Work on the “abri” did indeed start in July when Arnaud came to erect the stone pillars. It was an anxious few days. We had cheerfully assured all concerned that there was solid rock/concrete under the dallage on the terrace, but actually we had no idea. I watched anxiously, fearful that the terrace would not bear the weight and that the pillars would sink without trace. Happily they are still standing. Indeed for several weeks, while we waited for Thierry to come and build the roof, they stood in splendid isolation, creating a classical feel.
We had two bits of bad news in July.
Firstly Trevor and Heidi announced their retirement, sooner than planned as they had managed to sell their house almost as soon as they put it on the market, typically property can take a couple of years to shift. They introduced us to Steve and Mandy, who took on the caretaking and pool maintenance tasks, and are a welcome addition to the team. I will however be eternally grateful to Trevor & Heidi, whose persistent optimism and practical good sense saw us through some difficult times in the early years, and I miss our afternoons listening to their stories as we downed a few beers in the summer sunshine.
Then Dominique, who had persuaded me to dismiss the previous meadow mower and let her take the hay, announced that son Florin was no longer willing to make the not inconsiderable journey to come and cut and bale the meadow. Given the distance it was understandable, and he did at cut it down for us that year. But it left us with a problem, or, as my one time boss would have said, an opportunity!
Sarah visited in July, and later in the month the wine tasters came, not to taste but to see the Tour de France which passed through Bergerac that summer. I missed the arrival of the Tour on the Friday, having been detailed to collect the last of our party from the airport. I don’t feel I missed much as the rain was torrential. The drive to the airport was treacherous as the main road had been closed for the race and the detour was down a flooded one track road, but everyone else got soaked. Then the sun came out and on the Saturday we toured the winery at Tour de Verdots with the vigneron, picnicked in a meadow and then watched the time trials from Bergerac to Perigeux in blazing sunshine.
As we left at the end of the month Thierry was roofing the abri.
Back in Scotland I started thinking about the meadow. A year or two previously I had culled an article from The Garden magazine describing the Sussex Prairie Garden, a Piet Oudolf inspired informal meadow, I loved it and kept the piece thinking that although the scale was vast some of the planting ideas might be useful. Now that no-one was claiming a right to the hay off our meadow I began to wonder if we might create something similar, but on a smaller scale, in the flat area beyond the Gravel Garden and behind the garage. Tentatively, since I felt I had demanded a lot from her in the past couple of years, I sent the article off to Jan at Jardins du Perigord, asking if she would be interested, her response was immediate and enthusiastic, I don’t think either of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for! Back in France in September we walked the space together, I had been uncertain as to whether to plant the area at the eastern extremity, towards our boundary with our neighbours, or to the western extremity of the plateau, which would be encompassed in the view from the back kitchen.
We agreed to do both.
By late August the Gravel Garden was looking fantastic,
but it still lacked an item of “garden furniture” for which a space had been left at the time of initial planting.
The stake marked the point at which I had decided to install an armillary sphere sundial. This had to be made to order for the latitude. After searching the Internet I had contracted with Nick Canfield, conveniently situated in Wales, to build one to order. Nick is a perfectionist. He took the job on in the summer of 2013, and was finally happy with the result in the spring of 2014, when the sundial arrived in France. Our next problem was to find a plinth on which to place it. Peter located a stonemason who was advertising his work around the corner from us, but proved to be living some distance away in St Cyprien. He turned up, on his bike, at the third time of asking, and eventually quoted us some 2,000 Euros for the job, rather more than the cost of the sundial itself. Guess he didn’t want the job. By that time we had discovered Arnaud, of the abri pillars, who came in at a tenth of the price. The sundial went up in September .
I was also keen to replace the rather naff bird table on the lawn outside the kitchen window, our birds seem to find plenty to eat without our help and are not much interested in our offerings.
As with the “prisoner balls” I wanted something spherical to echo the box, and was attracted by the Fireballs that I found on the Internet. Most seemed to be made in the US, with associated delivery issues, but I eventually located a UK based artist, Andrew Gage, who agreed to make a Fireball to my specifications, and delivered, on time, that September. Not that delivery was not a challenge, these things are heavy. All credit to the lorry driver who made it up the drive and delivered to the edge of the stone platform, he almost got stuck in the meadow turning his lorry to depart.
Although we could burn logs or charcoal in it, due to burning restrictions in summer we have not yet done so, preferring to light it up at night with solar powered lights.
We also realised that the grass bordered runnel was the perfect home for the heron I had bought in Bergerac our first winter and had been trying to home ever since.
September also saw the re-planting of the iris beds I had cleared in the summer and I began to clear the narrow southern border in Walnut Terrace and planted some spring bulbs.
The northern border in Walnut Terrace was causing some problems. Our soil is so stony that pebbles just kept rolling off the steep slope of the flowerbed, causing mowing problems in the lawn beneath. In October Nick & George built us a low retaining wall to contain the problem, it had the added benefit of making it look more like a flowerbed.
George also did sterling work collecting various piles of logs from previously fallen trees, which Guillaume had left stacked in the meadow, dragging them up to the woodpile and cutting them into manageable lengths.
Work began on the prairie garden in October
and Fabien also continued through the winter to construct the water feature. I ordered salvias and some other plants from Senteurs du Quercy for my new bed above the lower cave. Jan & I spent the winter discussing planting options for the new prairie.