Rural Life

Day 43 of lockdown - no politics here

This afternoon at 3pm (French time) the lovely Prime Minister stood up to give a speech in the House of Deputies about the plan for getting out of lockdown.  I gather it went on for at least 1 hour and 6 minutes.  I've not listened to it and I'm not going to talk about it here (or at any rate not today).

The other thing I'm not going to write about today is face masks - I'd planned to have a nice cathartic rant about stupidity and face masks, as I thought the weather was going to be pants.  It wasn't so I won't.  Perhaps tomorrow or Thursday.

Instead, more of the usual - cats, plants, vegetables - you can zone out here if you like.  I won't know so I won't be offended.

This morning we discovered a rat burrow - actually not so difficult to discover, as there was a vast pile of freshly dug soil and rubble outside the chicken run - like a giant mole hill.  John has borrowed our next door neighbour's old but effective rat trap and placed it in the burrow entrance - of course if we catch any, we will have to deal with them as it is a live trap, but we really didn't want to use poison as it is too indiscriminate.  If a mouse eats some and is then caught and eaten by a cat, the cat gets very ill (how I lost one of mine I think).  The contents of the trap could be tomorrow's excitement!  Our neighbour is very excited anyway.

This afternoon was cat in the country feeding time.  Fergus was cross with me as he swatted Spooky who wanted a cuddle, so I told him off. He went and had a really high quality sulk at me at a distance.

Once I had dealt with three of the boys, I went to check out the wildflower meadow - all was looking very lovely, although the pesky bee orchids are still being very shy.  In a couple of weeks I expect I won't be able to move for the wretched things, but currently they are hiding.  I did meet this very fine furry caterpillar though - eating its way through what seemed to be clover, it was about an inch and a half long.  I wonder what it will be when it grows up?

Donald decided to help me take photos in the meadow, including my favourite irises (for tomorrow), and other bits and bobs.  I suspect this is not how to take selfies!

Finally, I picked a few broad beans - they are still very tiny, so ideal for pretentious chefs, but I'd got to that stage where I could wait no longer!

Day 39 of lockdown - cats and gardening

It is a widely accepted truth that cats love boxes - there are lovely films of panthers and cheetahs and tigers all unable to resist the lure of the delicate rectangular shape, with or without an obvious entrance.  Look what we managed to trap yesterday in a cardboard box!  Our own little panther.

This morning was cloudy and cool so I took advantage to go and see the boys in the country and also plant the first of the potatoes (yes, I know, we are late, but that's just the way it is).  Cats also like well raked soil, freshly turned soil and weed suppressant mat.  It took a while to remove the roots and stones from this newly cultivated piece of land.  A similar amount of time to remove all the cat poo that accumulated in the 3 days since it was rotavated, and mere seconds for cats to appear on the weed suppressing mat once it was on the ground.  There are 20 seed potatoes under that lot somewhere!

I think the broad beans may be not so far off a first picking!

Finally, I am always amazed at the resilience of well established plants, and this one is my particular favourite.  Perhaps 12 years ago we had a small bed here, where now there is just pavement.  We also had the wall repointed which is I think when the little bed started to disappear, before being totally covered when the new pavement was put in place.  Somehow this lovely campanula manages to survive and each spring produces this wonderful ball of mauve flowers which last a couple of weeks.  Some years it is the only splash of colour in April, this year we have early roses and geraniums that survived the winter in flower, but this is still pretty special in my book.

 

Day 38 of lockdown - further orchid torture

They are out to get me!  Those orchids keep doing this - massive, pregnant buds that don't open for days, they just get larger and larger.  Every time I look at them (so several times a day as they are by the loo) I imagine them shouting "feed me Seymour!" like in the Little Shop of Horrors.

I spend the morning Skyping with a client in Birmingham - she is not having an easy time of it, living in a nice maisonette, but without any real outside space.  She is juggling work and writing up her PhD thesis.  I really am quite lucky, not least as I spent the afternoon playing on TWO ride on mowers, making a property look very beautiful.  A slight frustration is that only the ducks will admire what I have done, but hopefully they like it!

Reasons for mowing when people won't see what you've done?  Well, left to itself, nature has some lovely flowers and insects and it has thugs with few natural predators.   Those thugs will take over, and while after 50 years you might have an interesting ecosystem, in the meantime you develop a thatch of bramble, thistle, nettle, rush, horsetail and old man's beard which strangle the orchids, lords and ladies, milkmaids, stitchwort and other charming flowers of spring.  

We sat out yesterday after work, enjoying the warmth, the bird song, and I would say the quiet, but there was all that bird song.  The first swifts are turning up, but not enough yet to start the big screaming aerobatic displays.  The swallows are frantically nest building.  The starlings are very proud of the chicks they are raising in our eaves and makes a lot of noise about it - I think someone plays a lot of old school computer games around here, as that is what our starling sounds like!  The cuckoo was also giving it some yesterday, while today where I was mowing, two were shouting at each other across the valley.  The starling likes to perch on the apex of the roof to "sing" to the world - I think he has ambitions to be the god on top of a Thai palace!

 

Day 37 of lockdown - is it getting to me?

The mystery of the plants was solved once John got home - it was his payment for helping someone to fix their ride on lawnmower.  Excellent!  This afternoon I planted 9 of the tomato plants and six of the lettuces where the boy cats live.  They may or may not survive - we know that deer can't get into that bit of the land, but I've seen some monstrously huge snails there, and they will need regular watering if the dry weather continues.  Fergus worried that I was overdoing it this afternoon, so pinned me down for a while.

It was very good of him to notice that I needed a bit of TLC.  I don't know what it was that caused it, but I woke this morning with a thumper of a headache, and none of the usual things would shift it - not tea, not rinsing my hair under the shower, not even ibuprofen worked its usual magic.  So I missed out on going to the market this morning - I just could not face it.  I'm OK now but it took a while.  But then, it is day 37 of lockdown...

In other news, we had a visitor to the garden yesterday - we all kept a couple of metres apart, but for those living on their own, and who don't want to sit in front of the TV all the time, and who aren't much into reading, it's getting tough.  So we sat outside at a good distance apart and caught up after not having seen each other for about 40 days.  It certainly seemed to perk her up and it was nice to have a change of conversation too, and all in French!!

The first of the "red" irises is out - this one is at the front of the house in the courtyard and tends to get munched by snails so it is good to have a relatively perfect flower.  The ones in the back garden aren't flowering yet, and are generally a bit more lush.

The wind from the east has dropped again, and the rain has stopped, so Nibbles has returned to her fine weather perch, ensuring that nothing and no one could get in the bath window if it was open.  I'm sure we all feel safer for that.

 

 

Day 35 of lockdown - apologies for the delay!

So this is about an hour and a half later than my usual blogging time and for that I am sorry.  I got a piece of work away to a client so decided to celebrate by doing a bit of yoga.  I would like to say I feel a lot better for it, I am acutely aware of my calves, but the real test will be my ability to sleep without really weird dreams tonight.

I think I have mentioned that we were adopted by a bantam just before Christmas.  She is very pretty but quite unapproachable, so doesn't live with the four normal sized chickens.  Once we got to February, she started to lay eggs, little white ones.  The first clutch we found were in the shed, hidden behind an old jerrycan.  She laid one egg in the chicken coop when the others were out and about trashing the garden.  John set her up with a wheelbarrow and a grass collector from a dead lawnmower filled with straw which she used a couple of times.  What she doesn't like, is that when we find her stashes, we take the eggs.  She doesn't do sharing.

Since mid-March we haven't seen any of her eggs - we thought she might be laying them in a neighbouring garden.  It's a bit rough on us as we feed her and provide water, and as there aren't any bantam cockerels around, the eggs shouldn't do anything.  About 10 days ago, we stopped seeing her, other than an occasional and very loud visit once day - she had clearly got enough eggs to brood.  And she's not a nice broody either - if spotted by us or one of the other chickens she has an awful lot to say.  I don't speak chicken but I don't think any of it is polite.

Yesterday I was pottering in the shed when I spotted a bit of a mess.  On closer inspection, it was dried egg yolk and nearby there were egg shells and a couple of whole eggs.  There were also tins of wood stain and wood polish scattered around, which should be on the top shelf....

I looked up and around at some of the shelves, and finally I spotted her.  But I tried not to make eye contact, so that we know where she is for a while.  There is very little you can do about a broody chicken or bantam.

The other chickens are doing fine - here is a photo of two of them clearing weeds out of a raised bed.

 

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.