Monday 4th April 2011 – Well, I’m back home again …

… after a working day of a mere 28 hours and 16 minutes – for the benefit of many of my readers.

After my exertions fastening down the Minerva back onto the trailer after we nearly left it behind, I set off through the dawn and carried on towards home. And things were, just for a change, going so well until I arrived onto the dual carriageway between Moulins and Montmarault.

Not far from Montmarault I was cut up by an artic that decided that 400 metres was sufficient to try to overtake me with just 2kph different but I got my own back on a dual carriageway bit when I ran him up behind a farm trailer and stuck him there for 8 kilometres.

Then we had yet another police barrage at Montmarault where I had an interesting 20 minutes with a group of gendarmes (30-odd years in driving in France and I’ve only ever been stopped once before – and now twice in a weekend. Time I was moving on, methinks). And when I arrived back here, there was the news of the sudden cancellation of one of the events that forms a major part of our radio programmes – and we had just recorded 5 weeks-worth of programmes advertising them too.

However, I didn’t take to much notice of anything as I cleared off to bed and quite right too. I deserved a really good sleep. But did I get it? Did I ‘eck as like because once I had dropped off, the phone rang again. Mind you, I’m not going to complain too much because the news that came down the telephone was good news indeed – but more of this anon.

belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceTerry and Liz were on their travels about and they came by chez moi later this afternoon. That was rather fortunate because they were able to give me a hand to take the Minerva off the trailer.

The Minerva is now parked prettily on the hard-standing (isn’t that a good bit of work, that?) and Terry could then take his trailer home with him. That’s the quickest that I’ve ever tidied up after a trip away from home like this.

So now I’m going back to bed again ready for an early start tomorrow. I need to push on as I have some cunning plans to put into operation.

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Sunday 3rd April 2011 – ONE OF THE THINGS …

… about staying in a hotel, especially a cheapo hotel like this one, is that when everyone else is up, then so are you.

Consequently, at 8:30 (on a Sunday?) I was up and at work, finishing off the work that I needed to do on my book about the Trans-Labrador Highway, which I posted to the internet, if you would like to read it.

And so back to Brussels where I fetched Marianne and we went off to the apartment and spent a pleasant hour or two stuffing some of the contents into Caliburn until it was full to the gunwhales. At 16:30 the daughter of the owner of the garage that I rented came round and inspected it and I returned the key to her, so that was that and I’n now €49:97 per month richer.

Spend, spend, spend, hey?

Off to pick up the trailer and the Minerva next and we towed that back to Brussels. And then while we were eating tea (Sunday is pizza day of course) we worked out a programme for Marianne to come down and see the Auvergne during the Easter school break.

Armed with a big flask of coffee I then set out for home again and it all went fine with no problems at all until leaving Auxerre when there was a mighty crash from the back. One of the restraining straps (luckily the one that stops the load shifting forwards) had broken and the Minerva had rolled forward into the headboard of the trailer. This had the effect of slackening off the strap on the front which had then become detached and there was nothing then to stop the Minerva sliding backwards (and then off the trailer into the roadway).

And so for a couple of hours I had to free off the handbrake so that it would work, mess about with the gearbox to lock it in gear, and then hunt down some more straps (not easy when you have a van full of rubbish) and then fasten it down.

While all of this was going on, a tin of paint and a container of oil became dislodged during the struggle and so that’s another mess I’ll have to clean up when I’ve emptied Caliburn.

Finally, to the chirping of the early dawn chorus I had the Minerva strapped down properly, locked in place, and by some judicious manoeuvring of straps and fasteners I could get the tailboard of the trailer in position as well – so that the Minerva won’t fall off again.

caliburn ford transit ifor williams trailer belgian land rover minerva les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis is an excellent trailer and well-worth every penny that we spent on it, but it’s not a proper car transporter and its high centre of gravity makes for interesting cornering on mountain roads when you have a high-sided vehicle like a Minerva and there’s a cross-wind.

On a couple of occasions the trailer wanted to go in a different direction than I did and when you aren’t expecting it to happen it’s guaranteed to get the adrenalin flowing. If I’m going to be moving the Minerva – and other vehicles – about on a frequent basis (and that is the plan) I need a proper low-loader trailer.

The sooner that I have one, the better.

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Saturday 2nd April 2011 – BACK IN BELGIUM

After my vicissitudes on the road yesterday, I finally came to rest on the service area at Nivelles at about 03:00 – a 19-hour day (teachers, please take note).

At least it gave me the opportunity to have one of the best nights’ sleeps that I’ve had on the road for quite some time so next morning I was up and about and ready for anything.

loading belgian land rover minerva onto ifor williams trailer brussels belgiumNext morning I went round to Bernards to load up the Minerva. It’s not that heavy and we managed to push it onto the trailer without even the hint of a winch – really!

I’ve left the trailer parked up at Bernard’s house now waiting for me to go back to pick it up tomorrow late afternoon. I have plenty to do (like shopping and the like) and I don’t want to drag all of this around behind me through the streets of Brussels and anywhere else.

After spending 2 hours discussing solar panels with 2 guys from the Congo (it’s better than Nigeria I suppose) whom I met outside Carrefour, I did some shopping and then went to the flat where I half-loaded the van.

But you all missed the excitement there as well – and Terry would have loved this.

  1. A van pulls into the private parking space of someone while it unloads some stuff
  2. the owner of the private parking space pulls up behind and blocks them in – and then walks away
  3. the owner of the van goes to fetch the President of the Conseil de Gerance
  4. the President of the Conseil de Gerance accuses me of parking my van there (it’s a small white Volkswagen we are talking about here by the way) so we have “a frank exchange of views” about this and he won’t be coming to talk to me again.
  5. the owner of the car says that he is going to leave his car parked blocking this van in – and obstructing the passageway – all night
  6. The President tells the owner of the car “yes, you do that – it’ll serve these bastards in this van right”
  7. The President and the car driver wander off arm-in-arm more or less, to the accompaniment of some ribald commentary from Yours Truly.
  8. The woman from the next garage can’t get her car into her garage
  9. The man in the previous garage can’t get his car out of his garage
  10. The police are called.
  11. Having stirred the pot by coming out with my usual round of … errr … helpful comments, I wander away.

Isn’t life exciting in Brussels?

And now just for a change, I’m in a small hoted in Ghent. I’ve been for a walk around and I’ve had some chips and a vegetable kebab and I’m okay. Here I’ll be staying until the morning.

It’s a departure from the usual procedure, I know, but I just fancied doing something a little different. And why not?

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Friday 1st April 2011 – I’M OFF YET AGAIN

Today was the day when I had to go back to Brussels to rescue the Minerva.

This meant sorting out Terry’s trailer and then checking over Caliburn to make sure that he’s ready for the road. Once that was organised, I needed to check myself out to make sure that I was ready too, and then make a flask of coffee and a pile of butties for the route.

What with this and that as well, it turned out to be a full day’s work and I needed to clean myself up yet again before I was ready.

As a result, it was later than usual when I set off to drive the 700-odd kms to Brussels in Caliburn, and I couldn’t go as fast as usual either towing the big trailer behind me. There’s a speed restriction for vehicles towing trailers, although you would never ever guess it from the way that they move about here.

And didn’t I have an exciting time too?

Actually the drive was quite uneventful and nothing much happened until I crossed the Belgian border at Couvin, apart from stopping for fuel, a pizza and some coffee from the flask at Auxerre.

But at Couvin in the town itself there was probably a dozen or so officers from the “Flying Customs” having a meeting – in the middle of the road just round a sharp bend. And it was just like 10-pin bowling as they scattered all over the place as Caliburn and I came steaming around the corner. It’s a long time since I’ve had such a laugh.

The chief of the Customs told me what he thought of me, and seeing as it was late and I was tired and my patience deteriorates the more tired that I am, I told him what I thought of him and his persons as well and we had a “frank exchange of views”. 

Anyway so he p155ed off as I suggested that he did, and I drove to Charleroi where I fell into a police barrage. Everyone was being stopped and their papers checked and the like. I was asked if I had had an alcoholic drink and would I mind blowing into this bag (random checks are permissible here). I replied that if he found anything in my breath I would give him €5 and of course my money is perfectly safe.

I made it as far as the motorway services at Nivelles and here is where I’ll be bedding myself down until the morning. I hope that I have a good sleep because I’m absolutely whacked.

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Thursday 31st March 2011 – I’m making loads of progress …

in the garden right now. Today the first task was to tidy the greenhouse seeing as I can’t even get in there, let alone find anything. A load of plastic pots and yogurt container thingies went into the bin – and that’s another thing – I now have 4 bins. One for plastics, one for metal, one for glass and one for rubbish (the paper of course is used as fire-lighters). That was something else that I did too.

And so with a tidy greenhouse I made myself some potting soil – 4 parts garden soil, 3 parts sand, 2 parts LIDL compost and one part wood ash. And when it was all mixed I planted some seed in pots – 2 types of tomato, aubergine, peppers. cucumber and leeks. I colour-code my pots as you know and I’m lucky in that my soya desserts come in so many varieties with different shapes and colours of pots. I keep the same plants together in the same colour pots.

“But isn’t drainage a problem with plastic yoghurt-type pots?” I hear you ask.
The answer is “not at all” because if you put 10 or so together one inside another and then heat up a baked potato skewer until it’s quite hot, it will go through the bottoms of 10 pots three or four times with ease 

And so now I have my March seeds sown, this afternoon I tackled a few more raised beds. I’ve cleaned a few more out and there’s only 3.5 to go. Mind you, there’s not much hurry for those just now.

Tomorrow evening I’m going back to Brussels to rescue the Minerva and bring it back. And when I return I’ll be making a start on building the new greenhouse and the garden shed. High time I organised that as well.

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Wednesday 30th March 2011 – You can see …

… my apartment in Brussels on the internet if you like. But you’ll have to hurry. Someone has made me an offer already, and negotiations are proceeding.

That was quite a pleasant surprise at lunchtime, and it quite disrupted my flow of thought. What with crashing out yesterday late afternoon when I should have been catching up on my correspondence, I had to sped the morning doing just that. Until I was rudely interrupted, that was.

So while waiting for the Post Office to open I dug over another raised bed, and returning from my trip into Pionsat I planted my shallots and garlic. Well, not all of the garlic because I seem to have far too much. But I do know someone who can make use of it. But once that was out of the way I did some more digging over and I now have some sprouts, some carrots and some coriander in.

Tomorrow I shall have to make a start on making up some seed trays because there are a few things that need planting even though it’s too early to put them outside.

And then back up here and I crashed out again – it’s getting to me, all of this work.

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Tuesday 29th March 2011 – I’ve spent all day on the road.

We started off at Radio Tartasse to record their programmes for April. It was the usual disorganised performance there but we managed well enough.

Radio Arverne wanted us at 13:00 this afternoon and so it wasn’t worth going home. We went to Chateuneuf-les-Bains for a coffee instead. That was much more interesting.

At Radio Tartasse, which is much more organised we did 5 programmes in less than an hour, and then went off to the Carrefour at Riom for a butty, a coffee and a nosy around the shops where I bought some 100%vegan margarine for my garlic bread for tea.

Back here, I sorted out some screws and some of the seeds for the garden but my heart’s not in it right now. I’ve not recovered fully from the effects of digging all of these raised beds. It’s taking it out of me getting ready for planting. So with that in mind I knocked off at 17:30 and came up here for a rest.

I’ll have a lie-in tomorrow to see if I’ll feel any better, and then I’ll go out a-planting. I need to get the garlic and the shallots in place pretty quickly. And I’m away at the weekend too.

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Monday 28th March 2011 – It finally stopped raining this afternoon.

But not before I’d become soaking wet.

I’ve been gardening for most of the day and the first thing that I did, after digging through the beds again, was to plant the new potatoes – the important stuff.

gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd then I made two frameworks for some more raised beds, pulled up the large one that I made to fill a gap last year, laid these two down and dug them in. And that took ages as well for much of the soil where these beds are is virgin soil, full of roots and thistles and brambles and so on.

But anyway, they are in place now and I planted the onions. Some that I pulled up last year have sprouted and so they have gone back, and there were a couple in last year’s bed – they have been moved.

On Wednesday I’ll be planting the shallots and garlic – not tomorrow as we are in the recording studio. And that reminds me, if you want to hear our Christmas Special and the programmes for January and February you need to go here.

Tonight I had a gorgeous tea – the leftover veggie burgers from last night with potatoes that I discovered in the ground when I was relaying the new beds. And beautiful it all was too. I can’t wait to get going on food that I’ll be growing in my garden this year.

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Sunday 27th March 2011 – Today I saw…

…the worst football match that I have ever seen in my life.

I drove all the way to St Avit to watch Pionsat’s 3rd XI but when I arrived there I found that the match had been cancelled. And it was pointless going back all the way to Pionsat to watch the 2nd XI – I’d have missed the first half and then I would have to drive halfway back to see Liz and Terry. However I did see some action at Charensat’s ground and so I stopped off there, to see them play Marcillat in a 3rd Division game.

In the first half the score was 0-0, and the teams were lucky to get nil it was so dreadful. In the second half Charensat opened the scoring. The Marcillat keeper’s kicking was pretty dreadful and so after a while the captain decides to take the goal kicks. For his first effort he kicks it all of 15 yards, right to a Charensat forward who prompty volleys it right back into the goal.

Charensat’s second comes from a corner. A ball played right across the goal with everyone standing there watching it except for a Charensat attacker on the far post who just stoops to head it in. Simple.

And Marcillat pull a goal back. A harmless cross into the penalty area with no-one on the other side, and the Charensat keeper, for reasons known only to himself, puts in a really acrobatic climb-cum-twist and I’m still not sure how he did it, and he palms the ball into his own net.

With just minutes to go, a foul is committed and the ref gives it in the favour of Marcillat, even though he was the only one who reckoned it was in that direction. The Charensat trainer tells the ref what he thought of the decision, and the ref tells the trainer what he thinks of the Charensat trainer. The Charensat defence are arguing amongst themselves and still argue as the ref blows his whistle and they still argue as the ball is played over the top of them to an unmarked Marcillat attacker who heads into an empty net.

Marcillat, easily the worst team I have ever seen, have been let out of jail in no uncertain terms.

And it gets worse.

Charensat have a striker called Guillaume who is quick, speedy, skilful, with good ball control, and if he broke through the Marcillat defence once he did it a dozen times. And faced with innumerable 1-on-1s with a shaky Marcillat keeper, he blasted it over the bar every time. And with 50 seconds remaining, he’s through again, two yards out, the best chance of the game, and he blasts it 5 yards over. His trainer’s language is unprintable in what is a family show like this. It was appalling, but then again, so was the miss.

At Liz and Terry’s I was kindly wined and dined, and we rehearsed our radio programme. We are in the studio on Tuesday.

And it’s rained and rained all day too. 

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Saturday 26th March 2011 – For those of you concerned …

about my physical welfare, I didn’t have a solar shower today.

And it’s my own fault anyway. Although this morning was slightly cloudy it didnt look too bad at all. I went into St Eloy les Mines and did some shopping there and (just for a change spent a few bob too.

planting lettuce raised beds gardening les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd in the Carrefour they had trays of baby lettuce for €3.99, so I bought one. I was expecting about 10 or 12 but in fact there were 25 all told, and you can’t leave that many in the tiny tray. And so I thoroughly watered one of the potato beds and planted them in there, thinking that I can plant the spuds around them and they will be long gone before I need to uproot the taties.

And of course, that was the cue for a torrential downpour as you might expect, and that was the summer over. I came up here with a coffee, crashed out, and am I going to have an uncomfortable night as I spilled a mug of coffee all over my bed settee as I keeled over and now it’s all wet.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire montel villosanges puy de dome ligue football league franceAt the footy tonight there was just one match, the 1st XI against Montel Villosanges. And Pionsat won with a most bizarre goal.

A beautiful ball over the top of the defence that set up a chase – two Pionsat attackers against two of the Chimps defenders. But the keeper got to it first, just outside his area, and he fairly whacked the ball as hard as he could – straight into the face of a Pionsat attacker. The ball ricocheted off his face, went back over the keeper’s head and with one bounce it went straight into the net.

Yes, you can tell that things are going Pionsat’s way for a change when they can win matches by scoring goals like this.

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Friday 25th March 2011 – This glorious weather is continuing.

We had over 25°C today outside, and for quite a lengthy period too. Not a cloud in the sky in fact. I carried on down in the potager –  

gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceI cut down a couple of huge trees that had grown there (although I haven’t uprooted the stumps yet), dug out where the third bed will be, uprooted god knows how many smaller stumps from out of there, dug it all over a few more times, and then made the raised bed framework that will enclose it all.

That’s in place now and so to finish off I tidied up in the barn so that I can now get in and out without falling over things.

solar shower hot water les guis virlet puy de dome franceThe water in the solar shower was still at 36°C (it reached 37°C at one point in the afternoon) when I knocked off at 18:00 and so I took advantage by having yet another shower. I’ll be washing myself away at this rate – it’s only the dirt that holds me together.

And up here in my room the temperature was at 20.1°C – by far the highest of the year in here.

What more could any man require?

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Thursday 24th March 2011 – Nothing really special happened at all today …

 although I am fed up of the blasted French Air Farce. At 16:32 precisely this afternoon one of their jets flew over my house so low that it set the wind turbines going off. It was unbelievable – I’ve never heard such a racket in all my life. And what did I do to deserve it? I haven’t had a UN Security Council resolution made against me, have I?

So that’s me thoroughly fed up and I’m going to declare my house a no-fly zone. I’m going to see if I can’t track down a Stinger missile somewhere (the Taliban still have a few that the Septics sold them back in the early 1980s) and set it up in my garden. The next b@st@rd who thinks it’s funny to fly over my house at zero feet will get more than he bargained for when I light the blue touchpaper and retire. All I’ll need to do after that is to see if there are still a few Scud missiles left buried in the sand in Iraq (the Scud, by the way, is a direct descendant of the German V1) and drop a few of them onto the French Air Farce headquarters. See how they like it.

B@$t@rd$

But it wasn’t just the French Air Farce that set off my wind turbines. It’s been quite windy today here too and round about 12:00 we had a good half an hour of high winds. I had 2.1 amp-hours of wind energy off the old AIR turbine and I’m impressed with that.

raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceMeanwhile, back at the ranch, I had a good day in the garden and I now have two new raised beds installed. The one on the left is for the new potatoes and the other one, together with a third new one that I shall be installing in early course behind the compost bins, will be for the old potatoes.

But while I was hacking away in there I came across one of my original apple trees in the jungle. It’s weighted down with brambles and scrub but it’s still going with loads of buds right now. It might be possible to save it and so I had a go at clearing away much of the rubbish that was dragging it down.

Another solar shower too – water at 36°C rhis afternoon although it had cooled down to 34°C by the time I knocked off. It didn’t feel that warm when I was standing underneath it having a shower but I feel that I ought to be taking advantage of the warm weather and keep myself clean.

It can’t keep up like this for ever, although of course I wish that it would. This time last year we had a few days of 20-odd °C, I notice, but the weather soon collapsed.

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Wednesday 23rd March 2011 – And if you thought …

… that yesterday’s events were spectacular, well you ain’t see nuffink yet.

I woke up at the silghtly earlier time of … errr … 09:44 and I’ve worked out that for the last two days I’ve managed to sleep through 4 alarm calls each day. That’s some going even for me. I must be tired.

gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnyway after breakfast I carried on with the new plots. with the first one that I’m currently working on I’m having difficulties in that there are huge tree roots running right through it. After ages of digging, I gave up and went and sharpened the hatchet that I use for cutting firewood. That did the business – you can swing it in confined spaces like trenches – and now I have the one bed finished.

Tomorrow I might well make the framework for that and then carry on with the second bed.

tabletop washing machine solar hot water les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter lunch, the water in the home-made immersion heater (powered by surplus energy from the solar panels) had reached the heady heights of 50°C and so that was my cue to get 20 litres of water out of it and do a load of washing. It’s rusting a little inside the drum that I’m using. Clearly I’m going to have to rig up one of the copper immersion heaters that I’ve scavenged

But never mind that – I’m impressed that it works at all – it’s nice to have done a load of washing that cost me nothing at all to do. Apart from the soap of course – the €12 that I paid for the machine has been reimbursed many times over.

Drying too is free – just hang the clothes outside in the sun and slight wind. what more do you want?

But that’s not all. The water in the solar heat exchanger was showing 34°C all on its own without the aid of any hot water added from a kettle. And so that was the cue for yet another shower. And you’ve no idea how pleasant it is to be all nice and clean and in clean clothes, and ready for bed in clean sheets.

And it won’t be long before I’m in those sheets either. I can’t last the pace these days.

After my shower I went round to Marianne’s for a chat. She wants me to do some research for her at Cambridge next time I’m in the UK. But she also needs a bit of burglarising and breaking and entering doing. My name came to the top of the list in that respect so it seems and it’s for that reason that she invited me round.

The things I get to do!

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Tuesday 22nd March 2011 – I knocked off early today …

… which might come as a surprise to many, seeing as it was probably the nicest day of the year and that I didn’t wake up this morning until … errr …. 10:20 and so I owe myself a couple of hours.

But once I was up and about I started on the vegetable plots, and not before time either. I cleared away some more of the jungle and that will be where I’ll be putting in another line of raised beds – the spuds will be going in there this year to start them off. You’ll remember that I have about 10 raised beds, in 5 rows of 2. I’ll be putting in a sixth row and also a third bed in that row – the extra bed going behind the compost bins. Ultimately there will be three beds in each row, but that won’t be this year.

I needed the pickaxe to pull up a few tree stumps too – there were in somewhat deep. It’s harder work the further down the slope I go because the further down, the longer the ground has remained undisturbed and the ground alder has got a severe hold down there.

Mark, who comes to the Anglo-French Group, gave me an idea too. He doesn’t use a chainsaw for chopping wood (neither do I) and while I’ve been struggling with all kinds of methods to cut wood, he says he uses an ordinary saw but one with huge teeth. A while ago I was in Brico Depot and saw exactly what he meant – a scie de coffreur – or joiner’s rough-cut saw. I bought one back then, and today I tried it out and I’ll tell you that there’s some mileage in this. It did an excellent job of cutting down overhanging branches.

And so why did I knock off early? Well with it being so nice just now (3 days that I’ve had the fridge running and 2 days that I’ve had no heating) I happened to look at the water in the solar shower tank at 17:00. 28°C. And seeing as there was no wind, it was 15°C outside and bright sunlight, I filled a kettle, boiled it up, made myself a coffee and tipped the rest of the hot water into the solar tank. That brought the temperature up to 42°C and I had an impromptu, unexpected but most welcome solar shower. In March as well. That’s a new all-time record.

And with the water temperature in the home-made immersion heater reaching 59.5°C today, I’m going to keep my eye on it. And if it gets up to that tomorrow, I’m going to do a load of washing using the home-made immersion heater to fill  the machine.

That will be exciting.

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Monday 21st March 2011 – And if you thought …

that yesterday’s 260-odd amp-hours was impressive, then what about today’s 300 amp-hours? We haven’t had many days like that in June and July.

Not only that, the water temperature in the home-made immersion heater topped 60°C and that was impressive too. In fact, it was more-than-impressive – it was the highest figure ever recorded. And it’s only March as well.

You can guess the kind of day that we’ve been having today. Cold and windy but totally beautiful.

And what have I been up to today? Last night just as I was going to bed Terry mailed me. “I need to give you your stuff back as I need the van empty”
“Okay” I replied. “I’ll see what I can do. Come round as late as possible”
And so today I started to tidy up in the barn again and make a huge pile of space to put stuff. But then I had a phone call. “I need to come to see The Beguiled. Can I drop your stuff off in an hour’s time?”

So the tidying went out of the window and stuff was thrown everywhere to make a big space. Terry arrived and so did my furniture, and that is nice. There’s still lots of space too, which I’ll need for when I go back and fetch the rest of the stuff. But the barn where I want to put the Ford Cortina 2000E – that can be cleared in a day or so. I just need to move the caravan shell.

I was whacked after that (strange things go on around here) and crashed out – I almost missed the Anglo-French Group meeting but I awoke just in time.

But I’m thinking about this barn. It’s not going to be difficult to put a suspended floor in over the garage bit, you know I’m going to be looking into this
 

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