Mimosa in the mountains

Quick while it’s in flower.

The mimosa thicket hidden on the mountain top has burst into flower.

This is an amazing secret supply of bouquet material about fifteen minutes walk through the forest from the farm.

The plants were brought back from previous women who lived in this region. Each year they travelled south to Montpellier to pick grapes and fruit and it was a tradition that they would bring back precious seedlings from the warmer southern climate.

And by a miracle some thickets survive.

And thrive.

This one is huge. Not one giant tree, but about fifty seedlings all merrily protected by the stone walls and shelter from the wind.

I climbed in among the thicket to take a snap of the stems. They really are skinny little trees. And it’s only due to their huddling proximity that these ones don’t get slammed by frost.

The seedlings growing in my own garden are still swathed in fleece and protected from the frost. It’s sunny here. Relentlessly so. But overnight we are still having minus temperatures. Ice on the car windscreen, on the top of the water barrels.

And my early morning walk is a brisk one. But when you can walk back round the mountain with an armful of beautifully scented blossom, it’s not all bad.

You can just catch a glimpse of the thicket on the slope on the right. Just near the haystack.

My secateurs will be travelling in my back pocket from now on.