AUGUST 2015

Sidmouth Folk Festival and France

The first three weeks of August were stressful, jam packed and exhausting, but totally worth it!!

The first week was full of Sidmouth Folk Festival, Wells and the Honiton Show.

It was my first year at Sidmouth, so I had no idea what to expect or what my sales would be like, but I knew I would have to be prepared as I wouldn't have much time in the evenings, so for some time before, I was stock piling stock, one of my fellow traders would tell you how much stress this gave me the run up to the week!

So much so I did boo boo a bit! I failed to read the set up information for Sidmouth properly until the Wednesday before the Friday I was due to start and noticed the pitch size! It was just 1.8m x 2m after emailing the organisers I discovered there was no way my 3x3m gazebo would fit in, so ensued a frantic search for an alternative, but my solution (a 2x2m gazebo) would not arrive until the Friday morning. So we had to wing it for the first day. Luckily it was dry but unluckily for Hazel and I it was also extremely hot and despite borrowing an umbrella from a neighbouring stall we both ended up with heat stroke and came home feeling quite unwell.

Friday

 Saturday

But you cant complain too much when this is your view!!

 

Luckily the new gazebo arrived on time and we were a bit more prepared for the next day, which was a good job as the Saturday was a lot busier, with the Sunday even busier.  I did find it too busy tho and this did effect sales a bit as people were too focused on getting down to the next entertainment. So I found Monday was our busiest and best day.

Including a lovely sale of an original painting, which made Mark extremely happy!

I was due to be at Glastonbury on the Tuesday, but my neighbour said they needed to go home and pick up more stock and decided to have a day off so I could have their pitch. Which I did and it was well worth it.

Wednesday I was at Wells, which turned out to be a good decision as the weather was a bit dodgy in Wells but apparently it was worse in Sidmouth with the sea mist being blown in to the stalls and it was quiet.

Thursday I was at the Honiton Show, which although was quieter than the previous 2 years, it was still a successful day.

And then back to Sidmouth for the last day. Once a year I give myself a week from Hell and although it was 8 days in a row (the longest I have ever done) it was bearable, in fact quite pleasant.

I had my little helpers with me, taking it in turns (I did do Tuesday and Wells on my own). In quiet periods we would take it in turns to look out to sea, which on hot days was very inviting. I happened to snap a picture of Hazel one day, which I then played with on my phone, which gave me an idea, so I took one of Jack (and he took one of me).  You will have to wait and see what the idea is!!

Saturday was spent resting, packing and getting ready to leave for Dover and our trip to France.

France

We left home at 5pm for the 12.30 crossing. Our only hold up was just before Stonehenge, where we crawled along for 45 minutes and eventually passed a terrible crash which included 3 cars and a land rover ambulance, after that it was an easy drive all the way to Dover where we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

Not the best timing in the world to travel to France, Dover to Calais, on the week that up to 2000 migrants were storming the tunnel and ports. After saying to friends which crossing we were doing, it was met with screwed up faces the week before, but actually it was fine. Apart from the ferry being full of Dutch Chelsea supporters who thought it very thoughtful to spread themselves across the ferry (where we were trying to get some kip) and talk very very loudly and laugh about their bodily noises produced in each others faces - pleasant!.  Apart from that when we got to France at 3 o'clock in the morning we drove straight out.

We stopped for a few hours sleep and then continued our journey to the house, arriving at about 10.30am. Sunday was spent resting as the journey does take it out of us and once the house is set up for our stay we do try to just chill for a bit so that we can plan and start with all our energy the next day.

Monday we started work.

I had already cleaned off one of the outside walls and half painted it in June, so another coat of paint was added, I then had to clean all the ivy roots off the end wall which was a real pain. While I was doing this Mark had stripped a row of tiles off the wall in the sun room (we were going to leave them but they served no purpose and were already coming away from the wall so it didn't take much to encourage them all off) and sanded it down for a coat of paint. 

He then moved into the toilet to take off all the creppie (which we now call "crappie creppie") it had gone mouldy in the 3 years we left the house locked up. It was a horrible job for him as it needed to be sanded off, so locked in the smallest room in the house on one of the hottest days was not easy, but eventually he got it down to how it was when I had stripped it of the orange and brown 60's floor to ceiling wallpaper. Ready for me to paint.

While waiting for coats of paint to dry in the toilet I alternated my time in the laundry room, it wasn't a planned job, but I decided I couldn't stand the salmon pink anymore, it had to go!! However this turned into a bigger job as it was also painted floor to ceiling so took 3 coats!

During this time Mark had decided it was time for all the battleship grey tiles in the kitchen to go, which created lots of mess.  Many many holes were filled, sanded and prepared in the kitchen and then I painted, while Mark put up panelling which he then painted in a colour we decided we just had to have!

First cupboard went up!

One morning we got up to find a red squirrel nut hunting in the tree next to our kitchen window, which soon became a bit of an obsession with us, trying to catch the perfect picture and video. During the next week we soon realised that nothing was going to stop her collect her nuts, even if I was painting outside or Mark was drilling in the kitchen, still she would collect her nuts.

Just before lunch we went for a stroll up to the chapel and then back down in to town to get a baguette.

Ironically talking to my sister on facebook about how we should be careful we both don't over do it (she is also working on her house) and how we may be working by 8.30am we do stop at dinner time. The next day, I couldn't move! The night was spent, awake, with Mark snoring next to me and what felt like someone trying to chop my head off with a blunt axe! After 7 days of continuous painting, I had pulled what felt like every muscle in my neck. After a very painful trip to the pharmacie (as we had neglected to bring any pain killers with us) I was then loaded up with strong painkillers and muscle rub. Mark very kindly pulled an armchair out on to the balcony and I spent the day snoozing and reading while he carried on working.

The next day I had "slightly" more movement, so I managed to gloss a couple of windows and I also made some mock tiles so we could see how what we had in mind would look.

We took out some time and went for a picnic!

By Thursday I was getting frustrated, I was there to work not play invalid, so I painted the last kitchen wall, once in the morning, then I rested and again in the afternoon.

We found some old tiles in the roof of the barn, which I cleaned up, there's just over 100 complete tiles and some broken ones. We want to use them some how, but not sure how just yet.

In the meantime Mark had made good progress on the panelling, which now all had their first coat of paint and had started (until he ran out of materials) the ceiling.

Too fast too soon the last day had come and it was time to finish up. I finished glossing the last windows, cleaned the outside of the sun room and started putting everything away, while Mark fixed some corrugated panels that had blown off the barn roof, put some struts in the roof where it is sagging, finished off the strimming and cleared some more brambles, scrapped some of the moss off the roof, checked the drains and fixed the chimney.

While clearing brambles Mark found a lizard (yet to be identified) which I managed to get a great shot of, we actually have loads of these in the garden and according to our neighbour when we are not there we have snakes basking in the sun on the driveway.

After a surprise visit from our neighbour who we thought we would miss as they were on holiday we went for one last walk up to the chapel and the view point to see the sun coming down.

On Saturday morning we were up at 5.15 and out the house by 6am, locking the door for another 9 weeks.

We had an easy drive home with some excellent views of the sun coming up. I was dreading the the crossing back, but again it was fine, security checks took a little longer than normal, but as we usually travel at night not at lunch time and it was August that could be normal. We did decide tho that crossing in August at the height of tourist season on one of the hottest days of the month was not an experience we intend to repeat!

Back home on Sunday and we are looking at crossings for October half term!