CHEZ NOUS AT LAST

We have now been chez nous for over a week.  That time has flown by so quickly, where did it go?

The journey down through France was a breeze, just like it usually is.  Hugo and Daisy travelled well, Daisy having given up her operatic rendition once we got to France.  Our theory is that she gets distressed by road noise in the UK, some surfaces making a lot of tyre noise.  As soon as we got to France she settled down and we didn't hear a peep out of her (or an aria) until we arrived at home.

What a joy it is to be back.  Our gardening friends have done a fantastic job of keeping the grass and hedges cut, something that would have otherwise taken us a whole week to tackle ourselves.  As predicted there is very little colour in the garden.  Most of our flowering plants are either dead or gone over by now which is rather sad.  It's interesting to see what has survived well with a minimum of watering and TLC - a few dahlias in the area that gets some shade and the climbing roses.  Also a few spindly flowering sage and straggly geraniums in pots from last year, stored in the barn over the winter.

Our friends had also hoovered up dead flies and cobwebs inside the house, which was a great help.  There is still plenty of cleaning to do. 

If we were going to spend most of the summer in the UK we wouldn't have chosen to do it when everything was closed.  Equally we wouldn't normally have chosen to arrive in France during the hottest months either but we're here now and so glad we are.  Rumblings from the UK about a second wave, second lockdown and so on are somewhat alarming but we're taking each day as it comes and enjoying every moment.  We plan to stay for several weeks but the government might have other ideas about that.