Getting to work, a taste of Albi, and Vide Granier
Settling into the work at Chateau Brametourte has been challenging and fun, while our leisure time has offered a host of activities.
Our reason for being here – permaculture gardening – was finally at hand, or you could say, almost nearly within reach as the weather moves from cold and frosty to chilly and plantable. We’ve been adjusting to a life that has as many contradictions as blessings and much of our introduction to life at the chateau has involved a great deal of adjusting. Whether it’s drilling through cement foundation, plastering-in electrical conduit, or finding out that your hosts’ definition of “vegetarian” includes eating fish and the occasional steak: these are some of the trying times. On the other end of the spectrum the work is stimulating, VERY educational, and our hosts have been very accomodating to our diet of no animal products.
In this first month, while the weather has been cold, we’ve been spending most of our time planning and seeding. The planning part has been taking measurements of our garden area and drawing scale maps to work with. Then we created a Planting Schema for the 2009 season based on what was planted last year, what seeds we have this year, and mixed that with our desire to do as much Permaculture “companion planting” as possible. Here’s what we came up with:
The other thing we’ve been doing is propegating seeds indoors. This is a biodynamic method of planting which increases your chances of success by doing two succesional growing phases indoors, then “hardening off” the plant outdoors in a cold frame before planting the little guy into the ground. We’ve just gone through those phases with our French Beans and Zucchini so we’ll report back as to our success.
Here’s our little indoor nursery:
We started to come up with more permaculture ideas for other spots too like the Southwest viewing area…that is until we found that Paul and Allison intend to install a swimming pool (ugh! we were hoping for a bit greener of an idea!). But to give them credit they’ve done much of the stone work here with the traditional lime instead of concrete and they’ve installed a sizeable greywater reed-bed filtering system. On many levels they are eco-conscious, just perhaps not the “model of sustainability” they claimed to be reaching for when we agreed to come work here. But, as we said, we’re all learning from each other and meeting in the middle.
This is a picture of the overlook area which views out onto a sweeping vista of the French countryside. In the foreground is a defunct fountain area which will be melded into the pool once the summer is over. In the background, where the large shrubs on the left meet the low stone wall on the right is the future home of the herb spiral which you’ll see us building in a minute.
We’ve sown plenty of seeds only to have had some die at the hands of the “vent d’autun” which is a wind event that happens close to rainy weather. Since we’ve had plenty of rain this spring, we’ve also experienced these howling winds which are caused by the regional geography – ultimately we’re grateful for the underfloor heating and a warm bed at night.
One exciting project has been the creation of an herb spiral which offers beauty and function in the SW viewing area. First we had to clear out some box hedge. Here is the before picture:
We decided to incorporate the tree stump into the design and it will later be carved into a seat or a sculpture perhaps…
On this particular day, the winds were driving like crazy, but the horizon was clear as crystal and the Pyrenees were there to cheer us on. This is the view from the SW viewing area (which we think deserves a better name but the “terrace” is already taken by the front porch). You can see the huge grey cloud mass just sitting on top of us, while the sun lit up their snowy peaks.
After installing some chicken-wire protection, it was finally time to plant the herbs!
The herb spiral is a great way to plant many things that have various needs together, making the most of a small space. For example, the lavender and rosemary planted on the top of the spiral like lots of sun and dry soil, while the chives planted towards the side like partial sun and wetter soil. The stones absorb the heat of the sun and keep the herbs warm at night. We encourage anyone who has a bit of space to put in an herb spiral, it’s an easy weekend project that you’ll get tons of enjoyment from!
A typical day starts at 8am with help-yourself breakfast while work starts promptly at 9. We have a task rotor which keeps us rotating bewteen meal clean-ups and preparations and assigns our week-end chores (chateaux don’t clean themselves!) So every so often, everyone has a day off from kitchen duty, and the weekend chores vary. Christine has been happily tasked with making daily fresh bread in their handy bread machine which ensures we have fresh whole wheat bread every morning. With our evening meal, we’re treated to one beer or wine compliments of Paul and Allison. At Allison’s suggestion, Christine made a stock of bean burgers that we put away in the freezer so that when they do eat the factory meat, we can just pull them out and have a nice meal for ourselves.
Much of our work is outside: weeding, transplanting, sowing, building bean poles, trellises, etc., but we are often called upon to help with inside preparations for the bed & breakfast that Chateau Brametourte will ultimately become. This could be waxing the floors, sewing curtains, or laying electrical conduit. Here’s Christine at the potting table.
But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so we find lots of fun hiding behind every corner. Liz (the other long term volunteer here, she’s in charge of household tasks) is great at organizing games and we’ve had many good laughs with drawings and “French Balderdash” – a game she created. There’s also a lovely pond and fitness walk that’s a 20 minute stroll from the chateau which offers peaceful views of the countryside. We have plenty of internet access and a large DVD collection which we can enjoy on a large screen TV in the salon while a nice big hearth crackles away through grey and rainy days. Jonathan’s also enjoyed several Championship League football matches that are exciting to watch.
Recently we enjoyed our first leisure outing in the small city of Albi, home of beautiful flowers and the most oppressive-looking cathedral fortress ever. It was built for this purpose exactly after the Pope’s crusaders massacred the Cathars who dominated this region. Albi was their cultural and economic center, hence the term Albigensian crusade, and the cathedral was built to remind the survivors not to diss the Catholic Empire – it’s the tallest brick building in Europe – it’s the brick house of Catholicism.
Here we are with Pheobe from Bristol and Jumpei whom we met in Sadhana Forest, kept in touch with, and came to volunteer at the chateau for two weeks! He’s from Kobe, Japan and very keen on discovering music. We all enjoyed the flowers and parks of Albi.
Albi also is birthplace of artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and home to a museum of his works. We enjoyed the exhibit immensely and learned a little about him and much more about the turn of the century era art scene, a unique bridge between impressionism and modern – unfortunately, photos were not permitted.
Here are two of Jonathan’s favorite photos from Albi. If you’d like to see more, you can visit our picassa album.
What a beautiful smile!!!!
The other most recent fun activity was a local “vide granier” which means attic vaccuum – it’s basically a flea market and they’re really popular in France. Jonathan really wants some cast iron crocks like these but traveling around with them is out. They also had tons of manual coffee grinders which will be great for when there isn’t electricity. But this was not a day for stockpiling. We came away with some cool postcards.
We’ll be visiting the one in Lautrec in June – can’t wait! Here Christine found a nice old wooden shoe – neat!
We’ve had a few more days of clear weather and so here’s another photo of the distant Pyrenees, the highest peak near to us, in the center is Pic Carlit (2921 meters or about 9,000ft.) For both of us, who really love the mountains, sights like this are both comforting and energizing – we’re grateful to be somewhat close to such beauty. We really hope to do some trekking in the Pyrenees soon, maybe with our friends Brian and Annie who have started their own adventure in Spain. To read more about their travels you can visit their blog, Traveler’s Pantry.
Alas, all these good times don’t last forever and soon we had to say goodbye to all the other helpers, leaving just the five of us. It’s interesting to note our progression from the two-week minimum stay we started with one year ago to now being the long-term helpers. Now instead of us moving on to a different farm, we welcome and bid adieu to many different helpers and that’s a totally different experience!
seeingspain
May 1st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
You guys have certainly acquired a lot of knowledge and wisdom regarding planting, planning, structuring, etc. and it shows in this post. I can’t wait to pick your brains sometime soon. Lovely pics as well- it’s so nice to see your happy faces always. Keep up the good work- I hope the sun warms you soon. much love to you both!
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