It's a couple of years now since I first decided that we really needed to do something about our outside dining area at the mill. After all we spend most of our lives out there from April through to October. (Not just eating and drinking you understand!) We'd been so busy renovating the inside of … Continue reading From factory floor to lush garden oasis – the terrace challenge
OK, so it's nothing as grand as a library, but it's where we keep our books. Once our landing had designed itself, and what we needed from this space became clear, we set about creating a cosy, warm reading and music corner with plenty of storage for books and all sorts of other paraphenalia like … Continue reading The ‘library’
All the houses I have ever lived in have had stairs, and at the top of those stairs was a landing. (Actually, all except one, where the stairs just ended up at the door of the only bedroom). Every landing has posed a similar DIY challenge - how to make the most of a tiny … Continue reading The landing that designed itself
The dappled light through the poplar trees plays on the rippling water, as the bright turquoise flash of a kingfisher startles a heron who lifts himself gracefully into the air and glides off along the river with long beats of his elegant wings... Yes, it is that peaceful most of the time but sometimes being … Continue reading Oh, the romance of an old water mill – not!
While I won’t say that I have particularly relished being confined to our home for weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has meant that I have been finally forced to look at all the unfinished jobs around the house and have actually got round to finishing some of them. Years ago, when I worked for … Continue reading The corridor of time
When we moved over to France we registered as freelance 'micro-entrepreneurs' (self-employed). We both work from home, at the mill, working for clients via the internet. The daily commute consists of falling out of bed and, after a leisurely breakfast, looking out over the river, either from the kitchen (in inclement weather) or (more often) … Continue reading Makeover of bedroom #3
It's a dull December Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in the kitchen with my sewing machine in front of me. Yards of pale blue Toile de Jouy fabric lie in folds around me and the log burner is crackling away merrily. I haven't had the time or the inclination to sit down with my sewing … Continue reading Just a Saturday afternoon spent sewing
It's a dull, drizzly-drazzly October Sunday and for once Colin and I (both suffering from heavy colds) have decided to award ourselves a day of rest. So I spent a quiet morning collecting and chopping the last of our tomatoes to make chutney and while I mused about how lovely it was to have a … Continue reading New kitchen – et voilà!
At 3 am on Thursday morning the alarm on my phone roused us to start ‘Operation Kitchen Collection.’ I’m really not bad at getting up early in the morning (just don’t ask me to stay awake after 9:30 pm!), which is just as well as we were booked on the 8:15am ferry from Caen to … Continue reading Operation Kitchen Collection – and it’s ‘Go’!
The time has come. We’re ready to tackle installing a new kitchen at the mill. We’ve found the kitchen we want, designed it all and ordered what we need. That took quite a while in itself, but that was the easy (and fun) bit. Having looked at furniture and appliances in France, investigated the choice … Continue reading Take delivery of the new kitchen – sounds simple but…
Le Moulin de la Roche 