Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Ian, you are wrong. Nothing to do with 'bean-counters' but due to the fact that trees are reacting to the heat and drought by going into Autumn shut down early this year and many Autumn fruits are already being picked.
I shall be in the shed chasing the Shand Mason steam pump. Not sure about walk or bookie watch, we'll have to see if the forecast is right about the rain....according to them we have heavy rain but it's still dry out there....

Morning

Exactly Stanley. The ground here is covered in brown leaves, trees are bare in places but no nice autumn colours. Its too late for the trees to produce new leaves, though we saw some yesterday that had. However there is little fruit to be picked from trees. Only blackberries have done well . It was a good day yesterday, about 25 degrees and apart from the first hour when it rained it was sunny and dry. We had a very good day out.

Today will be an extended big breakfast and we all leave the house at 12, Barbara and Bill to the ferry and we are taking Wendy and Keith to the airport. I shall make them a sandwich as the airport is not well known for its food and the plane also has a reputation of being two hours late! Then its back here for us to start the washing of towels and bedding. I may get some done before we leave at noon.

Its due to be sunny and 30 degrees today, the best weather for a fortnight irrespective of the temperature. Have a good day all

[Stanley]

"Then its back here for us to start the washing of towels and bedding."
You are acting as a hotel proprietor with all these guests!

I Had my spell in the shed and carried on installing bolts on the pump top lids. Each hole had to be re-tapped first. Note that the csk screws arrived yesterday and are there ready to finish the last cover in place. A quiet but painful hour and a half. The physical actions are evidently the worst I could possible be doing for my bad shoulder. Only one thing to do, keep buggering on!

[Sue]

Then its back here for us to start the washing of towels and bedding."
You are acting as a hotel proprietor with all these guests!.....


Not really. They all mucked in, cooking, shopping, washing, pegging out washing, loading and unloading dishwasher, setting tables etc . Barbara even did the ironing. They stripped their beds, tidied the rooms, but I had to do the washing after they had gone home.

Its quiet here tonight and I am missing the chatter and card games already

[Stanley]

Enjoy it while it lasts Sue....
Shed as usual and hopefully a walk later. Depends on the weather and the forecast isn't very accurate at the moment, no mention of the heavy rain we are experiencing!

[Sue]

Morning

It rained overnight and thunderstorms were nearby but not here. It was a fabulous day yesterday but became humid later on. I managed to get all the washing and drying done and even the ironing. The beds are made up for Julia and family and I just have a bit of hoovering and dusting to do this morning plus putting the ironing away

Today is due to be a damp start, brightening as the day goes on, followed by a dry, warm week. Our french friends Bertram and Elisabeth are calling round this afternoon for a cup of tea, otherwise nothing is planned.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

So nice to hear of you welcoming French friends Sue. It shows how well you interact with the locals....







I re-tapped all the holes for the csk 6BA screws and cleaned the countersinks out as well. Then I fitted the screws in the cover plate and looked at the two small outlets on the front cover plate of the pump. One on the top and one in the front between the two main outlets. The drawings don't show clearly what is installed here so I am going to thread them and install stub pipes.
The size that fits is 7/32" X 40tpi. So I have found the appropriate tap and die. I am ready for tomorrow

[plaques]

Our french friends Bertram and Elisabeth are calling round this afternoon for a cup of tea,

Elizabeth = UK. Elisabeth = French. Never knew that! Also a difference in pronunciation, Only on OG.

[plaques]

Good old Rees-Mogg is promoting a return to imperial measures. Providing you make parts for old steam engines you should be OK. A bit of a problem for anybody making modern machinery and cars etc. Which world does he live in.

[Stanley]

They still use Imperial measurements in the US which I have always found surprising. It doesn't seem to have held their technical industries back.....
Mind you, I get your drift about Jacob. He's never had to seriously measure anything. Just imagine his face if you presented him with a vernier scale on a micrometer.....
Today deteriorated into domesticity when I rose from second sleep. I cooked onions, tomatoes and garlic and added them to a slow cooker full of mutton chops. (My butcher is on holiday this week.) Then I cleaned the refrigerator, I shall defrost and clean the freezer separately. That's quite enough honest endeavour!

[Stanley]

An hour in the shed then early doors shopping at the Co-op. No rain forecast so a midday walk and sit might be on the cards..... Only One day of Barlick Beach left, it's been very well attended this year.

[Sue]

Morning

It was a cool damp cloudy day yesterday all day. I even put my cardigan on last night, first time since we came. Today is promising to be better. Julia and family arrive at about 5.00pm so I am going to make a large lasagne for tea. They will be hungry. We have shopping to do today then I think I will transfer the last of the soil to the garden path where we are converting it to grass. The grass seeds I planted a few a few days ago have started to germinate. I think Bob is going to light the pizza oven to get it up to temperature to cook a turkey tomorrow. Laetitia has given us a turkey for a family meal so we have have invited them to join us tomorrow for am American style BBQ, that Bob and Ed are very good at doing.

Yes Elisabeth with an S. My name confuses them because I am SUSANNE , not SUZANNE and ELIZABETH not ELISABETH . As for American Imperial units, I understand they are not all the same as ours, such as the gallon. In cooking I find their CUPS very confusing in trying to convert a recipe, and worse when it comes to butter as they refer to strips and no weight at all! When I buy fabric I still in my head judge what I need in yards though at last I have got used to buying in metres. When I sew , my own measurements mean nothing to me in centimetres, I still use inches yet it must be 40 years since I was teaching conversions to my students.

Well time to have my cuppa and check if Eve has whats apped me from the ferryport. Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue, yes the US isn't exactly Imperial in all measures but they still use inches!

I spent the morning plugging the two holes still left in my pump. I threaded the holes and made two stub pipes as I can't find what was intended in the drawings. I suspect they are tiny valves..... I have a big hole to populate tomorrow in the pump body but first I shall have to try to find out what it's intended for!

[Big Kev]

...not capping off the old lead supply pipe or connecting the new alkathene supply to my house. The stopcock for the branch supply, out in the back street, shuts off my neighbours but not me
United Utilities are booked in for Thursday 1st for a search.

[Stanley]

Not unusual Kev. Many of the old services were not mapped and the maintenance gangs have to work on anecdote and intuition much of the time.
I doubt if anyone has been laid awake worrying about this but part of my morning routine is still the bleaching of my taps, the kitchen sink and the surrounding work tops. It is a regular part of my early morning coffee brewing routine and so is never forgotten.
I shall be in the shed for an hour moving towards the finish of the pump half of the Shand Mason model. It looks like another dry day so I shall do my walk and bookie watch and then I have to cook vegetables....

[Sue]

Morning

Julia and family arrived at 7.00 pm last night. I had cooked lasagne which they were ready for. The girls were tired out and in bed just after 9.30pm and we have heard nothing from them since.

At lunchtime today we are having a BBQ meal here with Laetitia and family . They have given us a turkey for a family meal so we invited them to join us. The turkey is being cooked in the pizza oven outside, and Bob has already been out to light it. We shall eat outside too as a very nice day is forecast. The long range forecast indicates this will be the last. Here in France the summer is regarded as over with the older kids returning to school/college/lycée last Thursday and the others next Monday.

The meal will spill well into the afternoon so nothing else is planned. Have a good day all

[Stanley]

What good service.....

I've had a complicated morning in the shed but have made progress. I have one big elephant in the room and up to now haven't found the solution. See shed matters for all the gory details.....

[Sue]

Sadly Laetitia and family could not join us as Laetitia's mum was rushed in to hospital last night, not the first time this summer sadly

[Stanley]

That's a shame Sue. I hope the lady gets well as soon as possible......
I am on the last lap of a marathon veggie cook in. Half an hour should see it all done and dusted. Then I can relax and have a fraught read of this week's Private Eye.
14:30. All done and pans cleaned and put away. Cheap grub for the week but there's a price to pay in effort!

[Stanley]

In the shed working on the pump. I have the feed pump casting to operate on.....
We have another dry day and there is no reason why I shouldn't have my walk and sit. Barlick Beach is over for another year so we will soon have a peaceful Town Square. From the numbers who attended I think it has been a great success and well done the Town Council for giving so much pleasure to so many kids for a month.

[Sue]

Morning

Yesterday was a lovely day. In the morning I went with Julia, Ed and the girls to the market in La Gacilly and a walk round the photograph exhibition, whilst Bob stayed at the house looking after the turkey cooking and tending to the pizza oven fire . We had a very long lunch, the turkey took longer to cook than expected, so we had our starters of melon and ham about 1.30pm followed by salad, sausages and pork ribs, then a long delay with turkey about 3.45 pm and dessert of apple tart about 4.15 pm. Many a glass of wine and soaking up the sun filled the spaces in between We abandoned the idea of tea, B and Eve opting for a pain au chocolat before they went to bed. We all slept solidly, a good 8 hours.

We made up a tray of the various meats and took it round to Laetitia later. Her Mum is out of hospital. Apparently she has an abscess on her heal that was badly infected and the infection had spread into the blood vessels around . The nurses had been dressing it daily and were concerned it was spreading and also concerned that there may have been a blood clot. She was unable to walk so she was taken to the emergency department at Rennes hospital. Later in the day she went home again but Yves and Laetitia have had to go backwards and forwards all day to look after her, not easy with two young children to look after. The older girl was not at home for the weekend. Laetitia has tried to organise day carers but there is a waiting list and no one is available. The option is for her Mum to go into a recuperation home but this too is being difficult to arrange .......at least I think that is the gist of the conversation, Laetitia speaks no English so I had to work hard to translate all she said.Come tomorrow Laetitia is back at work so she is trying to arrange something this weekend. The french health and care system , in our experience, is not much different from our own and in some situations it is worse . We have seen a number of hospital situations, and heard of problems for the elderly and disabled with vaccination clinics , as so many of our friends round here are of an age when medical care is often needed.

This morning, Julia has gone out for a run. Its a lovely morning and the day is also looking promising. I think later they are planning to walk round the two small lakes at Carentoir and Bob is going to get the train out. I need to start tidying the veggie patch after digging out soil for the path, then I can get it covered with the B&Q ground sheets that Barbara brought over for me. I shall pick all the tomatoes next weekend to bring home with us but leave the plants, plus the butternut squash and the sweet potatoes . We can’t come back till mid October because of the 90 day rule as we have reached 88 days in Europe in the last 180 days . Then I shall clear and cover the rest.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue! "We can’t come back till mid October because of the 90 day rule as we have reached 88 days in Europe in the last 180 days ." The world is full of rules and regulations. What happens if you break the rules? Refuse you entry?
I have been in the shad for an hour and a half doing fiddly little things with the feed pump casting....



If you can keep your patience up it's quite enjoyable but no good for anyone who wants to crash on.

[Big Kev]

Hung these up yesterday, been looking for something to put in an empty bit of wall for quite a while and these did the job. Bought them off a Facebook selling page for just £5, bargain.

20220828_082531.jpg

[Big Kev]

Watching a Chinook fly over my house

Screenshot_20220828-224732_Flightradar24.jpg

[Stanley]

I shall be in the playroom as usual at 6AM or thereabouts. Looking at what I am getting into now I have made another decision. I had already decided not to make it a steaming model, too many expensive bits missing. I have now decided to make it a static model because as far as I can see at the moment the eccentrics that drive the valves and the feed pump can't work because there is no articulation designed into the rods. I may come across the secret as I build but I can't see that happening. A bit of a mystery actually.... Never mind, it'll make a nice little conversation piece!
Nothing in the weather forecast to stop me walking and sitting later this morning. They tell me it's a bank holiday today..... I'm glad I'm not out on the roads....

[Sue]

Morning Sue! "We can’t come back till mid October because of the 90 day rule as we have reached 88 days in Europe in the last 180 days ." The world is full of rules and regulations. What happens if you break the rules? Refuse you entry?

Morning
The answer is yes, a fine and refusal of entry for 3 years. You can apply for a visa but it takes ages to get and only has short term validity. This rule applies to an country not just the UK, that is not in the Schengen area.

Today we are all off to the market at Questembert. The kids want to spend their euros and there is no better place. They are then off to the beach for the day, a further 30 minutes away but Bob and I are coming back home via the supermarket. Last night we all compiled a menu for the week so we hope to get it all in one shop. We tried to think of meals that would consume what we have as the week before we go home I try to clear the fridge. We can bring food home with us but things like cheese and butter we put in the freezer. The other day Elisabeth brought us a dozen eggs and we already had a dozen so I think I will get the girls to make a cake one day. That and an egg meal eg omelettes should clear those.

This evenings meal is home made pizzas in the pizza oven. I will buy the bases at the supermarket rather than make them as thats a lot of work for 6 people. I think that will be the last fire in there this summer, and what a good summer it has been. It will use the extra cooked meats bought for last Sunday and our tomato glut.

Another warm sunny day forecast. Have a good one