Our hamlet, house, and yard

I did a lot of pruning in the hedge on on the west side of our land yesterday afternoon. The weather was perfect for it. I cut back a lot of ronces (blackberries, brambles), some ivy, and other invasive plants. I didn't take any pictures. Maybe today. But first I have to go to the pharmacy and the supermarket. I think it's going to take all summer for us to get the yard back under control.

Bad weather has everything to do with the situation we find ourselves in. Too much rain for a year or longer caused all the invasive plants to grow like crazy. And it kept us inside, not outside trimming and grooming the yard and hedges. I also had cataract operations last year in June and in October. During the recovery time after those operations I was incapacitated for two or three months — no dirty jobs like gardening or yard work allowed. My advancing age doesn't help, either.

Above is an aerial view of our "hamlet" or hameau, which locally is sometimes called un village. In American terms, it's actually a neighborhood in a small town (or village) that has a population of about 1,200. As the crow files, we are about half a mile from the Cher river and less than two miles from the Château de Saint-Aignan.

That's our house and yard that you see in the oval I've drawn on the aerial photo. We have half an acre of land (2,300 m²). In our hamlet there are nine houses, eight of which are visible in the photo. Five of the nine houses are lived in year-round. One is an AirBnB gîte and three are résidences secondaires (vacation houses). There are no businesses and there's no church. In official jargon, the difference between a village and a hameau is that the former includes a church and the latter doesn't.