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

My garden in June.

A little while ago I gave you an idea of what my garden looked like, well now I can show you how it's looking  at the end of June. Hope you like what you see.




This is a selection of the soft colours.

 

This year we have not had the best of weather, a cold May & a rainy June. We were wondering if summer was ever going to arrive, as mid-summers day has been and gone. However it's finaly arrived in full force, it's hot with clear blue sky and the plants are beginning to look healthy and are blooming well, so I'm happy. I've always been a sunshine girl.
Today the floral committee from our local commune arrived with their clip boards. I told you about my first experience of this, not long after we arrived to live in France. After 22 yrs they have not changed very much.
However I did notice that they had a a new member who knew her flowers. The others are quite happy just chatting about everyday life, as long they can have a look around, they're quite content. This committee has to pass first, they select 2 or 3 from the commune to be entered into the department competition, then a week later the horticulturist committee comes to judge, that's when the important part starts. The  local French people seem to be very curious , I'm not sure if it's because I'm English, but now we have lots of English in our area, so I can no longer think of it as 'Un coin perdu'  (a place miles from anywhere)



Surfinias
If you don't know this flower, it's certainly one to have for it's heavenly perfume.
& the vibrant colours. these are planted in troughs so they tumble down over the balcony.

The pale mauve flower is  double Surfinia.
Look at the lovely marbling on the petals
This one is my favourite.

In a few more weeks these troughs will be totaly hidden

 by the profusion of the flowers.



 This antique wine bottle corker was found in a brocante.
I've had it a long time
but now found just the place to show it off.



Hope you liked what you saw.

I'll be back again soon showing more of my hanging baskets as they progress.

A bientot

Barbara Lilian

French windows.

I just love the windows on old French houses.

This cottage belongs to some friends of mine who live in Limoges city & now that they have retired, they come to their country home as often as they can. Later I will show some pictures of their garden, it's a true country garden & I'm sure would be everyones dream garden. 



 I think I love the windows on old French houses because the windows open in, inviting the warm sunshine indoors. However the French people always close the shutters when it's hot to keep the house cool. I love to see old lace curtains looking more like lace handkerchieves than the style I was used to seeing in England. I hated lace curtains when I was a child. It made me think of dark rooms and old people. I never really new any old people as my Grandmother passed away when I was very young, and I don't have many memories of her. But I do remember the lace curtains in her house covering the whole of the windows, making the Victorian period house even darker. So have a peep at some of the windows I love.

This window is on the front of my daughters house.

A friends cottage

One of the windows my husband put in

when renovating the old barn, which we now live in.  

He was able to find the granite to make the surround

from a barn which had fallen down. 

This is the view from the window of La Petite maison

which we rent for holidays.

I hope you liked peeping through the windows.

a bientot

Barbara Lilian