2015 started with a serendipity. I e-mailed Thierry to wish him a Happy New Year, and ask where I was in the queue for his much in demand roofing services. Inspired perhaps by the warm and sunny weather he turned up and got started the next day.

In February we negotiated the French MOT system and then tried but failed to arrange a few days skiing, everywhere was booked up. Still it left me time to finish the spring pruning in the gravel garden, which seemed to go more quickly than the previous year, probably because I had a clearer idea of what I was doing.

Travel that spring did not go so smoothly. Replacement of the landing beacon at Bergerac made it impossible for planes to land in poor visibility, so we had a couple of detours by coach to Bordeaux and then a cancelled flight due to an air traffic control strike when we opted for the last train to Paris before SNCF joined in the “mouvemente sociale” followed by a Eurostar back to the UK.

In March Nick and Jon were persuaded to rip up the ugly seagrass matting in the study and downstairs bedrooms

and replace it with a wood look finish

The plants for the prairie garden started to arrive in late March. Around 5,000 of them.

It took Jan’s team several days just to check and label them.

Then we started planting, with Jan and her friend Karen setting out the plants, and 4 of us doing the actual planting, A couple of weeks work, all told, and unfortunately we were going to have to wait for the plants to grow a bit before we could put the mulch down so we were well into summer before that was complete.

I took a day off in the middle to drive down to Cahors and collect some salvias and other groundcover plants from Senteurs du Quercy.

I had finally cleared out the slope above the lower cave,

there wasn’t much depth of soil, but I hoped salvias would survive, as indeed the have.

Walnut terrace was beginning to thrive

as was the bed by the gate

and the water feature was beginning to take shape.

Work on the “abri” did indeed start in July when Arnaud came to erect the stone pillars. It was an anxious few days. We had cheerfully assured all concerned that there was solid rock/concrete under the dallage on the terrace, but actually we had no idea. I watched anxiously, fearful that the terrace would not bear the weight and that the pillars would sink without trace. Happily they are still standing. Indeed for several weeks, while we waited for Thierry to come and build the roof, they stood in splendid isolation, creating a classical feel.

We had two bits of bad news in July.

Firstly Trevor and Heidi announced their retirement, sooner than planned as they had managed to sell their house almost as soon as they put it on the market, typically property can take a couple of years to shift. They introduced us to Steve and Mandy, who took on the caretaking and pool maintenance tasks, and are a welcome addition to the team. I will however be eternally grateful to Trevor & Heidi, whose persistent optimism and practical good sense saw us through some difficult times in the early years, and I miss our afternoons listening to their stories as we downed a few beers in the summer sunshine.

Then Dominique, who had persuaded me to dismiss the previous meadow mower and let her take the hay, announced that son Florin was no longer willing to make the not inconsiderable journey to come and cut and bale the meadow. Given the distance it was understandable, and he did at cut it down for us that year. But it left us with a problem, or, as my one time boss would have said, an opportunity!

Sarah visited in July, and later in the month the wine tasters came, not to taste but to see the Tour de France which passed through Bergerac that summer. I missed the arrival of the Tour on the Friday, having been detailed to collect the last of our party from the airport. I don’t feel I missed much as the rain was torrential. The drive to the airport was treacherous as the main road had been closed for the race and the detour was down a flooded one track road, but everyone else got soaked. Then the sun came out and on the Saturday we toured the winery at Tour de Verdots with the vigneron, picnicked in a meadow and then watched the time trials from Bergerac to Perigeux in blazing sunshine.

As we left at the end of the month Thierry was roofing the abri.

Back in Scotland I started thinking about the meadow. A year or two previously I had culled an article from The Garden magazine  describing the Sussex Prairie Garden, a Piet Oudolf inspired informal meadow, I loved it and kept the piece thinking that although the scale was vast some of the planting ideas might be useful. Now that no-one was claiming a right to the hay off our meadow I began to wonder if we might create something similar, but on a smaller scale, in the flat area beyond the Gravel Garden and behind the garage. Tentatively, since I felt I had demanded a lot from her in the past couple of years, I sent the article off to Jan at Jardins du Perigord, asking if she would be interested, her response was immediate and enthusiastic, I don’t think either of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for! Back in France in September we walked the space together, I had been uncertain as to whether to plant the area at the eastern extremity, towards our boundary with our neighbours, or to the western extremity of the plateau, which would be encompassed in the view from the back kitchen.

We agreed to do both.

By late August the Gravel Garden was looking fantastic,

but it still lacked an item of “garden furniture” for which a space had been left at the time of initial planting.

The stake marked the point at which I had decided to install an armillary sphere sundial. This had to be made to order for the latitude. After searching the Internet I had contracted with Nick Canfield, conveniently situated in Wales, to build one to order. Nick is a perfectionist. He took the job on in the summer of 2013, and was finally happy with the result in the spring of 2014, when the sundial arrived in France. Our next problem was to find a plinth on which to place it. Peter located a stonemason who was advertising his work around the corner from us, but proved to be living some distance away in St Cyprien. He turned up, on his bike, at the third time of asking, and eventually quoted us some 2,000 Euros for the job, rather more than the cost of the sundial itself. Guess he didn’t want the job. By that time we had discovered Arnaud, of the abri pillars, who came in at a tenth of the price. The sundial went up in September .

I was also keen to replace the rather naff bird table on the lawn outside the kitchen window, our birds seem to find plenty to eat without our help and are not much interested in our offerings.

As with the “prisoner balls” I wanted something spherical to echo the box, and was attracted by the Fireballs that I found on the Internet. Most seemed to be made in the US, with associated delivery issues, but I eventually located a UK based artist, Andrew Gage, who agreed to make a Fireball to my specifications, and delivered, on time, that September. Not that delivery was not a challenge, these things are heavy. All credit to the lorry driver who made it up the drive and delivered to the edge of the stone platform, he almost got stuck in the meadow turning his lorry to depart.

Although we could burn logs or charcoal in it, due to burning restrictions in summer we have not yet done so, preferring to light it up at night with solar powered lights.

We also realised that the grass bordered runnel was the perfect home for the heron I had bought in Bergerac our first winter and had been trying to home ever since.

September also saw the re-planting of the iris beds I had cleared in the summer and I began to clear the narrow southern border in Walnut Terrace and planted some spring bulbs.

The northern border in  Walnut Terrace was causing some problems. Our soil is so stony that pebbles just kept rolling off the steep slope of the flowerbed, causing mowing problems in the lawn beneath. In October Nick & George built us a low retaining wall to contain the problem, it had the added benefit of making it look more like a flowerbed.

George also did sterling work collecting various piles of logs from previously fallen trees, which Guillaume had left stacked in the meadow, dragging them up to the woodpile and cutting them into manageable lengths.

Work began on the prairie garden in October

and Fabien also continued through the winter to construct the water feature. I ordered salvias and some other plants from Senteurs du Quercy for my new bed above the lower cave. Jan & I spent the winter discussing planting options for the new prairie.

My major task for February was the spring clearing of the Gravel Garden, cutting back the grasses and perennials from the previous year to make way for the spring growth. It took me a while that first year, I have become slicker since. Still I needed to be out of the house as M Perez the painter, or more accurately his mate, was finally persuaded to start on the task of painting hallway, sitting room and kitchen, which he had contracted for in 2012. He seems to prefer outdoor jobs!

In March we went skiing in Aspen. In our absence the garage wall was rendered, and when we got back in early April Liz had started on the trompe l’oeil.

We watched it evolve over the next few weeks, sympathising with her efforts to work on a south facing wall, with no shade, in unusually sunny weather for the time of year.

Te result was a triumph, converting an ugly view to a thing of beauty. She even managed to include portraits of the hoopoes, who visit in the spring and perch on top of the pigeonnier (just above our bedroom) to sing for their mates.

Susan & Peter visited again, this time it was warm enough to sit by the pool. Susan escorted me to Jardiland and talked me into some purchases for the stone circle, although I resisted her enthusiasm for a monkey puzzle tree, doubtful that it would enjoy our soil. We did acquire a Punica, which has grown well and has beautiful orange and white blossom, although, like the olives, I do not expect it to fruit in the local climate. A pair of Teucriums were added, a passing stranger shook his head doubtfully as he watched us loading them into the car,  observing that they were enthusiastic growers, as they have proved to be, but the have attractive foliage and blue flowers and don’t seem to mind hard pruning.

I also began to acquire white galets to top off the beds on each side of the angellos. This took a few trips as the bags were heavy, but the result is attractive and they do discourage weeds. The display from the Iris continued to improve.

By May the trompe l’oeil was finished

I succeeded in sourcing some solar powered globular lighting to echo the rounded shape of the box, dubbed by Peter “prisoner balls” in honour of the 1960s TV series.

The Acacia were in flower in the meadow

My new Iris were doing well

and the Gravel Garden was flourishing

In June Neil & Brenda came to visit and managed some impressive sightseeing. Brenda and I also spent a productive morning exploring the clothes stalls at the Thursday market! In between visitors I began to clear various clumps of iris on the slope below the upper terrace and around the bottom of the steps to the lower cave. I also started on the bank above the lower cave, I had thought of planting alpines as it is a steep slope below a “cliff face” but it is south facing and dry so I decided to try salvias which I hoped would withstand the conditions.

Inspired by our visit to Sandra & Allan the previous autumn, we also started to plan a shaded sitting area on the terrace, shaded outdoor seating being something the garden lacked. My tentative ideas were sensibly refined by Trevor & Heidi, who also found us Arnaud the stonemason to create the supporting pillars and persuaded Thierry, the roofer to do the woodwork and tiling. Work was scheduled for July.

 

The beginning of September was unseasonably cold, unfortunately for Gil, Susan & Peter, all of whom came to visit. Sitting by the pool was more of an ordeal than a pleasure. Happily it warmed up again later in the month when we spent a few days with Sandra & Allan, admiring their provencal view, olive trees and developing vineyard. We also discovered en route the wonderful Auberge de Vieux Puits in the Pays de l’Aude.

Back in Lalinde my plants from Pepinieres Filippi arrived and I planted up the now relatively weed free border in Walnut Terrace. I also planted white and yellow iris in the bed by the gate, unfortunately I omitted to remove the labels and they were nicked within days, the peach coloured ones I planted on the escarpment above the lower cave have survived. We also replaced the kitchen hot water tank, so thick with calcaire that it was barely heating enough water for a single washing up.

The carpenter appeared to repair the kitchen floor just before our departure, and exposed a vast colony of termites. Peter was sent off to obtain hydrochloric acid, but it rapidly became clear that this was an extensive problem, hard to know how extensive as the parquet extended in continuity through the kitchen, dining and sitting room areas. The carpenter departed leaving a much larger hole in the floor. Happily Heidi, pragmatic as ever, rescued me from despair and undertook to organize the inspection and treatment of the entire house. We decided to concrete and tile the floor in the kitchen, we had been considering tiling it anyway, and were advised that the rest of the area, once treated, did not require replacement.

The treatment was done in our absence. When we returned in early December Nick & Jon had ripped up the kitchen floorboards, and burnt them, along with several of the kitchen units which the termites had begun to destroy. We spent a couple of weeks cooking in the microwave in the back kitchen and hoping all would be restored before our New Year guests arrived. It was.

Meantime the Jardins du Perigord team had been busy in the garden.

My “Mediterranean Garden” was planted

Thanks to Jan we made contact with local artist Liz King Sangster and husband Graeme. It had occurred to me during the summer that the bare expanse of garage wall might be improved by a trompe l’oeil, and Liz agreed to undertake the project, while Graeme found a local macon to resurface the wall before painting started.

The landscaping team also did some planting along the borders of the unusual stone runnel which had taken the waste water outflow from the kitchen before we replaced the fosse,

and cleared out the dell on the upper terrace in preparation for the water feature

and the hugely overgrown area around the lower cave.

New Year was crisp and sunny. Fiona & Gordon came with the dogs and we discovered some new walks together. We looked forward to spring.

In April the work I had done on the established Iris beds was beginning to pay off, and I also discovered a lovely Tamarix on one of the lower terraces.

John & Glenys came to visit in their camper van. Together we discovered the fascinating grotte at Rouffignac. John did sterling work uprooting the multitude of baby oak trees which were pushing up through the new gravel in Petit Versailles, and we benefited from Glenys’s archaeological expertise as she identified flints from prehistoric arrowheads in the gravel garden and we imagined primitive man admiring our view as they chipped at their hunting tools.

At the end of April we enjoyed a week of walking and sightseeing in Croatia in company with Dominique’s walking group.

By mid May the re-landscaping of the space between the garage and the house was complete. Instead of a scrubby sloping lawn bisected by  a gravel path, leading to a gravel rectangle and doubtful lean-to on the garage wall, we had 4 narrow terraced beds rising up from the parking area to the pool.

It only remained to get them planted. I contemplated trying to organize a work party of willing friends but the thought of importing top soil and gravel, and of laying down a weed suppressing membrane was daunting. Fortunately Jan and Jardins du Perigord came to my rescue once again, willing to do the work and source the plants to my design. My plan for this area was a Mediterranean style garden, borrowing from images I had seen of La Loupe in Provence. I wanted to create a tapestry of evergreens in different shades of green and grey which would grow together over time, with lavender bordered paths between. Flowering plants were not excluded but flowers were a secondary feature. I had until autumn to complete my design.

In the meantime I cleared the border on walnut terrace, again, planning to plant in the autumn. I was aiming for a cool feel, blues and white with some yellow highlights. I ordered drought tolerant plants from Pepinieres Filippi, and, in defiance of the deer, a few yellow roses.

The new boundary wall at the bottom of the drive was now complete, and with the trees gone there was space for some shrubs to brighten the entry. I bought a pick-axe and managed to dig some planting holes. My prize purchase was a Cornus Controversus, long coveted, and lovely it was for the week after I planted it. Then we went back to Scotland. When we got back the deer had shown their appreciation by chewing off every leaf. It did not recover and has been replaced with a white hibiscus which I had removed when I turned the small bed at the back kitchen door into a herb garden. Deer do eat the hibiscus, but not with any great enthusiasm. The chaenomeles and wigelia I planted at the same time have survived, but once again there were thefts of some of the smaller shrubs which have had to be replaced.

I also started a new bed, “the stone circle” since I bordered it with rocks, over the patch of grass at the north end of the parking area where the geothermie wells had been dug, largely to discourage vehicles from driving over the wells and the associated piping, which I had been warned was vulnerable. Early planting of dwarf conifers, which appear in general to do well in my neighbours’ gardens, were not successful, so that bed continues to evolve.

The perennial planting in the Gravel garden was completed in May, in lovely weather. The Wine Tasters arrived just as the planting finished, they had about an hour to admire it before, predictably as we had guests, the rain started, at least the plants were well watered in. The rain lasted most of the weekend, but at least we managed lunch in the garden at Tremolat before they left.

The “Angellos” which I had purchased form the brocante at St Capraise arrived the same day, along with a stone greyhound, christened Sirus, who totally fails to scare the rabbits from his vantage point guarding the Gravel Garden.

The Angellos were to provide a feature in the rather odd circular paved area at the top turning of the drive. I have no idea what its original purpose was, too shallow for a pool.

The Iris I had planted our first autumn. just uphill from the Angellos, also began flowering that spring.

I returned in mid June to spend a few days with my father. It had been dry so I set to watering the new plantings, which of course brought the rain down again. Memorable moment, soaked through in grubby shorts and t-shirt from trying to set up hoses in the rain when the local Jehovah’s witnesses arrived, I did not share their view that it was a good time for a chat!

Rob & I managed a trip to Perigeux, then he went home and I set off for a wine course in Beaune. Peter had arrived when I got back, and the rain had stopped  we spent the rest of that visit buying up all the mini sprinklers and small bore tubing in the vicinity to set up a more permanent watering arrangement. Our efforts were rewarded, considering the late planting the Gravel Garden was looking pretty good by mid July.

By August it was even better.

We returned to Scotland at the beginning of August. As we were leaving we noticed that one of the feet on the fridge had begun to sink through a crumbling kitchen floorboard. The carpenter thought it was probably just damp. He arranged to do the repair in September.

In the autumn, after liberal application of weedkiller, Fabien & Vicky started to dig and layout the gravel garden, a relatively informal planting of grasses and perennials in the area beyond the pool,  the formal topiary garden below the front terrace, christened by Peter “Petit Versailles”, and the border round the pool which they planted with lavender and 4 small olive trees. for decorative purposes only, we do not expect them to fruit.

In the meantime I made a start at digging out the couch grass and other multiple weeds on the north side of “walnut terrace”, where I believe there must have been a flowerbed at some time in the past, long overgrown.

We were also actively pursuing Groupe Solaire and EDF to dig a trench from garage to electricity pylon in order to connect our photovoltaique panels to the grid and start earning us some return on our investment. It took us until November to discover that Groupe Solaire had mislaid our contract, and when they managed to find it and send us a copy, that it contained a transcription error confusing out French and UK addresses. Several months of frustrating correspondence ensued. The trench was finally completed, at the third attempt, in April and by May we were finally connected.

In September, on Jan’s instruction, we made at trip to the brocante in Riberac where we acquired various items of Garden “furniture” including the gloriette and an urn for Petit Versailles, given the weight of these items we were fortunate that Fabien & Vicky were around to help with the unloading on delivery!

Digging in Petit Versailles turned up some interesting items, including an electric cable, clearly connected to something deep in the ground. Work stopped until the electrician had been summoned to establish that it was not live or connected to anything in the house. It remains a mystery.

Electricity was something of a feature of that autumn. October storms resulted in a power cut which lasted a couple of days for those of us living “up the hill” while maddeningly power was restored in town within hours, so we could look out and see the lights while attempting to cook on the gas hob with head torch and candles. I was papering and painting the blue bedroom at the time, my excuse for any imperfections in the final result.

We also discovered the limitations of the “re-enclencheur” sold to us by the burglar alarm supplier as the solution to the power going off when we were away. It blew out the main fusebox during our absence in September. Dominique managed to get it fixed ( and emptied my freezer into her own, wonderful woman). We were advised not to reconnect it, but Peter knew better, it blew the main fusebox for the second time in January and is now officially redundant.

The bare floorboards in the upstairs bedroom were floored over with “parquet” in November.

By December planting in Petit Versailles was complete

and we discovered that deer are fond of Eunonymus, despite our attempts to cover over the feature plants in the centre of the box beds they were literally eaten to death and have been replaced with something less tasty. Happily neither the box nor the santolina seems to appeal to them, and although there has been some attrition the roses are just about hanging in there, although the deer do the pruning for me.

The deer proved less interested in the Gravel Garden, where the autumn planting was restricted to grasses, the perennials were to wait until spring. The bunnies however proved grateful for this variation in their diet, or perhaps just irked by our digging  in a territory they had previously considered their own, since they dug up a fair number of plants without eating them.

In December Peter decided to construct the gloriette, which had arrived in multiple sections, himself. He started by putting the top circle together, put up the sides, discovered he could not lift the top onto the sides, it is very heavy, so took it all apart and started again, a noble effort.

Over the winter I started clearing the long neglected iris beds. The builder eventually came and built us a splendid reinforced garden wall, and promised he would be back soon to terrace the area between house and garage and tile the steps to the pool and the path from pool to the pool controls in the garage, an uncomfortable walk in bare feet. We were encouraged by the pile of stones he left as proof of his intention to get started and in late April work did indeed begin.

We looked forward to watching our new garden bloom.

 

While we had started planning for the “new” garden, work that summer consisted more in clearing than construction.

I made the first of several attempts at clearing wisteria terrace, at least to the point where it was possible for those of average height to walk through upright without sustaining serious head injury.

I had made an early attempt to cover over the earth mound created by the digging of the new fosse with a planting of windflowers, but few succeeded, so, seizing an opportunity to plant canna lilies, which I had long coveted but which are not suited to the Scottish climate, I decided on a “hot” garden of cannas and tall grasses, to which more recently I have added crown imperials, which failed, genista and iris for early season interest.

It has proved a very successful planting, brightening the view from the kitchen window.

In June Guillaume cleared the trees from the top of the wall by the gate, though we had to wait many months for the rebuild. Lacking a trailer Peter had to improvise when it came to getting the logs up the hill to the woodpile, new use for a ride on mower.

I began to clear the flowerbed by the gate as well, aiming for a yellow and white theme, as it is a dark and shady area. It has proved something of a war of attrition with the local plant thieves, who for the first couple of years helped themselves to the choicer specimens almost as soon as they were planted.

I also made a first attempt at clearing the “dell” on the first terrace, which I felt had potential as a water feature. As ever this involved liberal application of weedkiller and a good deal of scything. I also discovered, when I disturbed one, that the deer thought it a good spot to shelter in the overgrown undergrowth, from the noonday sun.

Work went on in the house. The new roofs over the siting room and pigeonnier were completed after the April rain finally stopped. A torrential downpour in early June demonstrated a design fault with the sitting room roof when water flooded spectacularly into the hall, happily speedily resolved. We were, fairly readily, persuaded to sign up for photovoltaique panels on the roof of the garage. We paid for them, we sell the electricity to EDF. We signed the contract in mid June and with immense efficiency 3 delightful Kurdish lads turned up within 10 days to install them, demanding a cheque on the day in full settlement.

We had been promised we would be selling our electricity within 3 months, once ERDF had provided a connection to the grid. In the event it took 11 months to get the connection and 2 years to see a return on our investment.

We also replaced the crumbling volet on the entrance door and installed a burglar alarm , a safe and security cameras.

I was 60 in July and “les girls” came to visit.

Peter was invited to leave the ladies to their own devices and went off on a very hot cycling trip to Mont d’Or. He was rewarded for his efforts by the Duck in the Yellow Jersey, but continues to complain about being thrown out of the house by the monstrous regiment of women.

New Year was uneventful. We ordered blinds for the kitchen, discussed renovation of the fairly sordid upstairs shower room and replacement of the seagrass matting in the hall with tiles, all scheduled for late February.Then the day we were due to leave, after a rainy night, I started down to town on my morning trip to the boulangerie and found a good part of the garden wall reduced to a heap of rubble in the ditch, but happily NOT in the road. I didn’t know whose problem it was, and there wasn’t much I could do at the time, so awaited events. It was around 4 weeks before the letter from the Conseil General arrived advising that it was most definitely my problem. Happily our builder came to the rescue and cleared the ditch, promising to rebuild the wall when I had got the trees along the top removed.

Our flight out in January was to be the last for several months as the runway at the airport was scheduled for replacement, simultaneously the railway from Bergerac to Sarlat was being  relaid, it has been so much quieter since. So our transport options on our February return were limited. We decided to drive, a decision supported by our failure to find any tiles we liked locally for the bathroom re-do, and our failure to find anyone in France able to supply the petrol driven hovermower that Peter badly needed for the steeper bits of lawn.

So we left Scotland in mid February with a car laden down with tiles, a hovermower, a number of rugs, also difficult to source in France, a couple of cases of wine, and sundry other items, so laden down indeed that the customs man on the ferry was distinctly suspicious of what we might be transporting!

We left on the edge of a blizzard and drove just ahead of it as far as our first overnight stop on the edge of the Severn, where we skidded gently but without mishap to our hotel. We stopped again in Dorset for a family visit, by which time the snow had eased up a bit, and by the time we reached St Malo, it was just raining. It didn’t last. We met snow again the next morning a few miles inland, but the autoroute at least was clear. Once we left it the roads were driveable almost as far as the house, but not quite. We had to leave the car on the road about 50 meters downhill from our gateway, which is to say 300 meters from our front door, where it remained for the following week.

 

By that time it was dark. We took what we needed for the night and climbed the hill. We had, of course, turned the water off before we left, the taps are in a box sunk into the grass across the drive from the house. Cue too cold and thirsty Scots scrabbling around in the pitch dark sweeping snow and trying to find the lid. It is now marked with a large stake!

It was very pretty.

The tiles, hovermower etc., came up the hill over the following days in wheelbarrow and backpacks! To add to the problem I had ordered some champagne in expectation of summer visitors. The lad who brought it was not prepared to venture beyond the mairie, so we drove back down to collect it from him, and back up to our new roadside parking place. That consignment of champagne was consumed long ago, but if you visit Peter will still show you the picture of how the champagne you are drinking reached the house!

We bought snow chains before we went home.

Work had started on the bathroom when we left. A week later Nick phoned me at work. He had gone out to collect materials, leaving the house locked and shuttered, and got back 2 hours later to find an attempted burglary. Several shutters jemmied and finally one (new) window unit prised out, but nothing taken. We were lucky the building team were there. they boarded up the window and ordered a replacement, reported it to the gendarmerie and our caretakers dealt with the paperwork. We assume the red flashing light of the indoor security camera proved a deterrent. In March we contracted for a monitored burglar alarm and outdoor cameras which we can view on the web, seeing who is at the house and recording number plates on every visiting car.

In March we went to Spain to ski. By then the snow had all but gone, even in the ski resorts, so we have as yet had no need for the snow chains. One unnoticed vestige of the burglary however came to light on our return when, after a day of rain, we discovered that the bedding in one of the upstairs guest rooms was saturated, and, on investigation, that several tiles on the roof had been removed and stacked aside. Peter courageously scrambled up and replaced them, but the duvet, despite repeated attempts by the laundry remains stained.

I retired at the beginning of April and took 3 weeks off before going back to locum my job, joys of the NHS! The roofer started on the sitting room roof, and stopped again, defeated by torrential rain for most of the month. He did his best with tarpaulins and was very good about coming back to adjust them each time I phoned to say water was pouring through the roof. It was June before it was dry enough for him to finish.

The Visiting Club came in April.

 

Not great weather but some brave souls dipped in the pool and the local coach company took us to Sarlat and St Emillion, Monbazillac and a grotte.

We watched the rain fall and looked forward to summer.

The most miserable man in the world paid his first visit on a cool damp day in early summer. I had recognised by then that I was going to need some help with hard landscaping, and a chance encounter at work had introduced me to the role of the landscape architect, someone, my informant explained who would “build my house but not tell me which pictures to hang on the walls”.

I was doubtful of my capacity to explain my ideas adequately in French, and was delighted to find an Englishman offering the requisite skills only 50 km away.

Things did not start well. He climbed out of his car, took a quick look at the garden, and enquired whether we had thought of selling some of the land! He was working on a local chateau, and had perhaps hoped for another. He was clearly not living in France out of choice and had much to complain of. I suggested we might start with the scrubby area between house and garage which sloped up from the parking to the pool, the top terrace, immediately below the patio, and the area around the pool where I thought a prairie garden might be appropriate. He suggested a full survey, not inexpensive, to which in my innocence I agreed, only discovering later that I should have asked for some outline concepts first.

He returned, with the survey, 6 weeks later, proposing an English country garden, complete with the “pictures on the walls” in the form of a detailed planting plan, for the area beside the garage, a couple of beds of grasses and perennials in lieu of a prairie, and with no ideas for the front terrace. I settled his account and we parted.

In the meantime I had managed to clear the rockery

 

 

and had planted the bed below the hornbeam with alostremarias, which continue to grow, but not with much enthusiasm, possibly it is too shady in summer.

Dominique had also found us a local farmer who came and chopped down the incipient oak forest on the edge of the meadow, waist high when we arrived. More or less still under control with frequent mowing and lavish application of weedkiller.

My Dad came to visit in September, and was lucky with the weather. By then we had identified a range of local walks on which he was happy to join us. The painter turned up too, to paint the volets, not quite the shade of blue I had intended, and slightly surreal as he hung them on frames in the meadow to spray them, but certainly an improvement.

September was also the month we trimmed the overgrown yew tress on the top terrace to elegant columns, and I decided that a formal garden was the design solution. A second landscaper came to visit, French this time. He was full of enthusiasm and went away armed with my survey and promising a plan and estimate. I haven’t seen him since.

Finally Dominique made some enquiries on our behalf and suggested we contact Jan. She visited for the first time in the spring of 2012, garden planning was finally underway.

 

 

I returned alone in late April to entertain “Les Girls”, as Peter would have it. Window and door replacement had been going on since the beginning of the month, to improve insulation. My concerns about replacing the entrance door proved to be well founded. It should have awaited my arrival, but got “ripped out” when Nick’s back was turned, and as a new door meant a new lock, neither I, nor Dominique, our femme de menage, could now get in to the house! So poor Nick, lead contractor for the project, spent a weekend chasing Dominique down, and then an afternoon sitting on the doorstep awaiting my arrival.

This first guest visit from my school friends set a pattern which was to last all year. Lovely weather in the run up to the visit, cold and wet during, and then blazing sunshine when they were gone.  We visited Sarlat and Perigueux, the local bastides and the Maison Forte, but passed on the pool, although Peter and I enjoyed it towards the end of the month.

The end of the month also brought a welcome delivery of dalles for the terrace, still a sea of mud, and when we returned in May the concrete was down.

The On Course team visited in May, John, unfortunately minus his luggage, so the gentleman’s outfitter in town had some unexpected trade! We dined on the terrace the first evening, then cold again until the last day when the sun came out for lunch in the garden of the Vieux Logis.

True to form the weather warmed up as soon as they were gone. We had imported a load of calcaire and barrowed it in baking sunshine to cover wisteria terrace and the bed under the hornbeam hereafter known as “The Beach”.

By high summer the terrace was tiled, although minus a balustrade. Happily only Max was tempted to leap over the edge, to greet us on our return from market, and came to no harm

 

 

We visited Arcachon in July for Peter’s birthday

and Monbazillac in August for Fiona’s.

Our final summer task was the replacement of the plastic volet on the kitchen window in preparation for the painter’s visit in September.