Xmas2025

Christmas Letter and Card '25

A very merry greetings for this year's festivities and a happy new year for 2026.

Our Christmas Letter '25

An interesting year here with droughts and intensely hot weather making gardening very difficult. Greenhouse crops failed or were savaged by pests. We grew an early crop of climbing French beans inside the polytunnel but they quickly became baked and covered in red spider mite. It just wasn't possible to keep the plants watered. But instead we had the best fruit harvests ever, as no frosts in spring meant abundant pears and apples, the best kiwi crop ever, and even plentiful cane fruit, cultivated and wild.

Chinese Greens in early December

Of course, the weeds had few problems with the wet weather and the brambles, nettles and every other weed known to man shot up and covered the carefully weeded areas in just a few days it seemed. No amount of cardboard, mulch and plastic covers were enough to keep them in check. And when it is too hot, you cannot go out in the sun and wield a heavy strimmer or even push a mower.

The worst disruption to our normally tranquil rural lives, however, has been the disruption resulting from the major urgent repairs to the earth dam which is only 50 metres from our door. It has been evident for some time that springs have begun to undermine the base and there has been the potential danger of a catastrophic break. For three months there have been major works involving reinforcing of the entire structure with boulders, clay, gravel, sand along with the reconstruction of the sluices. This has meant streams of lorries bringing materials and premixed concrete, the constant reversing whistles of the lorries and crashing of aggregates being unloaded, and work starting early and finishing late that has really disturbed our otherwise rural tranquility. It may finish before Xmas but next autumn there is another phase of the work. It has to be done, as a rupture of the dam would destroy our entire home but would also flood the Lathan valley down to the town of Longue Jumelles 23 km away where schools and buildings near the river would be flooded. So we have to grin and bear it!

New sluice mechanism at base of dam still under construction

https://studio.youtube.com/video/3O7J-Gp819A/edit

Those in charge of the dam did finally give in to public pressures and complaints about streams of lorries and the noise by holding a public meeting on the dam to show us the work and explaining the plans and timescale. But various things had been done without notification such as buying up local pieces of land to extract clay and other materials, although these have now been restored reasonably well.

Wildlife has of course been severely impacted and although the herons are still to be seen perched near the works on most days, the kingfishers have gone AWOL and I suspect there has been carnage to the huge population of frogs and other amphibians in the area where now hundreds of tonnes of aggregates have been laid. With hope the area will be repopulated from the adjoining river, but even the fish have suffered badly with all the debris and mud in the water coming through.

Some black raspberries and Columbia Star blackberries in June

Monstera deliciosa fruit from Swiss cheese plant in the orangery. Takes two years from flower to fruit but a very distinct sweet taste after that. The plant has to be at least 12 feet high and growing for several years protected from frost.

One little bit of excitement and unexpected pleasure has come to our local village/small town, of Noyant.. For many years now we have no longer had any restaurant or even a decent cafe in which to have a drink or a cup of coffee. The old Lion d'Or closed down several years ago and the people who took it over had a business that soon foundered as they had no idea how to appeal to a local clientele. But the local council has financed and supported the refurbishment of an old hotel called the Saint Martin in the main street.

Finally after lots of work it opened on October 1st and from the first day has been a roaring success. It only serves meals at lunch time but not only has provided great service and wonderful food, with a buffet, main course, cheese and dessert, including a carafe of wine, but has a beautifully designed and decorated new premises. Every time we have been there since its opening, it has been packed and it seems set to survive if they continue in the same fashion. We will be having a Xmas lunch there on December 19th.

At the same time, the village bakery at Breil, run by Didier for more than 40 years, has finally closed down with nobody willing to take it over. It means we will have to go to Noyant for bread in future unless we bake it ourselves.

My major project this year was the construction of a porch at the front of the house, really a mini conservatory with double glazed wooden windows and door and wooden walls filled with insulation material and topped with a polycarbonate roof. Doing the ground work and making the foundations took far longer and more work and materials than I ever imagined so it was a lengthy job especially in the height of the summer heatwave which meant stopping work once it got too warm. At least it is now very useful as a place to put coats and boots, dog leads and so on.. And in the winter sunshine it heats up and warms the front of the house, protecting it from damp. After several coats of very expensive varnish inside and out, it looks very smart and modern and should last for a long time despite the geese trying to force an entry in cold weather.

Early construction stage of the porch

Porch completed in August 25

We are both relatively fit and well, though Sally's eyesight problems are worse and despite my previous problems with my 'dicky ticker' and past stroke, I get loads of exercise with long walks every day with Oscar, so no complaints.

We are getting (marginally) involved in local politics again in supporting a local left leaning group for the local communal elections next year. But we are too busy and old to play an active role.

Detailed letter at https://www.adrianfox.co.uk/xmas (this site)

Best wishes from Adrian, Sally and Oscar

Not cherries but crab apples grown from a seed retrieved from an ornamental tree in Tours.