Summer sun

Back out in la France profonde. And after a week of blah weather in London, it’s a delight to have logical summer weather again. Hot.

So I shan’t waste too much time indoors this morning; I need to get going before it hots up.

Just wanted to share the exciting (not) news about our pine marten population.   We have a baby. We saw his body on the night vision camera we left up for a week.   A whole family cavort on the roof.   And last night I saw his little face poking out from under the tiles at 9pm. Cheeky thing. He is still too small to get around by the look of it. His mother looks like she still carries him in her mouth to get about.

So that changes a lot of our plans. And I was thinking last night (trying to get to sleep) that we can’t block up the guest house roof properly without attending to the gaps in the main house first.

Otherwise we will put a lot of effort – building a scaffolding tower, working late at night – into sealing up one home and giving the wild animals the keys to a nicer new home instead.

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And now hours later I’m poised to go and visit the little pine martens again just to see if I can photograph the little baby poking its nose out the roof.

But luckily it wasn’t all wild animals. Although Artur thought the strange creature in the pool (the robot) was an enemy that had to be attacked.

For a cat he has a strange fascination with water.   But he decided that this odd blue creature just wasn’t in his league.

I’m just about a good size for him: he kept pestering me while I did a fast water of the vegetable garden.   But as soon as I donned the ear muffs and headed off purposefully towards the lawn mower he took off.

High dudgeon.   But the lawns needed mowing.   And I managed to get around in less than four hours.   And that included a quick trip to town for groceries in between.

The widlflowers on all the edges of my wonky curves are growing strongly: lots of achillea, annual grasses, wild geraniums and, sadly, verbascums.   I must do another hunt for the dread plants this week.

But the effect is just what I had hoped.   The red clover fights for space among the grass quite well.

And I have decided not to lop the thistles as they are so fetching.   But I really must take some secateurs next time I head down to the orchard; the brambles are arching their way well into the paths.

Other excitements today? My first monarda has flowered. These plants came from Leslie, so I knew they could cope with the cold.   But they do prefer a moist soil.

So I took a gamble on this part of the calabert garden.   I think there is an underground spring here, so they get better conditions than most parts of the flower gardens.

The miscanthus grasses directly below on the next terrace certainly benefit from the extra spring water.   It’s a jungle of Japanese grass right now.

But a fast and determined mow (using all the grass cuttings as a mulch in the soft fruit orchard) has transformed it. Well, I think so.   And it certainly means that the rest of the vetch that scrambles all throughout the bank almost looks planned.

Control and chaos is definitely the order in this garden.