Trees, trees, trees

It seems that every day we have more dead and overgrown trees to

cut down but we are at last getting there. Now the back of the chateau has been totally tidied up and it looks really great. Also the long grass pathway that leads to the lake and the old gates has also had the four large and very dead trees taken down (1st photo) and all that needs doing there is to get the local farmer in to clear out the ditch of brambles and the like. Then it will be ready next summer for us to plant the avenue of trees that will lead down to the old gate - can't wait to do that!

Now we are turning our attention to the outbuildings and the park in from of the chateau. We let Igor loose with the chain saw and one of the overgrown shrub / trees that was spoiling the view (it had grown totally out of control) has now also gone (2nd photo). The idea is to have the park / garden in front of the chateau  planted with some new trees, randomly spaced to supplement the beautiful old trees already growing there. This will then be a lovely area to walk through on the way down to the

woods at the bottom. We are also stockpiling a great deal of wood which will

no doubt come in useful at some point. Downside is having to lift it all into the trailer and then carry it all into the barns. What you can

see in the photos is not even the half of it, I ache everywhere! We are also chipping all the small branches to make mulch which we will use over the next few years. So far we have only chipped one small pile of these branches and have already pretty much filled up a 1000kg builders bag!