Wednesday 28 April 2010 - At last I've found time to post again

It's been a busy few weeks, with the Easter holiday and my family here in Brittany, then me taking them back to Cornwall and then coming back again to plant loads of bedding and perennials.  I've really missed writing my blog but there just didn't seem to be enough time to sit down for long enough.

It hardly seemed possible that I had been in England for only six days, everything had grown so much while I had been away.  The weather has been wonderful - hot and sunny, with hardly any rain at all - perfect growing weather.  It's been strange having to spend the evenings watering things again after so long. 

Last year I planted a wisteria.  I've never been lucky with wisterias before.  I hadn't pruned it back at all, and it was waving all over the place.  I'm so glad I didn't prune it, because when I looked at it at the weekend there were beautiful lilac coloured blossoms emerging.

Last week I bought five nearly four week old Vorwerk chicks which are just lovely. 

I collected them in the morning and they have settled in well.  None of my chickens have ever had chicks before, so it was really great having them.  Incredibly, during that afternoon I went up to the henhouse on my field and there was a little yellow chick chirping away next to his Mum - I couldn't believe it!  B had noticed that a white bantam hen had been hiding under the straw bales, and when we pulled them away, there were twenty eggs which she had been sitting on.  We carefully carried them down to the run with the new bantam chicks and put the eggs and the new yellow chick in the little house.  She has so far hatched six eggs.  One chick died.  Apart from one hiding under her Mum, here are the ones I have now.  Ahhh!  They are are so sweet and I can't believe I have chicks which have hatched from my birds.

The countryside around me is all changing too.  Lots of fields are filled with oil seed rape, and I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think it's beautiful, lighting up the landscape with the bright yellow flowers.

Bulbs are everywhere and these orange and yellow tulips made me stop the car when I saw them on the way back from Laniscat.

Some local livestock munching away happily in fields on a very hazy-skyed April day.

There is so much cherry blossom around at the moment, both white and pink, and because there's been so little wind, the blossom is staying put on the branches.  This is some white blossom from a garden near the church in Caurel.

Three beautiful things:

1.   Finding and eating my first ripe strawberry in the polytunnel.

2.   Lying in the sun and falling asleep in the warmth.

3.   Seeing my first little fluffy chicks.

 

Tuesday 6 April 2010 - Wood sculptures and the Abbey at Bon Repos

Today, I drove back home from Silfiac and passed through the road from St Brigitte to Bon Repos and just had to stop to look at some incredible wood sculptures along the side of the road. I think the sculpter may be called Philippe Cormard. There were mushrooms, a seahorse, an enormous acorn and a similar sized nest with eggs.  There were huge, wonderful gnarled treetrunks lying on the ground, which I presume are the materials for future projects.

I then drove on to l'Abbaye de Bon Repos.  This is a really old building standing next to the Nantes Brest Canal.  over the bridge towards Laniscat.

Four French people were enjoying lunch in the sunshine on one of the tables on the grass alongside the canal. They started talking to me while I was taking photographs and we had quite a conversation before I got back into my car and drove over the bridge to Laniscat.

Along the road to Laniscat I stopped to look at a waterfall and fast flowing stream with gorse along the roadside.

My last stop was to look at pussywillow which was just breaking into blossom.














































Three Beautiful Things:
1.   Playing bowls with friends after being absent for a few weeks.
2.   Seeing my new fruit bushes and cherry tree finally planted.
3.   Coming home to a clean and tidy house after my cleaner has been busy.

Easter Sunday 4 April 2010 - New sheep and new logs

Ten days ago, a friend from England arrived to stay with me for a few days and, while we were catching up with each other, we spent the afternoon taking the Landrover to collect a lovely Pol Dorset ewe, Mary, who had a little ram lamb, Bramwell. If you say either of the names carefully, you can make a baaaing sound!

Bramwell is three months old tomorrow and a sturdy little chap.  They both look very healthy and I hope to have some good lambs from Mary in the future. Pol Dorsets are able to produce every eight months, so she could be prolific, but I shall let nature take its course.   Every eight months seems a bit frequent to me and I don't want her to be worn out, I want her to enjoy living here.

On our way to collect the sheep we saw the first swallows of the year – later than usual because of the cold winter we’ve had - but how did swallows in Africa know it was still cold here?  Answers on a postcard please.  This was taken a few years ago - I always think they look like notes on a stave.

In spite of the rainy week, in between showers we cleared the bottom of a very scruffy bank along the driveway full of brambles and and perennial weeds - I'd never seen the edge of the drive before.  We planted lots of ground cover plants, like aubretia, sedum, saxifrage, and other taller perennials.  

I’m really pleased with the way it’s widened the look of the drive and hope they all expand and knit together well, and my French neighbours have commented favourably too, which is always good. I’ve also bought sixty single flower geraniums – favourites of the French – and am looking forward to getting those in the ground and pots if it ever stops raining long enough.

My beech and oak logs for next winter have been delivered and now they're stacked too and at least a metre deep from the wall so there are quite a few.  We use old roof slate crates to contain them and that seems to work really well.

However, these crates are getting old and a bit rotten now and I’ll have to look out for people having their slates replaced and try to get some stronger newer ones for the next delivery of logs.

And last, but not least, one of my Easter bunnies this morning - this one's called Ruby.  Happy Easter!

Three Beautiful Things:

1.   The warmth from the woodburner as I sit and write this.

2.   Watching Mary and Bramwell together settling in well.

3.   Collecting more eggs now the days are a little longer.

Friday 2 April 2010 - Going for walks around the area

My ankle has been feeling much better this week and on Wednesday, which had been forecast as rainy, but turned out to be a blue skyed sunny and warm day I went on my first walk for ages with B.  We drove to the beginning of an old railway track and I managed to do forty minutes of walking with a few stops for photographs.  This was somewhere I hadn't been before and I was amazed at the scenery.  This was the first pussy willow that I have seen this year - golden and fluffy.

The first house on this walk is a mill - a truly lovely old stone building, and as you walk past the mill there is a spectacular waterfall.

The celandines were everywhere - bright yellow patches of petalled sunshine.

It was so good to be out in the sunshine after all the rain and snow we have had this year.  I was beginning to think I'd never feel the sun on my back again - the winter has been so long.

The last rough surface before the calm pool above - the noise of the water was terrific.  Then the pool with hardly a ripple on it's surface.

 

On Thursday, in the morning I had to drive to collect some blue and yellow irises for my pond.  On the way I passed this lake, which was created by a large dam and you can see the previous road bridge in the lake. 

 

Coming back I had to stop and take a photograph of the forsythia in the hedges. 

 

In the afternoon B and I walked at the other end of my village - again a path I'd never taken before and another mill, with a smaller waterfall.

The scenery is almost prehistoric once you get past the mill.  Lichen almost drips off the trees and every side of the trees seems to be covered, not just the north side as is usual in Europe.  Little ferns have started growing in amongst the lichen too. 

The next photograph shows a tree whose seed must have found some earth in the rock it is growing out of now.  Some of the roots are growing round the rock and the whole thing is covered in lichen.

Three Beautiful Things:

1.   Finding I had walked for fifty minutes, with a few stops, my longest walk so far. 

2.   Feeling the sun on my skin for the whole walk.

3.   Enjoying a lovely massage from my physio this evening.