I find it hard to believe that I have not produced a blog since May last year. There are several drafts but nothing finished and that’s my 2021 in a nutshell - lots of ideas but little action.
So I have to admit it - it was a year of languor, lassitude and lethargy. I felt as if I’d completely lost my edge. I couldn’t seem to get things done. There was always too much on my to-do list.
In emails and zooms so many friends admitted to suffering too and indeed it seems that many of us faced with many months of living under Covid conditions became rather stuck - lots of plans but little action and a wee touch of depression to go with it.
In the garden, we had started well. Lots of hard digging, moving plants, adding compost and buying new plants. A full programme of hard work for the first four months of the year. But after that weeks of wet weather dragged us down mentally as we watched plants grow with water but no sun - loads of greenery but where were the flowers? Late frosts completely annihilated the fruit crops. Tomato seedlings sat waiting for the sun. I had some success with the seeds planted in plastic bottles (see below). But the weather was hot one week and really cold the next. Everything was late. Perhaps as much as three weeks behind.
We had planted hundreds of bulbs. The boxes arrived from Holland and Kate became the fastest tulip planter in the west. They did look lovely - for a little bit - but the squirrels found them irresistible and dug them up!
Finally, the sun came and the temperature rose from about 15 to 30 centigrade in two days. We put up the parasols and opened our pools. Summer had come.
But of course it wasn’t going to be so easy. There was sun but there followed some terrible storms, little local tornados resulting in flooded ditches and roads from rains much heavier than we’d seen for ages. For several days we shut our eyes and crossed our fingers and hoped that we wouldn’t get more rock falls. We were lucky.
The roses were wonderful with all the early rain. The iris were disappointing as there wasn’t enough sun.
Above the wonderful Golden Showers which is still producing flowers as I write. Below is Bonica - moved from our Surrey house about 15 years ago. It just looks as though there’s no room for another blossom.
I needed an adventure. After 15 months at Brel, I fled to London to see my eye consultant and take part in a bit of research about eye pressure. It seemed like a good idea to have a change of scenery and a change of routine. The 10 day trip involved 5 days’ quarantine and the super expensive get-out-of-quarantine-early pcr test meant that the total bill on tests for the trip was ridiculously expensive. The few days I was locked away in the house gave me time to make plans and also to do weed the garden, plan what plants I was going to buy for the troughs in the front of the house and the pots at the back.
The biggest treat was going out to eat - when I left France restaurants had not opened indoors. In London I started to feel on the way to normal and seeing friends and talking face to face was immensely special. My eyes were checked and ok, I ordered more glasses and I even had time to drive to Cheshire and give my sister a huge overdue hug.
Below, my test results are negative - freedom to leave the house and go out to eat!!
By the time I returned to France I was sure that I would be inspired to do lots more. And it started like that. I headed to the workroom to do some mending. Then I planned to catch up on all the ironing. I would read a book, do a blog and work on those photo books so overdue. There was also the excitement of eating in restaurants - now fully reopened. We made reservations at our favourite spots and discovered some new eating places. More people arrived into the area from the UK hoping that regulations would be lifted by the time they returned. We chatted, we laughed, we are surviving we told each other, being here is back to normal. Hurrah. The neighbours came around again - eight around a table was ok.
But the regulations between France and the UK didn’t lessen (they eventually got worse) holidays planned were converted to staycations, families visiting cried off and at Brel where a summer of young musicians had been awaited, one by one they cancelled. The longed for live music was looking unlikely. Tasks got put off again.
Our peaceful home in the countryside remained quiet during the summer but we did get some music in the end.
And we had the cats who didn’t understand about Covid lethargy!
