Springtime blossom

Splendid isolation.

Goodness we do count ourselves as the lucky ones. If you have to go into confinement to try and limit the spread of this disease, then may I recommend a small farm in a rural community at the beginning of spring.

There is room. There is fresh air; there is almost no one about.

And there are projects.

The whole vegetable garden is getting a makeover. And this week (promise!) you will see how it is done. One bucket of gravel at a time.

But as I am confined indoors today (admin, translations) I thought I might show you the springtime blossoms on the fruit trees to give you cheer.

Plus, colder weather is forecast this week and I’d hate to lose my chance of showing the fleeting beauties.

So behold the pĂȘche de vigne blossom up at the top hedge. It is at the glorious stage where you only see blossom and not the nascent peach leaf curl of the leaves. Which will come. As sure as a virus will sweep the planet, so too will peach leaf curl never leave an infected farm.

I could show you the apricot blossom, but I think I’ve already missed it. And thank goodness it has gone over into flowers – we usually get slammed by a late frost and my chances of apricots fades for another year.

The nectarine down on the orchard is fine. So far.

And I even did a light pruning while I was mooching about waiting for a barrel of water to fill at the stables.

The cherry blossoms are just starting.

And that gorgeous almond is alive. Alive!

If you recall, it was brutally ripped out of the ground with a bulldozer at the very beginning of our building project. It looks decidedly odd. All beefy trunk and very few flowers. But I have to be patient. and also fling a few buckets of water at it every few weeks for the whole year. It needs to recover from the great uprooting.

I shoved a lot of bulbs in the bare soil when it was transplanted just to cheer myself up in case it carked it over winter.

Ooh, quick shot of the building work to satisfy your mild curiosity. We have just ten more days of stone masonry and the first part is done.

The largest arch around the west side (garden side) of the building is almost complete.

And now there is just ‘topping out’ on the walls all the way around. And building a nice straight edge on the dismantled wall of the bread oven.

I tried that tentative question about where all the tonnes of stones will go. We need to keep some back for the retaining wall in front of the building when the job is complete. So my reading of the runes tells me we will have trip hazard hell for a few months to come.

I’m not showing you all the mess. It’s vile.

Or excitingly marvellous if you like stone walls.

I’m getting marvellous exercise going the long way round the long house to the potager every time.

And it does mean I can take time to admire the blossom and dream of one day, one day….