Work in Progress

My long absence is due to the fact that I caught the very nasty bug called Borreliosis or Lyme desease. Whilst I was always vigilant about a bite from a tick on ourselves and always treated all animals with the latest generation of droplets to be put on their necks, I have never been aware that a tick has been biting me. Latest information explain that not only ticks can transmit this bacteria which is developped on mainly sheep and fallow deer but also any kind of insects which suck our blood might infect us. The consequences of suffering of lyme desease are widely spread and the antibodies of the bacteria will always remain in the body which means that one is never sure of a next crisis. But I define my blog as a happy place where I can mainly upload my photos like in an album and therefore will not go in details about my condition.

As a consequence, some things in the bayous did sort themselves out.



The vegetable garden looks like this


and in the front yard the green is sprouting in the gaps. In the other parts of the garden, weedy things have developped so massively that for the first time I am looking forward to the end of the growing season :-0.



August was the month when the change in the loft space made a good move forward.

After the plasterer had left, there were plenty of details to be finished. This is the bigger of the loft rooms before painting.





Some of the old floorboards had decayed too much and had to be replaced.


The builder kept some of the stonewalls visible, other not so nice looking bits were plastered over.




This last picture in the collage above is showing what will be the bathroom. So there is still some more work to be done, as well as the other loft room to be finished.



A wee boy was born and the happy event was a highlight of August. This is the card I made for him.





EG then started to empty the ‘piggery’… the name keeps its promise ;-). Eine echte Schweinerei!



The old David Brown and trailer came out to carry all of the more than hundred of years old roof isolation : hay, straw, twiglets and bundles of bracken.



The huge wasp nest is old and abandoned.





EG on his own spent hour after hour in the dust...



This cross was discovered just under the tiles. It was an old tradition here to protect the building and the lifestock.



NB: We hoped also to find old tins, as our neighbour did when he emptied the old isolation in his annexe. He found then a 16-paged handwritten document signed by "Albert I, roi des Belges", Albert was also called 'le Roi des soldats' (King of the soldiers) during the first WW. He gave in this document instructions what had to be done if he would not survive... very interesting scenarios indeed. Our area has always been very hard-fought and soldiers would take shelter in the haylofts over night where obviously they used tins to hide secret writings.





Eventually, it was all taken away and brushed out.



This is what will become our new living room.



Only minutes later, EG had carried his last trailerload away and filled it up on his way back with branches which were laying around the stream. Next winter will be coming - but our wood supply seems never to end :-).



tbc