Celebrating Bastille Day in the Garden...

     Promise I'll do a major post sometime soon to show you all the corners of our garden.  In the meantime, let's celebrate today, Bastille Day, with red, white and blue flowers.
    Top to bottom, the reds are a nasturtium (in the edible flowers container), a hanging geranium, a normal geranium, and a scarlet runner bean flower.
Whites are cosmos, roses and feverfew, blues some pansies that have hung on and on and on, and borage that self-seeds itself everywhere.

 

Le Printemps!!!

      Apologies for that long digression about our Asian travels. To be honest, we returned to France in mid-February but what with jet-lag, and getting back into the swim of things, I got disgracefully behind with this blog.  Just a few to do--all French ones--and I'll be all caught up.
     We came back to chilly weather and the welcome sight of little green spears poking through the earth. Here's what my frantic bulb-planting in December has led to...

I can't really say that I planted these primroses. They just come back year after year.

And thanks to Nature for the following....

Wild violets.

Celandines run rampant...

And so does Honesty which grows in the woodland area of the garden. Last year, when I picked the dried seedheads, I deliberately scattered the seeds hither and yon.

  

Happy Days in the Garden

    I just came in from watering ours and a neighbour's garden. Being in full sun all day long, her squash plants are massive. Ours aren't doing too badly. The lettuces have been decimated by snails or slugs (try saying "decimated lettuces" after one too many verres de vin) but there is still enough for a week or two's worth of salads. The roquette (arugula) has already fed us three or four times. More seeds should go in soon to keep the harvest constant. The single tomato was a huge surprise. The yellow courgette was just big enough to pick. The red currants gleam like jewels in the low afternoon sun. 

   The odd-looking plant is a frisée that I planted last October and forgot about. It has shot up and is now displaying these pretty blue flowers.

Paris--Day 1: Flowers and Balconies

Ambling through the Latin Quarter after lunch at--obviously--a sidewalk café, I was dazzled by one particular flower shop. People here seem to buy bouquets every chance they get--and then there are the narrow balconies dripping with scarlet geraniums and greenery.

A Quick Look in the Garden

Sunny and warm today--almost warm enough to eat lunch outside. I was curious to see what's still growing on this third day of the New Year. Here's what I found. A scattering of pale yellow and purple primroses are in bloom but that's about it for flowers. The parsley is thick and lush, ditto the mint so I'm thinking lamb tagine and tabouleh sometime soon. 

The hollyhocks are well established. The forsythia bush is in bud. A few rain-sodden rosebuds are still on the bushes (I've noticed our neighbours have pruned theirs to knee-high).

The new crop of nettles is, excuse the accidental poetry, in fine fettle. This year, I plan to make nettle soup, nettle quiches and nettle soufflés until we run out of nettles--unlikely. Our neighbour has an enviable patch of chickweed for salads. None in our garden but there is a small rosette-like plant that looks edible. I tasted a leaf and it has a peppery flavour.

Au Nom de la Rose

We came upon this ravishingly pretty flower shop on the way home tonight. It's called Au Nom de la Rose (www.aunomdelarose.fr). Isn't that gorgeous "ball" of roses insanely romantic? Just outside and inside the door of the little shop (it was a little breezy this afternoon) the floor was littered with rose petals in all the colours you see here.

 

If you had to live the rest of your life on this one block of Rue de Rivoli, you could be happy. After you'd chosen a bouquet of utterly gorgeous roses, you could then shop next door at the boulangerie and patisserie. Steps away are a wine store and a cheese store. A butcher's too, I think. Definitely a little area to go back and check.