Inside out 2

I was all set to write about the little winter knot garden I'm trying to make so that we have lovely patterns and colours to look down on from our balcony, even when the steps are too slippery or icy to allow us to enjoy using the garden. But then Pauline at Lead up the Garden Path left a comment on my post about the view from my living room window and her words brought a 20-year-old memory rushing back. 
  A group of us were on a visit to the home of an alpine plantswoman. Unfortunately we were treated to particularly gloomy weather that day and did the tour of her smallish garden in heavy drizzle (it was either November or February, one of those slightly blue months).
   Eventually we crowded into her living room and carried on the talk about her exciting cold frames full of trillium seedlings and the other things we'd enjoyed outside. After a while I stopped concentrating, because I could hardly take my eyes away from her big picture window.  There, framed as if they were in a painting, were the trunks and bare branches of two trees, planted in close partnership: Betula utilis var. jacquemontii and Prunus serrula.
The colours and shapes seemed to fill the room with a vibrant sense of the garden outside, in spite of the miserable weather. I planted these two together in the garden of our house in Ireland, but a year or so later we moved and I was never able to enjoy the effect. Here it would be impossible. But if you are looking for two reasonably small, well-behaved trees to bring the 'outside in', think of this pair.
   The picture of the birch above was borrowed from the website of the Stone Lane Gardens in Devon, both a garden and a tree nursery, which holds the NCCPG collection of birches. Do take a peek at their website (I hope they forgive me for 'borrowing' their picture, but at least it's to promote birches and their collection). Better still, pay them a visit and post about their beautiful plantings.  If only I still lived in the UK and could visit myself! 
  It is difficult to buy plants in this part of France, and I have to resort to buying new things online. If anyone who lives in Europe can recommend good nurseries (with good prices!) that deliver in France, I'd appreciate it. 
  Below are two pictures of the relatively small area where I'm hoping to put the winter knot garden. I had to rip out the young box plants in September when they came down with blight, and now I'm wondering if hedges of Sarcococca humilis or S. confusa  might do as a box replacement?
   Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to anyone who happens to stop by!