Rural Life

Quiet days of August

Last week was the flurry of excitement that is the annual Comice here in Baugé en Anjou, and since then, things have generally been much quieter.  Local people are either on holiday or preparing for the Rentré next week - the start of September that brings a new school year, a new year for the sports and arts clubs, people going back to work and taking things a bit more seriously, being able to get an artisan to answer the phone, the tax assessment results, getting the chimney swept and starting to think about winter heating.  It's a big thing here, probably bigger than New Year, and taken most seriously.

For us, it should mean that the holiday makers disperse, making it easier to park at the local markets, less frantic calls from people who can see weeds in their lawn or furry pears on their trees (actually known as quince, but there we go), and a slightly less fraught diary.  In fact, in previous years, September has been a month where I have had something on every weekend, and sometimes more than one thing too.  This year seems more sane - only a pig roast in a couple of weeks' time and perhaps being able to visit things for European Heritage Weekend.

The gardens are relatively quiet - chillies are ripening, as are the meagre corn cobs, borlotti beans are flowering and setting and the potatoes need to be lifted.  With August, some of the loveliest flowers arrive - cyclamen.  They are mainly pink but some are white, and over the years, the clumps get larger.  The ones in our lawn started as the odd flower here and there and now have spread.  It's the same in the One Acre Wood.  These ones are at The Studio and seemed to come up overnight.

Although the weather remains frustratingly dry, there are more clouds in the evening now, which make for colourful sunsets.  I'm never great at taking photographs of these, but I am getting better, and this one was a pleasing one.

I've not taken many photographs this week, and the trail camera was pointing at an area that looked like it was a badger playground.  Well if it was, they weren't playing last week.  The camera has moved and there are no photos to share from it, so I will have to round off with a photo of young Monsieur Clause, who is looking very sleek and pleased with himself at the moment.  I think he is having a good mousing season.

I'll take more and better photos this week - I promise.

 

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!

 

 

Summer reflections 2 - excess fruitfulness

Summer is definitely here, as there are more and more British cars on the roads.  If you are coming over, and bringing a car, don't be fooled by the British press saying that main road speeds are back to 90kmph (56mph).  In some places they are changing, in other places they aren't.  Basically, keep your eyes on the road signs, and if in doubt, stick to 80kmph (50mph).  And ignore what your satnav says too, as it won't be up to date.  We believe it is a scam to earn more money in fines, and they will still fine you, even if it is a British registered car, and that fine will find you.

So what about the excess fruitfulness?  Well that is down to our poor, long suffering pear tree.  We have yet another year where it is loaded down with fruit and we hadn't realised how big some of that fruit was, nor how much there was.  Sometime yesterday afternoon, a gust of wind hit it a bit too hard and wallop!  Down came a big branch.  A cat may or may not have been involved too - Zola is being a bit coy about that.

Now our usual way of dealing with excess fruit won't really work, as it relies on things being ripe and mushy and full of sugars and with a bit of natural yeast.  While large, these pears aren't really ripe or even close to thinking about being ripe.  Anyone with recipes for what to do with green, unripe pears, please let me know before the chickens peck them all to bits (and a vast hill of chicken food isn't actually what we need either).

 

Summer reflections 1 - the weather isn't right

As my Facebook feeds and my memories tell me, in general the first half of July is scorching hot, bright sunshine, occasional and scary thunder storms and farmers working around the clock to get the grain harvest in.  Currently only the last of these seems to be running to form.  The weather is cool (low 20s at best) and a bit dull.  That hasn't stopped the maize from growing, although our own sweetcorn is unlikely to hit 2 foot tall.  I no longer have an evening vista to enjoy.

Some of the gardens we keep an eye on have different crops surrounding them.  This is not what you might think but very closely related.  Germination rates seem to have been pretty poor.

Evidence that Covid-19 is still a threat can be found if you have to go hospital visiting.  I'm not sure how the image below is supposed to bring comfort and succour to the invalid being visited, but that is the only way you can be to get in.  At least they don't stick a thermometer in your ear any more to check your temperature!

For those who don't see my Facebook posts, while the sweetcorn is unlikely to do anything this year, we have done well on garlic, shallots and potatoes.  The spuds were ones I robbed from 3 different plants, while rummaging in the soil to see how they were getting on.  Rather well was the answer - they were delicious with butter and a nice lump of salmon.

Let summer begin!

Apologies for not rounding off the 30 Days Wild with a wild post yesterday, but I was anything but wild - tied to the computer until 10:30pm getting a report finished for a client.  With a couple of chums, I've been doing a quick scheme review for the Fifth Continent Landscape Partnership, but at a distance.  It brought back memories of afternoons on the sands at Littlestone when I was small, walks on the shingle at Dungeness when I was older, and the litany of villages we used to have to go through to get down to Littlestone (Matfield, Brenchley, Goudhurst, Sissinghurst, Biddenden, Tenterden, Appledore, New Romney).  My Dad used to love it down there.

Anyway, now summer should be here and soon the holiday makers will arrive, but it will be a strange summer, as so many of the festivals and capers of summer have been cancelled.  There will be no 14th July festivities and fireworks, no Comice at Echimiré, although they promise they will do it next year instead, no festival of the giant croissant (and at 800g each, they are indeed giant), no car boot sales, no concerts.  We will have to make our own entertainment.

And that is where things can get bizarre.  We grew small pumpkins (potimarrons) last year, but didn't eat many of them, as they weren't as tasty as the butternut squashes we also grew.  They sat in the garage and slowly went off.  "What happens if you bury a whole one?" he says, and does that in the wild flower meadow.  I imagine that they sit in the soil until some enterprising worm or beetle nibbles through the hard outer shell, at which point the seeds, which are in a nutrient rich soup of putrid pumpkin, go "weh hey - an escape tunnel" and go for it.  One has produced four seedlings, the other?  Well see if you can work it out!

With life here in France returning to close to normal, I'll not be doing a daily blog, but I will provide updates a few times a week.  I will leave you with the portrait of Fergus I promised a couple of days ago.

 

Day 28 of 30 Days Wild - Saturday fun, Sunday work

I did warn you that there would be no blog yesterday - we were out celebrating with one of the Chinon Two.  I have to say that weather-wise, it wasn't really the best day for celebrating.  Before we even got to that, we had to brave a cold, moist and windy market to get supplies.

Before settling in to a delicious and copious dinner at the Bistrot de Marché at Chinon, we went on a bit of a wander and café tour - this was in the main square, and a bit moist and windy.

So we moved location to the admirable Café Français and sat indoors, and admired the collection of confinement cartoons by a local chap, many of which had appeared in the Nouvelle Republique.  We then strolled on to the Bistrot de Marché, inspecting menus as we went - in many instances, that was actually just an academic exercise as quite a few had signs up saying they were complêt for the evening, even before opening time!  I tried to emulate the wonderful sunset scenes that so many friends post at the moment, but failed totally - if you look very closely, you might just spot a chateau on the horizon.

To make up for a day of lotus eating yesterday, this morning was spent working hard on the vegetable plot, while the afternoon has been spent clamped to the computer, working on a report that has to be submitted on Tuesday (so long as it arrives before midnight, that is OK).

Fergus is guarding the strimmer while we do other things - tomorrow there will be a Fergus portrait I think!

But now it is time for Sunday aperos - bring out the Gin!

 

Day 26 of 30 Days Wild - back to the files

It's been another of those days when I run from pillar to post without really getting anywhere, so it is difficult, if not impossible to reflect on French life or wild things.  On the good news front, the supermarket shelves seemed to be back to near normal and I was able to get age appropriate wet food for the cats - I'm not sure they will thank me, but I feel better about that.

In a minute we are off to celebrate at a distance the birthday of one of the Chinon Two - this is taking social distancing to extremes as he is about 80km away, but tomorrow we will go and see him and celebrate properly (hint - this means no blog tomorrow!).

So for today, I will delight you with weird flowers seen on Guadeloupe - I am pretty sure none of them are native to the island, but they sure are happy there!  I suspect the colourful bits are bracts not flowers, before the biologists get on to me.  These ones are upward facing.

These ones are downward facing - not so easy to use in flower arrangements.

And this one is just magnificent - I think it is called something like a china flower or porcelain flower. Not the scientific name obviously.

Day 23 of 30 Days Wild - a series of crimes

I have crimes to report - trespass, criminal damage, vandalism!

Here is the victim - one of 10 fine, strong tomato plants, tall and vigorous and doing really really well, but not any more.  She is now naked and despoiled.

Her days are in danger - I don't think she will survive.  But the culprit left clues behind them, in the shape of good old fashioned footprints - or should I say hoof prints?

Basically, we failed to bolt the gate to the garden at the Shack, so a deer mooched around, through the gate and into the garden.  Naturally it made straight for the vegetable patch, and decided to try eating tomato (clearly it didn't like potatoes, courgette or squash plants, garlic or shallots).  It pulled all the leaves off, but left most on the ground, it shredded the stem for no good reason and left these three aborted and without hope.

In future we will be very sure the gate is bolted.  Deer are a pain, not just for the gratuitous damage they do, but also because they spread ticks around and I really don't like ticks.

 

Day 21 of 30 Days Wild - a soggy one

Full marks to those who spotted that the mystery bug yesterday was a leaf katydid - news to me!

The moon changes today and with it should come a change in the weather from the British Depression Nadine to something more akin to summer - apparently by Wednesday, temperatures will be up near 30ºC.  That will be more appealing to this lavender, which today had a few bumblebees and the odd hummingbird hawkmoth on it, but nothing to what we would expect when the sun is out and the fragrance dominates the area.

As there was a gusty wind this morning as well, it was difficult to get a good close up of a bumblebee - I took about 12 but this is the only one that was even vaguely in focus!

The promised hot weather will do wonders to the early season figs which are to be found in abundance at the moment but are distinctly not ripe.  Bizarrely with the late season ones, I find hurling abuse at them (verbal abuse) seems to ensure they start ripening pronto.  I may have to try that this week with some of these!

Other trees are showing promise of future fruitfulness - I've shown chestnut flowers before, but this bunch show the mix of male (long, fluffy and droopy) and female flowers (more upright and not fluffy) which mean that with favourable winds and insects, there will be lots of lovely chestnuts in October.

Even later than the chestnuts are the medlars - a curious fruit that is really only nice to eat raw once it is rotten, although I gather you can make a good jelly with them before they get to that state.  These won't be ready until November, and should be bletted in time for Christmas to go nicely with a bit of Stilton.  They should get a bit bigger as this tree produces a nice size fruit about the size of a walnut.

Yoga tomorrow - really!  The hall has been reopened, so there is no issue of rain stopping yoga (which is why the weather will improve tomorrow), so there will either be a late blog or none at all - you have been warned!

 

Day 16 of 30 Days Wild - the weather takes centre stage

Just as a starter, here is a picture of Zola's shame yesterday, before it flew off down the landing, and then away out of the window when I opened it.  Excuse the dust and cat fur!

The weather has taken centre stage today, with numerous thunder storms - not vast amounts of crash, bang, wallop, although quite enough to be going on with.  We have had so far over 15mm of rain today, with more to come.  About a third of it came in this particular storm this morning.

Just look at the water butt by the hovel next door!  And no, I have no idea why there is an upturned sailboard next door either.  I missed the next two or three storms as I was in Skype meetings with colleagues and clients, but after that was all done, we went to the Shack to clear our heads and feed the boys.  There had been less rain there, but it was all still very soggy underfoot although the courgettes, butternuts and weird pumpkins were loving that aspect.  Weird pumpkins?  John planted a couple of rotten potimarrons that we had in the garage to see what would happen.  We expected the badgers to dig them up and eat them to be honest.  Well, one has done nothing, but the other has so far given birth to four seedlings!

We left when we started to hear rumbles of thunder, but at the end of the lane, we had to stop and take photographs of the amazing clouds and vista - here is just one example.

And on that happy note, it is late and I'm going downstairs for TV, key lime pie and tea.

 

Day 15 of 30 Days Wild - vegetables and a feathered visitor

Yesterday I was very excited about butterflies so didn't bother with the vegetables at the plot which are starting to do useful things.  The tomato plants, that John was given in return for helping to fix a ride on lawnmower and I just jammed into really unprepossessing ground, are doing really well and are covered with young tomatoes.  They are ridged and furrowed, so I expect they are some form of beefsteak tomato or heritage type.  If all the rain we are getting doesn't give them blight, I think I will be making a lot of tomato sauce this year!

Most years, the courgette problem is the same, the first flowers are all male and while pretty, they do nothing for our dinner plate.  This year, we have a different problem, the flowers are all female, and bizarrely, that does nothing for the plate either as with the young plants, the female flowers excluding the actual flower bud are no more than 4 centimetres long.  I think it is due to the hot, dry May weather, although I'm sure people will tell me if that is wrong.  Whatever, it is now clear that you need a good mix of male and female flowers in order to get courgettes worth eating!!

Now on to the feathered visitor, and for once it is Zola who has to hang her head in shame.  I was just about to start a Skype interview and the little darling was scrabbling around in the office, making out she had lost something.  I had to assume it was (yet) another mouse, but could do not more than ask her to find and take away her little friend before talking to my victim.  Once the interview was done and I was sitting and thinking, there was a rustling noise behind me, so I got my glass (empty) and went to trap the mouse.  Except it wasn't, it was either a swallow or a house martin.  Zola came to help so had to be locked in a bedroom while I tried to trap the little fellow with a cloth or my hands.  While it was quite happy on the floor by my desk, it was even happier flying along the landing to the front window, which I opened and it flew away.  I hope she hadn't damaged it too much, but it didn't do the baby duck lurch, it definitely flew, so fingers crossed.

It should have been yoga tonight, but once I got off my last call of the day and checked the rain radar, it was clear to me that it wasn't going to be a clear one and a half hours, and frankly, today I didn't feel like getting rained on while doing the sun greeting or other moves with more dodgy names.  I did a bit of CPD instead.