Pot holing

Need to change the filters-last night’s bath was rather green. Flood waters will do that.

In for lunch – fingers numb from moving all the stones to the pool edge. We are now complete; and have leftovers. Not sure where we are going to put the rest. They can’t stay where they are at the so called piano. We want to sow grass seeds there to create another lawn. I could use them as a mighty mulch somewhere. But need to think.

Other task this morning which was much more pleasurable was lawn mowing. Gad itÃ’s fun. You just roar all over the grass creating beautiful pattern and it’s a mighty sward believe me. Pics to prove it. The east lawn has a few wonky bits that need work over the winter. But it looks gorgeous from a distance.

For dessert I intend to go down to an apple tree on a lower terrace that I spied. Most of the apples aren’t edible but the one below the house looks promising.

Mouth puckeringly tart. Yech.

Wheelbarrow, spade and stone time. I’m going to take some down the drive and fill in one of the monster pot holes near the letterboxes. And fix the sign, it fell down in the flood.
Did I say one pot hole? Four trips later and I feel like I have filled in a dozen. Don’t think it will do much good as rain will probably wash away the repairs. But it will make for a less bumpy ride. Not that I have used the car since I arrived on Thursday. Too busy doing garden and household chores to want to mooch up to Vernoux and buy the necessities like fresh milk and chocolate.

Each trip back up the road I collected sticks suitable for chipping. And in the last pass brought up a whole wheelbarrow load of mole hills. They are currently being put to use on the east lawn. I need to fill in the ruts left by the departed swing set. Eventually it will be lovely and smooth.

Right now it’s fun time again. More lawn mowing. I really should be strimming; but that will involve internal combustion engine rage if it won’t start after the fiftieth yank on the motor.

And here it is. There’s mowing a lawn and creating a lawn. And this one is definitely the latter. Oh joyous workhorse of a mower. It has earned its keep. This was a field of wild flowers, tussocks, waist high weeds, nettles, brambles and even some grass. Took ages just clearing the stones first. Well rocks. And then it was the laborious pass and pass and trim and mow. Beautiful. I know it’s not, but this is the future orchard we are planning for the winter, so I want to get it down and in a manageable state before we plot what tree is going where.

Pause for cup of tea. So restorative.
The rain became too heavy to even go out and do more work. So it was indoors for work, bath to warm up. I was just settling for a spot of internet research on whether my blooming plants of Agastache have a chance of surviving the winter here when to my surprise Nicolas turned up for a talk about future projects in the garden.

We took a good careful look at the damage from the floods. He said that 350mm of rain had fallen. I did a quick and furtive calculation. About a foot of rain in just one night. No wonder we had rivers of mud below the lowest wall. But every thing is standing and surviving and there are just a few more bits of wall to do.

I had contemplated going out and moving a few more of the river stones that are left over from the borders of the pool. But I realised that I can’t feel the tips of some of my fingers. So it will have to wait.