As so often in the country - this story is about stones....and the importance of roof tiles....and the eveil of rain

 Some weeks ago there was a thunderous descent of stones into our upstairs bathroom...struggling with swearing about the non visiblity of my slippers...I was nearly flushed back by the flow of water down the stairs.   Disaster laughed at me - wetly. 

The  bathroom upstairs had just melted into gludge which itself was soakiing the wooden floor that was the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom.  Hopelessly I tried to push the flow into the sanitary loo bason..

Then gave up in order to find as many buckets to catch the water below...Eventually my battered mind remember where the mains water intake was.......yes, in the glass veranda outside where it was also pouring with rain.

The upstairs bath had become detached from its wall, tilted crazily to the floor. Fortunately the loo was still  more or less upright - but unsteady.

Enough sordid detail, the Gread Tidy Up had to start.    Fortunately I knew a couple of local men who were used to this kind of operation.  I let them use my beloved Audi break and a remorque to take 'stuff' to the local dechetterie (= official dump site).

As the site got cleaner, as I was again able to use my downstairs bathroom, shower loo and all...we all gathered round the kitchen table to speculate on the origins of this disaster.

The plasterer suggested a possibility: that there had been a minute rain leak between a couple of roof tiles over the years which penetrated into the plaster of the bathroom.  This weakend the plaster walls in the bathroom which then dropped into the bath...and so everything fell over...

It seems plausible - no point is summoning the insurance - but definitely a revision of the roof - and general restoration of the upstairs bathroom, bath, wash basin and loo. All the plaster and wood would be covered in a heavy, shiny dark blue paint - new lights would be installed and  all porcelain or china objects disinfected and re-installed.

It has been done.....I am waiting for my first summer guests to come...and be brave.

The impact of an 80th...

 It is only three months or so - from today (24.01/) that I made the fateful decision to give up driving...I gave it up because at times on the Dordogne rural roads that I have known for over 40 years - I felt unsafe -  incompetent....and definitely worried about the speed of others on the road...

My nearest shopping town is some 12 kms or so down hill from my house....the road width is not up to the super size lorries and wild trees keep falling into the road - when not actually being cut down.

Why did I give up you might want know ...because I had just passed my 80th birthday is the simplest answer. But the cherry is that I have found a very charming, good looking, local part time driver who will take me anywere I want....using my car. Or perhaps that is the real reason.

Good by Audi - good by independance

 Dear Readers!   

prepare yourself for a shock - even if it is only the one that hits me...some months earlier this year, in deepest rural Dordogne I woke up in my warm country bed whilst in my early 80's - warm because its mattress was covered with an electrical heated stretch sheet. (sorry readers, such is apparently NOT available in France).  I went to the kitchen, refilled my water bottle and brought back of a cup of tea....somewhere under the bed was whatever I was reading last night...and I began to think....

Thinking led to the decision to give up driving....whilst I still had all confindence in my Audi I no long had in my judgement behind the wheel.

I decided I would no longer drive....unsafe for me, unsafe for others on the road. My decision has been well accepted by all who are affected by it - with great kindess and some comfort - and a lot of help.