Eyjafjallajoekull@#$*&%

Or however you say it... has finally gotten to me.
Back in April during the infamous "Ash Cloud period", I couldn't be bothered by it. In fact it was actually nice, it was probably the first time in my life that I was able to look up to a perfectly cloudless sky and see no signs that an air plane had been there. And on the first Sunday of all the air space cancellations I could go outside and hear nothing- thanks to both zero air traffic, and very minimal road traffic. It was actually a real lesson in how much air pollution we are exposed to without even realizing it.

Now for my beef... us residing here in Belgium have only been treated to 3 days of decent spring weather ever since the month of May began. I would even hazard a guess to say that we had warmer days last November, and early March than the last 2.5 weeks. But this is not really a rant about cold weather - it's more a rant about how the cold weather has been delaying my garden. So at the start of the month when I was preparing to relocate all of my wonderful seedlings and young plants - the weather turned, which kept them under house arrest. Many of the plants were nearly pot bound, or had grown just too plain big for their pots. But just in time for the tomato plants to go out we have resumed to our regularly scheduled weather forecast * huge sigh of relief * 

So the garden is still behind schedule but here's some shots that I took this morning.

Even though it still looks like quite an empty plot - our onions and peas are up in full force, some radishes are popping up and some are ready for harvesting, while the carrots, cabbage, and beets are slowly starting to show their presence. Just recently planted are some swiss chard plants, celery, artichokes, beans, cauliflower, tomato plants and even some sun flowers.

Our onions are growing like crazy, and our patio herb garden is providing us with some tasty additions to our dinners (thyme, rosemary, mint, spring onions, parsley, cilantro, and dill).

             

 Unaffected by the cooler days were our trash can spuds (which you just keep piling on more dirt, or grass clippings to keep em growing and producing as many spuds as possible) and our wonderful pear trees which we planted last autumn.

Sidetracked: Part Two

To say that life is full of many distractions would be an understatement, over the past two weeks we have learned that life is a distraction! We have gotten zero accomplished in the attic for quite some time, but the distractions have actually given us some time to really hunt for inspiration and develop second opinions on what we want in our space.
And of course all of those distractions has left us with little to blog about - instead it made me question whether I should be blogging about our attic, or just all the quirks of living with a house full of cyclists.

So here's a quick glimpse into our very distracting 2 weeks.
The morning of Friday May 7th the two of us were just nearly out the door with one of the cyclists living at the house - we were on our way to pick up a rental car from Lille France (just like the flooring and home hardware stuff - rental cars too are cheaper in France) for her to use, and on the way back we had planned to stop at our favourite French hardware store Castorama. Just before we had gotten away a call came from the other girl Emma staying with us that she and 4 other girls had been hit by a car while out training. That day will be one that we will always remember just from the sheer horror of the situation. Though some worse than others, we can happily say that the 5 girls are all recovering well - thankfully they were all wearing helmets!
The following day saw Emma return home from hospital still in a lot of pain from a broken collar bone, but it seemed like things would slowly return to normal at The ChainStay.
Fast forward to Sunday evening when some riders were still due back from a race about a 40 minute drive away. By this point they should have been back about an hour ago, it was then that Gregg addressed his worries. We didn't have to wait much longer until they finally made it back, all present and accounted for - but another broken collar bone. Total = 2 broken collar bones. Geeze our nerves cannot take any more!
It's not that we were surprised by broken collar bones, because it is the single most common injury in the sport of cycling (Gregg has broken both of his in the past) but 2 in 3 days come on!
Now two days following crash number 2 saw a trip to the doctors which led to a follow up trip to the hospital for a second opinion. Long story short Emma was to return to the hospital the next day to have hers pinned. All went well with her surgery, and she is now recovering very well. In fact both are riding their bikes again.... on the trainer of course as they are not quite ready for real life roads.

Now to add some icing to the cake, with short notice the both of us were asked to help out at a 3 day stage race in the Ardennes; Gregg as mechanic, and myself as Soigneur/Masseuer. It was an exhausting weekend and Thursday - Sunday were a complete write-off. But on Saturday while back at the team hostel we got the call again!
The other girl at the house Michal now also had a broken collar bone from crashing in a race.  Her follow up also confirmed that she would need hers pinned, and in fact that is where she is now.
Grand Total = 3 in 8 days!!! I am now a believer that things come in 3's.