We had a few activities early in the week. On Monday we had dinner chez Rigit who are in town for a few weeks. They are both well, and looking forward to moving out here full time. They will put their place in England on the market and move after it sells, hopefully in spring. They served refried bean tortillas, guac, salad and chips. We didn’t stay too late since it was a school night. They’re coming to dinner at our place on Thurs so we’ll get to see them once more before they go.
On Wed, Bryan came by in the morning with his trailer to take a load down to the déchetterie. The previous day, Will and I put the summer things in the loft, and got all our trash organised and ready. We also took our old gates that we’d removed earlier this summer. The garage is now empty enough that we can get the car in this winter if necessary. I had choir on Tues, and we started working on one of the songs for our xmas concert in early Dec. We’re learning four new songs that we’re singing with another local choir and I was pleased we got through one on the first go. We also had rehearsal on Wed night, and true to our recent pattern, it didn’t go so well. We hope to follow the pattern and have a good rehearsal this week.
On Thurs afternoon, Anne and Andrew arrived on time at Limoges and Will collected them. We got caught up over aperos and then moved on to the main which was roasted pepper and artichoke antipasto followed by butternut squash risotto and salad. We had cheese but I forgot to make brownies so no pudding that night. Andrew had one main task this time around and that was to remove the shelf in the fireplace so that the stove can sit on the ground. We had reserved a small jackhammer for the job, and Will and Andrew left early-ish on Fri morning to collect it and some other supplies.
Andrew got to work and had the majority of the job done within a few hours. Anne joined the two of them for the second trip to Nontron to return the tool and do some shopping. I stayed back to some food including fishcakes for that night plus the forgotten brownies. Andrew made a start on rendering over the parts of the fireplace where the shelf used to be and got the stove pipe cut to the right size for the new placement. We were invited over to Manu and Mathilde’s that night for aperos, and we headed over around 8. Manu’s bday is the day after mine and we usually celebrate together.
In addition to the hosts were Philippe, Mathilde’s sister, plus a cousin and her boyfriend who recently moved to Villars from Grenoble. We had some champagne and nibbles and chatted for an hour or so before returning home for dinner. We had a fire that night and the new stove placement made a big difference to the heat in the room. We had a fairly early night in anticipation of a bigger day ahead. Andrew did a bit more rendering in the morning while I opened presents and we got ready. We left around 11 and headed towards Brantome to the private gardens owned by one of our clients. I mentioned it was my birthday, and Melody, the hostess made me a cake which we had with some friends of theirs, a gay couple who recently moved here from San Fran via Paris.
They are long term house-sitting in Badiallac of all places. This is the same hamlet that we stayed in for our first year here. They never met Sharon but her legend lives on and they shared some stories about her they’d heard. We didn’t learn too much else about them, but we exchanged info and will probably see them soon. Our next stop was the Hotel Charbonnel for bday lunch. Will and I forgot that we’d also gone there this summer, but it’s such a good place that no one minded. We didn’t really need cake before the meal, and it was a bit more of a struggle than usual to finish the three-course dessert. Will and Andrew had fois gras and confit de canard, Anne had turbot and I had beef carpaccio followed by veal. We had an apero to start so that was an extra course, plus the aforementioned dessert course(s).
We rolled out of there and returned home, feeling overly full but satisfied. Andrew returned to work on the fireplace, and also filled a couple of holes in the exterior wall that were left when they removed the old boiler and hot water heater. He also applied a lighter coat of render on the patched areas, and it matches really well with the existing facade. We had thought of tiling the inside and the floor but will hold off for now. That evening, Bryan and Carol joined us for aperos. Her bday is a few days before mine so it was another joint celebration. I had planned to make a number of hot nibbles, but we were so full from lunch that I only did one. I also had a mushroom pate disaster.
Will went down to borrow some tools from Lucien, and as usual, came away with more than he asked for. Lucien had been out that morning harvesting the first cepes of the season, and he insisted Will take four of them. Mauricette also gave him a half dozen tomatoes, saying that she’d already made everything she could with them. Since our menus were already planned, I decided to use the cepes to make a pate. I found a well-rated recipe and followed it, except I chopped up the cepes too finely. So when I went to fry them, they turned into a sticky dough-like mush. I went ahead with the recipe and it actually tasted ok, but never lost the gluey consistency. Luckily, there was lots of other finger food so no one went hungry. B & C stayed for a number of drinks and we then the four of us carried on for a bit and played cards. It was nice to spend my bday with A & A, and I think this was the first time I had done so.
I got a Facetime call from Suzy on Saturday evening. The whole family was having lunch out to celebrate Ione and Maddie’s bdays, also in October. The phone was passed around the table and I got to see everyone and say hello. Dad had a little trouble with the concept at first, but he got there in the end. I also spoke to Suzy (and Evie) for awhile today for our semi-annual bday catch-up.
Andrew applied the last coat of render on Sunday, and that was it for the chores. We went for a walk before lunch, and didn’t eat until 2:30 which was fine since we were all still full from the previous day. We played cards again in the afternoon and then I made dinner of butternut squash soup and onion tart, followed by cheese and brownies. We played more cards after that and had an early night. Today it was back to work for us, and I did a bit in the morning. Will took his folks back to the airport in the afternoon. Later on, we harvested the three plants that had been drying in the loft and they yielded seven oz. Last year we got ten, but we still have two plants to go so we should end up with the same or more.
My birthday weekend ends on a happy note. I decided I wanted a watch as a gift and I found one online that I liked. It has been discontinued, so very few sites had it when I looked in early Sep. A few weeks later, I could only find one site that still had it. Mom ordered it from there and then got a note the next day to say that in fact, it was sold out. Not to be deterred, I found one other site that claimed to have it and this time, we were in luck. Mom got the watch last week and we debated about how to send it since it might incur customs duty / taxes. In the end, she sent it in the same box it came in and declared it as a gift. It was due to arrive on Satuday and I was a bit disappointed when it didn’t. However, it showed up today and I am now a watch-wearer once again.