France and how it started for us.

W

whisteria

Member
Having left school at 15yrs and always worked "never claimed a penny off the verious handouts or ever been unemployed"
Ive always tried to give 100% in every job ive ever had
Its a generation thing really, the time i was born 1949 and the way kids grew up in those days, I was born in a slum area of Liverpool but thought nothing of living near the docks "hence Hitler felt the same" He bombed our area offten and it's thanks to "HITLER's bombs" we lived in the only semi detached house in our street "my dad was very proud of this fact and offten told me to tell the teacher we lived in a semi detached rented house with pink wall paper outside the walls.

We had lots of friends in the street to play with and everyone was known from door to door,
We had a shared toilet (shared with five families and bring your own loo paper) No bathroom, no centrial heating and no electric to the upper part of the three bedroomed house and you had a good idea when the winter cold was about as it was on the insides of the window glass for us to draw on.

But i had a great childhood and never expected anything for nothing you won /worked or if you we're lucky you'd have been born with the silver spoon brigade.
And so it was always a gift if your body was of a healthy state and at least you could do manual work if nothing else.

Now bearing this introduction in mind i hope you'll understand life from my own generation was nothing like todays generation who it seem's expect to have a lot now and pay later and with as much for free as possible.

Both myself and my wife worked for verious companies and as i said we gave 100% but a lot of the time when it came to getting rewarded for your efforts it seemed a case of being over looked, ie i was on many occasion expected to show or train verious people to do the job and then they'd be my boss with the extra wage etc,

I found three types of people in the work place, (a) the person who when asked to do such & such a thing! they'd want to stand on a box and tell the world the boss has asked me to do this or that extra!!!! The boss might as well do it himself it would be a lot quicker.

Or (b) The "Why me" sort ie when asked to do that little extra !!!!!!!!!! why me why dont you get him or her to do it.

And (c) the person who at the end of their days work is asked to do that little bit extra, he/she has no problem with these little extra's and the job gets done without fuss.

Now a question for you, Of the three types of worker which one gets the promotion ????

(a the stand on a box type?) (b the "WHY ME") Or (c the person who gets on with no fuss and the jobs done ?)

Well i found time and time again i was the (c) type, had little to say and got on with the job and no way was the boss going to loose me or promote me and so hence i like many a worker of this "c" type was over looked time and time again until i decided enough was enough and i worked for myself,

After 11 years of long hours and building my own company up it was starting to show on my health,
Oh i didnt see it this way afterall we now had a good company name, money coming in But i nearly made the big mistake a lot of people make,

I'd for gotten about lifes clock,

Time, its the one thing we all have in common but how much of lifes time clock each of us have isn't really known until your times up and its a bit to late then to do anything about it.

This is the start of why we came to france.
It was august time and my wife was talking about my 7 day week and the 16 hour days and call out anytime inbetween the work load i'd created.

I gave my word if she booked a holiday and gave me notice of the date well in advance i'd take a few weeks off and leave the mobile in the office and spend time doing other things and not work.
It made her very happy and i noticed a smile on her face i'd nearly forgotten about.

I had a contract with MARKS AND SPENCER at the time and they had arranged for a big revamp and it was my job to provide the man power and kit to keep the job going, keep the floor area's clear and safe 24hrs per day for two weeks while this revamp took its cause,

I had the advance times for the holiday in my diary and then M&S BROUGHT The revamp forward by two weeks, the same time as the holiday!!!!!
I'd decided to tell my wife to take her sister and enjoy france I just couldnt walk away from such a big job.

Two days before the holiday was to take place by chance one of the lads who worked for m&s asked how i felt about the dates being changed again to 6 weeks later than the first dates,
You could have knocked me over with a feather, not a word had been passed on to me ref these date changes
The stress factor was creaping in but i couldnt see it (just another head ache just a few more head ache pills and i'd be ok ????)

We left in our car to get the ferry to France, dordogne area.
It was a nice gite hired and it was so peacefull, we enjoyed walks nice meals out and our first brocante,

I remember walking around this lake we'd found along a track and you could see the fish swimming about


And of a night we heard the owl and in the morning the dawn chorus of birds all singing away But more important was it was three days into the holiday and i'd not heard a phone or taken any head ache pills,
This was the turning point for me !!! i'd seen the light and we decided then life had a lot more to offer than living to work.

We enjoyed that holiday like no other and it was from then on we both took a great interest in france and what it had to offer ref houses/the cost of living and the internet played its part in us searching on a regular basis as to what we could buy with the money we had and how to go about buying our first french property.

Tomorrow i'll let you know what we found and the way to buying french homes as to buying english homes and what we bought.
 

I bought a house in Southern Spain and lived there for 10 years...still have it, but I moved back to the UK 3 years ago so I know all about the infamous continental Bureaucracy..


Interesting story tho' Whisteria I'll look forward to the second chapter..:)
 

Great story whisteria, look forward to the next chapter.

I bought a house in Southern Spain and lived there for 10 years...still have it, but I moved back to the UK 3 years ago so I know all about the infamous continental Bureaucracy..
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I nearly bought a Finca in Spain, with my at that time partner, back in the '80s, for some reason it didn't happen, glad now we didn't after what happened to the market in Spain and the bureaucracy as you say.
 
How we got started in france page two

After we'd returned from our holiday in france it was'nt long until the sound of the phones ringing traffic sounds, alarms in the middle of the night and running the business started to take its toll again, the lads and ladies i employed all had day to day problems and thought i should know all these problems, everything from the wife is having another baby and i cant understand it!!!!!!! and my daughter really is a pain and she's putting on weight again,
But all my thoughts seemed to go back to that day walking around that lake we'd found and what was on the french market for the money we had,

My wife became welded to the PC. most sundays and when i got home she'd tell me all these fantastic old french properties she'd been looking at and about then she'd give me the list of what she thought we'd like,
The french house prices really did seem a lot cheaper than are area here in the uk area, And all the french countryside houses had land,

But we decided to go for a holiday home as i thought 65yrs of age would be a good age to retire my wife didnt 60 max before i killed myself.

As the weeks became months i still had this picture of the summers day we had that walk, i was back on regular headaches and one particular evening i was loading one of the vans with carpet cleaning machines when i felt dizzy, the sweat poured down my face and it was then i thought a visit to the doctor was in order,

Doctor!! do i have one ? And if so whats his name and his address!!!!!!!!!!!

The appointment was made and i arrived a little bit early and sat in the waiting room, Old ladies seemed to be part of the wallpaper, all seemed to know more than the doctor ref illness but all seemed healthy to me,
"Excuse me but your bumber is being called" I was informed by one of the ladies, "NO" "No" thats the loo, it's that door with the light flashing above it.

I went in and the doctor who i'd never seen asked me what the trouble was?

Well nothing really,

You men always say that, now get on the bench and undo your shirt,

She started to listern to my heart and instructed me to take deep breaths,
Stand up, touch your toes,
roll your sleeve up,
Blood pressure was taken,
It was then i was asked how much did i drink per day and how many cigaretts i smoked aweek?????

I dont drink and i dont smoke.

Really!! was the sharp reply,

Well you have a very high blood pressure reading infact a dangerous high reading,

A blood sample was taken and i was told no more work for two weeks and to go to the chemist and get these pills take one every morning and relax,

An appointment was being made to return in one week when the blood test results would be back.

But i must work i own my own business !!! I employ people and

I was cut off in my tracks,
How old are you?
Im 49 next week,

Well if you want to see 50 you'd better slow down "that blood pressure is far to high.
Why dont you take a holiday?

I went home and told my wife about the doctor and her sharp way of talking to me,

My wife said ive some news, Tony who works with me died last night it was an heart attack.

He also had high blood pressure but he drank like a fish, He was on his last warning for drinking at lunch time and returning to work smelling of drink.

We'd seen one two bedroomed house in a place called "AIGURANDE" part of the crues dept 23 in the Limousin france we thought would make a nice holiday home,

two bedroom one on suite, a large lounge with a huge french fireplace, a huge french style kitchen/ down stairs bathroom with a really big cast iron bath, /a good size sink you could swim in / and a seperate toilet room,

A 45ft barn plus above the barn was a hobby room "45 ft long with window's"
opposit was a workshop with again an upper room for storing hay etc and next to that was a second workshop with a bakers wood burning oven,/a tractor garage /and a well that worked with the chain and bucket ready to go,

At the rear was a garden above ground level and at ground level (4 steps down) was the bbq and a patio sitting area and all the way around the complete detached house was the most breath taking wisteria you've ever seen,

The property was in a hamlet of 4 houses and from the bedroom windows all you could see was fields and countryside as far as the eye could see,
The lambs running about the field opposit the front gates a joy to see and the sound of the cock crowing really made the place feel like a french countryside house should feel like,
This is the real france, the france that still had the two weekly library van come round so you could change your books, the bread van came daily sounding his horn so you'd know fresh bread was on offer,

The nearest village was 4 km from the house and this had the post office, again it was an old building and when you went to the post office you'd find a chair in front of the counter so the old could sit, no visitor to these places need be in a hurry because the pace of life here is slow "why run when you can walk" And always remember to say hello after all a stranger is just a friend you've not yet met.
The village has three bread shops and you just followed your nose to find anyone of them,

the main food store in the village is a spar store "again" an old building and when it rained the bucket could be found sitting in the centre of the isle catching the drips as they fell and nobody gave a hoot about this french drainage system.

The roof has now been repaired so the bucket's been but to rest for now "but" is ready for the next 20years incase its needed again.

We have a butchers, barbers, ladies hair dresser's, furniture shop/ VETS/ veg shop/ News agent a few bars known as the tabac's and the chandlers that has a roaring trade in plastic table cloth's (the ones like your granny once used)

Every friday we have a street market (we actualy use a tuesday street market a few km away from our village as we visit friends on the same day so we all go together to the tuesday market)

And the last few places of interest in the centre of the village is the Doctors (he speakes english) the old peoples home that has a full view if the local grave yard!!!!!!!!!!!!
(why do old peoples homes always seem to end up with a view of the grave yard?)

A very short distance from the village centre is a huge super market that has grown in size since we first viewed the house, and it also has fuel pumps on site,

So as im sure you can see from my list of what the village has you can see you've everything you'd want to retire to such a place,

We made arrangements to view the house and arrived on a friday afternoon, it took us 10 hours drive from dover port across the channel to france and by the time we got here we were both very tired but very excited, we could feel the french feel of the place but we'd arranged to view at 10am on the saturday so we now needed a hotel !!!

something we'd forgot about but we did see a sign "hotel" in the village centre and after driving down a very narrow rue (street) there it stood this huge building that brought thoughts of the Adams family back to mind,

And when we we're shown to our rooms ????? Well we'd not seen anything like decoration on the walls and ceiling like this, all the walls had a tree effect climbing all up the walls and this tree effect continued across the ceiling and then covered the doors leading to the bathrom etc,
Breakfast was at 8am we we're told.
After such a long drive and the Paris traffic all we we're ready for was bed.

We had a rally good nights sleep and woke around 7am, i had trouble finding the door handle leading to the shower, this tree effect was blinding your eyes and after the shower we had to just feel our way around the wall to find the doorway out of the room,
But breakfast was french "no" full english but cold meats, fruit, bread coffee and juice,

We both could feel the excitement, only a few hours and we'll be in the house to see it for real.
The sat/nav set and off we went,
10mins later and we arrived at the address, a black citroen sat out side and all looked good, A lovely young lady got out and introduced herself in perfect english as "BARBOO"
She opened the front door and the first view of the lounge was here to see, old papers all over the floor, the fireplace still has ash etc in it, through to the kitchen and again no prep for a viewing, the bedrooms needed a good clean, the barns much the same "rubbish" all over the place, the rear garden was three feet high in grass, but the two peach tree's we're well and truly loaded with fresh fruit,
The Wisteria had by now finished flowering and didnt look like the pictiures we'd seen on the PC. But it didnt matter we could see a little further than the cleaning state it had been left in and "BARBOO" had paper work to show the roof was retiled two year ago after a bad storm, and the electrics had been upgraded to modern electics, the oil centrial heating had been checked to be safe, and the water was also safe,

"Barboo" asked if we wanted to have a second look and she could come back in an hour,?

Yes yes yes, We fell in love with the place and as we took a second look outside we just managed to close the gates as the fresh delivery of cow manure walked past, 30 cows from the top of the lane we're being herded past the front gate to their new field further down the lane, All taken care of by three ladies and two dogs,
One of the dogs "Misty" came over to say hello,
This was our future holiday home for sure and when BARBOO" returned we said we'd like to buy it.
OK you can if you want sign this afternoon at 2pm i'll arrange for Madam mattie to be in my office and you can all meet and sign,

She gave us her office address 18 miles away in a town we'd not been to and we set the sat nav and thought we'd go get a bite to eat and talk & talk & talk about our future home.

We set off after a bite to eat to find the office and attend the 2pm meeting,
Now parking in these french villages is as the norm no problemn and around these 50 year behins times "Free parking" No problem here,
but the french are not very good when it comes to somethings "like having the name of the business over the door or outside,

We parked up but couldnt find this office, we asked verious walkers if they could direct us but still no luck,
2-15 and we still could not find this office "idea mobile use it"

Hello "BARBOO" we can't find you!!!

where are you? give me you detination?

We are outside the cafe on the square.

Oh i can see you now, turn to your right and push the door.

We'd passed this door half a dozen times but it had no number no name and to be honest looked a bit scruffy but it was the right door and all was'nt lost.

On meeting the owner "who had a face like thunder " signed but all this meant was we had 7 days and the owner did to change our minds, after this 7 day cooling off period we had to return to france and go through the notaire 's office to go through all the paperwork and if all was in order and the full payment had been recieved and cashed then we could continue with the sale.

Now august in france is a good time to drive through Paris, all the payages are empty of traffic all the villages are dead "WHY" because france comes to a standstill during august due to the french go on holiday during august,

This means no official offices or builders, or house signing takes place, we had to wait 6 weeks before we could get any hope of the Notaire being home to do his bit,

The notaire is really a rep for the french tax dept, his job is to see all taxes are collected and the french law is being done correctly and even though you can buy a property without any building inpection you can't buy without the services of the notaire,
He'll check via other depts connected to his dept that the seller has'nt had extensions added over the years without permission and without the extra rates being paid and so on.
It was now september and we'd had a call from "BARBOO" to say the date to sign was in a weeks time at 10am in yet another village some 26 miles from the house we we're buying,
Another hotel to book, another sea crossing and another chance to see the owner and her husband, (she'd been married 6 times and had had 26 homes through her life
But she'd had 6 children and again you need to make sure when buying in france that these children have no hold on the sale now or after the signing or the death of their mother.

We arrived at a hotel 3 mins walk from the office of the notaire, the hotel was excellent and we made sure we employed a french translater just incase of any hick-ups!!!!!!

Everything was going well until the owner decided she wanted a refund of the rates paid for the year (in france you pay your living in the house rates yearly and they do not have part year or anything like that,
As it was september madam wanted a refund of 6 weeks and the notaire said "NO" its paid and thats that,
"Madam started waving her arms about and talking at the speed of light and it was very hard to keep up and understand,

Then the notaire ask us to leave the room.

Our translater told us the Notaire is going to stop the sale and we may have to come back in the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we we're asked back in the room, it was explained ref madams upset at having to pay rates when the building would no longer be hers after the sale was completed.

I asked how much are we talking about here?

26EURO WAS THE REPLY.

I said for christ sake i'll pay the 26 euro if it'll get this sale completed,

NO NO , Madam will pay or i'll cancell the sale.

She said ok and after 4 hours and signing paper after paper the sale was complete, we now had our holiday home and a boat to catch the very next early morn at 6am and 10 hours drive away.
That 10 hour drive just sped by as we talked about how the place looked as we remembered it and all the things we'd do to make it better,

iN FOUR WEEKS MADAM WOULS HAVE THE PLACE EMPTY OF ANY OF HER STUFF.

When we went back some 4 weeks later on a quick weekend 5 day visit we found one inside door had been removed, and every light bulb in the place
I phoned barboo and she said we were lucky because in french law unless the seller says all fittings are included she could take everything including the inner doors/sink etc.
Barboo thought was this was madams payback ref the rates refund?

We live and learn "dont we".

We've owned that house for 13 years now and we gite it as we bought the farmhouse we now live in some years later when i did call it a day and retire for good.

I Know this is a long blogg but i hope you've enjoyed and learnt a few things ref buying in france and the paper work the verious laws and why we have so many things to look out for,
Our second buy (this house) was again full of laughs and strange things going on as we put an end to this buy but we really do love our lives living here in the countryside.
Thank you for reading our buying our french home.
 
A good read whisteria, thanks for sharing, it seems that the buying of a house in France is always worthy of a book being written about it. I have a French friend who has moved permanently to the UK, and she said one of the reasons for leaving France was the bureaucracy, which exasperated her.
 
merlin said:
A good read whisteria, thanks for sharing, it seems that the buying of a house in France is always worthy of a book being written about it. I have a French friend who has moved permanently to the UK, and she said one of the reasons for leaving France was the bureaucracy, which exasperated her.
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Hello to both of you, Merlin & Ameriscot;
Yes france really do go overbourd when it comes to red tape and it really helps if you can speak good french or have an ex-pat to help you through this side of things,
Ive seen lots of brits come to france without trying pre coming to understand at least what they are letting themselves into,

Dont get me wrong you can still infact i'd go further than still and say its a buyers market, houses of all sizes are sitting empty here and are going for a song "But" the mistake a lot of ex-pats make is these house's at very low prices do need to be brought up to english standards and here the average age for french people to retire is still 60yrs of age hence the tax artisans (tradesmen) pay is a lot higher than the uk trades people pay.


So unless you do as we did the first time around and buy whats called a key job (a house ready to move into with all upgrades having been done) then you really have to think about what your doing,

Ive known ex-pats arrive here having bought old french homes with acre after acre of land and a house thats not been touched in decades
And the ex-pat who i knew that bought such a house had no experience at all of building work or even D.I.Y.

I think its safe to say the man of the house had never changed a light bulb back in the uk house they owned never mind take on major improvement work,
this house they bought needed major work doing to it ie a new roof / all electrics upgrading (the older french homes still use a much lower power unit than is needed for todays appliances
such as washing machines, micro waves etc etc, new window's "I could go on but i feel you've got the picture,

And a few other little things like medical insurance, if your not of retirement age then you'll need insurance unless you've french employment and this french employment pays for your medical needs (hence the higher tax's paid to cover such needs and pay into the kitty for your early retirement!!!!!!!!
Ive to say that here in this dept of france (area) we dont have any waiting list for hospital operations and i myself had a hip job three years ago all paid for via the insurance policy.

Another bad mistake i see repeated many times and the ex-pats forums are for ever talking about this subject is english so called builders, or better known as cowboy builders,

Im not knocking the real tradesmen who have served their time and have both the tools and skills to offer the trade they trained for, But even they are sick to the teeth of adds in ex-pats papers saying "BUILDER" all roofing work done and electrics and brickwork and plumbing and so and so and the list is endless and the main thing is they are cheaper than the french,?????

If you have anything in your head you must ask "WHY" is such a young man have so many trades under his belt and why is he so much cheaper than the french trades person who'll only do his "ONE" trade and nothing else?????
As i say i read so many times warnings going out ref "dont use so & so" he ripped us off.
Now having said all this you can honestly buy a house of your dreams and live a good life and enjoy a summer every year "but" you must get to know what you want and whats on offer and understand "No free meals" do your home work and like us you can have a nice life but its a french style life and you have to understand that any man or woman that works for a living wants paying the going rate if anyone you've never met puts adds in papers saying they do things for a dream price???? Then get yourself ready for the nightmare about to come your way.

We've bought two homes here and both have been different experiences ie one was a key job and the one we live in now hadn't had anyone live in it for 25 years and needed a lot of work doing to it,

Ive done a lot myself but when the need was for something i had no experience of ????? i then employed the correct trades people and paid the correct going rate for that trade,

Just a small point here, if you have work done to improve your property and you get and keep all the paper work to show whats been done and paid for!!!!
should you sell the property you can claim a percentage back via the notaire,
Again the cowboys dont give this paper work when they've done your work "hence you've nothing to show for the work thats been done and the tax' paid so you've no claim back to come
and you may just get a bill for tax thats not been paid on your upgraded house.

Please dont give youself a load of stress, do things the correct way and you can enjoy a very good life in france, "we do".
 
Its been a nice day

Well i didnt get to bed until around 4 am this morning, unusual for me but i wanted to finsh the thread ref coming to france,
Dont get me wrong i enjoyed doing the thread it brought back a few laughs from that time,

But after taking the dogs for their 8am walkies and seeing the cows follow us along the fence on our way to the little river and the same cows waiting for us on the return trip back home,
It was nice to have a coffee and inspect the garden,
Seeing whats come through the soil over night always amazes me, the outdoor toms have started to get the fruit buds and the rose arch is getting more & more flowers everyday and the smell is just smashing,
This daily walk around the garden always ends up in the greenhouse As i open the door the greenhouse smell hits you, ive all sorts of things growing, trays of taget's / pots of tomato's (im trying the black toms this year 'very sweet but nice')
the cucuumbers are in flower and the geranium cuttings have all taken,

I enjoy the garden and im never still for long but as the weather is warm but a little dull i thought i'd repot a few things and feed the toms/etc,
Ive hanging baskets (4) along the patio and three more hanging from the front door arch, plus all the troughs to feed, and the two old wagon wheels have verious troughs in wire holding frames to be fed, and then all the pots sitting on and around the well all are coming into flower and soon will hide the well metal cover,

All this before i even start thinking of getting any tools out 'who said retirement was boring?' But i can smell the bacon toasty being made and the deck chairs crying out for some company "who am i to say no to a nice cuppa and a bacon toasty?"

We're staying home today so the car wont be taken out of the barn today and we're not expecting any visitors so its again peace perfect peace.
 
Sounds lovely! No, you can't beat a bacon roll and cuppa. :)

You are usually up at 4am?! Most mornings we get up about 6:45 and I leave for the gym at 8.

Would have been great if you had started a blog as soon as you moved to France! I am sorry I didn't start doing one when I moved from the US to Scotland back in 2000.
 
I've always heard France has the best healthcare. Do you find that is true?

We've got a friend from Birmingham who married a French woman about 35 years ago and has lived in a gorgeous medieval village with her ever since. He could speak very little French when he married her, but of course became fluent. When we visited them 2 years ago he'd be talking to us and suddenly revert to French! We'd have to say 'English English'. I keep trying to learn French, but I'll try harder when we have a trip booked.
 
Hello Ameriscot,
Yes i feel the french health system treated me better than the uk did and i was paying private health in the uk but when my hip was starting to give pain i was told i'd have a long wait for any operation as the waiting list just to see the surgeon was 6 months and then 18 months if i needed a replacement,
Here i went on a monday to see my own doctor, by thursday i was x-rayed and the same day the surgeon (polish) confirmed i needed the operation and the following tuesday i was addmitted and wednesday i had the opp and 12 days later i was home,
The care from all the staff including the home visit's was A1 all the way.
 
whisteria said:
Hello Ameriscot,
Yes i feel the french health system treated me better than the uk did and i was paying private health in the uk but when my hip was starting to give pain i was told i'd have a long wait for any operation as the waiting list just to see the surgeon was 6 months and then 18 months if i needed a replacement,
Here i went on a monday to see my own doctor, by thursday i was x-rayed and the same day the surgeon (polish) confirmed i needed the operation and the following tuesday i was addmitted and wednesday i had the opp and 12 days later i was home,
The care from all the staff including the home visit's was A1 all the way.
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That's amazing! I've no complaints about the NHS here but then I've never needed surgery or urgent health care.
 
No i dont as the norm be found awake at 4am, more like 6am with 4 dogs to walk and a wife to make her cuppa when she's awake I find the 6am chorus from all the wild birds just a perfect start to the day,
I like that early morning fresh air feeling "it's worth the getting up early for,
Ive never been one to lay in bed even weekends i like to enjoy every hour of the day doing something "but not laying in bed".
 
whisteria said:
No i dont as the norm be found awake at 4am, more like 6am with 4 dogs to walk and a wife to make her cuppa when she's awake I find the 6am chorus from all the wild birds just a perfect start to the day,
I like that early morning fresh air feeling "it's worth the getting up early for,
Ive never been one to lay in bed even weekends i like to enjoy every hour of the day doing something "but not laying in bed".
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I misread your post as you usually get up at 4am, not go to bed!
 
The suns been out all day and so have we,

Yes its been a really nice sunny day today and except for the post lady we've not seen a soul,
neither car has been even started and its been gardening all day,

A really nice day for weeding, Now some people dont like to weed but "me" I dont mind doing it and infact i find it a good time to think as you weed
A bit like driving really you just weed away without thinking what your doing
Remember when you first started to drive ? you found yourself looking and the gear lever (stick in usa) everytime you wanted to change gear ?
but after you'd done this time & time again you dont really think much about it!!! well weeding to me is very much the same thing and if you pull a huge thistle out and find a large clear space left behind "well it gives you a bit of satisfaction and you soon fill the barrow up with weeds etc.

After the weeding i sat on the patio and watched as the blue tit worked hard bring food to the nest-box
I could hear the chicks inside chirping for more food as the mother did her long days feeding, a lovely sight and a free show provided by mother nature.

But by 9am it was time to call it a day and enjoy a shower before dinner,
Mays coming to an end and we take the winter pool cover off on the first of june and im so wanting a hot summer so we can enjoy the late night dip in the pool and that night cap (whisky and lemonade & ice)

Gardening really is a great hobby to have and one that provides fresh food and fresh air all at the same time.

One of the best value for money buys are fruit trees, they dont cost the earth to buy and once they've been planted and start to crop you've fresh fruit for years & years,
Im really keen on fresh fruit, and so's the wife.
I had a look at the orchard today and all is well, Everythings growing well and so if this keeps up we'll have a good crop ready for storing and bottling and freezing.

Anyone else doing anything in the garden dept?
 
No food grown in our garden except for two apple trees. But it is filled with dozens of species of beautiful flowers and plants and trees. Husband loves to work in it and calls it his kingdom.
 
Morning nancy,
Just back from the morning "walkies" and i managed to fall into the stream thanks to "Henrye one of our dogs so im feeling really fresh and awake,
we've a few tree's apple 7 varieties and one we rescued when we bought the place is a rare type, so we've plenty of eating and cooking apple tree's,
4 plum trees 2 cherry 3 pear, 2 mirabelle plus the small currant bush white /black & red and a grape vine 'green sweet grape type.

SO as you can see we never run out of fruit once we bottle it and freeze home made pies etc.

Nice to talk to you Nancy,
 
Good morning Ameriscot,
its a nice one here this morning,
I know just we're your husbands coming from ref "his kingdom" I really do love the garden,
When we bought this place it lay empty for 25 years and the land around the house (two acre) was really a jungle some of the trees had fallen down became over grown and you couldnt see them,
Infact i'll write a blog ref what we first saw when we viewed this place and that'll say it all.
Have a nice one Ameriscot and i hope the weathers nice with you.
 
Morning Shalimar,
Yes we do grow veg and the future plans really done fall into growing alot more,
what about you are you into gardening?
 
Hi, Whisteria, I love to garden. Unfortunately, I live in a condo, but I fill the balcony with hanging baskets of flowers, along with planters attached to the railing and large pots on the floor. Along with flowers, I grow herbs, tomatoes, lettuce and beans. This year, I am experimenting with wall planters for fresh greens. When I lived in a house, I had huge gardens, berries, and fruit trees. It was a wonderful experience, and I miss it still.
 


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