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!

A bossy bird

The cherry tree in the garden of the Mairie (town hall) next door is easily visible over the wall as I hang out the washing. For the last month there has been a Great Tit in the tree declaring himself to the world. I can easily see him as the leaves are still buds and the branches are visible.

 A couple of weeks ago I was clipping the top of the hedge and the GT appeared to be advising me how to do it. I was definitely doing it wrong as he was very vocal – telling everyone who took time to listen.

 A few days after that, I was making a fuss of Tigger who paid a visit and was sunning herself on the garden table – which I imagine was warmed by the sun. I won’t say we were attacked, but there was a very angry visitor who flew past in a huff and made me (and Tigger ) jump. Was GT jealous of the attention I was giving to the cat, or was he trying to warn me of possible danger from the cat?

This week GT is far too busy flying around with his lady friend to bother with a mere human like me.

Sunsets, eclipses, tides...

Back in February I wrote about seeing an incredible sunset in the UK. It was on 7th February, I remember that because it was Christian’s birthday. Well a couple of weeks ago, exactly a month later on 7th March we were collecting a pizza one evening and again, there was an incredible sunset. The sky was on fire. I got my phone out and managed to get a couple of pics. The car one is wobbly because the road is so bumpy.

What a weekend we’re having. The start of spring, an eclipse and the highest tide of the century! Well, once every twenty years that is, but the media in this country are really boosting and boasting; Apparently the population of the world is gathered at the Mont Saint-Michel just to watch the sea come in this evening…

The weather is dull, grey, drizzly and cold

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.

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

Butterfly

As I was washing up after lunch I saw my first butterfly of the year. It was a Common Brimstone (Citron in French). The butterfly fluttered over the wall across the road and disappeared.

The lady at the post office saw two (red) squirrels as she walked to work through the park this morning. Last night when we went for a walk before going to bed we could hear two owls calling. Spring is in the air.

The spring is coming

We’ve had a beautiful week. The sun has shone and the days are definitely warmer. The mornings are really cold due to the clear skies overnight. A couple of days ago a carpenter bee hit the kitchen window. A lot of people are frightened by their appearance (big and black) but they are quite harmless. I read somewhere that when the males get the urge they will try to mate with any thing that is dark and shiny, I can’t find confirmation of that now. Ours aren’t quite as big as this one.

The tree in front of the house has lots of buds ready to blossom, but this afternoon I was surprised to see one or two leaves unfurling. There are quite a few daffodils out and other flowers not far behind. This evening there was a tit right at the top of one of my Russian olive trees singing his heart out.

In the last week a new road sign has been put up on the road to the marsh warning that frogs an toads may be crossing. We’ve already seen one or two toads out in the evening and heard the frogs on the marsh this afternoon.

All we need now are the squirrels in the park to come out and a lizard or two on the kitchen windowsill

Mad March Hare

My retired teacher student came for her lesson last Tuesday with an article she had translated from a magazine about Queen Boudica (or Boudicca). Boudica led an uprising against the Romans. The little piece of interest for both of us was that she used to carry a hare around with her and if she needed to decide something would throw the hare down and watch how it ran away. I suppose it was better than splitting open a goat or a chicken and studying it’s entrails and quicker too.

This all leads neatly into 'As Mad as a March Hare' as it is now the month of March – already! I grew up on a farm and remember some years seeing hares dancing around, but I can’t remember whether it was in the month of March or not.

If you say ‘Rabbit’ three times at the beginning of the month it brings good luck, but now I’ve read that you should say ‘Rabbit’ three times before going to sleep on the last day of the month and ‘Hare’ three times on waking on the first. In our family we took care of the whole lot of superstitions by repeating ‘Rabbit’ and ‘Hare’ three times each in the morning of the first.

Have a nice March.

Is spring in the air?

As I was returning from the post office this morning I saw a squirrel crossing the road. I haven’t seen a squirrel so far away from the woods before. Fortunately there wasn’t much traffic passing through the village at that time of the day. Rob and I have seen a few frogs on our evening walks recently too. I hope the weather doesn’t go cold again and catch them all out.

Spring is on it's way
This morning I heard birdsong at 5.30 even though it was still dark a couple of hours later. We’ve got some blosson around the village this week and in one garden the daffodils have been going strong for a little while. I see that I shall have to start gardening in earnest soon before things get out of control. Spring is really in the air, sometimes in the afternoon, it’s even warmer to be outside than in.