Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

I've just looked at Le Chat laundry liquid on Amazon. It's expensive stuff. I know 'needs must' but ouch!

Morning

Its one of the cheapest here Kev, but then Yves Rocher toiletries that are made here and I buy here for about 3 euros cost 11 on Amazon. Brexit again I think!

It was a lovely cool night last night and we both slept till nearly 7.45 am, well over 8 hours sleep. Its a cool cloudy morning, rain was forecast overnight but did not happen.

Today I shall continue with cleaning the cupboards in the sejour, they get very dusty inside . I did not realise we had so many glasses. Our own that we bought or brought here , and ones inherited from both sets of parents. They are all far too nice to throw away but I have rationalised on some of the random single items. Its amazing how many sets of 5 we have Outside jobs are more or less complete and apart from a very brown lawn, it looks good though I say it myself. Yesterday I managed to buy a BIG pot to replace the ‘melted’ strawberry trough so one of my key remaining tasks is to transplant the strawberries that I have managed to revive with our recycled kitchen water.

This evening Joanne and Paul are coming for a meal when the 15 euro chicken will be consumed followed by bread and butter pudding made with brioche. It promises to be a day like the las three though temperatures are creeping back up towards 30. Have a good day all

[Stanley]

This morning was simple. I trawled through all the bronze castings I have to identify which belong to the pump. I have found enough to persuade me what we can reasonably hope to achieve. It will basically be what we have here but with the addition of the cylinder and pump pistons and the valve chests and eccentrics. So I know now where to go next. Finish the flywheels and make the eccentric straps then make the steam chests and lids. That's more work than it looks and I don't get any better at staying the course in the shed!

[Sue]

I have messed up our sequence of posts Stanley by going back to extend my initial comment to Kev, so my daily dialogue is now before your post not after it

[Stanley]

You are of course forgiven Sue!

[Stanley]

It will be a short stint in the shed as we are on early doors shopping at 07:00. (I still feel more comfortable shopping in an almost empty Co-op!) Rain is forecast until late morning. We'll see about walks and sits then.

[Sue]

Morning

According to the forecast we had light rain overnight, but from the look of the ground this morning we didn’t. It was certainly a warm humid day yesterday, with the sun not really making an appearance till late afternoon. Temperatures reached 29 with more of the same today.

We had a lovely evening with our friends, its nice to chat as they say. We spent the heat of the afternoon inside preparing the meal, setting the table etc and putting the dishwasher on to give us an empty one to start with. This gave us the opportunity to clear things away between courses so only took a few minutes to finish tidying up after they left. We hate to get up to dirty dishes. Bob is emptying the dishwasher whilst he makes a cuppa , and I will put it all away after breakfast. We have some nice plates etc all bought from local car boot sales, and I like to use them when we have guests. Our every day stuff is from the local supermarket, or in fact our Julias university pots and pans. All well past their ‘use date’ as they say. They have served us well but we are desperately short of egg cups which no one seems to sell here. We have asked our friends to bring so e over when they come .

Its been a warm night and a very noisy morning. The cockerel has been at it for hours, the pigeons also being extremely noisy and the stone martens in the roof have been very active. Someone locally went off to work early on a motor bike. Its a very noisy bedroom but is the coolest in the summer.We normally hear nothing from the stone martens except the odd scrapings but it sounded like a stampede up there today. I have just googled and it seems mating season is June to July.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_marten

Today I want to wash and change our bedding, wash the floors downstairs and apparently there is another good market locally that we have not been to before. We also want to make a trip to the tip to get rid of some tree cuttings from a dying heat damaged fir tree, an old plastic water butt, and my melted strawberry trough which I managed to replace yesterday morning . At 4.00 pm we are going to see Nicole and then go to see Roland. She hasn’t told him so it will be a surprise. With so much to do we have opted to leave trying the market till next week . Bob wants to try and cut some more of the fir tree down this morning. Its going to be a busy day I think.

And here are my rescued strawberry plants, before and after. I think about 6 plants recovered.

423B05A4-4683-4593-973C-40993E9E656E.jpeg

4707EB4D-E047-4720-8A04-B99FE630A74F.jpeg

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

The plants look a bit happier now Sue! Yes a busy day, best to leave the new market until you have time to do it properly and enjoy it. Don't forget you're on holiday as well as doing maintenance, don't rush about!







This morning I started on the first element of what I had to do to complete the rescue of the pump. If you look at the first pic you'll see that one flywheel has been worked on but the other hasn't. My problem is that the centre of the eccentric is not marked on the casting so I shall have to reverse engineer it from the other. The other pics show my first moves towards creating a replica. Not ideal, but it will work with care....

[Stanley]

Full shed duty this morning and I know exactly what I am doing as soon as I get in there...
Not sure about the rest of the day, a lot of rain is forecast. Catch as catch can I think.
(and a lot of cooking......)

[Sue]

Morning

It was a very warm day yesterday(30+) and a warm night. Apparently France is heading for its third heat wave, and still no rain . From yesterday we can only use drinking water to water fruit and vegetables before 8.00 am ( thats out then ) and after 8.00 pm. It can’t be used for anything else like washing garden furniture, cars, windows , filling paddling pools etc. Hose pipes are banned. We use recycled water and collected rain water ( we still have two water butts nearly full) but will still stick to the watering times, it makes sense any way, but we don’t want passing people/children to think we are using tap water.

Yesterday morning I cut back my rhubarb, it was an unbelievable height and obviously ‘stressed’ without water. It was not fit to eat. There were also lots of nettles and brambles wandering through the plants so it was easier to clear the lot than try and get to the weeds. I think that completes my gardening tidying, anything else now will be the usual deadheading, weeding etc.its amazing how weeds still grow beautiful and luscious when everything else is suffering with the heat and lack of water. I did loads of routine washing, towels , bedding , clothes and that has cleared my washing for the present too. After taking a trailer load of garden debris to the tip we visited Nicole ( I kept away from her dog) and Roland, and found him looking well and in good spirits.

This morning, I think it is Saturday its the local market. We need some veg and if possible some fruit to make jam. We only have apricot ( my favourite) left. Otherwise we shall have to buy some ready for our visitors and breakfast croissants. I have no plans for the rest of the day . I may do some yoga in the garden, I brought a DVD with me. Have a good day all.

[Stanley]

Web are nowhere near as dry here Sue, rain forecast again for today and I doubt if Rochdale will be much different.



More pics in shed matters but this is what counts. I now have two matched flywheels and I am ready yp think about eccentric straps and rods.....

[PanBiker]

Waiting for Sally to get back with our Ruby. Our Jack has driven her down to collect her from Stratford. She would normally come up on the train to Leeds but that's not an option today. She will be with us for the next fortnight.

[Sue]

Waiting for Sally to get back with our Ruby. Our Jack has driven her down to collect her from Stratford. She would normally come up on the train to Leeds but that's not an option today. She will be with us for the next fortnight.

Enjoy

[Stanley]

Mick and Susan are currently on a train from Buxton to Leeds.
I am almost finished with veggie cooking.
Later at 14:15. They are now on the Skipton train from Leeds, due in at 15:00 and Earby bus is 15:15. Susan says what a nice way to travel and they have been ucky, unaffected by strikes.

[Stanley]

They were home in Earby by 15:30.
Shed today to start on fitting steam chests and lids. I need to do that before I do the eccentric straps. The rain should stop before noon so a walk and a sit might be on. I didn't bother yesterday.....

[Sue]

Morning

Another very warm day reaching 32 degrees. We went to the market in the morning and bought loads of fresh produce. After putting it all in the car we then had a walk round. There are a number of new shops and cafes have opened. One new shop is a book shop cum craft shop with a small cafe attached. I bought a book in French’ THE LEGENDS OF MERLIN’. We are near the Forest of Broceliande which the Bretons claim is the site of King Arthur and of Merlin. Its a beautifully bound book and being a child’s novel will have relatively simple french in it. There is a whole series of them which I may collect. There is also a new glass blowers shop with the most intricate ornaments such as a 75 cm long glass yacht. Fascinating. We had a coffee. Walked along the river, booked Sunday lunch and were home by 12.

After lunch here the temperature was really rising. We carried our garden table into the shade where I sanded it down where the paint was peeling off, washed it down with kitchen cleaner spray, and the rinsed with several wipe downs of clean water. I avoided the use of a bowl of water. Its a duty good quality aluminium table, bought in a rummage sale back home but after 17 years the paint is flaking off. Having prepared the surface I used a can of spray paint bought at the supermarket and gave it three good coats, and managed to cover all the pad patches. Each coat dried in a matter of minutes it was so warm .

Having renovated the table We fetched three reclining garden chairs out of the garage. They have not been used for years but will be needed when our visitors arrive. The frames needed a good wash down so I used the same technique as the table. The cushions needed a good brush and then I dry foamed them clean as best as I could. The worse bits I sponged down with soapy water in the kitchen but they soon dried out in the sun. Not perfect but better and useable

I did this intermittently whilst I read under the trees. Thus the after noon was not just cleaning We had a BBQ tea which finished just in time to join the u3a wine appreciation group and it was well past 9.00 pm here when it finished and cooling off outside. So with trowel in hand I completed my plant watering and transplanted my parsley, basil and two courgette plants into the better of my two vegetable plots. This has put everything actively growing in to one place. The plants I moved had next to no root at all and the ground is like concrete despite 10 days of continuous watering . Fingers crossed they improve.

Today is Sunday lunch out. I shall treat myself to a pedicure and more reading under the trees. Today is forecast even warmer so we have booked our table for inside not out. Have a good day all.

[Stanley]

Inside and not out sounds sensible Sue. We have no problems with the sun, at the moment it's looking like a rerun of yesterday, still light rain.







The task is to make the steam chests and lids and fit them to the cylinder block ready for making the eccentrics and valve rods. First I had to strip the block out and measure up for the lids and the chest and check these measurements with the drawings. Bit frustrating because the drawings are very faint in places and of course that was just where I need clarity. So a lot of thinking and measuring and I am satisfied I have the dimensions I need. One lucky circumstance is that whoever worked on this before didn't drill and tap for the chest and lids so I have a clean start there. I reached a point where I am ready to start cutting. That'll do for today.

[PanBiker]

I have retrieved the car Roof Box and roof bars from Neil and Linda's garage. I will bob the bars on this afternoon.

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed starting on the steam chests and lids. Weather is better so a walk and a sit might be on the cards.
Must send gas meter reading in as it is the first day of the month..... The advantage of having a dumb smart meter!!

[Sue]

Morning

It was a warm day yesterday and another forecast today. No sign of the much needed rain. We had a relaxing day, I did some washing and dead heading, Bob some weed killing and after lunch out we spent most of the afternoon sat in the garden. In the evening we watched the football . Neither of us are football fans but we do like to watch an important match and it was worth the watch. Then it was a quick flick of channel to watch the swimming in the Commonwealth Games. We missed the heats because of the football but the finals were exciting. Before we knew it, it was time for bed. It was a hot night so we needed the air cooler on in the bedroom and we both managed nearly 8 hours sleep.

Its another day and another market today, but also its a trip to the DIY bricolage store. I decided a shelf would be useful in the upstairs toilet, to store all the various cleaners etc. On the floor they collect so much dust, so after breakfast we are off to Redon. I have no other plans for the day, it depends how hot it gets . Have a good day all.

[Stanley]

As usual, a well organised day Sue. (What's 'bricolage'?)









Working on the lids. First use the spigot cast on the back to turn the front in the lathe. This looked easy but I found that it didn't quite give me a cut in the right plane so that had to be adjusted under the mill. I finished up with one lid flat and parallel. Tomorrow I'll do the other and then address the actual dimensions to make them match the cylinder casting. Slow but steady and no mistakes.... A good morning.

[Sue]

Bricolage, not easy to translate but a cross between B&Q and builders stuff, often with gardening attached , and home soft furnishings, decorating etc. Hardly in existence 17 years ago but now pretty busy. The exact translation is DIY but its more than that

[Stanley]

You learn something every day......

[PanBiker]

Chief cook and bottle washer, no change there then. Sally and Ruby have set off to Leeds shopping. Drove to Skipton then the train to Leeds and back. I have finally convinced Sally to use E tickets on her phone rather than the raft of printed ones. Using the Trainline app even allows you to book for others and then forward the tickets to their phones. We need trees so use the tech.

[Tripps]

We need trees so use the tech

A bit simplistic but -
We (or the Scandinavians or Americans or Russians) can always grow some more.
A bit like stopping eating bread to conserve the wheatfields.

[Stanley]

Today I am up a bit earlier to track Margaret and Mick out of Dubai to Manchester using the full resources of modern technology but I'd rather have an old fashioned cardboard ticket for the train.....
I shall be in the shed as usual chasing my steam chests and lids. Walk and sit might not happen, we have wall to wall rain forecast, no drought in this part of the country! We shall see.....