Parking Area

When we first moved into our house, we could walk down below the lawn at the back of the house and on down a grassy track.  Turn right at the bottom of the track and there stood the four walls of our ruined cottage, open to the sky.  Turn left at the bottom of the track and there was a long corrugated iron roofed shed belonging to Serge, our neighbouring farmer.

In December 2008, when we started to renovate the cottage, our builders needed access for their lorries and the green track had to become a surfaced drive.

By April 2009, following heavy spring rains, with water pouring off the road and through the cottage, we had to lower the land all round, including the road. By then, we had bought the corrugated iron roofed shed  and the ground alongside from Serge, so great mounds of earth and rubble (including the road surface) were pushed and levelled behind the shed and the cottage.

It is that rubble we have been digging out of what will be the cottage lawn all these months.  But at least the rubble has been useful.  The large stones we're keeping.  The small stuff has become the base for what will be a parking area behind the shed.  Monsieur G ran over it with his digger to flatten it and bed it down.

I'm now digging out the pebbles that were scraped off the road, sieving out the dirt and covering the parking area.  To begin with it felt like an elephant task, but the parking is beginning to take shape.  It's good to be able to drive down to the cottage and turn at the bottom and not have to reverse all the way down.

The back of the shed has an interesting flint wall - all that is left of a large barn.  And in summer the walnut tree will make a good shade for the cars.

As we sift through the rubble and pebbles we find small pieces of china and pottery discarded by previous owners of the cottage.  I'm saving them to make a mosaic.