Welcome to Spring!

So, Spring has arrived - and it is high time for a Blog Post! We do hope that readers of this Blog, and their families, have been well and safe during these difficult times. 

This time last year (and one effect of the pandemic has been to affect people's grasp of time) we did not think that we would be writing Blog Posts while still in 'en confinement'. Maybe in another Post or two we will write something about the pandemic and how we feel it has affected life here and in the 'wider world' - but for this Post we're focussing on the closer world of our house, garden and community.

As I write I am looking out at rain falling quite heavily ... but this has been the first substantial rain for over a month. Throughout later February and then March it has been dry, with blue skies and sunshine but frequently with a bitter wind. The natural light in these conditions has a crystalline quality, sharpening the landscape and objects within it and creating mirror images:

It has meant that, with those north-easterly sharp winds, the earth has become very dry and hard - so, preparing soil for later planting, and weeding flower and vegetable beds, has been difficult - sometimes requiring a pickaxe to break up the 'baked' top layer! But it has been good, bracing weather to do activities like hedging and pruning, and some tree surgery. There has been little frost, and where the temperatures have fallen below zero that has been very temporary, with only light ground frosts and none of those ferocious air frosts that we have had some years, that really damage the shrubs and trees. We're now running up to the planting season, so we need the temperature to lift a bit and for a few days of light or moderate rain a couple of times a week .... we'll put in a request to higher authorities for that!

And how has the garden fared over this time? The additional time that we have had to observe has allowed us to look closely at Nature's transitions from Winter to early Spring. We have particularly noticed the trees: how the bark on the now very tall (15 metres +) eucalyptus trees  'shed' layers like a sloughing snake - in a way that initially looks quite alarming but then displays a wonderfully smooth, defined surface, ready for the Spring and Summer:

The differences between the rates of the trees shedding their leaves has been more obvious to us this year - with the oak and the hornbeams holding their foliage until the buds and new leaves appear, so that for a week or two both last year and this year overlap: 

- these are young hornbeams (three years old) that we will be training to arch over the oak pergola.

During the Winter we were able to observe how the very large oak trees that run along the western edge of the garden have 'heavy-duty' ivy running right up them, close to the tops of the trees. So, we have removed the ivy at the very roots, some of the strands of which are more than 30cms across and require a chainsaw to cut through them. When the remaining ivy dries out over the Summer we will have the considerable task of pulling it down (the trees are pretty tall) ... so wearing a helmet might be a good idea. The oaks will look a good deal better for it and should be much healthier.

The roses this year are looking particularly healthy and vigorous, with their leaves displaying various shades of green according to the rose variety. So, it has been quite an early 'Spring feed' for them and we hope to see a great display come May and June and into the Summer. It is hard to believe that our roses are the same 75cms high specimens that we bought  just three and a half years ago from the specialist grower of ancient varieties at Villeneuve-sur-Verre September Plant Fair.

 
As the prospect of frosts recedes (yes, I know, one can always be caught and only has to mention one is doing some planting in April or May and dire warnings are uttered about the 'Ice Saints' weather - a short spell of very cold weather in early May that coincides with the Feast Days of St. Pancras, St. Servatus and St. Boniface of Tarsus (May 11, May 12, and May 13). The short period is also known as "the blackthorn winter" and the folklore relating to all this is still recounted across a range of European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and, indeed, France. There is also a muddle about the dates, with all sorts of problems arising from when in 1582, the replacement of the Julian calendar by the Gregorian calendar involved omitting 10 days in the calendar. So if the folklore pre-dates the calendar change, then the equivalent dates from the climatic point of view would be May 22–25. So, basically just as one perkily goes to plant vegetables and annuals in the ground that one has carefully prepared that doom-laden figure appears to inform you that the Ice Saints will come along and decimate everything at a date of their choosing. 
Anyway, Ice Saints apart, we are removing the frost protection we tried to have over the Winter months:

- these are a row of Oleander, grown originally from pots, but now in the soil and between 2 to 3 metres in height and width .... they are a lovely show in Summer and we would be very sorry to see them the victim of the cold weather, but it looks like they are fine for another year. 
​And throughout the garden there is evidence of colour emerging - from small focussed points to broader splashes:

It has become more evident (we're slow learners ...) how explicit the 'life cycles' of the various blossom are: there is not one great splurge, but a succession of periods of various lengths where the blossoms come to the fore. So, as the magnificent magnolia blossom (so sadly short-lived) dies away the lilac takes over. 

The various cherry blossoms start, and then the wisteria - that will last now until late June and often actually continues flowering throughout the Summer - and then the laurel appears, which one often does not think of having blossom but in fact can have a profusion of delicate, white blossom which is very much appreciated by the bees early in the plant flowering season; and also, laurel produces a sweet syrupy secretion at the base of new leaves which the bees love:

Meanwhile, the pond has remained full, due to the prolonged heavy rain earlier in the Winter and there has not been the heat to evaporate much of the water. As last year, the large quantity of rain in the Winter, following the Summer drought, has given the water a particular clarity, enabling one to see the carp that have just started to reappear and to notice the long, underwater stems of the waterlilies that are now floating to the surface:

Once again, we have also done a lot of clearing around the pond, reducing the overhanging branches, and also renovating the trees to thin out branches and overlaps and providing more sculptural shapes:

As mentioned, the sunny weather has given some time for hedge cutting and clearing  - a bit scary to see the size of some of the brambles have grown up in just the last year. But we do not cut back all the hedging - we leave large 'chunks' (a technical, hedging term) to just go completely wild and uninterrupted so that wildlife can thrive. The hedges here are rich in variety - with hawthorn, field maple, blackthorn, beech, hornbeam and holly, with other plants twining their way through this mix, such as wild roses, honeysuckle and, of course, those scary brambles:

And speaking of wildlife, the early Springtime's 'usual suspects' are all making their welcome appearance: we are very happy to confirm that the Little Owls are back - and making a considerable racket during the day and early evenings, and the Hoopoes have been swooping around; and we have seen both Green Woodpeckers and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, as well as Buzzards and Red Kites - together with the usual array of Eurasian Wrens, White Wagtails, Robins and Sparrows and we hear the Cuckoo daily. We look forward, as ever, to the arrival of the swallows. And our resident 'house snake', the Aesculapian, has made some appearances in the garden wall when it has been particularly warm. 
​Of course, March through to June is particularly the time for the frogs to make their very noisy appearance - from the frog spawn jelly floating in the pond, through to the emergence of the tadpoles and the growth into young frogs:

 
- and a certain other creature has just discovered the wonderful world of frogs! Graycie the Cat, on her walks around the garden with us, is very intrigued when she goes near the pond's edge and the tiny frogs take flying leaps into the water and then, in their dozens and dozens, sit on the water weed and proceed to mock her with a cacaphony of croaks. Of course, like any self-respecting cat she turns her back, with a swish of the tail, and pretends total uninterest. She'll be back. But for the time being a little lie down will not come amiss:

We have been writing this Blog Post while still in the throes of another lockdown in France - a bit 'lighter touch' than previously, but still requiring forms to carried stating your address to check conformity to the travel distance limits and the purpose of your journey. 'Essential' shops stay open (although 'essential' elicits some very strange interpretations), but the restaurants and cafés remain closed, apart from takeaways - and they have now been closed for a year. The vaccine programme is at last accelerating and with more coherence than has previously been the case - our farmer neighbours were very amused when the French Government announced that they would enable vets to administer vaccine jabs ...... some very vulgar jokes ensued!

As I finish writing this Post, the sky has changed from grey to blue, the rain has stopped and the sunshine is starting to reflect on the stone buildings and the greenery of the garden and fields - suggesting a possible metaphor for conditions in the ensuing months - for all our various ways of life and contexts. 

​Bon courage and we look forward to writing the next Post!