"Hot"

It has been very hot here throughout August.That is not unusual, but this year it must be hotter than normal as everyone is talking about it. As a consequence we have not done anything interesting as I have been watering night and morning to keep the garden alive. The temperatures have been regularly in the mid thirties in the afternoons so not even the English venture outside after lunch. It is just about bearable to eat our evening meal on the terrace at about 8 o'clock and it's pleasant watering in the dark. It's a hard life!!

We have managed to fit in the odd bit of socialising and our regular visit to the open air Shakespearean Theatre company. This year they performed Richard 111. I didn't enjoy it as much as usual because I found the play boring. Sorry Shakespeare, although I was in the minority.

We have of course been spending a lot of time fine tuning and shopping for our Golden Wedding celebration. "Sod's Law" the weather is scheduled to break on Wednesday with rain and storms but hopefully the sun will return by the following weekend.

Summer in the Garden

Whilst we are not in the same league as the garden at Eyrignac our garden is quite pretty at present. This year we have had the usual 30+ temperatures but we have also had some rain. Not vast amounts but sufficient to keep plants green. I still have to water morning and evening but the occasional day off makes it seem less of a chore.

We are pleased with our "prairie beds" considering it is their first year but we have ideas to plant more ornamental grasses in what is now the path between the beds.

Eyrignac Summer

Sorry to keep going on about the gardens at this Manoir, but we are intent on seeing it in all seasons!
We last went at the end of May and so we wanted to see how the summer flowers looked.

The Hornbeam hedging which was so severely pruned in January almost looks like it has never been touched. 
What was striking was the way they have virtually everywhere just used white flowers.

I'm amazed that the photos are nearly devoid of people!  Being peak tourist time, there were a lot of people in the garden.

An Evening 'En plein air'

Another amazing evening in deepest rural France!

As part of a concert season based at a town about 45 minutes away, there was a free concert of a 60 piece wind orchestra at the nearby small town of Labastide Murat.

The concert started at 8.30 (which is early for France!) and, even though it is the height of the tourist season, there must have been about 500 people turned out; they were having to fetch more benches.

It started with the obligatory speech by the local Mayor and then we were given a selection of film scores with the emphasis on Ennio Morricone who is most famous for 'The Good. the Bad and the Ugly'.  It was good to see that the orchestra was composed of all ages, from about 12 to at least 72.

The interval was marked by the offer of a free drink, courtesy of the local commune, but they hadn't anticipated such a large turn-out and so the drink (juice or beer) had to be reduced in size!

Good to see these events so well supported.