Winter got colder and colder

The snow has been on the ground for nearly two weeks now and it has been so cold (-18 one night ) that it has turned to little ice flakes which shimmer and sparkle in the sun.  Very pretty but hopeless for snowballs as it just turns to powder.  So we played with the icicles instead!

We have been feeding the birds three times a day and putting out water too.  The blue tits, great tits, robins, goldfinches, nuthatches and occasionally the woodpecker all come flocking to the bird table as soon as the sunflower seed is put out.  If Mark is late they congregate in the lime tree and the plum trees by the side of the studio and wait to be fed and then as soon as the seed is on the table they are there!   The other day a pheasant came along too and pecked a few seeds from the snow around the table before being shooed away.  We still have a couple of baskets of apples left, which are starting to get soft and wrinkly, so we have been putting these out on the ground for the blackbirds, which have also demolished some squash, resulting in spectacularly orange droppings all around the front garden! On our walks around our grounds we have spotted feathers in the snow which are probably where the sparrowhawk has made a kill.  Goodness knows what has happened underground in all of the mouse holes and tunnels but I am hoping for the best, or worst, depending on your viewpoint.

In the greenhouse things are looking a bit bleak.  Despite wrapping the geraniums and other tender plants in fleece, old sacks, bubblewrap, carpet and anything else to hand the -18C that we had a few nights ago has left them all limp and soggy.  No doubt there will be a few casualties outdoors too so i'll be doing lots of cuttings and divisions of the things that have survived.

The thing that has been lovely though is the amount of sunshine we have been having, as you can see - lovely blue sky!

Hope all of you reading this have been keeping warm!

There are a few more photos of icicles and snow in the photostream on our blog page at www.chenevaux.blogspot.com

Winter arrives at Chenevaux

The new (not quite finished) pergola in the farmhouse back garden.

The last day of January and the winter is about to begin!  Yesterday morning started off reasonably mild but as the day went on it got progressively colder until it started snowing late afternoon and then we woke this morning to lovely clear blue skies and brilliant white snow everywhere.
The mimosa, which leads a precarious life, has grown like topsy over the past few months.  It has little tiny flower buds on it in amongst the feathery leaves which have all been swathed in a lightweight tarpaulin and tied up with string in the hope that this gives enough protection against the forthcoming frosts.  The forecast is for -11 later in the week!
To explain about the mimosa's precarious life - the previous owner was given some seeds by her daughter who lived in Morocco.  She planted the seeds on the front wall of the gite, which faces south - makes good sense initially.  I don't know how many seeds there were but the one that germinated and grew into a tree was right up against the wall and in front of a window, so when we were renovating the gite it had to be moved.  By chance we were having the swimming pool excavated so a digger was available and with one big scoop a new hole was dug, and with another the whole rootball was dug out.  Job done!  Only thing is that the tree is now in a more exposed place and if we have a cold winter, which is often the case, it suffers terribly.  To the point that a couple of years ago it was so badly frost damaged that we cut it down to the ground completely thinking that it was dead.  But then, a good few months later it started sprouting out of the ground so we decided to give it another chance.  By last winter it was the size of a shrub so we covered it in fleece for the winter, which was successful.  This winter it is at least 4m high and 3m diameter so the piece of fleece is far too small and the tarpaulin seemed the best thing.  We will see what happens and keep our fingers crossed.  I did manage to get some seeds to germinate about 4 years ago now and have one small tree left in my greenhouse just in case.
This isn't the only example of plants regrowing here - when a gingko had its main stem chewed off by a deer I thought the whole thing would die, but that too sent up a new stem.  So now, if something looks dead, we leave it in the ground for a year or so to make entirely sure!
The snow today had really settled on the branches of trees and shrubs so we had to go round and give them a shake to get it off. Some young sliver birch trees were bent over to the ground but soon sprang back.  Then we had to rescue the fruit cage.

A heavy load on the fruit cage netting.

As you can see the snow is really weighing down the netting even though we put wires under it for extra support.  It was only last week that we cut back some of the branches on the conifer but the ones still overhanging the cage were so heavy with snow that a couple had snapped.  Using a walking stick and a broom we gently banged the netting from underneath and got ourselves well and truly wet, but gradually the snow fell through the holes.  Then we tackled the tree, by the time we finished the snow that had been melting was starting to freeze again and there were icicles hanging from the branches,

Pergola in progress.

We have gradually been accumulating old oak beams under our open barn - a lot from the ruin that we have been working on recently.  So a pergola seemed to be a great way of using some of them!  Roses do really well here as we have clay soil and the local farmer kindly brings us muck from either the cows or sheep.  David Austin roses are far and away the most successful, and having ordered some which were delivered earlier in the month this will be the perfect home for them.  There is still another line of horizontal beams to go in and some finishing off to do then I can get planting! Weather permitting that is.

All bottled up

Where have the last few weeks gone?  The summer went on for ever here and our last visitors left the day before we went on our own holiday to Portugal, from which we returned yesterday.  We stayed in an apartment in a little fishing village called Vila Cha not far from Porto.  The weather was hot and sunny, even though there was a bit of a sea breeze.  Apart from going to the beach, walking to the local restaurants and sitting on the terrace we spent one day in the town of Porto and that was it!  Now its back to work!  First job - bottling up the wine that has just been delivered, along with our personalised labels.  It needs to settle for a while but as there is always a not quite full bottle at the end of the bin we will drink that tonight.  Just before we went away Mark started on a project to rebuild a ruin, who knows what it will end up as, perhaps another small gite or perhaps a gallery - we'll see and it depends on how the finances go!   A very quick trip to England for a family wedding in September also gave us the welcome opportunity to catch up with people we hadn't seen for a while.  Today it is overcast and a bit damp and even though its not cold its a real contrast and Mark is planning to clean the flues for the log burners in the next day or so.  Meanwhile there are still tomatoes, squash, apples and the last of the figs to deal with.  What figs there are left that is as the birds have had a feast whilst we have been away!  Pics of the ruins next time - I need to find out how to upload a folder for them. 

Hot air

At 6.30 this morning Mark spotted an air balloon in the distance - not that unusual as there is a flying centre at Chauvigny, about 15km from us.  They quite often go up in groups and are a lovely sight.  Today started very sunny and then clouded over, at which point the balloon started to lose height, not sure if there is a connection, maybe they just ran out of hot air ( no chance of that here ). I was still in bed at the time, having only had one cup of tea, but then Mark got all excited about said balloon going over the gite and getting lower and lower and I should come and have a look and bring the camera!  So being very obedient ( ha ha ) I rushed out in my pj's with the camera - by which time the balloon had landed in the field opposite our swimming pool.  Of course the batteries on the camera had gone flat again, so in I go to get the re-charged ones ( why don't they re-charge properly, we only bought new ones a few months ago ), holding my pj bottoms up with one hand as the elastic needs re-charging as well.  So here is a pic!  I think the guy pulling the piece of string thought it was a bit bizarre when I waved at him but he still waved back and luckily he was far enough away not to notice that I wasn't dressed!

Introducing Gorrie ,

Gorrie ( aka Le Gorrilla ) is the propreitor of the Cheval Blanc ( White Horse ) in our village - superhero of darts as you can see by the trophies.   Not so long ago the Cheval Blanc team " Les Malloises" reached the final in a national competition at La Rochelle. Now, when I say national - this is serious.  Literally thousands of teams from the whole of France. All in  local costume or carrying regional flags, and there's a lot at stake - not just the reputation of your village but a place for the winning team to play in an international tournament in Las Vegas!  So, no chance at all for Gorrie's team from the tiny population of 356 at St Pierre de Maille.  Until ... Gorrie the superhero is joined by a certain Mark Judson and .... off the team go to La Rochelle .. ( with a few others ) and there they are in this huge place with darts competitions going on hour after hour - I was expecting him back the next day but then the phone call came " we got through to the next round " and then the next day " we're in the quarter finals " and so on until they were through to the finals!!!  By this time the village was totally immersed in darts talk - especially Pascal - the propreitor of the 8 a 8 ( small supermarket open at all other times except 8 - 8 ), whose wife was away with the team.  Sadly ( though not for me, I couldn't imagine anything worse than a trip to Las Vegas for a darts competition - could have made a good raffle prize though - Guernsey WI perhaps !!) they were beaten in the final - next time perhaps! 

Hare today gone tomorrow

It was thundering and lightning and very very frightning, and I can't remember why we were outside, but anyway suddenly there was that feeling of being watched, a real beady eye moment.  Quick, quick, get the camera.  Run, run, got the camera.  Creep, creep very quietly whilst getting the camera going.  Oh no!  Flat batteries.  Run, run, change the batteries.  Creep, creep back again.  Is hare still there?  Yes. Phew. It's gone now, probably watching us from a luscious flower bed!.    

August 1st 2005, the day we arrived to live here at Chenevaux permanently.  The time has gone so quickly!  As you can see it hasn't all been hard work - lots of friends and family have been to visit, many more than once,  and we've had some great times, as well as working like mad to build up our gite business and Mark's art studio and classes.   Wonder what the next 6 years will bring?