Hazy heaven

An incredibly sunny and still day in the mountains today.   I could barely hear the radio documentaries in my earphones for the din of the cuckoos and blue tits and coal tits and blackbirds.   Wonderful.

I had to nip up to town first (market day), and glory be I’ve had a breakthrough. Madame Sourpuss (Bec Sec) from the boulangerie actually chatted and made friends. For the past five years I have endured a trememdous but low level barrage of sarcasm, sniping and general nastiness from this employee of the best boulangerie in town.   At first I had no idea why I was singled out, but apparently Madame (and I confess I don’t know her name) just isn’t a fan of women.   And particularly sunny and friendly ones.   For a few years it was a battle of wills. I would ask for a flute festive and Madame would hand over a flute baguette. I would ask for a pain au levain naturelle, and she would insist on slicing it, whether I liked it or not.   We carped and generally behaved badly towards each other. Each with a rictus smile of false friendliness.

It’s no wonder that this particular bread shop became christened The Enemy.   And it was wierd because the owner, Madame Courtial, is nothing but gushing; and the other staff can manage an over effusive friendlines as well.

But I soldiered on, as this is really the best bakery in town; even though I prefer Madame Boudouin.   But today it was such a shock.   I was greeted effusively by The Enemy as soon as I walked in (I resisted turning round to see who she was greeting) and she chatted, asked me questions and even opened up and told me all about her daughter in the north of France. I was amazed. And so stunned I even gave her the correct amount of money (something I never did) and wished her a happy day.   Will it last? I have no idea but it’s certainly a talking point.

Back in the garden I had one main task to get done today: the complete sorting out of the potting shed.   This involved a major cleaning and clearing and watering of all the plants. And it took hours.   I’ve lost a lot of the cuttings I tried to overwinter; and some more tender plants.   But there is enough to work on I think.   I shan’t have time this week to do much more than rearrange them on the benches.   There are lots of seeds to sow, and I want to prick out those lettuce and cabbage which have come through.

I had enough time in the afternoon to sort out a bad corner of the garden: this is the lost area beside the compost bins. It needs a major rethink. And I need to move that enormous and broken water butt.   But it’s too heavy for me to heave and I have no idea where I would put it. It is a cubic metre high and wide  So it has to stay and serve the purpose of useful thing to prop sticks against.

These are the chestnut sticks I have been collecting on most journey up to the forest. I was thinking of using them as fencing for the potager.   But I’m going to need about a hundred more at least.   And I don’t think the design I came up with is hare or rabbit proof. There have been suspicious small animal munchings in the garden of late.

And another reason for sorting this corner: there’s a suspicious smell of dead mouse or rat around here. I searched and cleaned and couldn’t find the corpse.   I’ll just have to hope it disintegrates fast.   Artur shows no interest in it, but at least he doesn’t reel in shock at the stink.

I have enough super long sticks to try and do something fun in the potager: but I’ll keep it a secret until I actually manage to assemble it. It might not work.

And then a late afternoon prune of Jean Daniel’s raspberries.   He is digging over his garden in readiness for the asparagus I will plant for him this weekend.   And his raspberry bed is quite a thicket.   I actually went up there to measure out the three rows of asparagus.

Jean Daniel was in full mad digging it all over mode, so I didn’t stop him.   But he doesn’t really need to work that hard: I have weedproof fabric.   But it’s his garden, so if he wants to double dig, then he’s more than welcome. It would send my back into a screaming spasm just trying to single dig.

And that was my day. I could barely drag myself indoors as the sunset was so stunning.   And the birds are nesting in all the holes in the huge stone walls of the guest house.   But the fire needed feeding and I need watering.

Tomorrow I should get the gaura moved and the potager structure up.   But we shall see.