Blog 11 April 2016
It is times
like this that you are very pleased you have a barn with loads of floor space
to lay a rooms worth of carpet and make a template from the old one. We have got to a time in life when manoeuvring
a new carpet into place and cutting to size is a complete no no. We bought this
carpet in the UK two years ago when we thought we were still capable of laying
it but as the time has flown by and we have
put off decorating our little spare room we were forced to find a solution to
lay this big bulk of carpet and get on with the job in hand. We are guessing our little spare room was
decorated in the 1980’s and it became quite evident that we had to apply
ourselves and we pondered and dragged our feet until we got two e-mails in
quick succession from people coming to visit on the same day so it was all
hands to the pumps and we got the whole room finished, done and dusted with
time to spare
We now have
a smart spare room and the other spare will be done in the winter. We now appreciate how satisfying it is and
what a difference it makes and despite my total inability to decorate we will
get on and complete the upstairs rooms sooooooooon!!!!!
It is all
worth the effort when your guests all turn up and here we are around the table
catching up on old times and new and having a good time.
This is Marian
and Hugh’s first visit and we hope they will come again. They are both
gardeners themselves and we had a good appreciation of our commitment to our
land and why we do it and had a fun time catching up on old sailing tales we
have shared.
We
had another night out ‘en amis’ and gathered around a long table for the annual
machui in St Lo d’ourville and enjoyed a warm welcome to join their annual
dinner and dance. The meal started at eight o’clock and we were still at it at midnight and
beyond. The village has an active line dancing group who spontaneously got up
to dance and were only too happy to have us join in. Mike and Shirley were
still dancing at 2 in the morning whilst Mark and I tried to coerce them out of
the door so we could drive home
The highlight of the evening was when the cheese
was piped into the room by a lone Scots piper who then broke into the good old
favourite of happy birthday and we all sang and whoop whooped our host, Robert,
to wish him many happy returns
We
made our second trip to the poo heap at Jay and Helens house with Graham and
Ann along as well. Mike filled his
trailer and I collected bags of the 7 year old poo at the back which to me was
the best thing on this earth….. apart from gin and tonic, needless to say.
I emptied
my bags onto my raised beds in the poly tunnel and felt wholesomely satisfied
that after so many years of not doing this…I had now replenished the tattered
and tired soil. We can now look forward to happy plants and good harvests. All
the seed sewing has gone to plan and everything is pricked out and re potted
waiting for the frost to pass. And on the 17th April we had one of
our most severe frosts this winter so there a little caution to be adhered to,
even now.
This is our
grandson Alex in Canada who is going through treatment to help him get his heel
to the floor and he has to go back to hospital on a regular basis to have a new
plaster cast put on. This is the third and he chose a green one. We are kept up
to speed on the day as Georgina messages us on a moment to moment basis so we
know exactly how it is all going. Alex Skyped
us one afternoon whilst he was having his breakfast and we chatted about his
visit and he showed us his leg. We do feel that if we lived next door we may
not get this much information from the patient himself.
I had a
disaster with my geranium propagation this year and lost the lot whilst we were
away in Spain, but there is no such thing as a disaster here, since you just
get yourself to Carentan market and there are glorious little geranium plants
waving their leaves in the air saying ‘buy me, I will be fantastic’, and they
are. All we need to do is get Jack Frost out of the way and we will be looking
good on the patios and on the drive.
For those
of you who have been following us a few years you will remember my fascination
with Gunnera and how I so much want some to grow around the pond. A few years
ago we bought 5 root balls from a lady who was splitting hers and we nurtured
them in pots for a whole season to make sure they were settled and ready to go.
We then put them in around the pond and in their first season they did OK. Unfortunately
as the winter set in and the ducks took a fancy to the seed pods and decimated
them. I have corralled the plants in chicken wire, much to the ducks annoyance,
and you can see that we have a recovery on the way.
This
however, is a root ball that I kept in a Pot because it was not robust enough
to plant out, but take a look at this lush and happy beginnings of its season.
It has spent winter under a leaky outdoor tap and is so much more advanced and
lovely, so lesson learnt, ducks and Gunnera do not mix…….
Mim and
Dick have stopped off on their way down south and will be visiting my eldest
sister Maggie in St Chinion. We have set them up with a few rest days and fun
before the off. We have discussed every possible route plan we know and
hopefully they will hit the south of France running, ready to pick up some sunrays
and get smothered with South of France hospitably. Graham and Ann came for the final supper
before their road trip launch.
And
they are off. Mim and Dick on their France road trip and after a hearty full English
breakfast ….or as English I can make it….. We said our goodbyes, but then, as
you all know, Mike and I go into a phase of melancholy having felt the heart
wrenching emotion of seeing our visitors zip off down the road onto their next
adventure. We always have a little quiet
time to count our blessings at being in a place we love and others love to come
to. We get the to-do list out and find a couple of little jobs to help us wind
back into routine and back to what we love to do the best, which is, whatever
is on the to-do list that day xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment