Living and Gardening in Brittany

I realised when reading old posts that I have concentrated on gardening. I haven't even mentioned my 3-year-old granddaughter or my 4-year-old great granddaughter or my 2-month-old great granddaughter twins. The twin girls Clara and Lucy spent the first month in incubators. They went home for Xmas. I did see them in hospital.  I went to UK to see my oldest grandson being Earnest in The Importance of ---.  he is rather good. Neve is my 3-year-old granddaughter who rules the household and loves dancing.

I employed a tree surgeon to remove 6 dead conifers and 4 huge leylandi. I shall burn wood from the 6 conifers . The leylandi are bigger and I hope to use them to make stools in a circle.  He is also going to remove half of the mimosa when it has flowered.  It is gigantic and is spoiling the lovely fir tree next to it.  It has also spawned many babies; so perhaps they will flower. The surgeon also removed a birch tree which was touching the electric wires. One of the branches of the old cider apple trees had broken and was also covered in ivy. Guy cut down have of it and has cut it up and stacked it ready for burning. Apple wood  burns well and gives off a lovely aroma.

I stayed in France over xmas and New Year. I spent xmas eve with French friends because that is when the French celebrate xmas. It was a lovely celebration but when I returned to my house in the early hours of xmas day i found the house was full of smoke. A basket of sticks next to the fire  had burned and was still smoking.  How lucky I was that the house hadn't burned down. I went to bed and then on  xmas morning I began to tackle the smoke damage.  A friend came on Boxing Day and tried to wash the blackened walls. The next day another friend rang and suggested that I contact the Insurance company which I did immediately.  I sent a report by email and some photos and today an assessor came to assess the damage. He will report back to AXA.  So after contacting AXA I stopped trying to clean up and returned to the garden.  The Winter job that is paramount is weeding the flower beds and adding compost mixed with wood ash. I have so far managed to comple...