March 2017
March is the month of our year when all thoughts turn to getting our garden in shape and ready for the season to come
This year I am working with a new ap on my kindle that allows me to list everything that needs doing. The night before a working day I go through our possibilities in time for the breakfast board meeting over fresh coffee with Mike. We decide what needs to be done then completely go off track and do something else but the job just gets pushed on daily and gets dealt with eventually. We are now way ahead or ourselves and feeling somewhat smug….
I committed to make the front of our home look gorgeous this season and started early with petunia and labella seeds. The lidle cheap seeds display then took a hit and I have more flowers waiting to be pricked out into final position than Kew gardens itself…..
We have had lots of lovely gatherings around our table this month and here is just one with Eric and Gill, on their way back to the UK, and John and Lynn on our monthly catch up. We have a couple of jolly get togethers developing with jay and Helen to sing our hearts out and practice the ukulele and with Elaine and Pat with a commitment to get around the table once a week for a French speaking supper. So far we have managed to speak in 15 minute spats and Mike and I are sharing our experiences and knowledge after 10 years walking the talk. Our friends sarah and Peter did the same with us all those years ago when we were raw, and expat like, in helping us understand how things work in France and our lunches with them still give us loads to discuss and compare.
I am still
trying to stay fitter than I was at the age of 21 and getting on the treadmill
makes that easier and very doable. When I am busy in the garden I do not have
to be so committed but on a quiet day, a little run and a lovely hot sauna does
me the world of good. Mike has decided it is really not his thing so the gym in
the barn has become mine…….all mine, and it is there that I put the world to
rights and plan our next steps and projects …
HOSS is
still well though a million times slower and sometimes just looks how I feel.
He has taken his retirement very seriously and as we ask nothing more of him he
asks for no more than a quiet and non-stressful life from us. He stays indoors when we go out and plods by
my side when I am out and about ……lovely boy…
Our
daffodils have come and gone this month and we have enjoyed every one of them
boasting the spring and showing us the way towards summer.
We got
invited out on the Daffodil run earlier in the month and joined up with a
lovely bunch of vintage and military vehicle enthusiasts to do a run to Saint
Mere Eglise for a lunch under cover at the cattle market to avoid the rain.
The sun
filtered through the grey sky and Ken took us on a convoy tour of a few little WW2
corners we knew nothing about and were eager to learn and appreciate.
Ken has an interesting
approach to the history of this area during WW2 and his before and after
collection of pictures is fascinating and very enjoyable. Roll on the next
rally, it is an opportunity for Mike and I to drive out in Monty with the
purpose of participating in a friendly rally full of good humour, great food
and bon ami.
Mike broke
his medical card and without it there is no medical attention without paying, unless it is
an emergency. It happened as Mike was about to start investigations with an
allergy clinic and while we were waiting for the card to be resent, we had to
pay for all the treatment and apply for the money to be reimbursed
mechanically. I keep a very tight handle
on our accounts, I call it a hobby so it does not become a chore, and I started
a new column, number 37 so I can more easily log reimbursed medical expenses
and then tally up against the payments back from our insurance and French
government. I am delighted to say that since October (I went back to my year start)
we paid for 377 euro of medical attention and we have received 377 euro back. After
ten years I have never seriously taken too much notice of the process but now I am convinced this is a great system
and one that works for us.
At last,
the gutter on the barn is finished. Thanks to my kindle to-do-list that I
manage accordingly to the weather and what is about to become urgent. I call
out a list of jobs in the morning for us to choose which is relevant
today. This job became urgent because it
was unfinished from when Mike and Jacob re roofed the barn last May and
although we had all the bits in stock it kept staying unfinished and now it is
done and the front of the barn is dry …..The barn door porch is next …..Watch
this space.
Every month
Mike and I set off with HOSS on board and head out for a short break in the
camper. We do not need holidays or time
away from our jobs or lifestyle but we do need to have a little cultural
exercise and a load of eye candy to revive our creativity and charge of
batteries doing something different, and
breathing different air. . This month we went to Liseux. There is a huge
Basilique that we have seen from the road going south many times before and
this time, we stopped. We had a lovely
afternoon mooching around this relatively modern church built in 1929 and
inaugurated in 1954. We took the time to understand this fabulous building and
interesting town.
The other
reason for our run outs is to attend Brocante markets so we can do what we enjoy
the most and that is to rummage through boxes of vintage treasures. I have made
a good and encouraging start with my online Etsy shop called maisonmamie. Every
day I post an item on line and every week I get people from all over the world
buying the little gems I have picked up in the markets.
This time
however we needed more than a little bag for my stock as Mike found this
adorable wind up gramophone with records for 50 euro. We camped in the car park of the market the
night before and got to the stalls at 7 in the morning. By the time I had
pockets full of treasures and Mike had his gramophone it was only 8:30 and we
went back for an English breakfast and a musical interlude. The sound that came
out of that little box made me squeal with tears in my eyes. It was lovely and
we are looking forward to taking it out in Monty to shows so we can have vintage
music on our vintage outings.
Oh joy, both the digger and the dumper came out of winter hibernation and Mike started to clear out the old compost area to make a digger and dumper parking area. It struck us that we are at the point now where we are revamping areas in the garden and undoing work we did many years ago. This area was a sheep briar in 2007 with loads of crinkly roofing for us to recycle ….which we did.
We made it into
a hedge surrounded compost area and used it for many years and now it is a digger
parking area.
this is a picture taken in 2007
The allotment in the garden is ready for action. I have
all the plants ready in the poly tunnel and now all we have to do is wait for
the sun to come out, and stay out. In this part of Normandy
there is a complicated French rhyme that talks about saint
frost who comes to kill your
plants so don’t put them out till after May 15…..well I have never been able to
last that long and so far I have never
had a disaster but there is no harm in getting the soil ready and if the frost
looks like it might just stay away on May 1st then I plant.
The strawberries are moved and cleared up, the broad beans
are in, and the other beds are manured
and waiting….
We had some fun and games wi La Post this month. I ordered some tissue paper to pack my treasures for posting and was expecting the parcel between 9:00 and 13:00 hours….. I was in my kitchen at four in the afternoon preparing dinner and the dog barked, I had not checked our post box and found a non delivery slip timed at four o'clock ……I was beside myself and called the depot at once to say the driver had not rung the bell. I was told that once a parcel is non delivered it had to be picked up from the depot. I was a very prickly customer at that point, this delivery had cost me nine euro so in my best google translate French I wrote a stinking e-mail to the people I had bought from and they took over and organised a new delivery which failed again. I threatened to cancel the whole order and got a delivery date that coincided with us needing to be out………so a big note to say …… Do not take this parcel back, leave it with the dog he is very well behaved….. , And hey presto, a box with tissue in it plus enough bubble wrap to keep me packing for the rest of the year….. che ching
We have been trying to grow Gunnera around the pond since
the day we moved in and after many bad starts we have now got three plants that
like living with us. The only problem is that the ducks like them too. Last
year I made a rough chicken wire coral and we still had one plant in a pot so Mike and I
decided that it was time to plant it and make this area the Gunnera space.
Mike was
unable to prize the plant out of the pot so he set to with a mallet and I have
a huge box of crocks this year’s pots.
With
the plants in and the duck protection put up, the job is done using stock and
stuff that we had hanging about. A
lovely afternoon in the pond area in the sun. and we now
have a Gunnerarium ……where our Gunnera plants can flourish without the ducks
picking at the best bits
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