Sunny Summery Summary

We missed doing a posting earlier this season, apart from Wendy’s slightly sad little piece, so here’s a summary of the whole of summer!

This year’s summer has been hot and sunny, consistently up in the 30s C, and we’ve enjoyed it both at home and away on our first proper summer holiday for many years. 

We went off to Italy in mid June to spend a week with Jennie, Ian and Dylan at a resort complex in northern Sardinia, and took a few days to get there and a week or so to get home, travelling about quite a bit and experiencing Italian driving!   We had a lovely holiday, staying at Florence, Pisa, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast and Rimini, amongst others over the three weeks.

Jeanne’s sister Christine and her husband Jay were looking after the house and menagerie for us while we were away, so some watering and weeding had been done, which was a help.  They stayed for a few days afterwards to extend their holiday with us.  We’ve also had lovely visits from Samantha, Mike and Elizabeth; from Jennie, Ian and Dylan and from David, and our pool's been very well used.

A hot-air balloon festival took place at the beginning of August and we got a ringside seat from a nearby restaurant in the evening as several passed overhead at rooftop height.

Summer here is filled with spectacles all around us and we also went to a show with horses and fire at a Roman amphitheatre with some friends.  Most recently we went to Chateau Marquis de Vauban in Blaye and had a great day there, with a trip in a calèche around the citadel and town, a super lunch and wine tasting and tour of the chateau and winery.  Blaye is the northern-most part of the Bordeaux wine producing area and a very good appellation.  Lots of other social occasions going on as well, together with the usual chores. No time to be bored (or at least no rest for the wicked)!

Most of our 300 new trees and hedge plants are surviving despite the hot dry weather – we’ve only lost a handful, thanks to irrigation from big water tanks filled from the well.

The pillars for the new gates have now been up for a few weeks but the gates themselves only recently arrived, and are waiting for our builder to come to fit them.  In the meantime Rhys has started building a wall next to the gateway ‘cheek’ walls to enclose what will become the grange garden. It’s about two feet high so far and uses stone from the old grange itself – big heavy ‘dressed’ pieces for the bottom course, more rustic higher up.  It will take a while and it won't be hurried, fitting it in between other jobs and its heavy work!

We’ve also had two Ash trees cut down, one at the back of the back garden and one in the former sheep field, so they’re giving us plenty to do cutting them up and storing the wood for firewood.  We’ve got about three or four winters’ worth now so won’t have to buy any for a while.  Ashes grow like weeds here – very fast growing and seedlings sprouting up all over the place which we have to keep removing, but we’re changing the balance with our planted oaks, beeches, birches, etc., and there are a few self-seeded walnut seedlings about the land this year, probably courtesy of the resident red squirrel who forgot where it had buried its nuts! Unfortunately they're not in the right place, so a winter job will be to move them to better locations.

In the meantime, proof that the stream at the bottom of our land is reasonably healthy - this crayfish came up to the house from it this week. Presumably looking for deeper water as the stream is very shallow at this time of year, though not quite dried up.  Too small to eat so back to nature.

We’ve just said farewell to more visitors - Peter, and Claire and George, but still looking forward to more in a few weeks though still plenty of space for more.  So back to the grindstone for a little while!

Best wishes everyone, and hope to see you before too long!