@JaneJones - not sure if youâve already posted, but did you lay the floor tiles or just cleaned up what was already there. Theyâre fabulous!
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Very very nice and well done!!
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Meanwhile, the French, en revanche, are tarmacking / gravelling the roads in 40 degrees of heat, making sure that we can bring to our drives, large portions of French roads on our tyres! All for free! Great news!
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The lower photo is what we bought, and then what we did to it (the sink and units are now in my workshop in downstairs pig slaughtering room, so we are not totally profligate). And the tomettes came from the grenier in local town hall. It took OH days on his hands and knees to clean them, but were laid by a professional.
Th
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Thanks for the extra pictures Jane. As I said, the tiles are fabulous and the kitchen itself is very well done.
Clever you and OH! 
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A local restaurant has had itâs car park done in this heat. People are taking melted tarmac back home on their shoes 
This is how things are around here too. Several roads have been resurfaced in the last couple of months, but the tarmac is melting and tearing up. Worst of all is when farm machinery uses the road, and the much greater weight and tyre design really cuts through the surface.
Iâm noticing bees, lots of butterflies and now birds, are alighting on anything where there might be a few drops of water and trying to drink. Like on the watering can if itâs left standing or just finished using hoping for drops of water.
Iâve placed a few full buckets of water with wet dish towels across the top, soaking up the water in the bucket and staying wet, and left a few shallow plates of water about the place hoping the bumblebees, butterflies and birds will realise itâs water they can come and drink. Currently looking about for a wideish flat dish I can fill enough for the birds to have a bath as well as the ones that are coming to drink at the buckets seem to want to.
Butterflies were drowning trapped in the buckets and basins which is why Iâm now pegging a wet tea towel across most of the surface of the water into. buckets and bowls.
Iâve got a lot more bumblebees this year especially small ones and Iâd like to keep them.
Currently looking for blue plates to put out hoping they will look like little lakes from the air.
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I feel mean not being able to put water out but itâs greatly frowned upon here due to the mosquitoes and hence why the communes spray regularly to try and keep them down. Even standing pots in saucers is not a good idea let alone larger containers that are open I do have clay balls that are cheap from LeClerc and you put a handful round the bigger plants and indoor ones too so that when watering they soak up the moisture and keep the soil underneath damp
Weâve set up a timer to water our plants while weâre away this week and added a couple of outlets to top up water dishes for the birds and bugs.
If you change it every 3 or 4 days then no mosquitos can breed, or have saucers of damp gravel which is good for insects at least.
Even just topping up the water or moving it stops mosquito growth.
I listen to local radio from the P-O, where Shiba is, and to be fair thereâs no mention of nuances, just a blanket instruction not to leave standing water. Tiger mozzies are a particular worry.
Yes, there are lots of those. The blanket instruction came via the local mairies and in the local paper asking people not to leave water out apart from pools which are either chlorine or salt. A friendâs father has worked with the spraying teams along the coast at Argèles at night when people are indoors. There are several large lagoons along this coast all attracting mosses
I know I have said this before, and I donât want to tempt fate, but I have hardly ever seen a mozzie here. Non up at the big swimming pond, the occasional little fly buzzing about, nor at the middle pond which I am ignoring and leaving to stagnate naturally as dead branches and leaves return it to nature, and non in the bottom pond which is completely mud at the moment.
I have no idea why but, if it ainât broke donât mend it, and I am leaving it well alone to Mother Nature. 
We have such heat that the smaller trays containing water (for insects and birds) dry out very quickly so I have to replenish them every day.
The larger saucer doesnât dry out but I top it up one day, then completely change the water the next day, cleaning it first. (no wastage, any water still in it goes onto the plants).
There is no âstanding waterâ.
and the really Cheerful News isâŚ
The insects, lizards and birds revel in the water (quenching their thirst) and there is no opportunity for mozzies or anything else to propagate. 
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When I go to my family for a meal outside this time of year, the whole back yard is covered in those terracotta burning snail things to ward off mosses. Unfortunately they back onto a stream which turns into a river further along the road where another converges so mossies become part and parcel of outside living down here unless you sit head to toe in a mosquito net. They do have mesh anti-mosquito covers on all windows and the full length magnetic one for the back patio door which helps
I donât want to count my chickens, or indeed swallows, but our 4 newly hatched swallow chicks appear to have more than survived the heatwave. My wife has been hosing down the garage cement roof above their nest every 30 minutes, and directing an electric fan nearby to keep them cool, without dehydrating them.
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Well done you both! Proud step-parents I guess.
We are worried about our bats in the attic as so hot, and trail camera cable has broken so canât see if they are behaving normally. We did manage to unstick a window on north side to get some air in. Hope it is enough. We understand whatâs going on but animals canât
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