A country garden in France.

Our daughter dreams of one day having the time to make a garden & being able to find time to look after it. But having just spent a week at her home, I wandered around and saw such lovely focal points she never gets the time to enjoy.

So as my hubby had just bought himself a new camera, which does a lot more than my point & shoot, I took lots of photos, so sit back and enjoy my wander around her garden seeing it through my eyes.

 

Don't ask me why the chair was left in the 'potager'.

But I thought it deserved a photo to share.

A slow maturing Willow tree.
This is where her boys play rugby or football.

The boys bikes outside of the barn.
Probably left there till the next time they ride them.

Pretty wild flowers growing in the disused veg. patch.

The swing the boys used to play on when they were younger,
still hanging on one chain from a branch of a huge Chestnut tree.

The cockeral & his lady followers left free to roam.
These have recently replaced the previous batch,
 that one by one were attacked by a fox !!

The driveway leading to the house.
 A lovely variety  of trees.

A lovely typical cottage feel
Some of the Hollyhocks in front of the shutters.

The Walnut and Cherry trees, making a pleasant shady area
where we've enjoyed many meals shared with family & friends.

Buddlia shrub or more often known as a butterfly bush.

An arbour made from an old ladder which had been left in the barn
 when they bought their house.
 It did have roses growing on either side, but the Deer must have eaten them !

 

An old wire crate, where there had been wild strawberries growing in it.

 

The old well which has had doors put on

 to save any accidents when the boys were little.

So as you have seen, every garden has it's charm and doesn't have to be flowers all planted neatly in rows.

I love this garden, and hope you enjoyed sharing my photos.

 and when my daughter sees this, I hope she will enjoy seeing all the

 charmimg parts of her garden that she doesn't get time to see

 because she is so busy with her work.

I hope you will pop by again, when I hope to have had time to visit my friends garden.

A bientot

 Barbara Lilian.

More Lavender from my garden.

 

Decided to cut more of my Lavender today. So thought I'd show you what I did with it.

This basket has been sitting on a shelf  empty for a long time,

 so thought I'd fill it with a bunch of Lavender.

Just what it needed, I'm pleased how pretty it looks.

 

Later I made more of the ribbon posies.

I decided to make a variation on the original way I usualy make them.


 

The perfume is so wonderful. I feel I am back in Provence.

I shall put one of these in all the guests bedrooms.


Hope you liked seeing my Lavender ribbon posies.


A bientot

Barbara Lilian

Lavender posies

My wonderful memory of my visit to the Lavender fields in Provence.
This photo was taken on Mont Ventoux.

Today I started to collect the Lavender from my garden to make my posies.
I make lots of these during the month of August.
A little gift to offer to a friend or neighbour.

Tied with some pretty satin ribbon

Here's how I make the ribbon posies.

Not long after we moved to live in France we went with our French neighbours to the Provence region and stayed with her cousins family. I remember sitting in the shade under a huge tree, the wonderful perfume of lavender was everywhere and I was watching the father who had a bunch of lavender on his knee and a ball of thick string. I was intrigued wondering what he was doing, he beckoned me to come & sit beside him and saw that he was making a very primitive version of the ones I have since made using pretty ribbon.

 

 

 

Some years later a friend bought this book for me, so now every summer I make these posies.

If you don't know how to make them,these diagrams will give you an idea of the stages.

 

 

The posy needs to be made straight after the Lavender has been picked as the stems need to be supple so that they can bend easily over the flower heads. I find it easier to weave the ribbon between two stems together. The number of stems I used for a small posy like the photo shown above is 22. Depending on the size you wish to make, the number of stems when divided by two should always be an odd number, so that you can make the weave regular.

I'm sure most of you will have some Lavender growing in your garden,

 so have a try at making a Lavender ribbon posy.

 

Hope you enjoy making your Lavender posy. as much as I did.





A bientot

Barbara Lilian