Firstly, apologies for not posting a blog last night. We have been hosting Dave’s parents for the last week and took the opportunity to visit our favourite market at Daoulas in the morning followed by a couple of pre-lunch beers at Au Lac overlooking the fabulous Lac du Drennec to take maximum advantage of a fabulously sunny day. It seems that a couple of strong beers in the sun, coupled with the end of an exhausting summer season, meant that I had to have a little siesta in the afternoon! I must be getting old.
We then went to one of our favourite restaurants in the evening in the neighbouring village of Saint Rivoal, the Auberge du Menez. We continue to be impressed by the Auberge and its owner / chef, Yann. He is really making it a huge success with adventurous food (3 of us had the scallop tartare as seen on his Facebook page) and an accompanying music programme. Having this and Au Lac both within 5 kms of us is a real bonus.
To the work … Last week’s blog said that I would definitely do a couple of things and possibly one other. I actually have managed to complete or start both of the things which I said I would, but no progress on the log cutting.
We are really pleased with how our hedges are now starting to take proper shape and, as I mentioned a few weeks back, we have taken the chance to be a bit more brutal in cutting them. The job expanded a little as I chose to clear an area of the hedge on the main lawn to expose the yew plants we have added over the last 3 years.
While I’m afraid that these pictures aren’t great we are delighted that many of them are growing strongly and will, eventually, make for a more secure and attractive boundary than we have ever had. The same applies to the privet in Granary garden where I have repositioned some older plants and added lots of cuttings at the base to thicken out and extend the hedge.
The other thing that will make our garden much more secure is the new gate that we have added at the north entrance leading onto Stréat al Louarn which I didn’t show pictures of last week. Here are a couple.
We think it has cleaned up pretty well having been stood against the Dairy wall for a couple of years and definitely makes a difference to the access. We have hung 2 gates, a wider vehicle gate and a narrow pedestrian access, both hinged on the inside so we can open them 180 degrees and not block the lane. It did mean that there was a fairly wide gap beneath both which wasn’t ideal as one principal reason we wanted them was to prevent our neighbour’s dog coming into the garden. However, in order to allow it to swing through 180 degrees I need to scrape a lot of gravel and stone from inside which I am using to level the ground.
While I haven’t yet placed any stone for the new wall. I have started the work. I have buried the additional cable we positioned for a light on the east side of the gate, which will match that opposite. I have also used a large piece of slate which was lying just outside the drive to create a step under the pedestrian access. When it is all finished there should be a gentle gradient down to the lane and you won’t need a 4×4 to drive in and out!
No progress on the wood cutting and splitting but I may try and do some of that this week as, while we are enjoying June-like weather again currently, Saturday was the start of meteorological autumn and the nights will start to get a little chilly. We will need to think about protecting some of our more delicate plants in the jungle bed especially our lovely banana that we planted which seems to have thrived since being liberated from its pot.
Thank you to those who provided their views in response to our request for changeover day selection. No definitive answer made as yet but all views are appreciated.
This week, more progress on the gate wall; potentially some log cutting and probably some more weeding which is always required!
Salut.