Garden

The garden here is always out of control. We're here so infrequently that, even with our agents out here coming every few weeks, it still always feels like we're just a few weeks away from being taken over by plants. One of the things that grows best here (logically - it being SW France) is lavender which, as it's so easy to look after, is planted everywhere - along with it's natural partner in crime, rosemary. The weather here was so bad in spring (wet and cold) that all the flowers are a little later than last year, so we have much to enjoy. And of course the bees and butterflies are having a field day.

When we first had this house (about 10 years ago) we used to come down every month. We had no-one looking after the garden then and would regularly arrive to 10 feet tall weeds on the 'lawn'. It would take a couple of days to hack them down with a scythe and then we'd come back the next month to find they'd all grown up again.

I still sometimes expect when we arrive to find a scene from Logan's Run or some such movie, with the buildings overwhelmed with trees and creepers.