70) The making of a pool

Since my last post (rather a long time ago I'm afraid) the pool has made great progress and we are nearly pret a plonger.  I thought, therefore, I would give a blow by blow account of "the making of a pool...."

After the concrete base had been laid we had a torrential downpour.  The pool filled up with water (before it had any method of draining it) and the surrounding excavations turned into a claggy quagmire.

Undaunted our Portuguese macons turned up on time and got to work building the sides.

It didn't take long before it started looking a bit like a pool......

Then there was the  local technique to construct.  This is where all the equipment goes (pump, filter, valves etc).  We have designed this to be sous sol, firstly so it can't really be seen and secondly, so that any noise from the pump and so on is masked by its position under the earth.

Then (quite randomly) the chap turned up in a rather intriguingly rigged tractor to cut the grass in our field - a story for another time.

Once the walls were finished, the skimmers went in.

Next the walls were rendered to give a smooth finish.  I asked the (French) artisan if he was a platrier - plasterer).  Oh my goodness me no, he told me, he was a macon.  Plasterers work inside he said, trying hard not to make it too obvious he thought the client an imbecile.

In the midst of our chantier we saw this extraordinarily beautiful butterfly, which seemed to have been designed by Mary Quant.

Once the walls had been rendered (by the macon) they were capped off, ready for the margelles.

After quite a lot of discussion between the plumbers, the pool people, the electricians and the digger man it was finally resolved who would be doing what in terms of laying and connecting the cables and water pipes (this could easily merit a separate posting of its own).

With the digger back again (still, regretfully, without its key when it was left overnight) they got onto the job of landscaping the surrounding mud bath.

While all this was going on this most bizarre of creatures dropped in on us.  It looked like a leaf, but we think it was some sort of weird and wonderful moth (though we couldn't find anything quite like it on the internet).

With the basic landscaping completed, it begins to look like a real pool.

Following quickly on from the macons, the pool people started to be install the equipment in our underground bunker.

They then put the trim round the edge for the liner to be attached to.

On a wonderfully sunny day shortly afterwards, our two pool blokes turned up to fit the felt which goes under the liner (to soften the feel of the concrete render).

With the felt in place, the sable (sand coloured) liner was fitted directly after.

And then the water was turned on (with a rather clever ball cock device to switch it off once it got to the level they wanted for the next task - cutting the holes for the jets, the skimmers and the underwater light)

Today it got to 32 degrees and it seems set to continue.......

............but, for the moment all we can do is watch and wait as the water level rises slowly slowly....

69) Cahors en fete (ou en fou?)

A very enjoyable trip (as always) to the Saturday market in Cahors.  And (as always) we ran into some of our  (adopted) French family, Pierre and his enigmatic younger daughter, Camille.

It is the season of fetes.  And not to be out done, Cahors has a sort of celebration of gardens.  Various events have been happening, most of which we have missed, but one that is on for a month is a weird project to knit woollen knitted type things round random street objects dotted about the town - like trees for instance.

or the already rather weird sculpture outside the law courts........................

........and the odd park bench.  This made a bit more sense as it greatly improved the comfort of the usually red-hot iron municipal seating provision; and clearly it amused the locals.

There was also a display of (almost certainly crap) sculpture in the cathedral cloisters.  But we had missed it.

One thing we came across by luck, which was not part of the fete, was this rather intriguing (Zen?) garden in the municipal headquarters of the planning department.  It consisted of a few dead twigs in a tray of gravel, surrounded by an MDF, vomit coloured, up-sweeping border with a hole in it.  Clearly there was a great deal of subtlety and symbolism that had simply gone over our heads.  We couldn't understand why this too had not been highlighted in the fete.

It is also interesting to note that the building housing the planning department must be one of the ugliest and most inappropriate buildings in Cahors.  According to the sign outside, which no one has bothered to take down, it was once the police headquarters building.  One wonders how it ever managed to get planning permission; on the other hand.......

And in our own garden the lettuces are doing really well (the glass is there to give scale - it was the nearest thing to hand).

68) Pool progress

The DIGGER.  First came the digger.

Once the basic shape of the pool had been dug, a concrete lorry arrived to deposit the concrete base over reinforcing which had been laid by the Portuguese macons.  It had a very clever extending arm (with a conveyor belt), enabling it to drop the concrete where needed.  The driver, though, seemed a bit bolshy.  I suspect he didn't like being ordered around by Portuguese.  The French tend to be very sensitive about foreign workers who work twice as hard for half the money (in France the equivalent of the Irish navvies are the Portuguese, but they are generally much nicer and easier to understand - than the Irish).  At times it did look as though the concrete might end up being poured down one of our intrepid Portuguese artisan's necks.

I went and had a friendly chat with the lorry driver, and enthusiastically complimented him on his skills with the boom, and soon we were the best of friends.  He seemed to accept that, as these guys were the ones building the pool, they did have some input into where the concrete should be laid.  I think he also had a healthy regard for who was the client and, with me hanging about, it probably was not a good idea to encase the workers in concrete (even if they were foreign).

The concrete was spread all over the reinforcing mesh, whilst lifting the steel bars with their spades to ensure the reinforcing was in the middle of the concrete, rather than simply sitting underneath it, where it would be pretty ineffective (but an all to common fault).

Soon the base of the pool (and the steps) was complete.  It took two lorry loads of concrete and when the driver returned an hour or two later, it was like reuniting with long lost friends.  You can also see the vertical reinforcing bars, which the hollow concrete blocks for the pool sides fit over.  These are subsequently filled with more concrete.

The day after, another lorry arrives with a very cool crane operator, sporting Paco Rabanne shades.  These, however, gave him a bit of a Stevie Wonder look, but it turned out he wasn't blind after all and placed large piles of concrete blocks with great skill and dexterity.  The Portuguese macons weren't there this day so he probably presumed the artisans were French compatriots and very helpfully spread the blocks evenly around the pool (we are using a French pool company, but they have taken on this excellent group of Portugeuse macons to do most of the building work).

Even before the blocks had finished being unloaded, up roars Mr COOL himself; our (French) digger man.  No need here for designer sunglasses to demonstrate/prove his coolness  He had two different piles of different sand in the back of the lorry.  Up went the back; then he moved smartly forward just the right amount, and two (distinct and separate) piles of sand dropped right next to the mixer.  He makes even Jean-Paul Van-Damme look gauche.

67) All creatures great and small (and mechanised)

We seem to have been  visited by a weird and wonderful array of creatures over the past few days.  This green lizard for instance.  Someone told us to watch out for green lizards 'cos they're poisonous.  Everything here seems to be poisonous.  It seemed exceptionally friendly to me, as it scuttled along our wall - and, after all, we certainly won't be eating it.

Next a Scarab beetle came foraging along the terrace.  It was enormous.  And beautiful, just like something out of an Egyptian tomb.  I was surprised to find it in France, and all these centuries later.  It is also known as the Dung beetle, but it (sadly) was not rolling a little ball of dung in front of it;  and now we have our super, efficient new septic tank (certified by SPANC) there's not much chance of finding dung around here.

This is another of the myriad of creatures attracted by the wild flowers in our field (probably poisonous too).

Lots and lots of (almost certainly poisonous) butterflies around at this time of year.  Why do the tourists all come in August when there is so much more to see in May and June?

Given the size of its head, it must be a butterfly of very little brain, and this perhaps excuses this little beautiful (but, quite possibly, deceptively poisonous) butterfly for thinking G's brightly coloured toenail was some sort of exotic flower.  Not much nectar to be found there, but it was very persistent (stupid).

Our Aliums are particularly popular with honey bees.  This is probably a good thing as the poor honey bee seems to be under threat from every corner, from agricultural chemicals, diseases, parasites and now those devilish Asiatic hornets.

We still have bee orchids too.  Very life like, but this particular variety looks like a bee has been high-jacked by a flying duck - perhaps it's a variation on the stork and baby story, a sort of "birds and bees" myth for bees.

The biggest of the orchids, the "lizard" orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum) are now out at last.  I say at last because we have been avoiding mowing or treading on them for the last few months, as their large waxy leaves make an appearance quite early on in the year.  Unfortunately, they seem to like one of our favourite spots in the garden, one of the few in the shade, which has effectively been out of bounds since they first started to emerge.

I'm not really sure why they are called "lizard" orchids.  Perhaps it's something to do with the long twisty tongue-like protuberances they have.

The next creature to arrive was a most enormous CAT....................

66) The Digger Man cometh (again)

A great deal has happened since my last post.  We have been in England and there was a wedding.  As we were rather involved, we didn't get a chance to take many photographs.  No doubt lots will appear on facebook, so I will leave this momentous and happy occasion to others for the time being.  We did, of course, go to considerable lengths to taste and select the wines.  

They seemed to go down very well.

The day after we got back they were due to start on the pool.  We waited.  No one came.  So at about ten I rang the digger man to find out what time he was arriving.  The line was very faint, but it soon became clear he wasn't coming today.  He had had an accident (French artisan excuse no. 7).  He said something about a broken arm.  I wasn't clear whether it was his arm or the arm of the digger (the machine) that had been broken.  This was perhaps the third time we had been told by an artisan that they couldn't make it because there had been an accident.  I was very sceptical, but felt I ought to express some concern.  A combination of annoyance, scepticism and limited French, however, I fear made my sympathy sound just a tiny bit insincere (tant pis).

On Friday the digger man arrived  - with an enormous digger.  For some reason he started by showing me a most horrific scar on his arm (so it wasn't the digger that had got broken).  I (rather sheepishly) expressed genuine sounding (I hope) sympathy.

On Friday it was 30 degrees so we were quite pleased a start was being made on the pool.

Things progressed rapidly and by the end of the day the outline of the plage (pool surround) was complete.

After he'd gone off for the weekend I tried to find out if he had left the keys.  Sadly not.  I had seen lots of actors "hot wiring" cars in the movies, and it looked pretty easy.  G, however, thought this was not a good idea.

On Monday there was lots of spraying of fluorescent red paint.  There were various technical looking instruments and I began to realise it wasn't quite as simple as it looked.

Two holes first; I don't quite know why.........

and then it wasn't long before the hole for the pool started to take shape.

Scraping the bucket sideways (at an angle) was very impressive.

He had all sorts of drilling type bits but, so far, he hasn't needed them.

It seems a massive area he has created, but it really is amazing what you can achieve in a day or two with a really big digger, if you know what you are doing - to be continued...........