Monday 13th October to Sunday 19th October
Author: Jack
Once again I am very behind with the diaries – it’s December 6th today! However I have kept notes, although I am finding them difficult to understand them all, as some are rather cryptic! Not only that but life has settled down now to a rather more mundane and humdrum pace and for the moment there is not so much of interest to write about. However I plan to keep on going with the diaries as over the years I am sure that, for us, and maybe even for our children, they may be of interest, especially, if, as we hope, we are able to make wine of any kind of decent quality.
Anyway enough prattling and back to the week in question, not very exciting though! On Monday I had a visit from Nelly and Joel. They were after their money! We owed them for the part of the ‘Taxe Fonciere’, i.e. the land tax, which related to our ownership of the house. Taxe Fonciere is paid annually on January 1st but if you sell your house during the year then the new owners have to pay the part that relates to their ownership; in our case the majority of it! Fortunately I had just, earlier in the morning, written the cheques for them, so when they called I was able to hand them straight over; unfortunately! Not sure what I spent most of my day doing but most probably it involved paperwork; there always seems to be loads of it here. I had a visit later in the day from the salesman at Bonny who is trying to secure an order for a Landini tractor from us as well as for associated attachments. We are not yet in a position both financially and knowledgeably to make such an order, so, once again, I put him off. This is becoming quite difficult to do but we have yet to make up our minds regarding which tractor to buy (oh why isn’t there a Which Tractor magazine???). After school Beck should have been having her weekly French lesson with our neighbour Françoise, but her son has Varicelle, (chickenpox). Oh no…does this mean that Beck may catch it…fortunately not as, as of December 6th no spots have appeared so am sure we are spared that particular agony for now!
And so to decorating. My plan was/ has been / is to spend this quiet period in the vineyard by undertaking some decorating. So far I feel I have failed miserably. However today I have at least started … by attacking the back of the utility door. Not very adventurous I know; merely experimental. I have plans for the doors in this house (which are to say the least grim!). I am planning to rid them of their yellowy-red stained hue and paint them two tones of grey. It has taken me a long time to come up with this plan but I am now happy that, since we have grey floor tiles everywhere in the house, there is no sense in trying to combat them, we may as well join them so… the doors are being painted to match, which in my humble opinion will be a vast improvement. But being ever cautious I am testing the water so to speak with the back of the utility room door! And after such an adventurous day, and after several desperate pleas from Rebecca, we eat out at her all time favourite restaurant in Allemans.
And so to Wednesday and my weekly encounter with the tennis racket. I have to say this is something that I am becoming quite fond of. I always thought that tennis was a bit slow, having preferred the speedier cut and thrust of squash, but in my more senior years I am finding tennis to be quite agreeable with my more senior frame! Following this a shop at Leclerc ensures that we have sufficient supplies to prepare supper for Brian and Marjory with whom we spend an extremely pleasant evening eating, drinking and chatting, on the veranda miraculously. The weather has been kind and we are able to eat outside; the only place where there is a table! We sit outside until after ten pm. Not bad for the middle of October.
For some reason I woke up on Thursday morning feeling really fed up and found it really hard to settle down to anything. I pottered around outside attempting some gardening but my heart wasn’t in it. I do desperately need to do some gardening – not only because it has all become a little neglected but also because it will be very important for us to ensure that it all looks impressive when we are finally able to welcome visitors to our vineyard…first impressions count. However I didn’t feel inspired by this so retired to the study and spend some time catching up with my diaries (much the same as now really) and finally resorted to that old favourite – reading magazines – mind you they were wine type magazines! Well I’ve got a lot to learn!
Friday I set to the task of creating a spreadsheet of the vineyard. Very tedious but I am sure it will be very useful. So far (December 6th) I’ve only managed to do half of it (which is now proudly displayed on the wall of the study). I have still to muster up the enthusiasm for the other half. After lunch I went off to Miramont to collect the results of the water analysis for Les Bardots. Bad news, our well water is no longer drinkable. This was indeed an upsetting outcome as it meant potentially that our buyers could pull out. I went straight off to the notaires with the results. They were most sympathetic and said they would forward the results to our buyers for them to decide whether they want to continue with the sale or pull out. Fortunately they decided to proceed.
Saturday was spent mostly at home. I spent some time cleaning the fire out and ensuring that the glass front was spotless (waste of time as it turns out as it blackened up the very next time I lit a fire. I haven’t bothered to clean it since!). We had Fleur over to play for the day and when I took her back in the evening I was invited to stay a while and have a drink with them. They are always very kind to us and very patient whilst listening to my attempts to have a general conversation in French.
Rebecca woke up Sunday convinced that the Lerots were back and that
their scratching had kept her awake. Oh no – I thought I had got
rid of them all. Fortunately since then we haven’t heard any more
so I am assuming they have left us and this planet probably. Beck and
I occupied ourselves with making home made soup. She has developed a
keen liking for soup so we had decided that she should make some of
her own. What fun!
