Sunday afternoons

Where the shower used to be

Okay, Sunday afternoon found Jack and I back at the house 'finishing off' the shower, peeling off the vinyl floor (look carefully and you'll see the floor surface has changed), taking off more tiling, and starting to extract the bath from its casing.

Yep, that's all we did... and it was enough!

The funny thing? Once again, Jack was a great help not only actively working beside me but also finding me the right tools. I was busy using the crowbar to take off the tiles when he came to me with a small sledgehammer and a solid triangular device that was just right for job. Then I was trying to pull screws out the wall with a random pair of pliars when he came to me with the 'pliars which are specially made for extracting nails!'

Funny things, kids!

And useful, too :-)

hugs to one and all!
Robynxxxx

Starting to break the bath

Jack sealing up the pipes

Jack taking out the screws

A Few Miles Make All the Difference!

Our Gite

I've just spent the week in another world... with Mum and Dad in the gîte pictured above, with the river Bruche (complete with ducks and cute ducklings) flowing by and the cycle path (complete with hoards of men cycling by in their dayglo lyrca leotards) weaving past the window. Our new home was only a few kilometres from Molsheim but, goodness, it felt a million miles away. No internet, no reason to use the phone, nothing to do but relax and be together. Bliss!

Jack and Emma

Life is a Question of Perspective

The Pretty Bit of Our Garden

Life is a funny thing.

When I'm planting flowers and digging out the weeds in our garden, I feel like we're working on a huge strip of earth and that we're creating something so beautiful and important... and we are.

However, when I climb up the stairs of the house and look out the window, I realise that our flower patch is just part of a much bigger and messier picture.

The really funny thing? As long as we can keep planting and looking after those flowers, the rest of the mess just doesn't matter to me.

And that is just like life... for as long as I can be with my family and friends the rest of the crazy universe just isn't that important. That doesn't mean I don't want to be in the universe (Ben and I are going to clear our yard and make it a BIG beautiful garden), it just means that the universe isn't yet the most important thing in our lives. The flowers are.

The Whole Garden

And I've been busy, too!

Before Jack and I got to work

Yes, I got my girly power on!

Demolishing the bathroom, so we can install the kitchen, is my project and I'm having fun!

Seriously, I didn't ever think I could do all this on my own.... with Ben in the apartment sleeping.

Only I could... with the help of Jack.

How did Jack help? When water first started gushing out of the sink pipes, I said I was a bit scared. His reply? Think of Grand Corps Malade, a French rapper who sings about how we should overcome problems in life.Why? I replied a bit surprised that my five year old, out of the blue, was making symbolic and lyrical comparisons during the demolition of a bathroom! Well, he said, Grand Corps Malade always you should keep going when you're scared because it's being scared that stops us from doing what we want!

That was it! Two minutes later the sink was off the wall and I was proud of punch of myself and my wee Jack!

After Jack and I got to work

And who says bathroom doesn't just say sink and bidet (bidet!) and bathroom tiles and 1970's wallpaper, they also say Dr Who-like tardis-like shower cabinet and bath.

Now the shower's gone, there's only the bath (and more of that darn wallpaper and those daft tiles) to go.

Sunday afternoon, here I come!

hugs to one and all,
Robynxxxx

Just some cute photos of Emma!

Ben's been busy!

Emma in front of outdoor toilet and pigsty

As the men are coming to change our roof in the weeks ahead, we had to move forward with the big project of demolishing the outside toilet and pigsty. Thankfully, a good friend of Ben's came of and lent a hand... with the sledgehammer. The outdoor toilet was quite funny, as there was still cobwebby toilet paper hanging from its faded pink holder, a twee picture of a little boy peeing (cough), and a calendar from... 1986! The pigsty was somehow more charming and the stone trough is still in place as we'd like to excavate it carefully enough to be able to use it for flowers later on.

Where the outdoor toilet and pigsty used to be

The wooden toilet door, which you can see in the top picture behind Emma, has a wooden heart carved out. I'm now going to try and save it, paint it white and keep it as a little souvenir. I'm not saying it's a tasteful idea... but, as we're throwing so much out just now, it feels nice to try and keep one or two things along the way.

 I Heart U