2015 started with a serendipity. I e-mailed Thierry to wish him a Happy New Year, and ask where I was in the queue for his much in demand roofing services. Inspired perhaps by the warm and sunny weather he turned up and got started the next day.

In February we negotiated the French MOT system and then tried but failed to arrange a few days skiing, everywhere was booked up. Still it left me time to finish the spring pruning in the gravel garden, which seemed to go more quickly than the previous year, probably because I had a clearer idea of what I was doing.

Travel that spring did not go so smoothly. Replacement of the landing beacon at Bergerac made it impossible for planes to land in poor visibility, so we had a couple of detours by coach to Bordeaux and then a cancelled flight due to an air traffic control strike when we opted for the last train to Paris before SNCF joined in the “mouvemente sociale” followed by a Eurostar back to the UK.

In March Nick and Jon were persuaded to rip up the ugly seagrass matting in the study and downstairs bedrooms

and replace it with a wood look finish

The plants for the prairie garden started to arrive in late March. Around 5,000 of them.

It took Jan’s team several days just to check and label them.

Then we started planting, with Jan and her friend Karen setting out the plants, and 4 of us doing the actual planting, A couple of weeks work, all told, and unfortunately we were going to have to wait for the plants to grow a bit before we could put the mulch down so we were well into summer before that was complete.

I took a day off in the middle to drive down to Cahors and collect some salvias and other groundcover plants from Senteurs du Quercy.

I had finally cleared out the slope above the lower cave,

there wasn’t much depth of soil, but I hoped salvias would survive, as indeed the have.

Walnut terrace was beginning to thrive

as was the bed by the gate

and the water feature was beginning to take shape.