before the season is once again…all over

Mike and I are still coming across reminders of our wonderful birthday party with boxes of empty bottles to go to the dechete, forks in the wrong place and the bed linen all washed and ironed on the beds waiting for a rainy day to keep us indoors to catch up with such tasks.  I have been putting the pictures in one file and just love this pic of our terrace full up with tables chairs and people chilling, what a wonderful treat to have had this time together to  fill our place up  and give  it  purpose, albeit for a short time

 

With all talk of family and fun I did want to tell you about Mike’s family gathering going on alongside my family gang.  Geoff came over for a full week and we had a moment when cousins, son and brothers were for a poignant moment all around the same table.  Chris had never met his Dad’s first cousins Colin and Jill and we were not sure how long it had been since Geoff and Colin had seen each other but there was talk of it being thirty odd years so a good opportunity to catch up and know that we have family who are friends and we should never let doable kilometres come between us and take every opportunity to say hello.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

The Pumpkin contest is underway. Pumpkins are growing well but there is an element of sabotage and misbehaviour as one of the competitors planted this bomb detonator in our patch and another competitor has laid a mine field around his patch, so it is hotting up.   Mike and I thought we were well in the winning zone until we went to Graham and Ann’s for dinner to find his pumpkin the size of a Cinderella coach already

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had two nights out on the Razzel comparing progress and generally being unruly but with this fantastic weather of balmy nights and warm winds, why not sit out with your mates even if they are all out to scupper your chances of winning the pumping of the year contest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the harvest is starting and I am busy blanching and baking to build our stores for winter, it is so wholesome and grounding and makes me want to squirrel away as much as possible before the season is once again…all over

 

 

 

 

 

the best 60th birthday party ever…..

 

 

 

 

 Blog 19 July

 

 

Well it is official, we are 60 and there is no getting away from the fact… this pic was taken a week before our party at Shirley and Mark’s house and I am choosing to use this as our official 60^th year photo

 

 

 

 

Our week of celebration started with the arrival of Chris and Sam who stopped overnight then packed up our camper and took a few days off in Brittany whilst the rest of the family arrived. After all the preparation, the shopping and checking of lists our family arrived in warm basking weather and the  promise of a fun filled few days together

 

 

 

 Mike and I had planned to have lots of activities in terms of games and outings but we found we were all happier sat around the table just chatting and that was perfect for us, it is so rare to have relaxed time  to sit and chat, to  chew the cud …en famille

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our mobile homes were full, the house was full and the brave campers camped in comfort with all mod cons.  We added one more camper with the arrival of Mike’s cousins Colin and Jill who drove up from La Charante to join us for the big party night. 

 

 

We played Boule and walked around the garden and here is the moment of big debate to see who is the closest to the jokey and no matter how much  you try to play this game as a laugh it suddenly becomes serious and everyone becomes concentrated, at least until the dinner gong goes or the pop of a cork echoes across the gardens.

 

 

 

Every morning we all met on the patio for breakfast  and those who stayed on site met up again for lunch and every night was party night. A thunderstorm threatened on BBQ night and Billy suggested we should perhaps get under cover before the heavens opened and we were then entertained by nature herself with the most spectacular lightning and thunder display that kept us all awake most of the night after the party had finished.

 
 

 

 

 

On the night of the Party we had planned to be 25 around the table under the stars but as we made our little speeches to thank our family for making such a huge effort to be with us in Brevands there was a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder and with 30 minutes to go before our friends arrived we decanted the whole party into the barn ……just in case……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chilly and rice seemed a bit of a warm dish for such a hot and muggy night but the wine flowed and laughter and fun resonated high into our beautiful barn roof.

 

 

 

 

 At half time we all took a walk through the garden for a breath of fresh air and change of dinner partners before the sun set a chance to see the garden at dusk

 

 

 

 

 

And then the karaoke started and only those who saw it to the end  will live with the memory with a grin and a chuckle …………mmm

 

 What a fantastic time we had, a birthday party to be remembered and treasured, full of love and family, in our garden, in our home, here in France

 

  And then it is all over, and  everyone has to go home… glad to say parties left at different times, each goodbye a melancholy to bear… but there is always the next time and we hope it will be soon…..

thank you our  family and friends for the best 60^th birthday party ever…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you are not talking to your plants, then you are not a real gardener…….

 

blog 18 Blog

 I am a real sucker for the rogue and opportunist plant that shows its head just in time to be saved and appreciated. This little bunch of lobelia has grown from seed falling in a crack in the front step from the basket hanging above this place last year.  The seed has lain dormant all through winter and germinated all on its own to become this gorgeous and perfectly formed plant growing out of a slab of concrete.

We have a sun flower by the gate to the pond that has done exactly the same and is now being honoured and protected. There are also two sunflowers where last year’s patch was but is now the middle of a new path in the allotment but  they have shown themselves and they can stay and we will enjoy their life cycle with them

The allotment is coming on very well and we are already at the end of the broad bean crop and will make that bed the strawberry bed for next year. We had no rain here for a month and we have been watering most evenings and I was getting a little concerned for the sweet corn but then the heavens opened and we had solid and consistent rain for a day and a night and the sweet corn opened and bulked up in front of our eyes and now they have their feet firmly in the ground we can look forward to a healthy crop in August.

 

 

 

Our new Rose garden has been overrun with dahlia so we will have to put labels on these plants before we lift them for the winter to understand their size and colour so we can give our rose garden a chance to blossom and thrive next year. We planted a home propagated box hedge only a month ago and this week mike applied its first trip. I am fascinated with boxes of box hedge and wherever I can I plant a box of box for architecture and culture… Mike bought me a battery operated trimmer so I can get out there and trim and shape myself so this little hedge is set and established and after its trim it has understood it’s purpose and future and I for one am delighted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally we had to take the decision to lift an ailing Hydrangea and replace it with a new and healthy one but in my forever never say die to a plant policy I have re-potted it, trimmed it, watered and spoken to it with a firm promised that if it beefs up a bit I will find a place for it again next year…..that’s gardening for you, and if you are not talking  to your plants, then you are not a real gardener…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

officially called nasturtium mound …….

My goodness me it is already the end of June and if it were not for the fact that the days end at midnight and the sun is beating down on us I just would not believe it….where has the time gone.  This is a photo of our visiting re-enactors who were with us throughout DDay week. They sent us this picture and a picture of their house way down in the South of France. Alaine  made us promise that we  would not sell up without letting him know as he wants to  live up here close to where his passion of dressing up as a Gi and driving about in his American command car is common place,  where nobody bats an eyelid at the spectacle.  I guess the picture was sent as first contact in case we might consider a house exchange in a few years’ time. We have Googled their area and it is hot hot hot and very dry but they have a pool and who knows how we will be feeling in a few years’ time.

I handed my job back and was thanked for all my efforts by the new owners with a lovely plant. Mike and I have been busy making flower beds this year as our garden is very much park design with no beds to tend just wild and energetic scrubs to slash down once a year and nettles and brambles to keep at bay so a new plant to place is a treat. I woke up unemployed with no anxiety as to whether the DDay tours I organised for that day would happen, not waiting for the phone to start shrieking to alert me that the customer was lost or a guide was lost or worst still the French trains were lost. And now, Mike and I talk to one another over breakfast and make a day plan and we have not done that in over 18 months, joy oh joy

 

 

A few years back I stole seed pods off a bush  in Carentan Marina because I liked the look of it . We had no idea what the plant   was called so we  just named it  Marina prickly plant until our friends Pauline and Ron came to visit and called it …. Broom. I grew these  seeds into massive shrubs and we moved them three times before we were happy with their position,  One autumn we were driving past the Marina and noticed that the broom had been pruned  to an inch on its life, just a collection of stumps in the ground and I moaned and groaned for days about the heavy handed way the French gardeners treat their shrubs…….but  this week I had to eat my words as I now know why every few years Broom needs putting back in it’s place because left unpruned  it  bolts in growth  and then collapses under the weight of the flowers  just as it is looking good and you  have visitors coming and you want everything to look right….so a touch of grannies rope knitting to hoist it all up so it will not damage itself even more. We now have a new line of the list of autumn jobs....give the Broom the Carentan chop…

 

 

 

And finally the nasturtiums I transplanted in May to the mound are looking good and healthy despite the lack of rain so we took down the rabbit protection and I have a splash of colour and this garden is officially called nasturtium mound …….