We had a look around the edge of the meadow to see if we had any primroses in the cleared area by the walnuts/hazelnuts.
We have a real [odd?] mix of hybrids: a few primroses, a few cowslips just starting and some small flowered (browny-orange) polyanths that I think must be a cross between either a coloured polyanth and the primroses or a coloured primula and the cowlips...
No way of knowing, but it's not something that featuress in my wildflower book.
I'd seen white and all-shades-of-pink primulas that look like primroses [and covet them; may have to ask neighbours for seeds...], but didn't want to introduce non-native wild flowers into the pré...
However, if nature has done just that, I don't see why I shouldn't add to the mix!
My primroses in the garden have some odd pinky-yellow or yellowy-pink offspring, so I know how promiscuous they are as I don't have any pink primulas. Must be all those insects I'm encouraging!
So, I'm looking (so far unsuccessfully, but I haven't given up yet) for some primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii seeds, as I would like the wild pink primrose to add to my mix, but in the meantime I found the Scotia Seeds website with some Scottish Primroses (primula scotica)...
I'm going to risk it: our neighbours all have a complete mix, so I'm not adding anything too strange, I hope.
I ordered them yesterday (obviously with some other seeds!) and they arrived this morning.
After my current experience with Amazon Marketplace deliveries, I'm absolutely delighted; so a big thanks to Fiona and all her colleagues at Scotia Seeds.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Our meeting went OK on Friday
M. Waeber couldn't make it to the meeting on Friday as he had another job to go to, but he turned up at 8am to drop off the estimates [which we signed & dropped through his letterbox later on our way out].
We only had M. Torelli and M. Luparello, so it was a small meeting!
And M. Luparello only needed to be there because the plasterboard that was installed in our absence [and under the supervision of Jean-Marie, obviously!] was too close to the window; once tiled, the hinges would have been blocked!
It shouldn't be a big deal for M. Kadir to re-do that side of the window opening, and M. Luparello was OK about it [I don't think he was happy, but could see that it needed changing].
No M. Huguenot as he was on holiday, but again his 'input' was only needed for adding a spot to an existing circuit, putting in a temporary light switch, connecting the towel rail and moving the light switches/socket between the mirrors.
So David has emailed him since we got back.
The main part of the meeting was choosing the taps with M. Torelli and confirming what we wanted as far as shower screen/mirrors. He's not keen on the basins we've chosen, but to be honest, I'm not delighted...
BUT we needed something a decent size, in a fairly traditional style and with the raised back we wanted; so that pretty much limited it to a choice of one!
We're going with that, and I will make sure to be careful around the porcelain and if they do prove to be fragile, we'll have a rethink at that moment.
Fingers crossed they will be fine; our other basin from Lapeyre seems to be perfectly OK - no problems yet.
We also confirmed that the start date of 11 April is still OK, and that it will [should!] take two weeks.
[I'm planning to be there for three weeks, just in case.]
IF it all comes together, within a month we should be finished!
As I say, fingers crossed...
We only had M. Torelli and M. Luparello, so it was a small meeting!
And M. Luparello only needed to be there because the plasterboard that was installed in our absence [and under the supervision of Jean-Marie, obviously!] was too close to the window; once tiled, the hinges would have been blocked!
It shouldn't be a big deal for M. Kadir to re-do that side of the window opening, and M. Luparello was OK about it [I don't think he was happy, but could see that it needed changing].
No M. Huguenot as he was on holiday, but again his 'input' was only needed for adding a spot to an existing circuit, putting in a temporary light switch, connecting the towel rail and moving the light switches/socket between the mirrors.
So David has emailed him since we got back.
The main part of the meeting was choosing the taps with M. Torelli and confirming what we wanted as far as shower screen/mirrors. He's not keen on the basins we've chosen, but to be honest, I'm not delighted...
BUT we needed something a decent size, in a fairly traditional style and with the raised back we wanted; so that pretty much limited it to a choice of one!
We're going with that, and I will make sure to be careful around the porcelain and if they do prove to be fragile, we'll have a rethink at that moment.
Fingers crossed they will be fine; our other basin from Lapeyre seems to be perfectly OK - no problems yet.
We also confirmed that the start date of 11 April is still OK, and that it will [should!] take two weeks.
[I'm planning to be there for three weeks, just in case.]
IF it all comes together, within a month we should be finished!
As I say, fingers crossed...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
We've chosen the taps!
OK, so we had already chosen the taps...
But M. Torelli wanted us to choose some other taps...
Thankfully, his catalogue has some that are just like the ones we'd already chosen [prob a lot more expensive?!], so that's OK: everyone happy!
That obviously won't prevent another meeting, but no-one has cried off from our [re-]start date of 11 April, so fingers crossed.
No, everything crossed!
This has got seriously old, now.
But M. Torelli wanted us to choose some other taps...
Thankfully, his catalogue has some that are just like the ones we'd already chosen [prob a lot more expensive?!], so that's OK: everyone happy!
That obviously won't prevent another meeting, but no-one has cried off from our [re-]start date of 11 April, so fingers crossed.
No, everything crossed!
This has got seriously old, now.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Power station at Nogent-sur-Seine
We took advantage of the second trip to Troyes [to take the tiles back to CVS] to head off into the "Champagne crayeuse".David said that the only thing at Nogent-sur-Seine was a power station, but that's not true...
There's an old watermill, too!
[Clouds doing their best to provide "atmosphere"!]
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Forgot to say
We DID take the tiles back to CVS, if you were wondering!
[This only makes sense if you read the earlier post about choosing new tiles.]
[This only makes sense if you read the earlier post about choosing new tiles.]
Chink of light?
That was what David emailed me this morning, forwarding a mail from M. Torelli giving us a start date of 11 April!!
[And before anyone asks, it WAS this year; that joke was getting seriously old before we'd hit Christmas!]
Coincidentally, that's just over a year since the work should have started!
With a bit of luck, he should only take two weeks (and so we won't be finishing in late May: exactly a year over-run from when work should have been finished, and 17 months after we started a project for two months work!).
We've had another bill forwarded to us [that was originally addressed to our attention at T+B] since David sent his letter to all the companies saying that T+B weren't forwarding bills, so please send them to us to avoid a delay in paying them.
So that worked!
That's five bills [that we know about] that they haven't passed on at all, and one [M. Mazij snr is a friend of M. Boyer, so maybe that's why his bill was treated differently?] that reached us months after they received it.
Obviously when Jean-Marie had marked it that it was checked, he meant "Oh, we couldn't be bothered to look at it", as the 5% that should have been deducted [some weird thing being held back for a year; we get to pay the balance a year later] had been added on!
Hmmm! But I'm busy not thinking of them; David's plan to just ignore them until work is finished, and Jean-Marie can't cause us any further problems, seems like a good one to me!
[And before anyone asks, it WAS this year; that joke was getting seriously old before we'd hit Christmas!]
Coincidentally, that's just over a year since the work should have started!
With a bit of luck, he should only take two weeks (and so we won't be finishing in late May: exactly a year over-run from when work should have been finished, and 17 months after we started a project for two months work!).
We've had another bill forwarded to us [that was originally addressed to our attention at T+B] since David sent his letter to all the companies saying that T+B weren't forwarding bills, so please send them to us to avoid a delay in paying them.
So that worked!
That's five bills [that we know about] that they haven't passed on at all, and one [M. Mazij snr is a friend of M. Boyer, so maybe that's why his bill was treated differently?] that reached us months after they received it.
Obviously when Jean-Marie had marked it that it was checked, he meant "Oh, we couldn't be bothered to look at it", as the 5% that should have been deducted [some weird thing being held back for a year; we get to pay the balance a year later] had been added on!
Hmmm! But I'm busy not thinking of them; David's plan to just ignore them until work is finished, and Jean-Marie can't cause us any further problems, seems like a good one to me!
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Tiles
We did our trip to look at the tiles - they are absolutely fine, thankfully!
But we got another example of how the French 'work'...
We explained to the lady in the tile shop that we were doing up a second home, and could they request a sample of the wall tiles to replace the ones we'd chosen before [that were now discontinued]; she'd pointed them out to us in a catalogue as the nearest equivalent.
Having had previous experience of trying to get a free sample of tiles taking six months, we said that if the company wouldn't send a freebie, please order us the minimum quantity and we would pay for them; we just really needed to check they were right for us.
We told her we lived in London, so it would be an English mobile number we gave her when she asked for a number to call when the tiles had arrived...
No problem!
What we heard was: "I've got to chase the manufacturer up as another customer has requested those same tile samples, I'll order a set for you, too".
What we should have heard was: "Oh, I completely forgot those other people wanted to see the tiles several weeks ago, I know, I'll order one set from the manufacturer, then I'll call you in London so you can make a 700-mile round trip just to check the tiles so as not to delay your job, and then whichever customer arrives first can take the tiles home for several days to check they are what they wanted", with a subtext of "and tough on the other customer if they arrive before the first customer has returned the tiles [if they ever do so]"!
Thankfully, we were the first customer to get there, and after some persuading we were allowed to take the tiles home to look at them in situ [originally, a colleague of the first lady said we couldn't take them to the house to see them against the floor tiles].
And as I say, they're fine!!
I'm practising my zen and focusing on "that all turned out OK, phew!", but I can tell you that this post would be very different if we'd driven 350 miles and found that the one set of tiles had been given to the other couple, and 'oops you'll have to come back next weekend'!
Given that the manufacturer happily & quickly sent a sample of tiles, I find it really difficult to believe they couldn't have sent two of each tile for little extra hassle/cost?
The French bit is the not asking for a second set, and just not caring if a [potential!] customer has to travel from London to see something that you might have given to someone else!
But we got another example of how the French 'work'...
We explained to the lady in the tile shop that we were doing up a second home, and could they request a sample of the wall tiles to replace the ones we'd chosen before [that were now discontinued]; she'd pointed them out to us in a catalogue as the nearest equivalent.
Having had previous experience of trying to get a free sample of tiles taking six months, we said that if the company wouldn't send a freebie, please order us the minimum quantity and we would pay for them; we just really needed to check they were right for us.We told her we lived in London, so it would be an English mobile number we gave her when she asked for a number to call when the tiles had arrived...
No problem!
What we heard was: "I've got to chase the manufacturer up as another customer has requested those same tile samples, I'll order a set for you, too".
What we should have heard was: "Oh, I completely forgot those other people wanted to see the tiles several weeks ago, I know, I'll order one set from the manufacturer, then I'll call you in London so you can make a 700-mile round trip just to check the tiles so as not to delay your job, and then whichever customer arrives first can take the tiles home for several days to check they are what they wanted", with a subtext of "and tough on the other customer if they arrive before the first customer has returned the tiles [if they ever do so]"!
Thankfully, we were the first customer to get there, and after some persuading we were allowed to take the tiles home to look at them in situ [originally, a colleague of the first lady said we couldn't take them to the house to see them against the floor tiles].
And as I say, they're fine!!
I'm practising my zen and focusing on "that all turned out OK, phew!", but I can tell you that this post would be very different if we'd driven 350 miles and found that the one set of tiles had been given to the other couple, and 'oops you'll have to come back next weekend'!Given that the manufacturer happily & quickly sent a sample of tiles, I find it really difficult to believe they couldn't have sent two of each tile for little extra hassle/cost?
The French bit is the not asking for a second set, and just not caring if a [potential!] customer has to travel from London to see something that you might have given to someone else!
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