A rather blustery day

Last night we took a call from Marc Toussaint in Bar-sur-Seine to let us know that today he would come and start the work we had commissioned him to do. He was going to come and trim our 100 ft tree at the top of the slope. It is a beautiful tree, and we really don’t want to lose it, but it does need some attention, so we felt we needed to invest in getting it pruned.

After looking at the weather forecast though, he couldn’t have picked a worse day, or maybe hanging from a rope up a 100 ft tree swaying in 40 mph gusts is his idea of fun. We knew they would arrive early so, although we both thought it would get called off, we were up at 7.30am ready to greet them and show them how to gain access to the tree from the vineyards.

8am they arrived. Brian went out to meet them and in his best french directed them around the village and up to the tree. He then went to see them to clarify what was happening and that we wanted to keep - the logs for the fire and some chippings for the garden. I was very impressed, usually I would be there as well to help the translation (not that I’m always that much help), but he didn’t need me, he felt confident all was in hand and it was nice he felt it was like a proper conversation.

It wasn’t long before they were all hooked up and the trimming began. It’s not a job for people that don’t like heights, or get motion sickness.

I’m looking forward to see how today progresses.