Hacking out again!

I thought I'd finished with hacking out but I'd forgotten that I still had the front of the barn to do and with the south face now pointed there was no time to waste so it was a pleasant fathers day spent building the scaffold & wielding the hacking out pick. With that job out of the way and with the weather forecast to be wet we'll be able to concentrate on fitting the insulation & erecting the 'Siporex' walls which we're using to form an internal shell. The weather has been atrocious this last week with heavy rain & thunderstorms. On Wednesday Barbara had the misfortune to be caught delivering the coffees when the heavens opened & the ground floor of the barn began to flood. She was press ganged into picking up a bucket & heading out into the torrential rain to bale out a trench that was now allowing water to flow into the barn. She also came up with the bright idea of using the chimney cleaning rods to clear a drain that was blocked with the mortar that had been brushed off during the pointing. She stood at the end of the drain & gave the rods a hefty push and released a torrent of water which she managed to dodge. Not that it would have mattered because by this time she was soaked to the skin & thinking what the bloody hell am I doing in France. There's never a camera available when you want one.

The window fitters were out again this week and we got chatting to the boss. His wife is an English teacher in VDR & they visit the UK at least twice a year. He said he's not very confident with the language but could still remember the first English phrase he was taught at school, “my tailor is rich”. A most useful line that he often uses on his visits to Primark. We asked him what he thought of British food & he said he'd noticed a dramatic improvement during his many visits to the UK but like most French people didn't understand our liking of three delicacies. Peas, they're always very big, mint sauce with lamb & jelly, as in jelly & ice cream, with its bright unnatural colours. They don't know what they're missing & it reminded me I must put an order in for some Branston pickle & apple sauce.

On Saturday we had a phone call from the Notaire to say that all the papers for the sale of the house were now in place & that the 15th July would be the date when the sale completes & we have to move out. Looks like we're going to be very busy over the next four weeks, just hope I get time to keep posting the blogs.