Vine envy

The weather forecasters were promising a change in the weather, and around 5am the big storm arrived. Dramatic light and thunder show for an hour an a half, and now all is calm. I’m writing having a cup of tea and dreading going out and seeing if there is any netting left. Last night I worked on it until bad light stopped play. Jean-Daniel our neighbour was busy doing similar garden things. He was mowing all the edges with his monster and rather prehistoric looking lawm mower. Things do look much tidier.

Rain is so welcome. At times it came down in stair rods a lovely expression which Nicolas told me in French and which I have promptly forgotten. Must ask him again what the word was next week when I am back. (He was delivering sand for the last bit of wall; and I inveigled him into helping with the pallets up to the potting shed and moving the old benches down to Bernard’s.)

This last bit of wall is more like the Great Wall of China. But we are so close to finishing it. I can’t wait to not have a cement mixer getting in the way of all my panoramic pool and lawn shots.

Mind you the weather was wet for just a day. All back to perfectly hot and sunny again for the foreseeable future. But at least the lawn and the flower seedlings are getting a good drink. I even had to save some of my new stipa seedlings. They were sown two weeks ago, left in the shed and sprouted beautifully. But I managed to sow sowed them into a pot without drainage holes and they were all manfully doing breaststroke in their potting mix, trying to keep heads above the rising tide of rain.

Back to the house I just sat in the courtyard under cover watching the rain and having a good look at the courtyard. It’s something I never do. Rarely make time to just sit and look. Luckily the vines up here don’t need much work. Just get pushed up into their supports. And I have even formulated some ideas about where to grow things; going so far as to make a rough sketch on paper. There are some lovely grasses just above the courtyard, so it makes sense to add a few more to the mix. But then the time was up and it was head in the rain down the hill and back to London.

I should have written my notes up on the train. But I spent the entire time staring out the window looking at other people’s vineyards and marvelling at how neat and utterly weed free the rows seem to be. Vine envy.