Sunshine after the rain...

Heavy rain last night continued right through till lunchtime today. But this afternoon was a completely different picture.

Out came the sunshine, the flowers and the butterflies...

 

We desperately needed the rain, but how lovely to end the day on a sunny note!

One year today!!!

It is one year today since we first saw our house. It will be eight months on the 11th June since we arrived to take over.
Then

Now

Then

Now

Then

 

Now

It has been a fantastic journey and we would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about doing the same....

Planting the leeks..

Since I first planted a tray of leek seedlings in late March I have been tending them with loving care. At one point they looked anything but thriving. However, after transplanting individually a few weeks ago they perked up and today we planted them out into the potager. This was primarily because last night it rained, the first for weeks, and this made the soil suitable for planting.

Leeks are planted by dibbing a hole and then dropping a bare rooted seedling into each hole.

Once each seedling is in place each hole is filled with water and that is the planting complete.

We planted 138 leeks with Elizabeth dibbing, me planting and my mother supervising.... Lets hope they grow!!!

The Goat appears again....

Today was the first day of the  "30th Foire Nationale aux Fromages" held at Sainte-Maure de Touraine. It did not disappoint....

The crowds were out and so was the sun; in fact it was the hottest day of the year so far.... and  there was something for everyone....

eleven greedy piglets

The dignitaries at the opening ceremony

agricultural machines from way back (worryingly they were younger than us

All the fun of the festival!

From tree top to store cupboard in under three hours!

It is cherry picking time!

As is our practice, we like to keep our visitors fully occupied (i.e. working), so Colin's son helped out with the cherry picking

And his mum gave us a hand with stoning them and preparing cherry compote and four pounds of jam.

The worrying thing is we've not made the slightest impression on the cherry trees. There is plenty more cherry picking ahead....
Just a good job the visitors are here for another week!!

Richelieu Brocante de l'Ascension

Today we went to have a look at the Brocante de l'Ascension, with it's wide variety of stalls, held in the square at Richelieu.

A guest appearance from 'Ricky Tomlinson' ? (Royal Family fame!)

 

As you can see from the photos, it was a gloriously sunny day but unfortunately there was a strong wind which caused one or two breakages for the stall-holders.

Miracle gro(w)!

What a difference a day makes - well, 9 days to be precise!

When I left Braye the potager was rewarding us with lettuces and radish, but little else. I've come home to a freezer full of blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries.

The courgettes are fast developing,

The tomatoes, which were only planted out as 4-5" high seedlings at the beginning of May, are already forming

The artichoke is producing more and more fruits

The peas have shot up and are now "podding"

We have more potatoes than you can 'shake a stick at'

And the cherries are ripe for the picking

In short, everything is growing at an alarming rate! What have we let ourselves in for???