Fancy a Walk?

Hello everyone...

First of all thanks for all the views and for reading the blog - it really is much appreciated and I'm glad that so many of you are finding them interesting.

I haven't blogged for a few days because it's been a busy old week.  Richard and I volunteered to help with the Front of House operation (we looked after the bar; it's been a while since I was that side of the bar I can tell you!) at the local production of Cinderella in Eymet.  The panto went down a storm and there's already talk of next year's production!

I also had to arrange to pick up some furniture in Castillonnes on Friday.

On Tuesday Richard asked if I fancied a walk - the sun was shining so we walked to Castillonnes which is only five kilometres away... we walk in, have coffee on the square and walk home again.

On Tuesday we had walked in and were sitting with our Cafe Cremes when I lady I know a bit - Jenny - asked if I needed any more furniture.

Well, my ears pricked up because one of my new hobbies is finding old and perhaps not in very good condition furniture and painting it to give it a new lease of life.  My brother even gave me a new spray gun for Christmas.

I'm learning at the moment so as many projects as possible is a good thing.

So, back to Jenny.

Jenny knows what I'm doing and the fact that we have three gites.  Her friends have just sold a townhouse in Castillonnes and moved back to the UK and Jenny agreed to help them get rid of the furniture they didn't want.  Jenny's friends weren't actually selling the furniture but was simply asking for a donation to a local charity.

Within the blink of an eye we've gone from having a simple walk and coffee to reviewing antique furniture - within five minutes we are inside a beautiful medieval townhouse in the heart of the bastide looking at my next projects.  There was lots of lovely stuff - I had said that I needed bedside cabinets but I actually came away with: two bedside cabinets, two chests of draws (made in the 1940s), three chairs, a corner seat, a nest of chinoise tables, various ornaments and knick knacks, a child's ball pit (yes, a ball pit - with balls), a ride on toy and a beautiful Victorian plant stand which I immediately polished with beeswax to bring out the lovely grain.

Richard was despairing.  'How are we going to get all this back?  We haven't got a van!'

No, but we have a Gordon... and our Gordon has a big yellow van.

So, that's how I found myself Friday lunchtime loading a big yellow Mercedes van full of furniture and really beautiful things.

And that's what's so lovely about living here: Jenny knew that I was looking for furniture to practice on and just wanted to help.  Gordon was more than willing to give up his time to help us get things back to Fon du Bourg.

And that's why Richard and I are more than willing to volunteer to help run the bar for the local panto... that and because it was great fun, too.

Take a look at the FaceBook page - I've put up some pictures of the panto and the Victorian plant stand.