Getting there

It has taken 5 years but we have just put the final bits in place to finish the garden. When we bought the house in 2002, it was practically finished, we only needed to add a kitchen terrace, but the house sat, isolated, in a field. Starting at the back and working around the house, we have got it as we wanted it, but because it usually meant big trucks passing through the garden, the front of the house has been the last to be finished.

Jean-Francis, village friend with JCB, called round this afternoon with piles of rocks that he had excavated from all around the area. He pointed lovingly at different rocks and he knew where each one had come from. He then placed them so gently, with his huge machine, around our new flower beds. This man is little short of a genius. He chose which rock to put where, put the prettiest face outwards and placed them perfectly in position. All this using the bucket on his monster machine and whilst sitting high up in his cab. It was amazing. A lovely job, thanks JF.

We got mildew

I got mum to the surgery first thing this morning and, having seen the effort we had made to get details from the UK, the doctor kindly obliged and wrote a prescription for mum's missing medicine. One job completed satisfactorily.

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Later this morning Vincent and Francoise called round to establish what was wrong with my two vines. Grief, this couple farm 30 hectares of vines so a problem with my two piddly things should not be a problem. It took them all of 5 seconds to identify that they have a bad attack of mildew, not that I could identify it and, come to think of it, they had mildew last year as well. Bum, bum, and thrice bum. Each year I learn a little more about growing grapes but unfortunately I don't learn enough each year, so I estimate that by 2020 I'll be an expert, but dead.

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Despite still not feeling too good after a last night's big (in every sense of the word) BBQ, we all popped over to Sommieres for the Fete de la Musique, and dinner at Elie's. I can't say that either was brilliant. Elie needs to change his menu and the music was just OK.

Tell me again - you hoovered the court

Whilst April was a great month weather wise (the temperature in the second half averaged 24.8c), today, the first of May, was cloudy with some rain. The perfect weather to complete a job that I have been putting off for ages. I swept, and then vacuumed, a large section of tennis court. You see the bits from the neighbouring pine trees get stuck into the porous surface and are a devil to get out. Sweeping just doesn't shift them so it was out with the wet and dry for a good old suck. It worked, but god knows what the neighbours thought. I must have looked a real idiot. (No comment - Ed)

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In between showers it was time to pack. Or, more to the point, Jan piled some clothes on the bed and asked me what I wanted. We're off to see my daughter Cara tomorrow. She has just bought a new house and rather foolishly invited us to stay. I'm sure she didn't expect us to say yes, but there you go, we accepted.

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We went out to dinner tonight to Jill and Harry. They haven't been in France for a while, what with getting things ready for their daughter's wedding in June, but it was nice to see them and, more importantly, to get a good meal. Jill's a very good cook and always pushes the boat out. We started with asparagus and a foaming hollandaise sauce, then a perfectly cooked Dorade and meats from the BBQ and a choice of raspberries or lemon pudding to finish. I had both. Just excellent.

Planning ahead

Clearing the 'Old Man's Beard' and overhanging branches from the next door garden yesterday was much harder than we thought but thankfully Jan is a good hard worker (and can be hired by the hour) and we had it finished by lunch time. The afternoon saw us mending the pipework, that is supposed to be buried in the ground, which drip feeds water to the fruit trees. I'll let you figure out which members of our household are naughty enough to dig up pipework and chew it until it is full of holes.

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Whilst Jan went to a sewing class today (yes, you read it here first) Bryan and I worked on the logistics of keeping a few hundred bottles of wine cool for the forthcoming wedding. OK, I know that it's 4 months away but you've got to think about these things. I wasn't a cub scout for nothing don't you know. Anyway, having worked out how many containers and how much ice we would need we got a lucky break. I learnt that our village 'fete' committee have a refrigerated trailer, which they use for keeping wine cool, at village events, and I can have free use of it. There is an issue about the necessary voltage supply but, assuming that I can sort that out, then I can use it. Great!

As good as it gets

Yesterday started a period of a couple of weeks, that we will spend with only ourselves (and the dogs) for company. We celebrated with a lie in. Poor old Max and Min skulked around the house wondering where James had gone. James has a great rapport with the dogs, taking them for long walks and letting them get onto the sofa with him. We spend hours keeping the dogs under control, and training them, and visitors ruin all the work in a few minutes. Hey ho!

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Today was all about two very close sets of tennis where we finished with honours even. Both sets went to a tie-break. Good stuff. After lunch with William, whilst Jan went for lunch with Christine, we went down to the pool area and removed the winter wrapping from the most delicate palms and completed other boring maintenance jobs. The palms had survived the winter well, mostly because it has been fairly mild. Yes, I know, not very interesting but that was as good as it got!

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov

This morning I read about this chap who has been voted in as President of Turkmenistan. My theory is that by the time a voter had finished reading his name he/she would get fed up and couldn't be bothered to read any more. So they just marked his name with the cross, and he won.

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Jan had a fever yesterday afternoon so it was off to the doctor this morning. Her ongoing leg problem has surfaced again so it was back to bed today with lots of medicine and daily injections. Poor thing.

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Vincent D turned up expectantly this afternoon with his mini pel to start spreading more gravel. When we moved here, I took the decision fairly early on that anything other than gravel would be expensive or hard work. We now have acres of gravel, as far as the eye can see, that covers a lot of sins and just needs 'topping up' now and again. There's pretty.

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With Jan bedridden, I had to cook myself some dinner (say ahhhh - Ed.) so I made pasta al broccoli. One of my favourites and the sort of food I like when I feel threatened (as it were). Cook broccoli heads, drain, and then cook the pasta in the water that you cooked the broccoli. Drain and mix together together with olive oil and chili flakes to taste. Not that you can taste much after I have finished with the chili.

Work and play

The gardener arrived again yesterday morning, wow, 2 days on the trot. He says that he will be ready to plant on Thursday, so the work looks like it could be finished soon. We shall see!

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More work with Vincent C yesterday afternoon and this morning, on his mailing to UK wine buyers. He had got his internet back and could therefore start the background work so that I could make some calls on his behalf. A few hours yesterday and today and I'd finished the job. Very satisfying. What was interesting was that with everyone of the phone calls that I made, I received a polite and positive reception to my questions. I'd expected a lot more resitance to a cold phone call and was proved wrong. We were invited to send out lots more invitations to Vinopolis, so Vincent was very pleased.

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Jan painted all afternoon with Gill and then both Gill and Bryan had dinner with us. The girls painted the view from the main terrace (above). Which was nice! The next day I suffered from a surfeit of something, which was not nice.

Barcelona

At the weekend, we intend to pop down to Barcelona. Their most gifted player Ronaldinho is pictured above, (with all the wonderful things that Barcelona has to offer is that all you can think of, a football player? - Ed.) Because of the trip, we went to check out the new kennels this morning. We were quite impressed and the lady seems genuinely interested in dogs and their welfare. We booked them in for a few days and will see how the dogs fare.

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The gardener revisited again this afternoon (after saying that he would return last Wednesday) and continued to prepare the ground for planting. It's rock hard in places so he is having to use an industrial cultivator. So far so good.

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Vincent C also turned up this afternoon because he had an Internet connection problem and needed help with some bounced mailings. As a result of the letter that I composed for him he has had 4 wine buyers from the UK promising to visit his stand at Vinopolis on 22nd. For a 'cold' mailing one could reasonably expect a half percent response. He has achieved 2.6% so, even if I say so myself, the letter must have been bloody good! Well, either that, or, there are a few people looking for a day out, wine included.

Liquidambar

The landscape gardener turned up this morning, 24 hours later than he was supposed to. Ah well, at least he showed up. He's a nice chap so I find myself forgiving him. It's interesting how much more easily you feel well disposed towards some people. Anyway, he started by planting a Liquidambar (Sweetgum). I suspect that this wasn't as easy as he thought because at about 40 cms he hit solid rock so he had to pause and go back to base to get his rock breaker. The tree, of which we knew nothing, having asked for something big and decorative, is already 4 metres tall. That's cool.

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Michel also showed up, but after lunch. He still looked a bit 'tired' after his New Year trip up to Lozere with a few mates. Anyway, he continues to finish all the small building jobs that need doing in the garden.

Waiting for the perfect man

Jan sent me this. I don't get it!

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All of a sudden The volume of spam that I receive has dropped significantly, particularly into my gmail account. It's probably because someone (who I don't believe in!) is looking after me because I'm an honest, kind and thoughtful person. (Help, I'm choking - Ed.) Or maybe a combination of Mailwasher and Gmail is finally beginning to work, but somehow I doubt it. They probably had a day off.

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The back garden is slowly taking shape, but we still need to lay a couple of tons of gravel which will mostly be used to fill in the ditches that were formed when we laid drainage. Before we can do this however, there are a few tons of logs to move so that a lorry can dump the gravel in the right place. I hope you're paying attention! Anyway, Jan and I started shifting the wood whilst constantly being interrupted by the dogs. In a game of 'I want what you've got,' they kept picking up logs and thoughtfully whacking the backs of our legs whilst chasing each other.

Canary Islands Date Palm

The sun came out again this morning and it's funny how much more positive I felt about getting off my backside. Yesterday, it was cloudy, drizzly and generally miserable. Just the sort of weather that we moved to France to avoid. Anyway, today, God is back in his heaven and all is right with the world.
Mid morning, Truffaut turned up at the agreed time to deliver a new palm Phoenix Canariensis for the terrace. Whilst we fiddle about with it and decide exactly where to put it, it will sit in a pot. In a few years time it should produce dates (but not until it grows 30 feet tall and you will be dead - Ed.).

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Out with Gill and Terry tonight for a pizza. We expected to be able to eat in any one of three places in Sommieres, but the place was like a ghost town. There was only one restaurant open, in the middle of town, Les Caves de la Maison d'Avignon, 4 Place Jean Jaures, 0615 02 98 92. It was late and we didn't really have time to look further afield. There are two establishments side by side. One sells a large selection of very good local wine, and you can eat in the attractive grand salon next door. We have used it a few times on Saturday mornings in the past and have been impressed with the salads on offer and the quality of the wines. Their policy is simple, if you buy wine off the shelf in the cave for x, then you will pay 2 times x if you drink it sitting down in the restaurant. I would need to try it again, but the food was at best satisfactory and none of our party of six was very impressed with their meal. The wine on the other hand was excellent and I would go there again for the wine alone.

Is it me you're looking for?

Just to let you into a secret, it's me under there!

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I wonder if anyone else has noticed an increase in spam over the last couple of days? I wasn't in the habit of getting that much, 30 a day into one box and 40 into another, but they have both more than doubled in the last couple of days. 70 into the former and 80 into the latter so that can't be a coincidence. The former is the account that I am slowly moving away from and the latter is my gmail account where their excellent filters catch it all. The more I use it, the more I like Gmail.

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Jan and I are getting to be experts at turning weeds into 'lawn'. The rain over the last few weeks has made the weeds grow quickly and others turn green. One patch of ground, that we have so far ignored, has now been turned into a 'lawn' by chopping down the tall stuff and mowing the rest. It's easy when you know how.

Who put the goo in Google

I had a problem logging on to any Google site yesterday so apologies all round. This has happened once or twice of late so they may be having some biggish problems. There is certainly a lot of extra spam around at the moment and I suppose that will affect this site and Google mail, which I now use a lot. Hey ho.

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When I came in yesterday afternoon I was full of self satisfaction having spent a few hours in the garden sorting things out for autumn. It is still beautifully warm and very pleasant to be out in the sun. We have had to learn that there are only certain months when it is possible to work efficiently in the garden. June, July, August and September are out. The ground is rock hard and the sun will get you. October, November and December are better and with a bit of rain the ground might be a bit softer. January and February you can expect sunshine but it can be cold and you can't plant because you can't water because of overnight temperatures. March, but particularly April and May are pleasant good gardening months. Plants and watering are another issue (please, no more gardening - Ed.), we had friends who would spend hours and hours watering their pots, and other plants, and we determined that we wouldn't fall into that trap. So it was lots of gravel, though that still needs weeding, bum, and splashes of easily maintained colour on the summer terrace. Palms, cacti, Lavender and Oleander grow well and need little maintenance as do the usual array of pot plants, as long as you're prepared to water them. I realise it's all a bit lightweight so here endeth the lesson on gardening! (Hallelujah - Ed.)