Tails From Provence

We are heading into the middle of summer, and it suddenly hit me that I haven’t done a “Provençal Spring” post.  Without further ado, here’s my thoughts on Spring in Provence.

The green was slow to come through – much slower than an Irish Spring.  By the middle of April, there were green spots appearing in the woods.

It seemed to take forever for the Holm Oaks to shed their dead leaves, but eventually, there were leaves pushing their way into existence, side by side with last year’s growth in some cases.

Finally, by the middle of May, the forest was a sea of green.

There were wild flowers all over the place.  Click on any photo to see a larger version and enter slideshow mode.

It was a very wet spring.  Everybody was complaining about the weather, and blaming the Irish!

It was also very windy.  It seemed like the Mistral would never stop!

Al fresco lunchers had to wear coats, scarves and sometimes even waterproofs.

Whenever the sun came out, little critters started waking up.

Whenever the rain eased off and the mud dried up, the horses were turned out in the grass paddocks, much the same as in Ireland…

and Aero’s fly rug had to be unearthed as more and more little critters woke up…

…leaving him with lumps all over his body.  He’s such a sensitive boy!

I did get some riding done, but to be honest, the mud was a massive deterrent.  The wind, the rain and the lateness of this Spring made me realise just how lucky Anne and I were when we did Le Big Trek last year.

Apart from some Spring Grass induced friskiness, both horses have been going really well.  They were both a bit  tender in their feet for a while, probably a combination of spring grass and soft ground, but they are much better now that it has dried up.  Flurry is now barefoot all of the time and Aero is  just booted in front.

It’s hard to say when Spring ended and Summer began.  When the first campervan traffic jam happened?  When our friends opened their swimming pool?  Whenever it was, I’m quite certain Summer is here now… and I’m thinking of the Provençal Summer blog post to come already!