For all of
you who watch the blog regularly you will recognise this as the manoir in catz.
This building had been abandoned for tens of years before we moved to Brevands 9
years ago and we had often commented of the utter shame that buildings are left for nature
to take over. Two years ago the gardens
were cleared and we have watched the slow but positive progress over this long
period of restoration. As you can see the roof is ready to be tiled and that
will launch it into the dry and weather proof stage and hopefully it will start
to look like a lovely home once again.
I have to
blog this lovely photograph because it just made me laugh. This is our son Chris
with Sam and their doggie Harry, who photo bombed their selfie and a very good
he made of it. I have become really good at downloading photos from Facebook,
messenger and e-mail and I am putting them in with my photo files so at the end
of the year I will have our children in our albums in our time line. When we
have our feet up in 20 years’ time we will have the whole family with us where
they belong in the right order of things. Wonderful ….
We had a
very worrying pile of mud in the camper park. It was the first thing I saw in
the morning as this shot was taken from the bedroom, and reminded me every day
that it just had to be moved. The dumper
had become a permanent mending project despite Mike’s sterling efforts so we
really did not have the right tools to move such a pile of mud. Our neighbour
promised to come over and shovel a few barrows away but did not turn up on the
day so Mike decided that he had to make a start and filled the trailer and towed
the mud into the garden for dumping. After two long winded and achy breaky efforts
Mike went to the dumper and gave it a very stern talking to and blow me over if
it didn’t start and stayed running. Mike was pulling a negative face and said
it was not right but he cobbled a way of keeping it running long enough to load
and then shot up to the dumping ground and by the time afternoon tea as
presented to the patio the job was done……brilliant
Mim and
Dick called in on their way home from their France road trip in their camper,
and we had a good time at the table as always and heard all about their big
adventure.
I made pie
to commemorate the occasion and we feasted for two days and pretty much never
left the table.
I arranged to go
over to deliver some plants to the Scrivens chateaux and as we prepared to go
Mike disappeared around the back of the house and came out with Monty and so we
did our visit in style.
Shirley and Mark
were delighted to have Monty on their drive and took loads of pictures and also
filled the patio table with wine beer and nibbles. A great time was had by all
but we needed to get back so we squeezed ourselves into Monty again and set off
back the way we came
We were
about half way home when we all started to sense that Monty was struggling and
Mike suggested we may be overheating. Fortunately there was a garage en route
so we stopped and the engine bay filled with steam and Monty went into a steamy
hissy fit. We had to buy a bottle of water as there was no watering can to take
water from the tap but then Monty got mineral water and hot tap water to the
volume to 6 litre. Quite obviously needed a top up. We waited a while and when
Monty seemed happier Miked started him up and we made our way home laughing all
the way
Mim took the view that there was little she could add to the situation and sat in the back seat like the Baroness of Bracknell waiting for the breakdown to be sorted. I had already told her that if the worst comes to the worst we could ring for a taxi and came back later with the trailer so the situation was not serious, but we were getting hungry, and that was serious!
And
then it’s time to say our good byes, and I am not good at that, so a brave wave
as they left the drive and I took to the sofa for the rest of the day. I will
start again in the morning with the enthusiasm our lives here deserve
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