confused of chalus

Jane and Danny - so having coaxed them all onto one plant do I then kill them? I'm really looking forward to next year's first full crop - and would like to avoid all those eggs stuck up the spears. There's more to this vegetable gardening lark than I thought. By the way, has anyone else had trouble germinating carrots this year? Thanks to everyone for their comments.

This is just the second season of asparagus for us, so we only cropped a few, but now the asparagus is covered in what I have identified as asparagus beetle. What shall I do about it? We wont be cutting any more so shall I just let them eat their fill? And is there any preventative for next year?

CA  are very accessible - and when we needed help with technical question on insurance a lovely English girl came down from Limoges to sort us out! She was part of the bi-lingual team.

Just to let all who replied know that we had a fantastic time at two vide greniersthis weekend! One lovely wooden high chair for 8 euros (choice of several!) tricycle 7 euros, assorted toys 5 euros and a dinky little chair for 5 euros. We will return as she grows and get bigger and bigger bikes - there were lots. I know what you mean about the china and clothes though. I suppose it all depends what you want. But children's stuff was good value and lots of it. Thanks everyone. Kathy

Cathy and Val B, and everyone. Thanks. Confused of Chalus (aka Kathy) is grateful for all your ideas and advice - and indeed offers! Daughter coming for a few days on hand luggage ! But we have a cot and car seat from last visit, she'll bring push chair. I think I'll put up a petit annonce in the Intermarche and try the vide greniers (it's an afternoon out!).  Picked up a toy pushchair for 3.99 at supermarket - she'll love it. She's just as happy piling up my stock of tinned foods as bricks and with a bucket and spade and our 5 cu metres of gravel she'll have a great time! Chalus is lovely little town in 87 Haute Vienne on RN 21 - we live just outside. Ask the neighbours? they are lovely but very ancient. I will, however, ask the postman!

Does anyone have any bright ideas as to where to get second hand baby equipment - high chair, stairgate, toddler toys, in reasonable condition and very reasonable cost for visiting grandchild arriving in a few weeks. In England I would go to charity shops or jumble sales. I've tried the local TROC - nothing available. The local paper classifieds seem to be asking very high prices. We've never been to a vide grenier and there are a couple coming up. Are these like car boot sales?

 Clair, is that frozen or chilled? We dont have a Geant nearby but I'll look in the supermarkets we have visited - super u, intermarche, etc . Now I know it is available I'll look harder! Then can use some of last year's apple and cherry glut on a few strudels!

I use the chilled puff pastry and find it fine - though it doesn't rise as high as uk frozen. But I would really like to find FILO PASTRY - has anyone seen it?

Just wanted to say thank you Retread - have had a wonderful few minutes drooling over those kitchens. I can but dream! What is 'domestics' in Bordeaux?

Oh to have the 40,000 euros - what fun to decide whether to get a swanky central heating system,  kitchen, bathroom. [I]I've just thought - swimming pool........ But we havent. So that solution is out. Many thanks to all you experts out there. Got a couple of hints, and some concrete leads. Thanks for the emails too. More devis awaited. kathy 

We were planning to use solar panels topped up with electricity. Have we got it all wrong? Did we get a quote for the wrong thing? And yes , I chose the name (confused) wisely - we are hard working amateurs who, we think, know our limits - hence professional electricity/plumbing/gros oeuvres. Help and advice all taken seriously.

We've just has the first devis from a plumber to install underfloor central heating ( and all the other other plumbing in the house) As costs on the whole renovation project seem to be rocketing we plan to lay the underfloor pipes etc ourself. The plumber's hourly rate is reasonable, so are most of the other items on the devis BUT - he's charging 14,211.90 Euros for supply of 'pompe a chaleur Ideal Standard Haute Temperature RO 14/1 avec ballon d'ECS 300 litres. This seems a ludicrous price for a boiler so the question is - are we being taken for mugs here or is this the price? Would it be cheaper to get a boiler from UK andwould it successfully marry with French plumbing?. Would you get all the underfloor heating stuff from UK? Or have we just madly underestimated the cost of central heating. We might have to wrap up warm round the woodburner at this rate. Any ideas?

Thanks everyone. Time for a bit of experimentation I think,  and I must just add that the masons who we employed to open holes for french windows and windows rebuilt the bits of walls round them using stone and a lime mortar with no concrete in the mix. And very beautiful it looks too. Now we've got to bring the rest of it up to a matching standard. It's going to be a long hard summer. And I dont think we're likely to get it so perfect outside that the lizards wont be able to find a little home!

Thank-you teapot. will have to contact him for advice.

Thanks for the link, Tandem Pilot. Spent hours browsing! Definitely a site for real purists but the upshot was that it seems pva is not on! They suggest limewater for a transparent seal. Anyone out there tried this? More to the point, has anyone got a recipe. And teapot, WHO IS BOB?

Thanks for all your answers. But the whole idea was to have the stones looking like stones  - and the pictures  from Tandem Pilot confirmed what I suspected from the other posts that limewash will cover them. Is there no way to use a transparent product that will enhance the look of the stones (like when they are wetted) without storing up trouble in the future. And no - I dont ever want to sandblast again! Sorry to be a pain, and I'm sure all the renovation purists out there will think I'm mad to want this look. It's just that the stonework is so beautiful I dont want to lose it but there is no way I will be able to dust it! Just John says try sealer up to 1 metre but we're talking double height walls to roof line and we dont want to have to go right up to the top more than once every ten years or so!

We've had the stonework in our barn conversion (well we've started it !) sandblasted and want to seal  the stone and chaux to keep it relatively dust free and enhance the beautiful stones. Someone told us to use diluted PVA but I am worried that this will stop the wall breathing. Has anyone any experience/ideas? You were all such a great help when we were insulating between the roof beams that I thought we might tap into your experience again! [:D]

Not ready for seed swaps yet  - havent been gardening long enough. But last year was my first go at vegetables and apart from tomato blight was very pleased. Anyone trying to save money on seeds? I bought very ordinary varieties of carrots and peas from Lidl last year and they did very well so this year went back and have stocked up. All small packets - including tomatoes (several varieties) in small packets only 29 cents and big packets (peas beans haricots ) only 49cents. Only one comment on beans, the haricots d'espagne (runner beans) were not a very nice variety so I'll pick some of those up in UK, along with purple sprouting broccoli, which I couldn't find here. can anyone recommend potato varieties easily available (gamme vert?) Last year I tried mona lisa and charlotte. The charlotte were fine (still eating them, buy mona losa a bit small. what I really want is a good baker/masher!

Many many thanks. You'll make an old man very happy!

Does anyone know of a badminton club in the Chalus/limoges area. my decrepid other half is missing his old knee strains despite me keeping him busy gardening and rebuilding the house. Is badminton played here at all?

Has anyone bought the off the shelf brico depot windows and/or french windows? The price is very attractive and we think with some good finishing we can make them look better - but are there any downsides? 

Yes Steve we are insulating between the A frame beams under the roof tiles and a plastic membrane so, as you say we need ventilation. Thanks for your comments.

Excuse my ignorance stuart - but what exactly do you mean by jointing compound? We were planning to fill with a polycel type filler. Should we be getting more specialist stuff, if so what?  The rasp tool seems to be doing the job ok, thank you for the tip. And as for insulation, we went for the thin foil so we could make sure there was an air gap above and below the material - thus improving the insulation. Our French builder thinks we are mad - he wanted to cover the beams with pine cladding with loads of fibreglass behind it and says we wont have enough insulation. We decided to take the risk and go for it!

We have used TrispaceHabitat 14 layer foil insulation which seems to go up fairly easily with a staple gun and is not toxic - it was on special offer at our local Moreau's. Good luck when you do it - it's laborious but not impossible!!!

Is there an easier way of fitting ordinary plasterboard between very old roof beams short of making a template round all the curves and ins and outs for each section, once wooden battens have been fitted to the sides of the beams?? This is obviously very time consuming and I just want to make sure I am not missing a trick!! Thanks for any advice offered