When the flower beds liven up it will be a lovely place to be.

busy busy busy....having one extra person in the house just makes the days shorter only because we are happy to sit around and talk, take aperitifs and make each meal last it's allocated time. Mum was feeling unwell on Sunday and I was concerned that she might be quite unwell and need doctors attention but a day in front of the TV has bounced her back into health and today we were able to get to the beach and do some shopping. Mike is still tired and a little off quilter. Birthdays can do that, he did not hear from any of his kids on the day and it passed by without a fuss except for both Mums really pulling out the stops to make him feel special. Men just don't show their feelings but four days down the line and I can see he is not full pelt. As we were site bound yesterday Mike built me a fantastic runner bean frame and I planted 20 runners and my last sunflower. Our friend Genevievre gave me a bunch of rooted plants and I plonked them where ever, I really don't know what they are so a year in the ground will give me a clue for next year.

We have had no significant rain for a month now and I am obliged to get out every day to keep the water levels up, especially in the allotment. We are off for a four day sail next week and I rather hope we can have some rain before or even during so that all our hard work is not waisted during our absence.....and we do need to get away, Mike threatened to put all of this on the market if he did not get away soon, so I am planning escape routes for him and we will get away for 4 days every month during the summer, but May has been very busy month this year with plenty of visitors and activity around the place.

I love my door in the lounge and we have jazzed up the back yard so that it is a little bit more 'changing rooms' but when the flower beds liven up it will be a lovely place to be.

She enjoys that intense growing warmth you get in a polly.

The morning light in the lounge has taken Mike and I by complete surprise this morning, it is warm and full of energy in that room now. I need to invite monsieur and Madame Leboulanger, the people we bought the house from three years ago to come and ohh and ahhh, although monsieur is such a miserable old geezer that he would certainly see fault in the project but it will be really interesting to get his angle on the change. It will probably make a great blog entry. My Mum has a place to sit and rest now, it has bothered me that she has not had a comfy chair to flop into and she has spent all last week sitting in the poly tunnel watching the courgettes grow, but seems very happy and she enjoys that intense growing warmth you get in a poly.

Happy birthday Mike and Thank you.

It is Mike's birthday, we don't do a big do for B/days any more so it was no surprise that Mike's day just followed on as usual and the usual for today was the return of builder friend Michael to finally install the door 14 days after the epic Euro tunnel style breakthrough our 2 foot deep walls. As usual, and I have now used this word three times in two sentences, Mike and Michael realised there was a small problem of fixings, and we would need to shoot into town to remedy the situation. I left my Mum home alone with HOSS as her guardian angel and breakfast at the cusp of delivery. I appreciate it was before nine in the morning but Carentan seemed particularly quiet. There were no cars on the road and no signs to give us a clue as to why businesses and shops along the main drag were shuttered and closed. Now bear in mind that we had a public holiday on the 8th of May and I know there is another on the 24th I could not compute that there could possibly be another on the 13th, but guess what ....today is Ascension day and all hope of fixing the fixing problem was now well into the stratosphere of impossibility. Resourcefulness is the best equipment in times of lost hope and trouble and a call to Peter and Sarah to establish that they still had a stock of the required fixing from their building project with said Michael and Peter popped over to wow at the gaping hole and support the installation via his fixings, advice and building talk. The door is in, the sofa and rug are back in place, the TV is back in the corner, the light is flooding through the space that was once a dark and dismal place......happy birthday Mike and Thank you.

I really feel for Mike it never rains but it pours.

In all the excitement of visitors and builders and Maires singing La Marseillaise I had completely forgotten that Mike's bestest lawn mower is stuck up in the wood with no hydraulic power. I say I had forgotten, I think it is very fare to say that I had my ostrich head on and didn't want to acknowledge that there was a huge and nasty problem hovering on the horizon or worst still in the wood. The lawn mower in question, and there are many to consider here, is the commercial sized cuttings pick-up version with a hydraulic box to facilitate emptying into a trailer for disposal and that is exactly what we do. All the cuttings are hoovered up and dumped at the dechete vert out of our way leaving the hedge row a clearer and tidier place. So, the mower stopped just as the BBQ was ready to eat, just at the moment when Mike thought he might get a swift cut in between building events, and just when our finances will take a knock if this is an expensive break. I really feel for Mike it never rains but it pours.

We quite like this country and appreciate the small town closeness and solidarity that we so easily live with now.

My house is full of people and the stuff they bring with them, it is lively in the evening and breakfast is a great chit chat time with lashings of coffee and home made jam on toast. Billy and Pauline drove Mum here on Thursday and have already fitted in a game of golf and we have done the obligatory BBQ despite a north easterly wind, we eat outside right up to the coffee stage and then decanted into the kitchen out of the chilly air. Billy has had problems with his all singing all dancing phone and is stressed and upset that he cannot communicate with his work space being at the important point of a web site launch. Mike and I fully understand and empathise, it has however, served as a loud wake up call for us not to take our life style for granted and we have reflected on everyday work related issues that can so easily throw you into a place of disfunctionality.

Yesterday we all decided to participate in the May 8th gathering of remembrance at our little church at the highest point of Brevands. I always attend on the 11th of November and the 8th of May, the process is the same, which makes the events even more enjoyable as a known quantity, and yesterday was no exception. Mum, Billy and Pauline experienced the emotion and passion of being French, the names of the Brevands dead read out loudly by a brave and well educated twelve year old Brevandesse. Mort pour la France, is said with conviction and pride after each name is read and looking over the broad and beautiful view of our estuary is enough to bring tears to your eyes but when the Maire of Brevands stands to attention and at the top of his pure male alto voice heads up the communal singing of La Marseillaise I then realise why we quite like this country and appreciate the small town closeness and solidarity that we so easily live with now.

I could just be the Brit bitch from hell and call for the manager.

I feel we are well ahead of ourselves in the garden and veg production. I put the first of the sweetcorn seedlings out in a very orderly block and noticed that the extra broad beans I sewed directly were smiling at the sky, so all is well. The lack of rain has meant that between being builders mate and household char I have had to go and irrigate manually and by that I mean filling up watering cans and walking the length and breadth of the allotment repeating... this is better than the gym, this will prevent osteoporosis..... but the job gets done and at least I have walked the length and breadth of the veggie plot and have, by habit, picked a weed or two or at least made a mental note to go back with the hoe.

We needed to buy more sand for the door project in the lounge, I really hoped that half a ton would do the job but as we are only three quarters of the way up the frame and I would also like a step down into the yard we needed to trailer up, and go to point P. Our last visit to Point P did not rate a 100% customer services tick and as we walked out I vowed never to go there again but in order to keep this job consistent we needed the same grade of sand and were obliged to return. The sales assistant who seems to always be on duty has one of three problems, he does not like dealing with non trade customers because they don't wee up the wall on site and don't drink pastis at eight in the morning, or, he does not like dealing with the English playing at DIY because we should leave the houses available for the French, or finally, he does not like women coming into his store asking technical questions, because to date he has never given me a straight answer or good advice. I am putting money on the third option here. We went in to buy a sheet of shuttering ply last week and it wasn't until we were in front of our favorite sales assistant that we had no idea what it might be called in French so I started to explain, two syllables, second syllable , sounds like, but he cut me short and told us to go into the yard and find what we wanted and don't come back until we know what it is called. Long story shortened we found a friendly warehouse man who loaded the shuttering and cement and then came into the shop to explain our purchase. When the sales assistant saw us walk in he disappeared into the ware house and left us standing by the till. If he had been dealing with another client, that's faire play, but he kept us waiting five minutes during which time the warehouse man had gone twice to gee him up. We were getting just a little agitated with the wait when he came through from the warehouse pulling a loaded pallet of stock for the shop, nothing urgent, no other customer to be dealing with, he just sauntered in parked his load without an apology or explanation. The warehouseman then provided the detail of our purchase and left us fuming by the till yearning to be respected as valued customers. The invoice was thrown across the counter without a bye of leave or a thank you or a good bye. It did however occur to me that by this time he had clocked the body language and just perhaps, was able to translate English disgruntled noises. Today however I made a bee line to another assistant and even had a joke and a laugh but I swear I will walk out if he is the only available assistant next time or better still, I could just be the Brit bitch from hell and call for the manager.

I am advising they came with thick jumper, dusters and Mr Sheen.

I would not choose to be a builder if you paid me a fortune, it is a dirty and long winded occupation and what looks like a three day job soon turns into a five, six and seven day marathon. Our window installation is becoming one of those wonderful yet traumatic events as the development and realisation of a great idea is fantastic to watch but dealing with a dirty great hole in your lounge wall for seven days with the draughts and dust whirling around in the wake of the work is enough to make me cry. The builder friend has gone home and left us with instructions on block building a concrete frame and cutting out the mud walls, he is back up this way at the weekend and wants to see that we are at lintel stage so he can instruct us on the next phase, it is a cheap way of getting the work done and we had to take the opportunity of advice from 'a man who can' whilst he was in our neck of the woods. Every morning Mike and I strike the shuttering either side of the opening rebuild it one step higher pour concrete in and then clean up all the tools and equipment for the next day. We need to make another three levels then we are at the lintel stage. It is now Monday and in three days time we have my Mum and Brother coming to visit and there is no way the whole will be filled so I am advising they came with thick jumper, dusters and Mr Sheen.