Having arrived again from Chamonix we had a week to get installed in the barn and set the garden up for the summer. It’s a great time of year full of little surprises. Finding plants amongst the weeds and giving them space to breath again after the winter. And let’s face it, when we say “garden”, we are actually trying to tame a bit of a field. We introduce plants that one would not normally find in a field and try to remove plants that should be there but are not to our liking. Then there are the critters. The slimy black ones that eat seedlings and salad crops and the big brown furry ones that eat the fresh tips off the fruit bushes and beats.

We have learnt over the years that going at it, full throttle, is not good for our bodies. These days we do a little of something and then do something else. Then go back to the first thing. One could do all the strimming in a day, or one can do a tank of fuel each morning first thing before it gets too hot, and take a week to clear the place. There are, of course dependencies. Clearing some weeds to allow some compost to be dug out of the heap before the fresh grass cuttings get put on the compost heap for example.

By the end of the week we had all the weeding done and plant supports in place for the flowers, all the strimming done and even managed a couple of walks. One over Pic de la Fonta, above Couflens, and the other, from the barn doing a loop via Bois de Lanette. The wild flowers were amazing.