encore pivoines

My second lot of peonies are now (finally!) flowering.  They are a lighter pink than the first ones, and a smaller shrub as well.  Still absolutely gorgeous and I am loving them just as much.

The roses are all starting to bloom also.  I have numerous different types and colours.  This one is near the gate to the terrain.  Small flowers with a lovely sweet scent.

A lovely creamy yellow with a blush of rose colour on the outer petals.  Really big buds, but not perfumed at all.

This strange little one which is such a dark red it is almost black.  I say strange as the whole plant is probably only 5cm tall!

Finally, this climbing rose which is such a vibrant red it was difficult to get a good photo.  Seemed to just glow and have no definition in most of the shots.  Nice perfume though, and I have a bunch on my desk to enjoy whilst at the computer.

Lots more roses still to bloom.  Am enjoying my walk each day looking at the changes in the gardens of the village and admiring the colours and scents.  Many good ideas coming together for our garden. 

Will start lanscaping the garden and lawn area during summer, and planting will start in autumn and be completed in spring/summer next year. It is frustrating to not have a lovely garden to sit and enjoy the (brief!) days of sunshine, but I want to plan properly and then do the work properly so that it all comes together into my vision of a relaxing and beautiful space.  Do not want it to just develop organically and then have loads of work to change things to how we want the final result to look like.  It will be worth it in the end though.

Potager is coming along nicely.  Carrots seem to be a bit of a miss this year, but everything else is surviving the extraordinarily long, cold and wet winter and springing forth.  Hopefully we will start seeing some proper spring/summer weather soon and get some good yields.  Unfortunately the cold has killed off most of the cherries.  Saturday and sunday I noticed most of the fruit (only half ripe sadly) had dropped off the tree..... just when we had all stopped holding our breath and started thinking that the cherries would crop....  So now the second year of no cherries in this region.  sigh.  Oh well, plenty else to occupy our tastebuds in the orchard.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

......hopefully.

Things have been a  little hectic around here lately.  Between an overly productive fruit and vegetable garden, house guests and the usual daily tasks, I have not had time to post for a while.

The cherry harvest has finally slowed to almost nothing.  In fact after the high winds of yesterday and today I think there will be none left on the tree at all.  Sad, but I cannot help heaving a sigh of relief.  It feels so wasteful to not make the most of the bounty offered up to us by good soil and lots of sunshine, but it is exhausting to try and keep up with.

I did not think to weigh the cherries as we picked them.  A shame, as I am sure we had over 10kgs from our half of the tree.  I will be better prepared next year - and not so naive.....

My rhubarb decided to turn into a monster and overtake the raised garden beds.  A lot of picking and processing was needed to bring it back to a manageable plant.  Luckily I adore rhubarb so I was not too stressed about what to do with all the largesses.

The gariguette strawberries, wild strawberries and the others (type unknown - alright, but not fabulous flavour) also decided to put forth masses of fruits.  A friends' children helped out by foraging and feasting one sunday afternoon.  They were enchanted with the tiny wild strawberries and think they liked them best of all.

There has been plenty of home brewing happening as well.  I have limoncello (second batch - first batch decimated by visitors one sunday afternoon), strawberry ratafia, rhubarb liqueur and rhubarb syrup, cherry pineau, cherries in ginger wine and cherry liqueur all sitting nice and cosy in the cave.

Recipes for all the above will follow this afternoon - or tomorrow morning - depending on time.