Morning
It was a cool grey morning yesterday and by 11 was drizzling. We gave up at noon as the drizzle turned to full on rain . In the afternoon , before our friends arrived I dusted and polished the wood furniture, it all helps to eradicate the musty smell. Laetitia said she had not done that, but everything else is good, no cobwebs, spiders or dead flues, though Bob has found a few dead mice . Elisabeth and Bertrand stayed a couple of hours, and it was so nice to see them, after nearly 2 years
Today is supposed to be a bit warmer and drier and we may get more done, this evening we are at our English friends for a meal and a good long catchup. I think Stanley, you are right, the wisteria is indicative of the growth that has taken place but Yves has kept the lawns and main hedge cut as well as the shrubs in the Spring. The veggie plot was covered in groundsheets apart from the bit we planted last year, however it is all vastly overgrown, and even the ground sheets are covered.The flower borders have grown , spread, died back and regrown so all need a good prune. However there is no rush for any of these, it was the wisteria we were really worried about. The hydrangeas are magnificent and are benefitting from this damp weather, I must photograph them. Luckily the forecast for next week is in the lower 20s rather than 15 degrees, and the rainfall is down to 25 % instead of 90% . Its a good job I like gardening!
Yesterday I did manage to prune a lot of my roses and started cutting back the herb patch whilst Bob mowed the rough grass round his railway track and round the veggie garden to make them more accessible . I cut some of the long branches off the bay, luckily they were very soft wood so now it is a more manageable height for Bob to use the hedge trimmer should it ever be dry enough to use it! Today I hope to cut back the overgrown flower borders because in there I can see more roses and gladioli in flower. The vegetable garden tidying will have to wait till it is a bit drier as it is a hands and knees job. We did tackle a bit of it last night when I realised we had not bought potatoes when we shopped on our way here. I suddenly thought that if any potatoes had not been dug up last year by the neighbours some would have re grown this year and produced a crop. I was right, we found enough for tea, and I am sure there will be more if we can find the soil.
So the big tidy continues. Sounds energetic but there is a lot of chill out time too. We have no television as the satellite has changed and we need to reposition the dish. Bob tried yesterday and we managed to find SKY satellite. However nearly everything was a a channel that had to be paid for. We did find some free ones, ITV, several Religious channels and pop channels and one that we er ...flicked through rather quickly
i did some of my embroidery whilst Bob was outside in the drizzle testing the dish for possible signals. I like to keep my supervision of such jobs, warm and dry. At least we managed to get our old CD player and ipods to work so there is some evening entertainment .
Have a good day, hope the weather is not too bad.
