Monday

Another week. Weather has turned warm again which is good after the few very chilly days that we had last week. I went up to the paper shop in Villeneuve de Marsan where I have been able to order my fix of UK paper, the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph. After that I went into Mont de Marsan to get a wall bracket for the satellite dish and to do some shopping. After shopping I went into the hairdresser to have my hair cut, shampooed and styled. Desperately needed as I hadn't been to the hairdressers since I was in Devon in March. I was very pleased with them so shall go there again. Back home Nigel is still struggling with the satellite with no success. In the afternoon he carried on with building the wardrobes in our bedroom and I went back to the garden. The garden here has been very thoughtfully planted in the past and is somewhat overgrown. I have cut back a lot of the shrubs and released them from the brambles that were smothering them. We have a big oleander bush that was smothered with brambles and now that I have cleared them it is looking a lot happier. There is a nice little shrubbery at the front of the house with different coloured shrubs. Another patch is planted with ornamental quince, roses, rosa rugosa, berberis and juniper horizontalis. It was dreadfully overgrown and covered in brambles so we have cut it back and pulled out the brambles. There is a huge magnolia tree and a large silk tree, Albizia, both of which will look stunning in the spring. A camellia is struggling to find the light being shaded by a large overgrown laurel that we shall cut down. There are two borders with several old shrub roses which I have pruned back. In between the roses there are iris. The soil is very poor, sandy clay. At the side of the house are a large fig tree, bamboo and a hibiscus. The vegetable garden is still producing lots of tomatoes but the courgettes and peppers are struggling. There are several old vines which don't look to have been pruned for several years so I shall prune them when the leaves have fallen and hope that they will recover for next year. The hedges are composed of several plants, laurel, bamboo and wild plum mainly. Part of the laurel hedge is well overrun with brambles so that is my next task, to cut them out of the hedge.