Diary of a French B & B: Week Two

I have always had a worrying and powerful fascination for tea cups, jugs and tea pots.  I love them and I sometimes wonder if in spite of all my training and earlier career I was only ever destined to end up running a B & B as it provides plenty of excuses to buy more and use them frequently!

Ideally, tea cups,pots and jugs should all be different, different colours and patterns, some big, some small some stylish and some just plain cute.  Each time I go away I bring back a new member of my growing ceramics family.  Throughout winter they quietly sit on shelves as the old kitchen in the B & B is shut down waiting for the start of the new season. 

Today the kitchen has been opened up, the shutters are back the sunlight is flooding though and a number of spiders have sternly been given their marching orders.  On the kitchen table I re-discovered a box of yet more jugs that I had brought back from a trip to Spain in October.  I had forgotten about these and they have now been unwrapped and added to the others. 

People do seem to enjoy seeing the different milk jugs and tea-pots when they are here for breakfast.  They are quirky, colourful and full of happiness and I wouldn’t swap them for a refined and matching set for all the tea in China!

It’s been a busy week in the garden. We’ve had two months of very dry weather, warmer than normal and with no rain in sight and it has proved quite challenging to keep new, young and freshly moved  and split plants from withering into the cracking soil. 

With some delight we noticed that there was rain forecast for Good Friday and so we had to hurry to finish the new areas of lawn we’ve been creating.  This has meant carting in fresh soil, numerous goings over with a rotavator, raking and then finally seeding some large areas of now beautifully prepared soil.

We then had to sit with our fingers crossed hoping that it would be nice gentle rain and not the sort of deluge that might wash away the seed.  The rain did arrive and we had two days of glorious drizzle and even though I know I shouldn’t I can’t help peeping all the time to see if there is any sign of the new green lawn.  Still no sign!

The rain did wonders for the rest of the garden and whilst the dry spell may have claimed a few victims, most things are now looking fresh and perky.  The roses are shooting away and it would seem that the continual treatments they are receiving of various mixtures to stop all the different grades of bugs, spots and droops are starting to make a difference.  They will soon all start to bloom and we will have to let the irrigation system take over at that point. The roses love the sunshine but they also like a plenty of water.

All the hanging baskets are now hanging in place and we are starting to look as if we are ready for guests.  When I first hang up the baskets they always look a little sad but they soon start to grow and bush out and take on the lovely shapes and colours that look so romantic and pretty.  In summer we have to run irrigation to the baskets or they simply would not survive.

The soil here is very rocky, in many places there is virtually no soil before we are on to the bed rock.  There are a few plants that seem to survive despite these hardships.  Lavender, buddlehia and lavatera  (and of course the figs) are some of the best.  Because we are always making the garden bigger (as we tame more and more of the land around us) I have been taking more fresh cuttings of these (all except the figs) and now outside my back door I have three tubs each full of cuttings – usually all three of these varieties root very easily and it is not long before I am able to see a new supply of plants coming along. 

Some good news, the dahlias are back! – I have seen them breaking the surface of their bed!  I planted them last year for the first time and I never truly believed they would survive the winter tucked up under the soil.  I have also dug up the ever expanding hellebores and split them up.  I chopped each plant into three, so I do hope they survive such rough treatment.  They made such a glorious show in March.

There are so many things to do in the garden and it is nice to have this part of the year when it is warm and welcoming outside but before we have started with guests.  Once guests arrive I can manage to do little more than remove dead heads in the garden. 

Our neighbouring farmer runs some of his cows through our paddocks.  He has been checking all the fencing which means that any day now we can expect to see an array of blonde, lethargic looking cattle wandering around.  They always look so content, so sleepy and untroubled that they are good for the soul and I believe the blood pressure. 

The next thing on my ‘to-do’ list is to open up all the bedrooms and giving them all a good clean and make sure everything is in working order.  It is amazing how time appears to just stand still in these rooms – once they are shuttered and locked up for winter nothing disturbs them.   Then the shutters and windows are opened allowing in the fresh warm air in. It is as if they have never been to sleep.

So it is only two weeks until we greet our first guests of the season.  Enquiries still seem to be very slow and I am willing the Euro to lose some of its value against the Pound which may help things.  Today it does seem to be trying its best.  This is a big place to open up and run if we only have the odd person passing through.  It is a huge old property with huge, not so old, expenditure so we are crossing our fingers for things to pick up soon.

On the subject of bookings, so far this morning we have actually gone backwards.  One cancellation in May, a couple travelling from the UK have decided to stay at home and sadly one gentleman due to be here in August who was travelling from South Africa has been diagnosed with a dreadful condition and has had to cancel his trip to Europe.  

Anyway sadly writing about it never did get the chores done and I have set myself a pretty hefty work load for the remains of the day.  At least if I get these things done I can then feel good and deserving when I pour myself a glass of the wonderful local wine later this evening.

Back to work!