8th. The Social Housing on the development is now being constructed. There is a rule in France that a certain amount of the housing in any development has to be Social Housing. I am not quite sure of the proportion but that will become more evident as the buildings go up. It has two very good effects. Firstly it assures that the stock of Social Housing is increased alongside all other categories of housing and secondly it assures a relatively high standard of building as it can’t stand out, in a bad way, from the surrounding non social housing.
With my decision to do more real hand made, snail mail, birthday cards this year I have been cracking on with painting as there are a lot of birthdays in the first half of the year and the South African ones need posting about two months in advance!
10th The farmers were out in force today ploughing and planting all the fields not occupied by winter wheat.
And the birds and the bees were further evidence that spring really is on the way.
17th. Great visit to the Mirco Brewery run by a South African, Alistair from Port Elizabeth, this morning; with Domenique, Monique, Chantal and Michelle. Really pleasant couple of hours outing and just down the road.
22nd. Started the project to up-grade the dining room furniture today with sanding the tops in preparation for re-staining and then varnishing. The bases will be painted off-white along with the chairs. I have washed the seat covers and stuffed then with new firmer foam. I am anticipating a really nice outcome.
28th Lovely weather and a walk round the fields evidenced the re-emergence of quince blossom. Martine said it had been so aggressively cut back last year that there was no fruit to pick. Let us hope it is left alone this year!
capetocarpe 