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!

 

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.

Create your own slideshow design

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.