Summer is always a busy time.

As always Summertime keeps us busy.

The garden and our summer cottage keeps Mr France and I occupied.

After my surgery last year the garden suffered considerably.

A few weeks ago we had a visit from the person in charge of the committee

for 'Le Concours des Fleurs'/ The Floral competition.
 persuading us to enter le concour  again.

Apparently last year we had been greatly missed by the judges.
Although we always have an abundance of flowers
 in pots and hanging baskets, we agreed to enter the competition again.



I love this corner, as I can change the pots when they look a bit sad
or add some of my collected items found at the brocante  sale.
Which Mr France describes as junk !

So after returning from our short 5 day visit to the U.K.
visiting friends and family, we were frantically putting
together baskets and troughs, to adorn the terrace and windowsills,
which is the category we are entered in.

Here's a few we have done and now hanging from the terrace.

These geraniums I managed to over winter from last summer.
and just added a few other plants to fill in the gaps.

Window troughs or boxes as they are known as in England
are always a pretty way to brighten up the front of the cottage.

Our new roses planted in the Spring are flowering nicely.
If you'd like to wander around my garden with me,
come back soon and enjoy seeing what's growing
 where I live in rural France.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Taking a short break from my garden.

This time of the year is always busy in the garden.
We are leaving for a trip and everything is growing so fast,
I wanted to do so much, but time is running out.
I feel like the mad hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland'

These days everything seems to take us so much longer to do.

We have shrubs that have grown so big they need to be cut back or moved.
They'll have to wait a little while longer.

 Fortunately the new roses have been planted at the replacement arbour.
They should have settled in nicely while we are missing
 and hopefully will have signs of buds when we return.

We do take a break now and again, to sit here
 and drink a mid morning cup of coffee and early evening 

after our day working in the garden we have an aperitif,

or as Mr France says.'Him doing the hard work and me titivating'.

Well someone has to give the orders.

I'm hoping that these climbing roses will do better this year.

After a year of neglect, I've given them lots of TLC which they were
in desperate need of, so I'm looking forward to seeing the reward.

Also I must stake up the peonies before they get too big.
I have Day Lilies & some Penstemon that a friend gave me still to plant.

Can you see my garden whimsy peeping out from behind the Euphorbia ?

I still haven't decided, whether she stays or goes.
Take a look here it was my gift from the floral committee. 

A gift from my daughter three Ranunculus in a pot.

Their petals are so pretty, wrapped round and round and so paper thin.

At the moment this is our view from the terrace.
We can see the wild Cherry trees in blossom  Food for the birds.

When we get back, I'm sure this view will be very different,
 all the trees will be dressed in their green robes,

I did manage to find some time to paint a sketch in my garden journal
of one of my Camellia flowers, before it turned brown & fell off.

I'll be taking this small sketch journal with me
 and a few ink pencils .

This lovely hand bound sketchbook was sent to me by Valerie Gardiner 
who has a lovely blog called Colours in the Breizh
 On her travels she doesn't use a camera, only the
detailed sketches she does 'en situe' in her own hand bound sketchbooks.

If I miss your posts, while I'm away, I'll try and catch up when I get back.
Enjoy your gardens,
especially those who have only just stopped having snow.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

An Easter Posy for afternoon tea time

Sit and enjoy your afternoon tea time posy

sent to you from France.

 A pretty posy from my garden

 in a pretty cup.

 to wish you Happy Easter 

Just a greeting from my home in France to your home

where ever you might be.

I hope my posy helped to brighten up your day.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Just Looking

 It's not very often we take this route, but how happy I am we did. 

Joy for my eyes , look what I found .

It's only a 25 min. drive south from where we live
but it's amazing how much warmer it is.
The temperature is always a few degrees higher.
which means the blossom is more advanced than where I live.
.

Then we took a detour to our daughters house and I was even happier
as we found a garden center which had opened last year
I spent most of my time inside .
I was in awe of the beautiful Camellias.

I hope you like Camellias, as there were so many I couldn't stop clicking.

and before I realised that the battery was running low

 on my camera, I had spent all my time photographing them. 

Outside were rows of shrubs,
Each row had a sign showing the type of shrub and where to plant them.

Easy to grow.

Climbing plants suitable for walls and arbours

I was very tempted to buy a Clematis, but as I hadn't done any research
on them, to know which one to choose, I resisted temptation
for the next visit, which I know will be soon.

So a few more different Camellias to show you.
I hadn't realised there were so many varieties.

My only disappointment with these flowers
is they don't last very long.
If they get caught by early morning frost they turn brown
and they don't like wind and rain.
Which seems to have been our type of Spring weather

I have one in my garden which is struggling,

apparently due to all the things they don't like.

Now after the expert advice I was given by the owner

 of the garden center, I need to move it, after it's finished flowering.

It was planted last year, when my heart was not into gardening.

I thought I'd chosen a good position for it, but apparently not.

Also we do have very acid soil, due to the hundreds of pine trees

that were growing here when we bought the property.

So I need to correct that, when I find a suitable place to replant it.

But not just yet, it will have to wait, as I have climbing roses 

waiting patiently to be planted and grow up the new arbour.

If it's stopped raining tomorrow, I'll take a photo to show you.

It will be like  ''before and after.''

 What ever you are doing in your garden

Enjoy your planting.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

It hasn't stopped raining, but I did what I said I'd do.
I took this photo, to let you see my pitiful Camellia. 
As I say I'm not a gardener and we all make mistakes.
It wasn't a plant I bought myself, as  I know all the difficulties
of growing a good plant  (it was a prize ) from our Floral competition.
Yes you did read that correctly  a prize. But I do grow lovely
hanging baskets.
.

The flowers were battered even more during the night

This is my Camellia looking very sad, waiting to be moved.

Spring into Springtime.

My favourite season.

So much activity in the garden, most of the spring flowers are blooming.
We are helping the birds as much as we can. Mr France has made some new Bird boxes & we've put out bedding for the taking, this seems to be working. We used to refill this suet cage with food, recently I've been filling it with wadding and the birds have been taking it for sometime.  Now I've seen on Mary's  blog A Breath of Fresh Air.
she adds  bits of lace & shreds of material cut into strips to hers. What a lovely idea. I know the Gold finch make very decorative nests. Some time ago,  I found one
 with blue forget-me-nots woven in with some of our dogs fur around the edge.

The birds seem to be taking it.

One of the new bird boxes, so far no residents.

 A gift from our daughter.
For the past 2 years I've put it out, but it's never been used.
Maybe it's too upmarket in style for our country birds.
How ever I like it as a garden ornament.

If I follow Mary's idea of adding some lace for a bit of luxury,

we might have some posh birds. 

or maybe a Robin / Rouge Gorge  like this, will take up residence there.

 Tucked in the Berberis, I found a nest from last year.
I think I'll leave it and keep an eye on it,
maybe it will be refurbished, by some new takers.

 Each year I put this little nest, with it's egg in one of the hanging baskets.

 This is the area we were working on this time last year.
Then it had to go on hold, when I was unable to do any gardening.
Now due to the resent surgery Mr France had to have, we have
decided it will be staying like this. I like it partly cultivated and the rest
left a bit wild. Later the wild flowers will add lots of natural beauty.

 I've just had a wander around the garden and found some more
different types of daffodils, from a few years ago.

Even some hidden in an area that certainly needs some tidying up doing.

How is your garden looking, do you have birds building their nests?
Are you putting up bird boxes ? If you've never had a bird box
in your garden, why not try. It's so rewarding watching the birds
busy building their nest, then flying backwards & forwards
feeding their chicks.

I'll be keeping you up to date with the flora and fauna in our garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian