Leaving my garden to look after itself.

Not done intentionally , but sometimes things have to happen that way.

I'm back after my stay in hospital, having treatment on my back.

Although not completely sorted due to a little hiccough with my blood pressure,

which on the last day of my treatment decided to shoot sky high,

which meant I was unable to complete the full treatment,

 and will have to go back in a months time.

It is greatly improved, but I still can't do any gardening for awhile.

 

 

  

Fortunately his basket was planted up some time ago
so we did have a few nice things to see
 Tete a Tete daffodils
 

 

 

 

 

So regretfully I'll have to leave things to Mr France.

Gardening is not his thing.
 Not so very long ago he couldn't tell a weed from a cherished plant.
He does all the hard ground work and I do the planting.

I'll be giving advice and asking him just to do the most important things.
 

My big new flower bed will not happen this year.

 

At the moment it's looking like this.

 

  

 

But it's not important.

I'm thinking when the soil is levelled off, I'll just lightly rake in some seeds
which were gathered last year and hope for the best.
 

This is what they looked like last year when my niece collected them for me,
 it's where we go on one our favourite walks.

 

 

Our communes have been sowing wild flower seeds en-mass in certain areas for the past few years.  

They're left to grow on their own amongst the grass with no attention what so ever .

 but look so pretty, and as my garden is on the rustic side in places

I think they should fit in quite nicely.

 

 

 

This is the view from the front of our house.
 

Shall we start with the potting bench, where most of the preparation  begins.
 

 

 

Trailing Fuchsias which we over wintered indoors, coming along nicely

 

 

 

 

 

 Something I could do was watch & nurture
some of the cuttings growing, that I took back in September.

So what's been happening around the garden, naturally and unassisted?

I'll take you on a tour showing the good the bad & the ugly.

 

Work in progress, hopefully this will get finished.
Mr France loves to build rustic stone walls,
 using the stones left over from the renovation he did when we bought this old ruin 20 yrs. ago.

 

 

These Tete a Tete miniature daffodils are new

 they were planted last year in the work in progress new bank area.

 

 

Muscari  bulbs in bloom planted last year.

Two different varieties. 

 

 

and the ones in the trough appear every year

a little on the small side due to neglect, put a pretty blue.

 

 

 

These big blousey Tulips were planted here by my Danish daughter in law

over 15 years ago. They come up every year, but this year I think this is the best they have looked.

Maybe they put on a special show for me, to cheer me up for when I came home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No seeds have been sown this year, I will be buying trays of plants this summer.  

 

Some trays of summer plants already bought for the window boxes & baskets.

This year not as many as usual.

Could be a sitting down job next week.

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

Hopefully, slow but sure I'll be back to my old self soon

doing what I love best

 pottering about in my garden.

 

Before I went into hospital I bought myself a new Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook.

so while I was passing the hours in hospital I did some water colour sketches.

I'll show you some I did later in the week.

 

and maybe work in my garden will have progressed.

 

 

Thank you to all my friends who have sent me their kind wishes for my speedy recovery.

Some of you are also suffering with back problems, so I hope things are improving for you too.

 

 Even if I didn't leave comments on the usual blogs I follow I've loved reading your posts,

 keeping up to date with some of the things you've all been doing.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 

 

My Christmas Decor

My Christmas decorations have been minimal this year.
as Mr France and I will be spending the holiday with our daughter and our grandsons.

No sapin de noel .
a
 few branches collected from the woods, with some of my favourite things hanging from the twigs. 

 Present wrapping time, using my vintage lace.

and

another chance to use the music.

I wish all my friends and followers a wonderful

 Happy Christmas.

Joyeaux Noel

God Jul.



 à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

My decision on using the sheet music.

In my last post I asked for your opinion whether I should use the book of music which  I found in a brocante After reading your interesting comments, which I'm extremely grateful to have received. Then chatting on face book, and emails from friends  it was almost 50/50. It wasn't easy to make my decision.
I did a lot of research into the book of  the opera music & also gave it a great deal of thought, it took me 10 days of pondering to be exact, before I plucked up courage to deface the book, a vintage book at that !
I hope I'm not going to make any enemies by doing this ?
As I  found  that the book was not valuable and knowing the music would never be played,  I didn't feel too guilty, added to that a lot of  you were thinking on the same wavelength as me. So I have neatly pulled out a few pages to make cards, decorations and a few little gift bags. All will be shown later in the week.

 I did some research on the fashion in France and Germany during the period when the music was written.
After I'd pulled out the first double pages, I wasn't sure if  it was guilt, but  probably it was my  vivid imagination, but I began to get a vision of a lady sitting on a stool at the piano with a gentleman standing nearby ready to turn the pages of her music. The lady dressed in a beautiful crinoline gown, her hair in ringlets. the gentleman looking handsome in a long jacket and slim fitting trousers & knee boots.

In case your imagination is not as vivid as mine here are a few fashion images for you.
1840-1850

Western style

French fashion 1840

German style

and as you all love the way the French ladies dress

this is what they were wearing in 1840.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the fashion from the period of my music book.
and
come back again soon to see my decorations.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

My fantastic music find for a decoration.

Look at my fantastic find, from a Brocante shop in a small town near where I live.

I was wandering down a side street looking for ideas for Christmas, when I saw the sign Brocante. The door was open and the owner was sitting in a comfy chair, soaking up the sun that was shining into his doorway,

I decided to go in have a browse. 

Knowing I had some ideas in my mind for making some decorations using sheet music, in my best French I asked if he had any pieces of sheet music, he said he thought he might have a few books of music, but wasn't sure if he could find them, so could I wait while he went out to the back of his shop. 

I had plenty of time so I looked around and saw lots of things I would have loved to buy, but as I was with Mr. France who hates old and dusty things, if it's not brand spanking new, he calls it junk.

I thought this was not the right time and I'd just wait to see if the owner could find any sheet music.

A few minutes later he came back with this book and asked if it was of any use.

Now as I hadn't gone out suitably dressed for rummaging about in a brocante shop, I had to be careful as he might think I was a collector or maybe a  dealer, as he could have put a high price on it. 

Also being English and smartly dressed in a small town didn't help, I was wondering how much he would say he wanted. I looked at it, as if it was of no use to me, but wanting so much to have this lovely vintage book.  I could see the pages were thick and not flimsy like the books of today. I asked how much he wanted, for it, thinking I was going to have to barter with him. I couldn't believe it when he said 2 euros. I couldn't get out of the shop quick enough, in case he changed his mind. 

Now that I have the book at home and have looked at the lovely design on the cover, even though it's torn and tattered it tells a story. It's the music for a comedy opera, written in German and French. 

I'm sure it's not valuable, but I almost don't want to tear the pages out from it, just to make decorations.

I never deface books, so now I'm in a dilemma, do I tear out the pages 

 or should I try somewhere else that might have sheet music ?

Do you ever feel like this when you touch something vintage ?

 that's so worn because it's  been used so many times.

The tattered cover.

I can't read music, but to me it looks as if it's quite lively.

That was yesterday and now I'm still wondering, should I use it for the decoration I want to make,
 or keep the opera music book ?

I'd love to have your opinion to help me make up my mind

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Chrysanthemums for remembrance

 Outside of the supermarkets big and small are pots & pots of  Chrysanthemums for sale

 in all of the lovely colours, which are bought  and then placed on the graves

 of their loved ones,.in remembrance for 'All  Saints day'

All over France this time of the year you can see masses of Chrysanthemums in pots,

 as beautiful floral decorations in the towns and cities and on the roundabouts.

.

In France

Chrysanthemums are never given as a gift to anyone,

 and you rarely see them planted in the gardens.

In the first village I lived in I soon learnt it wasn't the done thing

 to use them as a floral decoration outside my front door.

These lovely arrangements are in our local church.

This one amongst many others was in the entrance area.

 in front of the alter.

This was my favourite.

After our visit inside the beautifully decorated church we had a wander around the market stalls.

and I couldn't resist snapping this little fellow

 who seemed  to be on guard 

at a market stall.

I hope you liked seeing how the French people use

Chrysanthemums for remembrance.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

A visit to the old city of Limoges

Even though the days are warmer, I haven't had time to do any serious gardening.

 I did manage to pot up a few of the Fuchsia plants, but that's what I call pottering.  

As some of my followers liked seeing the architecture of my city Limoges,
 I thought you might like to see some more.
I looked in my photo files and decided to take you on a tour
 to see some of the old part of the city,
which surrounds the main shopping area.

'Centre Ville' - Place de la Republique.

This is where Galeries Lafayette is.

However we are not going shopping.

 We are going to look at the narrow cobbled back streets of the city.

 I love to wander around these narrow streets, wondering what the little shops used to sell.

This part of the city is full of restaurants 

which all seem to have an area in front on the cobbled street,

 with tables, serving coffee & lunch.

So many restaurant's

Where shall we eat today ?

More restaurants tucked away in little courtyards.

All these are apartments 

with restaurants under the arches.

This is one of three pedestrian alleys. 

 leading to the larger modern stores.

Lots of specialist boutiques are in this part of the shopping area.

This part of the city has recently had a big face lift.

With strict conservation planning permission 

to keep the style of the original city.

I love this part, as it's a nice area to take a rest
and sit in the shade under these trees.

Look at this wonderful artwork which has been painted on the restored old buildings.

This mural painting has brought an old building to life.

From a distance it looks real.

This has recently been painted, to make an old ruined building blend in with this part of the city.

City gardens.

Look carefully between these two buildings. 

there is a tiny apartment on 4 floors.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the places
near where I live.

Some other time I'll take you to see some more of Limoges.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian