Day 18 Tuesday 23.i.2018

Lovely views from my window. Is the little bridge / weir in the river just there to make this lovely babbling sound outside my window?

George fitting the final bay

The digger arrives!

Putting on the roof

The foul drain pipe - where does it go?

Now I've just got to join it all together . . .

George and Stuart (who looks weirdly like Aden) - the Edspace men

I think the governess slept in a truckle bed, sideways, with a curtain hung from the arch.

A wet start but a useful morning with Jean Christophe and Andrew getting pipes and joints to plumb the loo into the drain (J-C had it all sorted and knew what we needed just had to spend an hour in the bricolage while we figured out what it was he was trying to explain to us i.e. that 100mm pipes and fittings are half the price of 125mm stuff). Then to another builders yard to hire the digger and order 2 cubic metres of gravel, check out water heaters, grab eight pallets to build compost bins, check out the car dealer - Andrew's buying a Berlingo for the Abbaye, which I should be able to drive (hooray!). Andrew and Dilith went shopping after lunch and got me some tobacco and super sour bio-cranberry juice. I collapsed in bed, real difficulty getting up to carry on clearing turf for where we are burying the drains. Then the digger arrived - enormous, immaculate, J-C took instructions and the key. Now we just have to avoid accidentally digging up the drains or the septic tank - J-C convinced it's down there somewhere, probably under the Edspace.

Finally lifted all the turf just before dark and went in for a shower and a late meditate on my own in my room, which was rather nice. The thought occurred that my rather disturbed meditations in the salle a manger are maybe caused by Andrew and Dilith being very busy in their heads, and nothing to do with me at all.  Or it's the room - the crackling fire and ornate wooden chimney piece with two half naked caryatids.

Nice feedback on facebook for my pictures of the Abbaye, rang Laura and told her I'd not be back until Feb 15 and that I'd be leaving by end-March or sooner with caravan (I hope) - she said she'd advertise the room on the web straightaway. Postponed meeting with Chris Clarke until I'm back in England. I have definitely lost £250 on bitcoin - IGIndex forced my stop just as the price was about to collapse back to $10,000. Had I put more money on, it would probably have continued to rise and I'd have lost even more. Life's too short for that sort of nonsense I think.

Simple supper. Long chat with Felicity about the babies and things. She got a bit weepy when I said I'd be moving to Bonnevaux but very pleased for me. Early to bed (i.e. now, 10.30pm) - early start to do the digging with j-c tomorrow a.m. We have it for half a day. Dig up the path to the Edspace and drainage all round as well. I wasn't allowed crushed limestone (too much sel, whatever that is) so we've got grey rock for the path.  Ironic as under the turf it's mostly limestone gravel.

New cranberry and tonic very palatable. Dilith has found me some loose English Breakfast tea. All I need now is Marmite. They didn't drink at supper, which was nice for me, and Andrew suggested low/no alcohol French beer, which would be a treat after a hard day on the building site. Mass on Sunday, somewhere, and a proper day off. Andrew is going to take Dilith away somewhere for the day too. Be nice to have the place to myself.