Got up, had breakfast and out the door down the valley shopping. Picked up the missing 18cm nails on the way to the laundry. Machine laoded and started gave us half an hour to get some garlic and salami from the market.

St Girons market is lovely at 9am in the morning. Just a few local folk about. Stall holders still setting up and pricing things up. Easy to get up and down the rows.

Collect the laundry and off to the supermarket to pick up provisions. Back up the valley for a coffee with Renee at the Auberge and back at the barn before noon.

Unload the van, laundry out and back onto the terrace.

With a prawn & aioli break for lunch we finished the framework in time for a short forage for ‘shrooms adding another handful to the drying rack.

Baked merlin (fish)  and salad supper followed by a crossword or two.

Started the day the same as yesterday. And tehn we cracked on with the frame for the terrace. Having sorted out the levels and prepared the backfill for the first section it was just a case of fitting beams and cementing in the ends nearest the barn front wall.

Progress was swift once we developed a system. The halt only came when we ran out of 18cm nails. Good job it’s shopping day tomorrow. That’s a point, I need to check how many decking fixings we have too.

It took the begining of the afternoon to mix concrete and build piers under the end of the beams.

We washed up tools and went for another forage along the terraces in the woods to add to the stash of mushrooms drying in the cieling.

BBQ duck breast salad with dinky potatoes baked in the fire.

The usual start to the day.

• Kettle goes on
• Snuggle in bed
• Kettle whistles
• Get up & make coffee
• Internet goes on
• Blogging & Ski Breezy emails and web stuff
• Breakfast

Work started with fitting the next chevron (beam) into place for the deck behind the new wall out the front of the barn. Building stone and mortar piers in several places to support it. Once done and all the tools were washed down there is little more we can do until the mortar has set. We dug out the area by the barn front wall to accept more piers for when we finally get the rest of the framework in place and then went for a stroll down the river to seek mushrooms.

Now we have never been very sucessful at ‘shrooming. We take a knife each, go search, and invariably come back empty handed. I took the South bank and Breezy took the north. Then I saw one!

A bit like arriving at a road traffic accident, I stopped and surveyed the scene before approaching. There was another one, and seside that a smaller one. Must tread carefully. Then I realised that I was on the edge of a “fairly major accident”. I ran round the corner to fetch Breezy as there were far too many for me to carry.

We came back to the barn with a pretty good little haul of ceps, had lunch and went back out for more. About 200% more.

The rest of the afternoon Breezy cut plasterboard for the inside walls while I tackled electrics.

Leftover pork and mushroom curry with broccoli from the garden.

The summer is gradually drawing to an end. There is one single tree on the other side of the piste and the colours are definitely turning. When the alarm geos off in the morning (not often set) the sun is not already beaming in the windows as it has not yet made it over the ridge of the mountains in the east.

We got up, had breakfast and headed down the valley with the list to go shopping in St Girons. Laundry in the machine; quick trip to the garden place for grass seed and rat poison; back for the laundry then I went into the builders merchant while Breezy started the food shop.

All done and heading back up the valley by 11am.

Quick stop in Salau to fill water containers and check for post at the Auberge then up to the barn to unload. 4 trips up the hill with plasterboard and 1 with the mucktruck.

Ham salad sandwiches for lunch as the prawns did not look very appetising in the supermarket.

Afternoon of painting piss pot components either with varnish or yellow to match the steps, and then making a divider for the cutlery draw in the kitchen.

Supper of spagetti bolognaise as the fish in teh supermarket was not up to much.

After a sandwich lunch I cut some logs

Still overcast and no sign of the sun. Had breakfast after a bout of internet sorting out emails enquiries for the chalet in Chamonix.

When we lived in the little outbuilding we used a “bucket and chuck it” system. So if you needed a wee during the night you descended the ladder and pissed in a pot. In the morning the contents of the pot gets emptied either in the field or on the compost heap.  During the day when one has the calling one goes “En Plein Air” or “Al Fresco”.

This system is fine for us, close friends and immediate family but may present a small hurdle in getting to know the locals or entertaining people we don’t really know that well. Thus the system requires some development. It has been on the “list of things to do” for some time and we have been salvaginging bits and bobs along the way.

We started with one of the big bottles from a water dispenser. Filed the neck down to 50mm and cut the bottom off to make a big funnel. Then made a frame to hold it inverted so that the top is at the same height as the composting toilet and the neck of the bottle goes through the floor. The frame was then “coated” with offcuts of tongue and grouve match board. The seat was made from offcuts of floorboard as was the lid which attached to the seat with an old piano hinge. Now just awaiting a lick of paint and/or varnish as appropriate.

Lunch was taken on the terrace as the sun made a brief appearance and consisted of leftovers as shopping tomorrow. Honey and mustard chicken salad.

Just as we were about to apply the paint/varnish a quadbike appeared at the gate. We recognised Regan immediately as he has never been seen without his cowboy hat. The bike rider was new to us. Regan had heard about the wall building and got his friend from Couflens, Patrick, to take him up to see it. Time for a beer and a chat. They left about 40 minutes later and we had an invite from Patrick for an appero of Tuesday.

Showers and an omlet salad (with polenta).

When we woke up you could not see the van from the barn as we were immersed in a bank of cloud. It was not exactly raining but the air was so laden with moisture you see it getting blown about in waves like pollen in the summer. Very early the decision was made to minimise the amount of time outside and make ourselves as comfortable as possible inside. This entailed lighting the Yotul stove at the kitchen end (primarily to check it for leaks), having a bit of a cookfest and catching up on the internet.

Tomato, chilli, and basil soup. Breezy made a yoghurt cake (as per her dialy routine in the winter) with rhubarb and ginger, absolutely fantastic. And we had a go at making polenta.

I managed to get loads of work type computer stuff done off my list and catch up with the blog while Breezy concentrated on Ski Breezy emails etc.

In the afternoon we did manage to get a bit of DIY done. Making and attaching a skirting in the pantry area from old forklift pallets and planning the internal walls around the second porchway.

Later in the afternoon we lit the second fire in the living area as well.

Cherry smoked duck breast (smoker placed in the doorway as it was still foul outside) with polenta and salad for supper. Followed by an episode of “All creatures great and small” before an early bed.

No alarm.

Breezy is walking down stairs backwards and I have to hold onto the wall to do down the bathroom steps. Maybe we overdid the walking yesterday?

Pottered about the place most of the day avoiding stairs and slopes. Not an easy feat considering our location.

No regrets though.