24 February 2012

RANDOM THOUGHTS

letterbox

Every time I walk past the door in the Rue du Four Banal that has this lovely old letterbox I feel a twinge of mourning for our old letterbox.

A couple of days after we moved into our little house, the fearsome post lady arrived and declared our letterbox unsuitable and insisted that we go out and buy a regulation yellow metal box, which now sits on a pole outside the house, looking incredibly businesslike and very ugly.

The old letterbox was despatched to the déchetterie.  We removed it completely because it was ill-fitting and the cause of one of the many huge draughts.  It was not a pretty thing, like the one above.  It was also highly impractical.  The post lady would never have been able to stuff the reams of inevitable junk mail through it.

 letterbox3

Every time I walk past this door in Ligeuil I can’t help wondering “why”.  It’s such a handsome door.  Someone must have been proud of it at some time.

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Every time I see one of these I have to smile.  We see lots of them in our area, some immaculately restored, some completely battered with bits missing and straw sticking out of the back.  Mostly they are just running around, used as everyday transport, as if there’s nothing at all remarkable in that.

APR 2011 - za Every time I see one of these, my heart skips a beat.  One day.  And it will be lime green or purple.  With matching interior.  Unless I have grown out of my lime green and purple  phase by the time I get one.  Red like this is good.

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Every time I sit on my garden bench and look at the house with the château behind I pinch myself and think that if this is real, I must be the luckiest person in the world.

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Only another six weeks to go…..

Bon weekend !!

9 comments:

  1. Counting down with you Jean!

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  2. And in 6 weeks we will be beeeauuuutiful, with blossom and blooms galore, butterflies, sunshine and even a few baby creatures!! Hold that thought. You can make it through the grey times. Bake more cakes to take your mind off it. Etc, etc and other supportive remarks as necessary.

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  3. As Susan says in 6 weeks it will be lovely!! Right now it is grey and murky so worth the wait ....honest :-)

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  4. I think everyone has said it all. We did though see our first butterfly yesterday despite it being quite chilly! Diane

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  5. We've already had a moth and a butterfly - try looking at some seed catalogues for extra optimism!

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  6. We have regulation green letter boxes here, which I suppose are more discrete than yellow, although I think that yellow looks far more cheerful. Love that door. It is almost as battered as our front doors, but we don't have the iron grills, just beaten up wood with numerous holes. I know that they are probably the set of doors that were built with the house, but the 'fresh air' they let in can be quite wicked, especially in the really cold weather. I suspect that the door in your photo is just as 'fresh air' friendly!

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  7. ooo la la! I love that last picture with the poodle in a sweet corner outside the house in a perfect position to enjoy the evening sun going down with a glass of wine or two and a few nibbles. Jealous, moi? Pas du tout!

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  8. Oh, yes. The lost beauties and the present ones.

    In just six weeks, you and Lulu will be «en France» encore, and all will be well again.

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  9. A fun post, Jean. We didn't have a postbox of any kind when we bought our house, but now have a regulation green one by the gate. Our door was at least as battered as the one in your photo, but nowhere near as beautiful.

    I too am starting to count the weeks to our annual visit to France. Just over 3 months to go, but we then get 3 months there.

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