Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

When we left in the summer the gazebo was still up so we couldn't see the two sets of steps in 'alignment' and their full glory:

I've taken over as your Dordogne correspondent for the next week and a bit. First news is that the 10th mark has gone on the mole tally in the kitchen.

Here's Richard re-setting the semtex.

Mentioned the heavy rain while infilling the terrace but forgot to add the picture of the mud bath we created with the trailer. Have seen thicker and deeper mud at various events over the years but this nice piece of grass was converted to about 2 inches of lovely light brown porridge!

a lot of growth in the garden! The grass was over two feet high and even with the tractor took a few hours to cut, would have taken days otherwise.

The plants in and around the pond had also grown in the last six weeks but overall was still in good shape after the Felicity and Sue treatment earlier in the year. The yellow Iris were especially lovely.

We managed to get another week in France at the end of February some four months after our last visit. This trip was a treat for me mainly for two reasons, firstly I had just celebrated a significant birthday, and secondly we were joined for the first five days by good friends - Peter and Felicity. Clearly there is something about the air in this part of France that they like as this was their third visit to the house. Apart from the fact they are good friends they are very welcome for one other reason - Felicity is a great chef! To prove this point we didn't eat out once during the week as this would have probably proved to be disappointing compared to the menu available at the house. Felicity, thank you again for all your wonderful cooking.

Talking of food I must mention the fresh eggs from our neighbour Ben. On our first day he brought a dozen over saying that the hens were laying like crazy and we must have some. Without doubt these were the best eggs I have ever eaten. Unfortunately a picture wasn't taken but the bright yellow colour was hard to believe when we had the first batch scrambled. Even the treacle sponge (made by you know who) had a visible yellow tinge to it.

While no major construction work was undertaken during the week we did get a lot done and with Peter and Felicity's help the biggest impact was on the garden.

Peter is now expert with the tractor (no wheelies this time... ask him about his first go!) and apart from cutting all the grass he drove the tractor many times during the week collecting all the debris created by the pond cleaning party and the chainsaw gang!

Felicity picked the job of pond cleaning not realising just what a mammoth task it was. However with some help from Sue the two of them managed to make a dramatic impact and it certainly looked a lot better for their perseverance. Four fish were spotted, which given we only put two in there is a big improvement!

As for the chainsaw gang..... having got a new chainsaw on our last trip over this was a great opportunity to give it a good work out. There was one area of the land that I had never set foot in due to the fallen tress and general bracken in there but with Sue and Peter clearing away the branches I cut it is now easily accessible.

We also trimmed some limbs off a large horse chestnut by one of the out buildings (the branches were too close to the roof) and only damaged a few tiles on one corner of the roof in the process! A walnut tree was felled and 7 conifers that we had previously cut to about a metre high were felled completely.

The roots will need to be dug out at some point (when we hire a mini digger) but to encourage them to rot I cut a cross in the top of each one, a trick Tony and Barbara told us about.

The view to and from the house is now much better without the conifers and walnut.

The vine at the front of the house needed its annual heavy pruning which Sue is now somewhat expert in doing. It certainly looks very neat and tidy and should encourage good growth over the summer to not only provide grapes but to give good shade for our outdoor dining area..

And finally.... the weather during the trip was, with the exception of the first day which was glorious, ok to work outdoors in but cool if you sat outside and of course in the evening the temeratures dropped rapidly. Peter did a great job of keeping the woodburner going and after a couple of days the stone walls warmed up and we had evening temperatures of around 25C downstairs and 28C upstairs! This did mean the occasional trip to get more logs...

Several little projects were finished in the last few days. The boule court had geotextile fabric laid and then new white gravel: