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...

One man went to mow - Update # 27

17 June 2015

In a message from neighbour Laurie, she mentioned that our grass was at an all-time height, weeds were sprouting from between the stones of the little stone terrace, and our lovingly-planted and mulched plants were in danger of being overwhelmed. It's been a warm Spring, with daytime temperature reaching the early 30s, and there's also been a fair amount of rain - perfect for all things green. Being a model neighbour, Laurie offered to do some gardening for us and (despite our protestations) spent a good few hours there weeding one hot day in May.

Funny how, when the barn was a barn, the land around it looked fine as unkempt paddock/meadow, but now that it's a home, the same untended effect has the potential to look sad and bedraggled. G and I don't want to become slaves to the manicured lawn, clipped hedge and formal flower bed suburban cliché, or anything, but we don't want the place to look neglected either. We had in mind to keep the property perimeter close-cropped, as well as either side of the grape vine, around the trees in the orchard and around the edges of the terraces; the rest, we are happy to dedicate to wild meadow, for the benefit of bees, wild flowers and untrammelled Nature.

Probably a bit difficult to convey to any local, but there you go.

We have always had the good fortune of J-M's sporadic efforts at keeping the grass down, on his death-trap ride-on mower, but we are uncomfortable about relying on his goodwill and energy, when he has a fair amount of land to tend himself - next door and over the road. So we decided to get in some help. Enter John R, Stage left. Another ex-pat Brit. and recommended by Brian the electrician.

He spent a few hours clearing and whipper-snipping the place, knocking it into shape, and went back again yesterday for another go.

BEFORE - Oh dear, perhaps that's just too 'au naturel' 

AFTER - it does look better... I guess. But where's the natural meadow we wanted?

The weed mat is working, up to a point, but if only we'd had time last August to put down lime between the stones...

BEFORE - I rather like this snaggly look in the orchard...

AFTER - ...but I can see this looks more tended

The before and after photos show that it is once more looking tended, but we are a little bemused - or is that amused? - by the Nature 'meadow' we have been left with. It looks as if John simply forgot to do one sweep with his mower, and any wee sleeket, coward, timorous beastie found there would feel a little stranded and conspicuous, I would imagine :)

See what I mean?

It doesn't look intentional!

The border plantings look happy!

Especially these ones :)

Never mind, we will be back in the Correze in August, and we can discuss the finer details with John then.

Stone terrace 101

6 September 2014

The stone terrace began as a pile of stone rubble that was left over from the renovation. We'd had the idea that it would be useful to build up the ground just outside the French doors, since there was quite  a drop down to the garden there and the land slopes away quite steeply.

While daughter-C and boyfriend-M tackled the French newspapers and investigated the back of their eyelids in the double hammock strung between the apple trees...











...son-C got stuck in with a pick axe and spade, and he and his cousin-F brought arm-loads of stones from another stockpile on the far side of the orchard.

But it was hot work and the beers were cold, so we didn't see a huge amount of progress, it has to be said.

Once the family had gone off in all their different directions after five happy days together, I felt as if I'd sat in the bath while the water had drained away; that unpleasant, slightly chilly, high-and-dry sensation. Perhaps that explains why I spent the next several days working like a mad woman on the stone terrace. G indulged me and brought countless wheelbarrow-loads of soil from next door, which I used to help build up the height.

I never really had A Master Plan for the terrace, being a novice, but made it up as I went along. I started out with the most massive stones right next to the French doors, thinking they would make reasonable steps. I even used the niveau Anglais on my smartphone to ensure that they were level. And then I  began to make it in a more organic way, trusting my eye for the level, and just having fun.

The weather continued to be unsettled, blistering heat alternating with cloudbursts, but I was largely oblivious, though dust in my eyes drove me indoors at one stage, where rain and mud did not. Only darkness was the complete kill-joy.

In the end, I decided to plant some rockery plants around the top edge, to provide some height (lavender, rosemary and gaura) or tumble down the slope (portulaca), but of course it remains to be seen whether they survive the neglect which we have in store for them in the coming months. The weed mat is ugly, I think we'd all agree, but will hopefully give the weeds second thoughts.

Neighbour-G suggested that a lime-sand mix spread between the stones would 'cake' and preserve the soil and possibly slow down the growth of les herbes mauvaises, but I ran out of time and had to leave it as-is.

The other thing we are leaving as-is is the meadow, below the terrace. There were so many bees and little beasties in the wildflowers that it seems madness to deprive them of their habitat, and of course, it means less maintenance for us.

Spot the real reason.

C'est ma vie

25 August 2014

Making yoghurt, picking and eating fruit from our orchard, stewing the less-than-perfect apples and peaches, building a stone terrace, planting shrubs, pruning the vines, drinking cold beers in the long summer evening, laughing with family over nothing in particular, watching the mist rise from the valley in the morning and the swallows gathering on the telephone wires at dusk, taking a bath under the stars... These are a few of my favourite things.

Oh, and kittens.