End of the Tulips

This seems to be the final week for the tulips in the Garden. I missed taking photos of some of the better displays of color, but maybe I will get some better shots next year. The tulips in this photo are in their third year. This year I forgot they were here and added about three inches of topsoil on top of them. Although they came up later than in past years they have been in bloom for two weeks.










The iris in this photo were some of the iris that I brought from San Francisco when we moved here six years ago. The origional plants were given to me by a friend in the early eighties. I planted them in the garden in San Francisco, and they soon took over most of the garden. I dug them all up in the early ninties and as I was carrying them to the trash can. Our neighbor Karen asked me if it was OK if she took some of them to plant in her garden. I warned her about how prolific they were and she said no problem. As they proceeded to take over her garden, she started giving them away. When we moved, they were a going away present for me.


This is one of the tulips that I planted about six years ago. I am always amazed about the stamina of this tulip.

Last Saturdays Trip

We went for a drive last Saturday over to the east side of the Haute Garonne. As we were driving we saw this ruin on a hill and decided to explore. Ruins like these dot the countryside of south west France, and many of them date to the 12th to the 14the Century. In most cases it is difficult to find out much about them but it is one of the things that we like to explore.

This is the Chateau as you approach from the road that goes past it. As you can see there is not much left that you would be able to restore. Many of these ruins are old fortified chateaus that are still owned by heirs of the original owners.

This is a view of the Chateau from the gate that you see in the above photo. One thing that was interesting was the flowers that were still growing that had probably been planted several hundred years ago.

This is a view from the other side of the Chateau. The village below is Montbrun Bocage. There are many buildings in the village that date back to the 1500's