Sunday, April 25, 2010

outdoor terraces : forced pause



Incredible, but very true : Instead of being able to finish the outdoor terraces we've been waiting for the jointing filler, colour ton pierre, already for more than a week. All the great entreprises in the Cahors region who sell building and construction materials ran out of stock of jointing fillers last week and couldn't get new supply immediately. Very strange.


In the vineyards the activities continue : after controlling the wire posts in the last week the left branches of the vine were attached to the wires.



The next thing to do is the ébourgeonnage which normally takes place in May.
This work consists in cutting off, eliminating the young shoots that are useless and even harmful for the vine because it takes away extra juice (sève).


Because of the beautiful warm weather - third week in a row without rain and temperatures about 20° and more - it seems that the springing of the vine leaves is ahead of other years.



This week I amused myself with taking pictures of the catkins:
* of the walnut tree and
* of the Corkscrew or Curly Willow (Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'), a tree coming from China and which I adore in every season.



The palm tree is most beautiful this year - I don't know why. Perhaps because I trimmed it on time.