Rural Life

The final days of 2024

A few days before Christmas, our elderly neighbour tapped on the door to complain that our grey chicken was making a mess of her garden.  I immediately went to check the chicken run, and all 5 and a half feathery demons were safely impounded, but closer inspection of her garden did show something that looked like chicken damage.  In order to investigate this, I brought home one of the trail cameras, that had been placed where I wanted a particular shot - more of that a bit later.  I cleared off the files and reset the camera with a view of the foot of the washing line posts in next door's garden, so it wouldn't catch anyone human's face or even feet, and left it for a week.  I wondered if a dog was popping in or a cat was being unhelpful. 

I retrieved the camera yesterday and checked.  The first image was a cat, not one of ours, but on our side of the fence.  The second was one of our cats and on our side of the fence.  The third was the rogue grey chicken, and yes, it was one of ours - Groucho!  The fourth image was a wild bird and that was it.

The shame of it!!

The trail camera had been placed overlooking the pond that used to have large fish in it, until it silted up and sprung a leak.  I was convinced it was used by boar for having the odd mud bath, so set the camera to see if I was right.  Most of the images were of birds using the shallow areas for bathing and drinking and questing for worms, but the first two files confirmed that boar will go in there for a plodge when the mood takes them.

There is also a short video of what he was getting up to.

That trail camera has now been reset and positioned somewhere else, and in about 10 days I will get another in for a check over and to download anything good.

Christmas happened - very quietly!  We have tried to be restrained with food, but scallops are in season, and there are the small matters of Christmas cake and Christmas pudding.  I'm sure we will be good in 2025 - or that's what we are telling the GP!

While in general the weather hasn't been conducive to nice long walks in the country, we did get out on Monday to do firewood.  It was a better day than most that we chose for that, and looking up in the One Acre Wood, there was a hint of blue in the sky and the occasional glint of sunlight.  

However when we went back yesterday to carry on the good work, the air was thick and moist and you could barely see 200 metres down into the valley.  On a good day from this point, you can see for over 5 kilometres!

There are rumours that the Dunkelflaute (see the week before last's blog) will dissipate in the New Year - I'll believe it when I see it.  Tomorrow is another Red Day for electricity prices, so while I am sure someone is making a lot of money in electricity generation, we will be huddled around the log fire or doing active things outside to keep warm, assuming we can find a way to energize ourselves!

Have a good week and enjoy your New Year celebrations, however you choose to mark the day.

 

Cold, dull days

There is a German word, Dunkelflaute, which describes a gloomy, windless weather system, that is cold.  We have had that here for the past couple of months, interspersed with periods of just wet, windy and nasty.  Germany is currently suffering a major bout of Dunkelflaute, and that is placing a really heavy strain on the European electricity network.  Germany's electricity generation includes some 20GW wind capacity, and currently the turbines are not turning.  The knock on effect, combined with two country interconnectors being down, is that the power grids are doing all they can to reduce peak electricity use.  In the UK, you might spot a slight fluctuation down in power.  Here in France, if you are on the extremely interesting Tempo electricity contract, it translates into Red Days.  Days when daytime electricity is 3 times the unit price of the regulated tariff.  Tuesday to Friday was like that, and tomorrow will be too.  It is rather constraining!

The run into Christmas isn't totally fun when your feet and hands are always cold, and you are keeping the lights off as long as possible!  There are odd rays of joy - the very last cyclamen flowers are still going in the One Acre Wood for example.

There is little to photograph at the moment, as nothing much changes with the dull weather, and when you do take a photo, such as of a small amount of water in the lower pond in the Wood, it is singularly underwhelming.

I have had to resort to searching trail camera archives to find pretty photos.

The jay is handsome, although not as handsome as the male pheasant (who knows it too!).

However today, my spirit bird is this rather hacked off female pheasant.  I can feel my blood pressure boiling over the stupidity of HMRC and the unfairness of the amount of tax they suddenly feel I need to pay every month.  This is not good for me, so I need to go and find somewhere warm and cosy and try to forget about it all.  Being near computers only makes it worse!

Isn't she splendid?  Actually, just looking at her makes me feel better!

Anyway, I hope your week is not affected by Dunkelflaute, and now I had better get back to writing Christmas cards!

 

Winter approaches

It's been another of those weeks where the weather could take centre stage, with rain, wind, snow and today, bizarrely warm temperatures.  The 18ºC we see today is a blip caused by a weird weather pattern, and amusing after the snow that fell on Thursday to the horror of cats, chickens and us!

The Douceur Angevine meant that the snow here quickly disappeared during Thursday morning, which was good as we were heading to Paris for a 24 hour trip, but further north and east it kept going and Paris in driving snow is different, but a bit uncomfortable.

Once in Paris and off the metro, we learned that our "smart" phones and Google maps don't like snow and what should have been a 2 minute walk to our hotel took 15, as we were taken from the metro in a sort of spiral.  Dumping our case and things not needed for the rest of the day, like a decent camera, we headed back out into the blizzard to find the Musée d'Orsay and the rest of the gang for a much needed hot chocolate.  We had occasional stops to admire buildings and views that were transfigured by driving snow flakes.

If it is before Christmas and it is snowing, clearly the right thing to do is go to a Christmas Market and the big one at the Jardins des Tuileries had opened.  It therefore seemed churlish not to go along and partake of the Christmas spirit and some welcome vin chaud before a turn or three on the big wheel.  As we don't like crowds, it was probably the best time to go, despite the snow, as a nice, dry evening would bring out the hoards I'm sure.  We were amused at how little French we heard while we were there!

Once we had done the fun of the fair, we headed south to find dinner - sadly we didn't go far enough and had an average and expensive meal near the Beaux Arts.  Still the place was able to cope with 7 of us, each with different food and drink needs, and more inclined for chatting and laughter than haute cuisine.  Walking through to the river, I did take the compulsory Eifel Tower shot!

Then it was time to head in different directions to respective hotels and we strolled up into the St Germain des Près district to find a café for a nightcap.  We found the Deux Megots - famed for its illustrious clientele such as Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and the like, and us!  St Germain is also famous for jazz, and Thursday night is jazz night, so we settled in for inspired music from an instrumental trio, expensive drinks, and the most amazing floor show of people watching.  That is what Paris nightlife is about!  

The following morning and the storm had gone, as had much of the snow, and Paris is much prettier in the sun.  We wandered around the district, finding another couple of amazing cafés, one for breakfast, and one for a restorative cup of hot chocolate - the sort of hot chocolate that is a large spoon of quality chocolate spread, with a bit of scalding hot milk added so that the spread melts.  If you let it go too cool, it then resolidifies!  We also found the Palais de Luxemburg or the French Senat.

And so we are home again, after living the high life for 24 hours.  And it is good to be home.  There was a Christmas Market here too today - no snow, no fairground rides, lots of French being spoken and rather than some tacky baubles and overpriced foods, local craftspeople were showing off their wares.  There were felted gloves, repurposed wood and furniture, home woven textiles, an animal psychologist, producers of seeds, and of course food stalls.  We succumbed to spice sachets for vin chaud, tomato ketchup and smoked chilli paste before heading home for lunch.

I had thought I wouldn't bother with Christmas cake this year, but I have been ranted at from Australia (and not even a family member too) about lack of respect for tradition rather severely, so I had better go and look at my store cupboard and see what I need to buy in addition for cake making on Wednesday afternoon.  I know it is leaving it a bit late, but on the other hand, the Christmas pudding has been maturing for well over a year now, so these things balance out.  That's my excuse anyway!

Have a good week!

 

Unwelcome Autumn visitors

Late autumn often brings nasty surprises - tax bills for example - and we have had a number this week.  The last, but most impactful for me is a virulent head cold, which is making every task seem much larger than it really is and more painful too.  It will go in time - taking seven days if I use treatments, and a week if I let it run its course - but I am on day 3, normally the worst, and feeling sorry for myself.

Yesterday (so day 2 of nasal misery) I came face to face with another nasty surprise, an over wintering House Slug.  Not a normal slug: in its resting mode it was a good four inches (9cm) long and half an inch (one and a bit cm) wide, so clearly a flesh eating House Slug.  It was resting on the side of the pot that holds my tiny mango seedling, grown from a pip of a fruit given to us by our new neighbour, and it is the first time I've managed to get one to germinate.  The seedling was living quite happily in the garden until it got attacked by a slug or snail, so I put it indoors to be guarded by the Country Cats.  We had a discussion about how they were slacking, but they paid no attention.  I evicted the slug and hope it was found by a questing fox or buzzard.

We have had two nights with a slight frost this week, enough to further chill down the house after an October that hit the record books for being one of the two dullest (i.e. lack of sun) on record.  It was a relief on Monday to see a strange yellow glow in the sky, but it didn't last long.  

But in amongst all this gloom, there are some truly French things that remind me why we live here. 

There was a note in our post box a couple of weeks ago - "come along to my garage on Sunday morning for a wine tasting (there will also be nibbles)".  A neighbour has a chum with a vinyard over the border near Chinon, and once a year, they lay on a tasting of bottled wines and wines "en vrac", i.e. buy a canister and bottle it yourself.  We weren't much taken with the bottled offerings, but the "en vrac" was rather splendid, so we put in an order.  The word on the street was that the wine would arrive on Saturday evening.  So yesterday evening, along with a bunch of others, we strolled down the road with our wheelbarrow and brought back our 20 litres of finest Chinon red.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I am going to take my festering head cold away from my freezing cold office and down to the warm, where I will help bottle 20 litres of red wine, which seems a very sensible way of spending a November evening!

Have a good week!

 

Quiet times

In the end we had 13 consecutive days without a glimpse of the sun, just dull, foggy, dankness.  On Friday, the sun finally made an appearance for three hours, one and a half of which I was in an office and for the rest I failed to bring out my phone and take a picture as proof.  And now the greyness is back for a few more days - how nice!

I did threaten to bring in a trail camera, as I thought the batteries might be running out.  I did that yesterday, and discovered that the batteries gave out about 3 weeks ago - my bad!  Actually there wasn't much activity recorded in the three weeks it was working.  It was placed in the Orchard, with the hope of catching boar family antics, but while there was one night time video with a couple of snuffling sounds, there was not a hint of boar.  The camera was by something we call Badger Road, and sure enough, there were numerous shots of a badger passing through at speed, so most weren't much good.  This is one of the best.

There were lots of pictures of us passing by the camera (well as many "lots" as you can get when there were only 160 files in total), which have all been removed, leaving just 49 files with anything at all, including a few of our cats.  There was a nice image of a deer, with an accompanying video I've not had a chance to load onto YouTube - for another day!

There was also a nice one of a couple of jays, again with an interesting video to follow.

Finally, there was a fine shot of the fox, showing off his magnificent bushy tail!

Other wildlife fun this week has been observing a few Asian hornets in the zone.  They are mainly workers at the end of their life, fulfilling a desire for sugary things - rotting apples and ivy nectar in the main.  A good frost and they will die off, but we will be vigilant from February, keeping an eye out for the next batch of queens to trap and destroy.  European hornets are natural, the Asian ones are non-native and causing havoc among the insect population as they seek out protein from May to August to feed the colony.

An important discovery for us yesterday was that our favourite café in town has reopened.  About a month ago I guess, I spotted that it was closed with curtains drawn, and after waiting a couple of weeks in case it was just holidays, I reluctantly decided it was gone - another blight on the year.  But yesterday, the curtains were gone, there was a new painting on the plate glass window and when we went in, the coffee was still the best in town.  Good luck to the new owners!

And now I must turn my attention back to a slightly poorly puss cat.  Poirot, the doyenne of our group, has an eye infection, which means anti-inflammatory drops four times a day and anti-biotic paste in the eye twice a day.  Fortunately she is very food oriented, with a passion for Dreamies and for cheese or salmon flavoured creamy gloop.  She is not resisting eye drops or paste as she knows that she will get a copious and tasty treat straight afterwards.  It is not so easy with cats that don't like treats!

Have a good week!

 

Half full or half empty?

While last week I showed a photo of a sunny day and a cat in a hammock, I had hoped for much more sunshine this week.  Indeed every day the forecast was for sunshine "tomorrow" or "the day after tomorrow" and today even "this afternoon".  But it hasn't happened - the high pressure and sodden ground has kept fog and low cloud in place all week with no respite at all.  The ground hasn't dried out at all, making lifting potatoes unnecessarily hard work, while the lack of light saps the spirit.  I think the constant broken promise of sun tomorrow has made it all the harder to bear and I am sick of it.

There are odd chinks of colour to look out for.  I have always been a fan of nerines, and sometimes they flower for me, but mostly they don't.  This year I have been lucky and one has flowered and I have been able to admire the circle of bright pink flowers each day for a couple of weeks as I go to feed the chickens.

The trees haven't done much by way of autumn colour - we haven't had much of a cold snap, just constant, bone aching dank.  It is possible there will be a late flush of colour but I'm not holding my breath.  However there is another plant that provides a pretty reliable splash of colour in the autumn, and because I grow it in hanging baskets, I get to admire it rather than having it covered in dead tree leaves.  The strawberry leaves are quite spectacular this year, with odd fruits hidden away.  The fruit isn't interesting as it needs sunlight to produce a bit of sweetness and flavour, and we haven't had any of that for a while (see above), but you can't have everything.

I had to visit a house and garden during the week and was stunned by the display of dramatic flower heads on the yucca plants there.  Mine have done nothing this year, and of course indoor ones don't get the conditions to do this.  For me there is no rhyme or reason to when yuccas flower, but I am grateful to see them doing their thing this year.

As the leaves fall, it becomes obvious where Asian hornets have been building nests.  While I've not spotted any in our area, not least due to the successful trapping and destroying campaigns in Baugé en Anjou, I did see this one when visiting the house and garden with the yuccas.  The nest had been breached as I saw a bird or two flying in and out - perhaps the amazing tit family have decided they like to eat them, much as they do with pine processionary grubs?

It's not all gloom I guess.  The lack of frost and the moist conditions mean that the cristophine vine goes from strength to strength, with leaves the size of dinner plates and hidden fruits.  In the gloom it looks a bit like a hut or shelter, and actually it does do a good job when it rains.  Assuming no prolonged period of intense frost this winter (unlikely given global warming, although it would be good), this brute will be back next year!

Most of the garlic we planted last year was not worth lifting, so I didn't.  But I noticed today that those bulbs are pushing back up and will provide tasty scallion style garlic "spring onions" through the winter.  It might be worth planning next year's potager plots after all!

With that in mind, I am now off to cook chicken Béarnaise, otherwise known as garlic chicken. 

I am minded to bring in a trail camera during the week, as there is one that has been in place for a couple of months now and probably needs to be checked over.  All things being equal, there could be much more exciting things to write about next week than autumnal murk!

Have a good week!

 

Storm Kirk and other local events

OK, last weekend I promised more wildlife videos, and maybe I will include a couple at the end, but this week has been quite a busy one, and for a number of reasons.

Last week I wrote this blog early, before dashing off to the photo competition exhibition, hoping I had at least one of my photos printed and therefore in the top 30.  Well, my hopes were dashed, but to be fair to those that were printed, there were only 2 that I would have said weren't worth printing.  One was out of focus, and perhaps I am old fashioned, but I don't think that is good photography.  The other one looked to me more like an advert for Legal and General (other financial services companies are available but have different advertising and logos) than an entry in a provincial photography competition, and in my view would have been barred on that basis in a similar competition in the UK.  It won the adult section.

Of the two printed ones I liked the best, one got a prize for the popular vote done over the two days of the exhibition, and is shown here the furthest left, modelled by a member of the Society running the competition, the next one along won the popular vote, probably as it had a bird in it, the other two were the winners in the Junior section.  Well done all!

The next big excitement of the week was Storm Kirk.  He didn't bring much wind, but he brought a shed-load of rain with him.  It started raining before dawn on Wednesday and carried on with varying levels of intensity until just after 6pm.  Overall we had 59mm of rain or 2 3/8 inches - however you count it, it was a lot!  For the main rain gauge in our garden by the house, we had to empty it twice during the day, taking readings each time.  At 10am when I went to feed the chickens it was like this!

Fortunately around us there is enough of a gradient to ensure that house, garden and cellars don't flood, and that was the case for most around here, although some low roads became impassable as water came off the fields, and the Couasnon broke its banks.  But the main flooding was in low lying fields.  Others were not so lucky in other parts of France and I feel for them.  Occasionally however field banks were not up to the task and ceded with the weight of water, particularly if the field above had been harvested or ploughed recently so the soil was compacted.  This slip was near our country retreat.

The ponds are now nicely full and since Kirk did his worst, the weather has improved and blue sky has been seen!

The other excitement during the week was round two of the Challenge Communale in boule de forte.  My team had won our first round match, so on Thursday evening we were pitted against the team from one of the boule de forte clubs, the Esperance, and weren't totally hopeful.  I was instantly depressed when I revealed my antique boules, which were denounced as disgusting.  However it turned out that the Esperance team were unavailable to play the semi-final on Saturday, so forfeited the game when they were leading 8 - 2.  Once that was sorted, they told me the product I needed to get to make my boules beautiful and shiny once again, so I sort of forgave them.

Saturday morning, 10am, I was back at the boule de fort club with my "disgusting" boules for the semi-final against another boule de forte society, la Paix.  Despite hangovers and lack of sleep on both sides (not me, obviously), once we got going, the game was quickly lost by us 10 - 1, so I didn't have to worry about the final.  To be fair, we would have forfeited if we had won as one of our team couldn't be there for the final.  Anyway, by 11am, hair of the dog was being taken by those that needed it, and I was drinking a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc, knowing that I wouldn't have to play again for another year!

The only ones of these boules that are ours are the red ones!

As I mentioned, it rained all day on Wednesday, so one thing I could do to pass the time was to load up a few more wildlife videos on YouTube so I can share them here (you can also find my YouTube channel and subscribe or follow to see more of what is there).  I found another amusing woodpecker video - I am very fond of the Woodies!

There is a fair amount of mouse or rat activity down by the ponds - that's fair, as it's a wild place and they are wild animals.  I have no issues with them living as nature intended.

In the same way, I am fascinated to watch "our" fox as he goes about his business.  He is in the wild, away from domestic gardens and chicken runs, fending for himself, and not relying on dustbins either.  I've no idea what he is eating!

 

 

I have looked to see if there are nests or fungus or fruit around there, but I can't spot anything.  If he is eating slugs or snails, good luck to him, but I would be a bit less happy if it was frogs and toads.  Whatever, it is nature doing its thing.

Next week you can see coypu, plus I'm going to bring in another camera which has been at a point where I used to see hares and deer, so hope to have news of them.  I fear there will be a lot of John and I strimming however!

Have a good week!

 

A week that ends in a feast!

Last Saturday's storm is being claimed as a natural catastrophe as numerous buildings were damaged, though fortunately not ours.  I was in a shop this morning that had been affected.  It is all very well having a foot of insulation in the roof, but when it gets wet, it becomes very heavy and brings down an awful lot of stuff with it!  Not pretty and not good for the shop keeper! 

If you track down WIRED you will find an article about the increasing cost of lightening to buildings and insurance across the world, using the marvellous example of Mutton's Mill in the Norfolk Broads, which has had lightening conductors fitted to all four sails to prevent significant damage in a storm (perhaps try googling Farrell of the Broads Authority to find the story).

[Mutton's Mill, photo credit, Andrew Farrell]

Since the storm, temperatures have got steadily colder, although there are nice sunny days.  Rebus has spotted that the best autumn billet is on top of the beer fridge, as there is no heating on anywhere else and his fur coat is quite thin!

This cold autumnal weather means good sunsets in general, and also nice evenings to stand out and watch bats flitting around, hoovering up all the flies and other winged nasties that come out after dark.  We have at least two types that zoom around our house and garden, and actually the area is well known for its significant bat colonies, with protected caves where they overwinter.

Today (Saturday - I am writing this in advance - see below for why) was the annual Societé de la Paix Mechoui or animal roast, but in practice it is always a pig roast.  Festivities start from midday with people turning up for the aperitif and to admire lunch cooking.

Then everyone gets herded onto two long tables for more aperitifs, starters, the main event of spit roast pork with beans and ratatouille, rounding off the meal with cheese and apple tart.  We generally get home at about 6pm after coffee.  It is a wonderful way to meet people, to share village life and gossip and to feel part of something.  Every year is a bit different, even if the menu doesn't change, and we wouldn't miss it for the world.

Tomorrow I head for England, to see chums and family, and possibly even Mutton's Mill, so next week's story will be very different.  Have a good week!

 

Welcome to Autumn

Meteorological autumn started on the 1st September and autumness is being embraced by fauna, flora and weather with unseemly eagerness.  Temperatures are dropping, and the weather lurches from dismal to awful, with quick hints of sun in between.  Yesterday we were due storms in the afternoon, but needed to spend a few money off vouchers, so didn't get to the place in the country until the rain had started, while thunder rumbled around.  We were lucky, actually, to be there and not at home, where there were strong wind squalls, nearly three times the amount of rain, and hail.  While the barn cats munched their way through their feed, oblivious to the weather, I watched the rain and then checked the lightning strike web page.

There's not much by way of mellow fruitfulness about either.  The berries are rotting on the canes almost before they ripen and the pears are over - not enough for a burping barrel either!  There are apples - the Reine de Reinettes are falling and are quite tasty.  I need to burrow into the Bel de Boskoop to find any there, while the Granny Smiths will hold for ages.  The Canada juicing apples are rotting, then falling, so I fear for the trees if the marauding boar decide they like cider.  We had hoped for a single variety juice pressing this year, but if we do one at all, I think it will be mixed.  The quince are also a disappointment, as they have missed out on the heat and sunshine they need to develop to their full size and become fragrant.  They are falling!  I will have to try to make jelly, but I don't think they will be up to tagine or slow cooked quince standard sadly.  

Also in stark contrast to last year, we can only spot 5 fruits on the cristophine vine, despite it being even bigger than last year!  It also misses the heat and sunshine though it does enjoy a good deluge.

The cyclamen in the lawn have been later to flower than normal - about 3 weeks later if I recall correctly.  I had hoped that the delay might at least mean a full carpet of them around the birch tree.  I may be jaded and depressed with this year, but it seems to me that they too are less bountiful, although new corms have started to produce flowers in far flung areas of the garden.

We are hoping for a decent year for mushrooms, with all the water that there is around.  A walk around the One Acre Wood today showed that there are things popping up, but not interesting edible things so far.

We have found a first bolete, but not where it should be.  There was one growing in the lettuce bed, which I picked, but as there is no oak or chestnut in the Garden area, just a rather large birch tree, I did not risk cooking it.  It could well have been fine, but when picking wild mushrooms, any doubt at all and it goes on the compost heap.

The Marx Sisters have settled in well, and at least two of them have started to lay rather cute small eggs.  Groucho is a greedy so and so and likes to climb into trees and onto tables.  This can be disconcerting.  Harpo bumbles on in her own happy way, and seems to have been the one to come into lay first.  Chico is a bit more of a loner and likes to fly.  Specifically, she likes to fly at my back when I am walking away from her, which is a bit worrying.  Perhaps in a former life, she was an eagle.

I have had another major session with my new strimmer, using the brushcutter head this time, and have a number of projects with that.  More to follow in the coming weeks.  I also probably ought to shuffle the trail cameras around, so again something for another week.

Until next time!

 

Summer ends with a splash!

Friday evening's pub session was grey, cool (I was wearing a sweatshirt, for goodness sake), and distinctly humid.  Saturday morning we woke to a thunderstorm and heavy rain - some 20mm before 11am.  But as so often with summer storms, but midday, the sun was out and temperatures rocketed and we were able to sit out for aperos in the garden and say how lovely it all was.  So at 3:30am, we were unimpressed to be woken with a shock by loud thunder nearly overhead and positively biblical rain, which carried on for a good hour.

I am always surprised after such a violent sounding night, how in the morning, you have to look really hard to find the evidence of the cataclysm that seemed to be going on during the hours of darkness.  Yes, the rain gauge was pretty full, and the one at The Garden was nearly overflowing, and driving to The Garden, there were odd banks of sand by some of the fields, but nothing particularly broken, just a lot more water in the ponds.

It is sad that summer ends so abruptly, not least as we are still in Comice season, and Genneteil were doing the honours this year for the Noyant Villages area.  Still by the time they got to the procession of villages (no fancy floats this year from the Noyant area), the sun was doing its best to shine on them.  I do feel that this year's procession was a demonstration of cruelty to Renault 4s and as I used to drive one, I felt a lot of sympathy for this poor car, pulling a trailer that was too well loaded for the weight of the car.

For an event where the theme was Rock and Retro, I also felt that the non-marching band weren't quite in the swing of the theme by playing Lady Gaga's Poker Face.  But perhaps it is the highlight of their repertoire.

Autumn jobs are coming to the forefront of our thinking.  The Meadow needs to be fully mown and the side paths need to be cleared so that I can get into the little woodland at the end and finally see what is down there.  The Orchard is too overgrown and needs to be sorted out before the walnuts start to fall - not least as walnuts are our rent to the landlady.  So, lots to do, and possibly too much for one man. 

So I rummaged in my moth filled wallet and invested in a strimmer/brushcutter that I can use.  My elbow has ceased to support frequent use of a pullcord for starting a petrol engine, so I have gone for a battery model and used it for the first time yesterday.  The battery lasted longer than I did, which bodes well for later in the autumn.  Me in safety gear, harness and carrying said strimmer is not a good look, but better safe than sorry!

Last Sunday, in a last hurrah to summer, we attended a jazz manouche concert at our local pub - Les Epines de Mymi Rose.  I've wanted to catch one of her concerts for a while, so was delighted to spend a warm summer evening, sitting with a glass of wine. listening to an excellent performance.

One of the delights of autumn here are vivid sunsets, so this from Wednesday night may well be the first of many.  There is much that is autumnal around at the moment, with the giant orange jelly slugs, ripe fruit falling and a certain feel to the air.  I am very fond of early autumn, but not so much this year, as we never seem to have had much of a summer.  Perhaps a week or so in August.

I did mention giant orange jelly slugs - they are numerous and finding life just too, too wonderful at the moment.  Wandering around the One Acre Wood I nearly stopped slug sex but standing on two, but managed to sidestep them just in time.  Fascinating and disgusting at the same time!

Have a good week!