Rural Life

Day 29 of 30 Days Wild - it's damp in the One Acre Wood

Not today, as I have either been chained to my computer or out at yoga, getting within 4 inches of touching my feet with my forehead, but yesterday, we got to the One Acre Wood for a walk after working on the plot.

Often at this time of year, it is cool and dry in the wood, with the air full of insects.  Sadly, as everywhere else, there are fewer insects in the wood, which is a shame.  Because of the recent rain, it was very damp underfoot and quite humid.  There is a beautiful bit of moss on the rustic bench by the upper seasonal pool (currently empty).

Further down the way, and looking through the trees it felt a bit like a temperate rain forest, although it isn't.

And every good forest has to have its monsters, this is ours.  They really are so unpleasant to look at, these monster orange slugs, but I tolerate them, as if the giant orange slugs are out and about, there is a chance that we will get mushrooms later in the year.  No scientific basis, just observation over the 15 years we have had the wood.

Apologies for this being so late in the evening - I'll bet you have nightmares about our Orange chum!

 

Day 28 of 30 Days Wild - Saturday fun, Sunday work

I did warn you that there would be no blog yesterday - we were out celebrating with one of the Chinon Two.  I have to say that weather-wise, it wasn't really the best day for celebrating.  Before we even got to that, we had to brave a cold, moist and windy market to get supplies.

Before settling in to a delicious and copious dinner at the Bistrot de Marché at Chinon, we went on a bit of a wander and café tour - this was in the main square, and a bit moist and windy.

So we moved location to the admirable Café Français and sat indoors, and admired the collection of confinement cartoons by a local chap, many of which had appeared in the Nouvelle Republique.  We then strolled on to the Bistrot de Marché, inspecting menus as we went - in many instances, that was actually just an academic exercise as quite a few had signs up saying they were complêt for the evening, even before opening time!  I tried to emulate the wonderful sunset scenes that so many friends post at the moment, but failed totally - if you look very closely, you might just spot a chateau on the horizon.

To make up for a day of lotus eating yesterday, this morning was spent working hard on the vegetable plot, while the afternoon has been spent clamped to the computer, working on a report that has to be submitted on Tuesday (so long as it arrives before midnight, that is OK).

Fergus is guarding the strimmer while we do other things - tomorrow there will be a Fergus portrait I think!

But now it is time for Sunday aperos - bring out the Gin!

 

Day 26 of 30 Days Wild - back to the files

It's been another of those days when I run from pillar to post without really getting anywhere, so it is difficult, if not impossible to reflect on French life or wild things.  On the good news front, the supermarket shelves seemed to be back to near normal and I was able to get age appropriate wet food for the cats - I'm not sure they will thank me, but I feel better about that.

In a minute we are off to celebrate at a distance the birthday of one of the Chinon Two - this is taking social distancing to extremes as he is about 80km away, but tomorrow we will go and see him and celebrate properly (hint - this means no blog tomorrow!).

So for today, I will delight you with weird flowers seen on Guadeloupe - I am pretty sure none of them are native to the island, but they sure are happy there!  I suspect the colourful bits are bracts not flowers, before the biologists get on to me.  These ones are upward facing.

These ones are downward facing - not so easy to use in flower arrangements.

And this one is just magnificent - I think it is called something like a china flower or porcelain flower. Not the scientific name obviously.

Day 25 of 30 Days Wild - what I would like to be doing!

It's not news to say it is hot, stinking hot.  Here in my office it is nearly 30ºC and I will stop work as soon as this is done and find somewhere cooler to be.  Or that would be the ideal - but it will be difficult to find I fear.  There are storms doing the rounds but not near us - to the north east of le Mans took a real hammering earlier.

My evening walk to look at the view is fast becoming a bit futile - it is now up to my shoulders and allowing for the curve of the hill and so forth, you really can't see anything beyond maize!

These long high summer evenings should be the ideal time to watch the evening primroses open.  That sounds weird, but sit with a plant and a glass of something chilled and just watch - they open over about a quarter of an hour, and there is a real ping moment when the sepals curl back and release the flower, and you can almost see the petals moving.  Great fun and very therapeutic!  But they open very late at the moment, so the best I can do is admire them in the morning when the flowers are still open.  By midday they are gone.

Watch out for storms!

 

Day 24 of 30 Days Wild - it's hot

I'm sure there is some fancy name for the plume of hot, humid air that is coming at us from the Iberian peninsular and points south, but when the thermometer gets up to near 35ºC, our main preoccupations are keeping the inside of the house and us cool, and us dehydrated.

My brain has also been turned to mush by the concept of match funding (not funding matches I hasten to add).

So today I leave you with this vaguely scientific thought - 

Ours are all trying the liquid state at the moment in various places.

 

Day 23 of 30 Days Wild - a series of crimes

I have crimes to report - trespass, criminal damage, vandalism!

Here is the victim - one of 10 fine, strong tomato plants, tall and vigorous and doing really really well, but not any more.  She is now naked and despoiled.

Her days are in danger - I don't think she will survive.  But the culprit left clues behind them, in the shape of good old fashioned footprints - or should I say hoof prints?

Basically, we failed to bolt the gate to the garden at the Shack, so a deer mooched around, through the gate and into the garden.  Naturally it made straight for the vegetable patch, and decided to try eating tomato (clearly it didn't like potatoes, courgette or squash plants, garlic or shallots).  It pulled all the leaves off, but left most on the ground, it shredded the stem for no good reason and left these three aborted and without hope.

In future we will be very sure the gate is bolted.  Deer are a pain, not just for the gratuitous damage they do, but also because they spread ticks around and I really don't like ticks.

 

Day 22 of 30 Days Wild - it's all about relaxing

Yes, I finally made it to a yoga session.  As we all listed our aches, pains and ailments, poor Maëwa looked a bit bewildered (well it is yoga for seniors) at our multiple complaints and decided that we needed to concentrate first of all on breathing properly. 

She probably had a point. After 5 minutes of being instructed through deeper and slower breathing, my angst about tweaking my ankle again receded as I tried to make one breathe last for a count of 10, then 15, then 20.  I don't think she actually wanted us to count, but as a numbers person, that does calm me down rather.  Later in the class, as we tried to touch our feet with our foreheads, or spent 5 minutes with our feet in the air, I think she felt rather more relaxed too.

The relaxation class started with meditation before moving on to the sonic bit with bowls and gongs and the like, but again that was trying to anchor us into nature, imagining our stresses, fears, pains and anxieties flowing away with a stream and then becoming one with a meadow.  How I have missed that weekly letting go of all stress and tension!

We have one more week and then it is the summer break, so I will be back to my own resources and the yoga videos Maëwa sent round during lockdown (only to be tried when I am convinced a cat won't sit on me).

One resource, when the weather is right of course, is my evening walk to my view over the country - it is only 100 yards but standing at the top of the maize field, watching the swifts, swallows, martins, pigeons, and if a bit late, the bats swooping over the corn, trying to catch insects or a thermal is really rather lovely.  It will depend of course on how high the maize actually gets...

A demain!

 

Day 21 of 30 Days Wild - a soggy one

Full marks to those who spotted that the mystery bug yesterday was a leaf katydid - news to me!

The moon changes today and with it should come a change in the weather from the British Depression Nadine to something more akin to summer - apparently by Wednesday, temperatures will be up near 30ºC.  That will be more appealing to this lavender, which today had a few bumblebees and the odd hummingbird hawkmoth on it, but nothing to what we would expect when the sun is out and the fragrance dominates the area.

As there was a gusty wind this morning as well, it was difficult to get a good close up of a bumblebee - I took about 12 but this is the only one that was even vaguely in focus!

The promised hot weather will do wonders to the early season figs which are to be found in abundance at the moment but are distinctly not ripe.  Bizarrely with the late season ones, I find hurling abuse at them (verbal abuse) seems to ensure they start ripening pronto.  I may have to try that this week with some of these!

Other trees are showing promise of future fruitfulness - I've shown chestnut flowers before, but this bunch show the mix of male (long, fluffy and droopy) and female flowers (more upright and not fluffy) which mean that with favourable winds and insects, there will be lots of lovely chestnuts in October.

Even later than the chestnuts are the medlars - a curious fruit that is really only nice to eat raw once it is rotten, although I gather you can make a good jelly with them before they get to that state.  These won't be ready until November, and should be bletted in time for Christmas to go nicely with a bit of Stilton.  They should get a bit bigger as this tree produces a nice size fruit about the size of a walnut.

Yoga tomorrow - really!  The hall has been reopened, so there is no issue of rain stopping yoga (which is why the weather will improve tomorrow), so there will either be a late blog or none at all - you have been warned!

 

Day 20 of 30 Days Wild - if only I could add sound!

It wasn't just that Friday evening is beer o'clock time, but also that I knew that yesterday would be hyper dull, which made me miss a day with the blog, but most people seemed to get the message from the number of hits.

This morning as I went out to the market, I noticed poppies flowering around the steps to the front door - clearly we are slovenly as they should have been grubbed out weeks ago, but actually a blaze of red poppies is such a cheerful thing, I'm glad we hadn't.  Not sure what the neighbours think though!

The Moroccans were back in the market, which was good news.  Not such good news was falling over in the street (sober!) and hurting my knee and ankle - the knee is now fine, but the ankle is starting to look unpleasant.  However it isn't so bad that I can't go mowing, which I did this afternoon.  Once it was all done, I went for a walk round the lake while the mower cooled down so I could pack it away under its covers.  The carp were leaping which is fun but slightly scary to watch and impossible to photograph.  While I stood on the bank waiting for them to do it again, a frog chorus started up - I'm not fluent but I think it was along the lines of "That one's injured, if we work together, we can take it down - hooman for dinner team!"  I recorded it, but haven't worked out how to get the recording off the phone and onto here.

Finally as I checked emails before doing this blog, I found a lovely present from a chum in the States in the shape of this photo.  I've no idea exactly what it is, I assume some form of cricket, but he is totally correct in describing it as a leaf with an eye!

La vie est belle!

 

Day 18 of 30 Days Wild - desk bound

Enjoy a nice sunset!

It's been a full but dull day, not the best weather and a morning blighted by road rollers and whakka plates, so relax into a nice Caribbean sunset, with a glass of something chilled.

And relax!

No blog tomorrow - too many interviews and then beer o'clock.  I should be back with you on Saturday.