The Gite

We have moved in! Splendid Splendid….exhausted but very happy with the results! Here it is:

From this:

to this:

Kitchen and Dining Room

Anyone for a spot of farmhouse lunch?

Or a cheeky meringue which I whipped up earlier:

Sitting room

And I just noticed that Dan's entire shoe collection seems to making a star appearance in these shots!

Stairs

Spot of painting still required on those white spots

Bathroom

A few finishing touches required but you get the general idea!

Bedroom 1

I really do need to find someone with a wide angled lensed camera!

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Spare Loo

(well will be when fitted – but nearly there)

As you can see, there are a few bits and bobs to be finished but we are now very pleased to be living in a clean place…and so for all of you that came and were slightly shocked by our living conditions…it is now safe to come again!

The Terrace doors

From this:

To this:

Swimming Pool

We concreted around the pool ready to take the tiles….

The Garden (poolside)

May saw the advent of the Annual Dordogne Ladies Gardening trip, whereby Rosemary & Thyme (aka Mum and Aunty Rosemary) fly in to do a full garden makeover in the daytime, have a few too many in the evening and then fly out a few days later exhausted but very satisfied with all their hard work (see visitors page) ….And here's a few cheeky shots of them hard at it:

As you can see from the before and after shots below….we moved tons of soil, Dan built a nice curvy wall (a stone wall is to be built around it to mask the concrete), we uncovered rock, jet hosed, shopped, sweated and planted loads. All in all, I think you will all agree that they did an amazing job.

Before:

After :

Dan and I are overjoyed this year with the results of this years annual gardening trip. The success of this years event has instigated an EGM at the Doblott Corporation, where it was voted that a Bi - annual Dordogne Ladies Gardening trip should be encouraged.

With such high standards having been set, Dan and I are taking extra care with watering, spraying and other such gardening skills acquired from Rosemary and Thyme.

The gardening team, did not stop there, they also put in some trailing geraniums to brighten up the outside of the gite:

And they performed an episode of how clean is my house, whereby they spent the morning cleaning windows, doors, floors (you name it they cleaned it)…in the gite, preparing us to move in…where do Rosemary and Thyme get their energy?

And just to show you just how glam our gardening team really are, here they are ready for a night on the tiles in Domme:

The stone wall by the swimming pool

We also rebuilt this, which looks fab:

And here's a shot of the outside of the gite as you look up at it from the pool, so you can see the new wall in context:

And just to show you what it did look like, when we first came:

Wall between the gite and the house

This was finished too…lovely, lovely..we are finally getting somewhere:

From this:

To this:

Tomato World, The Return

As the tulips died away:

Tomato World re –emerged. A few new contestants were added to Tomato World this year, more than tripling its population from 5 to 18.

It will be interesting to see how the different varieties (vine, cherry and beef) fare and in line with current trends, we have psychologists on channel 4's “little tomato, big tomato” to report on their performance, interaction with each other and general wellbeing. Here is an initial look at are contestants now that they have all entered Tomato World. Who will be the first to go?

Leek Lane

We awoke one morning to find that a cardboard box of leeks had been left outside the gate. We asked around but were unable to ascertain who gave them to us or whether the leeks were in fact a gift, rather than them being left there unintentionally!

After a few days, I decided I had better get them in the ground, so I read up on planting leeks and duly set to work. An hour or so later of hard digging, fertilizing the soil, planting and watering all 23 of them, I proudly stood back to admire my leeks:

The following day I located some anti bug spray and sprayed the leeks to stop anything eating them. Daily, we watered them but saw no change.

Finally, the man with the famous garden (in all guide books) who lives up the road dropped by for a chat; nearing the end of the conversation he casually dropped in “oh, did you get the Iris's that I left by your gate?” We both looked at each other – Ooops, no wonder there was no change – good thing we didn't try to eat them! Ok, so they look like leeks – don't they?

Courgette City and Cucumber crisis

The lady from the neighbouring chateaux gave us 2 courgette plants. Enthused by the leek planting, I decided to plant these courgettes and sow further courgette seeds and cucumber seeds.

After a few days, all the courgette seeds that I had sown sprouted lovely leaves and are showing much promise for a good crop. The thing is they look very different from the 2 plants that the lady from the chateaux gave to me.

Am now exceeding concerned that these plants are ornamental and not for eating – anyone know?

Cucumber seed are not showing promise – we seem to have 2 rather weak seedlings pushing up but…..cucumbers are in crisis meetings at present….let's hope they can turn it around and pull through….

So very exciting news from Les Terrasses…..and the sun continues to shine!!

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