Happy Rentree

Here is a symbol of September, the first fruits of our grape harvest;  rosé grapes in an Italian grape bowl which caught my eye in a charity shop.  Grapes love heatwaves and drought.  I only watered this vine a couple of times and yet it thrives. 

B leaves school for university, R leaves Collège for Lycée. 

Terrace Aftermath

Spot the cat as usual, faithful companion in times of rest

We can go on no longer (for the time being)

Terrace interlude

We have had to abandon work half way through the project, to take it up again during the fine weekends of September, our helpers have gone and JC is back to work.  We dumped all the planks on top of the foundations to protect them and so we can get out of our door, and it gives an impression of just how wonderful it will be...when we finish it.

YES  the first plank, Sunday!

B lovingly sets up and demonstrates our laser machine which we could have used to help us get the terrace level had we remembered that we had bought it in a brocante years ago...but I will use it to draw large squares of colour on the wall in the living room

Sunday evening, time's up, puzzling over the laying of the parquet and screwing in place

Terrace facing defeat

The loneliness of the leader before the everlasting overhwhelming challenge, pushing on beyond the point of exhaustion.

We realise we are involved in a major construction, a roof perhaps, or an entire house.  We are underqualified, under staffed and our deadline is inappropriate.  I think it would have been easier to build 20 metre foundations with an underground carpark and have done with it.

It is Saturday evening, last half day tomorrow, and not a single plank of terrace is in place.  The 80 4 metre long planks have not even been carried to the building site.  As I write, JC and A are screwing the foundation frame in place.  Utter exhaustion has set in and and in desperation family loyalties have been pressed upon.

R:  OK OK I'LL WORK BUT NEXT TIME BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING STUPID ASK ME I MAY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU AVOID A PROBLEM.

B came over with H his girlfriend, after disappearing for 2 days and nearly causing a family Rift.  Push on, push on...

The rare sight of B, R and JC on site at the same time, if only many hands would join to make light work...

One hole drilled in the baked earth every 40cm, filled with cement, topped with an adjustable foot to be finely adjusted, equidistance between the rafters, equal height, perfectly flat in all directions...

R prepares to 'work'...and JC prepares to collapse

A does the work of 3 men he is a titan...a black belt in Aikido, a qualified sports teacher, a determined, honorable and loyal friend

Complex engineering, calculations, problem-solving...

A sea of terrace foundations stretching to the horizon


I feel like a war photographer.

Terrace Progress

Another 15 hour day, and what was our old rotten terrace has been transformed into a mud flat covered with square holes and lines, rather like crop circles or something (of a square kind) - what made them, was it done by aliens?  Wait, what is that I see in the bottom left hand corner of the photo, a hole-digger in action...

It's dark.  They're still at it.  I'm going out to get them in, this is no time (10.12pm) to be running a cement mixer.  As you can see neither of them is the slightest bit contrite.  They encourage one another in their extremist determination to get the job done, and anyone who gets in their way is steamrollered.

Caught

Not Sorry

Guiltily mixing concrete in the dark

Defiant!

This is how dark it is

Terrace Buliding Starts Today

Before pictures

The Gaffer

The Mate (not enthusiastic) and his cat (enthusiastic)

The Gaffer gives instructions to his Mate who is visibly not impressed

The Mate uses his phone whilst listening once more to the Gaffer's instructions, the gaffer assumes a despotic and disapproving stance

Work begins in the pouring rain Gaffer and Mate Not Pleased

B cement mixing

Work continues late into night, JC calls it Project Management others call it slave driving.  Gaffer says being a project manager is a lonely job.

The Visit

My mum came to see us, it's been seven years...

 Here we are doing an art class with Marie-Christine, exploring the colour blue, light and darkness

Reading and painting frames in the garden.

We did a collective silk painting with B's girlfriend's family, a representation of our house, and then sang and played guitar and djambes under the stars

Cherry Tomato Tree

Cherry Tomato Tree at Morning.  What beauty, I have tended it daily. 

I filled a growbag for potatoes with our good compost/soil stuck in a 'tree' of several bamboo canes with their side sprouting branches still on, and planted 3 small cherry tomato plants, so they could grow up and spread out into a tree shape leaning on the bamboo branches (tied in with garden twine when needed).  I then experimented with finding the sunniest spot, dragging it into its final spot where the first tomato ripens as I write.

Woodland Garden end of April

 

The dry shade challenge continues, here are some (subtle) successes.  March to May is the best time in the forest, so after this lot it's almost over.  My favourite time to be out is early spring before the tree leaves, after long winter deprivation.    I'm fond of these glamorous relatives of the deadnettle (lamium) the pink one has thrived in a concrete-edged raised bed, draping itself over it prettily all year round with silver white leaves and marshmallow flowers, the yellow one has more subtle silver patterns on the leaves.

 Bugle is a woodland plant which makes a purply-green carpet and flowers just as the tree leaves start coming out, it will be hints of dark subtle blue, already just visible in the interior.  I love the way the leaves spread out horizontally on the flower stalk in contrast to the strong vertical flower.

 

Tiarella cordifolia (saxifrage variety)

On high stalks which raise them above the forest floor,  with the light behind them they are ethereal and fluffy, close up, the florets are elaborate and fascinating.

dicentra spectabilis
Not an obvious choice for a forest but bears part-shade so I planted in a relatively sunny patch of the forest just in front of my swing seat, in the centre of three rocks which I think helps keep humidity constant.    It is the French custom to sell plants only when they are in flower.  I bought this last Spring, at the end of its season, half price, and its hearts immediately dropped off and it died back ready to grow again next Spring, I wondered if it would have enough light and whether it would return.  I'm happy to announce it is back in glory.  Known as  'Coeur de Marie' (Mary's Heart) in France, and Bleeding Heart in English, and sometimes likened to a Dutch hat when the sides peel open and raise up on each side. 

Wild geranium just coming out, pink and purple flowers this year, I managed to get some grape hyacinth bulbs growing up through the leaves, and when they die back the geranium leaves will cover the tat (not sure the bulb leaves will get enough light to flower next year though).

Woodruff Galium Odoratum, smells good, and according to my mum this likes limy soil which we have, and was used in the past in mattresses to discourage unwanted wildlife.