Another missive from Saloppe Francaise, bonsoir tout le monde 
Before I begin I must say a huge hello and thank you to Marilyn and Chuck (Matt’s Dad) for not only being lovely people but also for my restaurant treat at Au Fil de Temps on their last night here. T’was a truly marvellous evening and thank goodness they managed to get out of France with only three hours delay the next day. They left at the crack of dawn for their morning flight from Paris, the same morning the volcano started to spew. Although it was a ridiculous hour for any sane person (or indeed for those of us who aren’t currently tied to any fixed schedule) to be up and about, it did mean they got out before all of European airspace closed. Who knew what was to come and as for Iceland…. first they nick all our money and then they try to torch the evidence…. I suspect that ash cloud wasn’t just smelling of sulphur…. maybe a little fishy too hmmmmmm?
Speaking of which, what do volcanoes, me, Matt and Will have in common I ask? Dormant for ages than a sudden flurry of activity that’s what. Well the start of this week’s gorgeous weather spurned just that from the three of us. So far we have managed to finish the vegetable “patch” and sow some seeds, as per Matt’s blog entry previously. What he failed to mention is how we all ached the following day. I had the bright idea of placing large stones around our veggie bed to make it look pretty but of course, first of all we had to source said stones. Now these aren’t just any old stones, oh no, these are lovely French stones that they use to build houses with, in fact, they’re not stones at all, they’re whacking big rocks actually.
So once again, using my ever increasing superb powers of the Law of Attraction, I did find a huge mound of once used stones but it was a short drive away. So, off we drove in both cars to load up and take home. Finally loaded up, off we drove, Matt’s exhaust pipe practically trailing the ground. Next of course we had to unload both cars and then form a chain gang to expedite the laying of rocks. Sadly, as much as four paws was eager to help, and as much as he loves to carry essentially tree trunks in his mouth, he was no use to us in this scenario.
Once all rocks were laid (and my, doesn’t the veggie bed look pretty now) we then had to carry over and empty twenty 50 litre bags of soil and one of horse poop (or as the French say, shit de cheval). Following which, seeds then had to be planted. As you can infer, lots of back breaking work which at the time wasn’t noticeable and curiously became less so after several margaritas on the terrace some hours later. Yes, it was only the next day we began to feel the results of our efforts and consequently, collectively decided to have a bit of down time for recuperation. Well, it was Sunday, a designated day of rest!
By Wednesday, batteries recharged, I decided it was time enough to open the pool much to Will’s delight. We managed to get the cover off and with the help of the pool cleaning robot, fished out some of the crap that had lain dormant over the Winter before evening and failing light beckoned. Unfortunately, as usual the best laid plans and all that, the next day was a bit of a wash out weather wise so all we achieved as far as pool was concerned was to chuck in some bleachy type stuff to kill off any nasty bacteria and then a 25 kilo bag of salt pastilles to start the chlorination process. Today, Friday, we managed to manually vacuum the pool properly, chuck in another bag of salt and get the PH regulator and chlorination process automated. You see, there’s so much more pleasure to be gained from owning a pool than just swimming in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apart from all this, Matt has been regularly taking Osky Plosky for evening walks. He has discovered that using a stick as encouragement works!! How we laughed when he told us this over our second evening and rounds of margaritas the other night. Don’t worry, there is no animal cruelty going on in this French hamlet – just a very hot four paws who is more easily persuaded for walkies when he sees various log sized “sticks” being waved in front of his face. It’s only us human “beans” who prefer carrots.