Dead wood!

Some of you may remember a year or so ago I did a post about the 'dripping wisteria', unfortunately, this year, after a bit of rather over pruning it has decided not to flower or leaf from the main trunk, but has from the younger branches as you can see over the front door on the picture above. The decision had to be made to cut out all the dead branches which took us quite some time having to untangle it all. All will be well as new shoots are already working along the wires to fill in the gaps.

No such problems for the Pink Mimosa tree in front of the barn which has flowered very early this year and looks amazing!

Next weeks arrivals, take note!

Just for our guests arriving next week, this is a screen shot of the weather forecast from next Monday onwards showing the minimum and maximum temperatures, as I write it's a mere 22 degrees rising to 30 this afternoon ....don't forget the sun cream when you're packing!!

7 brothers and sisters!

I can't resist putting yet another picture of the recently fledged nest of swallows in the barn and before you think I can't count, another young one joined this group just after I'd taken the picture!
There's another nest in the barn with young in plus in the house boiler room, a second batch of eggs are being sat on as I write, you can imagine at dusk as all the young return to their roosting places close to their original nests it's all a bit frantic!

By special request!

Just to show we do take note of any suggestions given to us by our guests, this is for customers Pat & Bob who have now safely returned home to the USA, they stayed in the Roque Terrace gite a few weeks ago and Pat commented that a planter would be a good idea to create a screen from other guests, therefore giving a bit more privacy whilst sitting out on the terrace. Before they left we had bought the planter and have since managed to get to the garden centre to buy a good stock of plants for this and the many hanging baskets that Philippa plants to put up around the grounds.
We hope you like the final product Pat and thanks once again for your constructive thoughts.

A little reminder of things to come!

After 2 days of mid 30's heat it's inevitable that storm clouds will gather in the early evening, thankfully these passed us by with some threatening loud reminders that they will be back at some point in time!
Not that any of that sort of thing bothers the baby cardinal beetles who have taken over the gaps in the bark of the lime tree at the front of Les Granges, they're more than happy in the sun that is still shining!

Nest evacuation!

The Black Redstarts have just left the nest that was at the side of the gite pool area, 5 of them are now causing their parents some grief as they flit about from one place to another, two of them above were taking in the afternoon sun, oblivious to the fact I was only a couple of meters away doing some gardening!

Les Granges 'complet' at the moment!

It's a beautiful morning here and since all the poplar trees have been cut down and cleared it now gives us an amazing full panoramic view of le Roque St Christophe, especially good in the early morning sun and also at night when the rock face is illuminated.
Great news is that we now have customers in all the gites so we are full and as of now we will be moving accommodation as and when needed to suit our bookings, all part of living and working in the tourist industry and all good fun!