so this electric loo is peculiar to that. Making the journey downstairs in the middle of the night, having to wake up enough not to kill yourself on the way down in the dark, was getting old. This loo business was actually Item #1 on the priority list, but somehow got relegated to # 320! lol....well, gross exaggeration, but you get the idea.
Ok, I'm off to Angouleme to get our new Credit Cards and cheques. Yes, they still write cheques for everything here. NZ is almost cash-less, and paywave is everywhere. Love it! Now the rest of the world has to catchup...namely the USA and France. No matter...we will work with what there is available. Our new lives will not stress about these things...write that one down, will you!! lol.
OK..back home and stressing. First we arrived to pick up the Cr Cds and Cheques. Monsieur said only one credit card for us and it has Warren's name on it. I say "WHAAATTT?"...He says yes! Then he looks at the names on the card, checks the name on my passport and realizes that we dont have the same last names. In other words, if I had the same last name as Waz, I wouldn't get my own card? bah! He checks inside his filing system at the front desk...banks are a little different here....maybe a LOT different! lol. Sure enough, there is a card under my name. We sign in the appropriate places, card and forms and our checks and Cr Cds are released to us.
Open the checks on the way back to the car and find that our OLD US address has been printed on them! WHAT? go back into the bank, explain in limited French (he spoke no English so Franglais was impossible!) that our address was now here in France. Waz produces the business card we have made, and man goes to photocopy the card, explaining that he will now give the information to our banker who is with someone else. Fine, but what to do about the address on the cheques? Oh, just cross it out. No new address required, as we understood it. I will check with our banker just in case I didnt comprehend the instructions! fine!
Phew!
Cup of coffee required, and oh look! Sweet treats! We cant eat dessert EVERY time we go for coffee, but it is sooo tempting!
Waz's Polonaise was a brioche bun filled with pastry cream and fruit, topped with meringue and almonds. He wouldn't repeat it.
Home again jiggety jig!
Small things to be done today. Feeling a bit out of sorts. Cant define it, but tired might say it all. We have slept in until 6.30am the past two mornings, but it is light by then.
Small changes such as the towel hooks in bathrooms and certainly the one in the kitchen. Yesterday we purchased the new hooks and a towel rail for the kitchen so that I can hang the hand towel directly above the sink, instead of dripping water all over the kitchen counter, to wipe my hands. The hooks at the end of the cabinet are not only ugly, but useless. See the new railing with the pink towel on it!
Yesterday, late afternoon I planted the tomato starts we had bought when we were at the hardware store. 7 plants in all! They will get all day sun here, but I had intended to put them in hangers off the Morning Terrace. I may transfer them there later on.
Yesterday was a big spend day.
Our hardware store visit was essential on a couple of fronts, as was the expenditure.
We need a hedge cutter/trimmer. All four sides of the property are planted in hedge. The other thing we needed was a chainsaw. The one that came with the house, Waz could have spent 50 euros on parts for it and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to fix it with no guaranteed results, so we made the executive decision to just move on and buy one that we know will work. He can futz around with the old one and maybe get it going...he likes to do those things for fun! but we need one that works NOW!
Yesterday we went around making note of all the furniture that is going. Some tough decisions to be made, but after listing all the furniture that is coming via two containers, we decided to go with the new entrants rather than try to make everything fit in. I hate crowded spaces, and one of the reasons we love this house is the large spaces, which we dont want to now fill with THINGS!:)
Ok, things we have plenty of, but storage is something we need. Some more tough decisions will be made and after the one year stand down on selling anything, we will see what we still 'need'.
I finished removing all the net curtains yesterday, and they were all laundered. What a difference! Now we have white curtains instead of cream with fly spots! :) I do need to get back up on the echelle or ladder and scrub away at the fly spotted window frames...tomorrow...or the next day!
Making do with what we have, and it wont be long before our own stuff arrives from Florida. We will have a filing cabinet...yahoo! I'm not keen on piles of stuff everywhere...apart from being dusty, it is not visually peaceful.
So, plenty accomplished in the past three days, and more to go. Watch this space.
Time to veg out and enjoy a cooler day with some showers.
A Bientot!
I actually like the hooks at the end of the counter - where the towels are out of the way and mostly unseen. Take the towel off first, then do the dishes and use it, then hang it back up - out of the way. But maybe line them up in a straight row.
ReplyDeleteI know you didn't ask. Sorry.
Your house looks like it will suit you well.
Each to their own LL! lol. We got way too much water all over the floor and counter et al, hence I wanted the towel where I/we could just reach up. It doesnt look fab. but it is a temporary measure. I think the fridge and freezer will eventually be in this slot where the sink is! The kitchen makes little sense to me (as it is), but the renovation is way down the list of need-to-do's.:)
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