Rural Life

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!

 

Autumn taking its time

It's been a relatively quiet week, as Autumn slowly does its thing.  In the garden, the cyclamen flowers are disappearing and great tufts of leaves are taking over, to feed the corms for next year - it has been a riot this year.  In the One Acre Wood, the white cyclamen are slower to come through, and the light is very different of course.  Still we have some 14 flowering zones (one of which isn't strictly in our bit of wood), and there will be a lot more clumps of leaves than that, when they really start to show.  It would appear that a cyclamen needs at least three years from germinating to getting to the flowering stage.  It is worth thinking about that, when you buy disposable pots of cyclamen as presents for people I think.  The most magnificent flowering has been quite hidden from us until a bit of judicious strimming cleared access to part of the orchard where they seem to have gone totally crazy!

The weather has wavered between nice sunny days, warm enough to lie out on the hammock (modelled here by Monsieur Clause), and dull, dreary, grey and wet days, when the only useful thing to do has been to sit in my office area, do filing and throw out 30 year old insurance documents.

Some of the filing has been positively pleasurable though - 2018 files from a trail camera need a lot of pruning down to the bits that are worth hanging on to.  There is no point in trying to make a paradise for wildlife if one also clogs up a datacentre with unnecessary and rather poor quality photos and videos!  There was a rather nice image of the hare making a very rare appearance this year.

But badgers do not make good photo subjects in general, as they are out and about at night and tend to move quite quickly - this is a better example than most, but it isn't really worth keeping!

The video shorts of badgers were much more amusing though, and I was able to take time to load quite a few onto YouTube to share here.

This is much more amusing!

This one has two badgers going about their legal and lawful.

As does this one.

The quality of this video is dire I admit, but it did prove that once again we had a faun in the Meadow this year.  The weather wasn't great over the summer, with cool mornings so the misted up camera was a fairly regular thing.

We had to wait another 12 days to get better visual confirmation that the pair were in the zone, and by that time the faun had grown a lot!  Also, they weren't that close to the camera.

The clocks have now gone back - fallen for the Anglophones (Fall - fall back - go back).  The French mnemonic is that in Octobre the clocks reculent.  For a couple of weeks we will be getting up in daylight again, but not for long.  By December it will still be dark at 8:30am and the temptation to stay in bed on grey days will be almost too much!  

Have a good week!

 

Quiet (!) Autumn pursuits

Autumn should be the time of foraging and harvesting, plus spending lots of time in the kitchen doing stuff with the results of said harvesting and foraging.  This week I got into the swing of that a bit more, and we peeled loads of chestnuts so I could get creative with the results.  A savoury fish crumble with a chestnut and cheese crumble was very good indeed.  The sweeter apple and quince crumble was a bit too sweet and sat in the tummy and on the hips in a rather alarming manner - less sugar, and more flour could be the answer.  But that means peeling more chestnuts...

In addition I had another go at the fig tree, which seems aware that it is going to be massacred soon, so is putting out more figs than the local starlings (the top ones), the chickens (the bottom ones) and we (those in the sweet spot in the middle) can comfortably get through.  I am now up to a dozen pots of fig jam made, and as we  haven't finished last year's, I'm making no more!

I should also be digging up potatoes, but the ground is currently still sodden thanks to Kirk and then another few depressions that have been passing through during the week.  I'm waiting for the promised dry patch next week to do more of that.  There are no frosts predicted, so the cristophines continue to produce a huge crop - this lot are on a new plant John planted to protect the asparagus bed.  I like to think that the row of diminishing fruit are reminiscent of the pottery flying ducks so beloved of sitting room walls in the 1970s!

The foraging is going less well, and the view locally is that it is not a year for cèpes, as no one has seen one.  I did find what looked like one, but it was under a birch tree, which is wrong, so I discarded it.  There are strange bits of fungi around, like these yellow threads we found in the One Acre Wood - inedible and also not clear from our array of mushroom identification books what they actually are!  Quite attractive though.

Less peaceful autumn pursuits include trying to get the dense thickets of bramble and old man's beard under control.  While I don't mind odd pockets of it, when you get banks that are taller than me and cover a third of a field, it is not good and it doesn't create valuable habitat.  The density is so great that most plants can't grow, the cover defends some animals (hares and pheasants mostly) from hunters, but doesn't provide a dry or comfortable holt for winter, the plant quality is poor, as they all strive for sunlight, so there is little if any fruit, and not much by way of insects as there are no flowers.  And it grows and grows upwards and then outwards, taking over flower meadow and pond edges to the detriment of a wide range of flora and fauna. 

So we are punching paths through the big bank with strimmers and hedge trimmers and then using the big yellow Beast to mulch through the cut stems to create walkways that may be easier to maintain next year, while providing some shelter and routes for our non-human visitors to move around more easily.  It's all very much a work in progress, but I am pleased with how it is going.

With bad weather forecast for much of the week, I brought in Trail Camera 1 to see what had been going on in its line of vision.  It was as well I did, as it had over 2,000 files on it, and the batteries were pretty well dead.  It had been out since late July and the batteries, which weren't the best quality in the first place, had been used for a few months before then too, so weren't fresh.  It took a while to prune down the 2,018 files to just 252 that had some interest, and they will require further triage and editing and videos put onto YouTube, but as a taster of what there is, here is our fox in the open.

I did also load just one video onto YouTube today, as I wanted to show how robust the cameras need to be - turn the sound up for the full effect and yes, those are tusks!

 

I did also promise a bit of coypu action - I am ambivalent about them.  They are an invasive, non-native species with no natural predators and cause a lot of damage, and I don't like their tails, but their whiskers are magnificent!

 

 

 

 

That's enough coypu for the moment!  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!

 

Drama! Games and ducks

We are past the vernal equinox: the gazebo roof is dry, down and packed away for next year, when I hope it will be out for longer than two months!  As ever it will need some running repairs to see it through the season but I think the Velcro has another year left in it, while the actual fabric is holding up nicely.  Ok the "outside" is faded, but we sit under it so still have the glory of its bright colours. 

With the cover down, the gazebo just has its strawberry hanging baskets, its weather station and its fairy lights, which I shall leave out a bit longer, as they bring delight when I put the chickens away at night.  Soon there won't be enough daylight to charge the battery and then they will come in.

 The arrival of autumn proper and the longer evenings means it is time for boules de fort - a traditional local game not played in more than a handful of departments, but Anjou is definitely a key place.  Le Vieil Baugé is blessed with four still operating boule pistes - there were 7, but the other three are no longer in use.  Every autumn there is the Communal Challenge, where all the clubs and societies, the village municipal workers, and any other identifiable group are invited to submit up to two teams to defend the honour of their group. 

The Comité des Fêtes has always tried to come up with two teams, as was the case this year.  Normally team membership is decided on having one good team and then a bunch of no-hopers.  This year membership was decided on who was available on which evening for the first round.  That got me into the "first" team with people who know how to play - a bit of a shock!

Even more of a shock for me was that we got points!

In fact, at the end of a three and a half hour game - I kid you not - we won 10 to 7 against the Society for the Preservation of Vieil Baugé Heritage!  That means I am playing again on Thursday this week, but against one of the boule de fort societies, so it is likely to be a pasting.

So back to the world of trail cameras.  Spoiler alert - it is a bitter sweet story.

There are a pair of mallards that live in the zone - he is a bit flighty, but she is a gentle soul.  Last year I actually saw her with a couple of ducklings in the fish pond, before the coypu had managed to make it a poorly drained swamp.  So it was rather nice to see her passing through with a little ball of fluff.

 

A couple of days later and she passed with two little fluff balls!

 

Then I saw her with five!  O what joy!

 

Except, two days later, there was just one duckling left.

 

But three weeks later, that ball of fluff had fledged quite nicely, and did stay with Mum until the end of July, when presumably she went off to find her own pond.

 

I don't know what happened to the other ducklings - there are many options and it is a hard world out there for small balls of fluff.  If they all survived, we would disappear under all the mallards however.  One of the culprits could be this chap - yes, pine marten can also be spotted in daylight!

 

Anyway, next week I turn my video attention to those relatively charmless creatures, coypu.  Something to look forward to?  

This afternoon is the exhibition of the annual photography competition run by the Society for the Preservation of the Heritage of Vieil Baugé (who got beaten by the Comité des Fêtes at boules de fort - ha!), with the prize giving at 5pm.  You submit your photos (maximum of 2) by email, the best 30 get printed and exhibited, and there are winners and prizes.  I hope one of my entries got printed, that for me would be the win.  You'll find out next week! 

Have a good one!

Making the most of the good days

2024 has not been a classic year on many fronts, not least the weather.  Often the autumns here are truly blissful, warm or hot days, cooler evenings, sunny with the odd day of gales.  Sometimes we aren't actually that keen on the prolongation of summer, but this year, with perhaps two weeks of summer in total, more than a week of nice autumn would be good.  Alas it is not to be, so the rare days of idyllic autumn have to be savoured.  Yesterday was one such day - crisp, sunny, inspiring!  The Saturday morning market in Baugé was quite classic, with yummy local products, the dulcet tones of Yann Mas warbling in the background and bright sun, with the Chateau watching over us!

Today was the annual antiques fair at Durtal, some 12 kilometres to the north of us.  Since Covid and Brexit, it is smaller, with fewer traders and fewer English voices to be heard as you go around the stalls.  Actually the size now suits us better, as say 10 years ago, it was just too big.  But today there were very few punters out and about as well.  Okay so we were there between 1pm and 2pm, but even so it seemed a bit sparse.  The quality and the range of stuff was impressive this time so we enjoyed our 3km walk around from where we parked the car, but the weather was not propitious and by the time we got to the car, it was raining.  Durtal Chateau loomed over our arrival and departure in a gloomy fashion, given the weather conditions.

With two nice days in the week, we got done as much as we could by way of gardening, and in between I did useful things.  For a start I stewed a couple of kilos of windfall apples from the garden which are now in the freezer waiting for me to make apple crumble in due course.  I then batch cooked a load of cristophines so I have some ready to be a gratin when the need arises. 

I also brought in a trail camera that had been in place in a secluded area for the past 3 months to see what had been going on.  I was actually a bit grateful for poor weather, as there was so much going on, and I had time to enjoy the footage rather than feel guilty about it. 

To give an idea of what has been going on, here are some highlights:

The tree by the camera, which has been shown to be a really good scratching post for boar, is also a favourite scavenging point for the Great Spotted Woodpeckers.  This is a rather nice short of one giving the tree a once over.

While there is the well known phrase "breed like rabbits", I tend more to the phrase "breed like wild boar", as they can produce two litters a year and litters are big and there are just so many around, but on the other hand, baby boar are so cute!

 

While they aren't my favourite animals by a long chalk, young coypu aren't as unpleasant to look at as their parents, and the family that live in the zone seem to have had 4 babies this year.  This little fellow is about a third the size of its parents.

I adore pine martens, and for a few weeks they seemed to spend a lot of time playing and searching for food around the camera location.  I've decided to share a number of videos of them this time, as later blogs will be more about the fox, the duck story and those wretched coypu.

At first there was just one pine marten, but then another, smaller one joined it.  I've no idea if they are a couple or whether it is parent and adolescent, but I love them and am always rather excited to see a photo or a short video of them.

So, first just one:

 

Then two of them:

 

 

The trail camera is back in place again, but I still have over 200 more files to go through and see what is there in detail.  The badgers go through there, as do deer occasionally, and I still hope to see the water rail again one of these days.  All three cameras are now deployed and it is the time when all the animals we share the area with are looking to put on winter stores to help them through the cold season.  I wish them luck as it looks like poor pickings this year and I refuse to provide feed - nature must take its course.

That doesn't apply to the blue tits and great tits that eat the pine processionary caterpillars of course - they are encouraged to congregate in the zone to then take the evil invaders out when they appear!

The forecast for the week isn't great, but I hope there will be some fine days to take advantage of out in the gardens and woodlands.  Have a good week!

 

Summer miscellany

Yes, summer is firmly installed now, and finally the verges are taking on their straw colour that I normally associate with July.  It arrived in a rush, with last Saturday starting to look promising, and last Sunday was as perfect a summer day as you could ask for.  But it didn't know when to stop, and Monday was hotter, which made visiting a chum in hospital more appealing as they had air conditioning.  Tuesday was deeply unpleasant - up to 39ºC measured in the shade in the garden, but with humidity, feeling a lot worse, and since then things have slowly calmed down to normal high summer.

On Monday, to finally welcome in summer, we got most of the cover on the gazebo in the garden.  First I had to check all the fixings and resew a number of the tapes, as they had been buffeted rather in the winds last autumn.  It is easiest to use my sewing machine outdoors, where the light is good and the table doesn't have a slippery surface.  Poirot, the elderly cat, decided I needed help and supervision - fortunately it didn't make life too difficult!

We have started on the annual mow of the wildflower meadow (royal we).  There is never an ideal time to do it, and currently it is a sea of white umbellifers, mostly wild carrot I think, but there are few butterflies, and the crickets seem to get out of the way OK, and if we leave it too long, the brambles and old man's beard and tiny saplings get more difficult to pulverise.  Seeds of things like orchids and broomrape are now ripe so will be spread around in the mowing process.

A favourite flower is gaura, and this year, after it had been well and truly strimmed down to ground level, it has come back with a glorious display for us.  I guess this could be the answer for how to keep it lovely!

I have been through the files on the trail camera that was overlooking one of the ponds.  It wasn't the best placement, and it overlooked a path going across so you get lots of photos and videos of animal bottoms disappearing out of shot.  This short video of a meandering doe is a rarity, and she doesn't stay around that long either!

Perhaps a day after the camera was set up, a stag took an interest in it, and had a good go and dismantling it, but failed.

The main purpose of the camera placement was to catch the boar having mud baths.  They leave an imprint in the mud that is impressive, so I hoped to capture something interesting.  One night I thought I might be in luck.  A boar arrives.

It gets itself into position, after a bit of preparation.

But is then too far away from the trail camera to set it off again, until bath time is over anyway, at which point I get an image of a muddy boar!  There is evidence of the boar bath place in the mud of the pond of course.

I would show you that, and the boar after its bath, but the internet is so slow and intermittent, I need perhaps 20 goes to get a photo loaded up, so I am calling it a day.  Enjoy your week!

 

 

It's all about weather, and the Olympics

After years of planning and months of the Olympic Torch passing through as much of France as possible, and people trying to get enthused about it all, last week it started!  Opinions are divided over the opening ceremony, ranging from censorship, through moans about it being boring and taking too long, being bitty and strange, to out and out adoration.  It seems to depend on how well you know French history and culture and whether you can be bothered to dredge your memory for interminable teams with flags parading into tight capacity Olympic stadia in previous iterations.

I can see both sides - from my academic and intellectual perspective, it was an interesting take on how to parade sportspeople from over 200 nations into a holding area where they can observe the Olympic oath being taken by representatives.  The logistics are always challenging, so to take to the water adds another dimension and a different way of doing it.  I suspect Los Angeles won't try to imitate that!  On the detail of some of the tableau, well, if you don't know French history or popular culture, many things will go over your head and the always quirky Philippe Katerine may well be a long way outside your comfort zone.

Some have said it was too inclusive - but working to the French moto of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, I don't think you can overdo the inclusiveness, including a 100 year old Olympic Gold medal holder being the third last link in the torch relay.  There were moments that had me teared up (French boat going under the bridge), or held in wonder (the horse charging up the Seine), or just downright proud to live in France (the light show around the Tour Eiffel), but people will never agree.  I liked it, you may not have done, but as always I found something else to do while the teams were on the move.

I've not included a picture - there are many in the public domain.

In the run up to Friday, all the discussion was about the weather - would it stay dry?  Would the front pass through beforehand?  Would it just be a bit of cloud and the odd drop of rain?  At no time did the forecasters say, "It will pee it down like you haven't seen in Paris in July without thunder for years".  O well!  The week was so mixed with hot sun on Wednesday and Thursday, and now again on Sunday.  It just goes to show you can't rely on the weather behaving itself.  But today things are looking lovely.

The sky last evening did actually presage a change in weather, with a wonderful, luminous pink effect across high clouds heading away to the east.  Today is the transition from something akin to October to high summer, which is due to last three or four days I gather!

Yesterday I dug up a load of potatoes for the week - they are looking good, but aren't really interesting to photograph.  While I worked I was whistled at a lot by a golden oriole, so I replied, imitating its call.  We kept up our conversation for a good quarter of an hour - I wonder what we said!

A final item from yesterday, was that the usual Saturday market in Baugé was augmented by the monthly display of classic, vintage and collectable cars and vans.  Some are quite magnificent, while others make me feel old as they were normal when I was growing up.  To add to the display this month, they brought along entertainment - a clarinettist playing jazz standards to a backing track.  He was very good and it was a delight.  I hope he comes back again soon!

Anyway, for a Sunday, we have a very busy end of the day (annoying as I would quite like to vegetate in front of the TV watching the cross country bit of the Olympic 3 day event from Versailles, but they keep cutting away to basketball or table tennis, so I guess I'm not missing much).  I had better go and do "stuff", and wish you a good week!

 

The day after the night before!

Yes, I'm feeling a bit muzzy today, after quite a day or two.  In part it is because the heat ramped up again very quickly, which seems to knock my system a bit.  Jumping up 5 degrees in a day, then dropping back down again a couple of days later means I don't get to acclimatise to the heat.  But in the main, it is because after a few years' gap, the Vieil Baugé Journée Champêtre is back and was yesterday. 

To be honest, I wasn't too involved this year, but John had to be up and away early yesterday morning for setting up the site, so I wasn't able to sleep in.  Then I was on the food line for about 3 and a half hours, not arduous but standing up all the time, which doesn't help my feet or knees.  Then there was getting to eat my meal, drink my drink, see the fireworks and drift home to sort out chickens and cats and wind down from a very French experience (it still mangles my brain, particularly if I am mixing French and English during an event).  So late to bed, and in a house that had got too hot during the day.  Muzzy really does cover it!

Still, it was a success and people enjoyed it and it is good to get village traditions back.  Here are a few photos, but Maryline Margas has posted a slide show of much better ones on Facebook. 

We were threatened with thunderstorms for yesterday - which fortunately for us didn't materialise.  The threat did galvanise me into lifting the yellow onions before they got too wet.  I was pleased with the size of them, but a strange phenomenon was that quite a few sets produced two onions.  I only planted single sets at each point, but about six did this, which I have never seen before.

In my muzzy state this morning, I was in the right frame of mind to sit and watch butterflies on the buddleia.  To be honest I would have liked to have seen more, but it might not have been the best conditions for them, although there were a lot of bees getting nectar for the hives, which has to be good.  There was this rather nice Comma butterfly - you can't see the comma, as that is on the underside of its wings, and he clearly wanted to soak up the sun.

Some of the high summer flowers are now coming into their own.  The crocosmia is rather swamped by surrounding weeds but the flowers are magnificent.  The statement white lily type thing in the garden tubs is starting to look particularly fine.  And then there are the canna lilies - these are all from three bulbs or sets John bought about 15 years ago, and have since gone mad, been removed from places and chucked on heaps or left on top of the soil to be eaten, only to colonise, and get very big indeed.  I love them when they are like this, big, brash and blousy.

So that is it, for this week.  Next week I hope to have sorted out some wildlife photos and video.  For those who watched the snake videos, I think I know where one of them lives, and I found that quite disturbing...

 

Satisfaction?

OK, first up a warning.  This post isn't quite as family friendly as normal, or certainly the second half isn't!

The Rolling Stones sang that they couldn't get no satisfaction - for me that is a double negative.  What does satisfaction look like in the animal world?  Well when I took in the trail camera by the pond, I found a series of videos that implied that piggie heaven was probably a jolly good scratching post!  The poor tree that was used is not the largest or strongest, but somehow survived the onslaught.  It is also popular with birds (presumably nice things get left behind), the pine marten and deer.  Here is a feathered friend who cannot be named for politeness purposes seeing what has been left on the bark.

But now to boar action - when indulging in a jolly good scratch, even other boar are no distraction!

It's the tail on this one that gets me!

And once you have done the back, a good go at ears and neck is also pleasing.

Then a final scratch and what a satisfying evening for a boar!

Now if you are funny about snakes, stop reading around here!

I went to feed The Boys in The Country, and two joined me in their funny kitchen area, demanding food, while we could hear a lot of noise on the rood.  I assumed it was the third cat, so called him a couple of times to come in for food, but the noise kept going.  So once the two were snarfing away at their food, I went outside to see why Donald hadn't come in for his kibble.  I could see a flash of something white or cream, but it didn't look like a cat, so I got a step ladder and set it up and climbed up to see what was going on.  I then got my phone out pretty quickly, because it was unexpected.

First attempt

I settled myself more carefully on the ladder and got two further sequences, firstly here, and then this one.

These are not dangerous, they are Aesculapian snakes and can grow up to two meters long.  They are nonvenomous and while there is a small colony in northern Wales, they are really native to mainland Europe.  They are famed in Greek and Roman mythology for their relationship to the god of healing, Asclepios (Greek version) and are to be seen even today on the symbol for pharmacies in France and other places too I'm sure.  They eat rodents, including rats, so should be welcomed, not least as baby ones will eat large slugs and snails, including the flesh eating orange jelly slug.  Eggs and young are vulnerable to boar, hedgehogs and badgers, so I hope this couple are very careful where they hide their stash.

So there you are - two very different sets of videos but showing that animals enjoy life too!

Have a good week!