Sunday 26 May 2019

A change of heart


When we lived in England I kept bees, only one hive as we aren't huge honey fans, but I loved having them. I could see 'the girls' from the kitchen window and would often just stand and watch them, if you kept out of their flight path they wouldn't bother you. Although our garden in France is suitable for a hive we will be having paying guests from next year and I don't think it's worth the risk of people being stung.

I still enjoy bees and we were walking out of the village the other morning and heard a great humming ahead. There was a shrub by the side of the road covered in bees, the flowers were insignificant but there were honey bees and several types of bumbles. Further along we could hear more, in fact so loud we were convinced there must be a hive somewhere around but couldn't see one.  As we got back home I could hear the crickets, they are such a soundtrack to the summer that you can almost 'forget' to hear them but I think as we had been talking about bees we noticed them more. When I went into the barn I had to rescue one from the window sill, along with a beetle. There are a lot of insects around here!

Just outside the village
It got me thinking as to why this was. It could be our local industries contribute in some way - forestry and our famous Limousin cattle. Forest management needs no weedkillers that I can see, and when trees are harvested the land is not usually cleared. It can look a little unsightly but at least all the tree debris rots down which is great for insects and wild flowers quickly fill the gaps. The cattle graze on pastureland, and maybe nitrogen is used to improve the quality of the grass but I'm not convinced and certainly no weedkillers.

Limousin cattle
There certainly seems to be a difference in the management of roadside verges and weeds here. Our last house was in a semi-rural location in Norfolk, surrounded by hundreds of acres of commercial apple orchards. Several times a year a potent weed killer was used under the trees, you could smell when it had been done and we wouldn't let Mortimer walk there for at least 48 hours. If a contractor couldn't mow the roadside verges with a sit on tractor then the weed killer came out, resulting in most paths having dying, yellow edges. In our village of Corrèze it's different, our verges are strimmed not sprayed, and so we have roads and paths that are edged with grasses and wild flowers that can seed. Just walking out of the village is beautiful at this time of year.

Corrèze roadside
The other benefit to all these insects is the aerial displays that we get. I can spend hours (well I could if I wasn't restoring a barn and a house!) watching the house martins flying over the village and the river. As dusk falls they are replaced by the bats. We have a lot of small lizards that live in our old stone walls and they look pretty healthy too.

We've decided to encourage the insect population by letting some areas of our lawn stay uncut, probably only mow them two or three times a season. There is one patch in particular with some purple flowers that is heaving with bees at the moment. We have what the French call a park style garden, no it's not huge but we have a lot of specimen trees and grass (well moss), and few flower beds. Fortunately for the non-gardener that I am, it means that the garden can take looking a little unkempt so these wild flower areas blend in well. At the bottom of our garden is our neighbour's donkey field which is full of flowers at the moment.

One of our garden's wild areas
Solo the donkey's field

So I've decided that if I return to a recently glossed door and there are a few flies stuck to it I'm not going to whinge, just be grateful that we have

so many insects and bees here.

If you want to know more about our new life in Corrèze, and the restoration of our house and barn then you can follow us on Facebook or if you love French barns then here

Sunday 19 May 2019

From taxes to glitter

My weekly telephone call to my mother usually has her asking "so what have you been up to this week?" Friends and family often ask the same, after all we don't have 9 to 5 jobs and we're not retired so what do we do? Quite frankly somedays I'm hard pressed to remember. So this is what we've done in the last 7 days (I think!)

Sunday
We try really hard to make Sunday slightly special and not work, we usually fail but last week started off well as we went to the Fête de la Fraise in Beaulieu sur Dordogne. One of our favourite towns, and not much more than 30 minutes from us, it's taken over by strawberry fever in May. We had a gentle wander through the town, admiring strawberries and the artisan market.

Beaulieu sur Dordogne 

Strawberry 'burgers'

Obligatory giant strawberry tart

By mid-afternoon we were home as we had to tackle our first French tax return. It had been haunting me at night and the deadline was fast approaching. I had downloaded the forms but they made little sense so we'd decided to get all our figures together, produced a bi-lingual spreadsheet and to throw ourselves at the mercy of the tax office.

Monday
All mornings start with a dog walk and baguette purchase. We are lucky to have several lovely walks which start in the village and Mortimer never gets bored with them.  Back home and in the car to the tax office in Tulle, only a 20 minute drive away.

Our morning walk
Despite being only a few days before the deadline, and a Monday morning, there was not much of a queue and we were seen within 10 minutes. In my best French I explained it was our first return and I was very confused! With a smile she told us to take our ticket back and head to the fourth floor where we would be able to see someone who would assist. We took a seat and expecting a long wait I had just got my Filofax out to start a new list of jobs when we were called into a very austere office (always makes me nervous). I again explained our situation and retrieved the spreadsheet. Within minutes the tax officer had completed the forms for us, said that it was a very good spreadsheet and we were on our way home. You've no idea of the relief I felt.

After lunch we were back working in the barn. Andrew fitting out one of the bathrooms and me painting.

Tuesday
With the first of our summer visitors only a few weeks off I had enlisted help with some of the decorating. My gentleman of an assistant agreed to do all the rubbing down, including the ceiling, of the large bedroom/dressing down. I was painting windows and Andrew managed to stay clean as he had some artwork to do for a client.

Never ending painting
Our neighbours appeared for a chat and to tell us about the new pellet stove they were having installed, Arlette then shepherded me indoors to give her advice on refinishing her dining table. They are returning to Paris at the weekend and I will miss them. As will Mortimer who sneaks in for extra treats!

In the evening we had been invited by friends to apéros, I would have said it was nice to spend a clean evening but I didn't have time to sort my hair out and was acutely aware that it had a light dusting of grey plaster! But it was a lovely, relaxed evening.

Wednesday
Andrew had client work and I was back in the barn painting in the morning, the afternoon was DIY shopping.  Leroy Merlin is a bit like Ikea, it has it's own time zone. I think we've only been in there for twenty minutes but it turns out it's two hours. Fortunately they give you free coffee and the bakery round the corner does a mean chocolate brownie so the caffeine and sugar rush keep me going! I know that we have spent too much time in there because we have three, yes three, 10% discount 'vouchers' due to us.

Thursday
Step & repeat (artwork, painting, dog walking) but with the addition of laundry duty. Somedays are just boring, it doesn't matter which country you're in. Hang on - just remembered that I invited some people over to visit. I didn't 'do' Facebook until we moved here but it seemed the easiest way to stay in touch with friends and also to make new ones in France. I joined a few groups, some I've now left and some I love. It was through one of these groups that I made contact with a couple who have also recently bought a house and barn about two hours from us. Anyway we've been 'chatting' and I've invited them over on Sunday. It's not the first time I've done this and we've met some really interesting people who have become firm friends.

Flooring underlay

Friday
Two packages in the post box. The editor of French Property News kindly sent me a copy of the May edition as I had been picked for 'letter of the month' and my bag of glitter arrived. Now my personal interior design style is muted colours, natural materials and calm spaces but I want to inject some drama into the barn as it will be a holiday rental. There is a defunct chimney that runs through one of the bathrooms so I'd decided to paint it very dark blue and add some black glitter. First coat done today. A quick dash to the déchetterie to get rid of a large, rotting sack of grass clippings had to be done before we could take the trailer to Leroy Merlin to collect flooring. I also managed to persuade Andrew to go to a brocante and I found a lovely little table which will make a great dressing table.

At 20 euros - rude not to!

It's our wedding anniversary so we indulged with a bottle of champagne (which we had been given by Leroy Merlin as we had spent so much!) and some raspberry tartlets.

Saturday
A longer Mortimer walk, supper purchased at the village traiteur and then back in the barn. I finished my glitter wall and Andrew started the flooring in bedroom two. Although I've still got quite a lot to do, particularly with the furnishings I think we'll hit our June deadline.

Mixing the glitter

Glitter wall
So there we are, a typical week in France for house renovators. Want more? You can follow us here on Facebook or on one of my two favourite groups - Interior design in France or Love French Barns




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