Well, we are through the snow, the freezing rain and the storm (which wasn't much around here, but others suffered big time). Even more amazingly, we have survived the conversion to Fibre, so now I revel in 92Mbps here at my computer at the end of a 20m ethernet cable. Down by the modem, it is rather more like 520Mbps, but we haven't really noticed the revolutionary new speeds. The TV still whirls around from time to time, waiting for a signal, and the radio glitches sometimes too. But I guess that's not the point. Anyway, 2025?
It started in fog, murk and dankness - the first two months were dominated by the Dunkelflaute and its spirit sapping dullness and depressingness. It was also very, very wet, and le Loir flooded up at la Fleche for example.
Such weather is of course a breeding ground for germs and other nasties, and we lost a chunk of February to 'flu and feeling sorry for ourselves.
But then with March, the clouds lifted, the skies dried up, we started to feel a lot more vigorous and enthused and started to prepare for a new gardening season. Mother Nature also seemed to think that actually 2025 might be alright and the blossom fest started.
We bought in loads of compost, and got stuck in to making 2025 more flowery and more fruitful than 2024, including actually doing something with the cheap bulbs you can buy from Aldi (other discount stores are available). Therefore in April, I started to reap the benefits of that and could admire my whimsical wellies - the only way I would stop wearing my much loved and very broken old wellies was to use them as planters.
2024 was a horrid year on many levels, and in particular the weather. We only had the cover up on the gazebo for about 5 weeks and even then it got torn in high winds. But 2025 was warmer, sunnier and so by May we had the cover mended and up so that we could enjoy a sneaky glass of something in the garden before I started to cook dinner.
One of the sagas of the year was the courgette harvest. In 2024, I bought a packet of 12 seeds, planted them all, 9 came up, 6 were eaten by slugs, 3 were planted out, one then died and on the other two we had perhaps 4 courgettes. In 2025 I bought another packet of 12 seeds and planted them, 10 came up, none were eaten by slugs, none died in the transplanting phase, and we ended up with over 372 courgettes harvested over the season.
The men's Tour de France is contested in July, and after many years of not coming anywhere near us, in 2025 there was a stage start in Chinon, so we had to go. We'd not been to a stage start before. The crowds were huge and it was only as someone knew someone with a view over the paddock that we got anywhere near seeing anything, but what we did, was Brilliant!
August is Comice time and this year I was on the float for the village with 3 chums and we had a lot of fun on the procession, with surely the prettiest tractor of the lot (not that you can see it on this photo).
In September the harbingers of autumn really come into their own and the cyclamen in the One Acre Wood were outstanding this year, lasting right the way through to late November in places.
October is the month of the Communal Challenge Boules de Forte tournament. This year the team I was part of (Comite des Fetes Women) did bizarrely well. Rather than forfeits, we actually won games, much to the disgust of some of our opponents who took the whole thing rather more seriously. In the end we were demolished in the final by a team of council workers, and very well done to them. Even so, it was weird to do so well. I'm still not taking it up as a serious sport.
In November I dashed over to the UK for a few days to see family and repair an heirloom chair which had a broken seat. I hadn't done any real canework in about 20 years, so it was fun to find out I hadn't forgotten how, and a real sense of pride in getting a whole seat done in about 5 hours. If I'm being really pickie, it's not quite as perfect as it would have been when we did this semi-professionally, but I'm still chuffed with it.
December brings all the fun and games of the end of year festivities, and this year was remarkable for being in the right place, and at the right time, to meet these magnificent dancing Arctic Fox puppets. They were just amazing and it was a joyous parade.
So that was 2025 as I remember it in photos, and it was a rather pleasant year with a bunch of enjoyable outings and activities, decent weather, a lot of garden produce, and meeting up with friends and family. 2026 has a lot to live up to - we'll see how it goes.
During the week I brought in a trail camera that had been out for a couple of months, so perhaps next week I will have some stuff from that to share with you.
Have a good week!
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