My
last post was written just 3 days before we set off on our journey to Normandy
and since then a lot has happened. After spending a couple of days with my dear
mother-in-law, we visited DS and his family for the weekend and finally arrived
here just before midnight a couple of weeks ago.
As
soon as we arrived we made the unwelcome discovery that, for the first time in
12 years of ownership, we had been visited by mice over the winter. Spiders and
their webs are always here to greet us, but mice have been conspicuous by their
absence until now. Thankfully they appear to have departed, having obviously
decided that our settee cushions aren’t to their taste, after having sampled
all but one of them.
The
next discovery was that it now takes us longer than in previous years to
recover from the preparations and the journey. No longer do we spring from our
beds the morning after our arrival, ready to do battle with the cobwebs and
unpack the van in less time than it takes to tell. We were very tired and knew
it, so the cleaning and unpacking stretched over a couple of days or more before
the last box and bag were emptied and the contents put away.
After
that it was the turn of the garden. The third discovery was that the tree
surgeon had done a wonderful job of cutting down and clearing away the three big
poplars and our beloved cherry tree, leaving us only a pile of cherry logs and
yet more ruts in the grass where his heavy equipment had unavoidably compressed
the winter-wet ground. Cutting the grass in some parts of the garden now feels like pushing
a mower over corrugated iron and DH has just invested in a mattock to help
level the worst of the ruts.
On
the positive side, we’ve discovered that even without our magnificent cherry
tree the garden still looks attractive and my little flower border is flourishing
as never before. The garden table and
chairs sit well in the lesser shade of the cherry tree on our boundary and we
are discussing with the tree surgeon the purchase and planting of not one but two trees to replace the coeur de pigeon
– a black cherry and an eating apple.
Another
positive is the weather, which has been warm and sunny almost all the time
since we arrived and indeed last week became very hot for a few days, though
nothing like as sweltering as further south in France. It has been lazy
weather, conducive to sitting in the shade with a book, rather than racing
around the garden with a mower, and my mental processes almost went onto
standby for a while, hence the lack of posts.
Today
is cool and rainy, freshening up the vegetation and making me feel awake
enough to string more than a couple of thoughts together. I’m starting to plan
ahead again and look forward to our normal pleasant summer pattern of meeting
up with friends, knitting and chatting happily at the weekly craft afternoon,
and getting lots of healthy exercise in the garden. We’re even getting regular visits
from last year’s kittens, now lithe and wary young cats who recognise a couple
of mugs when they see them. Oh, and the jam apricots are now in the shops again…
