A touch of yellow

andrew's rudbeckiasBack into the Ardeche.  We have been in the Cevennes for a short stay. You always get a thrill to see the Bienvenue en Ardeche sign after the ones to the Lozere and the Gard.  And where were the Cevennes signs? It’s more a state of geography rather than an actual department in the south east of France.

And the best bit is we came back to find the rain gauge overflowing with an inch of rain. And we missed the inconvenience of losing our power during the storms.

Now don’t get excited. These aren’t my flowers.  We went down via Les Vans and I visited Andrew’s farm en route.  Aren’t they magnificent? giant sunflower

We also stayed the night at the newly opened Auberge de Banne. It’s bjoux chic. And having dinner with Andrew and Gina outside in the evening was a bonus.

Plus getting to admire all those dozens and dozens of zinc planters on the hotel room balconies which Andrew laboured to finish just before the hotel opened.

The other two nights were spent in the wonderful company of Richard Thame at La Baume en Cevennes.

We felt very honoured to stay there as Richard is cutting down on bookings now and even stopped his website. He is only taking repeat visitors and friends. His work with the mayor’s office takes his time; as does looking after his parents.

I didn’t do much in terms of garden visiting or work. In fact my main guilty pleasure was to devour a Harlen Coben novel. A real guilty pleasure.

But I’m back now and I can get on with work. But this afternoon was spent just swanning about the garden admiring plants and deadheading flowers.

Luckily I have a lovely supply of my own flowers in the potager to lift the spirits even with the memory of Andrews’ flowers still fresh.

sunflowers at front door And one thing I had to cut down was this eight foot tall sunflower. I need the sideshoots to start into growth, so out came the leader.

I needed a stepladder to reach it.