SAD

I haven't blogged now for 2 months and the reason for this has been mainly due to the inescapable fact that I have been finding life in rural Ariege difficult and stressful recently. There have been many reasons for this. The primary one is, of course, the difficulties with our huge, apparently never-ending restoration project. The weather has been unkind to us. Weeks of wind and rain severely hampered the completion of the roof and to cap it all we weren't able to even get to our barns for 2 weeks recently due to the Siberian conditions of extreme cold and deep, deep snow.

There have been other factors too. I now acknowledge that I suffer from SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) and I got really quite depressed when we were pinned down in the house for so long. The chilly glare off the white snow is no substitute for sunshine to me! The recent treachery of so-called friends has also made me question how much I want to live here at all. I realised quite suddenly that I miss my old friends, I miss my mum, I miss my (former) fluffy cat and I miss strong cheddar cheese. I have been almost ticking the days off the calendar until we return to Britain for the first time in 6 months.

But early this morning my innate sense of optimism returned. We had to leave the house early to be up at site by 8am because, quite unexpectedly, our windows were being delivered. Here are some pictures taken on this morning's 10km drive.

These two were taken just outside Leran

The view from Mireval d'en haut looking over Le Peyrat to the Pyrenees.

Yes it's been pretty tough recently but the beauty of this place just stops me in my tracks sometimes. And our project is now leaping forward. By close of business today we might have our first window installed.

I guess I just need to make sure I bring a huge supply of strong cheddar back with me to deal with the dark days

It's almost a religious experience

As the year accelerates towards its end the vide grenier season is all but over. At this time of year they give way to toy and Christmas markets. There is still the odd highlight and last weekend was another first for me - a vide grenier in my home village and in the grounds of the Abbaye Chateau no less. Needless to say I was up and about early that morning and marched purposefully through the thick and freezing fog up the hill to the Abbaye. It was a hive of activity with cold stall holders still setting up.

I realised as I entered the outer courtyard that I have developed a kind of ritual. I do actually chant to myself a list of objects that I would really love to find at this particular vide grenier. On this particular morning I was chanting "wirework, enamelware, handmade hand tools and art deco". For something I now do with an almost religious fervour it hardly ever seems to actually work and I found myself gazing gloomily at the usual array of plastic toys, grubby bedlinen and a fair smattering of war and hunting paraphanalia. I was just about to go home for a hot mug of coffee and wander out again later when I spotted a quite astounding item. This.

Yes, its an old religious vestment, a chasuble to be precise. It is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist and a green vestment signifies new growth, the flourishing of the "vineyard". It is traditionally worn during Ordinary Time, which is the largest segment of the liturgical calendar. How appropriate to find one in the grounds of my local abbaye.

I failed to find "wirework, enamelware, handmade hand tools and art deco" but maybe the last vide grenier of the season next Sunday will offer up some of these items. I think it's unlikely I will be finding another chasuble!

Nearly famous

We live in a celebrity obsessed age. The tradition of fascination with the lives of the rich and famous is not really as recent as we might think. Before the "Hello" magazine age earlier generations were enthralled by the private lives of Hollywood film stars and giants of the sporting world. I, myself, have always had a quiet fascination with the aura of, what can only be described as, things. In other words objects, symbols and all manner of "trucs" that have become overly-celebrated for a short period of time as "it" or the latest thing.

In the course of my thrifting and rummaging for stock for Histoires I routinely ask people if they know anything about the particular item that I am purchasing. How old is it? How long have you had it? Do you know who made it? All these questions sometimes build a picture of the previous life of an item I might acquire. And sometimes these "histoires" or stories almost eclipse the object itself.

During my long sojourn in Britain over the summer I amused myself by attending auctions and car boot sales and I was really quite amazed one soggy Sunday morning when I spied this item lying on a blanket on Southsea seafront.

It is a pretty special object. It is an early Victorian dimity bonnet. The fabric dates back to the 1780s and the bonnet was probably made somewhere between 1830 - 1850, making it during the first decades of Queen Victoria's role. So far, so good. An unexpected find in Portsmouth amongst the broken Star Wars toys and knock-off DVDs. But its credentials alone are not what fascinated me. No. The seller told me a much more recent story of its past - that it was ALMOST famous.

It transpired that she had supplied many of the bonnets worn in the recent acclaimed BBC TV adaptation of "Cranford" and, amazingly, this bonnet had not been purchased by the BBC's wardrobe department. It has never sat on the head of Dame Judi Dench. It was the runt of the litter. It's a 9 stone weakling. It didn't have the X factor. It didn't cut the mustard (what does that mean anyway?!?). Well, you get the idea. It was an also ran. And to my mind that makes it all the more special.

Sometimes while I am rummaging for treasures for Histoires I really do believe in destiny. I was meant to find this rejected bonnet. Somebody else in a (probably) far flung corner of the world will buy this bonnet from me and will know that it was stored against other bonnets which passed the auditions and have been on TV. This  despised bonnet was quite literally lying in the mud. I've launderd it, pressed it, photographed it and told the story of its recent history. Who knows what else it has experienced in its long life?

Clocks going back - countdown to winter

We're both looking forward to a well deserved lie-in tomorrow thanks to the clocks going back. But this always makes me feel that it's nearly winter and that we're on the rapidly accelerating countdown to Christmas.

The weather has changed. Early mornings are misty, cold and we've already has our first frost.

The snow line is creeping down the mountains. We crossed over the Pyrenees into Spain last weekend and there's definitely snow in them there hills!

The neon board positioned at Lavelanet roundabout has spluttered into life and is now displaying the tariffs for the 2011/2012 ski passes.

I've ordered the wood. This year it is a LOT of wood because I think we're going to have a cold one. This year I've managed to order the logs cut to a size that will actually fit into our log burner without Jeff cutting them...

OK so this is not our wood pile. This incredible display of perfectly graded and stacked logs belongs to a neighbour. Every year I attempt to replicate this and totally fail. Maybe now we're in year 2 of life in Ariege I'll manage.

New name, same old stuff

To those of you who have been enquiring, my Etsy shop has not disappeared... I have taken the rather drastic step of renaming it. It is now Histoires. I realise that this is not as meterioc as the much loved Marathon bar becoming known as "Snickers" or the changing of the Coca Cola recipe but it has been a source of much deliberation and discussion.

I had discussed my new shop name with a select few, taken on board their suggestions and preferences, and then on the whole totally disregarded them. And I'm very happy with the new name. To me it conveys many things about my merchandise: that is vintage, historic, French and also that it has a story.

Thanks to the talented Suzie Chaney for her support and design input (and copious amounts of wine!!). She listened to me babble on about how I DIDN'T want my shop to look and managed to produce a cool, contemporary yet sympathetic shop banner for Histoires.
 

So it's all systems go for Histoires.

Tah dah... Maison Dumay is open

It was a meteroic day for me yesterday as I finally opened my Etsy shop: Maison Dumay. To recap I hadn't been able to open the shop due to a lengthy sojourn in the UK followed by almost total immersion in our renovation project. But yesterday was the big day. I pressed the button on all the draft listings I'd been creating and filled the shop with my rummagings.

I've been generously helped and encouraged by fellow Etsyians which made yesterday a little less daunting but I was still unprepared for my first sale. Overnight my first customer (from China no less) purchased 3 items and I had to smile when I checked my emails this morning.

The first item she had selected was this joyous piece of English kitsch. A truly fabulous hand knitted mustard coloured wool tea cosy with porcelain lady top.

I had bought this stunner at an English auction house over the summer in a mixed lot with 3 glamorous evening bags and I confess I thought the bags would sell quicker than this item!

Sadly I don't think I'm likely to able to find another one like this in France as tea drinking is not widespread here. Oh well, better get back to the rummaging and start daily prayers to the Goddess of Thrift that another one crosses my path.

Roof works

We're making steady progress with the roof work at our old barns.

The first job for the team was to carefully remove all the lovely old handmade canal tiles which could be saved. They will be reused on the roof of our "remise" which will eventually cover the summer kitchen.

Then the substantial old poutres (beams) which have held the roof up for over 200 years were removed leaving the "gite" section of the house open to the sky.

It was a nail biting moment for our foreman, Gareth, when he hoisted the first of the new poutres up on the materials hoist we had hired.

We all stood well back as the 150 kilo beam was moved slowly up the lift.

Fortunately this went without a hitch and the first of the new wood was balanced on the roof of the stone house. Mouse (left) and Paul (right) lifted off the huge beam.

After constructing an internal platform which they could work off, the team repaired the tops of the walls and man-handled the new beams into position.

The picture below shows the top of the triple row of Genoese tiling on the front of the gite.

Harry has cleaned them off so that a layer of lime mortar can be put on top to form a bed for the wood wall plates which will support the roofing panels.

2 poutres and the wall plate on the back of the gite roof are now in position.

Let's hope it stays sunny as there's a lot more to do