• making this better a blog to help those with a broken heart
  • Our Etsy shop
  • Painting & Decorating Services in France

Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

~ Letting ‘Life’ show me the way.

Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

Tag Archives: being busy

Learning lessons: The holiday

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in Making our own way, My home, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good life

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

adventures, beaux cite Francaise, being busy, French adventures, French holidays, French lives, good & bad, holidays, learning, living in France, new lives, pretty french villages, Relaxing, renovation, taking time, Welsh Terriers

We will have lived in France four years and four months, lived in our house four years last week. Wow! The time has truly flown.

Those who have been following this blog know that we have had some good times, but boy we have had some tough times; and it has only been this year that I have fully recovered: back to being me

As a result of my full recovery I have taken over the management of our small property management business, set up the website, and promoted the hell out of H: He is good at what he does.

Because of this H (my new abbreviation for Danny/Rich, it’s just easier!) has had more work and last week we realised that it was actually the first ‘holiday’ we have had since living here.

That’s the thing with an adventure like this: you’re setting up a new life when you move to a new country: bank accounts, language, culture, in France in particular finding your way around the mountains of admin. All the things that you just took for granted: like opening a letter and reading it, or being able to pick up the phone to sort something out just goes out of the window.

This was our house when we viewed it, the paper on the walls was damp and mouldy in the living room.

Our kitchen had the unit you can see and nothing else. It had to be taken out and H built us a kitchen on a budget, and over the years we have actually taken the wall between the laundry room and kitchen.

When people embark on this type of adventure they want ‘the land’ but as I have written about before land means work! Add it to having to translate everything, renovating, trying to build a business and oh my! So suffice to say to have an adventure is hard work, unless you don’t have to work, or have enough money to pay others. And you are always doing something, if it’s not work it’s the house, or admin, or in our case starting up two blogs, writing a book, setting up an Etsy shop, and so much more beside. We are always on the go, and we haven’t taken any kind of holiday, until now.

Life intervened to make this a holiday, where we took a break from everything, including admin, and housework, and renovation and gardening: it made me ill.

I am the driving force, H would tell you that. But my failing is that being a ‘doer’ I cram things in to every day. I am always looking to achieve, but this last week I stopped. We did the basic tidying that you have to do on a daily basis, we lay in bed until mid-day (albeit with a cup of tea), and we chilled. H had a window to fix that was smashed in the winds the week before last, and every day he said he was going to fix it, and every day I said it was fine. It’s not freezing, it didn’t have to be done on our week off. Being ill, and still not one hundred per cent even now, made me stop.

Yesterday was our last day of our holiday and with the fuel to drive around we had spent the total of twenty-two euro. It proved to us we didn’t need money, we just needed each other and simple things like sitting in the washer-woman’s wash house watching the rain plop into the river in the beautiful Chailland.

Or just chilling with tea in the morning with the Welshies, who couldn’t be happy seeing this every morning.

As we sat in the garden last night drinking our last bottle of red wine (before our self imposed change to not drink on weekdays) H looked at me and said ‘I have had such a lovely time, and really felt as if I have had a holiday.’ I agreed with him and it made us realise that life has changed for us: being busy has enabled us to appreciate the holiday we have had, and also made us realise that we don’t need money to have a good time.

Here is to more galavanting, time permitting.

But just one other thing: if you don’t have bad times then you won’t know good times, that is the biggest lesson we have learnt from this adventure. If you’re not busy, how do you enjoy relaxing? Or does each day just merge into another? I have also learnt from this break that you can get caught up in the busyness and forget to sometimes just stop, and that there are so many beautiful places just on our doorstep, we just need to take the time out to enjoy them.

Rosie

If you think others will like my blog please share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Forging the way ahead

20 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by RosieJoseph in Change is a coming, Gamping, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

being busy, blogs, books, camping in France, decorators in France, Gamping, glamping, Hope, new ventures, new websites, peacefulness, spring, strength, tranquiltiy, warm weather

img_3082-1

 

Time is running away with me: Having two blogs was not enough and I have now set up another one (to promote our fledgling business) and also two websites. I am proud of myself but, as will be a constant, I am now back to my old self and I am moving forward: I will not be beaten,

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to a lady whose blog I follow I have shared below a post that she wrote that inspired me because it made me realise that we are not alone in finding this adventure hard; and if you want it to succeed that you have to do what you have to do to make that happen; and trust me we will!

https://ourfrenchoasis.com/2019/02/14/falling-in-love/

One of the things that I have struggled with is not being able to use my iniative to get us an income (although why I think that when I am still editing the book that links to my other blog that has just achieved 25,000 views and counting (not bad for four months!) I don’t know. But hey that is me: the income is not coming in so I don’t feel as if I am achieving!) But now I am back and firing on all cylinders I have decided to use what has always been under our nose: Our beautiful garden. There is a new craze ‘Gamping’ where people can camp out in other people’s gardens. I get it: there are no lines and lines of tents, no screaming kids, just you, your tent and tranquility. Well definately tranquility in our garden!

img_3116

I have often thought about setting up a glamping facility here, but the bureaucracy and red tape has always put me off: in fact I have always allowed things to put me off. Well not any more; I am going for it and in the last week I designed a website and put it out there. We are targeting a specific market: motorcyclists: because they are not too fussy and just want somewhere where there bikes are safe, good food can be provided and they can have a laugh; and also people who just want to get back to nature who can rent the whole pitch to themselves. Watch this space but currently the stats are good for views and I have not even started to fully promote it yet. You can take a look at

http://intentsbikingcampsite.strikingly.com/

I found it so easy (albeit time consuming) that I then set a website up for Rich’s business

https://rmpropertymanagementservices.strikingly.com

I have also completed forms that we should have completed eons ago, and did I say that making this better has now reached 25,000 views?!

But despite all this I have made every effort to get out into the garden. Spring has sprung and we have had warm balmy days (for February) of over eighteen degrees. Now we have decided on the ‘gamping’ we need to make sure all the logs are cleared and split and set out to dry (we haven’t even started ont he oak yet!). So we have been trying to clear the ditch of the pine, an d pull up all the sycamore and clear the brambles. There is tons to do but we will do it.

img_3150
img_3153

Believe it or not we are making headroads, I love it, although it is hard work, but Rich hates it; so I have to motivate him with a kick up the proverbial; because I mean it: we are making this work!

But the garden is coming back to life, and as always this time of year gives me hope. Lets see what happens now!

img_3158

 

Moisy

If you think others will like my blog please share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

In the top 25 bloggers about living in France

Blog Stats

  • 43,059 hits

Categories

  • a sense of community
  • Beautiful Donegal
  • Belief
  • Change is a coming
  • coming home
  • Dream
  • Food in France
  • Food in Ireland
  • For the live of dogs
  • France
  • Friends
  • Galavanting
  • Gamping
  • Goodbyes
  • Ireland
  • Irish Adventures
  • Irish Glens
  • Irish Heritage
  • Irish Scenes
  • laughter & giggles
  • Learning and Evolving
  • LIfe
  • Making our own way
  • mental health
  • Mountains in Ireland
  • My family and other furry creatures
  • My home
  • new adventures
  • New Adventures
  • New Paths
  • People
  • poignancy
  • Recipes
  • Reflections
  • renovations
  • Saying Goodbye
  • serendipity
  • Simple things
  • Spirituality
  • sunrises and sunsets
  • The adventures of living life in the French countryside
  • The background story
  • The continuing adventure
  • The good life
  • The good, the bad and the ugly.
  • The Iris Adventure
  • The seasons
  • The things you have ro do
  • The Wild Atlantic Way
  • Us

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: