Rural Life

And we're back!

Apologies - there really is nothing that can be done when the main provider server is down.

Spring is so close now - the official start date is Thursday 20th March in France anyway - and we have been having more and more tasters of (hopefully) better days to come.  As you drive around the countryside now, the hedges are dominated by the bright, white blossom of blackthorn and wild plums.  It is a sight that always fills me with hope and anticipation for the longer days and better weather to come.  The blossom should also provide a lovely rich feed for the insects that will be starting to get the countryside humming, although up to now, the only place I have heard that buzz has been in a garden with japonica in full bloom.  The plum tree blossom that I have been tracking for the past few weeks is now out - but if you look at the photo, there are no bees to be seen.

Other flowers are also coming out - parts of the Meadow and Garden are turning into cowslip lawns.  I use the term cowslip probably to generously, as I gather there are lots of variants, but the number of these and the colour variations that we will get in due course (red and orange) are a very happy sight for me.  They are so prolific that mowing even paths can be a challenge if one is obsessed with not taking a few out!  Whatever, they are a sign that I need to get out in the garden more.

A sure sign that spring is on its way is the start of the car boot season, or vide grenier as they are called over here - literally empty attic.  Jarzé has the first major one, and it is big!  Despite foul weather with warnings of sleet and snow, between 150 and 200 brave souls turned out to set up their stands from about 6:00am and most would have to wait until about 5:00pm to be able to get away again.  In response to the terror attack years ago in Nice, events like this mean that roads are blocked off with large vans and huge slabs of concrete if held on public roads (fields are a bit different).  I would guess something between 10,000 and 20,000 people will have traipsed the length of Jarzé on Sunday in search of that essential item or elusive bargain.  We bought nothing but saw lots of people we knew.

As well as the outside plants starting to put on a show, my special Mediterranean corner of the Country Kitchen (or cat feeding room) is doing well.  The lemon "tree" is looking healthy and the leaves are a better colour than they were at the start of the winter.  The tiny olive "tree" seems taller and glossier now, while the big plant that we inherited from Francois the Drunk, and split into three, is preparing to flower.  The other two bits are in pots outside, and while they survived last winter, this one doesn't seem to have been as easy on them.  We will see if they revive and then I will bring them indoors in the autumn!

I am very fortunate to have a chum who used to grow flowers for a living and still has a large number of cutting flower plants.  If you pop round to see her for any reason, it is hard to get away without a bunch of something.  My latest gift was a bunch of large and lovely anemones - wow, they are spectacular!

Now that the birds have found the fat balls that I put out for them over the winter, they can't get enough of them.  This is a shame as I stop feeding the birds on the 1st April, as there might be babies hatching and they don't need the somewhat artificial foods in commercial fat balls, or peanuts.  This fuzzy image shows two well fed great tits stuffing their beaks - I would prefer it if they were ripping the pine processionary nests apart, but they are lovely to watch.

So that's it for this week's late epistle, and I hope to be back on Sunday as usual.  Have a good rest of the week!

 

Spring-like activity

This last week, we have been blessed with spring weather in all its glory - sunshine and soft breezes have been the order of the day, although that is changing this weekend.  It has been a wonderful boost to the spirit and to the body to spend time outdoors, to feel the sun on our skin, to shed layers of sweatshirts, thick socks, rubber boots and to sit out and impersonate lizards.  Nature is playing along too, with spring bulbs sprouting and pulling away.  I am most proud of my improvised planters for a couple of packs of Aldi special tulips (other cheap supermarkets are available), and am looking forward to a couple of flowers each at least!

It's official, the last 12 months have been in deficit for sunshine and by quite a lot too - something like 20% less hours of sunshine than average.  While March has tried to make up for it, things are a bit behind.  The glories of Facebook tell me that my grape hyacinths are late, as are my blue anemones!

We decided to spend most of Tuesday working at the Garden in the Country, which meant we were able to do useful things like shift water between storage tanks, do a proper mow on the meadow before anything got too tall, start to rotavate the potato bed, and plant up summer bulbs.  We also sat out for a picnic lunch on the terrace overlooking the Orchard.  Good quality tinned sardines with artisan bread, "raw" butter, tea made with water boiled in the Kelly kettle, using twigs that were getting in our way as fuel - life doesn't really get much better than that!

Friday evening was not spent as it should be, at the pub putting the world to rights, but rather opening up a house for an estate agent to show it to potential purchasers.  They were late and annoying, but given the current weather, it wasn't so bad standing around in the garden, listening to the birds chatting their way to bed.  As the sun set rather dramatically through the trees in the distance, I saw my first bat of the season swooping around.  I hope it found lots of insects to make the evening's display worthwhile!

A couple of weeks ago (when I was feeling more positive about the world), I showed a photo of plum blossom forming.  It has taken its time to mature, and a very few blooms were out today, but most are still just thinking about it.  Very soon now there will be rich pickings for foraging insects as the plum trees start the procession of blossom.  Next it will be peaches, then cherry and pear, with apple and quince bringing up the rear - or that is the theory anyway.  The quince trees are showing very fecund buds, but the leaves come before the flowers so that is probably alright.  Of the various varieties of apple we have, the Granny Smith has the most obvious flower buds, while the Victoria plum is well behind the mirabelle style plums at the Meadow.

The forecast for next week is not so good, so there is a chance I will bring home a trail camera for servicing and clearing the memory card.  On the other hand, if the forecasters are being overly pessimistic, I could be planting onions and even a few spuds, so who knows?  The bloke at lunchtime wouldn't do a forecast further than Monday afternoon - isn't it wonderful how with all the satellites and computing power that goes into weather forecasting, they still can't see further ahead than 48 hours?

And on that note - have a good week!

 

Such variety!

All of a sudden, the weather has changed and the fog has lifted.  Spring flowers are starting to show, and I am particularly pleased with these miniature narcissi, that are flowering in the Fergus Memorial Flowerbed.  I would buy pots with sprouting bulbs from the market at la Flèche a couple of years ago, as pressies for my mother when she was in her nursing home.  The heat of her room brought them on quickly, so she enjoyed watching them develop and bloom, and once the flowers started to fade, I would swap them out for something else and plant the pot of bulbs somewhere in the gardens.  Today I found a clump of hyacinth leaves, but they won't be out for a while yet.

The sunshine inspires us to activity - today I ache, having been taunted by brambles into doing some strimming yesterday.  We got another trailer of compost on Friday and have started to move that down to the potato bed, ready for John to do some rotavating soon.  I have potted up freesia bulbs and small strawberry plants for treats later in the year, and have started to tackle the pile of things I put to one side to wash when the weather meant they could be dried outside.  Our solitary crocus also chose this week to bloom and fade away again.

An evening job is to close up the chicken run.  We don't lock them in a coop, they prefer to roost on a high perch and it is probably safer and certainly more hygienic that they do so, avoiding too much red mite infestation.  Bridie the Freeloading Bantam spends her days with the flock but at night prefers her own company on the roof of the chicken run, even when it rains.  As she is pretty feral, we can't insist on putting her in the run.  When we close up at night, we give them a ration of corn (not maize) to peck at so they sleep with a full crop and have something to mull over during the long evenings (no TV for them!).  Bridie takes her ration on the chicken run roof, so one walks back to the house with a percussive accompaniment as she taps at the grains.

Which brings me nicely to the main topic this week.  Last week I brought in the trail camera that sits at the crossroads of two animal tracks.  I love this location, as the camera is high enough to get a good view and avoid eye contact with the animals. there is next to no human traffic, so it is all about the wildlife, and as time goes by, the activity is more and more natural.  As it is by water, there is also a good variety.  Ignoring the small birds (blackbirds, thrushes, great tits) and rodents (mice and rats), as well as cats, there are 9 reels that follow, each with a different species captured over the past 2 months.

In December, there was this nice footage of a badger - not a species I had noted there before.

There were also pheasants knocking around, having escaped the seasonal dinner table I guess.  This was a male that hadn't been tagged - some have plastic neck collars, indicating they have been released I believe.

In January, the fox was knocking around, presumably looking for a nice, tasty mouse or rat to nibble on.

The coypu was also out and about - I've not seen him taking much interest in plants before, although they are vegetarian I gather.

Of course there is a chance that the coypu was checking out markings left by other species.  You can see here that the same twig got marked by the pine marten that lives around there.

The deer wander through here but can't get out at the far end as they are too tall and not strong enough to force their way through the undergrowth either.  When it is dry I think they pop down into the pond, but not at the moment as it is pretty full.

I was delighted to pick up images of the hare - I had been afraid that the poacher who brazenly mooches through our land had picked them off, so this film was delightful.

Then there are the boar!  This is rare to see, as it is a video in daylight, but count them and know that one or possibly two went through before the video started and there are still two or three to come at the end of the footage!  I find the piglets delightful, with their striped coats, but there really are too many and with up to three litters of up to 10 piglets per year, they could yet take over Western France!

And finally, video sets from this point would not be complete without the mallards.  This seemingly bonded couple have appeared in the last fortnight, and I imagine there will be ducklings in due course, once the male has gone off again! 

The forecast for the coming week is excellent, so I expect to be doing a lot of gardening, and then moaning about how much I ache.  I have a trail camera focussed on another crossroads by ponds which needs to come in for checking and then repositioned, as the point where it is gets far too much human traffic.  I can't promise that for next week I'm afraid.

Have a good week!

 

Sunshine makes everything better

This last week has all been about the slow recovery from a nasty bout of 'flu, with a slight blip when a gastro bug decided to make life more challenging.  But aside from that, it is amazing how sunshine makes things feel so much better!  On Monday, the sun was a bit tentative, and with dramatic clouds that did nothing but look impressive, so it was enough to tempt me out for a short walk to get the blood circulating and track down a bit of vitamin D.  The church was looking as magnificent as ever, to create a perfect image of sunshine, cloud and architecture.

There was a cruel wind, so to keep out of its path, I kept to the small lanes and built up bits of the village, rather than stride out to the route de Beaufort.  For a change I pottered down the cobbled lane that leads to the lavoir, or village wash house, to admire the clear spring that rises from a chum's cellar into a deep pool before pouring through the washhouse and down to the river.  Even in the big droughts a couple of years ago, the spring didn't dry up and it is always tempting to dip one's toes in during the summer.  Nothing would have tempted me to dip any bit of me in it on Monday!

Tuesday morning we treated ourselves to a trip to the compost emporium nearby.  They take all the green waste from the local tip as well as serious loads from farmers and others with significant quantities of "material" and on an industrial scale, produce the most marvellous compost.  Bagged up, it is a bit pricey, but take along your own trailer and it is much more reasonable.  A trailer load of about 400kg comes in at 32Euros, or roughly what you would pay for 3 bags of 50 litres of something that has been sitting around at a DIY shop for a few months but has "added goodness" apparently.  They also have a loyalty scheme.  Of course the only challenge now it to move it out of the trailer and onto the bits of garden that need it.

A bit of sunshine and a bit of motivation and the ability to be distant from a bathroom was all I needed this morning to do a bit of work in the garden.  There were a few final potatoes to lift before they got too interested in growing, so I struggled with the heavy clay soil to get them up.  While they are covered in weed suppressant matting, so there aren't too many weeds, the soil has soaked up as much water as it can and is heavy and unpleasant to work with.  Despite that, I managed to disturb a hibernating slow worm.  I put him in a sunbeam so he could warm up enough to move to safer ground, and stood guard while he did so, ensuring no prowling birds or cats could attack him in his sleepy state.  I'm sure I'll see him again later in the year - we do seem to have loads and I am very fond of them for their slug control capacities.

Finally, the early spring bulbs are doing their thing, and in very sheltered corners, the first of the daffodils are showing flowers.  Others will take up the challenge as it gets warmer, but these are tucked under an apple tree so not in any draughts.

The forecast is good for the next few days, so I should be able to tackle the compost and prune apple trees and set up my hornet traps and get prepared for spring, which isn't so far away now!  Have a good week!

 

January blues

This week saw the (admittedly commercial) unhappiest day of the year - the third Monday in January, when your pay packet has nearly run out, the weather is pants, the days aren't really noticeably longer and your waistline hasn't recovered from the Christmas and New Year festivities. 

Bizarrely it didn't really affect us as being worse than any other day in January, even if it had been decreed Red for electricity purposes.  Instead, it is the sameness of the days at this time of year that gets to me.  In general (this year anyway), days are either cold, foggy, and uninspiring; bitingly cold and bright and faintly inspiring until I get too cold; or wet, muddy, mild, and annoying.  Each type does have it's beauty however, and the wet weather on Friday lead to this rather arty shot, as I stood by the second pond, in the rain, listening for birds.

The foggy day before the rain started, we were in the One Acre Wood, felling future firewood, and I spotted this rather dramatic fungus on old, decaying wood.

As as a point of optimism, one of us trod on this cowslip that was attempting to flower today, so spring will happen in due course.

With the wet and warmer weather, the electricity spot prices are falling, so Red days are behind us.  That means I can have the heater on in my office and work through the files from the trail cameras and start to load things on YouTube.

This week I focussed on the camera pointing up a well trodden path at the edge of the Meadow, lined by fruit trees on one side and a bank of brambles on the other.  Some of that is being removed, but not all, as it is a good shelter (when contained) for birds and small mammals.  There is a path we have punched through the bank of brambles on the left as you look up the hill.  Many of the photos are limited, not least as it was in place during the shortest, darkest months, but it is always nice to see a pine marten posing!

The path is used from time to time by boar passing through on their way to do damage somewhere else.  They may spend the day down in the marsh behind the plantation trees, or somewhere further afield.  The big poplar plantation along the valley has now been felled, so they aren't there, but there are pockets of woodland not too far away.  Family groups will roam quite long distances.

The deer find this point rather appealing as it gives them a few good exit routes and opportunities to keep an ear or an eye out for any predators (hunters in the main) that might be in the zone.

 If you watch this next video closely, you will see there is a deer in the field next door as well!

 

There are birds, as you can see above, in this corner of the Meadow, and not just small brown types, but you do find larger things too. like this flock of female pheasants out for a stroll.

There will be more from the pheasants when I put up the videos from the next camera I brought in, which was placed in the new path to see if anything was using it, other than us.  And I guess that means Spoiler Alert, the pheasants use it!

One of the benefits and comforts of mid-winter is a good log fire.  We have an insert with heat exchangers to the upper rooms in the house, so when it gets going, it helps take the edge off the first floor.  There is a nice fire downstairs now, so I think I will go and sit with it, rather than gazing at a computer screen!

Have a good week!

 

Sunshine and optimism

Everything seems better with a bit of sunshine - so despite needing 15 minutes to chip ice off my car on Tuesday morning before an early site meeting, I still found it in me to be captivated by the gentle pinks of dawn on a bit of fading cloud.  With two sunny (and very cold) days during the week, we could muster a certain optimism and tolerate a lack of electric heat during the day (the whole week was Red, meaning hugely inflated electricity prices during the day for those of us with specific supply contracts).  Certainly this prolonged cold snap has to be good for all the fruit trees as it kills off dormant bugs and gives the trees a proper winter hibernation.

Such frosty starts are also a good excuse for taking arty farty photos of foliage with frost on it.  Everybody does it I'm sure and mine are no better than anyone else's, but this is my blog!

This week brought the first full moon of the year - someone told me it was the Wolf Moon.  Whatever its name, it was rarely visible due to the persistent fog we had for some of the week, but one evening just after 10pm, on my way back from turning on the bathroom heater, I was able to catch an image through the window.

The following day was dark and foggy and very atmospheric when we went to la Flèche for the weekly market.  They are removing all the car parking by the market area, apparently thanks to a consultation with the public who preferred a pedestrian area.  The market stall holders aren't happy, and I expect it won't be used that much other than by the stall holders for relieving bladders (as now) and the local winos (again as now).  Currently it is just a rather depressing and damp work in progress, as le Loir had broken its banks.  This was all a good excuse for another atmospheric photo!

Currently four of the five and a half chickens think that it is the right time to lay eggs, many eggs.  I ought not to bake cakes, but I think I am going to have to, in order to reduce the surplus.  They are also very hungry - here they are finishing off what Bridie didn't eat before they were released (if the bantam wants the pick of any feed, she has to have hers separately or she gets bullied).

Friday was another stunning day, and while cold, it was particularly nice to go out for a stroll and take in the scenery.  It also set me wondering how the old centre of our village had changed, and what someone teleported in from 1925 would see as different (ignoring cars and tarmac).  Sadly my conclusion was that such a visitor would be shocked by the lack of shops and commerce and the lack of children, but would be pleased that there wasn't much mud.

The week ended with the annual ceremony of the local mayor wishing the population a Happy New Year and telling them about what has happened in 2024, and what is likely to happen in 2025.  This is always an interesting occasion, and in years when there aren't local elections, the chance for a bit of bashing of national politics (which is entirely correct this year).  The impact on local life of a bunch of far right and far left politicians being incapable of seeing what is in the nation's interest has cost something like 15 billion euros!  The local knock on effect is to delay a number of projects, including a centralised kitchen to produce the meals for all of the local schools, and determining the level of support for the clubs and societies that help to combat rural isolation.

It was also a chance to celebrate a young man from the village who had taken part in the Best Apprentice competitions and won at Department and Regional level, so got to the nationals (which he didn't win).  His specialism was welding I think and the shiny object was his competition piece.  He received the medal of Vieil Baugé for his achievements.

Because of the cold, I haven't had the inclination to sit with the computer in a freezing room and load videos onto YouTube, so you will have to be content with a picture of a badger this week, in the knowledge that I have nice badger footage to load up during the week, if it isn't all Red!

Have a good week!

 

Getting 2025 underway

We have a rose bush beside the well wall, it faces south and west so benefits from any heat the wall retains from sunlight, and despite a dodgy moment in 2006, when the wall was repointed, so it was cut down to nearly ground level, it has continued to thrive through the years.  it gets mugged each summer by the grape vine, but carries on through and on New Year's Eve, it still had a lovely display of blooms to see 2024 off in style.

So far this year, we have had some 85 millimetres of rain, which makes everywhere soggy and slippery.  The two old clay pits in the One Acre Wood are as full of water as we have ever seen them, and we are hopeful that there will be tadpoles of some sort or other (newt, salamander, frog and toad) in due course.

The fish pond is filling up nicely, but with no rain forecast now for 10 days, it will all drain away again quite quickly I fear.  I am not minded to restock the pond anyway.  But it is good to see it so full again, as it is a welcome resource for the local wildlife.

One winter task we have started, is to clean out and refresh as required the two bird boxes we have installed to attract great tits or blue tits.  They are the target species as they eat pine processionary caterpillars, so we have the two boxes positioned near to a good food source!  Both were used last year, although we think one was abandoned before any eggs were laid, as the nest was very limited.  The other one looks like it was much more comfortable, so was perhaps a good starting point for a few of the local birds.  The nest has now been removed and both boxes will get a quick go over with a weed wand to kill off any undesirables, but not so much that they are burnt inside.  Then they will go back up and we'll see if they get used this year.

We have sun at the moment, which warms the heart, and the stones of the house as well a bit.  I'm sure sunset is later today!!  In any case, the sunlight makes us feel better, if not warmer!  Finally we are getting the preferred winter conditions of sunlight and sharp cold, and if the easterly wind (or bise, French for kiss!) would only drop, I would be inspired to strim and prune and do useful things!

Local clubs and societies are also greeting the new year, with AGMs better held in winter when no one has a good excuse to avoid attending.  The Comité des Fêtes had ours on Friday night, followed by the obligatory "verre d'amitié", followed by a bit of a banquet for the volunteers who made it all possible last year, by helping with events.  We had choucroute garnis (not my choice), but didn't start eating until gone 9pm, so sleep was evasive on Friday night as I tried to digest and to cope with the effects of fermented cabbage.  I suspect dishes like choucroute, cabbage soup and kimchi should be regarded as bad for global warming...

Even if the food wasn't totally our favourite dish, such evenings are priceless as we share gossip and good vibes with our neighbours and friends.  They are one of the things that make living in rural France such a joy, and enthuse us to carry on our involvement in the Comité des Fêtes.  Many of the people there had another AGM the following day, though that was only followed by a verre d'amitié and cake, probably quite a lot of cake...  

Now to get through January, planning lots of garden and land management activities, and hopefully doing some of them too!  Two trail cameras have been checked over in the last 10 days, so next week there should be film of boar, badgers and pine martens.  Have a good week!

 

2024 in review

As complaining about Dunkelflaute is probably getting rather boring, I thought I would take the opportunity, in this first blog of 2025, to look back at the year just ended to see if it really was that grey and sad.

It didn't start well in January, with my new found status of orphan, when the world stopped for a while and bureaucracy took over.  I would love to say that all is sorted but French Red Tape and notaires take forever to deal with very simple things and it will be another wee while before I can close the books.

But life does go on and with February, we had our annual truffle fest, a bit later than normal as it took a while for prices to stabilise and for me to be able to concentrate on all things culinary!  I now have some really good truffle staple recipes, so that the failures and the "why did I bother?" moments are reduced.

In March we were harvesting the last of the vegetables sown or planted in 2023, which really was a rather good year for gardening.  The multicoloured carrots were a revelation, although for some reason there were no black ones, even though the seed packet firmly showed that there should be a full spectrum of colours.  The leeks were excellent too, but perhaps a bit too prolific!

It was a spectacularly wet year, and at Easter, there was the added excitement of potentially excessive and damaging floods in Chinon.  The Vienne rose inexorably, and as la Loire was also in flood, there was nowhere for the water to go.  While there were calls for evacuations, the floods peaked perhaps 40 centimetres below the danger level, but were still very impressive.

May is the peak season for wild orchids and I go mad trying to spot and photograph each bee orchid that flowers on our land.  The challenge is to get the best photo, in focus, nicely framed, and ideally with a gleam of sunshine.  It was quite a long season for them this year and there were some very lovely examples.

The trail cameras were in permanent use during 2024 and there are a few very rich locations for them to capture the wildlife that share the space with us.  Summer months also bring babies, and this year the coypu (sadly) did very well, bringing up four cubs, or whatever you call a baby coypu.  Ugly, that's for sure, even if most baby animals are cute.

While much of the gardening in 2024 was disappointing at best, we did get a very good harvest of onions for the first time ever.  We are still eating them indeed, which is pretty impressive.  I don't know why they did so well - the shallots and the garlic were complete disasters, but that is how it turned out.

August is Comice time, and 2024 was Vaulandry's turn.  I ended up spending a lot of time on the village float.  As part of an overall theme of "the call of the forest", we went for the story of Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house in the forest, complete with witch.  The weather wasn't helpful, with rain on the Saturday and overcast conditions on the Sunday, but the final product was pleasing.

September is the annual pig roast for our boule de forte society, and is something we always look forward to.  Once again, we were lucky with the weather - I do remember one year when rain took over and made things a bit odd, but for once 2024 played ball and it was a lovely day.

The year has been wet and there have been quite a few named storms.  Kirk was a particularly unpleasant one, mainly for the volume of water it dumped on us.  In order to attempt to get a sensible reading of the amount of rain, one of us had to empty the rain gauge when it got to 35 millimetres as it clearly wasn't stopping anytime soon!  A field above the land we rent had been harvested but not resown, and there was nothing to hold back the rain water so it took the roadside down.

Gardening was difficult in 2024, with heavy and waterlogged soil, lack of sunshine, lack of decent summer temperatures apart from a week in July, and therefore all manner of challenges to deal with.  The number and size of slugs was incredible and they got everywhere!  This one was trying to get to the last remains of the mango seed I managed to germinate before I evicted it - roughly 4 inches or 10 centimetres long and too big to interest any bird, other than perhaps a buzzard.

The figures are in for sunshine in 2024, and the local press talk about a deficit of 400 hours of sunshine across the year.  I did count at one stage towards the end of the year and got to 17 days without a glimmer of sun.  It's not healthy and we keep checking ourselves for rickets!  December ended the year in murk, but we have seen the sun in January, so let's hope for a brighter 2025!

Happy New Year!

 

It's that Christmas time of year

2024 is crawling towards its damp and muddy end - today adding strong winds to the mix.  Given the vile weather today, we took the advice of the television weather presenters and found fun indoors, going to the Baugé Christmas market.

For a small town, it packs above its weight in this regard.  Over three days, the cultural centre is taken over by craftspeople, food producers, wine makers, charities and Radio Parcay for a high quality event.  We spent a happy hour going round all the stalls.  We bought nougat from our favourite honey producer, an air plant for the bathroom, because it seemed a nice idea, and were tempted by a book by a local author.  He had a sculpture that visually described his profession in a bad French pun, which he happily explained to us as we were foreign, before telling us about his books. 

People were spending money which has to be good for the local economy, and we managed to miss any of the "special" events that were being put on by local music groups and musicians.  Indoors is too enclosed for a brass ensemble!

The village is nicely adorned with relatively low wattage Christmas lights, while town is festooned with them, as befits a Petit Cité de Charactere d'Anjou.  We can see a few from the house, but they are more in evidence when we walk to and from the pub on a Friday night.

This weekend, the hunters have been out, doing their best to bag a festive deer or boar for Christmas Day, although I'm not sure how lucky they have been.  There were a few fresh tracks in the Meadow and Orchard, as well as some festively coloured poo down by the ponds.  I'm not sure who the culprit is, possibly the pine martens.

A sure sign that winter is with us, is that the bird feeder is starting to get visited.  We put out fat balls from December to mid March for blue tits and great tits, and I think the long-tailed variety and tree creepers like them too.  We aim to attract tits as they will also attack the few nests of pine processionary caterpillars that we have in the pine trees.  Once they get into their stride, I will need to add four fat balls a week to the feeder, at the moment, it is just two every 10 days.

A gleam of brightness in the gardens is nice at this time of year, and some of the roses are putting out odd flowers.  The Silver Wedding rose we were given over 9 years ago has decided to bloom for Christmas, as it often does.  The white flowers are delicately scented and a joy when not much else natural is looking pretty.

So, not much more to be said today other than:

• Pay homage to your household gods
• Eat too much
• Drink too much (and DON'T drive)
• Count your blessings
• Spend time outdoors
• And have a lovely Christmas!

Until next week!