gardening in Carteret

Carteret, France

We stayed here in Carteret for three days--exchanging a bit of work for room and board.  I cannot imagine a more comfortable home and delightful visit.  Well...I guess if it hadn't have rained so much, things would have been nicer.  Jacqui is a British teacher of English--exactly what I will be this year.  She got on famously with Oskar and Maxim...playing Snakes and Ladders, Dominoes, Triominos, and other games she uses during her private lessons.

The boys and I had great success trimming the hedge around the property.  They were especially adept at rounding up the clippings.  Here is Oskar digging in a patch of garden, preparing it expertly for planting, and trimming some hedges:

Here is Maxim trimming some hedges.  He is the author of many of the pictures:

   One of the first things we did to help in the garden was to pick strawberries.  We made a delightful strawberry cake with our delicious bits of sunshine.  On the last night, our host tried to get the boys to help her make some pizza...and she prepared salmon risotto for the adults.

In exchange for room and board from Jacqui, we picked strawberries and prepared some ground for planting, but the big job was trimming the hedge.  I used an electric hedge trimmer and step ladder.  When I was nearly finished, I was forced by surrounding trees and such to lean the ladder onto the hedge.  I worked much better than standing the thing precariously as is the custom with step ladders.  The video below shows me placing the ladder and rising above the hedge.  Maxim is the camera-person.