Work and Play

This being Sunday, we agreed to work some this morning, and then take the afternoon off. Sometimes we go somewhere new, but today it seemed a good idea to sit on one of the terraces (the coolest one) and read a book.
I have discovered that I sleep better if I read before turning out the light. That way my brain doesnt spend the night putting the world to rights, but dont ask me what I read before the light went out. I plain dont remember, lol.

Waz went outside in the heat around mid-morning and finished cutting this side of the hedge on the south side. I went outside to take some photos of the hibiscus in full color in the sunshine. We knew it was going to be a hot day because when we opened the  bedroom window this morning, first thing, the air was not cool!

 Plenty more blossoms to come out yet.

Opening all the windows in the upstairs insured good airflow all day, which we do most days, except when it is blowing a gale or raining, of course.

I readied more painting with a final coat around the top of the walls , hopefully the last! Waz later put some glue on some stubborn paper that didnt want to stick to the wall where I had painted.
You see, here in France, they put paper on the walls...not just wallpaper, but paper to be painted. They appear to stick this basic paper straight onto the concrete or masonry wall. I have not tried to remove it yet...YET! There is some debate going on right now as to how we are going to proceed with removing some of the bedroom flocked papers, because we cant just paint over that stuff which is shedding it's flocking right now.

While I was up the ladder, I thought I may as well start prepping the ceiling in this half of the living room. Hmm.. the ceiling is in shocking state, just about all over, and I dont want the paint peeling off in 6 months time. Sanding it created a huge mess, so I thought to use a trowel to scrape some of it off, which comes away fairly easily.
I hope you can see this. I was tearing shreds of it off the ceiling. Potentially this is a disaster waiting to happen when I put the roller full of paint over it.

 tools!

Some scraping went on before I gave up and concentrated on the last of the painting, and then gave up for the rest of the day.

I even sat in the living room (0ther half) and read my book for an hour or so, before having to get some lunch, which was a non-event, given that I had lost complete interest in doing anything other than reading...such a luxury, right now.

Lunch was three left over crepes (divided between us and microwaved) filled with compote of choice...mine being apricot, and his being rhubarb...and some whipped cream from the can.  Crikey! It tasted good, but for how long?? Long enough for Waz to poke his nose around the corner of the living room door and ask me, at 7pm, what was for dinner:) dinner???

I made a cole slaw with everything in it, plus a tomato and half an avocado each. I opened a can of tuna and added that for some protein. Delish! We sat under the umbrella out back and enjoyed the cooler air, with swallow diving around us, eating the late afternoon insects in the vines.
After washing dinner dishes, it was time for a walk to the Glass recycling thing...receptacle?
We were very disappointed to find this mess there.

 This is directly outside the town cemetery and normally there might be one or two beer bottle cartons on the concrete, but never this much mess. So many plastic bottles in there.

 Disgusting. We often say that we should take our trash bag and do something about this, or take it all to the Mayors office, but we usually are in a hurry and on the way somewhere else, when we post our bottles into the appliance. Must make a concerted effort next time, and take the appropriate equipment to clean this up. The nearest Dechetterie (waste disposal) is 11kms away. There needs to be more recycling available in these parts, I think, although we get recycling pick up every two weeks, from our gate. No reason for this mess at all.

In these parts there is plenty of harvesting going on. This Barley is dry enough to harvest now, and we expect to see the field bare, any day now. We never tire of the views from our home and locale.

SO many grapes on the vines....All of these will be turned into Cognac.

 Touzac, just down the road.

 Cognac storage tanks.

 we walked home through the vines instead of the main road, which is rather busy. Crossing the road is a bit Russian Roulette, and we then walk home via the chemin down the road, greet the gorgeous German Shepherd at one of the neighbors, and her two crazy German Gun dog mates on our way past their yard. Tonight madame et monsieur come outside to see what the frenzy was about, and we greeted each other with a Bonsoir!
I last took photo of the pretty pink and white blossoms on this Blackberry, and today was most encouraged to find the berries forming beautifully. I hope the neighbors aren't at the ripe ones before we get to have dessert feasts too!

Our journey home via the service roads between the vines. We can walk through all the vineyards without fences or gates. We often have hikers walking past our house on the weekends, appearing out of the vines. One of the many things to admire in France.

Time to get back to my gripping book. Back to work tomorrow. Tackling that ceiling will be fun...not!
The room has to be finished by Tuesday afternoon, I have been told, as the semi-final of the soccer is on. :)

Looking forward to hemming the new curtains for the guest bedroom. Riiiiight!
Night night.