We woke up this morning to 19ºC (66ºF) outside. We're also back in the loft in our own bed. Sleeping is much more comfortable than it has been. The weather folks are predicting more cooling in the days ahead.
Now the big worry is twofold: the possible return of the heat and the lack of rain. Jamais content.
Today is July 14th, France's national day, a celebration of the first steps in the nation's transition away from a monarchy to a nation led by its people.
It's also still hot. Many communities across the country have canceled traditional fireworks displays to reduce fire risk. Drone-based displays are becoming more common, although I don't know of any around us.
One of our apple trees is covered with fruit. The other is not. We have two trees, both planted before we owned the house. There was another tree, much bigger, but its core had rotted away and the tree fell in a storm.Too bad, too, because it had the best apples of the three (Bramley I think).
There's actually a hint of rain predicted for later this afternoon. I didn't see any mention of storms, thank goodness.
Our grass is dying. There's no rain in our forecast. Ken told me that the weather forecasters are saying that we're unlikely to see any change in the current pattern in the days ahead. We have been lucky, though, in that most of our mornings are cool. We can open up the windows just before sunrise and flood the house with chilly air. It feels good, but by afternoon, the air is back to hot.
Wild fires are burning in the south, and fire danger is elevated in many places, including in our region. We find ourselves wishing for winter in early July. Ugh.
Our oregano patch is ready for harvesting! I started a couple of days ago. Armed with a pair of scissors, I clipped as much as would fit in a large bowl and rinsed it well. Then I put the clean stalks and leaves into the dehydrator and let it run on low for most of the day. When the stalks got dry, I removed them from the stems and put the leaves in zip-top bags for storage.I'm repeating the process for another batch now, and there could be a third while the weather's good.
We're still using last year's harvest, so it will be a while before we start using these.
This is the section of our yard that I call the North 40. It's due north of the house's northern façade. For scale you can see a standard wheel barrow in the upper right. There's a fence along the far edge of the property. We fight pretty much a losing battle with the weeds, brambles, and the young trees that want to take over the grassy area.
This past week has been pretty chilly, feeling more like late winter/early spring. We haven't had to use the central heating in a while, so it's not as bad as all that. The mornings are cold.
They're starting to flower now! This one grows on the north side of the house. Two more grow next to the driveway on the east side.
Those two grow from clippings that I took and rooted many years ago. There was a third, but it didn't survive.
This is the smallest of the sections that make up our back yard. That's all I've got for today. Our heat wave continues. It's really nice most of the day. The most difficult part is evening and the first half of the night. Sleeping is difficult and not comfortable. And it's not even summer yet! It's hard not to complain just a little.
I don't know offhand what these are called. They grow as a shrub against one of our neighbors' fences.
We're still waiting (and hoping) for a warm up this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.
I'll be brief. Tasha has an appointment for grooming this morning, so we have to get ready. There's not that much to do, just a little tidying up in the utility/laundry room before the groomer arrives. But first, we have to get out for a walk before hand.
Here's a photo of the west and north forties seen from the garden gate. The dividing line is just beyond the apple trees. The south forty is just out of the photo to the right. Happy Tuesday!
We had a fence built back when we moved in (23 years ago!) to close in our yard so that the dog (then Collette) wouldn't be able to escape. The fence follows the property line on the north side of the yard. Nobody (even the mayor) seems to know who owns the property on the north side. It's a narrow strip, overgrown and abandoned. Trees have fallen and killer brambles and ivy have taken over back there. And it's right next door to us. So I asked the landscape guy if he could clear a meter-wide strip on the north side to give us access and to prevent the weeds from taking over and pulling down the fence. No problem, he said, and now it's done.
The question is, how long will that trimming job last until it needs to be done again? I'm not sure I want to think about it. Yet.
This image reminds me of something diplomatic...
This is the western edge of our property and it separates us from the road. The south forty is on the other side.
This is the tallest and widest part of the hedge that nearly encloses out property. It's at least a foot taller than I am. By the way, the plant that makes up most of the hedge is called laurier cerise (cherry laurel). We also have some laurier sauce (bay laurel) here and there inside the main hedge. There are also some honeysuckle and ivy taking up residence among the laurels.
That rounded shape at the southwest corner is also laurier sauce (bay laurel). It started out as a conical shape, but the hedge guys insist it should have a flat top and not a pointed cone. Oh well. The customer isn't always right in France.
This is the hedge that grows along the west side of our property. I had it shortened and cut less wide a bunch of years ago. The shed is our garden shed with it's repaired door and new window shutters. The old shutters, made of wood, were disintegrating. These are PVC and should last a while.
Today's a holiday, so I'm not supposed to make noise before 10h00. I plan to get out there then and cut the west forty. The grass has gotten tall again.
The hedges have been trimmed for another year. It's a big job, at least from my perspective. I drimmed them myself the first few years, rationalizing that a hedge trimmer would cost less than paying a contractor. And maybe it did. Until I missed a year and had to deal with two years' growth. I injured myself. I went back to the contractors to take over the job. It takes three guys one full day to do it all, including the clean-up (it took me several days, maybe a week). They have the tools and the expertise needed for the job. Not cheap, but worth every centime.
Last night was chilly. I piled the blankets on for a comfortable sleep. But, ooh, getting out of bed during the night was walking into a refrigerator. Brr!
Good news and not so good news. First, good news: our landscape contractor texted me yesterday morning that he and his crew would be coming to do the hedges. Yes! Yes! They spent the whole day and did a spectacular job. I don't have photos, yet, because it's now raining. But I'm not complaining.
Not so good news: Tasha's got a belly ache. We think that she gobbled up something on her walk and it's made her sick. Constipated, maybe. She threw up her breakfast yesterday and didn't even touch today's. So, we're keeping an eye on her and giving her free access to the yard if she needs it. I'm pretty sure this type of thing has happened before.
Here's a picture of the South Forty again, this time with some of the West Forty visible. None of the Norty Forty can be seen from here.
As promised, it rained most of the day yesterday. One of our neighbors was having a party. They had put up a party tent, so there was some shelter from the rain. Fortunately for them, the weather cleared out in the middle of the afternoon and the revelers were able to enjoy being outside. Most of them left the party between 20h and 21h (8pm and 9pm for those not on the 24 hour clock).
It's raining this morning. I took this photo from the guest room window overlooking the "south forty," as I call it. You can see that we need the rain, at least on the surface, to green up the grass. Plants with deeper roots seem to doing just fine. Rain is forecast for pretty much the whole week ahead. Ugh.
There's too much blue in the image. I could have adjusted that in software (along with the perspective), but I'm still having some technical problems as far as photo editing and storage go, so it is what it is.
This patch of campanules (bell flowers) has been growing in this spot since before we bought the house. It just comes up every year. And there's no maintenance! It's s sure sign of spring and we look forward to them blooming every year.
Our mail box has met it's end (don't ask) and it's time for a new one. Problem: we're having trouble getting the new box installed. It should be a simple "out with the old and in with the new" kinda thing. Instead, it's a complicated "out with the old and in with a pain in the ass" thing. Bother.
Here's another view of the west forty (in the foreground) and the north forty (beyond the apple trees) from out near the garden gate. You can see the tall grass along the path's border wall. I weed wacked what remained of that yesterday. I also got the walk-behind mower out and tidied up a section of the south forty (to the right just out of this shot) where the riding mower can't go (because of shrubs and other obstacles).
We enjoyed the warm spell we've been having. Now the temps are cooling down again. No freeze warnings are in the forecast so far. Let's hope Jacques Frost (perhaps more correctly Jacques Givre) stays away.
