Street Legal

Our little banger and trailer are officially street legal. We had to register the car (even though it's French registered) at a cost of 144 euros. We then were issued with a new number and told to go buy the plates...which we did, from a dry cleaning shop. To top it all, they had to be riveted not screwed to the car and trailer. 

While we were there (not the dry cleaners) we applied for our European driving licences. They certainly do things differently in France.

All done and dusted. Our new licences are in the post.

ps, the bumper isn't rusty, it's the reflection of the house, and yes, the grass does need cutting :)

Bread Oven Update

Need the canopy to keep the leaves and sun off the concrete when I start to lay it.

The pointing is coming on nicely.

These keep the canopy up.  I can't believe how many times I bumped into them. 

The back finished apart from levelling the ledge and fitting the slate. 

A bit dry but it worked out okay in the end. 

Bev working hard. By the time we finished it was pitch black and we had to use the car headlights to finish off. 11:20pm would you believe.

The next morning. 

Ledge now level.  Just the timber frame and slate to put up. Oh, and a few holes to fill. 

Concreting finished and the soil getting raked into place ready for rolling and seeding. 

Glad it's all done and ready to move on to the next stage.

Happy Birthday Bev

Birthday girl is still asleep so I raided the garden for colour. 

Here she is... feeling worse for wear after staying up to almost midnight after watching Downton Abbey.

Dave and Annie will pick us up in an hour for a birthday treat in Pontivy.

A good week.

We started the week with buying a French registered car. Little did we know that we have to re-register it in our name...costing hundreds of euros, of course. The CT (MOT) was valid until October 2015 (CT's last two years here), but the CT needs to have been done within the last six months when a vehicle is being sold. This meant that we couldn't register it until it had a new CT. Fortunately, the seller has agreed to foot the bill. So the good news is that we'll have a car with a full service history and a two year CT. It's a banger, but what can you expect for around £1000. It's cheaper than registering our Yaris and changing the headlights. Two years buys us time for choosing our next car.

I get a free bike rack as well (it fits on those brackets).

The Parex arrived early so Bev set about making the piping bags.

We chose a more subdued tone as this is different stone to the house.

I'm disappointed with the colour as it dries a lot lighter than we thought. It's a pity it didn't stay the way it looks in the photo. 

Making good progress. I'm enjoying pointing even though the colour isn't quite what was wanted. Perhaps it'll grow on me.

That's one side finished.

And a little bit of the inside.

We also arranged for EDF to come and change the power supply from 12 to 9 kw. They'll come on Tuesday...which is when we should be somewhere else.  I guess it'll all come right in the end.

We also had a game of Boules with friends.

We planned to go to the cinema, but when we arrived in Josselin, they were showing a different film, so we came home and watched Fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe, and made popcorn.

Bev's veg is looking good which is more than can be said for the dead bodies next to them.  Trying to protect cabbage is nigh on impossible.

The ditches have been strummed and the garden is looking good.  Rampant colour...

Just what we wanted.

A well deserved rest. Bev preparing her primary class.

It's been a good week, the downside being losing at 10's (a card game lasting several hours) to Dave and Annie when they invited us over for a meal.

The upside was finally booking the ferry for our Christmas visit to the UK.

Oops, did I mention Christmas already?

Last two weeks of August.

It's been a busy time with the grandkids. I can't believe we've had them for three weeks...and another week in Sunderland. It has been good having them here. We are all on our own again and the peace and quiet is deafening.  Next week we welcome our last visitors to Bel-Air...Peter and Sue. Hope the weather is as nice as this week.

So, here we go...

Lunch at Dave and Annie's place.

The day I caught my very first mole.

A bit of quiet after the adventure playground.

Boules anyone?

Back to the UK.

Jon and Serene's place.

Visiting Grandma.

Sunderland...Hollie dressing up while I start the partition for Juli.

All done.

At Chris and Juli's new business premises.

n the way to Preston.

It was brilliant to visit the temple again.

Some of the temple window glass.

 

A time for reflection.

Back to Sunderland and the plaster is dry

We were the last on the plane at Leeds Bradford.

Sunrise next morning on the way back from the woods. Therese's place looks lovely in this light. We walk along here every time we need to empty our bin.

Time to relax.