Need to relax - come to Chenevaux!

Thinking about getting away for a lovely relaxing break?

The pool awaits ....... 

Fly to Poitiers, Tours or Limoges if you don't want to drive over!

Come and enjoy the pool, our 9 tee practice ( par 3 ) golf course, table tennis, croquet lawn and 7 acres of grounds!  There is canoeing, pony riding, Futuroscope and loads more nearby and Mark gives pottery and painting classes in his studio if you are feeling arty!

Just bring yourselves and a few clothes ...... 

e-mail us to book or find out more

call 0033 549913096

50 shades of .....

every colour except grey!

Red hot pokers and sisyrinchium on the "roundabout"

We've been following the Chelsea flower show on the television this week and loved seeing the range and diversity of show gardens.  We thought the Chatsworth garden stood out head and shoulders from the rest, and smiled at the first ever prize winning display of potatoes!  I was just thinking that the exhibitors work really hard to get their plants perfect and their displays immaculate, but one thing they don't have to worry about at Chelsea is weeding!  Here we've been pulling them out by the barrow full every day for weeks, and planting just has to wait.  However, the weather is getting warmer and the ground is getting drier so we may be over the worst now.

Here are some of the highlights of the Chenevaux flower show!

Rose Danse du Feu on the front of the barbeque palace.

Buddleia alternifolia - full of bees

An area of natural grasses, the croquet lawn is just in front of the wooden structure to the left.

That reminds me,  I mentioned a little while ago that we sometimes have unwelcome wildlife visitors and this week we were walking round and came across this ....., right in the croquet lawn.  Mark nearly had a fit and rushed off to see if the golf green was OK as our annual tournament is in only a couple of weeks time.  On close inspection we could see hoof prints which we think are wild boar and we also found acorns under the grass so think they, or hopefully it, was snouting around for them. Those squirrels have got a lot to answer for!

Not a laughing matter!

Since then Mark has reported the matter to the locals in Gorry's cafe, who have all talked about it and done nothing, and the boar seems to have gone away again.  But may be back!

Anyway back to the nice things .....

Beautiful peonies

I was going to put in another photo of some single pink peonies with lovely golden centres but then I noticed a huge dock plant in the front and a load of nettles behind so decided this one was better.  The flowering time is probably even shorter than that of irises but I just love these plants.  From the first sighting of the new growth coming through in the spring to the flowering of these glorious globes of gorgeousness these plants are well worth their fifteen minutes of fame.

Madame Alfred Carriere

This rose is climbing along the pergola in the back garden and has been flowering for about four weeks already.  Every time we go past there are a couple of dead heads to take off, hopefully it will continue to flower all summer.

Enough of the garden!  Mark has been busy in the studio and has just opened the kiln after a glaze firing.  More trauma!  He really packed the kiln carefully to maximise use of the space and had spent days on the items in it, throwing, first firing, then glazing - then he put the kiln on on Saturday night with the expectation that it would take about 12 hours to reach temperature.  18 hours later it had just finished!  As the kiln has to cool down from its internal temperature of 1250C to about 350C we then had to wait until late this morning (Monday) to open it and see if the firing had been successful - and as you can see it was!  Mark will now have to check each of the elements to see if any have blown, and replace them before he does any more firings.

Hurrah the kiln gods have been kind.

   These are some of the vessels that were at the back of the top shelf.

Even after a day the pots are still too hot to handle.  This is a stoneware bowl, thrown on the wheel.

And a close-up of the glaze which is rather beautiful.

At the moment Mark's making a built-in barbeque on the terrace at the end of the barbeque palace, summer's here!

A bit of imagination needed at the moment!

May photos from Chenevaux

1st May is a public holiday here and at the local spa town of La Roche Posay people turned out in the pouring rain to take part in the events that were taking place all round the medieval area .....

Firemen who had just had a water fight against the local police in the rain!

Forging iron

A vintage car ralley

Woodcarving in the donjon

A stroll round the medieval area

Fab-u-lous roses!

And various things to eat including a local biscuit, very similar to shortbread, called Broye.

Oh yes, and Mark had a shop for the day!

By the time we had cleaned the windows at least people could see his work!

Here at Chenevaux we have gone from bare trees, shrubs just starting to go green and daffodils to green green green everywhere in the space of two weeks.  Mark can hardly keep up with the mowing and the weeding is becoming more like a jungle clearance!

Blossom came and went in the space of a week.

Wisteria and irises along the front of the house

This wisteria died back and has regrown from below the graft - it was pink originally
but has reverted to blue which is actually a nicer colour against the buff walls.

Bare trees and apple blossom on 21st April, taken at sunrise. 

Green everywhere on 4th May, taken mid afternoon.

There's another public holiday on Friday 8th, more excitement!

April at Chenevaux

Yesterday was the spring brocante at Angles sur l'Anglin just up the road and everybody was out and about enjoying the sunshine and finding bargains.  We came home with a masonry trowel, a cutting board and a plant stand that I simply couldn't live without!

Brocanting at Angles sur l'anglin.

The cafes and restaurants have put out their tables and chairs as the forecast for the this week is up in the 20's.  A couple of the eateries have changed hands, one is now offering traditional French cuisine using local suppliers for the ingredients which we will try before too long.  These oysters come from the Ile d'Oleron on the west coast and are really wonderful and so fresh.

Oysters from Ile d'Oleron

Another change, this one in St Pierre, is that the local shop has changed its name!  As anybody who has been to stay at Chenevaux will know, the name Huit a Huit was a long time source of humour as it was never actually open from 8 til 8 at all. f you haven't been to stay at Chenevaux yet, think about the opposite of "Open all Hours" and you are close to the reality!  anyway, its now called Proxi - but I think the original name will stick for a long time to come.

New signage on the village shop

We have had some lovely sunny days recently and Mark has been busy cleaning the pool so its sparkling!  Peach, nectarine and plum blossom are all out and the cherry blossom is just starting to appear.  Cowslips, violas and grape hyacinths are poking through the grass and lots of the spring flowering shrubs are in bloom.  A flowering currant was looking really pretty until a hare scraped at it and pulled a load of branches and flowers off, and we had to put netting round a group of phormium plants as we noticed that wild boar had been snouting round them to get at the roots.  Its all very well this countryside lark but sometimes .....! 

The birds make up for it though as they are singing away from dawn to dusk and the other day I opened the kitchen window and heard a cuckoo, followed by a pheasant.  Bird boxes are occupied and a woodpecker is a regular visitor to our bird table where it feasts on fat balls.  I had to take the photo through a closed window so its not the best.

Our greedy woodpecker

This pair of Poitou donkeys lives on the way to la Roche Posay.  They are a breed that originate from our area - the Poitou.  It is one of the largest breeds of donkey and was selected for its size so that it could be used as a working animal on farms.  The coat is meant to look long and shaggy! There aren't many of them left now as they aren't needed on farms any more and I believe they have been classed as a rare breed.

Poitou donkeys  

Happy Easter!

March at Chenevaux

Even though spring is well on its way and we have had some lovely sunny days recently with temperatures into the low 20s, today is rather chilly again so as we were in St Savin for a plant fair we brought these pastries to have with a nice hot cup of tea while the rugby is on!

Plant sale in front of the Abbey at St Savin

Its always a busy time of year for us in the garden, tidying up, clearing out, weeding, cutting the grass again and if there's time and we still have some energy left perhaps some new planting!

Mimosa flowers starting to appear

Our mimosa trees are just coming into flower, for the first time for several years as we have had quite a mild winter.  The trees are quite tall now, perhaps 15ft or so, and they are going to produce a lovely yellow display.  The bees are in heaven in the sweet smelling blossom as well as in the daffs and the daphne.

We must have a tidy up in the studio in the next few days as Mark is taking part in the European Open Studios on the 27,28 and 29th March. Not that he's messy or anything .....  If you're in the area please do drop in.

Mark's art studio

Stoneware bowl by Mark

 

New Year Wishes from Chenevaux

The Gite catching the morning sun 1st January 2015

The first of January brought another sharp frost, and clear blue skies.  Beautiful but a little on the chilly side.  The new bird table in the back garden has been visited by lots of different birds including blue tits, great tits, nuthatches, sparrows and robins.  We think that the same birds are feeding from the bird table in the front garden too so they are having a feast.  A couple of weeks ago sunflower seed, mixed bird seed and fat balls were on special offer in Jardi Leclerc and we stocked up so every morning Mark goes out with seed for each of the tables, and the birds seem to be lying in wait as they follow him on his rounds!  

A frosty start to the New Year

Despite the cold weather the evenings are already starting to get that little bit lighter - i'm sure we shut the curtains a good 10 minutes later yesterday.  Walking round the garden today we could see the buds on the horse chestnuts, glistening with stickiness in the sun, hazel catkins, narcissus, and the occasional petrified rose flower as well as lovely frost patterns on leaves and seed heads.

Frosted phlomis seed heads

Sage leaves covered in frosty spikes

Father Christmas arrived with a late present yesterday - our annual delivery of muck for the roses. Two full tractor scoops and its lovely stuff, really rotted down.  This year we had it dumped on the concreted area just outside the barbeque palace and now that we've finally got the tow bar fixed onto the car the plan is to fill the trailer rather than having to barrow it all.

Special delivery

Once again I completely over-shopped for Christmas food and we will now be eating it until Easter at least - and we have enough boxes of chocolates to stock a corner shop!  We seem to have developed a tradition of buying crackers which contain clockwork toys which you race on a card track. This year the joke slip also had a charade clue on it and this led to a combined "racing and charades" competition involving the use of a monkey sock, various musical "instruments", a crown and an angel badge with flashing lights.  Anyway it was great fun even though our skills with regard to miming Christmas carols were atrocious.  ( Full details and rules available on request!! ).

Ready to race!

We talked about making new year resolutions this morning but that was as far as it went, however we are looking forward to another 364 days of 2015 and hope you are too.