Manny's Blog

Hot on the heels of the very late last blog, I thought I’d use the Euros as my time to write another post !

The band

Singing and performing is one of my happy places – and I am so thrilled to be singing with a band again !

We got together during Lockdown pauses and had our first live concert last summer – a few more gigs just before Christmas and a couple in February. And a few weeks ago we had our best gig yet at a wonderfully eccentric venue – The West Angus Saloon. Joe did the sound and lights for it and it was the first live show for our new keyboard player Emmalie – and the audience were fantastic ! I love the songs we sing – and I’m really enjoying being given the opportunity to perform songs I would never have thought of singing.

We’re called ‘Amanda and the Peanuts’ – not my choice but I’m kind of warming to it now… It’s forced me to be the frontwoman – a role which doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m working on it, and feeling more and more comfortable with it ! All our songs are in English, so I’m able to enjoy my Englishness (and I think the French audiences enjoy that too) but the links of course are all in French which is also a really good challenge for me !

Snow… with consequences

We had a few heavy snowfalls this winter in January, then February and twice in March… and a couple of times it arrived too fast and too heavy for our bell-tent to support the weight. We’ve had to change the centre pole twice, (and buy a new all-weather fly-sheet) and dry out everything we were storing in there… (twice!!)

And then a serious bit of swirling wind brought down large parts of our fence too ! Snow and blue skies is such a glorious combination… snow and grey skies, and icy winds, not so much !

Reclaiming the garden for the summer

I’m writing in July and it still doesn’t feel like proper summer yet. Yesterday I had my first dip in the pool, which we’ve just got up and running – but today it’s been cold and rainy again. Everyone here is just longing for a bit of consistent summer weather to balance out the long cold winter we’ve had this year. All this rain has made for a very lush garden though – and whenever we can, we get out there. We’ve spent time getting the vegetable garden together, and I’m so enjoying the raised beds and colours of the flowers and berries.

Stone work and ceiling in the Studio – and an extra pair of hands

Winter proved to us that even with the jointing that we did on the south wall in the studio last summer, we still had a serious heat-loss problem to address. So this year we yet again emptied all the equipment out, and we’ve tackled the big west wall. The first thing Joe decided to do was to take two big beams out. They have been a hinderance to him with storing kit and rigging trusses, and served no structural purpose, so out they came ! An extraordinary feat of logic and physics, he single-handedly and safely brought them down !

With the beams down, we were able to move our faithful tower around much more easily, and I got on with jointing the wall. Meanwhile Joe made three beautiful window surrounds, and slowly and steadily we’re finessing this already magnificent space… but it’s a big job !

We had originally thought that the insulation covered by the acoustic foam on the high ceiling would be effective, but we have now plasterboarded between the beams, like in the rest of the house, and tried to fill every sneaky gap with more insulation or expanding foam. Hopefully we’ll have done enough to keep the heat in…time will tell !

I’m currently taping and pasting all the plasterboard joints… nearly finished !

We had a few weeks of help from a wonderful ‘workawayer‘ – Mohammed. He was German/Lebanese and a complete delight to have stay with us. We got so much done with him, he was strong and positive and had a really strong work ethic like Joe and I, so we all got on brilliantly.

Twisted ankle !

On April 7th I twisted my right ankle walking in the garden, on a slightly uneven bit of ground… no big hole or anything, just a tiny dink in the grass. I just rolled over on my foot and fell to the floor! Very dramatic ! Couldn’t put any weight on it and had to phone Joe who was in the house a few metres away from me to come and help me !

I presumed that after a bit of rest and ice I’d be up and about again, (I’d just started jointing the studio wall at the top of the tower), but this was not the case !!

I spent three weeks on crutches, wearing a heavy duty ankle support, and it’s still twinging now three months later ! I had it X-rayed and nothing was broken, so I must have over-stretched or torn the ligaments in my foot. I’m back up the tower now, and I was so happy when I was finally able to finish the west wall ! I did all of the bottom of it at ground level while I was recovering – a lot of it sitting down !

I’ve been lucky enough to have very few accidents in my life – it was a real challenge to respect the seriousness of recovery and properly resting it, and not just ‘soldiering on’ as I usually would. I probably didn’t respect it enough as I’m still bothered by it, especially at night.

Solar Panels

We had solar panels installed in April, so are now generating our own electricity ! There are a lot of schemes currently in France, and we were persuaded that our monthly payments for the panels (after free installation) would be roughly equal to what we were paying monthly for our electricity. So far so good ! We’ll only really know after a year if we generate enough through the winter months – but when it’s sunny all day, we’re covering all our needs, and selling the excess back to EDF. And with the soaring increases in energy prices, it’s very comforting to know our washing machine is being powered by the sun !

Home sweet home

Here are just a few photos of the house – I feel daily gratitude to live here, and it’s certainly made sweeter by the fact that we’ve created it all ourselves as a family.

The Pool

The final of the Euros is over… Spain has just beaten England. It’s the 14th July – and just before I post this I want to share our recent pool transformation. Joe and I have clad our simple ‘above-ground’ pool in wood, and Joe has constructed (and I have painted and varnished) a wooden cap to finish the look. A few good looking grasses and flowers are sitting in the gravel that has leveled out the surround to the pool.

We are over the moon ! It just looks enchanting. Can’t wait to start daily dips through the hot summer heatwave that surely is just around the corner ?!

So that brings us pretty much up to date !

Happy Bastille Day and as always, thank you so much for reading and sharing in our continuing projects in our precious little hamlet of Solignac.