Living and Gardening in Brittany

So busy in the garden these days that I have no time to write this blog but I am so pleased with the flowers this year that I just had to put some photos on.   Hollyhocks Mixed seeds Summer flowers  Don't know what these are called  Monbretia that a friend gave me last year

                          Everybody does Breton Dancing

   An Event on International Women's Day   http://passed.weebly.com A group of women in Stoke-on-Trent have set up a website for women of Stoke to submit personal stories of achievements.

Sorry if old blog is boring but I was so pleased to find it. I thought it was lost for ever and it was a time when I wrote a lot. It was like losing a diary. And the best bit is I can access it now . The only problem is that it has suddenly appeared in capital letters. Now when I want to change a paragraph from lower case to upper I have no idea how to do it.

Monday, 21 May 2007 Update  First of all I want to record the last few weeks. I went to London at the beginning of May. I went partly to see my Granddaughter's new flat and new cats. (cat talk may become boring to people who don't like cats) I went also to attend the AGM of an organisation called NPN (Natural Parents Network) and I will write more of that later. Lastly I went to bring back this laptop which I bought from my son. If you ever read my old blog then you will know the effect that computers have on me and indeed what happened to my old laptop Posted by Fleure Sauvage at 11:38 Monday, 21 May 2007 To continue     --   I posted that to check that I hadn't lost it because on my last blog often when I wrote a post it disappeared which is quite annoying and contributes to the madness making effect of computers. Anyway, back to London. The weather was superb, but the pollution was horrendous. I did not stop coughing the whole ...

Monday, 21 May 2007 still in London Two of my best friends came down for the day to see me and to see the photo exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery of women writers. It was a little disappointing in one respect as it was so small. I imagined that it would have been much, much bigger. We had to walk through a labyrinth of other exhibits. I was annoyed a little at this because I had so little time but also fascinated by much of what I saw and resolved to go back next time I am in London. The women writers all wrote so much and so well. I felt dwarfed. How does one continue to write when confronted by great ability and success. I bought four postcards. One of Beatrice Potter who looks like the detective Miss Marple as played by Margaret Rutherford. One of Dorothy Hoskins of whom I know nothing but guess from the portrait that she was a writer as she is surrounded by books and papers. She looks like someone I would have liked to have known. One of Oscar Wild ...

Wednesday, 30 May 2007 Indecision I seem to have made friends with my old enemy TIME and developed a new enemy,  indecision. It starts every morning with shall I have tea or coffee then moves on to shall I write, paint, garden or go out. I could go swimming or dancing or playing music or visiting my French neighbours. If the weather is bad it helps somewhat because then that cuts out gardening. Notice that there are two activities missing from the list- cooking and housework-make that three and shopping. These are all things I only do if I really have to. I cook sometimes because I have to eat. I eat raw food if poss or go out to a local restaurant. There are at least nine which are only ten minutes away and charge 9 euros for a five course meal including wine or cider. The problem then is that it takes time to eat 5 courses and I am always tempted to drink some of the wine and then I have trouble staying awake to do some of the things I can't decide which to do. ...

Wednesday, 4 July 2007 overall winner Seems like the garden has won out on all the other activities. I have no time to write or paint and now Wandadoo has erased all my e-mails and my e-mail addresses. gardening keeps me sane whilst computering drives me mad. Is there a word to compute which does not mean doing sums? Last week I visited three exhibitions/gardens. now my head is reeling with ideas for the garden and paintings and sculptures. I have added this painting simply to add interest Thursday, 28 June 2007 identity I have been experimenting with pseudonyms. Twice before in my life I changed my name. The first time was when I was at college. At that time I hated my first name so I swopped to my middle name and shortened it. After college I reverted because I returned to my home town and everyone continued to call me by my original name. When I started to write I hated both of my names so chose a new pseudonym completely. I liked the na...

Although my priority is gardening I do other things. Last Sunday I had a succession of visitors - 4 in all. I played badminton on Tuesday and went Breton Dancing on Wednesday. And today I went to visit my neighbour because it was her birthday. She is 102 years old. Yes that's correct 102 years old. She made us a cup of coffee (that's real coffee not instant) and opened a packet of biscuits.

No need for captions

Elegant hornbeam Bluebells in my wood

Witch's Fence I want to make fences like this. Witch's cat and pots

Elegant Hornbeam Bluebells in my wood

Cut grass with lovely clouds Elegant Fir Tree

What has happened to blogger? Why do they have to keep changing things. I don't blog for a few days and then the whole look has been altered. It's the same on face book. It doesn't make things easier it just makes me want to give up.

The garden always looks so much better when the grass has just been cut and thank goodness I managed to cut it in before the beginning of a week's rain.

After 2 weeks in Italy baby minding and 3 weeks sickness I am pleased to be back in the garden. I have nearly caught up. The grass is cut inspite of the fact that both mowers have had to be repaired. All the new beds have been dug and I am half way through the weeding and pruning of dogwood. What an unusual Spring! I still have snow drops, daffodils, aubretia, tulips, grape hyacinths,primroses, japonica and forsythia all flowering at the same time. I have relocated The Princess and The Frog to the new flower bed which is coming on nicely. I am looking forward to seeing if the newly planted irises flower. Last sunday at the Plant Sale in town I bought a long desired magnolia. It was 30 euros but I think it was worth it. I shall get a life time of pleasure from it whereas if I had spent that on eating out the pleasure would be short lived.

Just a reminder to all those who have recently bought a Kindle.   The Sarah Wainwright Story (Extraordinary Episodes in the Life of an Ordinary Woman by Jean Wild is available as an ebook at a very modest price.

Plants in the makeshift greenhouse seem to be surviving. I am really looking forward to spring and planting them out Poor things but maybe they are growing strong roots I am optimistic for these These look good

 Cheeky in Log basket She won't sleep in her cat basket but loves the log basket. She was born in a friend's wood pile.

Mimosa In Flower First photo from new camera-taken from inside conservatory. This is the Lazy Gardener. He hasn't moved an inch since I put his hands on the lawnmower.

Yesterday I cut about half of the 5,000 square metres. It was really difficult because it was long and wet but it does look better. I had to stop frequently to free the blades. I foolishly did not wear gloves and now I can't get my hands clean. I have tried ajax and bleach. Nothing works. And today is open day at the library. A friend has just told me to try lemon juice.

I picked the last five apples from a tree which had no leaves but the remaining apples looked like Xmas decorations. I managed to prune the apple trees today, hopefully, correctly. It will be the first time that I have done it both at the right time and the right way. I have two old cider apple trees. I never prune them but perhaps I should because they have so much fruit that the branches break. Last year one of the branches was so loaded that the branch bent so low that it reached the ground but didn't break.

Went to the tree nursery and bought 25 hornbeams. A friend bought 3 of them and I have just finished planting the rest today. I am researching cameras so that I can take photos as I go along. If I was advising someone who was creating a new garden I would tell them to plant hedges or erect fences to make sure all plants would be protected from the wind. If only I had begun this way my garden would be so much further on now. It wouldn't matter if I was younger but the trees are planted now and I look forward to seeing them grow thick enough to shelter my flowers and shrubs from the harsh winds.