now I call that, accommodating.

Is it possible that Christmas was only fifteen days ago, it feels like a season has past us by already and  looking at the daffodil leaves braving an entrance into the elements it is a sure bet that we are most definitely on the better side of winter. Optimistic you may think but let me tell you that when you organise your day by the quantity of light in the sky then luminescence at eight in the morning and luminescence at six in the evening most definitely heralds longer days and more light to live by.

Mike put his Bob the Builder hat on yesterday and constructed his one hundred and fifty Euros worth of scaffolding up in the back yard. He bashed and clanked way past lunch time and then carried on into the afternoon to piece together this sad collection of poles, boards and other braces, supports and things which though I say it myself, makes for one big and strong structure, I am one hundred percent impressed with his purchase.  We now have enough scaffolding for enough length and height to strip the tiles from the barn and replace two sheets of tin roof at a time before needing to reposition, and that, for us, is amazing progress. The barn roof is on it’s very last legs and may do another winter but it might only take a snow episode as we have just experienced this winter and the barn could very quickly become a ruin feature in my garden design.  We have seen tin roofing that is stamped out to look like tiles and we are entertaining the Maire on Tuesday morning to seek his advice and more importantly his blessing on such a project.  We are very aware that the Maire of Brevands is the father to us Brevandais and only he can start the ball rolling on any large project to be undertaken and with this in mind we humbly invite him into our home to layout our plans. The other subject to be discussed is more delicate in the form of an income raising project to put a couple of caravans in the garden that we can develop as holiday accommodation to boost our pension and allow us to continue our happy time here in Brevands. The other option is for me to find a job and I really do not fancy that at all, so we will see if it is permitted as a ‘cunning plan’ of not.

Mike has been suffering from headaches just of late and is putting this discomfort to the wood fires in the house. This obviously gives us a problem as I am so enjoying the cheer and cuddly feeling I get with the stove chugging along cooking our meals and drying the washing. We decided to try an experiment and converted the firebox to coal and for two days now we have been burning coal and it has totally changed the atmoshere in the house and Mike’s headache is gone. We also closed the fire in the lounge and use the very smart calor gas stove just to take the chill off the air.  This evening the coal ran out and I have started to throw wood in the fire box and although there is a lovely aroma of burning wood in the kitchen, that Mike dislikes so much, it is only temporary and we will go out to buy coal in the morning, but my clever little fire box goes from coal to wood and back again without complaining or letting me down, now I call that, accommodating.