We are just two again! Alex decided that he should head back to the UK before the ridiculous quarantine requirements coming into force in England on 8th June and so left us on Friday 29th May. Astonishingly, I was slightly (!?!) apprehensive about it but knew that it was for the best. He managed to book the TGV from St Brieuc to Paris then Eurostar to London. We all agreed that it would pay him to wait until he was in Paris before booking his onward travel to Hartlepool. There were obviously rules that had to be followed, so we both had checked as many websites as we could for all the latest information. It looked like he had to have two forms to travel through France. One as he was a Foreign National returning to his home country and one for travelling more than 100km from where he had been staying. It was also compulsory that he wear a face mask for the entire train journey. So after a rummage through the rag bag Steve managed to find an old rugby shirt whose sleeves would be ideal. Fortunately I also happened to know where my sewing kit was – although as the fabric was white and I had very little normal white thread I had to use coated white thread! As well as sewing one, I also gave him a couple of spares – one that was just the sleeve which he could pull over his head and down to cover his nose, mouth and chin and also my faithful snood (which I had previously stolen off Steve back in 2012) folded and with a couple of elastic bands. Amazingly he found the first one I made comfortable enough for the whole journey and was not asked once for any paperwork! I was far more worried about him making this journey than I was about him crossing the Atlantic last year!! It was a relief when he text to say he had passed through Border Control in Paris and I could then relax and have a glass of wine (or two).
During Alex’s time with us we all managed to acquire nicknames. His was Arfur, Steve’s Blister and me Santa’s Little Watcher. Arfur was short for ‘half a job’ – as Ali rarely managed to complete a whole task. Steve made a habit (briefly) of showing up to help when the hard work was done and mine is pretty self-explanatory! It wasn’t my fault though; they kept wanting me to do jobs I couldn’t physically perform due to my height and strength (or lack of!).
One job that Ali did perform very admirably and was only curtailed due to the lack of materials was his ‘Lurve Shack’ (our name for it, not his!!). We had already discussed having a tent area in amongst the trees and had started putting the spoil from the fosse septique hole down as a base but then a debate started, should it be an area for a tent, a yurt, my favourite – a wigwam, or Steve’s choice – a barn. As usual, Steve won out – but mainly because we were in ‘confinement’ and unable to purchase new materials so had to make do with what we had here.
After removing the galvanised sheets and tiles from the main roof it became clear that we needed to remove all the roof planks as they were in varying degrees of disrepair. This was a job for all three of us in various combinations! Steve worked off a ladder and whoever was walking past the building got the call of ‘have you got a minute’ when he was in a position to remove a plank and pass it to ground level. I then got the wonderful job of removing all the crochets (clips that held the tiles in place) and any nails from each board as some of them (the least rotten!) were destined for reuse elsewhere. With all the roof planks removed it was now time to see the condition of the long building-length beamy things, fix the broken crossbeam, remove the window, replace the ridge beam and generally make good any dodgy bits! Steve appeared to be in his element! I spent several days clip removing and sawing off rotten timber ends and decided that as the weather was getting really nice it was time for me to start cobbing! This was fine, most of the time, but there were occasions when I just happened to be working exactly where Steve and Alex needed their ladders or where a piece of wood was heading, normally controlled.
The ridge going up was impressive to watch – Steve and Alex working well and surprisingly communicating well too! It was nine metres long with a cross section of between 4 – 6 inches, hey, guess what yet another mismatch of units of measure!!
We have been quite surprised as to how many people took to walking past the house. During confinement exercise was pretty much restricted to 1km from home so I assume all these people lived locally and would usually take their exercise further away. But it certainly meant more people were watching our progress!
After the ridge was finally in place we had a number of double takes from people passing and also our neighbours probably asking how on earth we got it up there with no mechanical assistance (and not even any sky hooks!!) We are now just waiting for the arrival of roof timbers – which has given us the opportunity to crack on with cob repairs.
Steve has decided that I should now be known as the cob queen. Although I do, for the time being, have an assistant doing the shovelling and water adding, I just take over with the stomping and then the technical elements as he has no patience for that! (Plus my hands and therefore my fingers are smaller and able to get into smaller cracks!) I am particularly chuffed with the way I have managed to rebuild the lost front corner.
I am sorry to have to report that my veggie patch is not doing very well. My rhubarb appears to be dying (sorry mum – what do I do?!), none of my carrot, onion, courgette or broccoli seeds have come to anything, the tomato plants that I planted out have now all, bar one, been eaten and the only thing doing relatively well down there are my two rows of peas. Not sure whether I need to relocate to a less shady and damp area or whether leaving everything completely to their own devices just doesn’t work!!
The cherry trees are doing incredibly well, the huge amount of blossom in the spring has resulted in what would have been an abundant harvest but unfortunately most of the fruit are 70ft in the air! The birds are really enjoying things though. The bullfinches started off trying to have the blossom but now blackbirds, finches, tits, jays, thrushes and a few ‘I haven’t got a clues’ are thoroughly enjoying themselves. You now take your life in your hands sitting beneath the trees as the cherry thieves have a tendency to eat one and, unintentionally, discard the second from a great height. The occasional cherry bullet hits the unsuspecting lounger and even the odd wine glass. So far we have only had the pain and not the stain – none of the cherries have been ripe enough to splat!! Weirdly the non-cherry liker Steve thinks they taste nice, however for me they are still quite sharp and I am hoping that there will still be some left when they are fully ripe.
There is a huge amount of bird life around us, we have a number of robins, wrens and blue tits nesting in the buildings and were lucky enough one lunch time to see the fledging tits leave the nest. Unfortunately, so did the Jay as he took off with at least one of them! We did get one baby tit sitting on the windscreen wiper on the front of the van so I managed to get a few photos, even catching feeding time! I am pretty sure this chick survived (that day at least), the adult tits spent quite a time chasing off the jay.
With the weather getting hotter and hotter, we were finding it difficult to work for too long so we started getting up earlier, starting work by 8 and finishing by 10.30. To avoid starting on the wine too early we diversified. Steve had bought me a kilo of oranges and not having a fruit bowl anymore (that had been left on Shearmyste) I decided that I would have a go at making one myself. Steve cut me a chunk of cherry wood and handed over some chisels and left me to it. After two days I had made a (in my opinion) very handsome fruit bowl – not very light but very tactile. Steve put some feet on the bottom for me and it now proudly lives on the table in the van which has had to be reinforced (along with the floor!) No, only kidding! Steve has managed to make a new handle for his sledge hammer – he hasn’t smoothed it off yet, so can’t actually use it as a sledge hammer properly but it does a very good job of breaking up the old lumps of cob.
Once again this post is being written over a period of weeks! So now we have received our roof timbers and Steve has made a start on fitting them – a job that he is mainly doing on his own as I will not cut the timbers and am certainly not confident enough on the ladders (or strong enough) to hit the nails in! I have been continuing with the cob, even starting to fill the large crack in the south end of the main building. There is a bit more work to do there now anyway as when my men were fitting the ridge they managed to knock some cob off but I suppose if they were able to do that it must have been loose and would have to have come down and been replaced! We can both see that there is a distinct possibility that the property will be watertight by the winter – well the walls finished and the roof on, maybe not the windows in but we can always plastic sheet them!
With everything proceeding apace it is rather unfortunate that the weather has decided to play a little game with us. After having had some very, very hot days we have had some very, very wet days, so much so that we have had to stop work. There was quite a large swimming pool growing inside the main building and any walking in there was just going to create a huge mud bath so we made the decision, now that there are no restrictions on how far we can travel, to take a little holiday – roadtrip!!
Fate Or Folly 