Before I begin this post I just want to say a big thank you for the response to my last post, about exploitation in the workplace over here. It obviously touched a nerve with a lot of people, and the support was overwhelming. I also want to say a big thank you to my Facebook mate Tim, who asked if I had written a book and if so how could he get a copy. What a compliment. No I have not finished my book yet, but this has inspired me to start book number two about my adventures over here (which will include many other bits I do not put in my blog!) and thank you for the encouragement from you all regarding everything. Also a big thanks to Linda who shared my post because it inspired her regarding exploitation of workers. Good!!!

On to this post………

 

So with some thinking yesterday was the first day of Spring, some thinking today is  the first day of Spring I thought it would be a good time to show you the pictures of my garden, where spring is bursting out all over.

Until  the fourteenth century Spring was simply Lent, but the name Spring evolved when  people started to call this time of year Springing time,  referring to the plants springing from the ground, (I also like to think of the lambs springing about, and no! Stop thinking about mint sauce!!) and this phrase eventually evolved  into the name of this season as we know it, Spring.

Over the past few weeks, since my post on the 6th of March the garden is literally springing to life, the crocus have now gone and in their place I  have daffodils, narcissi, and grape hyacinth,  ( I had forgotten that I had planted the grape hyacinth the first autumn we were here!) not to mention the primrose that is prolific over here.

These photos also show our stone troughs that have been in existence since the house was built in 1812. Some people say that they are old coffins that were used to bury children!

Our first Spring here I thought it would be a great idea to buy some meadow flowers and just sprinkle them under the tress where the grass does not grow so well, and also over by our hedge. Sadly I thought they did had not taken, mainly because I had one lone poppy and no sign of any others and also because I think Rich mowed over them (including the bloody lone poppy!)  and also  because I was a lazy cow and just threw them at the dirt and hoped that they took without putting any effort in.

Well obviously nature took her course, the birds ate them, and then pooped them back out all over our lawn!! We now we have a sea of yellow flowers to join the primrose and the other plants …..

And also some really lovely little blue flowers….

The only problem now is that they are all growing in the grass and the grass needs cutting!! So I think I will be helping Rich next week (we are busy this week) and will try and mow bits of the lawn and leave the flowers to have their day. If I don’t watch him he will just drive over them with the ride on and that will be that! The man’s a menace when he gets that mower between his legs (a feel a Frankie Howard moment coming on!)

The bush was on death row, as was her sister bush, we cut them back hard because they seemed to be boring and green (as plants tend to be) and were going to dig them up;  but as you can see from the previous picture they are actually Forsythia and have a profusion of pretty yellow flowers popping out. Looking it up it does say that it can be dull after flowering so were weren’t wrong really,  but I have decided they are too pretty to kill, and the remind me of my childhood home, because my mum had a hedge of them (weirdly i was only thinking of that hedge the other day and thinking we should get some because our garden needs to have different areas put into place to give it some structure only to get home and find that I already had it and was about to kill it!)  so we have decided we  will just keep them small.

We also have some fairy Kingdoms popping up again, sorry folks but I do like to think of faeries in my garden as you know

I love this time of year, it always reminds me that things will change, will get better, if you let them and trust that they will.

Here are to quotes to contemplate in this time of change and hope….

‘The Tao does nothing, but leaves nothing undone

If powerful men

could center themselves in it.

the whole world would be transformed

by itself, in it’s natural rhythms.

When life is simple.

pretenses fall away;

our essential natures shine through.

By not wanting there is calm,

and the world will straighten itself…….’

Edited from the 37th verse of the Tao Te Ching 

 

Isn’t that what spring shows us every year?  Bear in mind that nature never gets it wrong, even earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis have there place.

Or for those people who feel that they “have” to do something, “have” to look at something in a certain way, do something in a certain way, because other people make them feel as if they should; here is a quote you might like….

‘Let your ears hear whatever they want to hear, let your eyes see whatever they want so see; let your mind think whatever it wants to think…..’

Alan Watts ‘Tao: The Watercourse Way’

Let me tell you about the cherry tree that I have put at the beginning of this post. I have had that tree for seventeen years. It has always been in a pot and it was only about two years ago, just before we moved her out here, that I moved her to a bigger pot because she was struggling to flower. I had to tug and pull her, with Rich’s help because she was so pot bound, and she got really battered in the process.  I then cut her back hard for the move and just hoped she would survive. As you can see she has flourished and never gave up. Every morning I have at least five big fat furry bees buzzing around her, she is giving them life after the long winter. So she is happy because I helped her, she helps the bees and they all make me smile every time I see them. We are all happy, it cost nothing nature is just following her course.

Happy spring folks let it be the start of something new for you.

More posts are on there way keep looking out for them.

Moisy

 

 

 

 

I started this post in February, but as you know, from my previous post, life took over and I was not able to post it, so here is my new beginning…..

It is March the 1st  and officially spring; but nature has seemed to be waking up early this year, Persephone must be on her way back from the Underworld.

Spring has been coming for some time, the last few weeks when we were working in the garden  I went out with my two obligatory sweatshirts on, only to find I had to take one off and would have taken them both off if I had not carrying logs and dragging branches.

We have been busy in our garden and all of the log piles that I posted about in the autumn have now been put away in the goats shed. So all little insects will now need to find another home.

Some it appears we can use this month as they only need a year to season (yep another fallacy logs do not take years it depends on the wood), which comes in handy because the wood we bought has now run out and we have had to buy some more, but the silver birch, sadly blown down in the tornado, is already starting to rot, to time to burn it, a brilliant wood especially to get the fire going.

Rich has also cut back the large Cob Nut trees that we have all the way down the chemin and is busy cutting them into logs. According to Alan Titchmarsh they make good logs for burning, after leaving two years to season. There are still many more to chop and we have to get what we can done in the next few weeks before it is too late.

Sadly I thought that I would be good last year and put all of my geraniums away in the goat shed, they all died! So this  year I am going back to my tried and tested method and putting them under the hedge this autumn. ! I did manage to save a pot of Pinks and a Verbena and have now brought them out of shelter to brave the elements.

In the same vein it is touch and go with some of my plants that have been planted out and I think that I only need to look at the hoare frost (thank to my dear fellow blogger Roz for informing me of the name of this phenomenon that we experienced at the end of December, and the beginning of the year.) to know what may have happened to them.

For those of you who have not read my blog from January about living in Narnia here are a selection of pictures, it was truly beautiful, please see my previous blog from January for more.

 

But then again it may not have just been the frost as  I think that  my peonie has gone, in fact completely disappeared due to this little rascal, who has cocked his leg up it once too often!

Butter wouldn’t melt, and I could not imagine my life without him, or his sister.

The compost has been tidied because certain naughty Welshies decided it would be good to get in it,  they have had to be washed because they, quite simply,  stank! So in the last month we have had a dog grooming day, with all the knots of fur being cut out and poor Rich on his hands and knees scrubbing them in the shower. (I get the nice job of being on arse patrol – don’t ask!) However now that my compost has been turned by the Welshies is is s beautifully rich, it must be all the tea bags, and I cannot wait to try again with my potager. Tom and Barbara will return again this year!!

But for me over the past month it is the narcissi, daffodils and crocus, who bring a smile to my face, because they always give hope for the year ahead.

 

They are on their way again.

Every day I go out more and more crocus appear. In an earlier blog I told you how the first autumn we moved in I planted about 100 crocus bulbs, well this spring we have over 300 and counting. Every day I come out there is another tiny little crocus that has popped up, sometimes all alone, sometimes with friends. You will need to look carefully but they are there!

 

Sometimes standing alone as this one is front of the pot….

And sometimes in their hundreds…

Their perseverance is inspiring. No matter what the weather, harsh winds and torrential rain like the rain that we had on Monday, they still come up, never give up. In the picture below you can see the daffodils and crocus in my seventeenth century stone pot, the milk urn was on top of them but when I took it off the crocus were still growing, just sideways! Look at them now, to the left of the pot as you look at it….

The pussy willows have sprouted their furry little mittens, ready to release their little tails in April; and you can see one of my clematis is on it’s way.

But “March wind doth blow”, and as I am typing this there is a hooley that has come from nowhere blowing outside. with sleeting rain and what biting cold temperatures.

So I suppose that the point of this post, especially with regard to  our adventure, is to say that when you choose to live in the middle of the country it can be hard, very hard, which you are reminded of every winter. No-one said it was all going to be easy, but if you don’t know the hard how will you know the easy?

But it is also stunningly beautiful and Spring is nature’s reminder to never give up, to embrace all that life has to offer every day, because you never know what will happen the next to remind you of how lucky you were the day before.  Treasure the morning skies.

The beautiful cloud watching days like these yesterday, because you may have a hooley like we have now the following day!

I Suppose that Spring for me is a reminder that as well as bad times   to see that there is also good sometimes all in the same day!  Spring comes in with the beautiful flowers, the clouds, the warm sunshine, and then bang she blows you a hooley, throws torrential rain at you, and piercing cold winds, with some snow flurries for good measure, and  the very next day comes back with a warm day and beautiful sunsets again. Today my poor little crocus are lying flattened, especially the ones that have been brave enough to go it alone, but I know that when the sun comes out they will bounce back up to enjoy her warmth.

Life has it’s ups and downs but if you go with the flow the downs will be fewer because you can remind yourself that beautiful things are around the corner.

As my dear fellow blogger Roz highlighted when she wrote only this week, that she and her husband have holes in their roof, and cannot afford to fix it, but they are happy. They do not regret their adventure. What is the point of worrying about something, in what may be the last moments of your life, when you cannot change it? So this week she has cooked pancakes, to hell with the roof!!

Let’s follow the crocus lead, enjoy the ride, good and bad, let the bad show you just how excellent the good is, no matter how simple; and most importantly don’t let anything keep you down for long, always get back up!

Someone close to my heart died twenty years ago this year, my darling mum. My dad had a stroke in the September and at Christmas my mum toasted in the new year and said “here’s to the new year, it cannot get any worse than the last one.” She died in the April. Sometimes I admit I forget the harsh lesson that I was taught all those years ago; but more often than not I remind myself of it because it highlights that you never know what is around the corner.

So here is to all my friends in France who have taken the plunge and gone for an adventure, who have struggled through the winter, and been cold at times, but who have still never given up. Here is to Spring lets love every minute of it, including tonight’s hooley! And tomorrow we will wake up to the sun.

Keep smiling

Moisy

Please share my blog and please read my dear friend Roz’s blog it can be found on blogspot under ourlifeinfrance. Enjoy

 

 

 

.Joyeux New Year my friends. I thought I would share some more pictures of this beautiful phenomonon. I stood under the willow for one shot, I felt  as if I was in Narnia.

moisy

 

I have taken a walk today  with my little foster puppy, and Spring was all around us, the sun was hot, the sky is blue with a smidgen of white cloud, the hedgerows are full of many wildflowers including bluebells, and wild chive was growing everywhere.  I thanked God, mother nature, or the fates for allowing me to be here today and enjoy it. I breathed in the pure air, and reminded myself that this was life, real life, I was surrounded by it, and I was blessed.

 

Autumn and Spring always make me think (oh! You do surprise me! I hear you say!) of change, Autumn, of death, of letting go, Spring of rebirth, but also a reminder that you have to let go of some things to enable the new, and the beautiful and breathtaking to happen. Nature knows this so well, sadly man does not. Spring and Autumn are a reminder of the cycle of life, of how change will happen, whether we want it to or not, and nature, at these times of year just reinforces that.

When I look at how the wildlife,and fauna accept what winter has dealt them – the trees that have been blown over in the howling winds, the plants that didn’t make it in the freezing cold, and the animals that did not survive the winter months – I understand what life, nature, God, whatever people want to call it, is trying to tell mankind, over and over again.

The fauna, animals, insects, and all other living things  know that this is life, change happens, and that part of life is accepting this change and working with it. As so many say it is man’s inability to accept change that contributes to a large amount  of mental health problems in the world. We hold on to what we know, even when life is screaming at us that we have to let go. We challenge others for making change, belittle them, question them, instead of asking ourselves why we feel the need to do this. Why do we hold on tightly to what we have, even when it is making us unhappy? But eventually life will make that change, whether we want it to or not, and often in a sad way, through illness, through relationship break-ups, or through death. And there you are faced with the change, and having to get on with it.

So why am I saying this now? I am sure that you know that I like to reflect, and I do believe that life will show you the way, if you listen to it; and recently there have been different people who I have encountered on my adventure who have decided to make change, to return to England, or to reconsider their lives, as a result of something that life has unexpectedly thrown their way. As the pebble in the pond effect of our lives has on all of us, in that the decisions that we make ripple out and affect others, whether we know it or not, their decisions have affected me. Some because we have work from their decision, some because they have made us question our decision, and some because they have been good people who we have met along the way, who at some stage will possibly no-longer be in our lives.

I thought to myself today,  on my walk with my furry foster daughter, that I never dreamt that I would be walking through France on a spring day with her, and how I may not be doing this in the future. These people that we have met will be sown into my life’s tapestry, if only for a small part of it, but will be there just the same. And this is the same with all people that we meet, if only for a short time, they are part of our story, and like the seasons, they may come and then go, never to return the following spring, but they may well have made an impact on our lives in some way, never the less.

So I would say to all my readers, when you go home from work, or from whatever you are doing, just take time for one minute to look around you, to see the change that Spring is bringing, even in the cities there will be something, even if it is raining the rain will feel or smell different, their will be something beautiful to see,  and ask yourself who has come in and out of your life in the past year, and what have you learnt from this encounter? If your sad that their no longer in your lives, then ask yourself why, and see that this is to make way for a new spring, something new, because life is always worth living, irrespective of the changes that may have been forced onto you, if you open your eyes and look.

Moisy

 

 

 

So as we are freezing in our house (we always knew that this winter would be the learning curve, and boy have we learnt!!!) with the drafts coming up from the cellar, and the drafts coming in from our beautiful old windows that, no, we won’t be changing because we’re those weird type of people that love old houses and think that, if possible, the original windows should be saved and not replaced with plastic, and should be preserved if possible. (But ask me again when I am seventy two and I might have changed my mind!).

In the spring and summer we  will be  painting, and making them totally draft proof (well as draft proof as possible, I think that I am being over optimistic there!)   so we don’t freeze (as much!) next year.

In addition lets not forget the front door, which we love, and I had painted just in time to save it from any further damage this winter, but boy is it drafty. We will look at that as well but I may have to admit a defeat on that one, that’s a watch this space. You can see from the picture below that it is a lovely door (apologies that this is a ‘before’ picture as it has been worked on and now painted a lovely blue colour) and it  gives you an idea of why we would want to keep it (well those other lunatics that like old things like us). Alas though I am not sure if this will be possible in the future and may change (when we have some money!!)

So there’s enough work  and I haven’t even touched on the cellar, and the gaping one inch gap on our external cellar door!! Allthough at least it lets the air in which is a good thing given our current situation (watch this space for another post later in the week.) . Or the fact that internally the cellar leads directly into our pantry come utility room, which in turn leads into the kitchen, with the drafty front door, so I think that you are all getting the picture that it can get pretty cold in our house!

But do you know what? We are happy. We always knew it would be hard. As a lovely lady who Rich has started gardening for said “living in France is living a paupers life”. But I, personally, still find it a much happier life to the one I had in England.

As we were freezing we decided to do some work in the garden as there are many many trees to chop down to let light in. So last week I found myself at the top of our chemin with a bonfire burning away, looking around, slightly in disbelief, that here I was living in France, in the winter, in my garden, with a bonfire on the go. I don’t know about anyone else, and I welcome all my readers from France, but it still shocks me sometimes that “we did it!”

I felt so relaxed, in my welligogs (wellington boots to the non lunatics like me), said ‘de rigeur’ old tracksuit bottoms, two fleeces, two pairs of socks, with two mad Welshies and the occasional spot of rain. I was happy.

I stood looking over the fields from the end of our chemin (see picture below) where our bonfire lives, looking  the vast expanse in front of me and thought “wow” I did it.

Rich worked so hard cutting a hedge of overgrown fur trees, and now the light into our house is amazing, this is half way through, and the photo  also shows you the lovely, but extremely drafty old windows; as you can see much work to be done, as there are three of these to strip and draft proof!!

Look at our view from our front room now!!

I can honestly say that I felt so renewed and refreshed after a days hard work in the garden, in a different way to how I ever felt after a hard day working for the NHS and getting nowhere! I loved it. The dogs loved it and below is picture of the two mad Welshies, snuggled, after their busy day in garden, do you think they’re spoilt?!

 

So to end, and for all those who are thinking of making change I always said that I would give the good with the bad (wait for the next post!)  winter here is hard. I wear two pairs of socks indoors, along with my fleecy slippers, and, at times, my feet are still cold.

But when I look out of my windows does it make it all worth it? Yes it does.

Winter in the Mayenne.

Moisy