First Potatoes planted

Walking today: 3.8km

We planted out our First Early Casablanca potato sets today, that's fully three weeks earlier than in previous years. So, it's a risk but they did very well last year, the frosts seem to have gone for the next couple of weeks at least and they can mature in as little as 62 days so fingers crossed!

Indigo Violet

Not all the flowers in our garden have been planted by us or deliberately.

The first Spring we found a patch of wild violets on a bank, although we haven't done anything very much to encourage them to spread we have mown the bank with the blades set a bit higher to give them some room to grow.

And this Spring they are spectacular:

Two days running ....

This blog isn't just about pictures of sunsets.

But this evening we were treated to another spectacular as thin layers of cloud were illuminated brilliant red across two-thirds of the sky.

And as the last of the light disappeared the evening star, Venus, illuminated the western sky:

Spectacular Sunset

Walking today:      3.9km

Swimming today: 1.40km

Tonnes of gravel shovelled: 1.68 Tonnes

It's been clear and sunny for the last couple of days and tonight as we drove home from swimming the sun was sinking low into the western sky in a bright orb of gold.

A year ago in Matsue in Japan we stood by the lake and watched sunset at officially one of the top ten sunset sites in Japan - Japan is a very ordered country!

Wasn't as good as from our terrace at La Basse Cour tonight though - officially one of the ten best places in Noyal-Muzillac to watch the sunset.

Moon View

Walking today: 3.9km

We got some clear weather at last this week and I succeeded in getting the telescope running with the camera attached. I had to resort to Youtube to find out which of the three eyepieces to attach to the telescope in which sequence to get the thing to focus properly. There are lots of other challenges that I had to deal with - the biggest one being that the camera isn't designed to be used easily when hanging upside down on the side of a telescope ...

So, there are a few technical issues with this picture but I was reasonably happy with the first effort that I took of the moon:

My knowledge of the Moon's features is approximately 0 so I need to learn to find my way around. The large crater with the white rays in the centre left of the picture is crater Keplar apparently.

The Chausée is déformée - again

Walking today: 3.8km

Swimming today: 1.10km

(Chausée déformée = uneven road)

One of the common signs that announces the arrival of summer here are the temporary road signs saying "Chausée Déformée" as the combined effects of a hot summer, heavy lorries and poor road maintenance lead to another road surface buckling under the strain.

When we arrived in 2010 the road from Noyal Muzillac to Questembert had permanent signs and was a real switchback ride. So the news that it was going to be closed for four weeks last September for major works was well received. The road closure was accompanied by lots of machinery and chaos, all promising signs that the road would be finished to a standard suitable for the Tour de France (well we live in hope ....). Gradually however the slow pace of work, the absence of any signs that the roadbed was being replaced and the fact that 80% of the work seemed to be digging metre deep ditches on either side of the road led to a scaling-back of our expectations - perhaps not the 2015 edition of Le Tour then. Still, at least the chasm of a pothole at the end of our road would be fixed.

Two days before the road was due to re-open frantic activity was observed as the surface was sprayed with tar and several hundred tonnes of chippings spread on the surface. The result for a couple of weeks was a feeling similar to driving on a beach. Eventually things settled down until, in December, tell-tale skid marks showed where the first vehicle had ended up in the car-eating deep ditches.

And then, last week, after the wet and frosty weather, the first Chausée Déformée signs reappeared as the tar coating failed, as was always likely, to hold together the crumbling road edges. That's four months and 25 days after the work was finished. Almost comical except I remember the signs erected during the work saying how much the department had paid (from its allocation from central government) and how much the state had paid towards the work - all out of our taxes of course. 

And the massive pothole has reappeared and been patched twice so far ......

There's a saying in French: plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose. 

Indeed.

I want to see sunshine after the rain

Walking today:     3.8km

Swimming today: 0km (pool closed due to "une problème technique grave"

We saw our first butterfly (a Peacock) in the garden on 17th February, it was enjoying some early sun. I hope it's found somewhere warm to shelter because the weather has been dire since then.

Last week we had some sunny and showery weather though and Barbara captured a couple of nice shots in the garden of the dramatic the skies:

And, in case you're desperately trying to remember who sang that song lyric .... it was Elkie Brooks.