The first images are from today, it was very warm a bit more normal. I have taken pictures of my sort of front door, it's a side door. The buckets collect water and I have a little seed room beside the front door that is where various animals congregate for food. The duck maize is in here and the cats arrive to squawk at us when they need to touch down for their food and sleep. I found my little cat along the road with a leg that had to be amputated. He must have been from a family of alley cats as he is reluctant to be in even when it's raining. He is happiest in the barn on his own rather pungent cushion.
  My geraniums are from cuttings, the pots I bring home from the tip. Here in France the tip provides somewhere to drop off rubbish and collect  compost for free. Where the compost pile is there is also a place you can collect old terracotta pots or dump old toilets,basins or tiles.  I have been adding paint to my pots. I bought some clay based taster pots from Period House in Ludlow. I was told it was made  in small batches by a man in a garden shed. The make is Colourman.Here I only use the paint sparingly, it's really special paint.
My garden has been supplying me with extraordinary bounties of strawberries and flowers.

Fragny

Painting in progress it portrays a small hamlet here in Nievres, Sud Morvan.
It's been a beautiful day today, I am hoping to go to the local town on the longest day for their festival of Rent. They celebrate by looking to the past and have huntsman blowing horns, maids demonstrating the washing of linen, there are tractors and my favourite is a mock old bar. There is a meal in the evening and clog dancing!

I scan the internet here regularly for my Citroen HY Tube van. I need a few bits but most importantly I am trying to find a set of wheels so I can pull her with a tractor out of the field just along from here. When I spotted 'Donne' and 'Jantes', I was more then a little excited. I rang up Johnnie who kindly said he would save the wheels for me, 2 with tyres. I already have 1 wheel and the rim is on one of the wheels so I just need a tyre now. I had been scouring the internet for ages and even stopping by farms if I spot one to ask people if they would be willing to sell me wheels. I found one nearby that is being used as an animal feed place for cows and their hay but the farmer just kept repeating that the van was 'futre'.
Anyway I hadn't been far lately, the animals need looking after, we have a little lamb I am having to feed, he is growing at a rate of knots. After giving him a large bottle he would be alright for a few hours and he nibbles on grass now too.We set off with a picnic north towards Orleans.
The wheels were collected and have rather poor tyres, that's OK though. We drove through Burgundy and it was a beautiful day, very warm. It was good not to have to be working on the garden.

I love the work of this lady patriciavieljeux.com

A glimpse into the restaurant garden.

Maison et atelier de Jacques-Jeanneney

Ceramic street signs and house numbers.

 This is a wonderful workshop area with tables and chairs under this impressive roof.

 A little restaurant with garden seating area called La Magie des Sens.

One of many shops and galleries. I think this one is La Boutique du Potier . It's very near the Chateau.

L'Attrape-Chien Atelier d'art et de création.

We stopped at a lovely village for our picnic at St Amand-En-Puisaye. Coincidently they were having a festival Feu(x)à volonté. There are loads of potters in this area and village.  While I was there it was all deadly quiet, lunchtime, and I think it was beginning later in the evening with a band. I did take some sneaky photographs though to give you some idea. I was rather taken by the place. It has a lovely relaxed, eccentric feel. Very arty a little rambling and splendidly untidy in places. There was a lady on her balcony talking to herself and then she started singing. It also has a stonking château built in 1530, a significnant Renaissance Chateau in the Nievre, right in the middle of the village with huge trees in the garden and a gallery. More info at www.ceramique-st-Amand.org Otherwise do visit www.latelierdesgarcons.com or poterie.guimards.free.fr
I arrived home and had a little look for tyres and uncannily there are some for sale in St Amand en Puisaye.

We have had a mixed month so far. May is normally very warm  with continued blue skies. This year it's been quite cool we've had a lot more wind and it's rained most days. We were surprised last week by a very late lamb, he isn't managing to take milk from his mother so I am bottle feeding him. It's more usual to have lambs in March. He's very greedy and looks like he going to be very robust. Most of our sheep are black, we have one white ewe who is quite old and that was our only white. It seems like magic to suddenly get a white one. The new lamb has speckled brown legs and ears.

This is the lambs mother, she is 4, our new lamb is her 3rd.  We don't sheer our sheep because of the very cold winters.  There are very few sheep around so we are pretty safe from disease. I like our shaggy sheep this one has been bleached by the sun.

I bought a packet of seeds 3 years ago in France. Here they grow wild in the hedgerows and the native variety is violet/blue colour. The one above is one from the packet.

I have been wanting some old bicycles for sometime now. They are often advertised around here on the internet but  they are  always a bit expensive or too far away. I found 2 in an old dump, very rusty one has a split frame and the other has rusted through wheel rims. I think I shall try and make a viable bike one day but until I find some wheels they are propped up in my garden looking poetic.

My seedlings are slowly trickling out of the verandah, some come back after I realise  I have been a bit optimistic. I have been enlarging my Potager as I was running out of room. It's filling up as fast as I can dig. I now have a plot in the orchard along a stone wall. It's a very sunny spot. This morning I was digging and I managed to snap my fork in 2, the metal part! This is why I am updating my blog. I am wondering what to do next.

Red Basil.

Found these boots in the secondhand shop, perfect fit, 3 euros. I was  in need of new boots too. 

1st May

We visited a lovely fete lots of plants, animals and crafts.  We bought 3 male Indian Running Ducks last year. I think we were hoping for at least one female but out of the 3 one died. The 2 that are now 1 year old are very healthy males. This spring the ducks have been chasing the female goose around too much. The Gander has got very good at defending her but I felt that I had to try and intervene somehow. I bought another duck, this time a female. She is also 1 year like our 2 here but being female she is smaller. It's not great though, we really need a few more females. They are quite expensive 26 euros this year, last year they were only 10 each. Anyway now we are back home I can't put the female out with the males as they jump on her and they could harm her. It's always good to have a plan. Today I made her a private run where she could be amongst her fellow ducks and not need to flea. It was  great to see her settling in today. I will have to put the males away while I take her to the pond or let her roam the garden freely. The goose seemed happier today, not being chased. I always feel very concerned about the animals, hope i'm doing the right thing. I just went outside to bring her in the house. She is in the seed room now where I think she will be safer tonight. I have to make her a secure pen with the other ducks soon.
The Indian Runners above and below are black with a wonderful oily bluey, green glint to them. 

Here's the female meeting our ducks for the first time. She has a speckled beak. They make very good slug predators, they don't fly so ideal in an organic garden. We have a spring fed pond that they love. 

Trip to the pond.

Thistle growing by the pond

I'm still busy in the germinating and nurturing of plants. It's still too early to plant things out. I have makeshift cold frames and I am potting up seedlings in larger and larger pots. I seem to spend hours shifting things in and out of the sun or rain. Night or day, cold or warm. I still need to find somewhere for it all to go in the ground.