Another week of mostly non-activity. Not entirely, because
we have managed to almost complete a storage space for the spare room. I have
worried for quite a time about the lack of storage for our guests, but then
Carol and Steve brought us two hanging rails, similar to the ones you see in clothing
shops, which helped for hanging space in the two spare rooms. But we were still
desperately short of space to unpack any other clothes into. We looked around a
bit for inspiration, or something to buy, but we have this inherent problem of
vertical walls, or lack thereof. As things stand at the moment, we have a
dressing table against one vertical full height wall and the bed with its side
tables against the other and that’s about ‘it’. The remaining walls are only37
cms high, vertically and then they start to slope to form the ceiling. Anything
higher than 37 cms has to stand away from the wall and takes up floor space
which we can ill afford. In the end we decide to make something that resembles
a bookcase for coffee table books. In other words, big spaces between the
shelves. Lie this on its side, and fill the spaces with square plastic bins and
you have ground level storage. It looked a little odd at first, rather like a
bookcase lying on its side (how strange) so Neels is busy making the last of six
feet to go under it which will improve its looks quite a lot I hope. I say that
‘we’ have been making this item but of course, it has really been Neels, with
me just lending a hand when needed. I was also assigned the painting work,
which isn’t really fair as I always end up with paint everywhere. In fact, as I
type, I have white flecks all over my hands and although the label tells me
that this paint is water soluble, I’m not so sure. I have already scrubbed my
hands with the nailbrush and the flecks are still there. Hopefully they will
wear off in time!
The school holidays have ended for French and, I think,
British children and all around one sees holiday houses closed up again ‘until
next time’. The traffic density has also diminished enormously and it is almost
a pleasure to go to town again. The blazing weather of the past few weeks has
given up trying to bake us all to death and the temperatures have dropped down
to the upper twenties which is cool by comparison. The trees are starting to
drop their leaves and here and there a glimpse of Autumn can be seen. We have
never been here at this time of year before, I don’t think, and we are keen to
watch the colours change. Unlike South Africa which has numerous evergreen
trees and bushes, most of the trees here lose their leaves in winter and if the
range of colours, when the trees are green, is anything to go by, the autumn
colours will be splendid.
The cooler weather also means a drop in the number of flies
around which is a blessing. They got so bad at one stage that we resorted to
the good old-fashioned fly papers which are hugely successful but quite
disgusting to look at. The first one we hung up had to be taken down a day
later as it was so full but with subsequent papers they have taken longer to fill
up. Perhaps the flies get wise to the idea, but as long as they no longer come
inside and settle everywhere, I’m happy.
Our next major task will be to join the upstairs television
into the downstalrs decoder. It will be quite an undertaking as wires have to
be threaded up and down conduits already in the walls. We have slowly been
assembling the necessary fittings and cables and have become quite handy at
online shopping. It’s so simple and I love the fact that all the parcels come
right to the door or at least into the postbox at the roadside. None of this
fetching one’s parcel from Counter 3 at such and such a post office. No sir,
the post lady generally brings the parcels to the house. She’s caught us out a
couple of times when she has arrived early, or the parcel has, and neither of
us was even dressed. But I think she’s probably experienced that before. She
certainly didn’t look surprised when I appeared in my dressing gown!
Everyone in rural France seems to very garden-proud and
every Spring when the supermarkets all sport a large marquee selling seedlings,
potted plants and shrubs, the locals flock to buy their new season blooms. Not
willing to be left behind in this national activity, we duly went and bought
the necessary troughs and brackets and seedlings, and hoped for the best.
Well……I think geraniums must be the most forgiving plants as they have been
through a lot in their little lives, not the least of which is not being
watered. They are thriving on poor care and they, and the petunias which Carol
and Steve gave us when they were here, are looking magnificent as you can see
in the picture I have attached. Next year we hope to have a veggie garden going
and will plant tomatoes and hopefully some sweet corn. I crave ‘mealies’! They
can be bought here – two in a vacuum-packed bag – for nearly five euro. Work it
out. At the moment thats about R85 for two small ears of corn. Eish!!
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