Saturday, June 28, 2008

A Sunny Saturday Peeling Wallpaper

Isn't peeling wallpaper FUN! The sound of the 2" strips just ripping off the wall sends chills through my spine in anticipation of the wonder beneith. Shit. The room in question is the old dining room next to the Little Kitchen, the green and pale green and yellowed dirty white paisley pattern had finally worked it's magic on our brains and Kelly started and I soon picked up the task as well. Scrape, pull, rip, climb, scrape, pull, rip, scrape, rip...on and on for hours and up and down on the ladders to get to some of the more inaccessible locations behind water pipes and bizarre electrical thing-a-majigs...brother. A beautiful Saturday like this set to waste with this awful task, what is wrong with us?! Furry just walks into the room, it's floor coverred with thousands of 2" X 2" peices of ancient wallpaper and looks around, up and down at it as if to say, "Why did you screw up my purr-fectly good sitting room where I can vomit in peace under the lovely grey chairs?! Why?" Because we are DRIVEN you useless furball! Driven!
___
We grow ever closer to having the bottom story of the olde place recoverred if not entirely refurbished...at least it looks better to US than it did, whether or not we have gotten the sequence right or not, well that is a question isn't it? Who knows, maybe we'll have to pull some of our cover-work down and fix a leak pipe or two, or rebuild the wall or...who knows? It's an olde place, it's been here longer than you dear reader, I and Kelly PLUS our two cats have been alive and I suspect it will do as well FAAAAR into the future. Once we sell the little house and get that money into our hot little worn out hands (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130234244587&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003 to see it and
MORE PICS AT http://flickr.com/photos/hnlute/ Go to SETS then click on DIX or go straight to the pictures of the house at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hnlute/sets/72157605912040170/ )
the roof will be assessed once again and a brand new INSULATED one will be installed by SOMEONE ELSE! Then what? Well, we have a plan to build a veranda structure between the two wings in the form of one of the lovely iron ones common in Paris. All glass and arty-like. We like the one we had built for us in Suisun a few years ago so much we'd like to replicate it here in sunny and warm Lignieres. We shall see what time tells us.
___
What I wonder is how the hell we are going to get HERE next spring what with all the airline cuts. Booking the journey ought to be a thrill that's for sure, big bucks and few flights with many more stops. Shit!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Day After


The summer solstice, 21 June, the longest day of the year here or anywhere else on planet earth.


Brings out the mystery of everything, including parties of 7 for a BBQ in the courtyard of an olde house in Lignieres. The day was sufficiently warm and sunney to keep us indoors while the late afternoon aged into a cooler version. Then after sufficient beer and wine to allow the gathered folk A&R, Mikey, P and his son Jim and ourselves to get hungry we went outside to sit in the shade, drink some more and layout the tomatoes, onions, salsas and Kelly's terrific mache salad (tiny leaves that each have to be cleaned) in preparation for my burger cooking. I prefer the 15 - 20 % fat version of steak hache (hamburger) that you can get just about anywhere here to the more lean (and less juicy/tasty) 6% stuff. I had preped a fire of small oak pieces and after it had grown hot enough put on all the burgers at once. 12 in all, 2 for each male and 1 for each female.

They cooked through in 5 minutes or less! Off to the buns we had purchased at Champion and handed out to the now salivating guests, myself included. They were excellent, beat McDonalds all to hell! They went, the salsa and chips went and somehow the salad did not, hmmmm, I thought they'd devour the salad too but somehow the salsa had been substituted in the minds and hearts, eh. More for us tomorrow if it lasts. Dessert was an apple pie ala mode with apple ice cream that no one commented on! Yes, the syrup from the apple peels and cores had been used to flavor the ice cream.

We sat and chatted the early evening away and about 10 Mike, P and Jim wandered off hail and hearty. A&R stayed to have a coffee and maybe even see the Solstice Fyre consume the giant stacks of faggots/flowers in the Champ du Foire. A&R took turns checking the crouds progress at the Champ and eventually at about 15 minutes to midnight we joined the frolicing KREW gathered at the now fully involved stack. Naked people chased naked people through the fyre as cats danced in the glare of flames (not really but makes good copy). A dance floor had been setup along with a block long bar which was fully involved itself! There is NO Drinking Problem in France...or at least here in Lignieres! Then bye-byes and kisses all around and A&R were off to home as were we. Into bed, reading for 5 minutes then lights out! The Solstice was a success.