Just when the Garden is flourishing

 This year Spring has been unusual for us.  A lot of rain at the beginning of the year then days of warm weather.  As a result everything has grown rampantly.  The early Spring flowers have indeed been early and have given us a lovely display and we have never seen such abundant growth in the Allée.

However we had about 5 or so days of frosts in the mornings which killed off any young growth on lots of things:-

a white azalea

the large japanese maple tucked up against the house

Twisty Baby (pseudoacacia) in the courtyard

the trumpet vine (campsis) on the barn wall

And just when I was feeling really good about my Bonsai and they way they have responded to being repotted, my 2 wisteria were clobbered!

No doubt nothing has been killed but we now have to wait patiently till everything regrows!

'C'est la vie' say the old folks, it only shows you never can tell. 

All Is Forgiven

 You may recall our post 20 days ago when I was very cross and disappointed that the deer had feasted on our many tulips and our longed for Spring display was not going to happen. As a gardener when you plant anything in your minds eye you see it in it's full glory so are particularly affronted when for what ever reason it fails to live up to expectations. Well Mother Nature must have felt very sorry for us so she sprinkled her fairy dust and hey presto.......

We really do think it is a miracle as we could see no way that the flower buds could have survived the munching.

A Different Year, a Different result

 Last year we had a glorious display of tulips in the garden.

But this year will be very different ! The weather has been very wet but also somebody has decided that they wanted a change of diet.  

As you can see these tulips will not be blooming this year!  We think it is most likely Deer who are grazing on the tulips.  We have tried covering some with fine netting but anything left exposed is nibbled.

On a more positive note, we are excited by the proliferation of the Anemone Blandas up the Allée.  It must be about 5 years when we planted the first bulbs and we have added more since then.

We think we will have a carpet in another 5 or so years!!!

PS if you click on a picture you get a full screen view.

A Time of Waiting

 Since Christmas we've been in a bit of the doldrums.  The weather has been mixed with the odd bright day, lots of grey days, and (whilst not as cold as we've experienced here) days of cold ... too cold for me to want to get outside!  Sue has been restricted for about a month as she has had a minor medical issue which meant that she has not been able to do much physical work (ie gardening!) but hopefully she will be able to resume normal life next week.  

However, the past few days have seen temperatures improve and we have been trying to prepare for the new gardening year.  I've had the mower serviced whilst Sue has pruned roses, tried to look after geraniums in the Porcherie despite a lot of mould on them, perused catalogues and ordered plants so that hopefully she can hit the ground running! 

 Meanwhile I have regained a new enthusiasm for my Bonsai and have been repotting them all.

Now all I've got to do is organise the display area to show them off properly.

And today we've had some bright sunshine early afternoon and this is what we are seeing.

Pansies in front of the house ...

Tulips breaking through ...

The Winter Jasmine joyously blooming ...

Daffodils in bud and 3 out in flower ...

The first Crocuses out worshiping the sun ...

And 'Aunty Pauline's' Irises gloriously announcing that Spring is not far away!!!!

They don't just moan here!

 Yesterday we needed to go shopping but we had to wait-in first for a technician to come to service our water softener.  He'd finished just after lunch so we decided to go off to Cahors.  Bad move!  We knew that the farmers were protesting and blocking some of the local exits on the motorway ... however they had decided to block Cahor itself.

So, not only were they blocking roads with tractors, they were also dumping manure and erecting barricades of bales and tyres.  

We didn't appreciate the extent of the difficulties until we were in the non-moving traffic jam and it took us about an hour to get ourselves out and back on the road home ... empty-handed!

The revolutionary spirit is alive and well in France, they don't just moan.

Lost in Translation !

 This morning we had a visit from the Assistant Mayor to give us our Christmas box of goodies because we are over 75 years old ... foie gras, terrine, pate, chutney and Walnut gateau.

I answered the door and received a box, but then Madame Adjointe asked if I knew, what sounded to me as, Mme Vallère.   No I replied.  It was only later that I began to realise that, underneath the French accent, she was saying Mme Waller ... Sue!  Here in France ladies retain their maiden name for all official business, normally saying Mme Waller, wife of M Herring.  This afternoon Mme Adjointe returned, having checked the records to see where Sue lived.  She and Sue had a good laugh when Sue said that I had forgotten my wife.

Sleigh bells ringing

 St Germain du Bel Air started it's Christmas celebrations on Sunday with it's 'traditional' Christmas Fair in front of the Town Hall.  As you can see it was well supported!

It all began about 10am with old-fashioned table games for the children, face painting for everyone, the drawing of the village raffle, horse-drawn carriage rides and a free glass of hot chocolate or mulled wine.

The children loved the carriage rides!

We met up with some of our good friends ...

... before we all moved on to champagne or wine (which was all sold at very reasonable prices) and just to prove my increasing Frenchness, I had a plate of oysters with my glass of champagne!!!! Needless to say Sue didn't risk it.

A great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

At the same time Guy and Lucy were at a Christmas fair in Taipei, Taiwan. 

It always seems bizarre to us that Taiwan, which isn't a Christian society, would go overboard in celebrating Christmas, but perhaps it is too good a marketing opportunity to miss.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Boar Attack

 The first sign of a visit from sanglier (boar) was when I walked down the Allée.

That in itself is no great problem but then, upon further investigation and following the trail of disturbance to the beds where we have spread compost and where Sue then planted plants ...

 

So, an unexpected job for the Head Gardener ... replanting uprooted plants!

The joys of living close to Nature.