You may have seen that I didn’t blog last week. When I don’t write, it is generally for one of a few reasons. Either we are away from Kergudon; I am so focussed on a particular project and working to a tight deadline that I haven’t had the chance; or I have achieved very little and so there isn’t much to update. I’ll let you decide which it was …
The last sentence of the previous blog mentioned that I would be back to work after a short period of rest. It hasn’t quite turned out that way and I can in no way say that I have been full time!
It also said that the forecast was for the weather to break after a prolonged dry spell. While the following week was damp and drizzly, last week we enjoyed the hottest few days of the year so far with daytime temperatures in the low 30 degrees and overnight it didn’t drop much below 13 for a couple of days. That changed dramatically last night and we have had more, and heavier, rain in the last 18 hours than we had in the previous 3 months.
These recent storms have highlighted that we have a hole in the Stable roof and so a small leak in the B&B! Thankfully we have some very understanding guests. I have made a temporary repair that seems to have stopped the drip and we have a decent roofer who we desperately hope will visit early in the week. What it has done is made us think seriously of getting Stable re-roofed in the next quiet period. For a couple of years we have though that it is something Stable would benefit from but, being a major job, it was something we were reluctant to begin until it became necessary. We may be approaching that point.
The work I have done has been, as previously, focussed in the garden and I have started the major biannual task of cutting the hedges. I have started with the couple that I didn’t get around to doing last year as well as some of the more accessible ones. At this time of year, I am very careful to check that there are no birds nesting in the hedges before I cut and have the advantage of living where we do, they tend to test in the forest further away from people, dogs and Mouse!
I always feel that when the hedges are cut it makes a huge difference to the appearance of the garden and I find it a satisfying thing to do. I haven’t made the progress I’d have liked. Because we generate a lot of clippings we generally take them to the déchetterie. However, our poor car has yet another issue with it which means we only using when essential so I have only made one trip.
Our car is getting a bit long in the tooth and so seems to spend as much time in the garage as on our drive. It has got to the point that David is on first-name terms with the mechanics in our garage! Another thing that we may be approaching a decision point with.
I have managed to cut the box hedging around the Priory champignons which are looking better each year although still aren’t at the height we’d ultimately like, and we have cut the lonicera at the rear gate which I am most pleased with when you consider we planted this with cuttings we had made in our first couple of years that weren’t much more than twigs when we planted them.
Despite the lack of rain in the last few months some things are thriving including our yucca in the tropical bed. This was a self-set plant we found in the Granary garden and transplanted it when we created the bed in 2018. Infact the entire bed at least looks more tropical than it did then!
The more observant may have noticed that I used a picture of the tropical bed as the banner image for our post dated 22 May when the yucca had put up its large flower spike but it was still in bud. It has taken so long from the spike emerging and for it to actually be in full bloom, I was going to use it as a metaphor for my work in last week’s blog. However, as mentioned at the start, I hadn’t written a blog as I hadn’t achieved so much and the yucca hadn’t bloomed fully by last week. Perhaps it is an accurate metaphor after all …
Next week I do intend to more for our many projects, including hopefully resolving, or at least helping to resolve, a problem that has emerged in Granary since we finished that project. More of that next week …
À beintôt.