Early days:
Later on though:
TOTAL quince harvest this year:
Poor quality photo of PART of quince harvest a couple of years ago….
All the more precious – I had to be ridiculously careful this year to produce a very small pot of quince jelly, which will be squirrelled away till Christmas!
Rather too late for the light – even though it was still afternoon.
Flowerbeds pretty much like last month. But the first picture is now hiding KILOS of spring bulbs – planted beneath those geraniums.
We shall see!
To get off to France, that is. And anyway, the trees are pretty dull right now – we don’t seem to do much autumn colour in this garden.
Actually, apart from tree 3 which is currently rather elegant, this lot look pretty scruffy.
Flower beds not much better:
But I have designs on flower bed 3 – I have adopted it for 2022 as a one-off (can’t get too carried away!) memorial garden for my daughter. At her event last month we made a start on planting almost 40 kilos of daffodils. Crocus and tulips in the next three weeks….only about 20 kilos to go….We’ll see!
Back soon – maybe without any trees involved.
Same five trees, same two flower beds. No-one seems able to identify the rather weird fifth tree. It produces its flowers (first picture, below) in late September and keeps them all winter and right through the spring. Any ideas?
The flower beds are mostly back to green now. I really like the one in the last picture though – it makes me think of fireworks!
The photos were taken early in the morning, just before we set up for my daughter’s memorial event. We were anxious to hold it in these gardens – she spent a lot of time here. We put up a proper marquee, as well as the black film tent, so that the choir wouldn’t be rained off. As it happened, we were really lucky with the weather. We even managed to get people to make a start on planting spring bulbs – we have decided to set up a tulip bed for next year – my daughter was an artist who loved colour!
It was a very moving experience. People had travelled serious distances – several had had to switch to trains because of petrol shortages. Many had brought babies, some were elderly. Tears and laughter all at once. We heard so many stories- many of them quite new to us- and we do feel we have now paid our daughter the tribute that Covid denied her at the time. Overwhelming moments, certainly, but ultimately such a warm and supportive event that it was indeed life-affirming.
Discovering splendid municipal architecture in Évreux, and castles in Lapalisse and Châteldon (the home town of Pierre Laval, though that doesn’t get much of a mention in the tourist office!)
I am also quite a fan of the N7, but I think this rather large sign in Lapalisse is new:
Likewise this rather alarming roadside cross that has appeared right outside the front gate… I think over the last year European money has restored several of these 19th century calvaires which had disappeared during the late 20th century.
We’ll get used to it!
Reading, walking, eating….and several sessions with the dye pots, mostly sock yarn this time.
I also took some pictures of a corridor my daughter decided to decorate some years ago:
We are holding a memorial event to celebrate her life on Sunday. This is necessary, but not easy. I think I will take my late September tree pictures on the same day – still a really useful prop!
SpinningStreak 