Band Aid Brown

So great to have a close friend who knows her colours. One look at the photos that I sent Sarah and this was her utterly apt description. Band Aid Brown. It works! It suits! None of this Schiste Brun for us. We tell it like it is.

I’m not madly happy about the colour.   But it was the closest match and the only exterior wood paint I could find.   And best of all, Jean Daniel thinks it’s ‘not that bad’. So that’s the colour it stays. I don’t want to spend any more time on this.   I’ve been hanging precariously up ladders for long enough these past few days.

I haven’t done the front. That’s way too high and scary. I’ll have to wait until Dario starts work on our ensuite bathroom and ask him to bring his special scaffolding platform that can take a steep Ardeche slope.

I decided to try and paint the water butts as well to try and get them to blend in.   And planted up Leslie’s peonie plants in front as well.   That ought to do the trick.

I am trying to stay clear of garden centres at the moment; but couldn’t resist the plant sale at Auchon yesterday.   Two euros for pots of thyme and rosemary.   I bought ten.   All growing rather well and promising to be good ground cover.

When I can steal a bit of time, I’ll plant the prostrate rosemary shrubs in the top of the calabert rock wall, and the thyme balls will go to replace the three thyme plants that didn’t survive life on the steps down to the potager.

These have been such a success I even suggested some neighbours (from the other side of Mont Godin who came for a garden inspection today) do the same for the forty foot bank that serves as a barrier to their front drive.   I do love a plant that not only looks good all year round, but also has scent, flowers and culinary uses. What more could you ask of a plant?