WHAT'S HAPPENING

.....0r what happened. Well the lovely weather we enjoyed in March in good ol'Norn Ireland stayed with me for a week or so in the Languedoc and then it started to go slowly downhill, by the time I was flying home sporting my new walking sandals (no room/weight left for them in my hand baggage allowance) I felt like I had webbed feet. The new pointing and roof edging was of no avail in Brittany the night the rain was 'falling' sideways and with the wind driving it up under the slates meant it wasn't long before there was a drip, drip, drip to be heard (inside that is). Meanwhile in England my Big Sis was also hearing raindrops falling on her head (again inside), she took to the roof (3 story house) to be confronted by a seagull, nest, 2 eggs and a whole lot of other stuff blocking her drains. On the last day when I opened the manhole to turn off the water supply the stop cock was under a foot of water, the upshot of all this was not a lot of walking, cycling or gardening was done so a lot of weight was put on as we sought solace in food and DRINK.

Meanwhile (photo below), in sunnier times, here's Karl the Builder, hopefully attached by a piece of rope to the chimney fixing the tiles on the roof in St. Pons, this was a makeshift and mend job as of course our house would have to have the most obscure shaped tiles which had gone out of production dear knows when. So on the 'to-do' list this summer is Velux fitting to liberate some tiles to relocate to where these broken ones were.


I love the change from slate to the terracotta roofs of the south as you travel down France but I must admit I really do quite like the smartness of the architecture in Brittany over the shabby chic (which is just plain shabby to be honest) of the Languedoc. New housing developments in Brittany contain lots of interesting angles and contrasting textures, in the south they are just lots and lots of little boxes, O.K in assorted pastel hues but pretty boring none the less.