Rural Life

Day 6 of 30 Days Wild - and a return to civilisation

Once yesterday's blog was filed, we returned to our Friday night routine and went to the pub to see off the working week.  It had been 11 weeks since the last visit we think, and we had moved from late winter/early spring to summer, so we could sit out on the terrace and not freeze (even though there was a bit of a wind).  It was good to be back - carry on the good work, Vinz and Steff at Excalibur!

Of course they are not the only ones opening up and in Baugé today I noticed that one road had been blocked off to allow the restaurant and pizzeria space to have people outside on new terraces too.

On the wild side of things, my review of photos showed that I had managed to capture quite a few butterflies, including a couple on chestnut flowers and even more marbled whites.  So I'll keep my blurb short today and let the butterflies do the talking.

 

Day 5 of 30 Days Wild - butterflies

OK so I said I would be late, as the pub reopens, but that only works if John is home from work.  He is toiling so I will do my blog and you can see pretty pictures from the terrace tomorrow!

The sweet chestnut is now well and truly in flower around here - probably about 2 weeks earlier than usual.  The insects are gorging themselves on the nectar - although as it has gone a bit cool, there weren't as many honeybees knocking around as I thought there would be.  Once client has a very nice, small and young tree which was just covered in flowers.

Looking more closely at a bunch of flowers, I found a butterfly.

There is a cherry tree at the far side of the wildflower meadow, which has fruit which is just about ripe, except the birds are going at it and the heavy rain a couple of days ago bruised the fruit badly, causing rot and also causing some to ferment inside.  I ate a lot straight from the tree but there was no point in picking them to bring home as they would be rotten by tomorrow.

There are all sorts of flowers in the meadow at the moment and a mix of scabious and knapweed seems to make it an ideal habitat for marbled white butterflies.  There were loads flying around every time I moved.  I got a few photos but this is the only one I've done anything with so far.  Very pretty, isn't it?

And now I can no longer resist the siren song of the pub terrace - cheers!

 

Day 4 of 30 Days Wild - not so wild, but I got revenge!

This blog was late yesterday and was going to be very dull today as I really have been working very hard, but then I went up the garden to release the Garden Vandals and found things to comment on.

The weather changed drastically yesterday with the storms and a front or two going over.  We had 11.5mm of rain overnight, but Mouliherne seems to have the local record with 140mm.  Friends over that way have mentioned lots of lightening and thunder and there was a mud slide blocking one of the lanes too.  Today is cool (cold after 28ºC yesterday) and dull and not inspiring.  The birds are singing but aren't flying around much.

This is what the Garden Vandals did to the lettuces that were with the main batch of chilli plants - they were just right for cutting too!

These ones are still OK for the moment, but if a beak and neck can get in, they find the leaves and the chilli plants, so you can see which lettuce is best protected in this bed!

But to get round to the revenge part, I was releasing the big 4 chickens, and took my time as Dummer wasn't among the party - either she is on strike due to the cold, or she has gone broody.  Whichever, she went for my hand when I tried to stroke her.  On my way out of the run, I bent over to inspect the rat trap which seems to be doing a good job as a deterent, if not actually catching anything at the moment.  A certain bantam of our acquaintance seems to think it is a good place to lay her eggs - I found 3, but one was under the trap so I left it, but that is still 2 to me!  haha! 

Tomorrow's blog will be a bit late, as we have a great moment in Deconfinement!  Our first visit to the pub since lockdown!  I'll share it with you.

Day 3 of 30 Days Wild - but I'm not wild, I'm livid!

Two weeks ago I had 24 nice little chilli plants growing away nicely.  I felt good.  Tonight I have three slightly raddled chilli plants and 6 with no leaves and that is it.  OK I gave 3 away, but the 10 that I planted out have been eaten and then used as part of a dust bath by Bridie the Bantam, Delenn, exile of the Grey Council and Muck and Brass - aka the Garden Vandal Gang.  It's not as though they weren't protected by a barricade of sticks, flower pots and plastic netting.  Little b@st@rds!  And Bridie doesn't even share her eggs.

So to soothe my anger, I walked up to the vantage point where I can look south across the valley of the Couasnon and west towards the big city and north to the bad lands of the Sarthe.  I used to be able to look at our house too, but a nasty little bungalow is being built in front of us, so the view that way is now sadly lacking.  The swifts know that there is a storm around as the insects are flying lower, so they are flying lower too.  There must have been 30 or so swooping across the village between us and the church - magnificent to watch.  The swallows and martins were tucked away though, in case.

The clouds towards the east and Noyant were not looking friendly and there was a pretty constant low rubble of thunder in the air.

My favourite website, real time lightning, shows what it was like over that way.

Day 2 of 30 Days wild - and more Nibbles shame

I love dragonflies and demoiselles and I love that they come into our garden even though we don't have a water feature and we are quite a long way from the river and the plan d'eau.  There is something about fennel I think that appeals to them, and I found this pale blue cutie by the raspberries when I was watering yesterday evening.  You can't see the wings particularly well, but they were tucked away.

Standing in the queue for the boulangerie this morning was not a trial at all, in fact I could have stayed longer.  There were a dozen or more swifts flying in circles up across the church roof, and occasionally one would peel off and disappear in a crevice in the façade of the church, where they are clearly nesting.  It was magical to watch them, but not easy to photograph!  This is the best I got.

Finally a less appealing aspect of watching out for natural things and wildlife - I know where the hedgehogs pee on the lawn because Nibbles thinks that hedgehog pee is almost as wonderful as catnip and disgraces herself.  Another moment when the phrase "Just say No!" is very relevant!

In deconfinement news, one of the Chinon Two is beating us to a new experience as he was invited to attend the reopening of the Café Francaise in Chinon this evening.  I look forward to hearing about it in due course!

 

Day 1 of 30 Days Wild - and any Deconfinement excitement too!

Actually there isn't really any deconfinement excitement today, and probably not until Friday, when Beer O'clock at the Pub is restored to us - yeh!

I have worked for a few Wildlife Trusts over the past 6 years or so, and have always admired their 30 Days Wild campaign in June, so this year I've signed up, and will use the blog to share my daily dose of Wild - as well as any deconfinement excitement.

Two Wild Things for today.  This morning we went to the One Acre Wood to start preparing for next winter (as summer starts today for the meteorologists), by felling one of the large dead trees dotted around.  That was not particularly wild, but I have to say, it was a pretty text book felling.  What was lovely was standing under one of the great oaks in the wood and looking up at the branches and leaves.  Light patterns have changed this year as the parcel next to ours was completely felled in early January, but looking up a trunk like this is always a lovely thing to do.

The other wild thing is a bit ickie, but I have expurgated it.  I found half a lizard at the vegetable plot.  At first I blamed the country boy cats for having had a snack and not having finished it, but actually cats don't much like eating lizards, they just play with them.  The remains were under a large birch tree which is used by a variety of birds (crow family and raptors) as a good place to sit and watch for anything and also to eat any prey they might have found and flown off with.  So I'm blaming a raptor of some sort for the demise of this very beautiful lizard.  Whole and alive I think it would be 8 to 10 inches long, perhaps even a foot, and very dramatic.

What will Day 2 bring?