The Warm Glow of Spring...

Who am I kidding? Cool and cooler nights are the rule here in the springtime, the days have the character they do, grey mornings, clearing to beautiful by noon or 1 pm then come the clouds, a rain shower or three and into the evening with light breezes and a disappearing sun. Amidst these facts we shiver at night in the 50 degree grande maison. Remember we lost the whole house heating system due to 8 cracked radiators from the -9C winter season. So my ever patient, curious and resourceful Kelly got into the wood stove search on eBay. A Godin... that was the stove of stoves for her and we were going to have one in some room of the house come hell or high water. Days of patient searches and hours of research online led to bids on some likely candidates. Prices were generally quite low but the stove, in many cases, lacked description of the grates and all important inner brick/refractory lining. One after the other was rejected as too small, too old, too risky, too large and, of course, too awful!


Eventually one showed up and seemed perfect for some room in this pile of rocks. A Godin about 95cm high with a few areas of light rust and we put in a bid via esnipe ( http://www.esnipe.com ). After a short wait, a day I think, while we mulled over this possible purchase, it,s time was up and we had won! Terrific! Now, where oh where IS this Godin and it's cousin freebee? In Chartre of course, about 150 miles north of us towards Paris. Oh. Well get out the trusty Tom-Tom GPS and let's go! The next day we had the address of a nearby L'Clerc market where the seller would meet us. Of course we had already entered his home address in the Tom-Tom, but hey...it's how he wants tyo do the deal, we willingly comply. So ff we went, up the A71 from St. Amand. Travel is fast on the A roads, speedy places that they are with few speed cameras to slow you down. The rain was falling briskly though and while quicker than we thought it did take us about 3 hours to traverse the countryside on that ribbon of concrete. Jane, the voice of the Tom-Tom was as accurate as ever and put us right on the L'Clerc gas station and his red, red scooter. '' Bonjours'' said, we followed our entrepid seller to his abode and the Godin of our desires. It was there in the garage, all 300lbs of her...Gloria is her name, all curvey cast iron and in darned good condition, ''bon etat'' as they say in the ads on eBay. We heaved and Hoed and with the able help of two African men from Togo that lived next door we shoved her towards the back of the Avensis and put her inside. The smaller stove was carried by the seller and placed along side. I closed the rear compartment and we went upstairs for a bit of celebrating with the seller and his wonderful and pretty wife. She told us that she had ventured to the US as a girl of 16. She had gone to visit relatives in Chicago...outside in the burbs but thats where she was and that was some 20 years ago! We had beers together and then out of the corner of Kelly's eye...a motion in a large cage like enclosure in a corner of the room. Ferrets! Oh my! Beauties, a white one that was pregnant and an amber colored one, the male. Kelly had never handled one but was soon petting the squirmy mom one and I had the male under tow...or he had me, one or the other. Terrific fun! And as cute as two animals could be!

Then goodbyes all around and off we headed homeward to the distant Lignieres. Rain poured down again but stopped as we got off the A in Bourges and headed across the countryside all aglow with huge fields of yellow colza.

Spectacular!

Is There Ever A Day Off?

Yesterday was not a day off, worked my olde, decrepit ass off scratching away moss and well entrenced root systems of numerous weed-type plants from The Courtyard...our backyard when in lovely Lignieres in lovelier France. The surface under the moss is packed broken limestone, very white and pretty in it's limestoney way. Initially we had planned to unleash a couple of tones or more of Loire River rock as we did at the little house. It solved a plethora of problems in that space and I felt it would be likewise here. That went on the backburner some time ago as the Gedimat in town folded up shop, closed, gone, kaput. So be it then and on to other projects we went. Upon arrival this time in Lignieres our friends A&R had deftly removed a large patch of the moss, weeds, top soil and exposed the true courtyard of hell knows how long ago. So the path forward became abundantly clear, clean it all off and it'll be fine as a walking surface, play area for the drunken parties and for Marsha, the landscape designer to contemplate thoroughly. It does look better after yesterday's further efforts, I was proceeding at a snails pace until some unknown force struck me yesterday and I went at it with real energy. Now it is about 60% done, sweep-able in enough square feet to be a real chore now. More today.
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We will have D of D&S take a look at the wall at the little house to sort out what we must do to put it right. I know the walls of the waddle and dab construction style has to remain moist but this one has decided to get wet and stay that way considerably longer than it should. Upstairs I can see no such issue, good roof, dry walls in the corner. I was suspicious of the wall that adjoins ours inside the hidden garage next door but they had left the door open and I peeked inside with my trusty flashlight and saw no such watery signs therein. I also suspected the roof gutter overflowing but now doubt that after climbing up and taking a long look at the gutter system and seeing it's normal level in the water stain well below the lip. I used a sewer auger to delve into the gutter drain to the street too and though I went in about 7 meters, found nothing of substance to impede the flow. So I've asked D to come take a look and solve the mystery for us construction-challenged types.