Sue and John go for a ride

 The weather has continued to be dreadful ... rain, rain and more rain.  So we decided to have a change of scenery.  I had seen the details of an exhibition of ceramics about 2 hours away in the Aveyron and it seemed a suitable destination for a day out (with picnic!)

The journey took us across country into some lovely rolling landscapes.  

We stopped for our lunch looking out over this view before we continued on alongside the Lot river which was flooding its banks.

You can see why we didn't try to sit at the picnic table!

The Exhibition centre 'Le Don du Fel' was very isolated in the middle of some fantastic scenery and, to my surprise, was started by an English couple more than 20 years ago.

The purpose of this visit was to see the exhibition of a Catalan, Claudi Casanovas, who works in a monumental scale producing pieces which are very 'earthy' and textured ... sculptural rather than utilitarian.

This huge piece would look fantastic in our courtyard but it is in the tens of thousands of euros.

Even his small 'vases' (and this was about 20 cms across) was some 1300 euros.

I love this style of very rough, earthy type of ceramic, with echoes of the japanese aesthetic but I do not have an oven and so I am now thinking and investigating trying to achieve this look but using different materials.  Time will tell.

Sausage and Mash.......French Style

 We like to think that since we moved to rural France over 17 years ago that we have become true country folk. Living cheek by jowl with nature and the seasons. Well there "ain't no seasons" anymore and we have given up on weather forecasts and just look out of the window before planning our day. Saturday was a perfect illustration of this. As I stepped outside to start work in the garden I heard what I thought sounded like a flock of swifts screaming. I looked around but couldn't see anything so assumed  that I must have been mistaken as it is far too early for them to arrive. An hour later John pointed to a noisy flock of a dozen flying over head.

No doubt you are wondering what all this has to do with Sausage and Mash! The local school PTA had arranged a S&M meal on Saturday evening to raise money for school trips. The menu; [rough pâté (gold award winning and made by local butcher), duck or pork sausages and aligot (French version of mash very glutenous with the addition of cheese) followed by apple tart], did not overwhelm us but in our spirit of joining in we booked our tickets. In keeping with this unseasonable weather a thunderstorm broke just as we were about to set off. After the storm eventually abated the village hall filled with about 150 people from babes to 90 year olds and was truly representative of the diversity of us Germainois. We loved it. Things didn't get going for an hour and a half, who cares, the wine flowed and the food was fine. Above all the ambiance was wonderful, that feeling of conviviality that we so appreciate.

To cap our feel-good feeling we arrived home to be serenaded by a nightingale, doesn't he know that it is not yet the end of April!!

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.