May Day and an obsession for creating round things

Tomorrow is the 1st of May, and a public holiday here, with all kinds of festivities. I expect I will go to a 'vide greniers', or 'empty lofts', which are a bit like car boot sales, without the cars!

Today saw progress here in the house - finally the electrician has made a start - took him most of the day to work out which wires are supposed to go where, but at last, some of the cables sticking through the floor have gone.

Last week at the tip, someone was throwing away a load of china plates. I've always wanted to do a broken crockery mosaic, so I rescued them before they got thrown in. I spent an couple of hours in the sunshine, cutting plates up, and then I experimented on a window sill. The neighbours like the end result. The birthday cake I made a couple of weeks ago was pretty good too!

The days are long, and it's warmer at last - work is starting to move forwards.......

Secret doorway..

Stripping wallpaper is a boring job by anybody's measure, but over the last couple of weeks, I've uncovered some of the history of the house - old paper from an unspecified era, turquoise with little red flowers, carpenter's calculations, more woodworm holes, and today, my best find - a hidden doorway......! I always guessed there was one lurking in the alcove, so when the paper came off to show boards, I set to and ripped them down and found a big space where the door to the next house had been put in, in the days when my house was a café/bar, connected to the épicerie/hotel next door through that doorway.....don't know exactly when it was walled up again, but it's not getting boarded over again!

Deserved a long evening walk after all that! Heard and saw a woodpecker hunting for beetles and grubs - wonder if he'd like a job.....?

progress at last!

Yesterday my Livebox was delivered and by late evening I had it connected to my computer and internet phone. This house has been dragged into the world of technology - fast-boil, eco-kettle, computer and all those peripherals, cooker hood, microwave, bread machine, answer machine, electric toothbrush, halogen lights......strange really, as there are very few sockets in this house, so until next month when the electrician comes (yes, really!) I am constantly unplugging and swapping gadgets, according to need - all that whilst shuffling around in the semi-dark, due to the fact that there are no overhead lights downstairs, and only the street lights to brighten the bathroom (these are turned off at 11.20, so if I stay up late, it's a bit murky in there).

I think the house is enjoying it's rejuvenation. As for me, my hands are looking rough as more nasty wallpaper hits the black plastic sacks, and the old plastered or wooden walls reappear after decades - wallpaper on wood panelling?!

beetles in the woodpile...

I haven't heard anymore from the headbanging beetles (that's really how they communicate!) I'm hoping they were random ones in my woodpile, who have now been cremated....
Easter weather that puts you in mind of the frozen wastes of Scandinavia, but of course, now the holiday is over, the sun is shining again......

...they WERE talking to me!!!!!

Deathwatch Beetles
Wood-boring beetles in the family Anobiidae are known as deathwatch beetles. Deathwatch beetles are closely related to the drugstore and cigarette beetles, which are stored-product pests. Adults communicate with each other and probably locate mates by tapping their heads against wood, usually at night. (Deathwatch beetles supposedly acquired their name during medieval European times from people who heard the tapping while sitting up with a sick or dying person during the night.) Adults are reddish to dark brown and lay eggs in crevices or small openings or pores in unfinished wood. Two years may be required to complete each generation.

Springtime in Brittany

Gremlins in the walls........

Strange vibrating noises, a little bit like tiny woodpeckers, coming from indetermiate places in the wall......when I imitated the sound, they replied, or at least that's how it seemed! Imagine the sight – me making strange clicking noises into the wall. My neighbour thinks I am crazy, as he couldn’t hear a thing!! I was convinced they were in the box my speakers were still packed in, so he unpacked them for me. Of course there were no beasties in there, and he left me, probably wondering if I had lost the plot. Well, my theory is that it is some woodboring beetles are active – I know there are still places which haven't been treated yet. Anyway it is bad news – 1) I am crazy or my hearing is playing tricks, or 2) I need to get spraying the nasty insecticide, or 3) the house is possessed by aliens. Oh the joys of old houses full of untreated wood! However, as the hour hand moves towards twelve, they have gone quiet – probably got to get home before they turn into something nasty come midnight……….
Well, that was last night – today it has been confirmed that the beetles have woken from their winter hibernation – time for me to get stuck into the chemicals............

out of touch...

Today my computer arrived from England, thanks to friends in many and varied places!! Next week my Livebox should be here, and I will finally have access to the Internet from home. A couple of hours a week in the Mairie is not enough for fun things, when there are practical things to sort out, and I can't upload my photos here either.
The Breton pace of life can be very irritating when you're trying to get electricians to rewire your house! Even getting one round for a look is pretty tough...oh well, there are many other delights to make up for this shortcoming - long walks along deserted lanes being just one of them!

Sunshine again!

Another beautiful, sunny day, full of twittering birds, and I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I'm not just here on holiday this time! I look around at all the work there is to do in the house, and can't decide what to do first - the last 2 weeks have just seen me finding my feet, and unpacking some of the boxes, and shuffling stuff around from one room to another. On Saturday evening, a friend is having a 'Welcome to France' gathering for me. No doubt there will be much fun had by all, and perhaps I will really feel like I am here to stay then. The neighbours still ask me when James will be back again. Who knows, I tell them, when he feels like leaving Greece, I guess!

Here at last!

It' s nearly 2 weeks since we arrived here. The sun has been shining for the whole of the past week. The birds are being cheeky in the garden, coming almost up to the door, Basil has found his way over to the barn across the orchard, and the nights are full of stars, with no trace of light pollution to diminish them! Went for a walk in the sunshine with friends on Sunday afternoon, and we were sitting outside drinking tea until almost 6pm. Saw a pair of buzzards drifting up on the thermals the other afternoon - nobody around but me. The air is so clean, and the noise and dirt of Sheffield are far from my thoughts. That's why I came here!

Who needs Hertz when you've got friends with hippy buses?!

It's 10.30pm and the house is nearly empty! Most of my stuff is packed into an old Mercedes house bus belonging to a friend. Basil is anxious and so am I. I've just said a sad goodbye to one of my closest friends, my neighbour, Matej. Hard to believe we just shared our last bottle of red wine in my kitchen. Suddenly, I feel sad about leaving my friends behind. what am I doing? What awaits me there, apart from quiet nights in alone with the cat and no TV, and, for the forseeable future, no internet. I know from experience, how easy it is to cling to the old, familiar things before embarking into the unknown; suddenly there is good to be found in all those places and situations that seemed before to be undesirable. Fear and doubt drives us to cling to what we don't really want. When I was packing, I found a note an Argentinian woman had written me about 10 years ago when I was there, traveling around. It seemed very appropriate, at the time she gave it to me, and also,the other day when I rediscovered it. I can't remember the exact words now, and can't check because it is packed in a box - something like 'every yesterday is a memory, every tomorrow a future. Make every memory one of happiness, and every tomorrow one of hope' In 12 hours, we will be on our way to a bright future, where each sunrise over the orchard never fails to fill me with wonder and hope....

Setback before even starting...

Sunday morning, and this should be departure day. The vans should be loaded, 4 friends and cat should be ready to leave soon, but instead everything is in limbo. Unbelievable but true, yesterday, 40 mins before we were due to collect the hire van for moving my stuff, Hertz rang to say the van was 'broken'. All they had to offer us instead was something less than half the size.....much frantic rushing around, complaining and stress and distress later, and nothing was resolved, because all the van hire companies shut down at midday on Saturday until Monday at nine. A major blip, but not a complete disaster. The ferry people were very sympathetic and have let me put the bookings on indefinite hold. There is probably a solution just around the corner, and, hopefully, I will arrive next week sometime to find the new windows and shutters fitted at the front of the house, and flowers in the garden!

Corrections!!

I've just looked back at my last entry and realised that I got the date I saw my house wrong! Maybe I'm living in a time-warp or was a bit confused when I wrote that entry. I first saw that house in January 2006, paid for it in the Easter that same year, and spent the whole of that following summer with my friend James there. It was a very difficult time, full of highs and lows. One day, I was upstairs building a stud wall, whilst downstairs, he was demolishing some of the existing ones. There were times when I wondered what I was doing - it wasn't like I was rich enough to afford 2 houses! At times I wanted to run away and escape from the chaos I seemed to have brought upon myself, but I stuck it out, and by the end of the summer, I was fully committed to my new house. Perhaps I was seduced by all the flowers laid daily at my door(see pics), or maybe it was the pitch black nights, unpolluted by street lights, or the sound of birds in the morning, and the view of the orchard from my bedroon window.
Summer 2007 was a turning point in my life: 2 weeks into my 10 week stay in the house, I couldn't imagine not being there all the time and felt I would be happier there; I decided to give up my job and house in Sheffield and move to Ménéac, and so, 2 days before I leave Sheffield and my home of 20+ years behind, I'm hoping that feeling continues. As I sit here in what has been my favorite room for the last few years, I look around at my life here, stashed in boxes, and I know my friends are behind me in my decision. And I am still trusting in my mum to have chosen wisely for me!