France in Focus

@ Blaze, or several nights of freezing temperatures early May. Even more disappointing: a flock of starlings several days before you want to start picking cherries, thirty minutes later and almost nothing left.

@RA - I don't think it produces fruit, perhaps it's too young. It's extremely unlikely that we'd get several days of freezing temperatures here .... and our dog would be guaranteed to chase off any marauding starlings !

Not too young, just an ornamental cherry. I amy be wrong but fruiting cherries have white blossom.

We saw our first swallow on Thursday.

Some lovely photos.

It’s good to see lilacs are in full flower here - when I left home last Tuesday ours had tight buds, but that’s all. I bought a big bunch of purple lilac in the market yesterday, which are looking lovely in an old jug; if they do well I’ll pass them on to a neighbour when I leave on Thuursday.

Also many glycines - I can never remember their English name; my husband who recognises roses, dandelions and not much else always comes up with the English name for me - but he’s at home back in Berkshire. Someone on here will no doubt tell me - save me looking up in a dictionary,

A simple nettle, our quince tree and mowing the grass, but not everything.

Yesterday afternoon: the sound of a cuckoo. Friday evening aerial acrobatics by five swallows.

Lovely photos, RA.

My husband has just reminded me in our nightly phone call that glycine is a wisteria. I don’t know why I find that so hard to remember!

Walking to a restaurant early this evening, roadside picture.

Polly wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:02 pm Also many glycines - I can never remember their English name

Wisteria ... and I love to look at it, but it is, apparently, an invasive plant, so you have to be careful where you plant it.

Lori wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 7:12 am

Polly wrote: ↑Sun Apr 07, 2024 8:02 pm Also many glycines - I can never remember their English name

Wisteria ... and I love to look at it, but it is, apparently, an invasive plant, so you have to be careful where you plant it.

I’ve read that the Chinese wisteria can be invasive particularly in forests, but in gardens, where it’s usually cared for and cut back it’s usually fine, particularly the Japanese variety.

Most seem to be grown against houses, where there shouldn’t problems with roots unless foundations are already weak or brickwork is already damaged.

As you say, lovely to look at. I saw more glycines with their lovely racemes hanging over walls and fences while staying at our apartment during my short visit (flew home yesterday) than ever before.

There’s a beautiful, massive one, not very far from us in Berkshire, at the National Trust property Grey’s Court. Many articles say it’s 125 years old, so it must be at least several years older than that. We must visit in the next couple of weeks as the wisteria must soon be flowering.