After a busy week Nigel and I, accompanied by Ellen our niece, decided to reward ourselves on Sunday afternoon with a visit to Châteauneuf-de-Grasse’s annual Fête Agricole et Pastorale.

After lunch by the pool the three of us walked over to Notre Dame de Brusc, a small church set amongst some very ancient olive trees where it was being held. Though small in size, it nonetheless has an impressive history as archeological diggings (under the direction of Georges Vindry Curator of the Musées de Grasse and carried out between 1958 and 1975) uncovered that the site’s origins dated back to the Bronze Age. The present day Notre Dame de Brusc was built upon the remains of a basilica built in the 11th century which in turn was built upon the ruins of an ancient church dating back to the 5th century. Following restoration work, Notre Dame de Brusc was classed as an Historic Monument in 1986.

We arrived to the sounds of accordion music played by the Accordion Club of Mouans-Sartoux so headed off first to the main tent to see what was happening. Inside, a young band were playing a range of tunes much to the delight of everyone who took turns on the dance floor.

Outside people were milling around, chatting and stopping at the different stalls selling a range of local produce and livestock. Different competitions had already taken place throughout the afternoon such as Concours de Pétanque, Concours d’Huiles et Olives, Concours de Vin d’Orange and Concours de Confiture d’Oranges Amères. Milling with the crowd was a local folkore group called Lei Messuguié dressed in traditional costume and who added a lovely touch to the festival.

While yesterday the weather was fairly sunny, today the heat was most definitely on as if someone upstairs had flipped the "Hot" switch. By lunch time it had topped 32°C/89F° in the shade which I thought was pretty neat. It was certainly the day to be out and about and, in fact, as luck would have it, I managed to do just that this morning. Nigel flew off to Russia early this morning to visit Nizhniy Novgorod (about 600 miles from Moscow) so, after dropping him off at Nice airport, I took the opportunity to drive over to one of my favourite garden centres.

For quite a while Nigel and I have been hunting for Lilac trees and while a dime-a-dozen in the UK they seem somewhat harder to find here in France. But today the gods were in my favour as my local garden centre had just received a delivery of about a dozen trees and, without a moment’s hesitation, I snapped up two straight away.

No sooner had I arrived home and planted them in the garden that word must have got out as an assortment of butterflies suddenly honed in on the trees: Painted Lady, Small White, Orange Tip, Red Admiral and (pictured) the very beautiful Swallowtail. It was a magical sight and I look forward to many wonderful moments watching our butterflies as they enjoy these gorgeously scented trees as much as I do.

It’s been a time of catch-up for me recently. When our old mower gave up the ghost last year we left the garden pretty much to its own devices.  From time to time I’d drag out our small electric mower but it was no match against the grass that had taken advantage of our mild winter and grown tough and tall in the blink of an eye.  Frustrated with such a wimpy machine, what I needed was a machine with clout: a cross between a tractor and a stealth bomber.  After visiting a number of garden centres we found the perfect big beastie; thanks to its power in two days I’ve managed to tame our rampant green weed into looking almost like an immaculate English lawn.

As you can imagine our garden is a blend of English and Mediterranean plants with, for the moment, the accent more on the English side of things. Spring in our garden heralds the flowering of Forsythia, Christmas Rose, Forget-Me-Nots, Snowdrops, Crocuses, Daffodils, Grape Hyacinth, scented Narcissus and Tulips.

This year I’ve decided to take full advantage of April and with the ground still amenable, plant up a small English cottage garden just outside our office. So far I’ve already planted a variety of Clemantis, Tree Mallow, Campanula, Lupins, Buddleia, Snapdragons, Foxglove, Wisteria, Honeysuckle, Hollyhocks, along with a variety of perennials and edging plants all heavy with childhood memories.  

Leading from the cottage garden to the pool area, I’m planting a series of fragrance roses to turn this area into my "rose garden". While we already had some old rose bushes growing there these are sadly unscented. Thus we’ve added two absolutely magnificent perfumed climbing rose trees (bought at the 18th Fête des Jardins in Sophia-Antipolis last Sunday) and some wonderfully scented David Austin roses we found at Botanic in Mouans-Sartoux since then.  

Leaving the rose garden behind us, a short walk brings us to the pool and our BarBQ area and another area of lawn where I plan to have an assortment of Lilac trees and other scented scrubs. The end of the garden will be turned into a small woodland, taking advantage of the large riverbank trees and Weeping Willow that grow there and who will give dappled shade to the ferns, bluebells and other woodland plants I envisage planting.

My Mediterranean garden will be located in front of the house as it receives the full blast of the sun and already has some wonderful palm trees that set the French Riviera tone. While two young Wisterias climb slowly but surely up the side of the house I plan to add further sun-loving Mediterranean plants but who can survive a few rather cold and frosty days here in winter.  Dainty petunias, nasturtiums and mini snapdragons have been planted in large beige earthenware pots just by our front door - another suntrap.

While the tip of my fingers may be slowly turning green, I’m happy to say that they can still nimbly scamper across the keyboard even when covered with plasters!