FRESH VEGETABLES, SUNSHINE and STONE CARVING

The lovely weather continues, I got quite burnt last Thursday when I gave a stone carving lesson all day on the terrace. My shoulders and neck are still sore. I'm very pleased with the works of art produced, really surprising, as they always are, since one has no way of knowing what's inside the stone and what the effect will be. Here are pictures of the best piece, a fish jumping out of a piece of rock, the only one that was completely finished. Click on the picture to get a close up view. I am giving another class next Saturday.

The week before last I had the visit of an English couchsurfer for three days. We knew each other from chatting on a couchsurfing forum, and as we had foreseen, we got on really well. And he very kindly finished painting my sitting room ceiling (a major step in the right direction for those who know my house!).

And here is a picture of the back of the sleeveless pullover I have knitted for Cécile (she requested it in winter, it's now summer as you will have realised... luckily, winter comes round again!). The front is plainer. It's a bit of a funny shape, and too short, but never mind, it'll keep the bit of her it covers nice and warm, it's cashmere (mostly). I'll send it to England, Cécile, since you are going soon, I'll save on postage!

My garden is growing, but needs a lot of water. I've planted melons, as I'm convinced the good weather is going to last until September. October, why not! I pick a handful of strawberries each day (but the blackbirds are having a feastday with them), and I have a few wild strawberries almost ready. Raspberries just have to ripen. My runner beans have not worked at all, but my French beans came up almost as soon as I planted them. Tomatoes, salads, artichokes, coriander, new potatoes, broad beans, I'm really enjoying the fruits of my labour, and just wandering around looking at it all grow. Here are a few photos.

First plum tomatoes

First baby potimarron





Very proud of this - first artichoke!

First blueberries

Coriander and new potatoes

First courgette

Michael and Steve, we were talking last time I was in Dorset about how Daddy would have loved new technology, computers, digital cameras, etc. I was mowing the other day, I have a little tiny Flymo - do you remember how excited he was when he first bought a Flymo? And when he got a microwave? He microwaved everything in sight! Sad he didn't live to see Facebook and Skype!

I've just returned from visiting a few Trait Breton carthorses and their foals. What beautiful animals. But, boy was it hot again, out in the middle of a field mid afternoon.

UPDATE ON THE GARDEN, etc...

Apparently not everyone remembers the photos of my palm tree last year, so here is a reminder.

I've been working so hard. I've transferred things from my terraces down into the garden. I've cut a flowerbed into the lawn on the opposite side of the path to the vegetable patch, and brought up a maple from the bottom of the garden and two azaleas. I planted two holly seedlings that were on my front terrace, a virburnum, a large camelia from the back terrace which has been in the same pot for 6 years, a small camelia from the front terrace, I planted out all the bulbs which flowered in pots this spring, all the dahlias I brought back from England.  There are very tall ferns growing already in that flowerbed, and it looks as if it's been there for ages.

Last week I planted three lupin plants I bought, and brought up another maple from the bottom of the garden, a big one this time, I had a hell of a job getting it out of the ground. I've planted it behind my new apple trees, to the north of them, but it's looking very sad, I hope it will survive.

I've sown my runner beans (which don't seem to be coming up...), sweet peas and nasturtiums. I planted out a potimarron (a small sweet pumpkin) and a chili pepper which I have protected with glass cloches. Two aubergines, two bell peppers, lots of flower seeds. Eleven tomato plants. A dozen batavia salads.

The garlic I planted three weeks ago is up, and the radishes I sowed on top of the potatoes. The earlier radishes have been eaten.

I went  to a session of thai massage a couple of weeks ago, I needed it after all this gardening, my back was hurting, which is rare for me. The massage was free, with ovs. And the same evening, I went to the art meeting (remember 6 weeks ago I did a painting for the theme "Air, Terre, Eau, Feu".). This time the theme was "Anatomie". I knitted a frog and felted its innards (following a model by  found on internet, thank you craftyhedgehog@etsy.com ) and pinned to a corkboard, like we did in biology. It was far more original than drawings of naked ladies that other people did, and everybody found it  funny! The next theme is "L'histoire", very uninspiring, too broad.

It continues to be very hot, but cold at night. I did a lamb and mint sauce, roast potatoes and peas lunch for Eastern Sunday for 4 other people from ovs and they loved it. I did loads of lamb and even more loads of gravy so I'd have lots for shepherd's pie afterwards, but they ate three quarters of the lamb and nine tenths of the gravy! We ate out on the terrace.

I'm afraid the RSPCA may come and check on the welfare of my animals, they are so terribly stressed...

I have just won the first match of the new chess tournament. Maybe I'll go a stage further this time!

DIRECTION IN LIFE....

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter!" " (Lewis Carroll, Alice...).

MY PALM TREE IS FLOWERING AGAIN!

Big fat buds about to open! Unbelievable that it should flower two years running.

I"ve been doing a lot of gardening, digging up more of my lawn, moving plants from the bottom of the garden to the top, I even mowed the little bit of lawn that is left yesterday evening (wonders never cease, it's been two years since it saw a mower!). I've planted my potatoes, garlic, sown more radishes, salad, calendula. I've cut down a few dead bamboo poles and have made teepees around which to plant runner beans. My broad beans have come up, but thanks to all the cats that frequent my garden, that dig and roll in freshly dug soil, there are holes in the line, and some seeds which have been pushed out of alignment. Never mind. I'm so pleased to see it all growing.

Crab apple in flower on the terrace

Rhododendron "Jack"

New trough for my pine tree on my front terrace

Apple tree in flower in the garden below the terrace

Progress in the veg garden

 
 

Grama, 94th birthday

 



I went to England for a long weekend at the beginning of April for my Mum's 94th birthday. Nicholas came down from London, which was lovely, we managed to have a couple of pub lunches and a good chat. He's in Thailand on holiday now. The weather wasn't very good, but Mum's garden looked lovely. We had a celebration seafood lunch for her birthday on Sunday.

Grama's 94th birthday

I've finished another couple of pieces of pottery, a little serving dish for hors d'oeuvres, or amuse-gueule, in the shape of a Breton triskell, and a lopsided (on purpose!) jug with a snake handle and glaze that I wanted to look like the waves of a certain famous Japanese artist. Not bad, I'm quite pleased with it.





Waves on the Wave jug



Snake handle of Wave jug



I organized a "sortie" for my Quimper ovs (on va sortir) group. Four people came to lunch last Sunday to learn to make Chinese chicken noodle soup. It was lovely weather, we ate on the terrace and they went away with the recipe. I've just organized for next Saturday an exchange of plants: each person brings from 1 to 5 plants, and can take away the same number of someone else's. I may have cut the timing a bit fine, I'm wondering whether people will have time to prepare plants in three days... we'll see. And I'm going to a wine tasting on Thursday. Very busy, you can see!



Triskell bowl






Triskell bowl (close up)








Seafood lunch for Grama's birthday

Can't get the photos in the right order. Never mind, you get the gist?

OLD FASHIONED HOT CHOCOLATE

It has been a beautiful Spring weekend, sunny but with a sometimes chilly north wind. I invited a small group of people to my house on Saturday to learn how to make scones. It's funny how much enthusiasm the French show for anything "teatimey" about English cuisine and reject all the rest! They were delighted, we ate lots of scones with Jersey cream (can't get clotted here) and raspberry jam and they went away with leftovers and the recipe.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I went to the second of the five theatre/concert events that the children gave me for my birthday. It was called "Concert au Chocolat n°5" and was a Chostakovitch and Tchaikowsky chamber concert (a trio of exteeeeemely talented young men, piano, violin and cello) and if one arrived half an hour early, it was preceded by a cup of chocolate made in the old fashioned way, by the most famous of Quimper's chocolatiers. It was absolutely delicious, I've never tasted anything like it. Well, it tasted like chocolate of course, but the texture was amazing, like drinking silk. Beautifully served in quite large, warmed cups, on a large oval saucer, with three beautiful little chocolates on the side. Quite a treat. And the concert was most excellent.

http://www.theatre-cornouaille.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=463&Itemid=59

It was quite surprising to come out of the theatre into the broad daylight of a sunny Spring evening!

I went to see The King's Speech the day before yesterday. I found a cinema in Quimper where it was playing in English. Wonderful film, fantastic actors, but quite stressful. One found oneself completely rigid with the effort of trying to help the poor man out.

I have photographed my two latest pieces of pottery. One is a simple shell shaped bowl, the other a large rather lopsided plant pot with the front and back sculpted in a sort of seaside rocks theme. Difficult to describe the inspiration, rocks at low tide, with seaweed, crevices, water, etc. (P.S. Lopsided with me is entirely intentional!)

I have been putting the power hose over my back terrace. It was filthy with moss, grime, mud, and lots of bits of plant pots that fell apart during last winter's cold weather. It's such hard work, but at least the result is immediate. I have to do the front as well, but am not quite sure how, since it slopes down towards the house and front door and all the water will run down and maybe not drain away fast enough before inundating me! I think very small doses will do it, stopping and starting so that the water has time to disappear. I've got lots of pretty flowers on my front terrace, hyacinths (which are starting to fall over but which are a lovely colour), daffodils,  and various shrubs with sweet smelling flowers.  (The "boards" behind the daffodils are the old door of the vegetable cellar in Le Mée!).

My back garden is also progressing, but more slowly now that the pressure of planting is off. I've sown a few seeds, cleared a bit more turf, and transplanted various things which were not in the right place.

I'M A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY...

I haven't written in a long time, I've been doing so much, it's hard to know where to begin.

Just after the New Year, I joined a nation-wide (world wide in fact) group with a section in Quimper, called On Va Sortir, all sorts of outings and activities are organised by various members, and one can join in whatever takes ones fancy. So I've been to restaurants, knitting bees, bingo evenings, bowling, English conversation meetings, etc etc, which has kept me very busy and I've made a few friends. The chess tournament was part of that... by the way, I got eliminated in the second round!

I have been reading John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I can recommend it,  easy to read. He writes simply and with a lot of humour, and the book is an insight into America 50 years ago, before camping cars, mobile phones, internet, almost before television. Before political correctness, before black people held positions of importance and power, before ecology.

I've also been listening to The Millenium Trilogy as an audio book, or rather three audio books, that go on for days and days. I really enjoyed it, anyone who enjoys audio books should listen to it, it's remarkable value and really well put together (get the version read by Saul Reichlin). But I wouldn't read the paper version or go and see the film.

The weather was mild in February and I did a lot of gardening. With Christmas money from Michael I bought various plants, including twenty Eleagnus angustifola to plant as a hedge between me and my neighbours. I planted two a day, just after lunch usually when the temperature outside was at its highest. But I had to clear before planting, so it was actually quite strenuous. I had to deturf and get rid of loads of couch grass, which will mean that much less to have to look at next summer when it grows and I haven't mown. I've finished planting and have put bark around them.



Next I planted two cordon apple trees as a backing to my future fruit plot with money Stephen gave me for my birthday!  I did it very carefully with posts covered in coconut husk and wire and everything. Looks good. I've unplanted other things, a couple of brooms, an osmanthus burkwoodii which obviously was not happy since it hasn't grown in three years, a couple of grasses... All the turf I remove I chuck to a lower level of the garden which I shan't have time to do this year.

And continuing deturfing, I planted three artichoke plants and three rhubarb, in front of the hedge. Then I made enough room for a strawberry bed, this involved moving an enormous pile of rubbish, wood, branches, clippings which I've been accumulating for three years. I've piled it all up between me and my neighbour in a lower part of the garden, it makes quite an acceptable barrier. And I cut down the willow tree right in the middle of the plot, but can't get rid of the stump or the roots. It'll grow again throughout the summer. But I had a brainwave, and instead of chucking out the bits I cut off, I have woven a willow barrier, hedge, whatnot, partly with willow cuttings, partly just long branches. Not a work of art (Tom Deacon would not be proud of me!), but I'm quite pleased with it nonetheless. It makes a backing to my apple trees and will shelter them from north winds next winter. It also sort of finishes off the patch.



Looks more professional with cloches!





Today I planted out the strawberries in the black plastic, a few herbs along the end of the patch, and yesterday I put in a row of broad beans. So I'm inordinately proud of myself and shall continue to deturf, and plant a mixture of vegetables and lilies and this and that that needs moving from elsewhere in the garden or terrace.

Ellie  had her stitches out and has the neatest, tiniest little scar you ever saw. All a thing of the past.

I'm knitting myself an enormous jacket in grey wool. Lots of complicated stitches, endless counting, mistakes and undoing. But when I get it right, it looks good. I've also almost finished a sleeveless pullover for Cécile at her request. They had a series of snowstorms this winter, there are pictures on her blog http://mariusamazir.blogspot.com/.

Marius spent a week in Paris with Jacques and loved it. He's very independent at only four years old, didn't seem to miss his family and had a great time. Pictures of that also on his blog.

I'm taking part in an art club outing this evening. We had to create something on the theme "The Four Elements" (air, earth, water, fire). So I've done an acrylic and felt tip pencil rendering of Leonardo da Vinci's birth chart, rather quickly done I'm afraid, not brilliant, a bit messy, but at least I've got something to take with me this evening.

There we are, quick round up of a month's activities.