Still too wet......

It's like nothing's changed, still pouring with rain as I type although another month has passed since my last update. In that time I've been to England, visiting my mother on Mother's day and meeting up with old friends. Only slight hiccup to an otherwise smooth journey was the return, I was to fly from Southampton on 10th March but that was the day that the weather went particularly appalling in the south and after having spent most of the evening and early hours listening to dire forecasts and working myself up into a state of panic with visions of road crashes, train derailments and planes spiraling out of control (I know I have a vivid imagination) I ended up staying put in Bognor and flying out on the 12th instead. As it happened my original flight was only delayed by 2 hours but then the real problem for me was getting to the airport in one piece.

In my absence Ian had belted along on full steam, finishing the upstairs shower room, complete with tiled shower cubicle, boxed in pipe work and other nice touches. Since then he has put up the dividing walls, installed doors, and is now plastering throughout. The shower room

does still need finishing off with paint, wood stain, WC seat,

curtain and a varnished floor but I'll be on that job soon.

A lovely touch is the new landing newel posts, balusters and handrail which Ian's made out of old oak beams from a barn thrown out by our neighbouring farmer. Only cost us a couple of bottles of plonk and look a treat. Of course they've been sanded, treated and will be varnished but already add a lot of character.

While out carbooting in Redon the Sunday after my return, we just decided to visit Vannes again on the spur of the moment. It's a place we never tire of and we had a lovely afternoon there. I was particlarly impressed with the renovated washhouse building by the city walls, the craftmanship and attention to detail in the roof tiling is just breathtaking, the ridge tiling is also lovely with the ridges built up beautifully (don't know the technical name for it) between each tile. A gorgeous place, well worth visiting.

Whilst in England, I was browsing through my friend's gardening magazines and came across an article about a new rose which completely entranced me - it's not often I see something and think 'I've got to have it' but that's exactly what I thought this time. I tracked down the growers (http://www.jonestherose.co.uk/) and ordered their catalogue - bad move, they had so many wonderful roses that I ended up ordering 8! The one I fell in love with was Wild Rover, a lot prettier than the actor it was named for: Geoffrey Hughs. The others, equally spectacular are: Tenacious & Crazy for you; 3 climbers: Mme Alfred Carrier & Summer Wine for climbing over the roadside hedge and giving the back bedrooms a lovely view and scent and for the new barn porch, Times Past, a soft old fashioned rose with a gorgeous perfume. I also ordered 2 ground cover roses Hertfordshire and Pheasant. I really must stop buying plants even if these were much cheaper than in France, I was also pleasantly surprised at the reasonable P&P.

Well, Ian's off to the UK on the 31st for a well deserved rest, meeting up with his daughter and jetting to Italy for a couple of weeks. He returns on the 21st and then we have to take stock of our finances to see if we can actually finish the barn for this summer, bookings are being affected by the dreadfully low £ but I'm keeping fingers crossed that we get some more in the next month.