Rural Life

Day 33 of lockdown - cats not obeying social distancing rules

I gather a couple of cats and a tiger have tested positive for Covid-19 which has set all sorts of hares running in different places.  I also saw wise words shared by Pauline Draisey, that as tigers can get Covid-19, you should stay 2 metres away from them.  All seems sensible, except that cats don't do social distancing, unless they want to.  The following Jackie-style photo story emphasises the point.

After self-isolating for a couple of weeks, Donald was tempted out of his lone state by John and the promise of soft food.  Once he had eaten his fill and waited to see if there was more and got into a staring competition he was never going to win with Spooky, he decided to join us by the vegetable plot.  Fergus was already there, guarding my leg.

Clause was slumped on a chair, having had an exhausting feed and use of the "facilities".  But Donald thought that chair looked nice - "room for a small one up there?"

When Clause didn't answer, Donald thought he would see if he could fit - "I'm sure I can fit in here!"

So he settled in - "yeah, I told you I could fit in here".

And finally - "thanks for sharing, let me clean your ears out".

I left them to it.

 

Day 32 of lockdown - reflections on mallard parenting skills

No storms last night, no rain here so far today (although I got caught in a very sharp shower), so shortly I'd better go and water the potted plants, but not before writing today's reflections.

As I said yesterday, I mow at a site with a lake.  Yesterday I saw one carp, today (finishing the job) I saw evidence of more, plus a heron, plus I got shouted at by frogs again.  I was also followed around by a couple of robins and a blackbird, profiting from all the bugs I was raising.

The little river that runs past has always played host to a number of moorhens, coots and mallards.  They raise a lot of chicks, but not all make it.  From what I observed today, I am starting to understand why.

There were two mallard families knocking around today.  A (presumably) single lady mallard with four puffs of fluff (ducklings), and a couple with a single duckling.  The single mother watched me and worked out what I was up to and while I was on one side of the lake, she hid her babies in a different stream or the river itself.  I heard the odd squeak from them but nothing more.

The couple were much less careful - they swam around side by side while their little munchkin followed as best it could, then it would appear daddy mallard said something wrong and the lady flew off.  Daddy and duckling continued to mooch around the lake, but in the end, daddy got bored and flew off too, leaving the lonely little fluff bundle swimming around the lake, cheeping for its Mum.  I think its Mum was a bit inexperienced, but unless she went back once I had gone, I suspect the little one will be eaten by something.  Probably not the carp, but I've heard rumours of catfish, pike and a terrapin in the lake, all of whom would like a duck supper I suspect.

 

Day 31 of lockdown - a change in the weather

There has been a bit of a change in the weather.  The last few days have been beautiful but with a tricky wind from the East, called the Bises, which means the air is clear as crystal, but it can be cold in the wind.  Today the wind has changed and is coming from the south/south west, bringing moist and hot air up from Spain and Portugal.  Insects love it.  I was checking over the broad beans and had to pick out all the growing tips as the ants were starting to farm black fly on the tender tops of the plants.  Fortunately all had more than four sets of flowers/set bean pods so it was the right time to do it.  The down side is that I've been feeling like I'm covered in ants ever since!

The warmer than usual spring is bringing on flowers and fruit more quickly than usual.  The lady orchid gets more splendid day by day!

I was working at the site with the lake this afternoon - the frogs were making a racket and the carp were loitering.  It isn't possible to get a good photo of the carp - I've been trying for years.  The best I can do is when they are in a group, being really sinister, and then the photos are the stuff of nightmares.  Anyway, I was actually checking the outflow from the lake and looking for tadpoles (mostly eaten now), when I realised I was being watched by one of the giant carp.  Probably between 18 and 24 inches long, he watched me until I spoke up (well squeaked in surprise) and then he sank away, probably chortling to himself.  He was here...

Our fig tree can have two crops, but most years, the early figs drop off due to a frost.  This year the tree is loaded and the tree seems to have decided to sacrifice some in order to keep a respectable number going.  In a normal year, any that survive late frosts are ripe in June, but the size of some of these makes me think that May might be possible this year!

Storms are due from about 11pm tonight - bizarrely, after one of the wettest winters, we need the rain!

 

Day 29 of lockdown - but spring is still springing!

Last night the President addressed the nation and told us lockdown was extended to 11th May, and even then, things would not be back to normal straight away.  Restaurants and bars - such a key part of French life - will not be reopening then, although some schools might.  The borders remain closed.  So there are at least 27 more days of this - not sure how that makes me feel.  We've been doing OK so far, not least as we are still able to work, either remotely (when I do my UK work) or in isolation (when doing work in France in isolated gardens), and we are able to access nice food and drink.  But I am beginning to miss family - last year I seemed to spend every other day in Chinon until my brother arrived, at which point it was a day every week.  Not that I miss the A85 having said that!!  We also miss friends and the Friday night at the pub sessions will not be happening for a lot longer than four weeks it seems.

So human life is in limbo in many ways, and the days could start to resemble each other, until you pay attention to nature and how spring is carrying on regardless.  I had to feed the country cats today, so was able to admire the antics of a ginger cat in the sun with a nice, earth-filled hole.

Then there was the lovely surprise of a lilac bush I'd not seen before, flanked by a cherry tree and a hawthorn, both in full flower.

And then there was the chance to look closely at what we believe to be a lady orchid (still could be corrected on that one) as it gets towards peak perfection.

So really, in the scale of things, it is not all bad at all!

 

Day 25 of lockdown - trying to do crafts with a bit of "help"

Although not a bank holiday in France, Good Friday is not a day I work.  Normally I would spend the morning at the expat Hot Cross Bun party in aid of Children in Need, but this year we are all having to do it alone in our own homes.  Nibbles would like to demonstrate good practice in social distancing and isolation.

As the weather is stunning, I thought this afternoon would be a good time to make a start on the new fabric cover for the gazebo.  I made a new cover about 4 years ago now, but sun, bird poo, rutting ladybirds and rotting peaches have all taken their toll and it is probably a greater health hazard than Covid-19.  I use the outdoor dining table as my cutting and sewing table (hence needing nice weather) but others find the area useful as well.  While I was setting up, I had to avoid this.

Surprisingly, it isn't a bad accident between bantam and cats, but a prolonged dust bath in a human trap they have constructed near the table.  Bridie was not moving, so I had to work around her. 

I bought this fabulous material last year, and the turquoise piece is the pattern I made last time round, so I was able to start to pin out the 1m by 1.6m sections.

I'd got four sections done (I need 12) and was working on the next two, when Nibbles decided to help.

I had to give up and come in when Poirot joined in and Zola was making a nest in the fabric on the floor.  I'm hoping they are getting bored while I do this blog and I will be able to another few sections before apero time.

Day 23 of lockdown - bits and bobs to delight and fright

A couple of days ago I mentioned my orchid that was torturing me with how slowly the flower buds develop and when would the blasted thing open.  Still not open today of course, but getting jolly close - see!

So there I was this morning, standing at a safe distance from the person in front of me and the person behind me in the queue to get into the market at la Flèche.  As I looked around, I noticed a lovely display of flowers - most likely hyacinths that have been around for a few years - on the roof of an outbuilding.  It is probably an old outside loo - my Mum has one very similar in Chinon.  It was so pretty to look at this morning though.

The apply blossom is starting to come out - this spray of flowers is from the Granny Smith tree, which is ahead of the Reine de Reinette.  There are unlikely to be any flowers at all on the Belle de Boskoop.

And finally, I present to you a bowl of eggs.  The big white one is a goose egg - geese are big.  The other three are from our chickens.  That one top left is scary.  Just think about laying that one, boys and girls.

Day 21 of lockdown - waiting for an orchid to bloom

First off an update on yesterday's post - we have indeed captured our first Asian hornet "reine fondatrice" or mother of queens.  I got the confirmation this morning.  So that is 10 hornets' nests less this summer, which is something to feel good about.

Anyway, that is our third week of lockdown completed.  The weather has been overcast, cool and wet, so it has felt more constraining today.  Even the baker's was closed, so no trip up for the daily baguette.

Time drags on a day like this, and so little things become important, and you reflect on silly things.  Here is one - a watched pot never boils.  Well yesterday that was certainly true with the broccoli to go with our pot roast chicken - I set it off before preparing the cheese plate, resting the chicken and making the sauce, and when that was all done and the wine opened and tasted, the broccoli still wasn't boiling!  

But more irritating than the broccoli that doesn't boil, is the orchid bud that doesn't burst!  Our first mini-orchid did so well last summer, and I nurtured it and kept it alive (normally I kill them very quickly), but then the flowers faded and died (after 4 months, so not unsurprising), and I thought that was it.  I went away for a few days in January, and when I got back I found tiny new flower buds forming and got all excited.  Then as each got to half a pea size, they turned brown and dropped off.  A new way to break my heart.  So when this lot of buds started, I wasn't convinced, but it is bigger than half pea size, it isn't turning brown - can it please hurry up and open!!??

Day 20 of lockdown - the battle with the Asian hornet

Before we get onto that - just a reminder of how on edge people are.  A banal but heated discussion between someone with a right to park in the shared courtyard, and someone else whose right is pretty well non-existent escalated into a heated exchange between four neighbours yesterday evening.  One person with nothing to do with the conversation got right in there and started hurling accusations around in a very heated manner.  Now while I admit that the person in question would beat herself up if put in a paper bag on her own, it is evidence of the short fuse people are on, and when given the opportunity to get stuck into something that is non-Covid-19 related, will do just that.  Walk away people!  It ruined a lovely evening.

But on to more interesting things - the fight against the Asian hornet.  Before anyone says anything about "nature", these are an invasive non-native species that can eat their way through a hive of honey bees in about a week.  There is no up side to them.  We were recruited in February to be part of an "observatoire", made up of 56 sites across our district, to try to trap queens in the period up to mid-May when they are laying and nurturing the queens that will create the big nests of the summer.  Stopping one queen now prevents between 10 and 20 nests of hornets later in the summer, each of which can overwinter a further 5 queens.  Think of all those social distancing tree diagrams you've seen recently.

Anyway, we are hosts to 3 traps, one at home, one where the cats are and one with a client who has had trouble with hornets in the past.  The traps are designed to entice the queens in, but not let them out again (although their efficacy in that is also part of the test). 

In the trap you put a pot of bait with a lot of pebbles or similar, so that good insects don't drown in the bait which is made up of a third dark, sweet beer, a third fruit syrup ideally blackcurrant or grenadine (in our case out of date Ribena), and a third dry white wine, to keep bees away from it.

Today, John checked the one with the cats, as they needed feeding, and we think we have caught one!  The photo below has been sent to the main man running the observatoire for his views, so I will confirm if we have been successful properly when he gets back to me.  We are ever so excited though.

 

Day 19 of lockdown - good reasons to stay "in"

For anyone worried about the visit to the vet with a cat yesterday, she is OK, the wounds were self-inflicted and have been cleaned.  She has had cortisone and anti-biotic injections and gets soothing cream rubbed in the wounds twice a day.  She has been enjoying the sun today.

Apart from a quick trip to the local market for fish (yes!), olives and tea, we have been very much in lockdown mode today, but in the garden in the main as it is warmer out than in!  John has been playing with his pressure washers to make sure they still work (they do), and then blasting the 20 year old garden bench and the garden chairs to get them ready for the new season.  Here's a thing.  Virginia creeper suckers do not come off plastic with a pressure washer or a scouring pad - you heard it here first, folks!

I've been happily sowing seeds in cheap and improvised propagators - sweet corn in the Blue Peter style propagator as I don't have root trainers.

While in the proper propagators (well Lidl, 4 for 4 euros anyway), I've got sunflowers, lettuce, coriander, chillies, cherry tomatoes and butternut squash - many butternut squash.

Finally, what do you do with goose eggs?  Well, I will probably make a quiche tomorrow with a couple, but I thought I would see if my ducks would like to try to hatch one.  They don't seem too convinced!

And on that slightly bizarre note, I'm off for drinkie-poos in the garden.  Know where you left your sanity for when this is all over!

 

Day 18 of lockdown - and all the reasons I've been out

Not every day in lockdown is extravagantly exciting, although I do try to spread out the fun through the week.  However I have four things to leave the house for today (which makes it sound not so much like lockdown actually).  In the morning, there is of course the stroll to the bakers for (today) croissants, baguette and a pizza for supper.  I was also able to properly admire the new door at the bakers!

After lunch I combined two of my trips out, in that I had to do a bit of work for John, and on the way back from that, I stopped at the local pig farm to pick up my order of pork products and an organic chicken (the lady who does those uses the pig farm as an outlet).  Jean-Yves had worked hard to get a safe and orderly process for paying for and picking up purchases in the farm yard.  There was a perspex screen to keep us separate, we all had to bring our chequebooks and own pens, only one person picking up their parcel at a time.  It worked well.  Strangely I spotted the bloke from the post office, who I had seen the morning before at the bakers, and in the afternoon at the supermarket.  We agreed we had to stop meeting like that!

My final trip out shortly is to take a cat to the vet - it looks like she has managed to slice her face and neck with her own claws, stupid creature.  I've warned her that she will probably have to wear a Cone of Shame overnight in future!

No pictures of the wounds (nasty), but instead a catch up on photos from earlier this week.  This is what was left of the banana bread yesterday.

This is a close up of the forsythia, which will probably be over by next week.

And here is a cat in a tree - not the one going to the vet I hasten to add.