When will the grey skies clear and allow summer to start in earnest? Yes we have certainly paid for April ie ever since! And why do I have this interest in the sun? Apart from the "free" hot water we obtain when the day is bright, this year we have attempted to make more of the garden and it appears to be stuck ie everything is there and making attempts to burst forth but growth is stunted and unimpressive. One of the courgette plants has disappeared either because it rotted in the damp/wet soil or because - more likely - the slugs found a way over the blue pellets I had thoughtfully provided for their delectation. I have a mental image of a kamikaze gastropod dragging itself across the "mined" soil determined to sacrifice all. Anyway everything else though living is only growing timidly and the fuchsias look more end of September than mid June.
The cherry tree is having a year off. At least it has gone part-time and there are hardly any cherries worth harvesting. As I gaze across the neighbours' gardens from the upper floors of the house I note with some envy that next door but one has a tree that is veritably dripping with plump red fruit jewels. Can this be fair? There is no way they are going to be able to harvest them all so I guess many of the top ones will simply go to supplement the local wildlife diet. Too bad that slugs don't do trees, eh?
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Not all is lost however as this weekend we are in deepest darkest France, or as deep as it gets in Nord-Pas-de-Calais - and that is surprisingly deep and dark with the far right's candidate coming second and thus in the second round of the general election tomorrow just down the road - visiting the Bopes. They have two cherry trees in their immense garden, one of which is equally heavily ladened. I did some extensive sampling this afternoon along with the raspberries which are also plentiful. I feel sure that we will be taking some home tomorrow in our 20 year old Corsa. Belated Joyeux Fêtes to the old lady who celebrated this milestone on 3 June in a garage near to where I am writing this. She is now fully fit and raring to go. We won't even touch on the bill but to say it was large yet generously discounted.
The cherry tree is having a year off. At least it has gone part-time and there are hardly any cherries worth harvesting. As I gaze across the neighbours' gardens from the upper floors of the house I note with some envy that next door but one has a tree that is veritably dripping with plump red fruit jewels. Can this be fair? There is no way they are going to be able to harvest them all so I guess many of the top ones will simply go to supplement the local wildlife diet. Too bad that slugs don't do trees, eh?
.jpg)
Not all is lost however as this weekend we are in deepest darkest France, or as deep as it gets in Nord-Pas-de-Calais - and that is surprisingly deep and dark with the far right's candidate coming second and thus in the second round of the general election tomorrow just down the road - visiting the Bopes. They have two cherry trees in their immense garden, one of which is equally heavily ladened. I did some extensive sampling this afternoon along with the raspberries which are also plentiful. I feel sure that we will be taking some home tomorrow in our 20 year old Corsa. Belated Joyeux Fêtes to the old lady who celebrated this milestone on 3 June in a garage near to where I am writing this. She is now fully fit and raring to go. We won't even touch on the bill but to say it was large yet generously discounted.
1 comment:
I know just how you feel about the cherry tree! We discovered that the one at the edge of our garden, in the thicket, actually belongs to us. Briefest excitement - the tree is very rotten, covered in ivy, and the piegeons have disdained the five or so miniscule fruit visible. Domage.
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