The summer deck

In good weather, we enjoy the additional living space we get on the deck, which is just off the living/dining area on the main floor of the house. Our house is what's commonly called un pavillon sur sous-sol (a detached house over a basement). In our case, and common around here, the basement is not below ground, but on the ground level, and the main living level is one floor above the ground.

The deck faces east. The umbrella helps to shade the table from the hot mid-day sun.

This year we have basil, chives, and parsley in addition to the flowers on the deck.

I've seen many houses like ours where the owners have completely closed in the deck with glass, adding a permanent indoor space to the house. But I enjoy being out on the deck in the summer, even if the space is not very usable in winter. Having the barbecue on the deck is more practical than it was out in the back yard. It's closer to the kitchen and I don't have to go up and down stairs to get to the grill.

Funky feline fotos

On Friday morning's walk, Tasha and I found Bert out by the pond. He likes to stalk the critters out there. It's probably mice who come to the pond for water. I've never seen Bert take a frog, and the pond is full of them right now.

Bert is 13 years old now, and he's starting to go gray!

A few weeks ago, Bert showed up with a limp, favoring his front left paw. It was swollen, but he let us manipulate it. He was also walking, going up and down stairs, and eating normally. We waited a few days to decide about taking him to the vet. When we took Tasha to the vet last year for a sprained leg, the doctor examined her (ka-ching!), took an x-ray (ka-ching!), and prescribed an anti-inflammatory (ka-ching!). Then we waited for it to get better, which it did.

Bert among the vines. The pond he likes to stalk is just out of the photo on the right.

So we didn't do that with Bert. His leg is back to normal now, and he's hunting again. A lot. He's brought at least one mouse home every day for the past week. Had we thought the leg was broken, we would not have hesitated to take him in, but his injury had all the appearances of a sprain or maybe a fight injury, so we let him heal himself, and he did. I wonder how many "lives" he has left...

A blanket of green

When the grape vines are freshly trimmed, the vineyard can look like a green blanket covering the empty spaces between patches of woods. It depends on the angle, of course. Like here, it's hard to tell that there are empty spaces between the rows of vines.

The summer vineyard under sunny skies.

We're experiencing a dry spell right now. No rain for weeks, and none in the immediate forecast. The sun shines brightly most days, and it's hot (although not as hot as it was during our recent heat wave). Our lawn, such as it is, is brown. This is nothing new. We've had many a summer with a dry spell like this (we've had other summers that were rain-soaked). The question is: when will it rain again? The grape vines have deep roots and they can easily survive these spells. But other agriculture needs rain. Grains, sunflowers, and corn are grown around us. The corn is routinely irrigated but the other crops are not.

Le potager

Here's a lousy photo of the vegetable garden. The bright sun is great for the plants, but not so great for photography. It's difficult to distinguish individual plants, but you might notice that at the base of each vegetable plant is a thriving patch of weeds. They're a mixture of crab grass, purslane, and other unwanted weeds. I try to pull them out, but they have roots deep and strong. I water each plant using a watering can, so the weeds thrive where the water goes. If I used a sprinkler, the whole garden would be lost under a mound of weeds.

A wide view of the garden. Behind the watering can on the right is the oregano patch.

The snow peas along the back trellis are turning yellow and dying now, but on the right side the yellow flat beans are climbing nicely. The tomato tripods are holding up with most of the tomato bushes climbing about halfway up at this point. On the left in back are two zucchini plants, in front of them are nine pepper plants and, to the right of that, a row of kale. The left-most tripod in front is planted with eggplant.

Like a tunnel

In yesterday's post, I talked about clearing the fence line on the north side of our yard. Later in the day, I went out and took a photo. With the bright sun the photo is a little contrasted, but it gives you the idea of how close the woods are to the fence. The space we try to keep clear is looking more like a tunnel these days, but it's not as closed in as it looks.

The woods outside our yard are on the left. Just to the right of the fence is a hedge of hazelnut trees.

There is still a lot of work to do to get the tall grasses and other plants trimmed off the actual fence, but the main thing is that there is space between the woods (and blackberry brambles and rogue grape vines) and the fence itself. Without that space, the woods would take over, and likely destroy, the fence. We had the fence put in soon after we moved in sixteen years ago, mostly to keep our dog Collette inside the yard but also to keep the deer out. It's holding up well, as long as we can keep the woods away.

Tasha Tuesday

Here's Tasha stopped along our morning walk route to check out something that made a noise in the grass. It was probably some kind of little rodent scurrying around in the undergrowth. She hears them often and likes to pretend she could catch one.

Tasha inspects the wildlife along the vineyard road.

Because of the spring rain and the heat wave, I didn't get out to clear the fence line on the north side of our property this year. The saplings and brambles don't waste any time filling in the space between the woods and the fence. In addition, the wind storm had blown two small trees over. They landed on the fence, but did no damage. When it happened, I cut the trunks with a hand saw where they touched the fence, but the rest stayed put. So yesterday I got the chainsaw out and cut the trunks down to the ground. I also got the hedge trimmer out and cleared the vines and blackberry brambles (thorny!) to about a meter from the fence. Then I ran the lawnmower over the strip to finish the clearing. A productive morning.

Summer sunrise

This was Saturday morning's sunrise at around 06h30. It was warm when Tasha and I went out for the morning walk, shorts and tee-shirt weather. It wasn't long until the day got hot.

Sunrise over the Cher Valley.

It's a little cooler now, but it's still nice and summery. Our house guest leaves today, so we need to get back to finishing up the bathroom work. There's not much to do, and the builder still has some little things to finish. Having the half-bath upstairs is really making a difference, especially with a guest in the house. I'm glad we finally did it.