Tag Archives: stone wall

Wednesday 19th December 2018 – HAVING GONE …

… to bed at some kind of reasonable time last night, I actually managed to have a reasonable sleep.

I was off on a travel too, but I’ll spare you the details. It’s another one of those that will catch you just as you are eating a meal or something and you won’t thank me for it.

There was something of a lazy daze which took me a while to overcome, but it wasn’t as late as it might have been which is always good news. Even better news is that the arrangements for my new computer have been confirmed and it might be here in a fortnight if I’m lucky.

After breakfast, I arranged some images, and then started on the High Arctic pages again. A slow ramble through a couple of pages – nothing as exciting as I have been doing in the past, but much better than recently. I’m feeling a little better, but not as much as I would like.

We’ve had lunch and then the first of our two walks. But I didn’t get too far out of the building before I came to a resounding halt.

Remember the green machine that was parked out here the other day? Here it is, fully erect and doing a really good impression of a cherry-picker, with some people on board doing some work around the flashing of the dormer window up there.

It looks quite impressive.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that a while back they were drilling into the wall above the window of a house along the rue du Nord.

Whatever it was that they were doing, they seem to have finished it. And it’s not easy to see where it was that they were working.

You can’t see the join in the stonework where they were pulling stuff out and, presumably, putting stuff back in.

We had a beautiful early moon as well this afternoon.

I was out there taking a few photos of it, during which I was the victim of a really good photo-bombing.

Here we have a seagull performing a celebratory fly-past. Quite by accident on my part of course, but who knows what goes through the mind of a seagull?

We were having a very strong wind this afternoon, and out on the Plat Gousset we were reaping the full rewards of it.

The waves were piling into the sea wall and every now and again, one was getting the timing perfectly right and the spray was soaring up over the unsuspecting passers-by.

And serve them right too.

A day or two ago we saw a strange-looking crane parked up on the Square Maurice Marland.

I heard a story a while back that there would be some work being undertaken on the medieval town walls. And here they are with the crane looking as if they are actually doing something.

Loads of bags down there filled with all kinds of building material;

A stuffed pepper (one of the best that I’ve ever made) with spicy rice for tea, and my second walk in the dark. That’s the sum total of my day’s effort. I’m going to go to bed.

But before I go, although I have promised not to fill up my pages with politics, I see that the British press is full of comments about a remark that a British politician is alleged to have made about another one. And it’s caused page after page of drivel pouring out over all kinds of postings on all kinds of communication.

All I can say that with the UK descending into total chaos with talk of troops on the streets to keep order, stockpiling food and baby milk, all this kind of thing, the silly Brits are so stupid and so lacking in any kind of sense of priorities that they consider this to be the most important topic of debate just now.

They need to have their collective heads examined, the stupid people.

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Wednesday 18th December 2013 – DESPITE WHAT I SAID YESTERDAY …

… I cracked on with this wall today, and it’s finished too!

What got me going was that in the part of the stone wall that I hadn’t touched, there were all kinds of things growing in it, including two huge thistles, and so I needed to demolish part of the wall to uncover the roots.

The wall there wasn’t much good and it didn’t take long, and by the time that I’d done that, I had a huge pile of stones. Digging out a track to replace the stones, I found that there was a long line of stones, right up to the boundary of the plot, down underneath the soil. There’s been a wall here before.

That was the cue to dig out the track properly and to clean it out, and then I dashed off for my surveyor’s line and a pile of large stones from my collection.

There was one that made a beautiful corner piece and it was really heavy so with a large crowbar I levered it into position and there we were, on our way.

Building stone walls is not as easy as you might think – it’s a bit like a three-dimensional jigsaw and you need lots of patience, and so I’m surprised that I managed to get as far as I did.

But it’s here in all its glory, all assembled and pointed, and it makes a world of difference to the place.

It needs to be built up from the reverse side but that can wait for a bit.

I always know when I’ve done something that I’ve enjoyed and that has pleased me, because I have a tendency to sit and look at it for ages. and I certainly did that with this wall, that’s for sure.

With what was left of my working day, I attacked the upstairs in the lean-to. I found a big box and all the dry mortar that I scraped out of the wall when I pointed it, that went in the box and now it’s quite clean and tidy up there;

Tomorrow I may well make a start on making the shelves and cupboards that will be going there.

-4

Tuesday 17th December 2013 – I’M CRACKING ON …

… with this wall as you can see. There’s only about another 6 feet to finish but that’s going to take a while as the wall needs to be properly rebuilt. It’s not beyond my capacities of course – it just takes time to do.

What’s annoying is that I ought to have finished it today. However I lost an hour this morning due to having to attend to the beichstuhl needing emptying, and I lost another half-hour with having to nip to the Post Office.

After it went dark I rigged up a light upstairs in the lean-to and started the pointing that need to be done up there before I can start on the shelving. I can’t understand why I haven’t done that before.

And what else? Ahh yes. The sun went in this afternoon and we had clouds. First time i’ve seen clouds in a week and a half. We might even have some winter next.

-6

Friday 13th December 2013 – DO YOU REMEMBER …

… yesterday when I was talking about the stone wall here?

The old woodshed was on those pallets just there and the wood was stacked up against the wall. The wall is honeycombed with all kinds of things growing in it but that part there, where the wood has been for about 3 years or more, nothing at all has been able to grow in that.

Consequently, it’s perfectly clean and weed-free and I want to keep it like that. Hence my decision to mortar the joints, even though it’s supposed to be a dry stone wall.

Not only does it look much prettier like that, then nothing will grow in it either, I hope, and that will be one less thing to have to worry about.

It took me most of the day to do that as I had to clean off all of the moss and the like, and in a few places I had to build parts of it back up again. There were also a few weeds growing in the top and so I had to pull them out. But here we are anyway, one wall about a third done.

This evening I went round to Marianne’s as she was having computer issues. And after I had sorted those out, Marianne cooked some food which was really nice of her.

And it’s rained this evening. First time in well over a week.

-6

Friday 21st September 2012 – 19:32 …

… it was when I knocked off this evening – on POETS Day too, would you believe?

But at least I have all of the stones in place in the wall and all of the joints have been filled in.

Dodging the heavy rain showers of course, but I wasn’t going to let a little water bother me too much.

There was a half-bucket of mortar left over too, and nowhere to stick it (no suggestions, please), I put that on the inside upstairs.

And such is the state of play today.

I would like to say that the wall is finished but of course it isn’t. And I’m not very happy with it at all.

I had the predicted avalanche of stones that wiped out a lot of today’s work and a good part of yesterday’s too but I’ve managed to replace it all.

What I’m going to have to do is to leave it for a week or two for the stones to settle and the mortar to cure. Then to go over it again to see if there are any loose stones or cracks in the mortar and seal them in again.

At least, it’s in far better condition now that it ever was before.

And do you notice the addition to the guttering? The 87° angle and the guttering offcut that takes the water well away from under the eaves and stops 10 litres of rain water going down the back of your overalls 30 seconds after the rain starts?

This morning though I went to Marcillat-en-Combraille to record the Radio Anglais rock music programme for Radio Tartasse but there was no-one there.

I tried ringing them at home but no answer so after waiting half an hour I came home. Maybe they forgot – or else maybe I mixed up the dates. That wouldn’t surprise me.

So I came back and worked on the website for a couple of hours.

And this evening? Nothing at all. I deserve a rest and I’ll be going to bed in a tick.

-4

Thursday 20th September 2012 – I BET THAT …

… you are fed up of seeing photos of this blasted wall.

But you are lucky – you only have to look at it for 30 seconds or so. On the other hand, I have to look at it every day from about 12:30 until 19:00, so imagine just how fed up I am!

It’s still not finished either. There’s about 2m² to finish off and then to dig out and clear away at the foot of the wall and seal that in.

And if you think that that is the work of just 5 minutes then think again because this is the crucial bit.

The stones are held in by cement which was pasted over the top of the sand and clay mortar, but that has been washed away a long time ago by the rain infiltrating down behind it when there was no roof on, and so there’s the cement with nothing behind it.

What I have to do is to knock out the cement, remove the loose stones one-by-one (which is about all of them I reckon) and then knock oversized ones into the gap to bind it all together and cement them in.

Doing it from the top down means that the ones above where I’ll be working are held in by the cement and by being wedged well in. But it’s still not comfortable and so if I don’t blog tomorrow night then it will be because the lot has crashed down on top of me.

And that’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

It’s getting to me, though. For the first time in absolutely ages I overslept – clean through the alarms.

Missing most of the morning put me in a bad mood as I had lots to do, but I managed to record the music for my rock music programmes that I shall be recording tomorrow morning (assuming that I wake up).

No, I can’t wait for the weekend, a rest and a good, comfortable sleep.

-5

Wednesday 19th September 2012 – I TOOK DOWN …

… the scaffolding at lunchtime.

Yes, the first time in over 10 years that there has been no scaffolding of one kind or another out there at the back.

I was working out there all afternoon but I’ve not made much progress because this isn’t as easy as it looks. The concrete mortar that they used to cover the gaps between the stones is taking ages to come off.

Usually, if the mortar is in good condition I’ll leave it on and put the chalk over the top, but what is happening here is that water has infiltrated down the back of the concrete mortar when there was no roof on the lean-to.

This has washed away all of the original sand-and-clay mortar, so that it’s hollow behind.

The concrete mortar needs to be hacked off, the joints raked out, stones hammered in to keep the existing stones in position and in tension, and then the whole lot mortared in with chalk.

Of course, sometimes 3 or 4 stones fall out, and so I have to find an oversize one to knock into the gap with a sledgehammer. This is important to lock the remaining original stones in their position so that the stresses are spread horizontally and not vertically.

This morning though I had a good session on the website dealing with the footy match on Sunday.

It’s not quite finished yet but round about 11:30 I had a go experimenting with my old digital dictaphone to see if I could make it work like I wanted. No such luck and so I decided I would have a good search around for the one I lost on Sunday.

In the end I found it – fallen out of my pocket and down the back of Caliburn’s driving seat.

But no phone though – I must have been mistaken about hearing it bleep as it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in hearing distance.

I’ve also had an angry phone call with one of these rip-off solar panel merchants.

Apparently if I have his system fitted, it will pay for itself in 10 years.
“How is that?”
“Well, it costs €19,000 (three times what it would cost me to supply the stuff incidentally) and the Electricity Board will pay you €1,800 per year for 10 years
“That makes €18,000 doesn’t it?”
“Yes”
“So how will if pay for itself in 10 years?”
“Because the Electricity Board will pay you €1,800 per year for 10 years”

So after much arguing and shouting, he slammed the phone down. Serve him right. Nothing but a rip-off

But I’m glad that I got my wood in anyway. In the short space of time that it took to make tea tonight the temperature fell from 12.1°C to 8.0°C – on course to be the coldest night of this end of the year.

That’s also why I’m glad that I stayed here to do this wall and not go gallivanting off to Canada just now. Finish this before the end of autumn and it will last for ever.

-2

Monday 17th September 2012 – IT ISNT HALF …

… going dark early these days.

I was still out pointing the wall this evening when the first of the solar night-lights came on.

19:40 that was, and long after my knocking off time of 19:00 when I’m on Summer Hours working.

Mind you, it wasn’t as if I was unaware of the time either – I knew almost exactly how late it was, but I’m falling behind again with this wall and I need to press on.

And I’m not going to be here tomorrow either.

This morning I had to go to help Rosemary unload this van with all of this new furniture.

Quite modern it is, but made of oak and in a period style that perfectly matches the type of house that you find round here. I’m not much of a one for aesthetics as you know, but it really is beautiful stuff.

The guy who delivers it was quite a useful person to know. He runs a business having articles delivered to him which he then brings down to France for the purchaser. We had a lengthy chat and I’ll be having a few more chats with him in the future too.

Then I had to go with Terry to the quarry for a trailer-load sand.

All in all it was 16:20 when I started on the wall, so you see why I’m getting all behind.

I had a couple more stones drop out on me when I was raking out the old cement – that part of wall really was badly damaged. Anyway, a few oversized stones hammered deep into the gap and that should hold it up, I hope.

So why aren’t I going up the wall tomorrow then?

Simply that Terry and I own a mini digger that we hire out and it was out at the weekend. The guy offered us cash, or a huge load of wood instead. Wood being more valuable than the cash, Terry ended up with a huge trailer load.

So tomorrow I have to go to help Terry cut it into 30cm lengths and then I can load up Caliburn with my share. Wood is a vital part of life round here, especially when it’s -20°C here in February.

I’ve still not found my dictaphone and neither have I found the mobile phone, but 1O minutes searching threw up a few other things that I’ve been looking for.

And I almost forgot to mention that I did go to LIDL this morning and they had 3 packets of those lights left. Or, rather, they did. So now I have enough for the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, as well as for over the workbenches in the barn and the lean-to.

But I still need plenty more so I might go a little farther afield this weekend.

In other news, we were having a little chat about this affair in Annecy with this Iraqi family that was massacred. You know, the more I look at this and the more I think about it, the more it looks to me like something that MOSSAD might well have organised.

I smell a very large rat with all of this.

-5

Thursday 13th September 2012 – I THOUGHT FOR A …

… moment this morning, like I do occasionally, you know, that I was going to be in for a session of working inside.

For the first time for I don’t know how many months. I woke up nice and early after my very early night, and the first sound that I heard was the gentle pit-a-pat of rain on the windows in the roof.

And so I set to work to catch up on the website for a change just recently (I’m now at the old Quebec arsenal), but right on cue, at 12:30 the rain suddenly stopped.

That was the only indication that I needed. I grabbed my trowel and dashed outside to work. Dodging the rain showers, of which there were more than just a few.

I’m rather pleased with the overhang that I built into the roof.

There were two reasons that I did that

I didn’t fancy cutting the long sheets of plywood
I wanted to keep the rain as far away from the foot of the wall as possible so that the damp doesn’t soak up into the walls from below.
That seems to work, anyway. The ground was bone-dry about 15 inches from the wall which was exactly what I wanted.

And hammering stones into the gaps until they are thoroughly and tightly in is definitely the way to go

This is shown by the hairline cracks that are appearing in the mortar that I’ve been doing just recently (this is natural – as the mortar dries out, it shrinks). They are now running horizontally, not vertically.

Obviously this wedging of the gaps is holding the walls upright.

I’ve finished off the one half of the long wall of the lean-to, right down to, and in fact below the level of the ground as I’ve dug a trench about 6 inches deep and sealed the wall down there too.

But now I’ve started on the second half of the long wall – the last bit to do.

It’s not going to be finished by the weekend, or anything like it unfortunately

But there’s still two and a half weeks before I have to decide if (notice the “if” rather than the “when” – that’s a disappointment) I’m going away for a while in October.

So tonight I’ll sit here and recover for a while and then go to bed. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, and then it’s weekend.

-1

Wednesday 12th September 2012 – I HAVEN’T BEEN …

… on my website for the last couple of days. The footy has now started as you know and so I’ve been redesigning the footy website and doing the pages for the first two matches.

Those pages are now on line so that’s something accomplished.

This afternoon, in between the rain showers, I’ve been driving myself up the wall again.

I’ve got down to the bottom on part of the wall at long last and I need to reach the bottom on the other bit that I’m working on. And it does look much better without the scaffolding in the way, doesn’t it?

That should be lunchtime or thereabouts tomorrow if I put my mind to it, extricate my digit and have a good start. Then I can start on the other half of the wall.

But anyway, banging a few of these oversize stones in really tight seems to have helped the wall settle, although of course the proof of the pudding …

In other news, never mind the temperature, I have all of the windows closed tight and I’m wearing a sweater. The temperature has collapsed and winter is on its way.

Tomorrow I’ll have to start wearing clothes underneath my overalls and won’t that be a novelty?

-2

Tuesday 11th September 2012 – IT’S RAINING!!!!!

First time for 10 days as it happens, and aren’t the plants (and Yours Truly) grateful for it?

I woke up at about 05:00 due to the mouse in the roof doing his usual clog-dance, and I could hear a pitter-patter of rain on the skylights here.

That was it until lunchtime when we had a another quick 5 minutes or so, but this evening at about 22:00 we had a torrential downpour and wasn’t it pleasant to hear the water cascading into my water butts?

What was even nicer was that on the lean-to the water was cascading down the roof, into the guttering and out of the hole where it’s supposed to go. I can’t wait to install the water butts and to start collecting all of this.

And so I went back out on my wall, but I’m not convinced at all about what I’m doing.

Although I made some progress today, it’s definitely not going to be finished by the weekend, much to my dismay, and not by a long way either. It’s taking ages.

The problem is that all of the sand-mud mortar behind the large cracks has totally flaked away so it all needs to be raked out completely.

This means that some of the stones are loose so they need to be prised out, something that causes the wall to sag a little where you’ve just cemented – because you start from the top and work down, of course.

You then need to find a slightly larger stone which you then hammer into the gap until it’s solid – which causes the bit of wall that you’ve just done to rise up – and then wedge in with loose stones, and cement it in.

And then of course, the bit that you did earlier that you moved about just now needs re-cementing.

And this is how it goes – it’s taking ages, but then again if it had been so easy it would have been done properly long ago.

Then of course I need to keep raking away all of the sand and cement that falls out.

mean, it’s not as if it’s difficult – just time-consuming. So I’ve no idea when it might be finished.

The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival started in Fredericton today so I clearly won’t be going to that.

-1

Monday 10th September 2012 – OH DEER!

Oh deer indeed.

And to the deer that ran out in front of Caliburn somewhere between St Gervais d’Auvergne and Gouttieres on the way back from our Anglo-French Group meeting, Caliburn and I are really sorry.

But it’s a good job that I’m a vegan otherwise you would be in the pot right now.

Caliburn has a slight mark on the front bumper, which shows that he’s much more solidly built than the Chevy Malibu that I hired in Canada in 2003 (mind you, it was a stag that I hit back then) but I’m very much afraid that the deer went in all directions.

Ahh well 🙁

So apart from that dramatic end to the evening, what else?

After the usual bits and pieces on the computer, I went out and attacked the wall again.

But astonishingly, only 3 buckets of mortar went into the wall. And for a whol assortment of reasons.

I had to take down part of the scaffolding. That’s major progress in itself
But before I could do that, I had to move a pile of stuff.
Once that had gone, I had to hack down a pile of brambles and small trees to make some working space
I had to clear away all of the sand and cement that I’ve raked out of the wall and was piling up against the foot of the wall. That took ages, and I DO mean “ages” too

But I did make two startling discoveries

I knew that I had another garden rake somewhere, a big heavy duty proper one with real metal prongs.
And I would love to know what I was doing with it because it was under the stones that fell when the wall collapsed back all those years ago.
The handle has long since rotted away but I’ll buy a new one on Saturday at Cheze.
I now know the secret of why the lean-to is collapsing.
There’s a whole network of tree roots from the walnut tree that has infiltrated into the wall below ground level. Much of the day was spent extracting them, and I need to think of a permanent solution to deal with that issue.
Also, this is the bit where the wall is really bad.
Rainwater has infiltrated and washed the old mortar away and many of the stones are loose. They need extracting where possible and replacing with larger stones/
Either that or they need to be well packed in with other stones so that they can’t move and the forces above them are spread out horizontally.

So now you know why that’s why it’s taking me ages.

But anyway, at 18:45 I called it a day and had a quick a solar shower and following that, legged it to St Gervais d’Auvergne where we had the biggest crowd for quite a while.

And that is always pleasant.

-1

Friday 7th September 2012 – WHAT A GORGEOUS …

… tea 😉

New potatoes, beans and carrots straight out of the garden and into the vegetable steamer, all cooked with all my own surplus electtrical energy.

Then a veggie burger, onions and garlic fried in a mustard sauce with the vegetables and tipped, for the first time in I really don’t know how long, onto a plate.

No eating out of the saucepan for me tonight!

Yes, a meal fit for a king – with all of this surplus electrical energy from the glorious day that we had today, I had to do something with it. Cooking sounds like a good plan, and it’s one in the eye for my critics back in the UK.

I was up early today but somehow I couldn’t find any motivation for the website – no idea why. I’ve not advanced very far along the fortifications of Québec today.

But outside I cracked on and I’ve done quite a bit. Tons of progress today.

So much so that before I restart on Monday I need to take down half of the scaffolding. The half nearest the fence is now totally surplus to requirements so I need to remove it.

When that’s out of the way I shall rake out the soil to remove the stones, bits of cement and so on, and so I can kneel on the ground and finish off the last rows on that bit.

You’ve no idea how much I’m looking forward to taking down the scaffolding. There’s been scaffolding there of one sort or another since 2002 – that’s how long I’ve been trying to organise this lean-to.

Give me another 7 or 8 days and with luck the scaffolding will be gone completely.

It’s still rather sad though. This week I should have flown out to Canada for the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival at Fredericton.

But like I said the other day, if I do that, and then go back out to Canada next Spring too, this lean-to won’t be started again until next June and that’s far too long to wait.

I’m pretty-much determined that I want to finish the outside before I plan any trip anywhere. Finish it all off this year and that will be that – one of the most important projects around the house all finished off

So, where shall I go to in October? That is, of course, always assuming that I will have finished this blasted lean-to by then.

-1

Thursday 6th September 2012 – I DIDN’T GET MUCH …

… done on the wall today either. This deadline of next weekend is looking less and less likely

The effects of all these early mornings proved too much for me today. I vaguely heard the alarm clock go off, but it was 09:10 when I set foot out of bed.

Had It not been for the fact that I needed to go for a ride on the porcelain horse (or what passes for a porcelain horse around here) I would probably still be in bed right now

A good few hours on the website and then outside at 12:30 and I managed to bung two really good bucket-loads into the wall.

Even better – after lunch, even with rearranging some of the stones, I still heaved a couple of bucket loads in by 16:30. However, such is the condition of the wall that all of that chalk mortar isn’t advancing me very much.

And 16:30 though saw me come to a rather shuddering stop.

According to my weather reporting, weather comes in five grades

overcast
cloudy
clouds
scattered clouds
cloudless

We started to day with scattered clouds but by 16:30 we had progressed to a cloudless day. The water temperature in the home-made 12-volt immersion heater that I use as a dump load was 63°C, the batteries in the barn were fully-charged and there was a good wind blowing.

There was also a big pile of dirty clothes to be washed up here in the attic and the bedding needed changing – the kind of things that need doing no matter what other plans you have, and so I stopped work on the wall and dealt with the washing.

Put all of that out of the way.

While this was going on, I did a few odd jobs around here, like changing plugs on appliances and so on.

As you know, I don’t use Continental plugs and sockets here but British ones, for the simple reason that the plugs themselves are fused and so any issues with my system won’t damage the appliances.

‘ve also wired in the new media trolley that I assembled on Sunday. It now has a 4-way 230-volt socket that plugs into the wall – I can plug all of the external drives and so on into it, and it also has 3 x 12-volt DC sockets for things like the DVD player, the video player and so on.

Finally, even though the water in the solar shower was quite cold, I bunged 5 litres of hot water out of the dump load into it and had a shower myself – clean myself up.

And so now there are clean sheets, clean pillowcases, a clean quilt cover, and a clean me. I’m quite looking forward to that and it won’t be long before I’m in it either.

And then tomorrow I really must get cracking and no mistake.

-3

Wednesday 29th August 2012 – WE HAD OUR FIRST …

… no-show today.

Marianne and I went all the way out to Vergheas this afternoon for our Wednesday walk. Unfortunately no punters showed up, which was rather sad.

Mind you, it was only to be expected, I suppose. There had been the walk here a few weeks ago – the good one that I had been on, and then there was the pélerinage to the statue of the Black Virgin 10 days ago.

I suppose that everyone is simply Vergheased out.

Mind you it was just as well that no-one came because the sky was clouding over rapidly. We didn’t want to hang around too long. But long enough for one thing that I had wanted to do.

Vergheas is an old (and I DO mean old) fortified site – the mound upon which the church is built looks artificial to me, and that’s a good-enough indication.

What I had wanted to do was to see if there might be any trace of the old walls still remaining. When we had been here before, I’d had a good prowl around and had made a mental note of a couple of places that might be likely.

There was another flattened terrace on a lower level than that upon which the church is situated. This looked artificial to me.

The edges of this terrace were quite steep and in one or two places sloped down considerably towards the stream at the bottom. And sure enough, the side of that was lined with dressed stonework.

On the way back to Pionsat the heavens opened and we had 6mm of rain that fell in minutes. I can’t say that I’m sad about that, because we needed a good torrential downpour.

I was going to carry on working when I arrived home but I went upstairs and crashed out instead. I’d had a long, hard day.

This morning I was up early and met Rosemary at Montaigut en Combraille. She hopped into Caliburn and we went in to Montlucon. She ordered her new window at Lapeyre and I bought a load of stuff from Brico Depot.

I was back home for 13:15 – plenty of time to put the final coat of paint on the new woodwork ready to fit it tomorrow.

And in other news, and a bit of malicious gossip, if the conversation that was reported to me today means what a couple of people think that it might mean, no-one will be surprised if there’s a tiny addition to our little expat community’s population round about the start of the New Year.

-3

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality

Tag Archives: stone wall

Wednesday 19th December 2018 – HAVING GONE …

Wednesday 18th December 2013 – DESPITE WHAT I SAID YESTERDAY …

Tuesday 17th December 2013 – I’M CRACKING ON …

Friday 13th December 2013 – DO YOU REMEMBER …

Friday 21st September 2012 – 19:32 …

Thursday 20th September 2012 – I BET THAT …

Wednesday 19th September 2012 – I TOOK DOWN …

Monday 17th September 2012 – IT ISNT HALF …

Thursday 13th September 2012 – I THOUGHT FOR A …

Wednesday 12th September 2012 – I HAVEN’T BEEN …

Tuesday 11th September 2012 – IT’S RAINING!!!!!

Monday 10th September 2012 – OH DEER!

Friday 7th September 2012 – WHAT A GORGEOUS …

Thursday 6th September 2012 – I DIDN’T GET MUCH …

Wednesday 29th August 2012 – WE HAD OUR FIRST …

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