Manny's Blog

A few days ago was our Harry’s 24th birthday – so before I write another word, I’d like to share this extraordinary tribute Beth created for him – it’s the first instalment of a 5 part montage project she is doing this year. Each video will be dedicated to a member of the family; moments from our favourite films, or simply things that make her think of us!

For those of you who missed the last blog, my poor Joe took the end of his finger off on the table saw just before Christmas. Luckily just the tip – it could have been so much worse, but the surgery and month which followed has been quite an ordeal.

The good news is that after a really difficult and painful month of heavy painkillers and the sleepy inevitable downtime forced on Joe, he is making brilliant progress.

A few weeks ago, the pin was taken out, the stitches too, and the surgeon was delighted with the result – as were we!

The instructions now are to use it as much as possible to build back the strength and sensitivity steadily… so normal activity is slowly being resumed! But the time out has taken its toll on both of us, and we both find our stamina noticeably affected.

As a consequence, there is no January house building to report as such, but what we have had is a real taste of cosy winter life with just the two of us. Arty and Cass are still having their amazing adventure in Canada; Harry and Armel are back in snowy Sweden; Luke and Marie are just around the corner, enjoying their new flat (our old one!) in Chenereilles, and Beth and Jacob are stuck in to their graduation film shoot, Closed Doors, currently on location in Birmingham. So it’s been the two of us, and we’ve felt like we were hibernating in our lovely bedroom beside a constant real fire, lots of snow outside, some serious Netflix viewing, reading and warming comfort food!

Alongside and contributing to this enforced pause in our building progress, we are also in a strange limbo period as my beautiful Mum is in her final weeks of non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, having decided not to have treatment when she was diagnosed last year. For about ten months she was symptom free, and enjoyed a glorious period of holidays, quality family time, and finishing her fourth novel “Through a Crack in The Door” (just published – get yourself a copy!).  At Christmas she started to have a little trouble swallowing, (hence my New Year’s trip to see her) and recently some difficulty breathing, prompting a quick visit from Joe and I last week.

She is a force of nature my Mum, a quite extraordinarily wise and inspiring role model. These are testing times indeed, but still full of wit and laughter and so much love and compassion. I have no doubt that the next blog I write will be after the event. For me, as with when my amazing Dad died, I find writing about it really therapeutic – so please bear with me! There will be more, I’m sure!

So what I thought I’d do for this blog is a January reflection – looking back at Jan 2017 when the house became ours; where we’d reached in Jan 2018 and now this January 2019, having spent our first few months actually living here!

Let the nostalgia begin!

January 2017…

What I’ve discovered looking back at Januaries in Tence, is that heavy snow seems to be quite a running theme!!

Quite a thrill to find this image of the barn from Jan 2017 – sitting as I am in that same space as I write… at the table looking up at the mezzanine, in our beautiful sitting room!

What I love about life in the Haute Loire – a bit of snow (even a lot of snow!!) doesn’t stop the electricity guys connecting us up!

January 2018

Lovely new windows, and that diagonal diverted drainpipe… the bug-bear of so many of my photos of the house… now thankfully gone!

Those huge boulders came out of the ground we dug up, and they now form the beautiful surrounding wall.

And so to January 2019…

…in the bath we plumbed in… on the mezzanine we built… quite momentous in fact! We are so happy with the shower and the bath in this bathroom – it all works really well, and is such a lovely space to be in!

We got quite close to the wire, with no one able to deliver in the snow! Luckily saved by the generosity of our neighbour, and a local farmer.

You can see that the piggery roof is now gone; the wonky drainpipe – gone; the studio wood- burner chimney stands triumphant; two big solar panels complementing the boiler, and hopefully providing all our summer hot water; Velux windows slowly losing their snowy covers … oh yeah, and we live here now!!

So there we go – that’s how the last few January’s have unfolded. Thank you for sharing this little trip down memory lane – and what a snowy lane it was. Joe and I are enjoying getting back in to action, slowly but surely. There’s so much still to do – but oh my, how we love actually living here… which is a good thing!