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.

 

10 years later ..... life at Chenevaux

10 years ago on 27th October 2004 we came to view Chenevaux for the first time!  A couple of days later we agreed to a price and here we are!

Earlier in the week we invited some local friends for a bonfire party with fireworks, sausages, baked potatoes and all of the traditional things.  It was great fun and two Guys came along as well!

We have had fabulous weather throughout September and October, warm, sunny, enough rain but not too much so perfect for digging and getting the garden sorted out, well making a start on it anyway! Everything has put on huge amounts of growth this year, including the grasses as you can see. 

  

We love the way the plumes are lit up by the afternoon sun.

For a while now we've been intending to put a little storm porch on the gite - here are photos of before and after.  We're rather pleased with it!

Mark has also been busy in the studio creating these sculptural pieces using local stone, distressed oak and ceramics.

November 1st, All Saints Day, is a holiday here.  Potted chrysanthemums are on sale in their thousands and the public buildings and town squares are decorated with elaborate displays.   This was a stall holder's display at the market in Chauvigny.

As it was such a lovely day we walked up to the medieval area afterwards.  This is the church right at the top.

During the summer Mark lost his sunglasses.   We searched high ( but not high enough ) and low for them and eventually gave up.  Until the leaves came off the plum trees and ......

Apparently I had asked him to pick some plums and they had been scooped off the top of his head by a branch!!  We did laugh, though I was rather annoyed at the time!

Next stop Christmas, and the shops are already stocked up with goodies, seemingly far earlier than usual for France.

Summer time is holiday time at Chenevaux

Summer sunflowers

The summer is at its height and we are enjoying having families here for their holidays.  The children have been having a great time here doing all sorts of things including horse riding, playing croquet, having a go on our pitch and putt golf course and art classes with Mark in his studio.  Grandparents have been having fun learning how to play croquet and many family meals have been enjoyed in the barbeque palace and under the awning.  Grandparents, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, girlfriends, boyfriends .... who have I left out!

Mark teaching the children "Chenevaux rules" croquet

The children teaching Grandpa!

We all had fun!

Golfers marching off to the 4th tee

We found a lovely little horse riding centre just down the road, not even 10 minutes away.  The children groom the ponies, then get them ready, before going out on a ride for about an hour.  These children were beginners so were led the first time, but the second time they were confident enough to ride alone.  The owner is very well organised and looks after both children and horses very well.  They had a lovely time!

Getting to know the pony

Off for a ride

And then for something more relaxing, a pottery class in the studio.  Mark keeps a supply of air drying clay so that children visiting for a holiday can make something one day, then it needs a day or so to dry out before being painted and varnished, then its ready to take home.

Concentrating on decorating their pottery creations

Mark also has a collection of CDs and these two asked for Pink Floyd!!  They also enjoyed listening to some French music by a group called Tryo.  One song is called Green Washing which they found very funny.

Entertainment

One evening the visiting music mixing maestro was accompanied by Mark's light show on his paintings, all great fun once again! 

The painting changes as the different coloured light filters wash over it.

So now Mark is getting ready for an exhibition next week at the little chapel in our village.  He is doing it jointly with a friend who is a painter - lets hope lots of people come along!

Long days and short nights at Chenevaux

Once again its the time of year when we are quite often in bed before it is really dark!

Pond Tortoises

Last week we had a trip out to the Brenne National Park.  The perimeter is only a couple of km away but we had never been to the visitor centres before so decided to have a look.  The Brenne is an area covering 30km x 20km.  It incorporates 1000 lakes, reserves, meadows, heath and woodland criss-crossed by lanes and footpaths.  Bird species that have been recorded number over 300 and there is a huge variety of butterflies, dragonflies and plant species, and also the pond tortoises which even have their own road signs!

One of the 1,000 lakes in the Brenne National Park

Maison de la Nature et de la Reserve

The pond tortoises lay their eggs in the long grass surrounding this building so the grass is not cut mechanically but by sheep grazing the area.

The Maison de la Nature is where you go for specialist information on the local natural history.  We saw some very expensive pieces of camera equipment being used!  The other centre, which is only  a couple of km away is called Maison du Park and here there is a general information centre, cafe, shop and temporary exhibitions.  The exhibition that we saw was very amusing - all items made by local school children using waste materials.  A great morning out, next time we will plan on staying longer.

Earlier in the month we had our annual golf day - the 8th one!

Mark presenting Mayke with her prize for winning nearest the pin ( with Bob )

Tony and David in the play-off

Tony receiving his prize for winning ( with Bob )

Then time for some food in the barbeque palace!

So that was that - until last week when we hosted the "Fete de Voisins " or neighbourhood get-together, so another feast, this time for 30, in the barbeque palace again - its certainly seem some use this summer!

All ready .....

Go!

May news from Chenevaux

The garden has gone into overdrive, its really hard to keep up with it at the moment, always so at this time of the year, but at least this year its the plants that are growing as well as the weeds!  The iris have been spectacular but are just about over now.

To escape the weeding we took ourselves off for a couple of days to visit some gardens in the Dordogne - Perigord region.  Our first destination was Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac where we had a lovely lunch before exploring the gardens which hold a large collection of topiary and "green sculptures".  The Manoir and its associated buildings are very pretty and compliment the gardens.  The gardens are being extended to include a meadow and more roses which will take a bit of time to mature, and some of the box hedging looked a little sorry for itself,  but well worth a visit if you are in this area. www.eyrignac.com

Le Manoir d'Artaban at Eyrignac

Our next visit was to a garden that we only found out about by chance.  Jardins de Cadiot is set on the edge of a small village between Sarlat and Souillac, in a very pretty setting surrounded by mature trees.   A real plants persons garden set out in an area covering 2 hectares, and they even have booklets with plant lists for visitors to use as they walk round!  The different areas incorporate a potager, fruit trees, peonies, a maze, roses, an "English garden " ie mixed borders, a wild garden and an Italian garden.  

 

www.lesjardinsdecadiot.com

Finally we went to the gardens at Marqueyssac. More topiary, in a totally different style, and as the site is 130 metres above the river level, there are spectacular panoramic views of the Perigord culminating with the view from Le Belvedere which encompasses the Dordogne valley, chateaux and several beautiful villages set in the surrounding landscape.
www.marqueyssac.com

So we came back with lots of ideas and renewed energy!

A newly hatched damselfly on the side of our old water butt - it took us a while to work it out!

Easter greetings from Chenevaux

 Happy Easter!

Chocolate eggs with little chocolate fish inside appeared as if by magic this morning ... and didn't take long to disappear as if by magic too, mostly demolished by the magician himself with some help from his willing assistant of course.

The spring has been wonderful and the garden has transformed in the past few weeks from early blossom and bare trees to bright green leaves and even roses in bloom.  We can't remember seeing roses ever before at this time of the year.  The wisteria has been magnificent and now the lilacs are in flower with their gorgeous perfume.  I'm just a bit worried that everything is going to fast it will all be over by May, but of course there's always more to come.

There were two local brocantes today, at Angles sur l'Anglin and Merigny ( no sight of Richard E Grant ) and we found a croquet set for children so they can play alongside the grownups, and some rather cute toy cars for our little visitors.

This vintage motorised bike caught our eye too, but on second thoughts ..... no!

 Summer and holidays are just round the corner!