Apologies for not posting a blog for the last 3 weeks. If I’m honest, I can’t say it has been the most productive 3 weeks of our time here despite there being so much to do …
The first week of the 3, I achieved very little as the weather was very un-spring-like and too wet to do any useful work outside so, other than preparing and cleaning gîtes, I didn’t achieve much to write about.
The second week was very broken up with lots of ‘domestic’ things that we wouldn’t normally need to do. For example, David’s car had to go back to the garage (again) for the same issue it has suffered since we bought it – a defective parking sensor (again), the sixth in under 4 years!
Brandon too had to go and get fixed. For a number of years he has had a small growth on his left hand side which a number of dogs can get. We showed it to our then vet some years ago who said that we needn’t worry about it unless it started to enlarge or change in any way.
In the last few months, it had begun to do just that so we took him to our current vet who agreed that we should probably remove it. We have therefore had 4 vet trips in the past couple of weeks (first to assess; second to drop off for the op; third to collect after the op; fourth to review and, we hoped, to have the stitches out – no, too soon), with a fifth trip planned next week to take the stitches out.
It did mean that Brandon has had to wear a cone of shame for 10 days which didn’t seem to phase him – although giving a dog who already has very little special awareness a massive cone to wear was a recipe for disaster and our shins and calves suffered as a result!
While the stitches didn’t come out last week we did remove the cone and David made Brandon a protective coat to prevent him scratching his wound and causing problems.
The last 10 days or so have seen a huge change in the weather to the first week and we had days of excessive (30 degree plus) heat making it too hot to work outdoors bearably, although it meant the pool got some good use!
We also had an impromptu beach day (well, afternoon) when it was just too hot to do anything else and we headed to Pentrez plage, one of our favourites that we recommend to guests, and had our first swim in the, surprisingly warm, sea of the year.
This time of year is the start of lots of outdoor festivals and activities. Landerneau, always a vibrant village, had a music event last Friday when we went for usual end of week drink when we were serenaded by 2 excellent harpists (where else can you get that?) followed by a more traditional French accordion / saxophone duo!!
Saint Cadou had its own annual festival last Saturday, the Fête du Bourg, which also marked the 20th anniversary of the organising association, Assomniak, made up of the younger members of the village – 20 years ago! We visited briefly in the afternoon but ducked out of the night time events which seemed well attended.
I have managed to do something worthwhile in the 3 weeks since my last blog, and have begun the almost never-ending task of cutting hedges.
At this time of year, I am very careful to look in the hedges for any nesting birds, but we have tended to find that, because of where we are, birds tend to nest further away from us, and the many cats in the area, so there is minimal disruption to them.
I have started with the small buxus hedges around the champignon which we planted in 2016 (first pic) and now have created a solid hedge (except where our animals don’t assist in its growth!) I also gave the cypress trees a tidy so they look great.
The only other hedge I have attacked so far is the griselinia hedge behind Granary which I had neglected for a few years. As the buxus, we planted this in 2016 (perhaps 2017!) when we cleared the bramble and knot weed, and it took a few years to establish but now it is growing rapidly.
I don’t know why I hadn’t given it a trim for so long and allowed it to get much taller and wider than we need it, but being griselinia it is pretty tough stuff and can take some hard cutting. It will be a much better hedge as a result.
I have also added a couple of the ‘then’ pictures (I hope you can tell which is which) to show the change. The drain cover gives a reference point, the telephone pole has gone as a casualty of Ciáran and the electricity box is new post the Priory refurbishment.
Partly due to the weather, and partly due to Brandon’s cone, we didn’t have a Sunday stroll last weekend but we did today and we found a new circuit from Henvic along the shore of the Penzé estuary which passes inland between Carantec and Roscoff, where, from a distance, we could see Brittany Ferries’ Armorique docked.
It was an interesting walk, one we’d recommend (along with our other recommended routes for walking in Finistère), although it may have been more attractive had the tide been in! There were however, some interesting ‘sculptures’ made of glass bottles in a part of the woods used as an outdoor exhibition space.
The excessive heat has passed and we are in for more Breton weather in the coming couple of weeks so I should be able to pick up lots of the things that I have neglected since my last blog!
Kenavo.