Rural Life

An aestival interlude

Actually I would spell it estival rather than aestival, but I think the American spell checker objects!  Whatever, April and the first couple of days of May have been a wonderful foretaste of what summer should be like, but wasn't last year.  We wait to see how this summer pans out - I have little faith in the long term forecasts peddled by the tabloids. 

We started the week with aperos in the garden with our elderly cat, and on Friday had a book signing on the pub terrace with a renowned Anglophone historian and writer (click on the Eighty Years Ago this Week link on the right of the screen when you have finished reading this for more information about Adrian Phillips, author of, among other titles, Winston's Bandits, the book being signed here).  What a week!

In between, there have been markets, a bank holiday with picnic, a final afternoon at the Mairie making paper flowers, and an extremely hot and sticky session in the Comité des Fêtes's hangar, taking down last year's cabin structure and building the new frame for this year's tableau - very hush, hush for the moment. 

The natural flowers are an absolute joy this year.  At the bottom of one of our downpipes we always have a good display of campanula growing out of the wall and a bit of tarmac, but this year is the best ever I think.  They should keep going for another week or so.

The peas I sowed in pots to keep them away from marauding mice all came up and those have now been planted into the vegetable beds, with columns of sheep netting to climb up.  The last three days have seen all of them pull away gratifyingly and I am hoping for tasty snacks of extremely fresh peas in early June.

Down among the ponds, there is one place where there is a large bank of wild marsh iris, and we have the best ever display we've seen of flowers on them at the moment.  Soon the other foliage will completely block the view of them for the rest of the summer season.

The unseasonably hot weather brought on the flowers on the false acacia rather more quickly than usual - I hope this doesn't adversely affect the honey harvest.  The trees themselves are awful - covered in sharp thorns, they spread by suckering and are a non-native invasive species, practically impossible to get rid of.  But for a couple of weeks in May or June they are coated in tumbling white flowers with a heady, honey scent, which makes them borderline tolerable.

The favourite orchid featured last week continues to flower beautifully despite being mugged by surrounding oxeye daisies, linseed and various meadow grasses.  While I tried to bash my way through to my favourite cultivated irises, I found a second example of the orchid, possibly more spectacular than the first.  Well, see what you think!

The weather has changed in time for the UK bank holiday.  We have another ourselves on Thursday, with Victory in Europe day, which will be full of reminders of the end of the Second World War.  Sadly it seems we are gearing up for the Third World War, but I will not pursue that line of thinking, this week anyway. 

Have a good week!

 

That's quite enough of 2020!

As the t-shirt says, 2020 - one star rating.  And I think the one star is because you can't have a no star rating!  New Zealand and Australia are already shot of it and here in France we have just over 6 hours (and counting down) more to tolerate.  Not that I imagine the start of 2021 will be any better really, but short of alien invasion, this year really has had most things cr@p.

But to put a better spin on it all, things are looking up!  This morning I went to open a new sack of chicken feed and pulled the two bits of twine that are sewn along the top to close it - miracle of miracles, it all pulled apart in one smooth movement.  It didn't even need a starting nudge with the scissors!  For those who open bird seed, chicken food, cat litter, posh flour and pasta and all the other paper sacks with stitched tops, you will know the astonishment and pleasure this gave!

Nature is also doing its bit to show that there are good things to come.  The broad beans I sowed in late November are coming up, and following a badger track, I found a load of narcissus bulbs coming up under a hedge.  There are also loads of orchid and cowslip rosettes to be seen, while Aldi was selling hellebores and I was there in time to get one!  Nature shows the way (although we may also get snow in the new year).

Culture also goes on.  The online store that shall not be named, but is about the only way currently I can buy new books in English, exceeded its estimation of delivery dates and these two lovelies turned up today!  These are two of my absolute favourite contemporary writers.  Louise Penny's Gamache is the detective we would all want working on a case on our behalf - this book is about an investigation in Paris, but normally he is in the Quebec state of Canada.  Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant is a member of the Met, but is shacked up with a river goddess and is part of the Wizarding special section of the Police, so a little different.  I can't wait to get stuck in!

So I leave the final farewell to 2020 to S Clause, and look forward to the new challenges and charms of 2021.  I decided a sweepstake on the date of the start of the next confinement here would be in bad taste, but so far people have mentioned the 5th and the 15th of January.  Bonne Année, et surtout la santé as we say over here.

 

Summer reflections 3 - love and lighting

It's been an interesting week here in rural France.  Holiday makers and second home owners are starting to arrive, as is Covid-19, although Anjou is not as badly affected as Brittany or PACA, we have moved from green to amber on RAG ratings.  The tourism season meant that there was an added attraction at the market last Saturday, as local authors did a book signing session - mostly wearing masks.

While the start and end of the week were hot and sunny, the middle was less impressive, with cloud, some light rain and cool temperatures for July - it's not unknown.  The conditions were clearly right for stag beetles to get it on, and I found a pair at it in the aubergine and pepper bed.  I wouldn't normally comment on beetle sex, but these are seriously big beetles and they made a bit of noise, plus I have chums who are that way about stag beetles.

The photo was after the event...

As the weather improved, so the long evenings were more appealing for late walks after I have watered the potted plants.  This photo shows a pretty novel light on the church spire (yes, it is twisted, just like Chesterfield, well not exactly like Chesterfield, but...), as it is really only at about 9:45pm or later that the sun hits that bit of the tower.

Apologies for the revolting bungalow in the foreground.

The vegetable plot is starting to get into its swing - here is Fergus guarding our swag (hard earned swag).  We have also robbed a couple more potatoes, and the beefsteak tomatoes are ripening.

Finally, it is a good year for my favourite flower.  We have three pots of agapanthus and all are out, but this one is the most dramatic.

Have a nice weekend and wear a face mask in enclosed spaces!