Hope Springs eternal

I have to admit that my garden did get somewhat neglected in the Autumn when my mind was on other things and it felt like the adventure was truly beginning. This time last year I was looking forward to what I hoped to be our last Spring here and felt somewhat extravagant buying a witch hazel which I would only see in bloom once.

A year on and we are still here and desperate for another Spring to arrive. A tiny break in the awful weather got me inspired to start on a tidy up of the flower beds which are home to the early Spring flowering hellebores and snowdrops. And there they are, preparing to burst forth in all their glory and the witch hazel is flowering - how will anyone be able to resist buying the house.





This week has seen the first activity with regard to the house sale since before Christmas. A family came yesterday but did not seem likely purchasers. At the weekend another family are coming back for a second look. This should of course be a hopeful sign but their house is not even on the market so I don't even want to go there!! It did mean a good tidy up was in order - not such a bad thing as we hadn't quite got straight after the Christmas festivities.

I have to admit to recently having problems staying positive and more than once the possibility of forgetting the whole thing has crossed my mind - a suggestion smartly rebuffed by TC. He is still at the enjoying retirement phase and is keeping very busy but I predict he will be looking for something more if we can't get our French project under way soon. I have returned to the estate agent websites in France to keep an eye out for likely properties in preparation for the phonecall telling us Las Charretieres is sold. There are some interesting houses we could look at but we have no intention of doing so again until we are sure we can get on with buying it's just too stressful. They do say that moving house is one of the most stressful things we do in life - I have to say that NOT moving house is well up there on the list!

Unless we have a miracle and get an early quick sale our plans are now to return to Pavillon for our usual Easter visit and hopefully extend our stay. In the meantime I will look forward to seeing the snowdrops and daffodils once more. I need to stop thinking about my new French garden until I actually have one to think about - there is lots to get on with here.