Before and after pics, house and garden 3

This is a corner towards the back of the house facing east where once there was a huge camelia. Yes it looks lovely flowering in the photo, but the rest of the year it was covered in sooty mould and looked grotty, blocked the light from the large bathroom window and we had some mould on the inside of the bathroom at the base of that wall, as it is a metre lower down than the soil level. So, with the aid of a neighbour's mini digger, out it came, some damp proofing was put in and the soil put back.

2006

I then had to wait impatiently until the rest of the house was pointed before I could do anything with this corner and around the back of the house. I had flower beds planned and was itching to get started. It also is a fairly shady spot, with part of this area in total shade all day long even in June. Shade without tree roots is a rarity here so I was dying to be able to plant some shade loving plants in a place which would stay moister for longer than the rest of the garden.

March 2008

Having the pointing guys here came in handy for another thing; under the camelia was a large and extremely heavy rectangular lump of granite that I needed moving. I asked them if they could help move it up against the wall where I thought I could put a tub with flowers on top or something. However, when they moved it they turned it over and guess what was revealed? I was over the moon! I've seen these troughs for sale at €150 or more (not that I want to sell it, I hasten to add)!

And so, we landscaped and tidied up the area and removed any spilt limestone mortar and dug in compost, ready for planting. The hose outlet from the boiler had to be rerouted all around the outside of the house to meet up with the nearest drain. The space already looked miles better, even without any plants!

......and then I got to do the bit I love best. Before you ask, that is a duck deterrent fence and has proven invaluable, as whilst chickens do more damage with their scratching, large white ducks are very good at flattening young plants and they like to eat fresh compost!

Spring 2008

The next year it was looking lovely and mature. We also have the morning sun streaming into the bathroom - not to mention a colourful view out over this bed towards the veg patch and the field beyond.

2009

At its peak the following year.

2010

And now it is time to do some major renovation to this bed again, as the large hosta needs dividing, and too many things have self seeded, and the creeping plants have crept just too much and the trough has been taken over by lamium which both self seeds and spreads and is really a bit of a pest. And so it starts all over again. But that is gardening for you!

Before and after pics, house and garden 2

A few more pics of the exterior of the house and garden as it has changed over the years.

House as it was whilst viewing it before buying

After pointing and gravelling over so there was somewhere
where we could eat outside

The elm tree is no more after falling over one day!
It had honey fungus.

The old apple tree which was totally hollow kept dropping
branches until one day even the mistletoe died.
I can't plant any new trees here due to the honey fungus risk.

To be continued....

A walk around the block

I did something different yesterday. I went for a walk! Yeah and?..... I hear you say, well to my shame the last time I went 'around the block' here was on a horse, and that must have been about 5 years ago at least. In fact I think I've only walked our closest round trip (about an hour) once ever. I get so bogged down with jobs to do around the garden that I don't walk around here for any reason other than to go to another house in the hamlet. I just don't walk for pleasure.

So as my major New Year's Resolution is to try to spend less time gardening (or at least, growing so much and therefore having to deal with the harvest) thus have more time to do other things like going out and walking and birdwatching, and very much inspired by my friend Brittanygirl's blog http://livingin22.blogspot.com/ and her meanderings up the lane with her camera, I sugested to my OH we go for a walk. He nearly fell over with shock but was happy to oblige.

I took about 65 photos hence the walk took well over an hour. Don't worry I'm not showing them all here! Click on any of the photos to see them full size. 

A favourite fly tipping place just up the road;
someone has now put up a notice and dumped
a pile of branches in the way so let's hope this makes a difference

Looking back over my wooded garden, a little haven for wildlife.
My house is hidden by the trees.

'My' stream, 'le ruisseau de la Lande Huard'
several fields upstream, beside the road

Look what was beside it - I'll know for next Xmas!

The mark of one's wealth in these parts is measured
by the size of one's woodpile.....

Just a typical wintery landscape

A cross, just beside the road.
I have no idea of its meaning.

Apologies to anyone religious reading this
but really, this wasn't exactly carved
by a master mason was it? It did make us giggle!

Gorse and mistletoe, both common around these parts

My house, barn and duck and chook sheds from the lane.
We rarely drive up here so don't see this view very often!

Coming back into the hamlet.
There are a lot of these stone walls, part of the land
that once belonged to the two manor houses.

At the entrance to my neighbour's drive -
it looks so colourful I want one! I think it's a Viburnum.

The wreck on the corner; that's my orchard on the left

My orchard and looking up the lane towards my house
on the right. The grass verge has been trashed
by a huge JCB as the new family who have moved into
the hamlet are having a new septic tank installed.

Still here? ;-) I've had to pare the photos down considerably so have missed out a load that I took of trees, but that's for another blog posting. I had a lovely time and really must get out and about more often!

Before and after pics, house and garden 1

The good thing about starting a blog years after you've moved to a new home is that your readers don't have to wait to see your after photos! I have thousands of photos dating back to when we came to view this property in July 2004, so I'm going to share a few of the most obvious changes made since then. Don't expect anything much from the interior - we didn't do the renovations ourselves so have only done minor things inside.

Firstly, kerb appeal - we loved the house inside and out straight away not to mention the garden and lake (hence us buying it!) but I think it looks a lot better now from the road as can be seen from the following two photos:

It was a gloomy day hence dark photo

Taken last spring from our orchard across the lane

Now our neighbours keep remarking how lovely it is to be able to see into the front garden through the replacement gates; the conifer tree is gone as it was planted right next to the septic tank and was progressively leaning more and more every time it was windy - cheaper to get rid of what was a pretty tatty tree than have to replace the septic tank should it have fallen over! Also the previous owners 'Private Property, Keep Out' sign has thankfully been lost in the Leylandii hedge (which incidentally was about 20 foot high and had barely ever been trimmed and never had the tops cut off), so we have managed to turn that into a normal hedge.

At the front of the house was an overgrown 'flower bed' with some tatty spindly roses, no edging and grass growing through it. We couldn't even get to the front door without having to cross grass as the path had long since disappeared.

My OH making a start

 
Next photo is after we had edged the new herb and flower bed with some lovely oak beams we'd found lying around here and I used the many granite rocks we are continually digging out from our gritty, stony, rocky soil to edge around the bank bed.
 

Getting there with removing the turf to make
a parking space and access to the front door

Gravel all down and looking neater

We then had the front and back of the house repointed. We'd already had the same company in to do the very inaccessible gable ends which had required scaffolding put up on the roofs - not something we could ever have done ourselves. So as this company was quick, efficient and did a really great job we got them in to do the rest of the house. Needless to say it did cost a fortune but I think it was money well spent as my house looks fab now.

It did look funny for a few days sporting its new dayglo orange look!

Finally the after of the house - couldn't believe how much lighter the house looked!

To be continued......