Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Elephants breath and the anatomically alarming bull.





Colour for the shutters chosen: Elephants Breath. A man from the historic buildings department came along yesterday afternoon took one look at the colour we had chosen, rolled his eyes and shuddered. He quickly stripped a shutter back to the underlying wood and found traces of the original eighteenth century paintwork. Two minutes matching the fragments to a colour chart and we had a result. One happy bureaucrat. Job done he took us to see a house in a nearby village built at exactly the same time as the rickety old farmhouse and voila - Elephants Breath shutters. The other thing we learnt is that all the doors and beams would have originally been painted grey.

Back to see the stonemasons bull. 'The font' thinks it is rather anatomically alarming. Seen from certain angles I'd have to agree.

The retired parachutist / odd job man / bee remover arrives this morning to deal with our swarming friends. 'The font' and the remaining gannets have headed off for some quality time together. I have been left alone to deal with 'my' bees.

Life with Wilf proves that old adage - if you think dogs can't count try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them.

12 comments:

  1. Forget the bees, I'd say you got some giant bugs to worry about if that last picture is any indication! :)

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  2. a lighter shade of salmon :) love the name of the color though :D

    truth be told.. dog always count.. when its concerning them cookies and treats.

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  3. Oh. Gail is telling me not to look too closely at that bull thing, 'cos she doesn't want to inculcate feelings of inadequacy in one of such a tender age (who so far only has one of those dangly bits, and rather a small one at that....)
    Oh dear. Over-sharing again?
    Toodle pip!
    Bertie.

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  4. Probably more palatable than lion's breath

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  5. elephants breath sounds just perfect! that is some bull....and Bertie, don't be too alarmed...size doesn't matter?!
    xoxo

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  6. Is your bull from a Wall Street sired litter?

    xx Joan

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  7. That bull is certainly, well, gifted by the sculptor, that's for sure!

    Of course dogs can count!

    Good luck with the bees! I'll hope it doesn't result in more ceiling and roof repairs.

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  8. What? Was the paint store all out of Dog's Breath? What fun they must have naming paint colors at Farrow & Ball for a living...Dead Salmon, Arsenic, Mouse's Back and Clutch are some of my favorites. As for the alarming bull statue, well, with a few swift strokes of the stone mason's chisel, he could quickly become a steer. He reminds me of the bull on Wall Street--another reminder of our parallel lives! Being so close to Spain, is there bull-fighting in your region, as I know there is in other parts of France?

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  9. Yes, the bull seems to be "larger than life" but I'm also wondering about the two objects in the last picture. Are they a brown ant and a green ant? Hopefully they aren't the "artistic" rendering of people because they would have enormous rears. On a side note, the view in the next-to-last picture is beautiful.

    Liz

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  10. I would like to spend one day in your life. Oh, I spend everyday in your life. What fun.

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  11. I believe most dogs can count, especially cookies!!!

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  12. That bull is...interesting.

    I'm glad I don't have to run the color of my house by anyone. Not that I'm planning to paint it but if I did, I wouldn't want to have it be approved by anyone. There's a pink house around the corner from me, I wonder what the man from the historic buildings department would think of that?

    I love your pictures, they're so different from where I live.

    Hope you get your bee situation taken care of soon. Wouldn't want Wilf getting stung again. And better yet, I hope this new guy doesn't fall through the roof this time.

    I do believe dogs can count, I've discovered that with my own dogs.

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