There are a few signs of Spring appearing in the garden. Clumps of snowdrops, crocus, hazel catkins and these beautiful hellebores. The daphne ( which has recovered from last winter's freeze ) is nearly in flower and the blue tits have started to investigate the nesting boxes in the roof of the bird table. After all of the rain this winter the ground is absolutely sodden and it looks as though it will be a few weeks before it is dry enough to do anything much apart from some pruning and tidying up on any sunny days that come along - which will be very welcome. We are starting to think about the potager, which was rather less productive last year as the weather was so dry and then the rabbits ate everything except the courgettes and the tomatoes. At the moment a bit of dry would be a bonus but that still leaves the rabbits so we are going to invest in some chicken wire or similar fencing around about half of the veggie area to keep the pesky things out. Another job to add to the list!
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| A few of the jars of marmalade |
A couple of weeks ago we went to Chauvigny market for our annual supply of marmalade oranges. It was the coldest, wettest and most miserable day of the winter so far and many of the stallholders hadn't turned up. After clearing out one trader we found another one and took half of his stock too. Seville oranges are almost impossible to get here, so we get a variety called Amere, which are thinner skinned, but still make marvellous marmalade. 7 kilos of oranges, 8 grapefruit, a bag of lemons, 20 kilos of sugar, hours of chopping and boiling later we have a marmalade mountain. 86 jars to be precise, and not a single empty jar left anywhere. Luckily I have a network of people who kindly keep jars for me and donate them via my parents so when it comes to the next round of jam making supplies should be replenished.
Mark has been working hard in his studio, potting, firing, glazing and painting. He has several exhibitions lined up this year, at Whittlesford in March, then here at Chenevaux for a national open studios week-end in April, a one day event in St Savin in June and then a solo exhibition at Angles sur l'Anglin for the last week in August. You can find out about these at
www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com His weekly painting and pottery workshops have been very well attended as well and everybody has a great time chatting as well as creating.
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| Some of the pottery ladies and Mark |
