Degrees of spring in Maffaysburg

(the title is homage to the great poem, Degrees of gray in Philipsburg by Richard Hugo).

Coming back from Montana and Colorado to here was a shock: from winter, we landed in spring with a jolt, and ever since have been trying desperately to catch up from jetlag, feeling completely outpaced by everything sprouting and twittering being born all around us.

And there’s so much to do in the house, uff da.

So we’re working on small details and trying to move ahead patiently.

There was a huge storm at the beginning of the week, and it’s been rainy ever since March came in like a blustery lion

(that seems to be one thing that hasn’t been effected by global warming – )

And everyone has been so very helpful, from Gaël helping to drill the holes in the retaining wall so that it wouldn’t fall over after the storm, and then driving their trailer all over Ille et Vilaine and back with about six hundred tons of planking for our new floor, and Sandra who spent a morning with me doing yeoman’s work, bearing hiking cords and trusses and huge piles of the old planking as we tore up the holey bits of our former floor. And our other neighbors Virginie and David, who dropped by with a bulldozer and moved the equivalent of 600 wheelbarrows of dirt thereby saving me from back surgery at the age of 36. And Emilie and Romain for feeding us and mixing up concrete, and Gaël for six million pieces of gravel. And Malin who’s pregnant, preparing for a huge teaching exam tomorrow and still finds the time to do our laundry and be a great friend.

We’re feeling a little overwhelmed but are glad it’s spring. It will be nice when things have moved on to April 2015 or so and start to slow down a little.