Seeing the light...

We brought our geraniums out of hibernation on Sunday and gave them a tidy up and their first glance of sunshine for a long time. We will watch the weather in case of frost but left them out on Sunday night in anticipation of  yesterday's rain. Here in France you will most likely not see pot plants out until around the 15th of May as this is when,as their calendar dictates, there should be little or no chance of frost. We tend to be a bit more flexible and just keep our eyes on the weather. Last year at this time we had them out for our first guests of the season at the cottage and they survived 

Courtyard colour collage...

Colours in our courtyard at the Old Walnut Mill

Everyday's like Sunday...even Saturday

Yesterday in the courtyard of the Old Walnut Mill - only me and the bees

A reminder of absent friends..

These Arum lilies in the salon here in our 'place of confinement' are a reminder of friends who would normally be here with us around this time. They are from a friend's garden here on Grande Rue but they cannot be here to enjoy them and have given us permission to cut and display them. Many of you will, I am sure, be missing your houses here in France and our hearts go out to you. We can only hope that there is an end to all this sadness and when it happens  there will be world with more appreciation of life's simpler things and of our own fragility.

We are missing you all, as you know we are quite fond of a get together! 

We are also sad we cannot share our daily lives with our  friends and neighbours.

Experiencing ‘herd immunity'

Pauline and I were out for our allowable 1 hour a day walk yesterday, as we walked passed the farm behind the church in the village we noticed these cows ignoring the advice of self-distancing and they appeared to be adopting the UK's 'herd immunity' strategy!

Worse places to self-isolate...

We have just finished the work on altering our salon at the 'Old Walnut Mill'...happy with results and it makes a reasonable location to be holed up in. More on what we have done tomorrow...

The 'Oh Jesus' bench...

As my posting of bench photos on twitter continues under the hashtag #MyFaveBench I remembered that I never did get around to posting about the 'Oh Jesus' bench when recounting an Issac Newton moment from the same garden.

Irish friends of ours have this bench around a tree in their garden just outside La Guerche. We were told it was called the 'Oh Jesus' tree,when we asked why, we were told that as the complicated design around the tree was being constructed by the men of the house the phrase was heard uttered on more than one occasion! 

Wind of change...

With the wind picking up here in Southern Touraine our beautiful cherry blossom in the courtyard of our cottage will soon fall like snow and sadly will only have been  seen by us and in images here. 

Looking forward to normal service being resumed but could be a long way off.

We are currently trying to shop locally but as we are now entering our second 2 week 'lockdown' here in France I made the trip over to Intermarche in Yzeures-sur-Creuse to stock up with items we can't get at the village shop and to try and minimise the number of times one or other of us has to leave the house. It was quite surreal with only one other car on the road.I was stopped by the gendarmerie en-route and had my paperwork checked out. I chose to go at 12.30 thinking most of our French neighbours would be enjoying their lunches and it was a good decision as the store was very quiet with perhaps around 12 customers all of whom kept their distance but it was as quick as I could get around and back out as it felt very uncomfortable.Felt for the cashiers as they sat behind their perspex shields wearing their PPE - probably better placed than some UK nurses though! Took the shot above as I was leaving the the retail park.

More colours from our courtyard...

Blossoming courtyard...

Mock orange and cherry tree blooming in the courtyard at the Old Walnut Mill but no guests to share with...sad times.

A sign of solidarity...

The church bells rang out here in Barrou last night and all over France, as a sign of solidarity.People were aske to place a candle in a window on the street - we don't have one so put it on our gate post

More spring colours from our courtyard...

Spring at the Old Walnut Mill

Spring offering us hope for the future..

Spring showing up at the Old Walnut Mill.

hairball idea...

During this self isolation period the fact that normal service re hair cutting are not going to be available many will be adopting a self-service approach which for me will not be a problem as with little to work with on top I have been doing this myself for years. Sadly the hairball in the above pic. is what constitutes a haircut for me - the walnut is there only for perspective!

Don't know why but made me think of this...have a good, if not 'fantastic' day!

Trying to bring a little brightness...

Some of the colours from our recent visit to the market in 

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in Provence. The lady above was happy to have her pic taken as she produced more stock for her stall!

  

Survival packs come in many forms...

We brought a survival pack back from our sojourn to the south to help us cope with our period of  social distancing - you know normally we would love to be sharing it with you. 

BTW are we the only peeps who have never seen an episode of 'Game of Thrones'?

Making a grand entrance...well perhaps not so grand

Another job for me at the Provence project was to make a secure entrance from the basement garage,the only way in, to the main house. Kept me out of mischief!

Boxing clever?

Another task I was set at the Provence project was to conceal this rather ugly arrangement for sharing the heat from the house's wood-burner to the upper levels.

Here it is in the new kitchen (by others)