Where do I even start

A broad hint might have hit the ground running on Thursday that weather might have been an issue.

It turned out  far more than that

I refuse to believe that Tias mate who was off camping is not currently half way up a tree in the Midlands.

We set off from here and it was a bit breezy, crossed the Severn with some really difficult conditions then moved South down the M5 through periodically Noah level biblical with a constant strong wind throwing us about.

Further down the M5 and I could not really believe that Brittany Ferries would even dream of sailing, through  stuff like this  . The van was flying round the lanes and visibility was full on optional, at times I was navigating using the force as  outside it was just a mess of water and spray.

Fairly impressed that we had arrived and very glad we had allowed an extra hour for the trip,  we drove on to the Pont Aven amazed it was even going to sail into what was billed as a force 10. The meal was as ever very good and the cabin a welcome retreat as the vessel began to give us a course in aerobics. It began as glasses flew past me in the bar - time for bed then. This was more fairground ride than ferry crossing, the only thing that ship didn't do was loop the loop, though, as I spent some of the night asleep I might just have missed that bit.

Thankfully we had upgraded to a four berth cabin which meant the three of us could strap ourselves in for the bumpy ride to follow. 

Early morning and away, we have been on a bit of a lucky streak of late, the VW had been parked right next to the bow doors so we were amongst the first off. There is something really nice about roads in Brittany that encourages enthusiastic driving, or whimpering from the passenger seat.

We had some stuff to deliver to a friend of the students sister. A very interesting and unique  group of people. This family seems to attract those outside of the mainstream, it's not just the student.

So onwards and Southwards to our house. Or the jungle as it seems to have become. I wielded the hedge trimmer out front as the student set to with the strimmer, subduing the mass of foliage out the back, A trip to the Intermarche dealt with lunch then it was into town for a superb supper of Crepes.

Gwion had majored on the unlimited prawns on offer on the Pont Aven and was paying the price, looking a bit grey.  He still managed a Banana split for desert though!!

Back to the house and of course the acid test, in the past the big open fire in our living room has been a bit of a problem, I would consider that room ideal for the production of kippers!! Would the modifications to the chimney make things better? At first the answer seemed to be no. Having all the windows open sort of takes away the point of a fire. But, no after a while it settled and it seems to burn reasonably well and send the smoke up the chimney.   That just leaves installing a log burner in the other room where the chimney we dropped a flue down is really sucking air, that will work well.

So all in all not too bad. Next morning it was up the Intermarche and do a big shop before heading for Roscoff and the ferry.  Originally we had planned to leave on the Sunday morning but a bit of thought and we decided to take the Saturday night ferry instead. This proved to be wise, it was the last Sunday of half term and taking the Sunday morning ferry would have put us on the M 5 just as everyone headed for home and it would most likely have been like a car park.

Of course overnight ferry was totally packed so it was sleep on the deck for us, again. No worries, we would just head into town for a meal, well maybe not, with the ferry overfull the town was also, we tried just about every resto in town the answer was the same - complet. Full up, things were not looking good and the clock was ticking so a split decision saw us in the van and heading for St Pol de Leon where we found a lovely little back street brasserie. Explaining to le patron that we were on the next ferry resulted in three meals in record time for us and a good tip for him!

With time ticking I clicked the buttons on the squawk  box, sure enough it went into wobble mode and proceeded to take us round in a huge circle till we arrived back at the car park we had just left. Spotting a sign for Roscoff I decided to ignore it's idiotic ranting and soon we were in the terminal waiting for the ferry.

Again our luck held and we were positioned to be one of the very first off the ship.  

The trip back was mill pond smooth so after a whole  5 hours sleep it was out on to a fairly quiet M5 M4 and home. Home, ahh how nice and rest full. I wish.

An ominous looking collection of boxes were outside the door which turned out to be the chicken shed. A pile of bits of wood and fencing none of which looked anything like the ones in the pictures in the instructions, now, when i say "instructions" I mean the phrase on the broadest possible sense. it was basically an improbable collection of drawings that invited you to guess how it all went together. We only had to pull it all apart twice before we managed to get it all to fit. Well when I say "We" the student kindly volunteered to get Gwion from the school bus and was not seen for a very long time thereafter.   

With her out of the way i was tempted to make everything fit with a hammer but managed to retain my sanity long enough for something vaguely resembling a chicken run to sit in the field. 

Of course things were not just about us, Bethan god bless  her,  had gone to the download festival in Donnington. Proving we are not the only people to whom catastrophe pays a call, the people next tent had left their fly sheet home and the people the other side had forgotten most of their poles. This would not have been an issue had the weather not been biblical. We had a series of texts over the weekend keeping us up to speed, Bethan poor dab went down with Tonsilitis and spent most of the festival in her sleeping bag shivering.   She came home last night and seems much improved.  You cannot help but feel sorry for her though.

This morning, Gwion to school and it was mow on dude.  The bottom field got treated to a trim as did a big bit of the drive.  The weather forecast was an excuse to wander into town this afternoon and do a bit of shopping, this consisted, in the main, of buying chicken things. She is on line now spending even more money on feeder machines.