As I mentioned a couple of week’s ago I didn’t post a blog last Sunday as David and I had taken a break to travel back to the UK and join some friends for a week’s walking in the Lake District as we have done for a number of years. The week was fabulous, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather as for the entire time we were in the UK we didn’t see a drop of rain. Unheard of, and also extremely fortunate considering how the weather changed last week!
We hope that you all made it through the extremely wintery conditions relatively unscathed and are appreciating the thaw out. Had we travelled to the Lakes last week I suspect we would still be there!
We got back to Kergudon on Monday having travelled on the overnight ferry to St. Malo as the Plymouth to Roscoff crossings are more infrequent in the winter. It was the first time we have used that crossing but we will certainly be using it again and we would definitely recommend it as an alternative to crossing from Plymouth which, unless you live in the West Country or M5 corridor, can be difficult to get to. Don’t forget that anyone booking to stay with us can get a 20% discount on any crossing with Brittany Ferries.
Brittany Ferries were using their flagship cruise ferry, the Pont-Aven, which normally does the Plymouth crossings. If you have time we would definitely recommend this as a civilised start to your holiday at Kergudon. We ate in their excellent restaurant, Le Flora, which has great food at good prices (and I am not being paid by Brittany Ferries to say this) and had a civilised breakfast in the Café de l’Ouest in the historic heart of Saint-Malo, a town definitely worth a visit, before a gentle 2 ½ hour drive home.
By all accounts, while we were enjoying fabulous weather in the Lakes, it was equally dry and sunny here which would have allowed me to progress with lots of things outside however, we really enjoyed the break and while we came back to similar Siberian conditions as the UK, I managed to do a bit in the garden last week including mowing the lawns for the first time since November on Monday afternoon!
The following days, while it remained bright and sunny although the temperatures were beginning to plummet. I managed to cut the Granary hedge which I had not been able to do last year before it really froze.
I also started to cut down the scruffy trees at the north end of the ‘orchard’. We bought 3 flowering cherries for our anniversary in February and I have planted one in the centre of our new flower bed where Zeus felled an apple tree. The remaining 2 we wanted to plant in the bed at the north end of the garden where there is currently a hazel, elder and some sort of, unproductive, fruit tree.
The hazel had been cut a number of times before causing it to coppice and have multiple branches which, not only made for a dense and not especially interesting tree top which made the other trees suffer, it also prevented the sun from reaching Hayloft’s breakfast terrace and our own house in the evenings. The cherries will make a more interesting and attractive bed and increase the light, at least for 10 years or so while they grow!
While David was at work I cut back all I can do safely on my own, including a couple of trees on another of our boundaries that block light from our neighbour’s garden, and next week, if the weather allows, we will be able to complete the job, expand the flower bed and plant the other 2 trees.
As the weather remained bitterly cold, including a couple of days with snow on the ground (not we appreciate as much as large areas of the UK have endured / enjoyed) we did more inside jobs including me getting crafty with David’s sewing machine for a while!
Today we have started the process to allow us to stock the Grange storeroom. When we moved into Kergudon there were a couple of MFI-type wardrobes on our own landing which we acquired. We are not sure how long they have been there but, as you can see from the photo, certainly they were there before the last time the landing was painted, although they have been pretty useful to us.
Now Grange is nearing completion and we are able to start to rearrange our own home, we have decided to move these wardrobes into Grange and, hopefully next week, move wardrobes currently in our bedroom into their place giving us storage space in Grange and more space in our own bedroom. Win win!
Next week, more outdoor and Grange work hopefully, weather dependent, spring must be here soon …
À bientôt.