Meteorological autumn was the wettest on record for Maine et Loire, no ifs, no buts. There were few edible mushrooms as the rain didn't start until mid October, so the mycelium was challenged. There was a brief flush and since then we have only found inedible specimens around the place, but lots of them! The One Acre Wood, which we visited this week on a rare fine day, had an outcrop of what I call Slimy Grey Ones, which turn up in clumps and lines, I assume following a tree root or similar. To me they are always the sign that there is no chance of anything more that is edible, and while they are relatively attractive, they mark a clear phase in the year.
During the year, one of the walnut trees at the Orchard died - the nuts didn't develop and the leaves fell in August. It is hard to say why it has died, but the mushrooms at its base that started to appear last week may be a very strong hint that it was diseased. This weekend, the mushrooms have opened up and while last week they looked relatively attractive, this week they don't!
The days are ever shorter, and with bad weather, it is now dark at 5pm. So we start to look indoors for our amusements. The village pub has reopened after some 18 months closed, so our regular Friday drink and debrief down the way can restart. Now as it only reopened last weekend, we were a bit saddened to see that apart from us, there were two single blokes inside with us, and three lads drinking outside on the terrace. Closer inspection of Facebook showed that another local hostelry had a band in that night, so hopefully next Friday will be rather more lively or the tenure of the new landlord could be quite short!
This weekend is Telethon weekend - very similar in concept to the BBC's Children in Need, except that the funds raised go to support research into medical conditions. This year the focus was on Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy. We tend to avoid the events to be honest - games for children are not for us, the convivial evening sharing "poule au pot" is also something we avoid, as we don't much like boiled chicken. We used to buy the knicknacks sold at the bakery, but that closed three years ago now. This year the local society for protecting the village heritage put on an exhibition in the church - each year they do a photography competition, and the exhibition was of the 30 best images submitted this year on the topic of The Tree. It was nice to visit the church, it was interesting to look at the photos, but when we went, it was just us and the organisers - I hope more turned up!
The heritage group also ensure that there is a crèche or nativity scene in the church for Christmas. An old neighbour of ours, Monsieur André, used to make figures and would set it up each year. He was a smelly and curmudgeonly old boy, who lived in a tiny hovel tucked back from the main road without mains water or drainage (hence the smell), but lived well into his 90s, the last few months in a Home. The sad thing was that only a small handful turned up for his funeral, despite the care he took each year making the church ready for Christmas.
I mentioned that autumn had been spectacularly wet, particularly the latter half. That humidity is carrying on into winter, and the last week has seen some truly awful days weather-wise. The cold has moved on and now we have very mild (currently 14ºC) and very wet conditions, with some 20mm of raid in the last 48 hours adding to what fell on Thursday, and Wednesday. Yesterday afternoon we had a short respite and I took the opportunity to see how the ponds at the end of the orchard were doing - the good news being that they are now starting to look much more purposeful. I startled three deer that were lurking down there - two bounded away, showing me their white bottoms, while one stood still and camouflaged the other side of the fish pond. My attempt to photograph him was of course laughably bad, but I know he was there. Somewhere....
Finally, Rebus the Kitten had his second set of jabs this week. He was also weighed and shown to be putting on weight mainly through size as he isn't fat, so he could grow up to be quite a big boy. He has a lot of energy and hasn't mastered gravity at all. He has learned that the best place to be in the evening is where you can see and feel the log fire!
Have a good week!
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