Rural Life

Day 6 of Lockdown - a very quiet Sunday (with a cat picture)

Once I had done this blog yesterday, I was overcome by a fit of domestic goddessness (and needing a good excuse to have The Cat Empire DVD on loud), so I made cake.  It is basically a Quatre-quarts using brown sugar, and with some of the flour replaced by ginger and cinnamon - it's very nice with cream and jam!

Today has been even quieter than normal, as people respect the lockdown and also the noise curfew that is always in place here on a Sunday.  Perhaps the highlight of my day so far was when I pottered down the garden to let the chickens out for their daily vandalism spree.

Zola decided to show me what a voracious hunter she is, by leaping into and climbing up the pear tree to catch a collar dove that was sitting in it and taunting her.  Zola is not aerodynamic or subtle, so before she was even half way up the tree, the dove had flown off to the next perch.  Leaving Zola in the tree...  I carried on my garden inspection, released chickens, talked to them (well berated them for poor egg production actually) and turned back to the pear tree.  Someone was stuck.  Someone was very stuck.  Someone was crying and asking for help.  So, once I had taken a few photos, I grabbed a branch she could walk down, then she walked down me, and ran away to find another tree to climb.  Later on she brought John a lizard's tail to say thank you (but I'm not sure for what).

We are lucky to have a garden and cats and chickens to entertain us.  We also have a vast reserve of DVDs we haven't watched in ages.  Yesterday was The Cat Empire, perhaps today will be The Who or Gerald de Palmas - not decided yet.

 

Day 5 of Lockdown - not so easy!

Once I'd written and published this blog yesterday, it was beer o'clock, but as we are in lockdown, it had to be done differently.  We booked FaceTime with my Mum and Brother, found some crunchy nibbles and then went to pour a couple of drinks.  Well John's beer wasn't a problem (for the moment), but my gin and tonic was - it was the last of the gin... Of... Any …. Sort!  Panic!!

Well the FaceTime aperos experiment worked very well by the way, and will be repeated later this weekend and a few times next week and probably for the foreseeable future, with different chums - let me know if you want to play!!

John had the responsibility of doing the shopping this morning as he also had a doctor's appointment.  He picked up the care package of Earl Grey tea that had been left for us, checked out the market and came back with lots of yoghurt and rice pudding as that particular supplier is going to self-isolate from today (eek), fish, apples, salad, ham and most importantly - Gin!

Not the strongest perhaps, but one of the best named, and with a smashing label!

The weather today isn't particularly nice - dull and cold (where did the sun go?), so I have carried on with working from home and the report that I am doing for the Broads Authority, while listening to my new CD by Claudio Capéo - if you are feeling bored, look up his brilliant songs Un Homme Debout and Dis-le Moi.  I defy you not to want to pogo around the room towards the end of the second one!!

The lack of sun has affected the cats of course.  Zola is in and out and can't settle to anything as she needs to keep warm (despite having a thick fluffy coat).  Poirot is trying to recover from me spending the morning with Patrick Bruel (on Facebook) and singing along loudly and tunelessly.  Nibbles is trying to sleep through it all.

Spotting pine processionary nests

In a previous blog (see here), I wrote about the dangers of pine processionary caterpillars.  Late winter and early spring is an ideal time to spot nests.  The one in the photograph below is about 40 foot up in an old Scots pine in the One Acre Wood, and now we have spotted it, we have time to paint the trunk of the tree with gloop in order to stop the blasted things reaching the forest floor, setting up camp and then pupating and flying away.

That is really all you can do with the nests that are very high up.  If you have low level nests, you can very carefully cut them off the tree, put them in a metal bucket, pour in some petrol and very very carefully set them alight.  It has to be a very hot fire in order to destroy the spines, which are the things that are so dangerous to animals and humans.

In case you feel inclined to let nature take its course, know that the spines are exceptionally irritating.  On humans they cause a rash that itches worse than anything else I have experienced and that itching will last for over a week.  On dogs and cats, the effects are even worse, causing blindness, necessitating tongues to be amputated, and can kill.  Tree owners are legally obliged to deal with nests if they are in gardens.

Nature can be a bit yukky at times!

Bee action

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the One Acre Wood helping to sort out firewood.  At the far end of the main clearing, by the King of the Forest oak tree, I heard a certain amount of buzzing.  We are used to flies if something has been indiscrete in the wood, and of course mosquitoes in the summer if the clay pits have water in them, but it wasn't that sort of buzzing.

I looked around and followed the noise and found a small number of bees working over the catkins on a hazel stem.  I'm not sure there is much by way of nectar, but I could see they had loads of pollen collected on their legs.  It was the first time I have observed this, so was very taken with it.  The bee keeping forum I participate in have also mentioned it over the last couple of weeks.

Of course the bees don't go to the female flowers, so it won't have helped any hazelnuts to set, but wonderful to see that at least some bees are making it through this mild and wet winter.  You can just about see the pollen sacs on the bee in the picture below.

 

Another new critter in the zone - cynips!

Today's Courrier de l'Ouest had as its main story dire warnings about a new critter, not native to Europe that is decimating sweet chestnut plantations in France.  Big news guys - the wee varmint has been here for a year or two, and specifically in the One Acre Wood.

Last spring we spotted galls on some of the low branches of some of the young sweet chestnut stems, and wondered what it was about.  Now we know - Cynips de Chataignier - or Dryocosmus Kuriphilus - or Chestnut Gall Wasp.

Self-fertile (nasty) wasps lay eggs in next year's leaf buds in the summer.  The following spring, the eggs hatch in the bud and create a gall in which they live and feed and grow.  They hatch out in late spring/early summer and fly around laying more eggs.  The effect on sweet chestnut trees is to reduce fruiting drastically - by up to 70% some claim - as well as sapping the strength of the branch their gall is on, and in the long term, reducing the strength of the tree.

It is a notifiable pest, so that is today's job, finding and reporting it to the relevant authority and waiting to hear what happens next. 

If you spot galls on sweet chestnut trees, check them against this website/document and then contact your local authority with responsibility for control of foreign pests.

Is is a lawnmower?

John is never tired of saying that here you must expect the unexpected around here.  Yesterday evening we were invited to dinner with some chums who are over enjoying the Easter vacation.  John also used to do their lawns, but they have changed gardener.  As we turned into their drive, we saw our host with a black herbivore of some sort on a rope.  John's reaction is best paraphrased as "I've not been replaced by a goat AGAIN, have I?"

Fortunately not.  Our friends were working away in their property yesterday afternoon when they saw what they thought was a goat walking up the road.  It turned into their drive, so both dashed inside to find their cat to ensure she wasn't spooked by this apparition (Skye is a scaredy cat) - they also hoped it would just walk on by.  To their horror, they found themselves pinned in the house by the animal, which proceeded to demolish one of their rose bushes.  Dave climbed out of a window to go and find the owner, while Pauline tried to encourage it away from the house.  She gave up after she had been butted a couple of times.

Dave found some people who had goats, but hadn't lost one, but never the less came and caught and tethered the beast, so when we arrived, the Black Marauder was tied up with a bucket of water and some nice lush weeds grass to chew on.  Closer inspection helped us to identify that he was a sheep, but one with a bad attitude as he then butted me too.  Sweet he ain't!

 
A little while later a neighbour of Dave and Pauline's turned up to say that she knew who the sheep belonged to, but could they hang on to it until the next day as the owners were out.  As it seemed happy eating the weeds grass, and was securely fastened, that was OK.  We thought the drama was over.

How wrong!  At about 9pm, the neighbour called to say the owner was about to come and claim the sheep, was that alright?  Absolutely - we all trooped out to wave a fond farewell to Sheep.  A little while later the neighbour turned up with the owner in a Fiat Panda.  We were astounded as three children also emerged from the car, and even more curious as to how sheep would be transported the 5 miles or so to its home.  Simple - three children on the back seat and Sheep in the front foot well!  Apparently Sheep is about 11 years old, had dodged a bullet when 1 year old and facing slaughter for a barbecue, and had been adopted by these people.  He was acknowledged to be a bit of a brute, butting people constantly.  this isn't nice when you have horns like this!

 
The bad attitude was explained when we found out his name - in  translation he is called Pink Carnation!

 

Dangers of putting out laundry!

It was fine and sunny for much of last week, so we took advantage and got loads of laundry done.  However putting some of it out on the line was a bit scary due to this monster, who at about 3 and a half inches long, can be a bit off-putting.  She allowed me, graciously, to carry on around her however, and had gone off on a different patrol by the time it was time to bring stuff in.  The poor focus is due to doing the photo on my mobile phone camera, which I still find challenging!

Apologies for being quiet over the past few weeks - John's party was tiring, then I picked up 5 days fee-paying work and then we were into the Comice.  That is over now and there will be a series of posts to show what we got up to, both in the run up to the event and over the 2 days of festivities as well.  Suffice it to say that it was a great success, an amazing achievement by the organising committee and I hope that the politics will abate soon!

 

Cool for cats

After one or two stutters earlier in the month and in May, summer has finally arrived in Anjou.  This is wonderful, although it does bring its own challenges at times.  If you are covered with fur, however silky and lovely that fur is, when the sun is beating down and it is 28 degrees in the shade, you need to find somewhere cool to hang out.  Inside my car in the garage (on the parcel shelf - or cat lounger) is one good place, but Maigret doesn't do indoors if she can help it during daylight hours.  Well - you never know what birds, shrews, mice and lizards, not to mention bugs and butterflies, you might miss!  So she is here - somewhere!

I didn't really need the scarlet pimpernell to tell me that it wasn't going to rain, but it is nice to have that reassurance!

And finally, after the excitement of that first egg from Salt, I can confirm that she is up to four eggs produced, while Pepper is behind the game a bit with two (and I haven't checked yet today).  Salt's eggs are slowly increasing in size as can be seen by the row of three paler eggs (we have already eaten the first one), while Pepper's are tiny but a lovely chocolate brown colour.  That dark colour will fade as the eggs get larger and she gets more mature.  Incidentally, although they are tiny, Pepper's eggs are unlikely to be wind eggs (ones with no yolk) as they are egg shaped.  Wind eggs generally look like pingpong balls!

 
 
 

Pine Processionary caterpillars - not cute!

Today I went with John to sort out some damage from storm Xynthia.  An old and slightly rotten plum tree had been partly brought down in the winds, and the owner wanted the whole thing cut down and into pieces.  When we got to the garden, we reversed down the drive to have a bit of privacy when we changed into chainsaw gear, and then had a few problems with central locking and the boot.  It was just as well we did - while I was kicking my heels by the back of the car waiting for the right clicking sound, I looked down and screamed - Pine Processionaries!!

They aren't much of an issue yet in the UK, but if you are driving round France and you see white blobs between the size of an elongated tennis ball and a rugby ball on pine trees, you are looking at the nest of the pine processionary.  They fester away in these nests through the winter, and keep alive by sucking the sap of the host tree (not good for the tree).  Then in the spring, any time in March or April, they march down the tree and find a suitable spot to turn into their next phase and finally very unremarkable moths.

Why the paranoia from me?  As a country girl I am used to disgusting things after all (although I am still scared of the four inch long luminous orange slugs in the wood - vicious blood sucking fiends that they are)!  Well, if we had had a small child or a dog with us, we would have been in trouble.  The spines of the caterpillar fall off at the least provocation and cause anything from mild skin irritation to blindness depending where they hit.  There is nothing nice about these creatures and they are not native to the area, so have no predators.  And they spread.

Here are some piccies to make your skin crawl.

They aren't luminous orange by the way - we sprayed the main blob once we found them with forestry spray paint in the naive hope that they were settling there and we could come back and spray them or set fire to them - these are the ways of dealing with them on the ground.

But we were foiled as they didn't like the paint so they set off processing - you can see why children find them so fascinating...

And this is why they get their name!

So - if someone like a gardener or a tree surgeon tells you you have pine processionaries, please don't say that it isn't a problem.  They are a major hazard - to children, to pets and to people working in your garden.  A park in Angers had to be closed after the scouts camping there disturbed some old nests and over a hundred were affected by skin complaints and worse.  We had a lot of difficulty working round the problem at our client's garden, and will be back with sprays to deal with what we can.  The ideal solution is to cut down the nest in January and burn it in a metal bucket with a bit of petrol. Of course if the nest is inaccessible then you have to resort to things like glue rings, but even an old and empty nest can contain millions of spines and they are what cause the problem.

 
 
 

A spot of gardening

It's that time of year when the garden gurus tell you to stay off the lawn and put your feet up in front of the fire with the seed catalogues to plan the next growing season.  When you have chickens and a workshop at the bottom of the garden, that advice is useless, and the best one can do is to ensure that you don't keep walking on the same bit each time (handy tip - put plastic garden chairs over routes that have got a bit soggy so you have to walk round them and thus let the grass recover, plus if the chair is white, you can see it in the dark and avoid falling over it!).

Round here, if you are in the country and don't have fences, you find that enthusiastic wildlife will do what it can to scarify the lawn.  I'm not talking here about the gentle progging that a green woodpecker or a blackbird will do searching for worms and insects, nor in the Southern Hemisphere that a friendly Ibis will do for reasons that the Southern Hemisphere will have to provide.  No I am talking serious earth works here - see below!

 

This delightful sight met our eyes at one of John's gardens near the river before Christmas.  The owner was concerned that someone had raided his grounds for wild cyclamen.  While they are prolific there, the French are not into nicking them as they are so widely available everywhere; they just enjoy them where they are.  Indeed our lawn is starting to sprout a number of patches of cyclamen due to the lawn mice that find seeds, bury them and then either lose them or get eaten by the cats themselves.  I think I am up to a dozen such cyclamen plants, and ours is not a huge garden.

So what had done all that damage, if it wasn't itinerant pilfering peasants?  The ultimate vandal was to blame.  A beast that, if it sees a fine lawn, just has to go and make a mess of it.  A beast that trashes woodland roads and verges (and sometimes cars too) and is growing in numbers in our part of the world despite the huge numbers of hunters that try to track it down.  The wild boar is a very shy animal - I have only ever seen a live one once, and that was living at a farm rescue centre.  John has seen a couple at night but only fleetingly.  We have seen their traces in the damage however and know exactly who to blame!

Foot prints and tusk marks - could the clues be any clearer?