For the love of bees...

Eileen had left patches of clover on her lawn here in Ayr to attract bees  so when doing some maintenance this morning for her, I did the same but added my own take on her love for bees. 

The garden is looking great under the current beautiful clear blue sky.

 

Nature's gift that keeps on giving...

 

As we sit beneath our wall rose in the courtyard of the Old Walnut Mill we cannot help but admire nature that gives us this display every year...a joy!

Not quite Villandry...but it's ours!

 

We have a new garden layout at the Old Walnut Mill - two flower beds, one veg.plot and a strawberry patch,which gave us its first fruit yesterday. Pauline had the pleasure of it!

Pauline is nothing if not thorough, when it comes to weeding!

 

Still busy...

 The Busy Lizzies (Impatiens) here in the courtyard of the 'Old Walnut Mill' are still giving us this colourful display. The begonias behind are from last years plants.

As you sow...

We re-sowed our small back lawn at the Old Walnut Mill in the middle of April and happy to report it is coming along nicely. It will never be good enough for bowls or tennis but we are happy with the result.

Oh and I managed a little more recycling using the broken / discarded  slate as ground cover.

Just a rose, from yesterday...

Little corners of the garden - episode III

Little corners of the garden - episode II

Little corners of the garden at the Old Walnut Mill

Little corners of the garden - episode I

 

Little corners of the garden at the Old Walnut Mill

Exercise two-ways!

Pauline's expertly cleared potager

Yesterday it was dancing classes in the morning and gardening behind the Old Walnut Mill in the afternoon - no prizes for guessing what was most fun!

Wall done!

Finally finished the rear wall-facing behind the 'Old Walnut Mill' yesterday.

Knew once I got started wouldn't take me so long...the pic below is from 2017 when I moved some stone up to the wall in anticipation of making a start! What have I been doing?

For our eyes only...

 

Still plodding away with my wall building behind the Old Walnut Mill - above are example of the peonies and roses that guests do not get to see as we do not allow access at the moment...for obvious reasons,hopefully next season!

First strawberries - last lunch

Invited to join our friends and neighbours Pauline and Denis in Barrou for lunch on Monday. We are working in the garden at the Old Walnut Mill as no guests this week and it was their last lunch before heading back to the UK yesterday. We ate alfresco with part of our contribution being the first strawberries of the season from our garden - yummy!

The current project...

I have a number of projects on the go at present but the one that I am concentrating on at the moment is the facing of the block wall at the bottom off the garden behind the barn at the Old Walnut Mill.

I have completed the first part - replacing the missing blocks on the existing wall - I now have to face it with the stone that has, as Pauline reminds me, been moved by her over the years on a number of occasions. The anticipated good spell of weather should see a bit of progress, with the only cloud on the horizon being the need to dispose of 'stuff' from the barn becoming the priority. 

Hardly a 'host of' but it is a start!

First daffodils are out in the garden of the Old Walnut Mill

Still Busy Lizzies

It's November and the Impatiens are hanging on in there in the garden at Les Balcons.

Strawberries in November !

We had 18 degrees yesterday in the garden at the 'Old Walnut Mill' and it is still trying to produce strawberries - confused or what!

On cue beehaviour...

As I was taking a photograph in the garden at 'Le Bourg' this bee arrived just on cue!

Bloomin' marvellous...

From a single rose back in the 7th may our guests at the 'Old Walnut Mill' watched as our climbing rose came to full bloom during their stay.