Much 'to do' in the month of May...

This time of year on the farm is exciting. It is a time of expectation, a time of waiting and a time for a whole lot of doing. Expectation, because the olives are about to flower and that is the first indicator of the strength of the year's crop. Waiting, because the garden is about to bloom; the buttons and buds are full of promise and quietly biding their time before opening. Doing, because there just seems like so much 'to do' before the summer months. I have this mental deadline that makes me crazy about now and it means that I obsess on all the things I want to accomplish outside before June. June, because once the calendar flips from the 31st to the 1st the olives and their management take precedence over everything else in the garden.


I have a habit of leaving everything to the last minute and at the same time I am cursed with a perfectionist nature so that means that my month of May is a mad scramble. Suddenly I notice that the outdoor furniture needs a lick of paint, the pool beds need new cushions or at the very least a good scrub, the pot plants on the terrace need refreshing and some of the garden beds would look better with an addition or two. I don't exactly know why I have to have everything just so for summer as they are the laziest months of the year - I suppose it is the time when we slow down and actually manage to enjoy the beauty of the farm, bask in the sun and relax into the French lifestyle. 


Not to mention my 'to do' list inside. I want to re-arrange the furniture in most rooms (I can't help myself with that one and so often it ends up back in the same place...but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do), create new vignettes with my bits and pieces, hang some junky little paintings I have found in the brocantes over the winter months and upholster the sofa in the sitting room. And then there is the cleaning out, the throwing out and the re-arrangement of all the cupboards...


'To do' is doing my head in. I would much rather stare at the rose buds and wait for them to bloom, xv.

image of the roses at mas de bérard last year - carla