View towards Payzac in winter
Two examples of light in winter..
In January, a visit from stonemason Bernard Maingard and his friend Maël who helped a lot in the garden. One of the old mulberries that used to hold up the clothesline finally fell over, and they helped carry it up to the entrance ramp, where it has become sculpture..
They also carried over the top of the old wine cask that Wim Florquin had mended and embellished, so it could be placed up against the wall of the new annex.
A family from the neighboring village of Les Assions came to visit. Miguel Neau specializes in soil analysis through wild plants and recommends the site http://cueillettes-pro.org/ which is used by professionals in wild plants. His wife Aline Gontier grows, picks and transforms wild plants and aromatics into essential oils and creams that she sells in local producers’ outlets. http://plantes-medicinales-ardeche.fr/ . Her mother was with them, Geneviève Noyon who lives in the north of France and works for the preservation of old varieties of fruit trees lespommiersdegrandpère@gmail.com. Also present, their two children with their whole lives ahead of them (sorry for the finger in the picture!)
Meanwhile, Wim Florquin is finishing up the deck for the Smokers’ corner:
Also in January, during the monthly visit of Phililppe Foret, artistic director of the Labeaume Music Festival, we all went to Saint Melany to meet the group of the Sentier des Lauzes with a view to sharing future projects…
David Moinard, president of the Sentier, Lorraine Chenot, president of the Regional Natural Parc, Philippe Forget and in the background Julie Glotz-Terrier.
In February, a cheery visit from the association Old Roots and Young Shoots (Vieilles racines et jeunes pouces) to celebrate the publication of their book for which I wrote a preface:
Included in this convivial group, which produces very serious work: Thierry Thevenin and Cédric Perraudeau, author and photography for the book http://www.herbesdevie.com/herbesdevie/web/ Claude Chahinian enthusiastic trainee, Maity Romnicianu advisor and manager, Laurence Chaber ethnobotanist from the Prieuré de Salagon, close to Pierre LIeutaghi, and Marie-Marie Andrasch, editor with Editions Ulmer. Wonderful weather allowed many outdoor meals…
Just a bit of snow, and then early spring…
Prunus ‘Okame’ which flowers even before the almond trees, one of the many carpeting rosemaries and the faithful Japanese quince…
In early March, The young couple who are planning to open a grocery-bistro in Payzac came by and brought me an elegant lemon meringue tart. In the picture they are holding hands. Victorin Martin and Julie Besnardière…
The fruit trees begin to flower, in turn…after the almonds, the early plums below Rousselonge House…
In March, during the Labeaume days, Phililppe Forget invited his old friend and colleague Anne Christine Taberlet, and we all went to see the house of Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington in Saint Martin d’Ardèche. Only visible from the outside but it is held up by sculptures built into the wall. Our guide Julotte Roche told us fascinating stories both about the couple and her own research about them. They lived here between 1937 and 1939, then Max returned after the War.
I attended the March concert at the Château de Voguë, it featured the group RESONANCE CONTEMPORAINE Ensemble Les Six Voix Solistes with works by Gesualdo · C. MONTEVERDI · A. Chartreux . It was in fact a sort of “happening” multimedia, amusing and unexpected. The composer Annick Chartreux also stayed at the residence, a woman of my own age who came for a visit and appreciated Isa the cat.
Flowers everywhere, including a carpet of wild orchids below the pool…
A huge dead pinetree cut down very cleverly by Philippe Maurin’s son in law and family:
More flowering trees as the season advances…
SEnator Lafollette rose, Malus ornamental in the garden, Prunus ‘Sargentii’ next to the first cherry trees.
In April also, a Canadian couple from Nova Scotia, friends of my brother’s, poet-naturalist Harry Thurston and his wife Cathie, specialist in public health and now owner of an art gallery. We spent three intense days walking, talking and looking.
Altogether, a fine beginning for the year with particularly lush flowering. Just a bit of boxwood moth, but it all looks promising. Fingers crossed…