June '12

Irish Wedding

At the beginning of June, PG & I flew to Eire for the wedding of our goofriends Richard & Mary's eldest son Rory to his longtime girlfriend Jill. It was the first time we had been to Eire on holiday, so it was quite an experience to be involved in an Irish wedding and the ensuing celebrations.
The wedding was lovely (my first Catholic wedding). One of Richard's brothers who is a priest had turned up unexpectantly and met Richard inside the church, much to Richards surprise and delight. He then helped out with several readings during the ceremony.

After the wedding service, we all retired to the grounds of a local stately home for photos and champagne. Then we retired upstairs for some proper drinking before the dinner and speeches which was rounded off with a nights dancing with a live band.

The next day gave as a rest until the evening post wedding party barbeque, which turned out to be a silver service affair with the women in evening dresses. Well, we slummed it, but had a great time. The following day we drove down to Richard & Mary's new house in County Wexford for an evening in the pub before finishing the next day with a proper homegrown barbeque for family & friends in their back garden, then catching the morning flight red-eye to Bristol so we could spend a few days with our families before getting back to Mas de Barberans.

No. 11

When we got back, the plastering has begun, although it is not quite finished as I write this. In most rooms the floor insulation has been put down and a concrete screed laid over it ready for the "pasta" layer on which the tiles will be laid.
The electrician is fitting the switch boxes, power points and lighting and the tiles for the floors are being delivered soon.
Suddenly No. 11 is looking like a proper house.

Finca time

Down in the finca, we are working our butts off ably helped by Ollie "Hawkeye" and Ellen who have been living in the barn and doing some great work pruning and clearing the branches after my chainsawing sessions.
The top terrace looks nearly finished, but it will still take us a couple of weeks to get through it all. Once that is done we will have brought another 280-300 trees that ore on the slope at the back of the finca under cultivation since the beginning of the year.