Mothering Sunday, various plants and animals

It's Mothering Sunday today, and I had received two cards to open on the day from Libby and Matthew, before they each 'phoned to give me their good wishes.  I spent part of the morning with friends at Bon Repos, where there is a very small market and a café from which we could watch the world go by.  I love people watching!  It was chillier than I would have liked, but the coffee was hot and the company good. 

The warm weather of the last few weeks has started everything bursting into flower.  Some of these are in my garden, like the saxifrage, myosotis and wisteria below.

The blackthorn blossom is everywhere now, the pretty little white flowers which will become sloes in the Autumn/Fall.

It's great to see the vine leaves sprouting and makes me think of the sweet fruit I shall have later in the year.

The muscari, or grape hyacinth are in the lane along my Breton neighbour's verge and are the most gorgeous shade of blue.

I drove round the lanes yesterday afternoon and stopped to take a photo of these bullocks.  I wonder if my neck will get this wrinkled after I lose a lot of weight after my mini gastric bypass.

Daisy has still managed to keep her collar on and it doesn't seem to bother her at all now.  She's also still managing to stop me working on the laptop.

My three rabbits, Bert, Ruby and Boris enjoying freshly picked dandelions from the lane.

Soon the rabbits will be joined in their run, on a temporary basis by the chicks which have now reached nearly four weeks old.  I have five younger chicks with them in the heated container and it's getting a bit overcrowded now they're all growing so fast.  Now that the weather is warmer, I shall put them in a run of their own with a little house attached and they'll get used to being outside in safety, out of the reach of the cats.

Euphorbias, village houses and flowers on verges

The weather has been glorious for the whole week and everything is growing fast and furiously.  Each time I've been into the local town lately, I have been struck by the beautiful euphorbias at the side of the road.  The yellow and green colours are intense and they are being visited by many, many ladybirds of the six spot variety.

As you drive out of St Nicolas through a wood, Bois de Beaucours, there is this little building.  I've no idea what it is for.  In England it might have been the lodge, at the end of the drive of a big house, but this isn't at the end of any drive.

Just a couple of photos of my new log piles and Alfie in the lane to the woods.

There is a profusion of spring flowers in the lanes of the village - the verges are covered in them - and I have taken photos of primroses, celandines and dandelions.  Followed by details of some of the village houses.

Most of the windows and door panes are coved with decorative net with large lace borders.  I used to attend bobbin lace classes years ago, before I had my children, but this is far more intricate than anything I could have produced.

After the walk round the village, past this lovely narcissus in V & M's garden I came back

into my garden and noticed the little yellow shoots of moss starting to grow on the staddlestone amongst the sempervivums.   

I sat for a while and listened to the sound of a woodpecker in my neighbour's garden, as he drilled into wood there.  I tried to see him with the binoculars, but had no luck.  It's not as warm out there today as it has been the rest of the week, but still pleasant and dry.   Some friends have been telling me that the swallows are already back. I haven't seen any in our village yet this year, but it can't be long before they arrive can it? 

Logs, Logs, More Logs and Sunshine

I can’t believe what wonderful weather we’ve been having. I sat out for four hours yesterday and again this afternoon, oiled up and in my swimmer, and came in with sun red arms, chest and face. The sun is so lovely – I’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel the warmth spreading into my bones.   I've even swopped my winter duvet for my summer weight one, as I was too hot overnight.

On Sunday morning the two large farm trailers full of logs arrived.  

My neighbour, Bruno, let the second trailer tip onto his land as I had no more room.

The logs are a mixture of oak and ash, so should burn really well.  Here are friends stacking them for me. 

I reckon they should last me several years – or as some “friends” have said – probably see me out! It’s brilliant knowing I shan’t have to even think about sourcing and buying more logs for such a long time.

Daisy came in covered in fleas a little while ago. I think she must have had her head in an old birds’ nest, and she hates being sprayed, scratching me and making a hole in my new t-shirt. I decided to get her a flea collar and try to do away with future spraying. Now none of my previous cats have ever kept one on for more than a day, which is very frustrating when you’ve just spent out for it. Daisy didn’t like it being fitted yesterday evening and did loads of twisty jumps into the air to try and shake it off, before running around the garden and rubbing her neck on everything possible.

However, today, she seems to have accepted the collar, though still isn't happy with me.  She has calmed down and am hoping to be back in favour before too long. It’s bright red and when she’s facing me head on, it can’t be seen it as it hides in her fur. I wish it didn’t smell so horrid.

A bit of weeding was the order of the morning, interspersed with sitting down in the sun and preparing the chicken and potatoes to roast in the oven. My opposite French neighbour, Sylvie, came into the road to chat while I was weeding the driveway. Apparently one of her aunts has had the parathyroid tumour thing, so it’s not that unusual.  There was a lot of raking up to do on her land with all the moss, ivy and bits of bark that were left behind when all the logs were moved to the stack.

Sunday, 20 March, was the first day of Spring, and my father's birthday.  It's now 104 years since he was born.   The following day, 21 March, saw four of my friend's have their birthdays.  What happens nine months before 21 March to make so many people have babies on that day?  Spring has brought such fine weather that this afternoon we brought out from the garage all the garden furniture.  I have many chairs and tables, which are the result of running a B&B when I lived in Cornwall.  Each part of the garden now has somewhere fairly sheltered to sit wherever the breeze is coming from.  Roll on Summer!

A Sunny Day, Pink Blossom, a Pink Insect and Blue Things

It’s been such a beautiful day today – really sunny and warm and, after a roast chicken lunch, I actually fell asleep in a recliner on the terrace and woke up over an hour later with a sun red face.

I took several photographs this morning. The first is of the very pretty flowering currant blossom at the end of my drive in the abandoned neighbouring garden.

I also took photos of some of my blue vases and other blue things. Blue is such a special colour. I think it is also one of the few colours for clothing that suits everyone in all it’s different shades.   This ginger jar belonged to my mother and it's one of a pair.

This is one of a pair of cockerel trivets which I used to use in my Cornish Bed and Breakfast.

This was a little robin blue breast jug that my middle son, Oliver, gave me for Christmas one year.  It's very precious to me.

I really like ceramic balls.  I had some in my garden in Cornwall which were quite large, but have no idea where they've got to.  I just have a couple of small ones now, which live in my dresser shelves, along with dried poppy heads and Japanese lantern seedheads.

I'm not entirely sure what this piece of china was.  I remember buying it at a car boot sale and it still had a brown card label on it then, but I don't remember whether it was supposed to have a function or just be beautiful.

This is the back door of my neighbour's abandoned house.  It's beginning to look like a scene from Sleeping Beauty with all the brambles growing across the entrance.

And this is another neighbour's west facing gite window.  They used to live in this little gite before they finished renovating their large house.

My next door neighbour has these blue railing all around his back garden and I like the intricacy of the wrought iron.

As I was coming back from taking these pictures, I stopped to photograph some moss and right in the middle of the patch was this little pink insect.  I've no idea what it was but it was very small, about a quarter to an eighth of an inch (1-2mm) long.  So having started with pink, I'll end with pink too.   You might have to increase your zoom to 150% to see it!