Science lesson 101 – one reflective metal bowl plus one dish cloth plus sun equals Delia saying “what is that burning smell…”. The metal bowl we discovered is as effective as a magnifying glass!
Life lesson 101 – life is good. I came to that decision this week, despite us having very little money coming in and currently having to live off our savings, at the moment it is very nice not to have to worry too much about work, time keeping and the like. It is enabling us to get things done to the house (like painting wooden doors, much to my uncle’s horror). The first stage of the bathroom is nearly complete; we just need to paint the apricot walls white. The rest of the bathroom (ie. replacing the shower) will need to wait until there is some more money coming in.
The kitchen is also coming along nicely, this week we have bought another lot of wall cupboards (second hand of course) which I’m now in the process of sanding and getting ready to be attached to the wall. However, I’ve now decided that we will need to paint the wall before the cabinets are put up, so another job to add to the list. However, we do have help arriving next weekend, in the form of Richard and Lyn (and Dave the dog). So we do have a few jobs lined up. Not sure how Wallace will like Dave but we will find out.
We also had visitors this past weekend, with my aunt and uncle from Australia came for 3 days before they went on to Paris. We had wonderful weather while they were here, which was great as they didn’t want to do much, just rest and talk! It did mean that I got some gardening done and we were able to tap into the knowledge of my uncle (a carpenter) about certain things that we want to do to the house.
We have also confirmed with a builder in regard to the re-pointing work and the installing of a new window on the upstairs landing. We just have a couple of weeks to wait until we can be sure to go ahead with the window. Interestingly, we have put in the paperwork with our local Marie (mayor), they have confirmed receipt, however they operate on the “if you don’t hear from us in 4 weeks, you can go ahead”. An unusual concept.
As the weather has been improving our kiwi vine has taken off, this is quite an old vine and I’m thinking there must be two planted as it did have fruit last year (Kiwi plants need and male and female plant to pollinate). It currently has a lot of flowers just about to bloom, so Pat is very hopeful that we will get some fruit. I’m not so fussed, as I don’t like kiwi fruit :-). However, our honeysuckle which is near the back door is in full bloom and smelling divine, especially at night.
And as a final note, we have decided on a name for our house, we have decided on Gournia. Gournia is an ancient Minoan town on Crete. When we were in Crete we stayed very close to Gournia (the house we stayed in was called Villa Gournia). Not only did we love that holiday, but Gournia and Crete were wonderful and full of great memories. It was one of the few holidays that I have been on which I didn’t want to end. We now have to sort out a name plate for the house and make sure that it is fine to call the house Gournia – we don’t think it is similar to any French words so we should be fine.
I will leave you with a couple of photos from our wonderful holiday in Crete (back in 2011).
View from Villa
our favourite beach
Glad to see you guys are getting into the Good Life – I’m sure paid work will come along when you least expect it.
The planning concept of ‘go ahead if we don’t say anything’ seems great to me – far better than waiting 12 weeks for council to come back and ask more questions! Anyway, good luck with that.
Honeysuckle in the evening…ahh, bliss – one of the things I liked about Hopefield Road 🙂
Wasn’t it Jasmine at Hopefield Road ?