Rural Life

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?

 

Day 21 of Deconfinement Diary - crafty bantam

Another quick one today as not very much has happened, however...

I've mentioned before that we have a freeloader in the garden - Bridie the Bantam.  She is very pretty and very small and we really don't know where she came from, but she has decided to stay, just not in the chicken run.  She idolises Dummer the huge Light Sussex, and runs away from the rest.  She can be very noisy, particularly when she wants food or water.  But she doesn't believe in sharing.

I posted her broody moment when she found a high shelf and spent the best part of 2 weeks trying to hatch infertile eggs - she gave up after she had thrown most of them on the floor when trying to get down to ground level for food or back onto the shelf for brooding on her eggs.

She knows that we know about the shelf so she stopped using it.  She may also have had a little break from laying.  But after a while nature says she would start again, so where are the eggs this time?  Last night as I was putting the big chickens back into their run after their daily vandalism/slug and snail eating foray, I spotted the new stash point - carefully (or not so carefully) hidden in the shade of an artichoke plant.

She may stop using that nest, as this afternoon I nicked the whole stash to make banana bread.  But honestly, we feed her, so she should feed us occasionally!

 

Day 19 of Deconfinement Diary - looking up

After her appalling behaviour yesterday morning with the catnip, Nibbles decided to entertain us at aperitif hour, showing us a very convoluted route onto the outdoor table.  She then struck various poses, including her favourite knowing stare.

She also showed us her trump impersonation as she looked in totally the wrong direction when the chickens started to do something really loud and silly by the raspberry canes.

As I escorted her through the front door later in the evening, I thought the swallows/martins were awfully loud and close.  I looked up just as one swooped towards the house and disappeared in the shadows.  We used to get swifts in the eaves, but Poirot ate all the offspring when they got to interesting size (just ready to fledge and leave the nest), and then when the façade was repointed, their nesting site was blocked up.  There is a possible gap for the swallows/martins, but if they go through it, Zola at least will find the nest very quickly, so I hoped it wasn't where I thought.

Now apologies for the grainy quality of the image, but a bit of zooming with the camera focus on the phone and I found where they were.  I don't think this is tenable, so I can't see us having little swallows/martins fledging this year, in fact I expect to find eggs on the steps to the cellar pretty soon, but while they are there it is lovely to see them.

Having braved the excitements of Leclerc at Chinon on Wednesday, it was my turn to need a supermarket shop today, and our Super U really doesn't fail to disappoint.  You would think we were at the start of lockdown, there were so many gaps in the aisles - none of the cream that Poirot likes (yes, this is an emergency), no Whiskas for older cats (still), very little by way of loo paper (fortunately didn't need it), very little beer, NO tonic water, no adult size espadrilles, no hand sanitiser as you went in, no mention of when trollies are disinfected, no surgical spirit to be had, but 7 euros for a smallish bottle of hand sanitizer, and only two bits of Cheddar.  Very poor show all in all.  Mind you it is a bank holiday weekend just starting here and the weather forecast is fab, but that shouldn't affect many of the missing items.

Anyway, the good news is that with a couple of colleagues, I've won a new work contract for six weeks, so there is a bottle of sparkling in the fridge to celebrate.  I don't think it is confidential to say that I will be looking at funding activity in the Romney Marsh area - it's just a shame I won't be able to do a site visit within the timeframe of the project.

 

Day 18 of Deconfinement Diary - busy, busy, busy

Yesterday was a busy day and I wasn't home until quite late, hence no blog.  In the morning it was the market at la Flèche which is getting back into its stride, with nearly everyone back - even the paella and couscous waggon that Richard Newth was worried about.  There are still grumbles about the new pitch placements, not least as for the food stalls, the lack of shade in the square will become more and more of a problem as summer goes on - they miss the huge plane trees.

After that, I was in Chinon, doing bits and bobs and helping out on stuff.  We had to get some biggish ticket items from the hypermarket - Leclerc - and were surprised at the discounts and offers.  They aren't normally putting huge numbers of points on summer furniture at this time of year, nor big discounts on electrical goods.  It was very orderly going in - you had to queue, but that was only to keep distances, while you got a squirt of hydroalcoholic gel on your hands and then took a disinfected trolley from the ranks.  There was a separate exit for leaving the store, and the "facilities" were open.

I got home at 7:30pm and we sat out under the abri, chilling out before I did supper.  It would have been peaceful apart from this noisy chap (although thinking on it, cats might have been involved, or not - and the photo is very blurry as he was quite a way away).

This morning Nibbles disgraced herself; after her morning ablutions and reconnaissance trip outside, breakfasts one and two, she then demanded catnip - before midday!!  The sign of a real addict.

To prove that not all photos I've taken in the last 48 hours are fuzzy and out of focus, I was mowing by a lake this afternoon and the first of the water lilies was coming out.  The light was coming through the trees and bamboo and it was all rather lovely.

And then there is this rather splendid view of our village yesterday at sunset.

And I am proud of myself as I filed our French tax return - early!!

 

Day 16 of Deconfinement Diary - growing things

Ah the joy of having reliable brakes - it meant I could go out and about quite happily this afternoon, after a morning of staring at the computer screen.  Today's foray was "just" to feed the boys in the country, check round the property and water the seedlings.  It is also a magnificent day here today - blue skies, a bit of a breeze to take the edge off, and lovely sunshine.  The official shade temperature is supposed to be about 25ºC today, and it probably is about that, but when you are out and about, you are not always in the shade, so it feels a lot hotter.  Still, I topped up my vitamin D levels nicely I'm sure!

So what did I see out and about?  Well the contents of the tin of cat food disappeared very quickly as all four boys were hungry for food with gravy on it and even ate their carrots, before joining me down the garden.  Fergus found his usual dust bath, but this time in the shade.

After a certain amount of shuffling around for the best position, Donald took the spare chair and Spooky curled up on the ground, again both nicely in the shade.

Clause was feeling vulnerable - I had found a further two ticks on him and wanted to get them off, but he wasn't going to be pulled around today, he wanted to be left alone, so he took to deep cover.

The potagers are coming on - I really didn't think the tomatoes would take when I just shoved in the bare rooted seedlings we had been given, and I was quite sure the lettuces wouldn't do anything.  The shallots were a gamble and I wait to see how they turn out.  The broad beans are nearly over and the bit of plot in between will be sown with borlotti beans soon.  Beans are good on the vile clay soil there, as the roots are supposed to be good for breaking down into the soil and also for fixing nitrogen.

I also checked the orchids in the other plots.  We've not had as many bee orchids this year as expected and many less than last year, but the lizard orchids are now doing their thing.  They aren't pretty but they are rather dramatic.

I was surprised to find a bird's nest orchid as well.  It's a pretty name for an orchid that is even less attractive than a lizard orchid.  It is parasitic and grows from something rotting in the soil, normally roots of something else.  It has no leaves, all you ever see is the flower stalk.  I've found them at my Mum's and in the One Acre Wood, but it was a first to find them where the boys hang out.

 

Day 8 of Deconfinement Diary - with assistance from Nibbles

It's not been a momentous day here really.  First thing after breakfast I took my car to the garage as he was making a noise - a discussion and a look at the back wheels with a torch and he is booked in to get his brakes sorted out next Monday - not before as they are busy and there is a bank holiday.  I'm glad they are busy - it must have been a tricky time for them.

After lunch I thought I'd better crack on with the roof for the gazebo.  Lockdown stopped play as I had done all I could without fixings.  Amazon France was then blocked for unsafe working practices, so I had to wait until last week when the large "sells everything" shop opened and I had access to their haberdashery department.  If you remember, the lady there was pleased to sell me Velcro and orange tape and not have to discuss the lack of elastic.

I evicted the seedlings and got myself set up on the outside table, and cracked on, knowing it was going to be a long haul.  Nibbles decided to join me, and made things more difficult.  The photos show her serene and relaxed, but mine is a hand cranked sewing machine and there were times when every time my hand went towards her (so once every rotation), it got smacked, claws out!

Anyway, by about 7pm (hence the delay to this story), it was all done.  Tomorrow we will put it on the frame and celebrate with a bottle of something nice, but for tonight, you will have to make do with a photo of it on the ground.  There is of course still the centre piece to be done, but not this week!

The eagle-eyed will notice that Nibbles is still helping.