Extra time in Brittany

Saturday 25/04/20

 

We are now officially in extra time at our house sit, as we had originally planned to be relaxing in the UK with Charmaine before leaving for SA on Tuesday (in the world before Covid-19).  As it is, we're being kept busy with the growing garden and making sure crops are getting into the ground on time.

Most of the trees are in full leaf including the bonsai forest outside our back door.

Tree-creeper with it's prey

The weather has been lovely; the long dry spring spell was broken with some good rains and the lawns and plants have been loving it.  It has been a busy few days as the hedges all needed to be trimmed, edges all edged, beds weeded and lawns mowed.  We may be exhausted (blame old age and office jobs in the past!😉), but when we look out on the garden every evening it makes it all worth it.  We are blessed.

You can't afford to miss any weeds when the feline supervisor has his eye on you. 

Jess - this is her happy face

When Jess has a strop she climbs into her box and hides under the blanket.

I managed to get some footage of the singing (shouting) frogs; about the only time they are ever quiet is when I try to record them, but they got going eventually.

Garden photos and video 19/04/2020

Sunday 19/04/20

We would like to keep sharing photos and the odd video to break the lock-down monotony (for you and us).

We hope you enjoy!

We've planted the latest batch of vegetable seeds.
Butternut, courgettes, sweetcorn, cucumber and beans.

Picking out and transplanting Marigolds.

Bokkie pretending she's somewhere exotic and not at the end of the driveway.

We stuck our nose into one of the many nest boxes.

Daffodils done, tulips done, Iris' busy and now the roses are starting.

Calendula hiding amongst the mint.

We've stopped mowing the meadow area of the lawn so it can grow wild for the summer.

Wisteria and Clematis competing for a climbing frame.

                                            The bees love the Blue shrimp plants                                                                

Granny's bonnet

We spotted Jasper hunting in the meadow area near the bottom of the garden and just missed his pounce but it was obviously successful.

Brittany extended

Friday 17/04/20

We had very welcome rain last night and woke to a wonderful smelling garden this morning.

We've been a bit 'down' the past few days as we should have been leaving on the weekend.  It's not that we're not loving it here - we absolutely are - but we had planned new adventures, and catching up with family, so were looking forward to getting started.  Oh well, who knew the world was going to change as it has and we realise that we have a lot to be thankful for.

We were treated to a lovely sunset last night.

Quizzy neighbours trying to see what we were up to.

At the moment the French lockdown is extended to 11 May so we will still be here for quite a while as the owners are also delayed in their return.  We'll keep posting photos and videos as we go - the garden and animals provide a great source of material.

Bonus video - Jasper, a typical teenager is a bit bored with the lockdown and is inventing his own games to keep amused.  This is the cat version of Whack-a-mole and the winner gets to keep most of his fingers...

Gardening in Brittany

Tuesday 14/04/20

We would have been coming to the end of our sit, having spent more than six months on the property but, as expected, France has extended the lock-down until 11 May so we'll be sitting tight for the moment.

When it became more apparent that that their plans to return home may be delayed, the owners posted us the rest of the potatoes they had been 'chitting' in Southampton as well as some more seeds.  We have been preparing the early crops so that by the time B&T are able to travel back to Brittany the potager and veg beds will already be well on their way.

Toni has been doing fantastic work raising seedlings for the potager and garden

Salad bed in the foreground, everything still tiny but we hope...

The carrot bed is serving as a nursery for crops to be planted out,

Peas and broad beans Toni raised from seeds and planted out.

Onions and shallots

The early potatoes have emerged and we have now planted the rest of the
varieties in the rest of the bed 

The garden continues to amaze us every day with new plants and flowers emerging, it really is a wonderful time of year.

The pond is an area of constant activity, the most vocal inhabitants are the frogs but they thwarted any attempt to video their activities.  it's a bit windy today so I'll try again when they are performing better.

Dragonfly antics

He's keeping an eye on me.

We went food shopping again today, the first time Toni has been away from the property in a month, and it felt quite surreal to see other people and to be out and about.  We're going into week 5 for our isolation and it looks like at least another four before we'll start to get anything like normaily returning.

Hope you are all well and coping with everything.