This last year has seen me not here, but in the USA helping with my grandsons who I adore.
School year ended, and I got on a plane and flew to Paris!
Then straight over to home in France.
WHAT a wonderful week!
Arrived chez moi with family who dropped their bags, picked up shovels and trimmers, and hit the garden. It took the WEEK to sort it out but it is now behind and everything is coming up roses, literally.
These old houses require so much TLC it’s a job from heaven but also a constant stream of busy. Really, you have to LIKE this kind of life, to be in it otherwise you’d be miserable. It’s French country life; farmer’s wives who prepare their poulet fresh plucked, whose hands show the work of a lifetime, and who at the same time keep their windows sparkling clean here in the agricultural fields of Normandy.
It needs to be said, I had a small American family of housesitters come in for very early spring, to peel back the winter gone by, and they did it. It was hard work, more than they bargained for but hats off for a job well done. And many thanks. Your work has brought the garden into shine.
Inbetween all that, we hit the market of Avranches and the shores of the D-Day Beaches, found way too much good food to eat; we cooked in the kitchen, lazed in the garden and slept deeply each and every night.
All the beds are now planted … picked up another bundle of leeks in Avranches … moved the corgettes into their own bed … flowers and veg coming on … first 24 lettuces tucked and watered … tomatoes in their place … all shrubs whacked into submission … fig tree humbled to accommodate the meandering rose that’s climbing on the back fence joyfully … and on it goes.
First of no doubt a couple dozen trips to the descheterrie (recycle center) has commenced, I’ve tackled the garage (sorely in need of a dust up and huge toss out), and have set about wiping down the last year of not here.
Once I’ve got this dust behind me, up come my journeys and explorations! Camping in the south, hitting the village vides, visiting islands off the Brittany coast — lining it all up now.
Oh, and did I mention inbetween all that, will be what it takes to get my French driving license!
It’s pink!
à bientôt
