As promised: spring at 'Le Petit Lapin'

Daffodils against the granite cottage wall

It's spring!  Well... the temperatures are still pretty cool at night and the bright sunny days alternate pretty regularly with cloudy and rainy ones-- it is, after all, that season-- but spring is definitely beginning to bloom all over in Sains: the grass is emerald green; the bright yellow daffodils are out in the courtyard;
and the pears and apples are all in bud and ready to burst into flower.  The lilac that I planted as a cluster of sticks two weeks ago is now covered in promising tiny leaves, while the strong red stalks of the peonies are valiantly pushing up through the chives.

Peonies beginning among the chives

The days are appreciably longer now, too, in this most western region of France.  In summer the light lasts till after ten, but even before daylight saving kicks in on the last Sunday of March, it's still light these spring evenings at seven-- a big contrast to those wintry December days when darkness fell fast at five-thirty and my cats were clamoring for their dinner by six.

This spring's yellow pansies

This year I've decided on yellow pansies for the little flower bed outside 'Le Petit Lapin'.  It was originally a feeding trough for the pigs: the farmer would push the wooden door inwards, pour the mash into the hollow, then pull the door to so the pigs inside could eat.  The trough has now been filled with earth and the little yellow pansies do look rather happy there, don't they?