Rewind

I know it's been a while since I've written a blog post. Did you miss me? I know, you didn't even realise I'd been away! Well it's been an interesting few weeks for us I have to say.

I missed this

At the beginning of February I received a telephone call from my Mother in the U.K telling me that she had slipped (emptying the plunge pool in unsuitable footwear I may add) and broken her wrist. She said all was fine and so it was for a week at which point the hospital decided she needed to have it operated on. I booked a flight, subsequently cancelled because of storm Dennis, but I finally I got to the U.K.  It was really hard leaving Andrew and Mortimer, not knowing when I would be back home again. Fortunately my mother's operation came through really quickly and went well.

I'm not used to sitting about with nothing to do so I decided to update her kitchen. The units are wooden and about 18 years ago my father had painted them with what could only be described as hospital corridor green. I had always hated them and now was my opportunity. I came back from Homebase with a clutch of colour charts, crying at how cheap paint was in England compared to France. I could see the hesitation when I suggested a rich maroon colour for the base units and a warm cream for the one on the wall. Perhaps Mum was still under the effect of the anaesthetic but she said yes! Fortunately she loved the result and then went on an Ebay shopping spree buying new curtains, a clock and placemats.

Kitchen makeover

Being at a loose end had advantages.  Mum's nearest town is Oxted which has some great charity shops and, amongst other things, I found this watercolour which will be perfect for the 'Gentleman's Room' in the Old Notaires House. I bought a heap of interior magazines and had time to do some more design planning for the bed & breakfast which was great.

Detail from my newly acquired watercolour

Two weeks after the operation my mother had the cast removed, the plate and pins were holding and she was put into a support that gave her much more flexibility. I stayed on a few more days, batch cooking meals for the freezer and finally came home a week ago. I would like to thank friends and family who helped out (and still are). Jude for her taxi services and tenacity with the NHS, Caroline and Carole for coffee & cake and Claire who allowed me to buy way too much in the charity shops by delivering my overweight suitcase back home to France.

Andrew baked scones on my first day back

Since then I've been pretty useless, quite wiped out in fact. While I was away we had new doors fitted in the main house and Andrew has almost finished the new steps. Excitingly the installers are in town with rolls of fibre cables. Spring has arrived in Corrèze and on a couple of days it's been warm enough to have lunch in the garden. I managed to get a trip to Emmaüs in before the corona virus outbreak forced many of the shops to be closed down.  I'm really hoping to be able to knuckle down to some serious renovation work in the next couple of weeks, there's so much to do!

It's all waiting for me!

I'm hoping that my next post will revert to more about Corrèze and our renovations. Until then please feel free to friend/follow me here on Facebook for snippets of our life in France.

Our garden is looking quite spring like