Help In The Garden

Stardate 18th and 23rd May 2009

It was time to plant the petit pois so I went out to the big veg patch and made the trough for the seeds; I was then joined by Cid and Snowy. As ever, they thought that the best place to lie was in the trough.



Patches on the other hand decided to chill.

Sunrise This Morning

When I went out this morning to let out the chickens I was greeted by this wonderful sky.


The picture really doesn't do it justice, it was much more ethereal and vast; beauty glimpsed for a few seconds before it faded away.

Stardate 8th - 17th May 2009

I’ve been trying to leave some areas around the farm to naturalise a bit and was pleased to find a trio of orchids flowering beside the pond.



I was then overjoyed to find this bee orchid that flowered under the cherry tree that had been blown over in the January 2009 storm.



I then went down to where I’ve been protecting some orchids that were growing in a ditch by the road and was really pleased that so many more had flowered this year. From 5 the first year, I counted 25 this year. I think I managed to get 6 in this shot:-


The commune cut the verges and went round most of the orchids but I did find the following that had been cut.

Shearing Time

Stardate 30th April 2009

The end of April is when Colin the shearer visits France and undertakes a whirlwind tour of a large part of the country shearing herds of alpacas. I was down for the 30th of April. Colin would be brought to me by the people he’d sheared for in the day and after he’d done my 5 I was to take him to the next people on the list. It’s a bit like pass the parcel.

I’d remembered to get them into the barn the day before so that I was sure that their fleece would be dry as you can’t shear wet fleece. I’d put in a couple of rings so that Colin could stretch out the alpacas and shear then. I was also very grateful to Sandy who came over for the day to help out; a very needed and appreciated extra pair of hands.



After an hour or so the alpacas had their summer cut.

New Year – New Attempt at Blog

A new year and a new attempt at my blog, last year just sped past and was over before I knew it. Summer passed so quickly with friends and family; then it was harvest time, followed by a car crash and a computer crash.

So New Year resolution is to use new computer and along with current posts try to catch up on those from last year.

Only in France!

You just hae to love living here:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8232041.stm

Volunteer apricot

Stardate 22nd April & 18th June

At the edge of my patio, right in front of my front door there is one of the concrete electricity posts, (although for how long I don’t know as EDF are removing it sometime), and between it and the concrete patio has grown a bush that I’ve tried unsuccessfully to remove over the last 2 years. It has only produced some rather boring leaves, no flowers, no autumn colour, totally boring. I can’t get at it to dig out and by the time it is in leaf, so is everything around it so spraying is out of the question.

I’d resolved this year to deal with it and it must have sensed its imminent demise because this spring it gave me some beautiful scented blossoms; which after a few weeks turned into these.


A couple of months later and I had:-


They tasted divine, I had most of them fresh but I also have a few in alcohol and a lovely large apricot flan in the freezer for when summer is only a past thought.
My next task will be to try and save it when they come to take away the concrete post!