Friday 2 May 2008

The Quillan Chainsaw Massacre

There's nothing like spending a couple of hours cutting logs with a chainsaw to make you feel like a real man. Specifically, a real tired man. Obviously a chainsaw is much easier to use than an axe but it's still tiring. Mum's chainsaw is electric, which means two things: it's not very powerful (so you do have to put quite a bit of pressure on the wood to cut through it) and the motor is on one side so it's also off-balance and it's therefore difficult to cut a properly vertical line. Still, a lot of logs were shortened today as a result of my toil so when the cold weather creeps in to this region again some time in December the dry logs will fit in the wood burner...

Apart from one or two oddments that's all I did today, workwise. Yesterday I retrieved a dog toy from the roof (don't ask), got both pushbikes working, took dozens of photos (some by request as Mum's nearest neighbours have two pet sheep and a couple of trees they're quite proud of), helped tidy up the garage, swapped the swimming pool covers (winter for summer) and shifted around 5 tonnes of gravel. I got sunburnt and knackered in the process but I've had worse. Of both.

Last night Mum had a Swedish couple staying who were very nice - they were passing through and saw the sign so they stopped off for the night. Tonight there's a French couple who are walkers (this is a good walking area) who had booked and a Dutch couple who are totally cool and who stopped off as they saw the signs and fancied it. They're on their way to Perpignan to collect their 16-year-old son from a canoeing trip and over dinner we discovered that house prices in Holland are about the same as the UK, as is the proliferation of cooking shows on TV.

Tomorrow I aim to get up very early to catch the sunrise from the top of the hill which is about 30 minutes' walk away. I may manage it. If not, I'll get up there for the sunset and do sunrise on Sunday morning...

I'm thoroughly enjoying The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte and I also have a book about photography and a book about the French philosopher Michel Foucault. Naturally, I don't expect to understand much of the last one...

I thought I had some interesting things to add today. Doesn't look like it though...