
Greener Grass and Garden Gates
Salut Everyone
Some weeks just whizz by with seemingly not much happening, even though we have been busy each day – me mainly with work and admin, which is not something I want to write about each week, nor I am sure do you want to read about it! The lilies have all come into flower now, adding a delightful splash of colour to the garden.

We were chatting the other night, after I had had an odd and quite sad conversation with our neighbour, when Max suddenly said something really quite funny about blogs on Life in France, of which there are quite a few! He decided they could be a true account of how challenging life in France can be at times: The grass isn’t always greener on the other side – it’s often brown, burnt, full of weeds or dead! So says the man charged with mowing our ‘lawns’ and waging an ongoing battle with trying to keep them looking reasonably neat when they are 90% not actual grass, as well as nurturing some areas we leave wild for nature.
A bit negative but it made me laugh. Actually it is often greener – both the grass and life. The oak that was felled in last week’s storm was a tragedy but there is an upside. It has created a space in the tree canopy near the pool and we now have sun on a lot of the pool until early evening (also courtesy of the path the storm waged through the copse). Until then, the pool was in the shade from about 4pm, so from disaster comes a real positive. We still have plenty of shade from the hot midday sun but also more sunny spots for those who like that. Fabulous.

My son’s contribution in the same conversation was Frenovate – said jokingly! However I think it is great word for our French renovation project – slow as our progress may be.
We returned from a dog walk a couple of days ago to find that it would appear we have become a gite! So the sign at the beginning of the shared drive says (we haven’t really). This week finally saw the confirmation of what I had suspected for ages. Long story but to our surprise our once friendly neighbours have now moved out and turned their home into a gite. Sans rien dire aux voisins (without a word to the neighbours)! Unusual, surprising and a little odd that since our wedding they have gone to ground. We have tried to have them over for apéritifs but they are always too busy. Perhaps it was something we said? I swear I didn’t dance on the tables at our wedding and disgrace myself (I think I was too busy cooking and serving). It is rather sad that it has turned out like this. The place is being marketed as a detached house which might surprise some visitors when they arrive and find there is a petit château stuck on the side of said detached house! Ah well. Actually we found out for sure last week from the gite company representative who got trapped on the drive in the storm as a tree had come down. He was quite embarrassed that we didn’t know. In a way after a lot of truth adapting from les voisins, it is good to know where we stand.

In other news we should have the car back next week, finally. I have spent too much time sorting out hire cars and courtesy cars, but for now we have kept the natty little white and red Citroen and replace it with a garage courtesy car on Monday. We will also be looking for a new insurance company!
Max has been learning to chainsaw courtesy of a friend of ours. We have loads of dead box trees that were hit by box moth some years ago. One of them has managed to grow some leaves, the rest nothing and bits keep falling off. Whilst planning the garden, I thought it would be nice to keep some of these trees as they are quite beautiful. Once cut down to different heights, they will be ideal for growing climbing plants, such as the 3 wisteria plants I have managed to germinate from the seed pod I found on our wisteria. We also have passion flower cuttings and a clematis to put in. So on Wednesday Max and our friend Rob set to, taking the first batch down, near the rose garden. I was working unfortunately but managed to pop out to help for a bit. A few of the plants in the rose garden took a bit of a hit as it was quite hard to get the branches to fall exactly where we wanted.
The resulting collection of tree stumps is like a beautiful piece of garden sculpture. Now we just have to clear up all the wood. Max will have fun honing his chainsaw skills chopping up the trunks and we will no doubt spend hours clearing up all the twigs, etc. Still, another job off the list and it opens up the rose garden, allowing so much more light. Very exciting. Maybe I should learn to chainsaw too?

Next job is fencing for the garden – a lot of fencing! It has been on the list for a while along with rebuilding bits of garden wall. It will be nice to make the pool area a little more private from the shared driveway and also give Bear a bit more garden to roam around.
The original terrace on the East side of the house was beautifully symmetrical with a long wall looking out over the valley and fields, with wrought iron gates and railings between stone pillars at either end. Gorgeous. Unfortunately since we bought it, the neighbours have built a pool and terrace right up to the gate that is between their garden and ours. We have let the buddleia and viburnum grow over to allow some privacy as their terrace is higher than ground level! All perfectly legal apparently but not ideal. Today whilst contemplating the fencing question for the whole garden, we found a solution to what has become a lost feature. We need a gate in the front garden, so after various thoughts came up with a plan to move that gate and replace it with a more solid fence so both sides have privacy. Max then had the brainwave to find someone who could paint a trompe l’oeil of the old gates and grass beyond as it used to be on the fence where the gate was! Brilliant. That way we will have the balance back on the terrace, and a gate to use elsewhere. The kittens might be annoyed as they like to pop next door through the railings. However gite guests may not appreciate that so perhaps for the best!
East terrace
That’s all for this week. I am off to eat a delicious tarte aux fruits – just got to decide which one – framboise (raspberry) or myrtille (blueberry). Which one would you choose?

I look forward to seeing you next week after our second vaccinations.
A bientôt
Ali xx


2 Comments
John
Odd the neighbours never mentioned anything before moving on.
You’re getting on with all these projects and I feel guilty not deadheading our rose bushes!!
Love and best wishes to you and Max
Ali
It is odd but c’est la vie I guess. I haven’t deadheaded our roses either! I think we have too many projects on the go. Hope all well with you both? One of these days we will meet up! Lots of love xx