I am still home alone here at Château de la Boutinière, but it has been a very busy week.
I have been doing a lot of gardening. The weather is beautiful at the moment, but it has been quite cold and there are rain clouds coming in. Some of the plants are not enjoying being outside just yet. With Zion still away, I am working on my own, although I have been very grateful for some kind help, both in the garden and inside the house.
Today I went to another brocante, which is one of my favourite things to do. I picked up a few antique pieces because we are planning to restore the original kitchen in the basement of the château. We want it to feel like a very old, traditional kitchen, so I am always on the lookout for authentic pieces that will suit that space.
This afternoon I will be planting the vegetable garden. As a vegetarian, it is important to me to have plenty of fresh, home-grown vegetables readily available.
At the moment, we also have what can only be described as a pot factory going on. We are producing one large plant pot a day and have now started making the stands for them as well. They look lovely, but they are far too pristine. I want them to look aged so they match the original pots on the château steps. I am planning to experiment with ageing them using yoghurt or staining them with tea to see how they develop.
Maintaining the house really is a full-time job. Right now, we are working our way through painting the shutters. All the second-floor shutters at the back of the château have been taken down and sanded. They have not been properly painted for around 30 years, so the wood is extremely thirsty and soaking up both undercoat and top coat. It is a slow process because every individual slat has to be sanded by hand.
Everything is coming together for our first wedding, which is now only six weeks away. It feels slightly nail-biting, but the château is starting to look beautiful. The graffiti is finally gone, revealing the exposed stone underneath. The shutters on the front now have their undercoat and are waiting for the final top coat.
I often think of the château as a wedding cake. The structure has always been there; we are simply adding the decoration layer by layer. Watching her transformation brings me a huge amount of joy. We are ordering lots of things for the wedding and have some fun projects planned that we will share with you soon.
For now, goodbye, and have a good week.