Wood for the winter

Today I've been supervising the arrival of the winter wood, or at least some of it. Lizzie will need about three times as much if she is going to be here for most of the winter. You buy it in metre cubes and this is part of it. Space has been cleared on the veranda for quite a lot of it so that Lizzie doesn't have to go out in the rain to bring it in. There is only room for so much, though, so the rest has to be stacked outside under cover.

These logs are 50 cms in length and will just fit in the Gaudin wood burner that was left in the house.

Recycle the babies

While we're on the subject of fruit/food, the smell of chutney making was wafting, unappetizingly, out onto the veranda, today. Lizzie has been making her annual batch of Green Baby Chutney. It's not a nice smell as it's cooking, because all you can smell is the vinegar and that smells horrible.

Anyway, although it takes ages to make and stinks the place out, I am reliably informed that it tastes pretty brilliant. It's called green baby chutney because it is made from marrows that are the size of a baby and vaguely baby-shaped (except they don't have legs) or arms, of course! I like the name because of the recycling tinge to it and that is very a la mode at the moment. And we like to be a la mode ici en France.

Peach time

I know I'm always going on about the figs that are on the tree just above where I stand on the veranda but, because of the weather this year, they aren't ripening very well.

It is peach time, however. This photo is of peaches in the garden last year. Don't they look good?

There were three varieties: yellow, white and red. I say were, because the red one fell over last year. It was cut off at ground level and although a new one has sprung from the stump, it is too soon for it to be having fruit. Then this year, the white peach tree died and had to be cut down. Only the yellow peach tree (the oldest) is left. It was so laden with fruit that Lisbeth had to prop some branches up because they were so heavy they were touching the ground.

It is truly the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Legumes?

To have a break from working in the flat, today, Lisbeth has been restocking patches of her vegetable garden with things for the winter. She planted another big patch of leeks and then moved on to plant these sprouty things shown at the bottom of the bed. I can't tell you what they are because Lisbeth doesn't know.

She bought them from one of the producteurs in the market, when buying the leeks. The man said that they were a winter vegetable and, although she couldn't work out exactly what they were, she decided to give them a go.

They look a bit cabbagey to me but we shall just have to wait and see. Whatever they are, it will make a change from leeks. It is pretty much 'leek city' down there!

Mrs Mop goes Dervish

Lisbeth is doing her whirling dervish thing all over the place. She was down the garden weeding and tidying at 6.30 am and has been cleaning in the house, once the Big Builder was up and running on the next job. Work is progressing well: inside, outside and in the big builder's department. And the sun is shining. Enfin! (That's 'at last' in French.)

My own contribution to the dervish activity, this afternoon, is to monitor the little clockwork cow that is timing the freezing of the beans. After blanching them, Lisbeth cools them in water and then lays them on metal trays in the freezer so that they freeze individually and fast. I'm monitoring the second lot. Lisbeth has already done two lots of broccoli. The little cow ticks and turns and, at this very moment, there are 14 minutes of the 45 to go. Tick tock!

Lisbeth learns:

How to make chicken liver pate (with accent), different dressings for salads; how to cook lamb with spices and make horses douvres (or whatever!). Then there's different salads; an easy way to thicken things (?) and great gin and tonics. (Although she still doesn't have the 'right' glasses, apparently!)

Mr dancer is learning the difference between pate (accent) and 'rillets'; how to cook haricot verts with garlic and a fruit tart with macaroons.

The kitchen is full of different breads, huge garlics, lemons (for the gin), olives, crinkly lettuce, fab cheeses and goodness knows what else. Lisbeth and Mr Dancer whiz in and out like bats out of hell! Yesterday they went to the market, cut down a dead peach tree, had a bonfire, cleaned off the moss on the garden path, cooked a great meal (and drank rather a lot). Today, they've done weeding. Lisbeth wrote a difficult letter (in French) has been mowing and done more weeding and pruning. Mr Dancer has cleaned all the moss off the steps and done more food.

I'm worn out just watching!

If your garlic wouldn't grow...........

You'd......

Dig it all up - wash it all off - and start all over again

back in the kitchen.......

and eat it.

What would you do if your garlic didn't grow?

When Lisbeth had her vegetable garden in England, it was not an uncommon occurrence for her to plant (with a 100% success rate) the garlic cloves that she had bought to use for cooking. So with this in mind, about three weeks ago, Lisbeth planted the remaining six cloves of her kitchen garlic.

However today, after she had finished planting her leeks, she lost patience waiting for the garlic to show itself and decided to have a bit of a poke about in the earth to see if there were any signs of life. Sadly, when she scraped away the soil, she found her cloves in tact, with not a sprout in sight.

So what, if you were her, would you do now?

Après la guerre (Nov 2004)

The troops see some action

Here we have friends and family pitching in to help with the work. And there was plenty of it. From what I can make out, the main project:- cutting the bamboo, dealing with hundreds of cut lengths, digging the trench, putting in the plastic, dragging out the roots (with a digger and by hand) and leveling the ground afterwards - spread over the whole of 2004. In fact, Lisbeth says she has only just finished clearing the last of the root balls. It sounds horrendous and far too much like hard work for this faineant mouton.

However, as it is all done and looking good, I am hoping to spend some time in the bamboo, myself, this summer. If I do, I'll make sure I post a photo.

Battling the bamboo

Before all the excitement of my going outside and now expecting a visitor, I was talking about birds in the bamboo. For continuity, I was planning to stay on the subject of bamboo and talk about how to keep it under control. So, if you've all recovered from the drama of yesterday's noon walk, I'll pick up where I left off.

You will have seen Lisbeth's big patch of bamboo (post for Friday 11th May). There are lots of different types and according to Lisbeth the one here, in this garden, is particularly voracious. When she first moved in, it was pretty much out of control. The roots were running right across the neighbour's garden and she would find great rolls of them leaning by the fence on her return. On the opposite side, the roots were also heading off in every direction into her own garden in a sort of vegetarian version of Dune.

If the young shoots you can see in the photo (up against her neighbour's fence) are not cut down, they will grow anything from 12-18 or even 20 feet high. Cutting them off will make it look tidy but the 'Dune effect', below ground, will be busy creating even more for the following year.

So what Lisbeth did was:

• Made a trench, just under a meter deep (and wide enough to stand in) around a section that she wanted to keep
  
• Put a strip of special thick plastic in all the way round. (It comes in long lengths and is a meter wide)
  
• The plastic was positioned at an angle of 15 degrees (sloping outwards) leaving 3-4 inches showing above ground
  
• The join was tightly held together with metal strips
  
• The earth that holds the plastic in place was very firmly tamped down so that the plastic can't move from its 15 degree angle.
• She then poisoned (several times!) or dug up all the bamboo outside the plastic.
  

Eh voila!

I'll see if I can find some more photos for tomorrow.

Birds in the bamboo

While we're on the subject of birds, I thought I would tell you about the birds in the bamboo.

In Lisbeth's garden there is quite a big area of bamboo, as you can see. Every night from spring until the autumn, her bamboo is home to hundreds of birds who come to roost in it at night. They start arriving in ones and twos, then they come in small groups. When the light begins to fade they start swooping down, either in a continual stream or in bigger groups. They sort of dive-bomb into the tops of the leaves, with the last ones, that have been hanging around on the church tower, hurtling in as if the bat out of hell was on their tails.

They are very noisy. It begins with a few twitterings but as more arrive, they get noisier and noisier as they chatter and flutter about in the top of the leaves. By the time it is nearly dark, they are making an amazing amount of noise. Then, quite without warning, they fall silent.

Great photos (not of the hedge)

I know I said I'd bring up my going outside today, however, Lisbeth has been cutting the big hedge and this is her most hated job in the garden. It is tall, (over 12 ft, I would guess) which means she has to go up a step ladder right to the top and then reach some more and, as the ground isn't even or firm, it's always a bit dicey. Also, the temperatures have been near 30 degrees so I felt that it wasn't worth even broaching my going outside.

What I have been doing is looking at some great photos. This one features Harper, from Telford: just fabulous. And in this one the star is only 3 years old, yet weighs 321 pounds!

A great site to while away the hours!

Me inside, Lisbeth outside. Mmmmmm!

I'm still not outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The weather is just great and I'm still in my winter quarters. I am just going to raise the subject of my location, ready or not! I just can't go on inside any longer. I did promise photos as soon as I get outside. However, Lisbeth took this yesterday so it's on the computer. It's of her box ball. I know! Look really hard and you can just see a very small blob over the pot in the middle of the photo. (Small = far away? No, small = small!)

It's been another nice day and Lisbeth has been working on the laurel hedge that was cut down before she left in December. There's been ivy to clear away and a lot of weeding and heavy work, digging out some of the old roots and planting two new replacement shrubs, to complete the line. It has taken her all day and I know she dug over part of the veg garden before breakfast but it isn't like her to be so focused on other things that she doesn't have time for me. I'll raise it tomorrow and keep you posted (literally).

Slowing down and planting shrubs

It's been a more relaxing day today and Lisbeth has really slowed down. (That is, if you count only working from 8 - 11 am and then from 3.30 - 7 pm, slowing down!) At 11 am, she planned to take her morning coffee and once-a-week croissant upstairs to her bedroom and relax on her bed, with the windows open, and listen to the Archers Omnibus! (I know, culture bypass, or what! Although she doesn't have a TV so I suppose a bit of radio soap is acceptable. And there is all that stuff about Brian and Jennifer and Brian's son by another woman who's now got cancer and might die and she wants him and Jennifer to look after the child if she dies.........................)

Anyway, I digress. After making sure that she just has time to boil the kettle and heat the milk by eleven 'o' clock, (She gets the croissant and bread from the Bar over the square.), at five minutes to 11, the gas bottle runs out!!!!!! Imagine......... She flies past me and trundles a new one from the back room through to the kitchen and does the necessary disconnecting and reconnecting. (She keeps a tool for this job hanging in the kitchen.) I think I saw her going up the stairs with her tray around five past 11, missing only the first few minutes. (We're an hour ahead in France, if you're wondering!)

She seems to have enjoyed this and went back after lunch to read her book and have a rest for an hour. This is so unusual for her. I hope it's done her some good.

As I write this post, it's 8.45-ish at the end of another beautiful sunny day. Lisbeth is on the terrace with a glass of wine (only the second since she arrived) and some French bread and nice cheese. I can hear the birds that roost in her bamboo twittering as they settle for the night and the song of a blackbird, just outside the door. In the distance I can hear a cuckoo and there is the smell a BBQ, from the neighbour, wafting into the house through the open windows.

As the light fades and the blackbird continues to sing, I can't imagine a nicer place to be.

P.S. In case you're wondering what she was doing today, she was planting more shrubs: dug holes this morning; planted them and watered this evening. She's also re potted a box bush that is going to be pruned to a ball on a stem. (At the moment it's more like a small blob on a stem. I'll see if I can get a photo when I finally get outside.)

And the fig tree has knobs on

More work in the garden today. I've hardly seen Lisbeth. She's passed me lots of times going into the kitchen for water to mix up the spray for weeding the paths. You can only do this when the weather is nice, apparently, and it's been very warm and sunny today. I heard Lisbeth telling someone that the fig tree has little knobs on the branches (tiny figs) and is starting to make leaves. I'm really looking forward to going outside for the summer. I will raise it with her when I think the time is right.

Garden Gains: I should say so!

No wonder Lisbeth's a bit stiff tonight. She's been moving stuff and sweeping and rearranging in the big garden room. Then there was weeding and cutting and pruning and more weeding and mowing and more mowing and still more mowing. There is masses left to do but, for the first time since she came back to France, the garden is looking as if someone lives here. It's been warmer out than in, today. I expect to be moving outside soon. That will be really nice.

She's a lumberjack and she's OK..........

I forgot to say that Lisbeth was out working with her chainsaw on Friday. (This photo is actually from last year but it gives an idea of what she's about!)

Anyway, she was cutting down the tree that you can just see on the right. No, not the thin spindly one. The one next to that. You can only see some of the leaves. It's an old laurel and she wants to make a seating area and the tree is in the middle of the space. She had to get it done because her friend came today. (The one who's helping her design the garden.) They needed the tree gone so that they could really see the space. Their discussion went well and Lisbeth likes her friends ideas. They also discussed what shrubs and plants might be good to plant so as to obscure the back of the neighbour's shed.

In the photo she's using a sawing-horse. Yesterday, it was more 'free-hand' as she lopped off the branches from the top down. She dealt with all the small stuff, immediately, putting it ready for burning at the end of the garden, leaving the bigger stuff stacked up for another chain-saw session.

P.S. She got a bit frustrated at the end of the day because she mislaid the nut that holds the chain in place. You have to undo it to dismantle the chain part of the chainsaw for cleaning and when she came to put it back together, the nut had disappeared. It took her ages to find that it had rolled under a plant. I kept out of the way and prayed the nut fairy would come to the rescue.

Pruning the vines

After lunch, today, Lisbeth pruned the two grape vines that grow, one along the wall of the terrace and the other against the house. For those of you in England, and in case you buy a house in France, you may be interested to know that you take off all old shoots leaving the newer ones. Of the newer ones, you select only one (nearest the mother) and cut it back to two buds. The rest you cut out. The other thing to remember is that you don't want too many shoots on the mother, so you cut out everything other than good young shoots approximately 2ft 6" apart. And that's pruning the vine. (I'm aware that this must be sounding like some sort of country dance: a French version of 'strip the willow'!) Anyway, Lisbeth went on to prune other things until it rained. Then we lit the open fire and did a bit of 'being by the fire'. What more could anyone want?

Mending with marmalade and talking

Lisbeth appears to be on the mend. She pretty much lost her voice yesterday but it isn't too bad today. She has been doing some cleaning (which I know she hates), and I note that there is another batch of marmalade on the go in the kitchen. Both activities are good signs of recovery.

However, she's very anxious about getting all the outside projects finished before she leaves for Christmas in the UK, but you can only do what you can do, I keep telling her. She says she really needs to finish digging out small trees and roots from near the good neighbour's fence so that she can plant some shrubs before it gets too cold. This involves more work with a pick-axe and an axe (to chop out bamboo roots) and you can't do that if you're not well.

Anyway, this afternoon we had a visit from a friend who was passing and we did lots of tea and talking by the wood burner. You know: men, religion, Enneagram (don't ask!) and stuff. Then we had a visit from her French neighbour to ask about an English carol that she is learning. She had some interesting questions re English pronunciation, which I will probably be asked to discuss in my next formal talking practice.