Do you remember way back in January when I was bleating about the number of Poppy plants I had found growing in the allotment at the moment that Mike was poised with weed killer in hand? I pleaded for clemency and asked for a few hours to dig these little plants up and move them to the mound. Well now, look at the result. The mound appears twice as high with strong and rampant poppy plants glowing with pride and just getting more and more prolific. We are using the mound as a spare garden and anything that is over or given to us is going there to fill up the space and act as a bit of a nursery bed, but these poppies are so much more than I had hoped for and I am delighted.
Sewing a new lawn is like watching paint dry. We have been up to the vans twice a day watering and watching but to no avail. Mike even had to check his knowledge and went on the internet to investigate the germination cycle of a grass seed and although we have bouts of frustrated impatients we also know we are doing the very best we can in this dust bowl environment we find ourselves in. I am sure that tomorrow the seed will germinate, or may be the next day or may be the day after that, but it will germinate and it will grow.
We have had some good bon coin bargains this weekend. We took a drive over to Cabourg to pick up two mobile home steps in fairly good condition, Mike will want to paint them and change the wooden treads but for now we have a safe way in and out and so the cleaning and rearranging can start in earnest.
EDF have cashed their deposit cheque and five days down the road there is still no news of an electricity installation date so I bit the bullet and made that call. I was given a new number to call and then a very helpful customer services gentleman gave me a date and a time as I waited clutching the receiver making small talk to him whilst he filled in the online work request. The question on the tip of my tongue was “when were you guys going to offer me this installation date and why did I have to call you?” This is sadly a constant complaint, the French either chase or wait and I think I will just have to raise my game and become a chaser. I called the mower mending man whist I was on a roll to chase our replacement drive shaft and asked whether he had thought to call the supplier to see if the order request had been acted on and I had to wait a further thirty minutes whilst he made that call. Glad to report to all of you on the edge of your seats, that the parts are due in towards the end of the week, which week is anyone's guess, but lets stay positive.
The last bit of good news is that Mike found a replacement cesspit cover for the house system. When we did our five yearly maintenance procedure we broke one of the one meter wide round concrete covers and were finding it hard to buy a new one as they were either too small or too large and definitely too expensive at one hundred and fifty euros each so when Mike saw an ad for a cover at the right size for forty euros we thought our Christmases had all come together. Sadly, cesspit systems are an obsessive pursuit when you live off, mains drainage.
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