Visiting Monet's garden

Even in the rain the garden is beautiful!  It really is a lovely place to visit, unfortunately the rest of the world thinks so too.  There really were a lot of people. The village of Giverny is very beautiful and interesting to look around.  I'd like to go back at other times of the year just to see the different flowers

A good year for Marigolds?

Here I am typing away on the 3rd May wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, roll neck sweater and long cardigan. Who would have thought it would be so cold? Even the sunny days have been spoilt by wind coming from Siberia.

It appears to be a good year for Marigolds as you can see. Last year I don’t remember them flowering at all.

Good news today; Dom is coming over to give a talk in Poitiers and can sneak in an overnight stay in the middle of June. It will be our 32nd wedding anniversary when she is here!

Olivier is still in Prague. We haven’t really heard much from him, so it must be assumed that he is happy there. I’ve had the occasional picture via WhatsApp at weekends so he’s seeing some interesting places.

Violets and a special cat

Yet another month goes by without me posting anything here. It seems to have been an ongoing theme here for a while.

Olivier is still in Prague – I think that all is well with him. He’s sent me pictures of impressive views, An Ice Hockey match and a ski slope. Oh yes; and he visited the British Embassy. He’s a real networker, I have a picture of him with the ex minister of education from a couple of years ago.

This week we’ve had some real spring sunshine. I spent around 45 minutes in the garden this afternoon, weeding. Everything is growing at a fast rate now, the birds are singing, it is lovely. We go for a walk when Rob arrives home in the evening and it is still light when we get back!

These violets appeared in February and now the lawn is sprinkled with them too. 

This ball of fluff is the cat that lives at a local café. He/she appeared there a year or so ago, thin and bedraggled and in need of a good home. Guess who always bags the best seat in the warm sunshine!

One of life's mysteries

A couple of weeks ago I had to pick up something that I’d ordered online. As our local shop was on holiday I went to the florists in the next village. There was quite a queue, mainly people picking up parcels – not buying flowers. I didn’t mind waiting amongst the flowers and the plants.

Then I realized, I couldn’t smell the scent of a single flower! Is it because they are grown in poly-tunnels or do they just sell flowers with no perfume nowadays?

Sage from the garden

I'm pleased to say that when I cut it I was accompanied by more bees that I've seen for a long time.

Giant Anemone

I don't understand what has happened here.  This flower is 45 centimetres tall while its siblings measure around 23 centimetres:

Some of the other anemones are tall, but not as tall and the petals are nowhere as big.

Spring is in the air

It's so good to see the colours of the flowers at long last.

This little violet wedged itself in a crack on the well a couple of years ago.

Gardening question and a busy week coming up

A question for gardening experts: At the beginning of October I bought some Anemone bulbs and planted half of them in the garden. The remainder went in half way through the month. This week I have observed that they are already growing. Is this normal or has the mild weather woken them up too early? I was so looking forward to seeing the flowers in the spring.

Next week is going to be a busy one. On Thursday Dom will be presenting her Thesis. We’ll be going to Poitiers to watch and also visit their house. We haven’t visited since we helped them to move in just over a year ago. Hopefully on Friday we’re off to an auction in Bordeaux. It’s been 18 months since we were there last time. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us on our travels.

Talking of weather; it is still very mild and sunny. The news reports are still full of people swimming in the sea and dining out of doors. We are threatened with huge drops in temperatures within the next few days.

Oh, and Olivier will be home for a few days next weekend

Hot weather

Rob was on holiday last week so it was a busy one. On Wednesday we went with Olivier to Saumur to help him clean up his apartment and bring the rest of his belongings home. Not an easy task as it was very hot and humid. He bought us lunch at Mcdonald’s and I tried a chicken burger with avocado sauce – delicious, needless to say I ate a salad with it. We finished the cleaning in time to go for a drink before the inventory.

Rob and I spent a very pleasant hour waiting for him to finish in the park at the top of his road. We found a shady spot to sit and listen to water running – bliss on a hot day.

I love trees

I had a walk around the park and discovered a charming alley. Eventually the arches will be covered in roses.

On Friday we went to visit one of Rob’s colleagues who is working at Georges Clemenceau’s holiday home in Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard, Vendée. There is an excellent gift shop, I bought a rose scented drawer sachet and some rose scented sweets in a pretty tin. We also bought presents for up and coming family birthdays. Again, it was a very hot day, the sea looked very tempting.

On the way home we drove through storms, the temperature dropped by 15°C within an hour. There was a lot of rain once we arrived home. It disappeared very quickly and by Saturday you wouldn’t guess it had rained at all.

Pretty Purple Poppies

Last night I managed to get some pictures I wanted before it was too late.

These poppies are grown to provide morphine and other pain killers. They are also very beautiful, but only last a short while, the petals fall very quickly.

As we finished our walk at the end of a hot day, it started to rain. No surprise as the sky had begun to look very moody.

Then there was a rainbow – as always they look better in real life

It’s called Friday 13th

The end of last week was a particularly bad one here. The Maritime Museum caught fire in town. The museum is/was in a ship which had just been renovated at an enormous cost ready for the season; an electrical fault.

 The weather on Friday itself was very wet, windy and cold. The music festival that the town was holding over five nights was delayed for that evening, and then cancelled. Olivier had a job for the five days and nights of the festival on a food stand. This involved us collecting him from town around four o’clock every morning. Fortunately Rob was on holiday for four of the days, but we still found it very tiring. We did have an early night on the evening that was cancelled – if you call 2 am early.

This year I have been growing some sunflowers and they were doing very well, especially the one that was taller than me. The wind blew it over. I put the top in water but after a couple of days it was obvious that it was dying.

Here is one in the fields

Mystery plant

What is this plant called? Do you know of it?

I thought I’d lost it when it shriveled up and died last year. It’s come back and flowering later this year due to the colder weather.

Mayday

The first of May already and we still have the heating on!  The tradition in France is to offer Lily of the Valley for good luck today.  Rob went out to buy a baguette this morning and came back with a stem of flowers for me.  It's a holiday here, when we first came to France in 1985, even the television channels were off until 8 in the evening. 

I hope that these Lily of the Valley bring you luck and happiness.

January 5th 2012

Rob took this picture this afternoon, just before we went for a very windy walk. It's a hollyhock from last summer which is still flowering!  I'm writing this before going to bed, the temperature outside is 18°C = 64.4°F.  Like the title of this post says, it is January 5th.

Spring has sprung

This photo was taken just over a week ago; the blossom has fallen now . For a few days I had a layer of pink petals in the bottom of the bath every evening. Now the tree is covered in leaves.

I took this all by myself with my phone. When I get the hang of putting what I take onto the computer, you’ll get to see more.

Calm after the storm

The water has all gone on our little bit of coast. The marshes have been drained so the water level is lower than it was before the storm. There are still mountains of stones from the beach that need pushing off the road and back into the beach. Several people drowned in the village where I take Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers. When I went for my leg treatment last week my doctor told me that her husband operated on a man from that village just before the storm and on Sunday they had to tell him that three of his family were gone.

A man was arrested because he’d gone to the mayor of the same village claiming to be in charge of the cleaning up procedures. The mayor was suspicious and made inquiries. It turns out the ‘official’ has already been in prison for organising the building of two kilometres of motorway a few years ago. (the modern version of delusions of grandeur perhaps?). He’s on his way back under lock and key.

The wind has turned around and is now coming from the North-East (Siberia). It has been very cold for over a week and looks like we’ll have to wait for another week to get back into spring mode. It’s lighter in the evenings, so when Rob gets home we go out for a walk, it’s lovely, but so cold.

I have daffodils! About twenty years ago I planted some bulbs and for several years now I’ve seen the leaves but no flowers. I think that some animal or bird must have moved them around or something because they are quite separated out and I have four flowers.

Did someone say February?

Half term has come and gone, so has Olivier’s 19th birthday. Two weeks ago (already!) Dom and J-M came for a quick visit. J-M never comes empty handed and presented me with a glass vase with mini daffodils in it, the kind where you can see the roots. When he arrived there were about 7 flowers, now the plant is past its best with 20 blooms!. Does anyone know what I should do next? Should I plant the bulbs out in the garden for next year? Olivier is back this weekend for the 20th birthday of his friend. I remember the 20th birthday party of one of his sisters which was more of a thanksgiving*.

I’ve been enjoying the signs of spring. Walking to the post office yesterday I saw a red squirrel and the tree in front of the house looks as if it is about to burst into blossom. We had high winds last night (with more to come), this morning the skies were blue and the sun felt quite warm in places sheltered from the wind. The robin is still hanging around waiting to be fed in the mornings. I keep meaning to find out where they go to in the summer.

Where did February go?

*"This is my story of September 11th, even in a small village across the atlantic we felt the vibrations when the towers fell....

Our neighbours daughter, Hélène, had just come home the week before from working for a year as au pair for a family who lived close to New York. In fact the Mother of the family worked in one of the towers. She changed to a new job in a different place the same time that Hélène left them. Hélène also found herself a new boyfriend Mike. She spent several days trying to contact everyone, the phone lines were down and it was impossible to send e-mails. To make matters worse her families computer wasn't working properly, so she came to us checking her mail box regularly for news.
Everyone was safe and sound, Mike studies in France now so that they can stay together. It's nice to have a happy ending, isn't it? "From September 11th 2003

Bravery

This morning the temperature was –6°C for the second day in a row. When I opened the shutters there was a single daisy standing defiantly against the elements.

Last of the flowers

Since the last week of August I’ve had the impression that the leaves are changing colour and are ready to start falling. They have. At the beginning of September we had lots of rain which washed some from the trees. This week has been hot and windy, so there are even more lying around on the ground.

I’ve started to find lots of spiders and so far three very big ones have made their way into the house. Where did the summer go? What summer? You may well ask. Last weekend there were more swimmers here than we’ve seen all summer.

These are some flowers I drew 10 years or so ago when I used to have lessons. Dom’s nicked my tubes of water colour paint and the only reason she didn’t take the acrylics last time she came was that they had all dried up. So even if I had the time...

Anyway, in those days I used to have free time in the holidays because I was teaching back then. I bought some flowers in from the garden, arranged them in a vase and started to draw them, much to the fascination of one of Olivier’s friends. He asked very politely if he could watch and he was very quiet for about 15 minutes, but I could tell something was about to come to the surface.

“Would you like me to turn them round so that you can draw the backs?”

A couple of pictures of my butterflies – only you can’t see them. The flowers look good though, don’t they? The blossom and the rose petals have all gone with the wind.
Rob took the pictures