Spring a-Springing

The weather has continued mild into spring, with only a handful of nights when the temperature has dropped below freezing point all winter. However, we’ve had much more rain than is usual hereabouts and a few gales, so we had to drain excess water out of the pool three or four times through the winter.  Temperatures are climbing now and everything in the garden is springing into life. Buds are breaking and blossom is out on the trees and shrubs, and our daffodils and narcissi have been magnificent as usual. 

We have to do a little work around the pool to accommodate a more solid cover we’ve ordered to stop the rain filling it and to keep out leaves and ash-keys that mess up the chemical balance of the water. We are taking the opportunity to do some landscaping to that part of the garden to make it look even better. This week we have a new border at the north end of the pool, partially stocked already with shrubs and flowers, and we are pushing the hedge back at the south end to accommodate the cover panels when they’re telescoped. The shrubs from that end have been migrated around the garden, forming the basis of a new shrub island at the north west corner. 

The weather has been great the last few days and forecast to continue, so we’ve been out on the garden working mostly, but had a lovely day off on Sunday when friends in a nearby village invited us for lunch and to take us to a ‘degustation’ (tasting) at their local distillery. Every village has a number of them here – as we’re in the Petite Champagne ‘cru’ for cognac production. We had a terrific time sampling Monsieur’s enormous stock of cognacs going back over 50 years, followed after staggering back 100metres to their place, by a super lunch with our friends, and we came home with a bottle of the good great stuff!

We’re both continuing reasonably healthily despite the ever-encroaching limitations that age forces upon us, but we’re usually getting out for a walk several days each week and now that I’m more active again we’re getting more jobs done around the place, which also helps to keep us fit.  Have to pace myself in the garden though; it’s too easy to overdo things and my back is not improving any more.

We’ve been buying materials for more jobs around the house, mostly for inside while the weather wasn’t great. We bought a new floor and fitted wardrobe set for the middle bedroom and have now installed them, and we bought lots of rock-wool insulation for the loft over the bureau, about a third of which is now laid. It makes a difference already and should have a beneficial impact on our electricity bills, though we won't really see the benefit untol next winter. 

One of our hens died a couple of weeks ago; she’s been under the weather for a couple of months but didn’t appear to be in any pain or distress so we let her carry on, but she gave up and we’ve buried her in the garden. So now we just have four but they are all enjoying scratching about their little field and happily producing eggs for us. (And yes, we can tell that they’re happy hens!) We now have a pet passport for Dusty so we can take her with us if necessary if we have to make any sudden trips out of the country and we can’t get her into one of the few catteries here.  She’s taken to watching cat programmes on TV with great interest!

We have one or two more bookings in the diary for visitors here; June is nearly full now though there is still plenty of time in all the other months.  Ryanair are changing their Liverpool – Limoges flight to become Manchester – Limoges from April until October, which should make things a lot easier for Manchester area visitors. Limoges is within range for us to pick up guests and when I looked at Ryanair’s prices last week for the rest of the year they’re following the usual Ryanair system – very cheap basic flight price and everything optional is extra. Most of our guests can get away with a free cabin bag as we keep all the usual toiletries in so you don’t have to bring your own unless you really want to, and summer here is warm enough not to need heavy things to wear. La Rochelle is our favourite airport – only half the distance away as Limoges – but most (not all) flights to there are a bit more expensive than Limoges.  The other feasible alternative is Bordeaux, also much nearer than Limoges but Bordeaux traffic can slow pick-ups and drop-offs down.

Best wishes everyone.