The (veg) plot thickens

 The rotavator gets its first airing!

Anne gets busy with the chainsaw

Anne has been very busy recently clearing lots of young accacia trees (with lots of nasty spikes) from the terraced area above the track leading to the house.  They look small, but believe me they are nasty and you really need hard hat to protect you from the spikes hitting your head and face.  In this area there are some young walnut trees and fig trees and we want to keep those, but keep the area much more open because of the lovely views that you can get over the valley from here.  It looks easy, but Anne has been working very hard - we might keep a few at the back because they are meant to be good for growing wood for pickets and small fence posts but I think that they are pretty nasty trees!

Anne having fun (but hard work!)

Slope/terrace with the accacias to the left of the van

Clearing the access up to the slope to get at those pesky accacias!

One of the big logs I cut through to get the access to the slope

big log, small chainsaw

Roofs and roofers

We knew that Anne's father Andre had carefully ensured that all of the roofs at La Cote were well looked after as an essential piece of building maintenance (even if they were only being used for storage).  Having said that a few slates on the main house roof had slipped and needed sorting out and the roof at Ropion (the old farm house) had problems with animal damage to its Roman tile roof (tige de botte) and was definitely leaking.  So we decided to call in the professionals (the same company as had been used in the past) to ensure the job was done properly before the weather turned and any heavy rain.

Windows

Anne leaving the workshop ready to fix windows!

Windows in the Salon which are a few panes of glass short of a full complement

La Cote has a number of windows which have lost some of their panes of glass, but as it was only used in the summer and there are shutters no-one really worried too much in the past.  As we are now living in the house year-round we are in the process of trying to eliminate as many draughts as possible and it makes sense to replace missing glass and putty.  It is a delicate process as we are attempting to retain as much of the historic fabric as possible which making the house more comfortable to live in.  Some of the panes of glass are original crown glass and there is even one with an enigmatic piece of graffiti etched into it.

Anne starts work replacing the putty and missing panes

Re-looking the colombier

during clearance work

logs resulting from cutting the bushes down to size

the view from the house after clearing the vegetation away

We've recently finished clearing back the overgrown bushes from around the coloumbier (dovecote) which had grown into small trees.  As it is a south-facing aspect it suddenly made the building appear with a warm glow of the sun in the morning.  The only sad thing in terms of appearance is the overhead power cable which runs across the fields to the house and we haven't yet found an economic solution for improving this look by putting the cables underground.

 Yesterday we did lots of fruit and other tree pruning, using a variety of different implements.

One vital implement that Bruce did not include in the photo is a wire brush!! This was used to brush all the lichen and moss off the branches and the trunks. Other "stuff" used included something called "bouillie bordelaise" to disinfect each cut and a very gloopy substence to cap/protect the cut area. First I cut out all the dead wood and then the branches that were crossing over others.  I also cleaned up at the base of the trees and removed all the ivy (and in the case of 1 tree, some mistletoe!!).  The 100s of ladybirds sheletering in the ivy did not like that so I have reproduced at the foot of the trees little shelters of ivy as I am sure that ladybirds are necessary in order to eat the bad bugs!  I have also left the dog roses which grow between the 2 main apple trees as I assume they have been encouraged there to attract bees ..and other insects which facilitate pollination. Lets hope that the trees will survive the onslaught.  I will be happy with just a few apples next year... as they may have had a bit of a chock!  The 2 apple trees done so far are a local species "Reinette de Chatellerault" and have been planted by my grandfather in 1940 (as indicated in the notebook in which he recorded everything connected with La Cote).  It's OK as apparently apple trees can live until they are 100!  According to the books, we should leave the prune and cherry trees alone until they have fruited.  We have found no instructions so far for fig trees... any ideas out there??

Anne pruning the apple trees

Le Monument aux Morts a Vaux sur Vienne

We decided that as it is a public holiday here today that we would see if there was any commemoration at the war memorial in the village of Vaux sur Vienne this morning at 11am and so we duly walked up through the woods behind the house and down into the village centre.  What we discovered was that the war memorial (Monument aux Morts) is not in the centre of the village by the Romanesque church, but is actually in the cemetery down the road and so we didn't find out if there was actually a ceremony of rememberence.  What is also intriguing is that the memorial is only for the 1914-1918 war (Aux enfants de Vaux morts pour La France).