Before we moved to France someone we knew, who already lived here, told us that wood would keep us warm in so many ways – they were not kidding!!

So last Sunday we got a delivery of wood, the weather has been freezing and is set to stay that way for another week. It was dropped off outside our barn and we spent an hour stacking it up and it will hopefully take us forward into next winter.

The lovely man who delivers it had a chat with Rich and we agreed that we would have our really large Oak tree and our Sycamore pollarded. This is where elderly trees are cut back.

They had been left way to long – I would say at least fifteen years –  and the Sycamore was hanging over the road and blocking a lot of light from the garden. As you can see it was the huge tree that often features in my pictures of the valley…

And you can see her in her full glory in the background here…. if you can stop looking at the cute teddy Welshies and the naughty puppy Welsh with the Dumbo ears!! (Check out the new blog Dylan’s Welsh Adventure, available on WordPress – I blogged the first post earlier. A big welcome to Karen and the world of blogging.)

The same for the Oak, and last summer it was noticeable that the part of the garden we tend to lounge in (naked!!! – Only joking! We like or neighbours!!) was covered in shade from very early in the afternoon and we missed most of the lovely warm evening sun.

So we had no choice and we had to do it and the lovely man who provides our wood offered to cut them with Rich’s help.

I love my trees, especially the Oak and it broke my heart to do it, I could never be a farmer!!

In addition the fir trees that had always been a pain because they blocked our view of the valley from our terrace and also blocked light to a large part of our garden also had to go.

So now the Sycamore looks like this = only a bit tidier, and look at the view!!!

My beautiful Oak (I hated doing it) looks like this …

and the where the fir trees once were we now have this an absolutely stunning view.

Those who know me know I love nature, I follow the Tao, but four of the fir trees were dead and all of them were precariously close to the electrical cable that supplies the hamlet so they had to go.  But I am not going to say that I did not share a tear for them, or that I will not be watching my Oak and Sycamore closely and praying that they have not gone into too much shock.

It looked like a tree massacre..

There is wood everywhere in my garden, and in two years time we will have more then enough wood to last us for at least two winters;  the fences are dented and boy do we have some work to do moving everything and stacking so that they can season.

Needless to say it has been a busy week!!

More than anything though it is the light that has come into the garden and our house that has shocked me. It is so bright, the living room is full of light and the kitchen has so much more light coming into it. The house has been warmer because even the winter sun has managed to reach her for most of the day when she is out and our bedroom is full of sparkling light from the crystals we have on our bed and as knobs on our cupboards; which brings me to the next part of this blog.

As well as that I have started working on our new range of produce for out Etsy shop and possible other outlets and been busy embellishing our new iridescent range of butterflies, hearts, and stars; all cut by hand and embellished and decorated by me. They are stunning and we have some on our walls and watch them change colour and catch the light all day long.

I love everything that catches the light and sparkles so these are close to my heart. You can contact me direct via Messenger if you would like some or check out my Etsy shop petiteFrenchfancies.

More posts to come folks, including another from my husband and the French language – only this time he is teaching the lovely Matt English – You can only imagine, but let me confirm that some of what he taught him I won’t be able to tell you!!!

Moisy

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PetiteFrenchfancies