Blog posts

Raindrops keep falling.

Hello to you all from a much chillier petit château.

My posts have become a little adhoc for various reasons lately. Days speed by and we are often diverted by the latest challenge here at our renovation project. What a project it is. We moved into a house that was absolutely liveable in, with running water, electricity and a couple of woodburners, as well as an amazing swimming pool. The décor wasn’t too awful and we had plans aplenty! But as is the case for everyone, life changes and plans have to change accordingly and small renovation jobs have a habit of surprising you with the enormity of the tiny task! As you may have read in the post Owls and Outings (9th July 2023) sometimes we have had running water in the wrong places, creating more jobs to add to the never-ending list.

The house and location are wonderful and we have come to appreciate the tranquillity of living in the countryside – me particularly, being a bit of a townie at heart! With the arrival of extra household members the isolation of the countryside is a little more apparent but still lovely. We are completely light-pollution free so the night skies are a wonder that never ceases to enthral me. The October full moon rose into cloud strewn skies, bright and beautiful in its splendour.

We are surrounded by nature, sightings of deer, wild boar and many birds of prey, not to mention our wonderful owls are frequent. The countryside at night is a noisy old place but the incessant sounds we hear are all down to nature. The house has also charmed us and frightened us in probably equal measure. She has a habit of revealing interesting developments when we least want them, but also showing us her beauty and resilience. We are under her spell but getting a little better at the head versus heart balance when dealing with her. This is a big house, a bottomless pit if we aren’t careful so we have to regularly revisit plans and rationalise what we can and can’t do. I’m sure anyone who has renovated anywhere will be all too familiar with this story!

In this last week of October our quinces have ripened and I have been busy making Quince Cheese (membrillo), which is delicious with cheese but rather nice on toast. It is a firm favourite of our neighbour as a sweet, so I have prepared some for cutting into squares just for her! She provides us with loads of fruit during the year from her vast quantities of fruit trees, so it is only right that I provide samples of my preserves for her to try, and cake when I have time.

We have also given up, I think, on a last chilly swim as the pool temperature has dropped rather quickly this year and is now at 15°C. I don’t feel as brave as I did last year, especially as it is continually raining at the moment, which is making up for the lack of water for months over the summer but putting us off a dash to the pool for a quick dip. We have, however, managed to make some progress in the garden, pruning, replanting and tidying a little. There is, as ever, so much more to do along with countless pots of plants that need to find homes in the garden before it is too cold.

A dear friend died earlier this year and another friend and I promised her we would plant lots of daffodils in her memory. Debbie and I were planning on visiting each other to help out with this planting, as we are both doing this. However the practicalities of this at the moment don’t work so we will share our bulb planting online I think! 56 daffodils for a lovely friend who lost her courageous and long battle with cancer in June at the age of 56. It does ground you and make you realise how fragile life can be and how short. I really try to remember that each day and enjoy the moment, but not always successfully I have to confess, as we all get caught up in the minutiae of life far too often.

We have had our first fire, trying to hold out until November but not quite managing it. The rescue menagerie loved it, most of them finding spots to enjoy the warmth. They are unimpressed by the rain, cutting short their outdoor adventures to shelter somewhere cosy at home. Anya and Louka like to be dried off when they come in which is quite funny, especially when Anya lets you know in no uncertain terms when this service has been overlooked by her humans!

As we head into another month the annual pool closing ritual beckons. We have waited in the hope that the missing piece of equipment would be fixed so we could test it (see post: Expect the unexpected), but no. I think we will be doing that over the weekend between downpours by the looks of things! A job that has to be done and soon. Then we switch from daily pool cleaning to daily woodburner cleaning – always another job to fill the space.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

A bientôt

Ali xx

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