Of Tiles and Trenches

There’s  bit of a lull in the proceedings here at the moment. Autumn has come and it’s cold and wet. I have spent quite some time searching for an online template so I could make round labels for the tops of my spice bottles  that sit in a drawer and hence can’t be identified. Then I dried the garden herbs (basil, tarragon, thyme and oregano) and threw out the old purchased ones which were well beyond their use-by date.  Pathetic I know, but it’s cold and wet and what can you do? From upstairs at the computer came for a few hours, the drone of Spouse at the computer humming ( or was it singing or even groaning, “John Brown’s body lies a- moulding…..”) Seemed appropriate under the circumstances.

Dried basil

The tiles with their regrouted joints are finished, I think. I can’t say they look a lot better. When the trusty workers took a lunch break last week, I went out and inspected their work.  It looked pretty awful so I tried to improve on it, and then called Spouse to take a look. Admittedly he was in the middle of some Much More Important Computer-based Work, and not in the mood to discuss the problem so he hosed out all the joints they had done in the morning. 

On their return, they assured me, that they had not finished and had the final stages planned for after lunch. As they started again, with little good grace, our neighbour, Arthur, who is chef de chantier dressed us down for interfering. Rather chastened by this, we took the opportunity to escape to the local village pick up point where our new fountain was supposed to be ready for collection. It was not there. 

Yesterday, I got to work with acid and a power hose trying to clean up the concrete that seems to be everywhere on the dalles.  I guess they must be finished as we got the facture for their labour.  Could be an end of month bill though.

On a more positive note, Spouse and  Georges are making progress with the trench next to the hangar.  As I’ve said before, it looks as if we are ready for the next World War 1. They seem to have come to an agreement and we are waiting for the geomètre (surveyor ) to come next week to confirm the bornes.  These are the markers that delineate the boundary. It is illegal to take one out as they define property lines.  Georges produced one from under a rock while he and Spouse were digging. Apparently it is common practice for the locals to keep theirs in their barns and to insert them in the ground when needed. Sadly, we will still need to pay the géometre his 750 euros when he comes on Tuesday

Une borne