Very hot sunny day
Slept wellish, although I was woken-up by a midnight call from a drunken Paul. Well I suppose it was quite early for him in England, but the hour difference made it quite annoying all the same.
Started the day with a resolve to move the fridge over to the corner of the room and not in the middle of the room where it has been for ages shouting “I’M A FRIDGE I’M A FRIDGE” as if I didn’t know.
Although this sounds like an easy job, moving a fridge over here takes a lot of planning and (as usual) every tool in my toolkit. I first had to re-design the cupboards in the corner to make room, then move all the stuff into other cupboards in an organised fashion. Then I had to cut the electricity and connect in a new junction to take another socket and make sure there was enough flex for the fridge to reach it. Then I had to level off the floor so that the fridge sat proudly in its new position. Since this is a very crooked house, its often difficult to get levels right because things are usually out of true in at least 2 and possible 3 angles. Anyway the job was finished by 2 o’clock and very satisfying it was too. Now I have more room in the living area and a much better idea of how the kitchen area will flow.
So I started work on the kitchen area with gusto, and all the other tools and bits of wood that hadn’t been used to date. The gusto was soon exhausted though and so was suitable wood, so I went down to the builder centre to see if I could get some cladding material and other assorted bits. They hadn’t really got what I wanted for my ‘normal’ rustic kitchen designs and I had to settle for the last strips of cladding-type material that at least meant I could start the job. 30 euros for 3 bits of 3.5 metre wood! This is at a builders yard where it should be cheaper than a bricolage (DIY centre). Wood is so expensive over here. In an idle moment on the journey back I calculated that a whole popular tree (from which my wood came) must be worth over 20,000 euros. That means there’s a half-a-million euros of the stuff at the end of my field in just over 20 trees!
Anyway, idle moments soon disappeared and I continued with the job of putting together a couple of worktops around the sink. Didn’t get very far as the heat was slowing me down and I needed to do a lot of planning so as to make the best use of available wood. We don’t want to throw away a 5 euro offcut do we?
It was a hot day. As soon as the sun comes out the air is full of flying things again. There’s loads of flies about and of course wasps and bees and hornets and beetles and moths and damsel & dragonflies. it brings the swifts out in droves (well flocks I suppose) and they are swooping about all over the place catching everything they can. Even the French airforce were out in … well force .. today, with jets thundering over at silly alititudes. It’s amazing how difficult they are to spot, but I suppose once you’ve heard them it’s too late.
A bit like the rats of course. They seem to start the evening scurrying around in the attic now, and then only come down to the living room when I go to bed. I’ve run out of poison so I’ve resorted to traps, and I put one in the attic and one down by the fireplace. I’m trying cheese tonight (cantal as it happens), but I’m not sure it’s going to work. I was sitting here earlier and a rat jumped down onto the top of the dresser. It was soon spooked when I moved, but the trap is in the attic just above the dresser and I haven’t heard any loud clacking noise yet.
So I have to make sure all the real food is safely stored away each night in proper sealable boxes, or the coolboxes or the fridge. They don’t seem to be getting to any of it at the moment, and I don’t see any signs of them trying.
