France

[VirginVegGrower]

LAH LAH LAH I cannot hear this

[PyreneesPlot]

Ooh, I used to live there too Small world.

I arrived at 3 years old and escaped at 19... Mum is still there - she and Dad moved there in 1970 for two years!!

[Nicos]

LAH LAH LAH I cannot hear this

....you were more than welcome to have come over to have had a snowball fight and made a snowman!

[VirginVegGrower]

I keep getting the France books out. It really is bad. I have French withdrawal and need a ferry fix.

[scarey55]

You're always welcome here

[VirginVegGrower]

I think we are planning...Mr VVG has declared he is ready for a trip across the water and Rooty is getting a pet passport.

[roitelet]

Thought it was too good to last! 24.5 here yesterday and at 9p it was still 19. Now its overcast and showery but at least it has warmed up a but although I think we are at least 4 - 5 weeks behind. The 'Pink Trees' (a prunus) are only just showing colour and they are usually over by the third week in March.

[BertieFox]

29th May, 2013. Just north of Saumur, Loire Valley.
Back to heavy rain yesterday after the better Sunday and Monday, though wind was still cool. Saturday night there was 2C in the area which meant freezing in our frost pocket of a garden which is on a south facing slope leading down to the river. Friends had minus 3.5C in their little valley! Potatoes therefore frosted along with a few courgettes and things, but most plants like toms are still sulking in their pots in the polytunnel begging to be released into the wild.... I did tell them they had a close shave with death! Hopefully we can finally get things out for the summer this weekend at the start of June. (Just in time for the blight with all this rain! )

[Jardiniere]

know what you mean ...lousy here ...have lost about 6 tomato plants to what i think must have been the wind and rain....they have been damaged and have just rotted! Still no courgettes or squash to plant out ...only a few beans and peas up to speed....and to top it all the river is rising!

[BertieFox]

What a change a few days makes! Now too hot to stay outside for too long, even with my sun hat, but trying to get all the tomatoes, peppers, beans, and aubergines planted out at last. At the last count, there are 130 tomato plants... now how did that happen? This was the year I wasn't going to sow too many seeds or varieties. Sweetcorn waiting to go out too, but weeding and grass cutting also demanding my time. Of course, the more beds which are planted up, the more watering has to be done every evening! And the polytunnel is still full of cabbages as we can't eat more than two a day! Had to spend most of yesterday working on the bees as they have already swarmed half a dozen times,though we caught most of them and have put them in new hives.
At least summer is finally here. Or will it suddenly start raining again and all the potatoes and toms get blight? Oh, I'm such an optimist!

[Nicos]

22C here at 7.50pm.... and has been sunny most of the day. Doesn't look like we're due another frost ( last year's was 9th June) ...so we've bought our bedding plants from our local nursery.

Just been sitting in the sunshine sipping a Pernod listening to the rumbling of thunder in distant clouds which are bypassing us!

About to have a BBQ!

Bertie- fingers crossed we don't lose our toms- again- to blight this year- it's heartbreaking isn't it?

[scarey55]

Beautiful here too but I fear that we are going to have a storm tonight. I have an old washing airer that I have rigged up so that I can cover the tomatoes against the dreaded blight. I have a recipe for sun dried tomato bread so I need all the tomatoes I can manage to save. Only 20° here at the moment but it is nearly 8 o'clock. Enjoy your BBQ Nicos.

[Jardiniere]

gone from wet and windy to soooooo hot!
Went out and bought tomato plants today as all the plants i had in earlier have died.
Going to pot them up tomorrow and put them out when they get a little larger.
Didnt garden today ......went in the pool instead (only 3rd swim of the year)

[Nicos]

25C and sunny at 5pm! yey!!!

[PyreneesPlot]

32 and overcast at 6pm! I think we've eaten outside more days this week than in any other this year.