Flowers and happenings this week in St André

The roses have suffered in the downpours we’ve had lately.  The blooms are browned and sodden.  They’ve been weighed down with the quantity of water that’s fallen on them and this week I decided to take the secateurs to them.  The first to get my attention was the small apricot coloured rose in the driveway and progressed to the red floribunda by the rabbit area.  I’d just started on the small climbing rose on Small Cottage when I noticed my neighbour, Paulette coming up the lane from the woods where she had been walking.  She came up my drive and we chatted in the garden, talking about the Crocosmia Lucifer which I have a small clump of in the large flowerbed

 

 

and she has a huge drift of in her garden, alongside huge white daisies which set them off beautifully.  My white daises are in the front of the bed which was designated for herbs some years ago but which has been taken over by all sorts now. 

I must sort it out in the Autumn.  I have beautiful lavender coloured flowering Perovskia at the back of the herb bed which is almost complete hidden by the very tall fennel and the Shasta daisies.

 

 

 

 

 

My bedroom needed clearing up – clothes seem to accumulate on a large stool in there.  I put a couple of piles of them out for washing, along with my bedding and all the tea towels from the kitchen.  The weather was sunny and hot and I easily dried three loads of washing – all very satisfying as I folded them neatly, inhaling the freshly washed fragrance before putting them all away where they belonged.   Later my friend who cleans the cottages for me came in and did my house too which was very good news. 

 

 

The kitchen is progressing - slowly - and my worker will be back on Friday to do some more.  All the chickens have been washed and put back on the tops on a temporary basis.

 

Most, but not all, of the new doors are now up and I have been sorting out the stuff in the cupboards and bringing the older dated stuff to the front.

I prepared an out of date packet of couscous and took it up to my appreciative hens and sat for a while in their area watching them and enjoying being outside.

 

Yesterday evening I took this quick snap of swallows on the telephone wires - to me they always look like notes on a music stave.

 

After seeing a snake last week – not sure what sort –  while walking up to the field using my short cut, I have been taking the longer way round on the lane when the sun is out in case it might be emerging from the lush undergrowth to sunbathe on the path I have made treading down the grass while walking up to do the animals or gardening in the veggie beds or polytunnel.   The verges are all overgrown and need the commune to come and trim them a little to improve vision for drivers, though these particular photos don't show the worst parts.

 I am also now wearing socks and cloggy shoes instead of flip flops.   It’s strange how things change.  In my twenties, I was a snake handler and used to milk Malayan Pit Vipers for their venom.  Now I couldn’t touch a snake if you begged me!   The three cats follow me when I go up to the field.  I worry about them wandering all over the road, they never keep into the verge, but luckily there is very little traffic around here.   As soon as I’ve finished whatever I’m doing and set off for home again, there they are running around my feet trying to trip me up all the way back down to the house.

The poppies growing in front of the runner beans have been thriving and I have been collecting the formed seed heads and drying them in the kitchen. 

 

I already have a container of golden seeds from this multi-petalled pink variety.  I just wish the runner beans were doing as well as the poppies!  The poppies generally in the veggie beds have been brilliant.

 

I hate having knives that are blunt and luckily my neighbour Paulette’s husband is my official knifeman and sharpens my kitchen knives periodically.  She has just brought back to me my six most used knives. 

 

They come back in keen condition and I have to remember to take it easy when chopping things so I don’t cut my fingers off.  I know that a blunt knife is supposed to be more dangerous as you cut harder and if you slip you do more damage however, believe me, it is possible to do lethal things with my newly sharpened knives and I love using them.

 

This is one of the new beds created last year at my local SuperU, with grasses and Verbena bonariensis.  I they look lovely and they make me smile every time I pass them on the way into the shop.

 

The last photo is of my beautiful granddaughter, Mia, who's sitting outside with her beautiful Mummy, Emma.  It's hard to believe that Mia will be celebrating her first birthday in eleven days time.

Three things I like:

 

1.   One of my friends in England has just come through a bowel cancer operation thank goodness.

 

2.   Two separate couples are arriving tomorrow for my two cottages with www.rainbowcottagesinfrance.com

 

3.   A thank you gift of a heart which I was given yesterday.