Return to Candes after 3 years, April 2019

View from 'my' bedroom in Nicholas's
house 

The front of the house. Wisteria, lilac, clematis, roses - with a kiwi berry vine 

I visited Nicholas three years ago and was very happy to have the opportunity to go back again. He's had the roof retiled recently, completed the bathroom- there's even a flush toilet now - and he's done a lot more planting. He has another old barn now, and some of the stone walls have been repaired.

Candes is a tiny hamlet near Comiac in the Lot Region. Comiac has a cafe but for shopping, it's a trip down the hill to Bretenoux or Saint-Céré, 20 minutes via narrow winding roads.

In a borrowed pair of gumboots, a scavanged men's jumper and think gardening gloves I got to work on the nettles, filling barrow after barrow with them, revealing all the irises along the walls just about ready to flower. I pulled weeds from around the peonies, also just coming into bloom.

Nicholas - in the Japanese maple walled garden.
I cleared a mountain of weeds, but
there's  still so much blackberry in there

On sunny days we'd have lunch in the garden, but it was just as nice on wet days being inside with the fire going and a big pot of soup on the hob. 

The broad beans were up but they were being attacked by moles.
Hence the bottles on stakes - they are meant to vibrate in the ground and keep pests away.