Created Compost Heap a.k.a. “Snail Pits”

Getting back to my peasant roots! [Actually, I don’t think my family were peasants – more skilled manual workers/artisans: blacksmiths; wheelwrights; butchers; publicans (!) from the genealogical research so far.] Now have cleaned out the snail pits – beautiful (there wasn’t even any slime!. Did I mention that the [French] neighbours think I’m mad because I kill snails?! Wait till I tell my English neighbour that we’ve got a snail farm in our garden – she’ll think that’s mad!). I have decided that the deeper one will be compost heap at one end & leaf mould heap the other end. In the shallower one I’m dumping: rotting wood (to create wildlife habitat – I think it’s stag beetles I’m encouraging?), sticks & twigs (kindling, for when we get a fireplace/insert/poêle) and stones (for, well, who knows? Maybe hard-core to fill in the patio pit – how ironic is that? Dig out all the stones, to… fill the hole with stones!). I’ve partially cleared the pathway between the two pits and once I finish chopping up the fallen branch from the greengage, will be able to easily get at them.

Also cleared under the walnut trees – essential so our kind neighbour can collect the walnuts He kindly agreed to this last year – we said if he’d collect them for us he could have half – everyone a winner! So we’re hoping he’ll do the same this year (and he can leave his tractor in the barn).

Am now picking up all the fallen horse chestnut leaves – they don’t seem to mulch down, and as the ground is uneven it makes a real trip hazard. May just level out some of the bumps when I’ve done that… After I’ve pulled out all the ivy, taken out all the dead wood (& brambles) from the elder bushes, moved a second compost heap to the snail pits (had nearly finished moving the first one when r.s.p. [rain stopped play],), picked up all the rubbish (seem to have cornered the world market in degrading scraps of baler twine – why?!), picked up all the (remaining!) broken tiles for hard-core & taken a couple of loads more rubbish to the tip. Oh, and of course I need to flatten the soil heap, lay paths, plant plants, spread gravel, lay the patio, weed kill the drive, and maybe eat & sleep!

Did I say I was getting back to my peasant roots? Hard physical exercise – with no time limits/deadlines; (if it doesn’t get done [with the exception of the plants – and I’ve plenty of time to plant them] it will still be there next year) – is really therapeutic. And I may even get fitter/lose some of the excess poundage!

My darling is still fast asleep (10.30). I’m letting him sleep, as he’ll need all of his strengthlater when we try to get to grips with the French mobile phones – like how to make the display stay lit for more that one second, why it doesn’t show who’s calling, what PIN to insert when we swap the SIM cards with the English ones, how to top them up (mine’s on subscription in the UK), etc., etc., etc.