A winter’s tale

That just about sums up a winter trip to France: a happy hefty log pile ready to be stored away for another winter.   It’s about the most satisfying scene to survey. And the most practical.

Practical chores were on my mind on the last gardening day before heading back to the metrop.   Filling yet more holes and wonky bits in the area around the walnut trees up behind the calabert.

My steady supply of topsoil came courtesy of the rocks above the path.   Last month you may recall I started clearing away the debris.   Today I kept on going. It’s too steep for a wheelbarrow up here, so I did spend more time than I planned filling buckets of soil and plodding over to where I needed to fill.   But I had time, and it was sunny and my back was grateful for the lack of strain.

Around the big and very fruitful walnut tree (this year) there has always been an impossible to mow and almost impossible to strim section that required a quarry of stones to build up the level before I added soil.   It’s still steep and may not suit the mower, but at least it’s an even slope.

And there were a few other parts of the path that were topdressed with the lovely soil.   I really ought to be stockpiling it for adding to the potting compost come spring sowing.   But as you may recall, that shed is full and not ready to take on extra mess.