Still no smoke but lots of fire

Having now got more air into the fireplace and raised the basket a few inches, the chimney seems to be behaving itself, and for the last week or so we have had no smoke in the house. Whilst we have been here before, I'm not totally convinced that we have resolved the problems, but I sure live in hope. We have also just received the estimate from the 'fireplace expert'. The estimate (actually two estimates) range from 5000 euros to 6000 euros depending on what we have done. As they want 2000 euros as a deposit and can't do the work until next July, the conclusion has to be that we wait a little longer, and establish whether we have already done sufficient to solve the majority of the issues.

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When he was little, we took Max with us everywhere, on the basis that we should continue our lives with as little interruption as possible. So the quandary this morning was, do we take Minnie with us to the tasting or leave her for the first time for a couple of hours with Max? In the end we decided to leave her. There were at least 150 people, some English speaking, to celebrate the opening of a new salon for meetings, marriages etc. and a viewing of paintings. We tasted about 9 wines and were not too fussed about any of the reds, but liked a gris and a viognier from 2004. The canapés were outstanding, very interesting flavours and textures and in themselves worth the visit. Yummy. Leaving Minnie worked well, there were no puddles and nothing chewed, so that was worth doing. If she had been on her own I'm sure things would have been different. We are very lucky with both of them.