Happy New Year

 We wish all of our readers a Happy and Healthy New Year. 

However we note that you may be fewer this year as we have received a number of complaints that we have not blogged for more than 6 weeks. As you know it is not our policy to comment unless we have encountered something of cultural note or we are undertaking a new project (which I concede is normally in the garden). Well none of these things have happened because we have been socialising, ie. drinking and eating flat out over the extended seasonal period. Oh dear, it has been so difficult!!

Yesterday was supposed to be the finalé, but it wasn't. As you can see from the photo we had aperos with our friends in their garden as the weather was glorious, in the high teens, followed by a lovely lunch and exchange of presents. Today we called on a couple of French friends to wish them "Bonne Année" and managed to collect a special bottle of wine from one couple and were "forced" to consume 2 glasses of Ratafia and a plate of bread covered in truffle butter. We're going to hibernate for a while so that our stomachs and livers can recover!!

Although no more has been done on the new rose bed in front of the barn (due to weather and sleeping off excesses) we have continued with the design process for this area. I suggested that we might delineate the area by putting in some stepover apples. The Under Gardener is not known for letting the grass grow under his feet (or in this case the apples) so the next day we returned from the nursery bearing a number of juvenile apple trees which we have to prune to start creating low growing espaliered apples. However not having thought through this idea fully we didn't realise that we would have to create a frame work for the trees before we could plant them. Hence, due to the socialising, we have only just bought the wood for the supports and marked their positions.  Digging the holes and planting the will be done in due course. Yes I know they take a long time to mature......don't go there.

The next project to be undertaken in the dark days of January is to redecorate our bedroom. We have gathered everything together, wallpaper, paint, bed linen, new chair and lights. All we now have to do is gather the effort to start.

As you can see we have acquired some new friends in the adjacent field, the only trouble is they look at us so accusingly everytime we go out and don't give them a treat.

Not much is stirring in the garden at present but a few hardy souls are taking advantage of the sunshine.