March at Chenevaux

Blue skies and sunshine, what a wonderful sight!  Windows open and the air is fresh and clean with a lovely breeze to dry the ground and blow through the house.  Will there be a sting in the tale with a cold snap before the real warm weather comes?  We are wary but optimistic.  The garden is really coming to life with leaves coming out on the shrubs and trees almost as we watch.  Birds are darting in and out of conifers, the bird box and all of their favourite nesting places.  The star of the moment is daphne.  Planted just outside the front door it is covered in flowers that have the most heavenly scent along the lines of lilac, hyacinth and jasmine all put together creating a waft of fragrance every time you go past.  I would love somebody to create a luxurious bubble bath with this perfume!

A spray of daphne next to a hyacinth

The annual Fete de Laboureurs took place last week-end in our village.  We have been several times and endured snow, freezing cold and rain whilst watching the parade, but this year it was dry and warm(ish) so we went down in the car and then walked back after the very extended lunch, which went on until about 6pm!

The Batterie de Fanfare leads the parade

Followed by a carriage with the president and maids of honour - out of shot!

Alain showing off his computerised tractor!

The parade goes round the village and stops at the memorial

Where there is a salute

Then everybody in the village is invited for the Vin d'honneur before lunch at the Salle de Fete

And a couple more pics of the floats!

So that was all very exciting!  Pretty soon the excitement is going to focus on the elections for the position of Mayor.  Added to this the two ladies who work in the Mairie, and who have no political affiliation so carry on regardless of new Mayors, are both retiring, one in April and the other in July.  They know everything about everything and are our first port of call with questions relating to stray dogs to planning applications so we are hoping that their replacements will keep the clockwork of the village ticking.

Just backtracking a bit to 14th Feb - Mark disappeared for an hour or so and came home with these yummy delights!!

Jobs to do before the England v Wales rugby later on today, so

a bientot from Caroline and Mark at Chenevaux.

February at Chenevaux

Auberge de l'Etoile at St Pierre de Maille

A few days ago we decided to go to our village restaurant for lunch.  They offer a daily menu or "plat du jour" which is always good and very reasonably priced.  As it wasn't raining ( for a change) we decided to walk down and on the way back through the village we went past this car with the picture of the proud tractor owner in the back window!

My other car's a tractor!

In between the days of rain we have had some fair weather and it has been very mild in comparison to past winters since we moved here ( 9 years since we bought Chenevaux on 18th Feb 2005!).  Snowdrops, hellebores, daffs and even some irises are in flower.

Mark has been busy in the studio getting work done for the spring when we are opening the studio to the public again for the week end of 4/5/6 April, you can see more at www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com.

At the moment the only thing we really want, along with huge numbers of others no doubt, is for the weather to dry up, lets hope it does so soon.

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Short days, long nights

Autumn ......

Sunrise at Chenevaux

After a mild but wet autumn the temperature has dropped significantly & the days are getting shorter and shorter, but its not long until the shortest day so that's not so bad! And then it will be Christmas, yaay~!  You couldn't miss it with all of the ads featuring fairy tales of some sort or another on the TV.  Even here where Christmas is pretty low key in comparison to the UK the supermarkets have already cleared the aisles for the mountains of boxes of chocolates that appear each year. Inflation has obviously reached critical levels as chocolate coins have now been replaced by chocolate bank notes, with values of up to 500 euros!  Quite funny because if you were in possession of such a large note most shops wouldn't accept it.  Father Christmas probably does though with the price of toys these days.

Autumn crocus

Acer leaves on the turn

Autumn is always a busy time in the garden.  As a result of watching Monty Don on Gardeners' World Mark decided it would be a good idea to make a container for fallen leaves/leaf mould, which will be great when we manage to rake up leaves and put them in it.  He's also cut down a load of dead trees around the boundaries, and used some of the wood to make a bench by the croquet lawn.  The wisteria which looked as though it had died in the spring has grown back, it will be interesting to see if it has reverted to a blue flower or if its still pink.  Generally things have grown well this year, apart from the vegetables which failed miserably as a result of the colder than usual spring and being eaten by the wildlife.  For the first time I bought tomato plants rather than raising them from seed and the taste was really disappointing.  We have decided to move the soft fruit ( blackcurrant, redcurrant and raspberries ) to the existing potager, and then use what we call the fruit cage ( actually built as a cage for baby pheasants ) as the potager.  As its completely netted this should stop all of our produce being eaten by hares, rabbits and birds!  According to some friends their soft fruit is largely ignored by birds and if they do become a nuisance we can simply throw a net over the plants. 

Lots of leaves for the leaf mould bin!

We did a plan of all of the roses the other day and had a count-up - nearly 70 not counting the hedge we have just planted,  which is another 20 so plenty of pruning to do!  

Roses in the Farmhouse back garden.

      

July at Chenevaux

Hot .. hot .. hot!  The weather that is.  The air smells hot, with the scent of mint, lavender, curry plant, sage and ripe wheat in the fields.  The breeze is welcome and our guests retreat to the cool of the house and gite for a sieste during the afternoon before emerging for a cool swim again in the early evening.  Perfect holiday weather at last!

Messing about on the river ... at Angles sur l'Anglin

Some friends of ours have recently opened a tea room at Angles sur l'Anglin - home made scones and cakes, a huge selection of different teas ( and coffees ) salads and lots of other goodies. Previously an unoccupied house for at least a decade, it is now really pretty, and has a lovely view of the river from one of the terraces.  I tried white tea for the first time, lovely, and Mark had a lemon and ginger infusion, accompanied by a chocolate cupcake and a slice of carrot cake - yummy!

Tea, cake and a lovely view ... perfect!

Earlier in the month we spent a day at the Chaumont garden festival.  This takes place every year in the grounds of the Chateau at Chaumont sur Loire.  Conceptual gardens are installed in April and remain in place until October, giving them time to develop and mature.  As well as the gardens the chateau has extensive grounds and the Chateau and Stables are also open to the public.  Combined with several other agricultural buildings which are now used as exhibition spaces, restaurants and the spectacular lighting of the gardens in the evenings there is plenty to see and do.  We had a wonderful day - and could have stayed much longer if our legs had been willing!

The Chateau at Chaumont sur Loire

Interesting planting in one of the conceptual gardens and the wire sculptures were clever

An area of the permanent planting - I have plans to use some of these plants in a shady area here

A one off creation?!

Or is it a hat shop!

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Abbey at St Savin being designated a world heritage site was accompanied by a craft festival which Mark was invited to as an exhibitor.  Despite downpours of rain throughout the day there were thousands of visitors who also watched a street circus with juggling, tightrope walking, dancing and mime artists, and visited the Abbey which has just had major restoration work completed to its romanesque frescoes and is stunning.

Some of Mark's ceramics

Making organ pipes

Illuminating using real gold paint

One of these little owls made its way back to Chenevaux!

A restored fresco from the Abbey at St Savin

Another part of the Abbey - well worth a visit

 

Our outdoor guests recently have included a heron that landed on a clematis arch, the young fox that came for the fallen cherries and then left piles of poo with the stones in it, a frog that came into the house and hopped all around the dining room before finding the front door, and the mouser which lives in one our barns produced three kittens.

There have been loads of raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants, as well as the cherries, now being followed by plums so the jam shelves are groaning with anticipation!  I've also had a go at making glace cherries - nearly done but they take 5 days - and want to do some mint jelly, and maybe elderberry, and crab apple - got to use up all of those jars!

June at Chenevaux

The first meeting of the horseracing society at La Roche Posay took place a couple of week-ends ago and we went along with some friends who had come over for our annual golf day.  Its a small hippodrome with one stand, but the meetings are very well attended.  Minimum bet is 2 euros and that's about all we put on!  This time all of the races were trotting - some with traps and some without.  Its rather strange to look at at first and there are lots of disqualifications for breaking into a canter or gallop.  Great fun for an afternoon.

As a result of the slightly different weather conditions earlier in the year we have had some lovely combinations of flowers recently - for example in the photo below.  Normally these irises are long gone before the buddleia flowers but the colour combination is lovely. These are my least favourite irises but they have been greatly improved!

Buddleia alternifolia and irises

The roses are really going for it and look so healthy.  We have another rose growing structure in mind for later this year!

The rose pergola that Mark made in spring 2012 

A Shropshire Lad

Only a couple of days away from the longest day already.  At this time of the year we always have a couple of nights where we are in bed before it is completely dark!  Mind you, yesterday morning we were woken at dawn (very early) by a blackbird singing very loudly.  The blue tits have already raised one clutch of chicks and are now on their second.  Mark is sure that they are putting the first chicks to work feeding the new ones, sounds like good delegation to me.  There are two favourite nesting places near the house and the gite.  One is in the nesting box over the top of the bird table and the second is in a niche in the gite wall that used to be a fuse box, and it's still covered by a metal door. At the moment it sounds very full!

We have one swallows nest in the cafe and although they are very messy I guess we will leave it now until they have raised their chicks.  And the hoopoes are back again! ( see blog 9th June 2011 )

In late autumn we come across piles of leaves and vegetation bundled up against the walls and these are where the hedgehogs hibernate.  I normally spot them whilst doing a pre-winter tidy up when I nearly step on them!  We don't often actually see any hedgehogs but after a downpour recently this little family were spotted by some guests.

I mentioned the golf day earlier - this was our 7th!  The first ones were held on Boxing Day, well why not?  However one year the weather was so cold we decided to move it to the summer. This means that non-golfers can have a go at the croquet (Chenevaux rules) too.  Everybody brings a dish of salad, or a desert etc which is great, and a friend very kindly did the barbeque this year.  We had 30 people here and ate in the barbeque palace.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

On the green

Discussing the Chenevaux croquet rules?

Mark's waving down at the end!

Towards the end of last year there was a series on the TV with Monty Don visiting French gardens.  A couple really interested us and a few days ago we visited one called Prieure d'Orsan. www.prieuredorsan.com  It's at a place called Maisonais, about 80 miles from here so a fair trek, but en-route you pass through Argenton sur Creuse, which is also well worth a visit.  There is a very attractive chateau at Sarzay just before you get there and restaurants here and near the gardens where a good lunch can be had, so all in all a full day out.
As the name suggests, Orsan used to be a priory, originally founded in 1107.  After falling into disrepair in the middle of the 20th century the remaining buildings and land were renovated in the 1990's and now the main building is a hotel and the gardens are open to the public.  The total area is quite small but as it is divided into enclosed areas and incorporates lots of wooden structures you feel that it is a lot larger.  It took us getting on for two hours to have a good look round.  We came home with lots of ideas of ways to use some of the old oak beams we have stored under our open barn!  The buildings are very attractive too with bits of quirky decoration.

Clipped hedges, vines and Villa Ursinus in the background

Wow - that's an idea!

There are lots of wooden support structures and seats

Summer holidays aren't far off and guests are already here and using the pool which is lovely.  All that's needed now is a nice cold drink!