Wednesday 28 March 2012

Can Spring be far behind? (or even summer) Spring forward en France!

As I write this, our garden is bursting with new life and flowers - listen! you should be able to hear it even at a great distance!  Of course, you say, this is nothing new, it's happening everywhere, even in the North East (of England). Yes, I agree, but for us the unusual, exciting thing is that this is our first spring in France, in this house, with this garden and we don't know yet just what is in there!  Open the front door and you will see colourful grape hyancinths, primulas (all colours),  hyacinths, daffodils, tulips (just coming out) and a camellia, which has unfortunately been affected by the frost of even so short a time ago as two weeks.

We have been away for the weekend to our friends who live further south near the Pyrenees.  So near that when you look out of their conservatory windows across their long garden (more like a small field), there they are in the distance.  The mountains, which are an amazing sight, were still snow-capped this weekend so looked even more impressive with the spring sun on them.  (I often ask myself if people who live in areas of outstanding beauty (like the Lake District for example) ever lose the wonder of the landscape around them - I suppose that applies to many features, not just landscape - I'm thinking here of Durham Cathedral - do we become blasé of things on our doorstep?  Answers on a postcard please.)

After we left the motorway south of Montauban, north of Toulouse, on a long, straight road to their house in Blajan, we passed some stunning fields full of trees in full blossom.  They were planted  like vineyards, with rows of trees, not vines,  trees with pink and white blossom, some all one colour, some a mixture of colours and different types of  trees. A couple of sites which cheered the heart had rows of trees in blossom with a sign declaring 'Amandes Francaises' - French Almond Trees - stunning!

When we came back further north here to Chamberet after an absence of three days, high temperatures and the clocks going back on Saturday night,  we could see in our garden that tulips were flowering, the pruned  rose bushes have thankfully started to sprout leaves - lots of them - and the fruit (one apple and four pear) trees are about to blossom.  It's all very exciting and inspiring and we look forward to the next few days as seedlings of radishes, carrots, lettuces and other veg that Harry has planted start to burst forth!  We have been warned though by the neighbours that we shouldn't be planting out yet. The local wisdom, or even the French wisdom, is that we shouldn't plant until, I think, 15 May,Sainte Denise - although I may have the wrong date and therefore the wrong saint.    Today's temperature was 23 degrees C in the shade - long may it continue, but we wouldn't mind - would really like in fact - rain at night as well to refill the water butt at least!  We have always beeb environmentally aware and active, but now that our water here is metered, we are even more so!

Our first spring here, and it feels like summer - this great weather apparently happened last year from February onwards (with a not-so-nice July) so let's hope for a repeat performance this year!

Happy planting to all and hope you are enjoying good uplifting weather wherever you are!

© Marie Tyler, 2012