Well, Well, Well.
/With the weather in our part of France due to reach 38 degrees next week we thought it would be a good time to get ourselves a plant watering system. We seem to have spent some considerable time and money buying plants this year and you would think the task of watering them was not too onerous, well it is! The problem is not so much the doing of it but the remembering to do it and before you know it wilted flowers are gasping for water from their terracotta pots.
The DIY stores carry a plethora of small bags with assorted bits of plastic all with their own particular role in the grand scheme of a watering system. Shunning the kit, which only had eighteen drippers we headed for the “choose all the bits yourself” display. The stand carries a large diagram and we are supposed to think how simple this maccano type exercise is going to be. As the tanoy announces closure for lunch, we staggered to the tills laden with every dripper, hose and bung necessary to create our very own garden watering facility. Well time will tell but we may still be here at midnight making our wonderful time saving system!
These last few months have seen the culmination of another water project, our well. To be truthful when we bought the house we didn’t realise we had a well, it was covered over by a rampant fig and the lower shoots of the lime tree. Wells in the south west of France have a particular style, their round pill box design is topped by a sloping roof with terracotta tiles. The doors are usually wooden and the well would have served a real need on the farm in the past. Today we are on the water system and have fresh water piped to the house but the well is a no cost option for watering the garden in the summer.
Our most important priority was however to make the well safe and secure. Throughout the winter months we carefully replaced the fallen down walls, a long task cementing the stone in place. Then in the spring the blacksmith came and measured the space to make a security grill. Once it was ready he then returned to fit it. Finally in May the roof went on, thanks to Michael for all his help and advice in getting the roof done, building a wooden base and covering it with terracotta barrel tiles. The door is now on our well house and we have a belt and braces situation regarding security.
The well is an important feature in the garden and we have to now look to our pumping system in order to make the most of this resource, we would also like to put in a light to illuminate the stonework within. So something we didn't even know we had got has now become a centre piece of the garden.......well, well, well!
We had discovered the well.
Cutting back the vegetation to see the task ahead.
The blacksmith measures for the security grill.
The security grill goes in.
It's nearly finish now. The fig tree is coming back already!