Springtime garden

I love this time of the year when everything starts to wake up after being dormant during the long winter months. I've just been wandering around the garden seeing what's growing and what's not, also what needs to be moved because it doesn't like where it is, or I think it would look better somewhere else.

I could never call myself a real gardener, I love my garden, but I don't let it rule me. I don't talk to my plants, well maybe sometimes, telling them they have 2 chances in life... 'they either grow or they go..
 I let the weeds that flower stay, if I like them, you might say I'm a lazy gardener, but who has the right to say a plant is a weed. if it happens to grow somewhere that's not choking the special plant I have planted then it can stay. The only no go in my garden is I like the grass to be green, I don't like daises or dandelions to sneak in and this year we have an abundance of dandelions growing in all the fields around where we live.

If you read my last post  you will have seen them everywhere, but that's OK as long as they stay put in the fields.
I'm going away in a few days so would you like to see what my garden is looking like at the moment.

One of the many Pieris ( Forest Flame )
Always gives colour throughout the year.

Japonica Japanese Quince

Alyssum ( Saxitile )

Flowers first from April to June, cut back after flowering

then the leaves are a lovely silver grey

forming a good ground cover.

 I hope I don't miss too many things, the Peonies are about to burst into bloom,  if it rains a lot while we're away and we have wind they soon get damaged ,so fingers crossed they'll still be here when I get back.

The Roses are beginning to grow again after the late snow & frost damaging them.

Today I've been splitting and moving the ornamental grass's a friend gave me, I hope it will look as good in it's new home as it did last year.I'll show you that when it's growing, as it's still at the stubble stage.

 I didn't realise it would grow so tall and spread so much. I hope it will be happy where I've put it, as it was hard work digging it up, I had to get help from my other half to dig the holes to replant them. I feel much happier now going away, knowing they will be able to start growing in their new place as it would be too late to move them when I get back. Did I just say I don't let my garden rule me, well maybe I do occasionally.

 The terrace with lots of young plants in pots waiting to go in the garden.

They'll have to wait a little while longer.

We love this area especially for summer evenings.

A few herbs.
Which I always keep in pots near to the kitchen.

Lavender cuttings waiting to go into the Lavender bed

Choisya ( Mexican Orange Blossom )
This will probably be in full bloom when we return.

The Last of the Tulips.

Sempervivum ( succulents )
Which grow out of the crannies in the rockeries.

I put this photo in as I wanted you to see the sweet little viola  that popped up all by itself.
The seed must have come from a flower pot that was there last year .

I've sown seeds in trays and never had success growing them on.

After my busy day making sure everything was able to look after itself during my absence,

 I took several pictures of the sky.  It's amazing how quickly the sun went down.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks and then I'll show you where I've been.

It won't be as warm as it here in France, but it's a beautiful country.
Just a little clue ! it's my favourite place to visit as my son and his lovely wife & grandchildren live there.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian.

My Blogs 1st Anniversary

I can't believe it's now one year since I started my blog.

One year ago today, I hardly knew what to do, and didn't really know what I would write about.

It was my son in laws birthday yesterday 

so thought I'd use his cake for my 1st. anniversaire

I now try to remember to have my camera in the car to capture the beautiful countryside. 

I still struggle with some of the technical things, especially linking to other blogs

which is why I never join any of the link invites. 

Maybe I'll get the hang of it one day.

I've learnt how to use my other half's camera, so I now take better pictures since my first post.

But most of all I have lots of friends, who come and visit my blog 

 and like my photos and write nice comments about what I've done.

and I am a follower of lots of bloggers.

 All of this gives me great pleasure.

so
A big THANK YOU
to
ALL of you who have popped by to read my blog
even if you don't leave a comment
I  really appreciate you taking the time
and most important I hope you enjoy reading my little stories
and looking at my photos.

Would you like to join  me on my drive down the lanes to the boulangerie.

After just a few days of sunshine the fields and the sides of the lanes 

are a mass of yellow from the dandelions.

This was what I saw this morning on my way to the boulangerie.

So I hope you'll enjoy these photos I took to share with you.

Our nearest neighbour is this farm house.

This house is used by the hunters as a hunting lodge

during the hunting season

There used to be three horses in this field and the owner built this shelter for them. 

The horses have now gone, but the owner still comes regulary to cut the grass.

I drove to the village where I used to live 

just to see this beautiful Magnolia as I knew it would be in full bloom.

I hope one day my  little twig as seen on my post

My plant order has arrived, so it must be Spring.

will grow to flower as lovely as this one.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

A visit to the old city of Limoges

Even though the days are warmer, I haven't had time to do any serious gardening.

 I did manage to pot up a few of the Fuchsia plants, but that's what I call pottering.  

As some of my followers liked seeing the architecture of my city Limoges,
 I thought you might like to see some more.
I looked in my photo files and decided to take you on a tour
 to see some of the old part of the city,
which surrounds the main shopping area.

'Centre Ville' - Place de la Republique.

This is where Galeries Lafayette is.

However we are not going shopping.

 We are going to look at the narrow cobbled back streets of the city.

 I love to wander around these narrow streets, wondering what the little shops used to sell.

This part of the city is full of restaurants 

which all seem to have an area in front on the cobbled street,

 with tables, serving coffee & lunch.

So many restaurant's

Where shall we eat today ?

More restaurants tucked away in little courtyards.

All these are apartments 

with restaurants under the arches.

This is one of three pedestrian alleys. 

 leading to the larger modern stores.

Lots of specialist boutiques are in this part of the shopping area.

This part of the city has recently had a big face lift.

With strict conservation planning permission 

to keep the style of the original city.

I love this part, as it's a nice area to take a rest
and sit in the shade under these trees.

Look at this wonderful artwork which has been painted on the restored old buildings.

This mural painting has brought an old building to life.

From a distance it looks real.

This has recently been painted, to make an old ruined building blend in with this part of the city.

City gardens.

Look carefully between these two buildings. 

there is a tiny apartment on 4 floors.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the places
near where I live.

Some other time I'll take you to see some more of Limoges.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Some things you might not know about France.

I've just been reading some articles which were 

written in 

our local free news paper

THE BUGLE

which might be of interest to all you lovers of France.

DID YOU KNOW

NO it's not a joke!

READ on....

I'm not into # 

BUT READ WHAT FRANCE THINKS OF IT.

**********************************************

SNCF    TRAVEL INFO.

This might be of interest to some of you who are planning to visit France.

Some new cheap NO FRILLS  Ouigo  TGV  trains  from Paris to the south of France.

from the 2nd April 2013

PARIS to SOUTH of  FRANCE

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS  website 

http://www.ouigo.com/fr/astuces-et-bons-plans

Not usually my style of post.

but

I Hope it was of interest to the lovers of France.

Who might be visiting 

PARIS in the SPRINGTIME

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian 

My plant order has arrived, so it must be Spring.

I know Spring must have arrived

as I've just received my plants which I ordered in early February for Spring delivery.

I've only ever ordered plants from a catalogue once before, 

and I swore I would NEVER do it again

 I was so disappointed as they looked just like twigs.

No resemblance to the pictures in the catalogue

That was 23 years ago it wasn't easy to buy shrubs where we live.

 This area is mostly agricultural and if you couldn't eat it they didn't grow it.

 Thankfully things have changed a lot since then.

This time they seem to look a lot better than my first order, 

and in the box was a bonus

 3  free shrubs !

One of these looks like a twig ! The 'Magnolia  Kobus' 

 It's going to take a long time to look how it does in the picture!

 but,  it was free so I mustn't grumble !

I've planted  them all in pots, as they came bare rooted and need to get settled into some growing compost

as you can see the magnolia looking like a twig, will need some extra care and attention.

But I remember my old friend Leonard giving me a Magnolia, that looked like this, and it wasn't that long before it became a big twig with a few flowers and now when I pass my old house it has been moved ,

it must have grown too big for the garden.

I'll leave these in the pots, until they show signs of good growth

then plant them in the ground, 

 

The plant in this pot is a free one ' Ceanothe Victoria.' - Blue flowers.

These Marguerite were delivered. bare root in a poly-bag covered with sawdust.

I'll plant these in my new flower bed and cover them over with some dried ferns for awhile,
 the young growth could get damaged  by frost, as the nights are still cold
  where we live, and we can get unexpected ground frost.

These Marguerite will be pretty in a sunny area.

Six hardy Fuchsias 'Mme Cornelissen'  (  frost resistant to -15 ) 

A little on the small size with only young growth at the moment, 

so I'll keep them under cover for the time being,

 then they will be planted in a long trough for the deck.

Just to let you know I wasn't that thrilled about my box of plants.

Will  I be buying any more plants I haven't seen. ?

Maybe or maybe not !

I will keep you up to date with the success or failure of these plants.

Enjoy your gardening

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian