Rural Life

Lockdown III, Day 21 - a very busy day

Yesterday was my day for visiting the Azay One - I guess I am lucky we are allowed in to see her actually, given the hammering nursing homes have taken in this whole Covid thing.  We are only allowed in for an hour, we have to sit around a sanitised table, wearing masks (well, apart from the Azay One), and have to complete and sign two attestations on arrival.  Visits in rooms are not allowed.  Still, all went well, but it is always a tiring day, so no blog yesterday, but I did take this photo late yesterday evening after I had locked up the chickens.  Simple flowers and blossom attract many insects and it was heartening to see the variety last night on the Granny Smith apple blossom.

This morning, while John laboured, I went to the market at Baugé for a supply of good things - although the queue for fruit and vegetables did make me question my devotion to buying from small providers and local produce for preference, as it took me three quarters of an hour to get to the top of the queue!  At least the weather was good but social distancing had gone out of the window!

The afternoon was devoted to outdoors things, including mowing for a client, watering our produce and cosseting the boys in the country.  Now we are home and I need a gin and tonic so I will add the photos and call it a day.  I may be more voluble tomorrow.

Lockdown III, Day 19 - mostly details

I have a friend who is a proper photographer, and one of her well known and loved pictures is called something like Ted's workbench or shed - it is a loving study of a well ordered and well used garden shed, clearly a place where a chap could potter productively and did so with pride.  Our shed will never reach those heights, but it is a bit disconcerting at dusk to put my head into the shed and see the freeloading bantam perched there like some Taunton cider man.  No wonder we find broken eggs dotted around the shed if this is her idea of a safe roosting place!

Today was a cat feeding day, so I was able to see how my Dame Edna experiment was getting on.  Two years ago I bought a cheap bag of gladioli corms, fully intending to plant them somewhere, and then totally forgetting.  About a month ago I found them again, and potted the whole packet into a tub with my patent mix of sifted horse poo and leaf mould, put water on them and left them to do their worst, during the last really cold snap.  Today I think there are about 7 or 8 coming up along with a couple of cosmos seeds that have germinated.  I'm hopeful of some August colour if things go well, we remember to water the tub, and the cats don't decide to make it their outdoor bed!

I also sowed more bee friendly flowers - we'll see if any of those come up.  The seed is fresher than much I have used this year, so I am hopeful.  On the other hand, the generous dose of wood ash may have been a bit too strong - we'll see.  Anyway, I was resting from my labours and noticed that finally the work of the solitary bees has paid off and there are tiny, tiny bean pods set on the broad beans.  That will be delicious in about 3 weeks time.

Finally for today, while checking round the plot as I do, I noticed that the new weed suppressant mat I had laid where the sweetcorn will go, was not looking as lovely and shiny as before.  Closer inspection showed that the shower of rain the day before yesterday brought vast quantities of colza pollen with it, which is all over the matting.  It is also all over my car, and probably all over me too when I am outdoors.  Hay fever season is here again!  Good thing my GP has agreed to prescribe the antihistamines required as I can't pop into Boots this year!

It remains to be seen whether I will have a chance to update you tomorrow - I'll try, but I'm not promising!

 

Lockdown III, Day 16 - the garden as a hunting ground

Now that many clients have had a first cut at least of their lawns, home finally gets to the top of the list, and I had cracking service from John the Paysagiste (highly recommended), who mowed and strimmed and didn't attack what may be our first home bee orchid (or it may not).  I can now see where asparagus might come up and there doesn't seem to be any demolished stems so I might even have got away with leaving it quite so late!

The lawn is now even (apart from hidden traps built by chickens), so the neighbour's ginger kitten has had to stop pretending to be a lion stalking chickens (really ostriches) hidden by scrub, and has to try to emulate a cheetah racing across the veldt.  The chickens had been quite happily mooching around destroying things, when I heard a kerfuffle and there was the pretend cheetah charging around the lawn - he took quite a bit of evicting.  Once one of them gives him a good hard peck, it will be OK, but it is annoying in the interim.  Here is the lawn without scenes of Africa being replayed.

Ginger Boy is not the only cat stalking the garden, as our own Zola is trying to make up for lost time in her quest against lizards.  Yesterday evening she sat patiently among flower pots, pretending that she wasn't at all interested in lizard activity, but watching and waiting for her arch enemies.  It was perhaps just a little too cool by the time she took up her post, so no luck, and I have filled in the Zola sized gap with another plant pot since then.

It's not only outdoors where cats stalk - or rather intimidate.  Poirot used to sit and sleep on top of the wardrobe/linen press in the bathroom, but has given up jumping.  Instead she sits on the chest of drawers (she has a circuitous route to there avoiding all jumping) and glowers at you while you are on the loo, until you can't concentrate and have to give up and give her treats.  

We are up to 7 Asian Hornets in our trap in the garden now - that is rather a lot!  As they are all queens, this is a good thing of course.

 

 

Lockdown III, Day 12 - out and about

Well actually the big excitement today was going to Super U for cat food and Cheddar cheese and one or two other bits and pieces - but you have to take variety and excitement where you can at the moment!!  I also washed all my scarves as I have a nasty rash on my neck, probably due to something I brushed against yesterday while mowing, but you can't be too careful.  So clearly an incident packed day, and not photogenic.

Much more photogenic were things I saw at The Shack today, including another of my pots of experimental seed sowing.  This was an old and open packet of coriander that I really held out very little hope for, and yet look what I found today!

I was able to dig up four leeks and a spring garlic (just like a spring onion but garlic) which will go nicely in a stir fry for dinner.  The leeks are starting to run to seed - I could probably have held that back by watering them rather better all the time they have been in the ground apart from the 4 solid months of rain.  Actually they would probably have been bigger and better if I had done that, but last summer's drought meant water had to be doled out very carefully.

Spooky Cat used to be very nervous about going down the garden, even just the bit attached to The Shack.  On Tuesday he accompanied me on a circuit of the three areas - the garden, the orchard and the wild flower meadow.  I was very impressed.  I'm not sure if he is more or less secure in his world, following the demise of Fergus Sunshine Supercat, but he allows me to pick him up, cuddle and stroke him and only mildly chews me.  These vicious claws are only used to attract my attention when dishing out food!

The quince blossom at the wild flower meadow is finally out - so pretty, but so delicate!  The frosts are due to stop soon and the harsh wind (or bise) from the East is due to drop at the weekend so hopefully the bees will do their thing and there will be viable fruit in the autumn.  Unless there is a glut we are unlikely to do another quince eau de vie for a year or two, but quince jelly is fab on porridge, while stewed quince and apple makes a superior crumble.

Tomorrow I am off to visit Azay le Rideau so there may not be a blog, depending on when I get back.

 

Lockdown III, Day 11 - a bit about food

Yesterday was a special day, as there were enough eggs from Mac and Jak (2 - one each for us) to see whether they were getting it right.  We also had a couple of shop bought free range eggs to test them against and to make a normal meal out of it.  "Our" eggs are on the right - smaller, as the girls are still very young, but with nice bright yolks and whites that were very upright.  They also tasted better than the shop bought, perhaps as they were that bit fresher, perhaps because we are biased!

Today I was daring and went outside the permitted 10km, so had to have an attestation, in order to make essential purchases - well I really can't miss la Flèche market two Wednesdays in a row!  It was heaving as clearly everyone else had the same idea, but all were wearing masks, and in 95% of cases, wearing them correctly too.  I staggered back to my car laden with cheese, milk, butter, croissants, bread, paté, vegetables, kippers and fresh crèpes.  What a wonderful feeling!  The town was looking very pretty, so while I was too busy shopping to photograph the market, I did take a picture of the river and the pressure-fed fountain.

The cold winter weather was good for the fruit trees, and they have responded in most cases with lots of blossom.  Of course now the harsh late frosts are savaging the blossom and affecting any set fruitlets.  I am hoping that I will have saved some fruit on the Victoria plum in the garden as the blossom has never been so good as it was this year.  My tactic was horticultural fleece, held in place with clothes pegs.  We think of it as a small tree, but it needed about 20 metres of fleece just to look like this - clearly not as small as we thought.  Time will tell for the fruit.

Now to go and sit in the late afternoon sun with a cat or two and 6 chickens who are not quite as in disgrace as they were this time last week.

 

Lockdown III, Day 10 - a trip to The Shack

We are having rather nice weather at the moment here - very cold overnight, which isn't so good, but lovely sunny days.  If you can find a place out of the wind to sit and contemplate, it is very nice indeed.  I sat under the birch tree at The Shack and while cuddling a cat, admired a humming bird moth sipping nectar and hopefully pollinating our broad beans.  As with humming birds themselves, it is very difficult to take a good photograph as they move so quickly, and certainly so with a phone!

This delightful reverie was broken when cat wars broke out on the shallot bed - thank goodness I planted so many, as four got well trashed with two large, fat cats rolling around on them!  Quite a good action shot though, if I say so myself!

Two of my favourite flowers are out at the moment.  Firstly we have a lovely big patch of honesty by The Shack, in the shade between another birch tree and the yukkas.  The purple flowers are a lovely colour and very simple, while the seed pods, later in the year, are pretty and dramatic oval disks.  You can peel them apart to make a nice dried flower/seed head display.

The other is periwinkle - a lovely deep blue flower.  In the garden at home we have a variegated version - the leaves are yellow and green - but I prefer the plain green version, which grows in profusion at the top of the orchard.

Lockdown III, Day 8 - down at The Shack

Sunday morning is generally our big time for doing work at The Shack - there is a period of 2 hours between 10am and midday when we can use petrol motors, so John can play with chainsaw, rotavator, strimmer, brush-cutter and other noisy things, while I supervise cats and do "stuff".  Yesterday and overnight we had the first proper rain for ages, so the machines didn't come out to play but we did have a good check round and cuddled cats.

I sorted out my box of seeds about a month ago, throwing out most opened packets and anything over 7 years old (!).  Those between 5 and 7 years old and interesting (10 packets of seeds for kale and while it may be a super food, I'm still not going to grow it) I took to The Shack along with a stack of 6 - 8 inch pots.  A couple of weeks ago, I filled 7 pots with my miracle horse poo and leaf mould mix from the bin, and sowed the whole packet of each of cat mint, dill, coriander, basil, lettuce Webbs Wonder, chard Bright Lights and Autumn King carrots.  It felt rather good to be quite so profligate!  Anyway, despite pretty awful germinating conditions - first unseasonably hot, then unseasonably cold - today's inspection showed that so far at least the chard and the carrots are coming up!  Yes, I have spotted there is an interloper among the carrots - it has been removed.

Inspection of the bed planted with garlic, shallots and Hispi cabbage showed really good growth on the shallots, well apart from a Donald shaped gap!  I'm sure the delayed ones will catch up in due course and no one was rolling around on the wet soil today!

Things aren't so good on the fruit front.  While I have a small Victoria plum tree in the garden at home that is wrapped round with fleece at the moment to protect the fruitlets, the big tree at the end of the wildflower meadow does not have that luxury.  You can see the fruitlets are nearly black and when I picked one off and dissected it with my thumb nail, it was clearly unviable and frosted.

The cherry blossom has also been affected - I'm hoping that it is just that the petals have been fried by the frost and that the fruit will somehow survive, but with more nights of frost over the next week, I fear my ability to stand and scoff a kilo of cherries while allegedly doing something useful in the meadow will be severely curtailed this year.

Tomorrow I am likely to have a rant about orchids.  Just to warn you.

 

Lockdown III, Day 7 - by way of explanation

With this lockdown being announced for the 4th April, there was a certain inevitability that I would be informed on the 3rd April that we finally had a date when a room would be available in a carefully chosen nursing home.  So much to be done, so many arguments and discussions to be had, and of course lots of work to do as well.  And then lockdown itself to contend with.  Hence going dark for essentially 3 blogging days (I don't think posting an Armadillo really counts), while, depending on your point of view, someone entered prison or a caring and safer environment.  As I left on Thursday, I admired a group of ladies of a certain age, sitting on the sun-drenched terrace wearing rather fetching boaters, drinking lemon squash and keeping each other company - I didn't feel quite so bad!

Nibbles has felt the undertones of what has been going on and this morning both sulked and lived up to her name - hopefully that sort of behaviour will wear off soon and she will go back to ignoring me and sleeping or seeing off young intruders from the garden.

And as if cat shaming isn't enough, I am now going to chicken shame.  We have 5 - yes FIVE - full sized chickens and a small freeloader, so why did I have to buy this today?

Finally a comment on lockdown rules or my notoriety locally - I'm not sure which.  Yesterday I was driving home at about 6pm after having visited a client.  As the visit had been outside the allowed 10km, I had an attestation on my phone as well as my ID card, so when I saw the police block as I drove between the Chateau and the Tribunal in Baugé, I pulled over as indicated and started to prepare.  I put on my face mask, turned off the music in the car, prepared to get my ID and phone - but the lovely young policeman just looked in at me, and said with smiley eyes, "no don't worry, on your way, Madame!"  I was a little upset at not showing off my lovely new WARP (Withdrawal Agreement Residence Permit) card, but having said that, with Vieil Baugé stickers on the car and being convinced I'd met him before, I guess I wasn't surprised! 

 

Lockdown III, Day 6 - not back to normal yet

Apologies for the disruption to service and I promise I will get going again properly tomorrow to review the first week of Lockdown III.

In the meantime, enjoy this photo from September - because everyone needs to see an occasional armadillo!

Lockdown III, Day 2 - not so nice as yesterday

No sun-drenched photos today as the weather has taken a colder and duller turn, and we wait agog for some rain!  We've not had rain, proper rain, since John seeded a new lawn about 3 weeks ago - blame him!!  We had to go back to The Shack today to feed the Boys in the Country, so took some time to check the Asian Hornet trap we have there (I did write about it last year, but can't immediately find the blog).  I'd been pretty chuffed to find one critter in there on Friday last week, but today there were 3!  Nasty brutes too.  It is important to trap and kill these over-wintered queens as they have small nests dotted about, in which they are raising their fertile brood of up to a dozen future queens.  Get them now and that is up to a dozen per queen big nests full of bee eating hornets that won't happen.

We also admired, or tried to, the shallots that are starting to come up.  We were so pleased with how they grew last year, that we bought rather more this year, and there is a larger bed with 33 sets trying to do what they do.  They are hampered in that by big fluffy cats who find nicely turned, dry earth a lovely way to remove excess fur, and roll around in an abandoned fashion.  This is Donald doing his thing.

We walked the boundaries to check that all was well, and met the neighbours at the bottom of the orchard where there are a couple of small ponds.  They thought we were very interesting.

And then we admired cherry blossom along the boundary of the wild flower meadow - you can see just how different it is to the pear blossom I showed yesterday, can't you?  Sadly as it was cold, there was no comforting buzz of busy bees and no cherry blossom perfume, but that will be back later in the week with the sun.

The sun should be back tomorrow, for rather prettier pictures!