FalseSpring/RealSpring

Well, can we trust Nature to communicate 'real' or 'false' information? We have had some quite violent weather, albeit short-lived but enough to wreak some damage in the garden:

- and walking around the landscape the views are still 'Winter':

- but in the last few days the temperature has risen, the sun has been shining, and here are signs of Spring .... has it really 'arrived'?

Loyal Blog followers may recall that on the birth of our first grandson, Orson, we bought a large olive tree (yes, 'Orson the olive' ...) to celebrate his birth: 

Well, the tree has now grown very well in its large tub - but it needs to be planted out. We will move it over a small distance, so that it is level with the french doors of the sitting room and aligns with the barn wall. We are going create a half-raised planting bed, surrounded with an oak structure to hold the earth  -  the bed will be about 30cms above the current ground level and will allow us to modify the earth around the roots to best suit an olive tree - although the advice is to simply use the soil it is currently used to, but to ensure it is well-drained and a slow-release premium fertiliser is used over the Spring and Summer period. Olives ideally require a minimum of 6 hours full daily sun - so, our one is in a good position. It's also important to remember that olives are not desert plants and require regular watering to thrive and insufficient water will cause an olive tree to suffer, and even die if left too dry for too long - so again, our position is good as the tree is about 3 metres from our well! We are just planning the size of the surrounding oak structure and reckon that 3m x 2m is about right:

The tree is quite heavy now - so, it will be a careful job to shift it to its new position, cut off the constraining tub and lower it into a hole half-the required root depth and then build up the remaining earth and the oak surround. We'll let you know how it goes ......

February's Wildlife Feature
In the colder opening days of February, walking with Oska down the little valley at the bottom of our garden early one morning we came across three roe deer - two immediately ran and bounced away, veering this way and that, and one stayed still for a moment and then, with an upturn of the head, as if irritated in being disturbed rather than frightened, he long-jumped away:

Roe deer are found in much of rural France and are on the increase. They are surprisingly small (70cm tall, length to 130cm). Easily identified by the white rump, with only the male roe-deer having antlers which are lost each year and regrown in winter. They like lightly wooded / forested land, with plentiful hedgerows and open spaces for feeding - but in really cold weather will 'visit' gardens and munch shrubs, small trees and winter vegetables - which was a possible attraction on this occasion I think .... as we still have plenty of Winter greens in the potager.
Roe deer need to be culled for the health of the population - but there is a distinction between this and hunting the deer for sport alone .... and they are very 'popular' with hunters, as they pose a particular challenge, such is their speed, maneuverability and natural intelligence ... not something that can be said of the hunters. 
We choose them as our 'February Wildlife Feature' for their beauty and grace .... but request that they spare our newly planted roses and flowering shrubs!