Back after three weeks away. The mulberry in the courtyard has gone from green and verdant to bald. And all the leaves are prettily strewed over everything. I couldn’t see much in the dark but am dying to have a good snoop this morning. The tree surgeon has been. But not my favourite wall builder by the look of things.

The journey was seamless, and quick from the new Eurostar track from St Pancras. Amazing how you leave the station, hit a tunnel and then in the blink of an eye (well, page one of the newspaper) you are in the countryside.

Now here’s a surprise: I brought lots of plants and seeds this month. And the big packet of bone meal and a positively Santa sized sack of vermiculite. I’m itching to get out and get those raspberries into the ground. But there is building work to discuss first.

So now we know what happens with the guest house. We spent the morning with gaffer tape, placing out the new layout of the bathroom and entrance hall on the floors; and sorted where the new kitchen will go:  upstairs. It was most enjoyable with Dario and Manu coming up with vital electricky comments. Then it was onto the new roof insulation discussions in the main house. And the only gardening I had was to collect the dead mulberry leaves in the courtyard and put them in their special compost bin.

Luckily the afternoon was rendered all things gardening by the arrival of Nicolas. I had forgotten he was away this month; which explains the lack of wall work. But Tuesday next week is attack day. And even Bernard is on board to do the rock hefting.

The raspberries need to go in, but not in the place we had planned. Nicolas has suggested the edge of the terrace so that they can cast a shade and give some shade loving plants some space. And the soil is deeper in the middle of the plot. It’s a bit thin on the north side of the potager.

Other tasks this month included planting the rose in the courtyard. Mme Reinhart told me that she tried planting a bush next to the rose and it didn’t thrive. This afternoon I found out why. I started with a spade digging out the soil. First snag, there is a pipe running parallel to the building just below the surface. And then barely one foot down your reach solid rock. Ah. I made a good-sized hole and thought I’d best check the drainage before I committed this expensive David Austin Gertrude Jekyll rose. And I realise that it was a swimming pool. The water didn’t drain at all. So that’s definitely a poor site. I will have to plant the rose in a big container instead.

So more work for Bernard if he can build me some big pots for the courtyard. We need some for the mint forest as well. It is merrily spreading in the ground outside the house, and needs containing. And it may even be a god way to try and unite the disparate qualities of the courtyard. I could paint them the same colour as the (soon to be transformed) shutters. And make some containers to go around the frankly ugly water trough. That should be fun.

And speaking of water we have plenty. Just a month ago we tested the huge tank up in the forest and there was barely a foot of water in the bottom (prompting a rather hasty changeover to town water as we were probably only running mud). But now the water tank is full to the brim. Almost six feet of water and one floating dead frog. And the excess is dripping quietly but merrily into the trough. I will have to empty the tanks if I don’t want a flood in the courtyard.

A gentle rain has drawn me inside: that and the promise of a cup of tea. What a successful day. I now have a whole row of raspberries. Twenty-eight in all I think. Three different varieties: two summer fruiting ones and the same amount of Autumn Bliss, the slightly later ones. Bring on the summer. I wonder if they will fruit in their first year? It was such a joy digging the trench to plant them. After the struggle of the London clay it feels so amazing to be digging through soft, rich, easy-draining soil. And well improved soil too. I dug out the trench, filled in with some compost from the old horse manure. Placed the soaked canes, each at their appropriate distance, and then easily planted them. Just a top dressing of more compost (purchased from Gamm Vert this morning) and then sit back and admire.

Then it was back to weeding the last little strip of the vegetable garden I didn’t get round to last month. Plus pull out those pesky deeply rooted weeds that have regrown since last month. And then on to the asparagus trench.

I know, I know, I am supposed to do this in spring; but they are begging to go in. So if all goes well, I shall create the necessary mounds in the trench tomorrow and get the crowns in the ground.

Oh the joys of a good garden centre: what a shame it’s in Camden and not Vernoux. I will have some hefty lugging ahead of me this month. But well worth it I think. The haul today include 24 small raspberry canes. Six Glen Cova (a summer fruiter) six Glen Prosen, also a summer fruiter I think. Plus 12 Autumn Bliss. Then I couldn’t resist a small well pruned (hence easy to smuggle) Gertrude Jeykll climbing rose, and lots and lots of asparagus crowns.

Twenty one of them. They may not survive and thrive, but I just have so little self control. I know that in France they prefer the white asparagus variety, so I wanted to buy my preferred green ones, Connover’s Colossal. Naturally they need to be planted in the spring, but I’m going to be reckless and get them in at the end of the month. And cover them with fleece and pray for a mild winter.

Just for guests I also bought two rhubarb Timperley Early (An Award of Garden Merit variety) crowns and 120 more of those teensy crocus snow buntings.
And could I resist? No, into the basket went 30 more allium purple sensations. I’m thinking of what to put in the middle of the other vegetable garden squares. One square has four pots of lilies, but the others are so far bereft. I would love lots of Cleomes (Spider Flowers) but they have devilish spikes. So maybe some lofty alliums will have to do. And when they get ratty looking, the climbing sweet peas and beans and maybe cucumbers will hide their bases. But I haven’t really thought it out. I was just so thrilled to be in such a well thought out garden centre again. I was whimpering for some of the espaliered fruit trees. But no. The new St Pancras train station probably has a better x-ray system than the one at Waterloo, so the exhausting supply of plants that I insist of lugging may have to be curtailed.
 

Another beautiful sunny day. Crisp wind, but not cold enough to slow the work on the roof. I have so little time today as I have to go back to London. But time enough to pick another small number of olives from the tree. We have barely a kilogram, but I will cure them. Just to show that it is possible.

M. Brun came by to collect one of the bulldozers and check over the work. Hopefully his assistant will push the tree stumps further down the hill in our little rubbish bin at the far end of the property. Out of sight is best for such massive garden rubbish. And he may even remember to give the reluctant flowering quince a tug. Nicolas spent hours at the job yesterday. One wire around the shrub, the other around the cherry tree that also has to be removed. And he managed to yank out the cherry and not move the quince an inch. Stubborn bugger that quince. It’s in the middle of the artichoke bed. So unwanted. Hopefully when we come back it will be gone and I can put two more artichoke plants there.

And that was it for gardening so far. Too much time spent on indoor tasks when I’d rather be doing outdoor things. Hopefully this winter will be the main building work, and then it will be frolics in the springtime. There is a lot of driving to do here. But when you can drive back from St Michel de Chabrillanoux (to the mayor’s office for the declaration de travaux permit which I forgot to organise earlier) listening to Alicia Keys belting out her version of Wild Horses and winding around these incredibly beautiful single track roads, life isn’t all that bad.

Nothing quite beats harvesting in the dark. And not the usual crop of Swiss chard either (which I did pull up). But the olives on the tree near the house. One of my tasks this month was to lag the trunks with straw to protect them from winter frosts. Poor trees, they really are at their climatic limit here in the Ardèche mountains. I think M. Reinhart planted them as an experiment in survival. And they do thrive of sorts, but I has so few olives to harvest. And I don’t think I want to plant any more trees. It’s that sort of thing that Nicolas says. People up here want to plant lavender. But we aren’t Provence. And up here its chestnuts, walnuts, and fruit trees. But the fruit of the olive isn’t going to be a major new industry.

Harvesting the little blighters was quite a challenge as I had to creep around the scaffolding poles on the house. All the tiles are off now – and things up there are flapping madly. But M.Darriebere is making great progress. He thinks it will take two weeks if this north wind keeps up. (Most people would call that the mistral. Roofers seem to call it a good drying north wind)

I did my plumbing supplies penance – and only made it back up to the farm at 5pm. Time only to marvel at our new tennis court sized terrace, goggle at the new track, and chat with Nicolas. He is in good spirits. Despite running through a brand new pair of gloves in this fetching stone work in just two days. That’s granite for you. And today won’t be a gardening day either. Time goes so quickly here. I need to greet the long-awaited chimney sweep, measure the potting shed roof, turn over the water taps with Bernard (we are running out of spring water), and then race off to a builders merchants to buy wood for all our bookshelves to come. Plus extra insulating material, and a page full of little chore tasks.

Six o’clock and the bulldozer has finally stopped for the day. My goodness these people work hard. We have had the most number of work people at the house at any one time: Two pool people building the margins around the pool, two bulldozer men, three roofers, plus Nicolas the gardener. Quite a crowd. And when we came back with Deb and John and kids courtesy of a serendipitous encounter at Valence train station, there was no room for the cars.

Nicolas was in charge of the motorized wheelbarrow – very useful for collecting all those stones down on the lower terraces and delivering them up to the top at the new wall. Impossible to go cross country as the bulldozer man was wielding both machines to make the pool garden. And by the end of the day (well, it gets dark at six so I’m calling it the end) it is an amazingly broad flat space. We have a flat garden. That’s quite a luxury in this hilly area. He has about another day of work to get the levels sorted, and put the tree stumps out of sight. And tidy.

Meanwhile David and I were let off stone duty and went instead to work on the top vegetable garden. It has been decidedly neglected since the summer. So we had a good session of digging out the worst of the weeds. It was lovely work in the sun and in company. We had to stop at noon to head down to the train. And naturally I was distracted all afternoon and didn’t get back to it. Lots of small interruptions by the lovely roofers who needed places to put the extra tiles, electricity sockets and such. They must be the only roofing firm who work to classical music.

And while I was dangling early this morning (mooching about the courtyard ready to intercept the endless stream of workmen) I potted up four pots of lily bulbs and buried them in the middle section of the vegetable garden. They are forming the centrepiece of one of the little cubes in the four quarters of the garden. Does that make sense? I am going to train up beans and sweet peas and maybe cucumbers in the middle of each little plot. And lilies or other flowers round the edge of this cube. Naturally I’d love to plant cleomes but will kill myself with the thorns trying to harvest the beans.

Nicolas fired the chestnut heap this morning. Quite a conflagration. I detected a hint of accelerant in the roaring flames that leapt almost to the electricity pole. But now it’s nothing more than ashes and clear land and we have our view back.

Must take pictures tomorrow to mark the progress. Alas however I must head down to Valence again to buy bathroom fixtures and fittings. Not a favourite activity believe me.

Just amazing; the rose in the courtyard has had most of its existence removed with a sharp pair of secateurs and it rewards with two mighty blooms, even in November It was obviously dying for a good prune. Back after a week away and I am just amazed to see all the progress. Parked in the garden are two enormous bulldozers. There is scaffolding on the house, piles of soil and rock everywhere, and even the beginnings of a garden. Well the area behind the pool is now quite something. Such space. Mostly in the shade I think, but it will mean we can do some creative gardening back there. Maybe plant more birch trees too. The one stately tree right behind the pool is lovely and imperious (so much neater than the scruffy chestnuts nearby) and a bit lonely.

I feared the worst about the vegetable garden when David told me about the digging in of the electricity cable. But actually they have missed the onions and garlic bed quite nicely. And we now have a wide path at the bottom of the plot. So there are ideas there. Must go out again and take pictures. The autumn colours have really progressed in just the week I was away. The cherry trees have all turned a subtle shade of orange, and the hills across the valley are fascinating.

I threw a bucket of water on the Daphne which looked a bit droopy on the bottom leaves, (the Mahonia is fine – if a bit shaded by the scaffolding – and am soaking the extra sage and thyme which I lugged over again this month. Reminder to self: avoid the Paris connection. Both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de Lyon smelt of urinals. And none of the escalators up to the platforms were working. Thank god for strong arms. My bags were heavy as usual. And the clumsy drag of bags up steep non- functioning escalators had me yearning for the tidy train connection at Lille.

I ended up weeding the top potager in the dark as the day just raced away. First we had a long, long walk – exploring walking paths, we found a great apple tree on the lower path between our property and the neighbours at Le Buisson. And even noticed where our property began over the bridge. You can tell as the orchard next to us is neat and controlled and then wham – there is a jungle of brambles and saplings and weeds. Only about a hundred metres of land square I think, but it needs tending to. Next year.

We spotted a wild boar up on our walk to the ecomusée (our neighbour’s land – it’s a good round trip walk through the autumnal forests). Well it looked more erratic piglet than what you would call wild boar. And it pelted off into the woods at our approach. There are lots of hunters around these parts, so it was a good thing the only weapon we were carrying was a camera and a walking stick.

Finished the day with a good walk round with Nicolas. We are planning walls and plotting paths – and he is starting at 7am tomorrow. Egad and I am to be his assistant in the stone collecting. Oh boy and I going to be sore tomorrow. But to see progress at last is so invigorating.