Wettest winter in 50 years...

3 April 2018

...and cold, with it.

Well, that's officially a real winter, isn't it? J-M and the locals should be happy - they've been muttering darkly about the absence of real winter weather in recent years, which - they reckon - ruins the harvest in later months.

I guess they might know what they're talking about - they, or their forebears, have been growing things on this land for generations.

So, while we enjoyed the last sultry days of a protracted Sydney summer, La Fromagerie struggled through, dreaming of the benevolence of spring while fastidiously scraping mud from her boots.

John's photos are testament to the growth, and it is gratifying to see.

Since the latest batch of photos always brings on an attack of acute-on-chronic homesickness, I pore over every detail and, of course, want to see things that are inevitably and frustratingly just out of frame. I want to know how every last plant is doing - are there signs of life, buds, flowers, even? Or has the severity of winter cut an unforgiving swathe through all those tender parts?

Have the pink, white and cerise laurier roses (oleanders) grown; do they screen René's pink house a little more? Is the new white Buddleia OK? And what about the two new roses, alongside the dépendance? Has the glycine taken the hint and started to climb the oak frame of the porche?

And then there's my insect hotel - has it survived the punishing buffets of the winter wind?

The Photinia is looking good...

In the photo below, you can see that John has pruned back the hazelnut within an inch, or more accurately 150cm of its life. It's now dwarfed by the wild pear tree. Rumour has it that the vine has been pruned by J-M since the photo was taken ;)

For those of you with nothing better to do than indulge in a bit of armchair gardening, check out the reasonably perky rose and rather bedraggled hortensia in the foreground, and spot the glycine bud creeping around from behind the oak post...and the pink blossoms on the peach tree to the left.

Raymond's house is still à vendre and does not improve with the keeping, if I may say so....The gaura looks a bit winter weary, but the Buddleias and laurier roses are OK. Can't quite make out the dwarf rhododendron in the right foreground...
A $10 meat tray to the first person who notices the insect hotel. It's gratifying to see that it's still vertical, though possibly guest free. 

A random photo of the wild flowers - specifically, cowslip

The bâche is still lying where we left it, weighed down with stones and iron wheel rims. Hopefully, it has suppressed the growth of grass and weeds, so that preparing the herb garden will be easier this summer.

Les taupes s'amusent ;)

As for G, his main focus is 'his' prunier, a rather puny sapling when he planted it in September...

To all you fashionistas out there, I solemnly declare that the offending footwear remains in the garden at all times.  

...and there it is, on the left, valiantly holding its own. Hmm, not sure that it has grown at all, but hey, it's alive!

Next instalment - changes to the dépendance!

Distant thunder and bells

9 August 2016

We've been here for 10 days and it feels like weeks. 'Normal life' - whatever that means - has receded and it's hard to recall the details. Assuming you care to try.

It felt as if I was in shock the first couple of days, and not only because of jet lag. There was so much to take in, so many changes to absorb and examine. I felt buffeted by the delights of the barn and dépendance, and once again found myself stunned by the setting. The views and the peace continue to thrill me and a year between visits is just simply too long. The quiet cooing of doves, the drone of bees in the lavender, church bells and the roll of distant thunder. These are a few of my favourite things.

Location shot

The covered porch is fantastic. I'd been concerned that the addition might spoil the barn, cut down the light inside, look as if it had been tacked on...and wondered if the benefits of shade and shelter would be more than hypothetical. I shouldn't have worried: the porch looks as if it's been there forever, the size of the oak beams and the generous proportions say 'agricultural', rather than 'domestic', and the seasoned timbers marry well with the barn structure and dépendance.  The height of the roof is such that there is no loss of light inside, and the porch adds a very definite extra dimension, both visually and functionally: it's an extra room.

The porch frames the view

View from the kitchen window

Already enjoying the shade...

The rain chains need tweaking - the chain needs to drop vertically from the gutter. With this arrangement, some of the water simply misses the chain altogether!

Supersized beams 

Two old cast iron pots filled with sundry iron findings seem to be the obvious choice for the rain chain catchment, don't you agree? The chains are already losing their shiny patina.

The growth in the meadow below the barn is rampant

As I said, agricultural, not domestic... 

The growth of the meadows was a surprise - the grass was waist high! - and I felt that the area had to be more clearly defined as it was encroaching too closely on the trees, interfering with a) hanging the washing and b) lurking in the hammock. I didn't want to have to rely on John the gardener, so, during our first few days we managed to buy a second-hand blade tronsonneuse, which will help us keep control. I've already had a go at it and it's not as easy as I'd imagined. The blade keeps getting jammed with grass and the cutting-through-butter-with-a-hot-knife experience I'd envisaged was more like sweep-back-and-forth-again-and-again-stopping-frequently-to-clear-the-blade-while-making-little-progress. Photos to follow...

First project was to organise a cupboard for the shower room. The idea was to store the towels there, take the pressure off the storage upstairs, and clear the cleaning agents and mess from the recess behind the toilet. G put together a couple of high kitchen cupboards and we fixed some old handles that have been waiting for their moment. Funny how excited one can be to have a noo cupboard!

 

Wonder how long it'll stay so neat and tidy :)

Recess behind the downstairs toilet - with original tins found in the barn and meadow flowers

Next up - the kitchen project! Once G had put up the hotte above the fond de hotte, I began tiling the splash back...for which we chose a simple row of 10 x 20 cm matte white tiles. The little black things in the photos are spacers (croisillons).

Green tea is never far away

A double row for the sink splash back

Tilers' assistants don't come any more obliging

The first top cupboard!

Measure twice, cut once

Getting there...

 We collected friend M at Brive station and gave him barely enough time to shrug off the dust of a year in Spain before we put him to work. (Amazing that he came back, after the hard graft of last summer - you may recall that he and G moved a large pile of heavy rocks from A to B, pruned the fig tree, and M cleaned our windows while G gazed into the middle distance and sipped tea.)

Miserable craic

General bonhomie

Barn owner in customary supervisory rôle

Just look at that kitchen! Also, note the tiles with vertical slate 'features', ahem.

While the guys were busy on the kitchen, I spent some time weeding around the perimeter plants and removing the tall dock seed heads that were in worrisome abundance in the big meadow below the stone terrace. J-M says they will take over everything if we leave them alone. It was hot and tiring but satisfying work.

The heat yesterday reached a peak around 5pm, so we slid gratefully into the cool water of the pool, and spent some time lounging there, with beers and nibbles. And goosebumps. 

It's on a slope, hence the bulging oval shape. And the pool is distorted too :)

Daiquiris, anyone? 

France - it has everything for the discerning traveller

Fiji? You can keep it. 

Tying it all together - Update # 40

10 July 2016

Tom left the offspring in peace and only returned to work on the barn on Thursday, when he took delivery of the slates. He began tiling on Friday, and says:

...the slates are going on really nicely, they instantly marry the terrace to the main building, which is a nice feeling.

Nice going, Tom.

Brian has also been busy:

I have finished all the dependance, fitted the 2 gang socket above worktop, installed the socket for extractor.

Once the tiling is done, Tom still has to install the new guttering for the porch, finish landscaping the driveway and lay the new gravel.

Fingers crossed all will be done by the time we get there, in less than 3 weeks' time.

The annexe - Update # 34

8 April 2016

We've been waiting with bated breath for news from La Fromagerie. Last night, a brief note from Tom to say that the structure is up, and the concrete pads are done.

That doesn't tell you much, but this might:

We are pleased as punch with the porch so far, and especially with how well it 'talks' to the dépendance. The vertical post above the A-frame will be trimmed back before they start on the roof.

The apple tree doesn't look too impressed :( but will hopefully recover its joie de vivre in time.

Peering at the photo, we can see evidence that the grapevine has been pruned. Not by John, methinks; it's more likely to be the handiwork of a certain neighbour, J-M...

Can't wait for more photos. We should have some interiors soon.

A hive of activity

27 March 2016

The barn has been a hive of activity over the last week or so and promises to be so for the next few weeks...

Tom delivered the new oak frame last weekend, and this last week began work on the covered porch. John came by and tidied up the garden, strimming around the meadow areas and doing battle with 2-foot dock plants :). And then, towards the end of the week, Laurie started the preparations for painting the interior of both barn and dépendance.

It's all very exciting!

Here are the latest photos of the garden. It's been a mild winter, so everything is looking pretty happy.

The new Laurier to the right of the Buddleia is looking OK!

A good view of the tamed fig tree, and the edge of the untamed meadow!

The skeleton of the vine is visible along the fence in the middle distance; the walnut tree is beyond.

One day, the shrubs we planted along the perimeter will obscure the road and maybe even the neighbour's pink house/barn! 

OK, so I know the weed mat is not pretty, but it certainly does the job. And I am pleased to see that my lime/sand mixture has kept the weeds at bay :)

Look at these guys! They are growing beautifully! Look how wintry the hillsides are...

That's Chabrignac, away in the distance

Fig tree in the starring role, again.

Spring is in the air and it's almost too much to bear, contemplating all the activity and growth at this remove.

Roll on July 28th...