Rural Life

Day 24 of 30 Days Wild - it's hot

I'm sure there is some fancy name for the plume of hot, humid air that is coming at us from the Iberian peninsular and points south, but when the thermometer gets up to near 35ºC, our main preoccupations are keeping the inside of the house and us cool, and us dehydrated.

My brain has also been turned to mush by the concept of match funding (not funding matches I hasten to add).

So today I leave you with this vaguely scientific thought - 

Ours are all trying the liquid state at the moment in various places.

 

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 14 of 30 Days Wild - rainbows and butterflies

We seem to be getting a lot of rainbows this year.  Yesterday I showed the one that was looking south east from the pub on Friday night when we left.  Today I share with you the double rainbow that could be seen from our back door yesterday evening, this time looking north east.

A few days ago I was worrying that history would be covered up in terms of the stonework on a house in the village.  I'm actually pretty hopeful that they are going to leave the stonework visible though, as there is a fine repointing of joints, but the scaffolding is coming down, and there is no covering render.  Fingers crossed guys, because I find this quality of stonework beautiful and fascinating.

John had his work cut out cat minding today.  This made it easier for me to tend to the needs of the tomatoes and check up on the haricots and tie in more bean poles for the borlotti beans.  It didn't make it any easier for him when it came to mowing around the plots though.

In places the buddleia is out and providing lots of lovely nectar for the butterflies.  I spent a happy (and Wild) 10 minutes chasing around the bushes, trying to photograph butterflies and got some reasonable pictures this time I think.  This is the one I like the best - it's a peacock butterfly by the way.

Tomorrow it is back to work and also back to the uncertainty over outdoor yoga or not - don't be surprised if there is no blog, as I could be stuck with my foot round the back of my head (boasting), or be spending the evening rubbing horse liniment into my aching joints.

 

Day 3 of 30 Days Wild - but I'm not wild, I'm livid!

Two weeks ago I had 24 nice little chilli plants growing away nicely.  I felt good.  Tonight I have three slightly raddled chilli plants and 6 with no leaves and that is it.  OK I gave 3 away, but the 10 that I planted out have been eaten and then used as part of a dust bath by Bridie the Bantam, Delenn, exile of the Grey Council and Muck and Brass - aka the Garden Vandal Gang.  It's not as though they weren't protected by a barricade of sticks, flower pots and plastic netting.  Little b@st@rds!  And Bridie doesn't even share her eggs.

So to soothe my anger, I walked up to the vantage point where I can look south across the valley of the Couasnon and west towards the big city and north to the bad lands of the Sarthe.  I used to be able to look at our house too, but a nasty little bungalow is being built in front of us, so the view that way is now sadly lacking.  The swifts know that there is a storm around as the insects are flying lower, so they are flying lower too.  There must have been 30 or so swooping across the village between us and the church - magnificent to watch.  The swallows and martins were tucked away though, in case.

The clouds towards the east and Noyant were not looking friendly and there was a pretty constant low rubble of thunder in the air.

My favourite website, real time lightning, shows what it was like over that way.

Day 1 of (limited) freedom - not that I've noticed any real difference

Freedom!  Well sort of, anyway.

The weather to greet our new found freedoms was vile this morning - rain, blustery easterly winds and cold.  So while our boulangerie was open again on Mondays (they had been closed during lockdown on Mondays), it wasn't an unconfined joy walking up there, even if I didn't have an attestation.  But actually I did notice some differences - slightly more cars out and about and the barber at the top of the road was open and cutting hair.  But my plans to be out and about planting spuds and going for a walk in the One Acre Wood were confounded by 25mm of rain in 18 hours and a nasty wind that makes going into woodland a tad foolish.  However as the screen grab below shows, from here on in, it is due to get better.

The main excitement of the day was provided by Zola, when she brought in a sparrow.  We thought she had a lizard, so didn't bother chasing her.  It was only when I went upstairs to carry on working and saw her staring at the curtains, that I realised something more was afoot.  Our bedroom windows are large and it is a long way down.  The sparrow was unharmed, so it was a matter of getting the timing absolutely right to let the bird out, and close the window before Zola launched herself out of the window in pursuit.  Fortunately I succeeded.  

Otherwise, the news is full of how people are coping with going back to work and concerns about public transport.  Small pockets of infection are cropping up which should serve to keep people focussed on the key messages of social distancing, hand washing and keeping safe.  We are still waiting for our free face masks, but the 7th May copy of Private Eye finally turned up, saving us from an old but previously unread copy from February 2016.  There was a spoof in there of Johnson working out which way to jump over Brexit and which would give him the better chance of becoming PM.  Some things shouldn't be joked about.

With better weather, I should have more interesting things to report tomorrow, when I go out and about to see what freedom tastes like!

 

Day 54 of lockdown - much nicer things than yesterday!

Thank you to those who shared their anger, sorrow or amazement at yesterday's key story, and as a reward, I will be relentlessly upbeat today.

Yesterday was Victory in Europe Day, while today celebrates Europe, and I stopped at our local war memorial on the way home from the market to pay my respects to the fallen.  This area was in Occupied France, with a fairly heavy Gestapo presence at one of the local chateaux, and work camps not so far away.  There are a couple of isolated memorials, one in the local woods for a Resistance man and one in the woods for two British airmen, shot down a couple of days before D-Day.  In November, local airmen go and put poppies on that memorial.  This is our village's fine tribute.

After writing yesterday's blog, we set ourselves up outside in the garden for Friday night beer o'clock with Chinon and Tunbridge Wells.  We were charmed to be joined by a garden resident we don't see very often, but are always very pleased to see.  I do ensure that there is water available, and leave this one to find their own snacks of snails and slugs.  Everybody say "aaaaah", and no, I don't know what that pale line in the spines is, but it was on the real life hedgehog and it isn't a trick of the camera.

This morning I was checking over the seedlings and met this fine fellow stuck in one of the plastic modules, so I helped him out with a bit of vegetable material and hopefully he has gone off on his way.  He was so beautiful though!  And while they don't show on the photo, he had little copper effect bits on the edge of his carapace.

It took the blasted post snails only 2 nights to completely eat the label I put on the post box to tell the local council how many face masks we would need.  So today I had another go at putting a 2 on the box, this time using copper tape, as they don't like the electric charge up 'em.  I hope this works!

Finally, this afternoon I was potting on tomato seedlings and John was working out a way to fix the garden bench that collapsed under him (it is nearly 20 years old and the joints gave out, nothing to do with confinement ounces, which John has avoided anyway, as he works so hard).  We had to stop after a while as the rumbling got to such a level that we knew it was time to go in.  After 10mm rain was dumped on us, we've been inside for a bit, but now the rest of the tomatoes are calling to me.  Here is the lightening map for what went on in the skies around us.

 

Day 48 of lockdown - another Vieil Bauge Sunday

And hopefully that has you humming a hit by the Monkees!  Except this isn't status symbol land.

Today is supposed to be the last yukky day for a while - I hope so as it really does get monotonous and as we are nearly at the end of week 7 of lockdown, it is just that bit harder.  The NCIS rolling repeats are ones I've seen for the last 4 Sundays I think, radio palls after a while and however often I look at seedlings, they haven't done anything miraculous, but I have got wet looking at them. 

There was a bit of a queue at the boulangerie this morning, so I took the opportunity to photograph the church from an angle I often see but rarely notice, if you see what I mean.  it is an historic monument, but at times when I look at it, I do wonder if it isn't about to fall down.  When we first moved here, the bells sounded the half hour, and twice on the hour, two minutes apart, with wild peels at 6:30 am and 7:30pm, and marking the hour all through the night.  Someone has complained, and now they only go on the half hour and on the hour (and once only) between 6:30am and 11pm.  I find this sad - the original was more authentic, but I guess some townies moved in and decided it wasn't good for the children or something.

This afternoon I went for a walk on my own to get a bit of exercise - the ounces are building up and we have roast pork for dinner.  There is a circuit I do, I could add perhaps another 500 metres to it, but haven't yet.  It takes about 45 minutes and takes me out into the country, before coming back along the repurposed railway line towards Baugé, and cutting back down to the village via the Pont de Godot (where you can wait...).  There is some uncertainty as to whether the Voie Verte is an authorised route, but when I was on it today, I was on my own apart from many small brown birds.

Truth be told, we are feeling rather flat - and I am pretty sure that is weather related.  If the sun is shining, we can sit in the garden and ignore the paperwork that needs to be done, the cleaning that needs to be done and all the other household chores.  But with a rain shower every 20 minutes or so, you feel like you have to attack business accounts or, worse than that, the French tax return.  Poirot is good at reflecting our mood.

 

Day 47 of lockdown - another wet one

I know, it's good for the plants, not least the fruit trees.  And better it rains a lot now and then dries up for the second half of May so that the cherries don't split, but in lockdown, wet days are just that bit harder to cope with.  The house also cools down in the rain - we actually had a fire yesterday evening!  It wasn't that cold, but we needed something to ensure the cats were suitably comfortable (OK and us too).  Nibbles approved!

The boys in the country needed feeding today, so I left John making pots of rice pudding (with cardamom flavouring - yummy) for the week, while I went to see how they were doing.  I got the biggest, fattest tick I've seen in a while off Fergus while he stuffed his face on fish flavoured cat food.  Once they had all scoffed enough, they escorted me down the garden to pick more broad beans and check on the other good things growing down there, and then tried to see if all four could fit on me in some way at the same time.  I need to be like Vishu and have 8 arms I think, to satisfy all their cuddle requirements.  That will be the instant good news come 11th May - we can go and see the boys together and then come home via the One Acre Wood - that is going to be such a good day!

Anyway, once that was all done, I went to check on the wild flower meadow.  The view down across the valley from there shows that while not raining hard, the air was think with moisture, and it wasn't the best day to be out.

The orchid torture continues.  While the early orchids are nearly over, the lizard and bee orchids are starting to send up their flower spikes to take over.  I've been looking for the bee orchid flower stems for a while, and today I found some.  I reckon by the time lockdown is lifted, we will have our first flowers.

Once home from all that, and as John had finished his creations, I decided it was time to deal with the black bananas hanging over the kitchen work surface, so made banana bread.  It should be nearly ready by now, so I had better stop typing and get this loaded up.

 

Day 45 of lockdown - technology is starting to creak a bit

I'll keep it short today, after yesterday's rant.  Typepad (the bunch that power this blog) are usually jolly reliable, but occasionally something goes a bit skewiff out there in the ether, and today is one of those days.  I gather the blog hasn't been available for a chunk of the day, and it is taking ages to do anything.

However I said I would do a post a day during lockdown, so here goes.

I had planned a rant about face masks - I'll save that for tomorrow, when the system is hopefully a bit more robust.

Instead I will say that while not as thoroughly wet as yesterday, the weather has not been totally kind, with a solid hour of heavy rain, so that in the past 30 hours we have had about 24mm rain.  Once the sun gets on it, this should ensure the asparagus goes mad tomorrow - yum!

While yesterday was just very wet, today has had the added joy of strong and gusty wind.  I'm not a fan of strong winds at the best of times, but certainly not when the trees are in full leaf.  The seedlings are also stuck in the BBQ as it is too windy for them to be out, as they would get blown away.

Anyway, I have a curry and naans to make, so I will leave it here, with a photo of Sanity Clause the Cat giving his view on technology.