Our place in France Chapter 16

Another fairly quiet week as we gather our wits for the next visitors, due to arrive on Monday…. Or was it Sunday?? It did, however give us a chance to achieve a bit more around the house.

Carol and Steve had arrived with a loaded car, the result of them having sold their house in St Bee’s a few months earlier and ending up with a houseful of unwanted furniture. They brought us a single bed mattress and were really upset at not being able to fit the bed into the car too. A box of single bed linen accompanied this and two single duvets. Then there were two flat pack hanging rails, similar to the ones used in dress shops which will be very useful as we still have no hanging cupboards in the house, apart from the two camping-style ones in our room which are not exactly stylish or even reliable, as I have previously mentioned. Also in the car was a beautiful brass box with a relief moulded front which we will use for storing wood for the fire. To go with it was a matching set of fire-irons and these two items now stand one on each side of the wood stove.  Finally, there was a packet containing an item which I had ordered from the UK and had delivered to their address. This is a pull-up clothes airer which will be installed in the cellar. I doubt whether clothes will actually dry down there in less than a week, but at least they can hang up and not get all creased in the washing machine while we wait for sun. We went off to get the wooden rails for it yesterday and they are being sanded to a perfect curve as I write. I am looking forward to using it. The weather is so weird here that we never know what to expect. Take today, for example. We awoke to grey skies and a little drizzle, which then cleared up and for a while we had some sun. By lunch time it was pouring with rain and by three o’clock the sun was out again and quite warm too.

On Wednesday afternoon Neels had changed the oil in the car, managing to get old car oil all down his arm, which was fortunately covered with an overall. When he had finished, I suggested he put the overall straight into the washing machine, which he did, and then hung it on the line outside. We forgot about it until it started raining at about eight o’clock that night, so we left it there until next morning, but it was drizzling again when we went off to town, and pouring when we came back. But I am pleased to say that we finally retrieved the overall today during one of the dry spells. Clean, dry and very well rinsed!

Not much to write about this week, I’m afraid. Perhaps we’ll have more to say next week.