Enjoying the outdoors as a volunteer at La Giraudiere
For some volunteers, their stay at La Giraudiere offers a chance to work outdoors in the beautiful countryside of Brossac. For those normally stuck in an office or studying at university, this is a great opportunity to try their hand at a range of activities they wouldn’t do on a day to day basis. La Giraudiere has a lot of land and there is always pruning, mowing, hedge trimming, whipper snipping, gardening, tree trimming and general yard tidying to do. Last week there was a lot of effort devoted to the garden/yard tidy up. A familiar sound is the whipper snipper going non-stop and someone calling out “where are the loppers”. With volunteers from a range of countries, there is lot of discussion about what the various tools are called.
Odile from Ireland and Emily from the UK did a massive prune with the loppers. Big job.
Enjoying the outdoors as a volunteer at La Giraudiere is not confined to gardening only but as the garden is a priority at the moment, the volunteers are focussing on getting that done before moving on to other things. Roses are blooming and a bit more wisteria appears each day and as we sit outside having all of our meals, we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Some of the volunteers are beginning to sport sun tans from their time in the sun. It is amazingly cool under the shady trees so quite pleasant for working.
Elena from Russia gets into the clearing up in the yard.
Odile did a lot of work in the garden and sadly it was time to say goodbye. Back to Ireland. She is missed already.
Once the work day has finished, some of the volunteers can been seen Enjoying the outdoors as a volunteer at La Giraudiere by taking a walk to the lake for a cool swim. It is a pleasant walk to the lake past fields of sleepy cows resting in the deep green, lush grass. The walk into Brossac is about a 10 minute stroll, past gorgeous stone houses and of all things a water lily pond which evokes memories of Monet’s garden and his famous painting “Waterlilies”.
Bruce from UK/China with the whipper snipper. He has made a big impact.
