I dug the plant bed near the well today with the old garden spade. We used to eat lots of strawberries from that bed, surely we will get some more.

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It took me around three hours to dig the 12.00 x 1.20 meters plant bed, one hour yesterday, one hour this morning and one hour this afternoon. I thought doing this was more purposeful than going skiing, in spite of today’s wonderful weather which would have allowed for some off-piste in the avalanche-free mountains of the Auvergne. Instead, I strengthened my back and arms completing the first stage of a plant bed renovation that will add a desirable touch to the garden here in Aurillac.

I remember the strawberries we used to eat when I was a child. We could pick enough of them from that bed to have dessert whenever we wanted in our family of four. They were the best strawberries I ever tasted, because you don’t beat sun-ripened fruit picked at noon to be eaten at 1pm in a sunny kitchen with your parents and sister. Only in UK pick-your-owns have I felt the same sort of blessing to be in a field surrounded by the singing of birds in the light breeze of a sunny June Sunday, crouching down to pick and taste a deliciously ripe, warm and juicy red strawberry that resembled a gift of Providence.

The strawberry plants have long disappeared from the garden of Aurillac but the garden spade, which I used as a child to plant carrots and potatoes, is still here. It is in a way the link between this long gone past and the near future of “Le Jardin d’Aurillac”.

The garden blade is part of a set of simple but quite effective tools that have been in the garden of Aurillac for several generations.

The plant bed is near the well indeed. I intend to repair the pump, which I have actually never seen used.

Almost half way through the work, around noon today. The wall, South facing, will help strawberries become the sweetest delicacies.

In the middle of the afternoon, as I was finishing the digging work, I started to hear children voices and carnival music. I just had time to take a quick photo of the parade, zooming from the plant bed. A garden with strawberries, children laughing on the high street, isn’t life beautiful in “Le Jardin d’Aurillac”?