Looking back before looking forward..

I have just read back through the previous posts, and it has brought back such memories. One or two of them require an update though I think! 

The gate situation has now been rectified and not at a cost of 1500Euros. We found a company in the UK who ship wooden five barred gates to France and managed to purchase it, complete with posts, metal fittings and two different sized gates - one small to walk through and one large to drive through for less than £500 including delivery! The gates are now in place, have been for a while, and the dogs no longer escape and go walkabout! The gate post installation caused a lot of swearing, sweating, use of a mini digger and buying of a Titan Jackhammer to get through the scree level!!

The beautiful wisteria has had to be removed. I am so very sad about this, but a combination of the damage to the kitchen floor caused by it's roots, the need to get to the wall behind it to do repairs and rendering, and the fact that it was actually dangerous as it was no longer supported safely. I was very nearly injured when one end fell away from the wall but fortunately apart from a couple of bruises I got away lightly. The plan is to replant a new one over the "garage" building once it's renovated to replace it. 

Burassic park was eventually reduced to a combination of compost(the leaves) and ash( the dried stalks which were eventually burnt!). The compost heaps are amazing! I have 3 full ones and one empty. One of the three is plastic sheeted down and hopefully I'll be able to dig it into the garden a little later on in the year. The second one is ready to sheet down and the third one not long behind it. There are a lot less weeds in the potager, and I now have a fruit section, with black and red currants, gooseberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries in it. We didn't get much fruit last year as they were all new plants in, but this year I'm very hopeful! And we now know what kind of trees we have - apples, pears, peaches, cherries, plums and hazelnuts! I promise photos next time!

Anyway that's part 1 of the catch up. Part 2 to include birds and animals of the local area, shopping and maybe even a house update with pictures.

Til next time
KJ xx