Old pots

January is whizzing past now, February is on its way, and I’m looking forward to getting back into the garden to do some pruning and tidying before spring pops up.

I did find some spring bulbs in our local Bricomarché the other day, which I will use to create some early colour, using some containers I’ve picked up on my travels.

I’m not sure if they will like growing in the variety of pots I’ve collected; old pottery jugs, tureens, moulds, and bowls, we shall have to see, but I am loving the look.

We were due a little rain, so I left them outside, to have a natural watering before I bring them in to decorate the house. I just need to be careful they do not have too much water, as there is no drainage.

Enjambeur

One of our neighbours had a new enjambeur delivered today, and it caused quite a commotion in the village. An enjambeur is one of the vineyard tractors that straddles the vines. These tractors are so versatile, and get used all year round. Word of a new one in the village had obviously got around, and people were stopping to admire the new piece of kit.

It caused a really flurry of activity and excitement. I love seeing their passion for their work, it is so wonderful to see.

Oops!

I guess Brian’s had a pretty lucky run really, with all the wood for the shelves behaving much as he would have expected. However, on the very last piece the wood split…quite badly. Strangely it happened whilst he was sanding it, ready to be linseed oiled.

It’s quite a long piece of wood, and to create another piece like it he would have to cut another plank, which he’s not keen to do. So he’s trying to fix it.

The first step is to cut the damaged area away, then he can fill it with another piece of wood.

Just need to leave it overnight now and see how it looks tomorrow.

Healthy start

We thought we’d be a little bit healthier kick-starting our day today. Brian went for a couple of boiled eggs, and I opted for a bacon sandwich. I know, not really healthy for me, but the butcher had some very tasty looking smoked bacon, which I couldn’t resist.

I’ve been oiling all the new wood pieces that Brian had prepared, and they finally felt dry enough for him to start putting up. First the end board on the header.

Then it was time to stick the facias on the uprights. There are three uprights in all, that are formed by the four separate bookshelves when they were joined. The bits of wood already prepared will finish off the front of two of the joined uprights.

The challenge though is that we only have two poles to support them whilst drying, and he needs to use both per upright, so with three to do in total it’s going to take a few days.

Recycle, reuse, repurpose

We’ve visited a few recycling and charity shops recently. Always a good little opportunity to find a piece of treasure that someone has discarded. Sometimes you can find wonderful little gems that others have missed, but if not, there are always things that catch your eye.

I didn’t get too much this week, but I do love the large oval plate I found in recyclorient. I will use the little hand painted glass carafe and jug as vases during the summer months. The reel of white silk ribbon was a real bargain, just €1.50! I know I will use it for something soon. I also couldn’t resist the glass stoppers, to add to my collection, even though I think I may now have collected enough of them, and I’m not sure any more will fit in my display.

In all though, a good little haul.

Curled or straight?

Ever wondered why some croissants are curled, and others are straight?

It’s a simple difference, but one that can help you quickly identify which are made with butter, and which are made with margarine.

The croissant beurre – some would say this is the more decadent of the two. They are soft to tear, and light to eat, with a rich, melted butter taste, and maybe a little sweet.

The croissant ordinaire – this is anything but ordinary. They can be slightly darker in colour, are often crisper and more airy, slightly chewy, and sometimes have an almost nutty aftertaste.

There is no official legal control over the shape, but there is an implicit agreement amongst pastry chefs to obey the rule, so that you know what you’re getting. But which is which?

The straight one is the croissant beurre, whilst the curled one is the ordinaire.

Which one is your favourite?

Fireside

It was a cool quiet stroll up to the point du vue this afternoon. We’d had a glimmer of blue sky in the morning, and the warmth from the sun had created a low mist laying along the valley. The seat was way too cold to sit down on, so a quiet moment of contemplation standing, and soaking up the misty view, before we headed home for a nice cup of hot tea.

Brian had been measuring, cutting and sanding wood for a large part of today, so the walk was a good little break for us both.

We decided an early finish would be good, so I got dinner in the oven, and Brian set the fire and made the tea. After a wash and change, we settled down to our evening in front of the fire.

Back to the books

At the top of the main bookshelves Brian needs to fit a header board, that effectively pulls the top of the shelves together and tidies up the front, top edge. He first screws the side panels together, to ensure everything’s in perfect position, before fixing the header to them.

We’d prepped the header board over the last few days, having cut it to length, drilled holes for the fixing screws, and oiled it with linseed. All that was needed now was for one of us to hold it up there whilst it’s screwed in place. “Are you feeling strong?” he asks me. It’s not my favourite kind of job, but then I’m not sure I want to be responsible for screwing it in wrong either.

Once he’d secured it at either end, which didn’t take long (except for stepping back to take a photo!) I could let go, and leave him to finish it off.

Now that piece is finally in place he has a mark to measure all the other front pieces to. We’re getting close now!

Strapped

Brian nipped up the slope, at the back of our house, to check on the pool cover and measure the width of the straps it has to hold it in place. One of them has broken so we need to try and fix two ends of strapping back together, which is proving to be a challenge. But we do have a few ideas to try, I’ll keep you posted on how they go, for now though I thought I’d show some photos he took from the pool.

Wheelie good

We headed out yesterday for a little shopping trip. The route to Bar-sur-Aube was beautiful, the countryside dusted in white frost.

We wanted to buy a new wheelbarrow. The one I’d bought before has worked really well for me in the garden, but we have some other landscaping and building jobs we’d like to do this year, so a normal wheelbarrow is required. There were a fair few of them to select from, but we mostly just needed a rugged one. Choice made, we then headed into the Leclerc to do our shopping.

The choice here is much better than our, slightly more local, Intermarché.

I’ve already found another good use for our new barrow, and Brian hasn’t even taken the plastic off the handles yet!

Lap joint

We were both really happy with how the first half of the shelf was looking once it was attached to the wall. The expanse from the side of the cupboard to the opposite wall was too long for one piece of wood, so Brian needed to join a second piece to it, using a half lap joint, which he’d carefully cut by hand.

Using his laser he’d fixed the batons to the wall, ready for the second half of the shelf to be fixed securely in place.

Then he dropped the shelf into place, gluing and screwing it, before clamping it and leaving it to dry overnight.

Can’t wait now to start using it, and organising our desk area.

Let’s go for a walk

We woke up to - 6°C, blue skies, and beautiful sunshine. “Let’s go for a walk” I suggested, “it’s such a gorgeous day out there”. We tucked into our breakfast, enjoyed our hot cup of coffee, then got wrapped up warm to head out.

We decided to head up the path opposite our house and across the fields at the top. We then dropped down around the edge of Landreville, picking up the path on the opposite side of our valley.

The views are simply stunning, the hedgerows even though they are now stripped bare of their autumn leaves, still display little seed pods waiting to be scattered in the spring.

It was a delight getting out and stretching our legs, enjoying the winter sunshine , but I love returning after a chilly walk to the warmth of our home, a hot cup of tea, and I’m sure I can find a biscuit or two.

Too chilly

We’re in the middle of a week of very chilly nights, around -5°c, and although the days start below freezing, they manage to creep up to about 3°c before the evening.

We do want to get the library finished, but it does mean Brian has to venture outside, during the day, to cut and sand the wood. It’s not just that I don’t like him out in the cold, it’s also difficult, or even dangerous, to work.

I’ve suggested maybe he puts a hold on the library, just for a week, and does a few inside jobs. There are plenty of other things to keep him busy whilst we wait for the weather to warm up a bit.

Well oiled

We were both keen to get the shelf up on the wall, but first I needed to linseed it. I’ve learnt that it’s best to apply the oil with a lint free cloth, something that won’t leave little bits of fluff on the surface.

Brian helped me set myself up, so I was soon cracking on with the task, one that I was looking forward to doing. I love seeing the unfinished wood brightening up as the oil is applied. I make sure it’s rubbed in evenly, not allowing the oil to pool, like it could do with a brush.

It’s best left for a good while to dry out, and with the two coats it needed that means it won’t be able to go up until tomorrow. Can’t wait.

The supermarket

Most of our daily life takes place in the frame of our surrounding villages. Festivals, markets and our daily shopping are all local, but occasionally we travel to a city like Troyes, and our shopping experience changes dramatically.

Take this extraordinary display for one. after finishing the shopping we are given a token, which we place in a kind of electronic roulette machine, to see if we win a prize. There’s a long queue of hopefuls, and Jo joins them.

At the machine we try our luck, and ‘Bingo’, we win a slip of paper with a €5 discount. It’s all very elaborate, and seems very popular. I have to say though that at our local supermarket they just give you the money-off coupon at the checkout. Hey-ho, that’s the big city for you.

Mind the gap

Before Brian started to assemble the shelf he wanted to first see how flat the wall was to fix it to. It transpired, not very flat at all. He knew the planks were all different thicknesses, he’d tried to arrange them in the best way he could when he refitted them, but they were still going to create a few gaps when the shelf was fitted. So he first he tried to minimise the gaps by adapting the flat inside edge of the shelf to fit better against the wall. This made a significant difference, and once he was happy he’d achieved all he could, he moved onto the next stage.

I’d decided that I was going to linseed all the wood in one go, once he’d put the shelf together, so I left him alone to focus on building it. First of all, he fixed the little buttresses to the plank.

He then needed to cut some batons, to fit along the edge to give the shelf some strength and help support the structure.

All ready now for me to head outside to linseed it.

Incinerator

We had our first french lesson of the year yesterday, which was really enjoyable. We revisited where we’d left off early in December, and although we had done some revision before the lesson you never feel you’ve done enough, so it was good to go through, checking to see what we’d remembered.

After class the sun was shining bright, so we headed out for some fresh air, to clear our heads a little and take a walk in what we thought would be some early 2025 warmth. It was quite deceiving, as the air was very chilly as we headed up to the point du vue. On the way, we noticed one of the vignerons quietly picking up the clippings from the vines and burning them in her mobile incinerator.

It is a bit of a back breaking task, but one that is done diligently, so as not to leave the old cuttings to rot and damage the vines.

How?

We’d had quite a lot of discussion about the final shelf to go up over the desk. How long it should be? How wide? How should it be fixed? How high? Anyway, we have now made some decisions and Brian is starting work on it. He’s selected his wood, and started work on cutting out the supports. He’s used a template, from the old shelf he’d recently put up, for the supports.

He started out making three supports using his new band saw. He says it works really well.

A bit of a sanding later, and they are now ready for me to linseed them.

Working on the ceiling

Back to putting the coving up in the library today. Before Christmas we had both seemed quite confused by the angles, it certainly was very difficult for my head. But leaving Brian to it, he soon seemed to be cutting and glueing with confidence.

The first piece went up quite quickly, and, although he was planning to do just a bit before moving onto the shelf, he decided to keep going for the rest of the day.

He can only go so far for now, because he needs to put the boards in around the top of the bookshelves first, but what he has done is looking good.

It really helps pull the room together.

La cérémonie des vœux

The mairie popped in this afternoon. He wanted to know if we were going to join the ‘Cérémonie des vœux’ this evening. We felt that it was more than a request, so we dutifully agreed to go. It was to start at 18.30, and we were due at our friends for dinner at 19.00, so we would need to explain we may be a little late.

We headed to our little town hall, not expecting very much at all, but surprisingly there was actually quite a large number of people present, probably around 40, and considering our village has only approximately 220 inhabitants, we were suitably impressed.

The mayor kicked off, introducing the achievements of 2024, which included some renovations to the little town hall (which included new windows) and the introduction of a restricted speed limit of 30km/hour within the village.

After this he briefly mentioned the report that had been delivered in the autumn, with regard to the cost of repairing and renovating the church.

He then Introduced a local government representative, to share some details on financial support for the village. This was less cheery, because, as far as we could understand, it is all now spent or accounted for. Lastly they shared details on a new medical or doctors surgery to be created in Essoyes.

It was all very interesting to learn more about what happens on a local scale, and it certainly brought the village together and hopefully focussed them all on the challenges ahead.