A special September

 

I even got to have my hair done on the day

At the beginning of September Olivier, our youngest, was married.  As his new wife is Czech they were married in Czechia.  The took over a hotel in the middle of the Forest.  It was a magical place for a magical occasion.  Everything about the hotel was lovely; we could have stayed there a lot longer than the two nights for the wedding.  The weather on the day was good too; sunny but not too hot.

When we returned to France we arrived at Bordeaux  airport to temperatures in the mid-30s.  What a contrast!

Taking care of the bees

 This post also appears on my Facebook page:

Last year our Japanese pagoda tree flowered for the first time and was alive with bees, bumble bees, different types of wasps and other insects.  I did put out a bowl of water which mainly attracted the local wasps.  This morning, on Facebook, I saw a photo of a bowl of water and marbles put out for bees (sorry, I don’t remember where).  The idea is that the bees can drink standing on the marbles and are less likely to fall in and drown.  I seem to remember being told long ago that bees like shiny things, so in theory they will be drawn to the bowl of shiny marbles.

After doing a little research online I’ve learnt that the water should be changed regularly to prevent mosquitoes from breeding there.  Don’t add sugar or honey to the water, not good for the bees.

Travelling and a growing family

I never thought that I would take a pause from blogging for such a long time. Since we visited Prague we haven’t stopped. We were mainly visiting towns throughout the west of France and after that, a couple of trips to England.

 I really don't remember where this tree was

 What happens when you run around the park without your shoes

A seashell penguin

Bridge we travelled over in Brittany

The trip we made to the UK in April was really special as we met our month old twin granddaughters! Dom never does things by halves. They are non-identical, I‘m sad that we can’t see more of them, but we get to see lots of photos and sometimes a video. Dom and J-M, Lise and Sofia moved back to France at the end of August. Unfortunately it’s more complicated to visit them and the girls than it was when they lived in the UK.

Their parents don’t want pictures of them on the internet so I can’t share with you how beautiful they are.

 Like a lot of places we had a long, hot summer, excellent for hollyhocks.

The 'Lac de Frace'

Towards the end of September we went for a walk at the Lac (lake) de Frace. It’s not far from where we live but we’ve only visited once before. The weather was good, it was early evening and the main season was finished so that it was very peaceful. We almost had the place to ourselves!

There's a spider in the old barn

This morning I went into the garage to put the recycling bin away. The garage is an outbuilding, a barn, well over 100 years old made of local stone. I find it fascinating. Unfortunately when I moved the ordinary bin out of the way there was a huge, giant, enormous, big, enormous (did I say enormous?), big spider on the lid. I think that it was a Cardinal spider.

The French Wikipedia is more dramatic as it gives the maximum length of the spider, including legs, as up to 13 cm which is just over 5 inches! The English Wiki talks of body length only. Mine wasn’t that big. It’s fast too; speeds recorded up to 3.5 Km/h = 2.17 mph. As it happens it is harmless to humans (excepting heart attack when you see one up close).

In bad weather I hang the washing out in the garage – I really hope that the spider does not like fabric conditioner. This is what I wrote about the barn a few years ago: The barn

The tunnels mentioned in the story were built many hundreds of years ago and were a way of moving protestants to safety during the many religious conflicts.

Bumblebee update

Unfortunately I found this lying on the grass this morning:

I don't think that the cats would have done this.  I haven't seen any cats in the garden since the nest appeared as it's close to where they come in and out.  Looking online I have discovered that badgers enjoy a bit on honey and sometimes foxes.  I don't think that there are many foxes around here and badgers?  I've never heard talk of them.  I'll have to grab a passing farmer and ask them if there are badgers locally.

The gate into the garden is locked at night so I don't think a human would have done this.  Good news is that the bees are still going to and fro so there is some of the hidden nest left.

Lodgers

Look what I found growing alongside my Aloe Vera plant!

Green stuff...

A couple of weeks ago one of my students asked me to help her write a letter to a company in the UK. She wanted to buy a specially adapted mouse for her husband’s computer as he has Parkinson’s disease.

A week later the letter had come back as the company was not at the address. I tried phoning the number which appeared on the website and a nurse on a stroke ward somewhere in the UK answered. She was very nice but couldn’t help our quest.

The following Saturday I decided to see what I could find out and came across the French website of a company that sells the same adapted mouse . I contacted my student who emailed back a few minutes later to say that a mouse was on its way! When she came for her lesson last Thursday she came bearing a plant as way of thanking me for my help. Her husband is very happy now that he can use his computer with ease.

This is an excellent year for hollyhocks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them grow so tall. One in our garden is more than twice my height! I dragged Rob out to take a photo so that you could see it. I’m 1 meter 67 (around 5’ 6”)

To finish off; I received a message from Dom at the weekend. They live in the Boivre valley which is a protected site of natural interest. They discovered a deer at the fence at the back of the garden, eating their plants.

Painted pylon painters

While travelling along the duel carriage way into town the other day, we noticed that some of the huge pylons parallel to the road had been painted, some red, some yellow. They weren’t finished and when we took the exit road, sure enough, there were the painters putting on their climbing gear and getting ready for a day’s painting. We knew they were the ones because their clothes and hats were beautifully splattered in red and yellow. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of taking my phone out to take a picture.

Yesterday we went south to meet some friends who live near to an estuary. Again the road was accompanied by huge pylons. These hadn’t been painted and are probably not to be disturbed for some time. Perched near the top of each pylon were one or two stork’s nests, complete with busy parents coming and going in order to feed their young. I did try to take photos, but we were moving too fast.

Google has lots of them, some in Spain too:

French Wikipedia tells us that storks make their nests at the top of pylons especially in the marshes surrounding Brouage - which is where we went!

I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree

Whenever we go back to England I'm always struck by the greenery and how large the trees are! C & J took us on a walk through the fields which I thoroughly enjoyed!

 Would you believe that this is a public footpath?

We also crossed a golf course (on a footpath) and the golfers very kindly waited for us to go by.

Trees 

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree. 

Joyce Kilmer, 1913

Wasps

Yesterday I discovered what I thought was a beehive on the stonework of the garage which is not attached to the house (fortunately). After lots of looking up on the internet and in my nature book I decided that they are vulgar wasps(Vespula Vulgaris). This doesn’t mean that they swear (as J-M told Dom when we were on the phone earlier – doesn’t he fit into our family humor well?), it means that they are common. They are small and cute, but not to be underestimated.

 Normally they will die when autumn comes and the young queens will fly off to found more hives in little nooks and crannies next year. Tomorrow I’ll have to phone someone to come and destroy them, for the sake of the neighbourhood.

Not very clear, taken with my phone

Tuesday 22nd December

This morning in town I saw a red admiral butterfly.

I bought the turkey this afternoon.  Why do I always forget how ugly they are?

No Christmas story this year.  It's in my head, I haven't got round to writing it down.  If you would like to read them, past stories are here and here.

Nature notes and stuff

Summer seems to have arrived within a week of winter. I’m sure that we’re going to pay for it. Strange things have happened in the garden, I had tulips and daffodils where I didn’t plant any. I think the birds must have uprooted and dropped bulbs at some point. There were lots of violets on the lawn too. One morning a couple of weeks ago, I opened the shutters just as it was getting light and I saw an owl on his way home. Rob and I stood in the park one afternoon when the leaves weren’t quite out and watched a squirrel make its way along the tops of 5trees before losing track of it. I’ve had my phone ready every time I walk through the park hoping to get a picture of the jays. no sign of them this year, nor across the road.

Dom came for the weekend. We went window shopping together and I showed her my short cut to change buses which takes me past a row of birch trees. She explained to me that they were the only trees that would grow in region of Russia where she stayed a few years ago. She and J-M will be back in a couple of weeks. I know they are making a special effort as they both have a lot of studying and preparation to do. Dom is preparing what is called her ‘mémoire‘ in French. I don’t know what the word is in English, I know it’s not a theses. I just discovered the difference: At her level of studies Dom hasn’t created a concept or new theory yet. This only exists in France it seems. J-M has finished his written exams and is preparing for his oral exams. They have a good system. They leave home every day and work in the library, very businesslike.

Olivier is home for two weeks before his exams. Not much sign of him revising… When he arrived home he’d got a copy of the Financial Times in his hand, so I suppose that counts

Next week I’ve got exam supervision, that seems to have come round again very quickly

It’s all happening on the wall

I was startled to see a bird fight on the wall across the road the other morning. A pair of European Greenfinches appeared from nowhere and disrupted the Sparrow population’s morning feed. One of the intruders was chased off at high speed with a piece of bread in his beak. The bird left behind had managed to get its beak entangled in some fur left over from the night before when our neighbour groomed his dog. He was hopping around with a beard. Then it occurred to me that perhaps he was trying to disassociate himself from his partner’s bad behaviour.

A little later, when it was pouring with rain, I noticed two doves on the wall getting pretty romantic. I could tell by the way they were caressing each other’s necks what was going to happen next. Poor things, they reminded me of a pair of desperate teenagers with nowhere to go. “pretend we just got caught in the rain”*.

*The Faces -You’re so Rude

Nature Notes

Spring has certainly sprung here now and today was quite hot. The other day while walking through the park I saw a squirrel run up a tree. He was so confused by the mowers and tree surgeons that he didn’t notice me.

The flock magpies which were at the side of the marsh seem to have disappeared. I noticed that someone had been putting maize down, whether they were feeding them or poisoning them, I don’t know. We haven’t seen any dead birds around and there was a notice on one of the huts by the shore not to leave food for animals or birds (there is a colony of wildcats there too – if they survived the flooding a month or so back). The magpies aren’t so present in the gardens across the road either. It looks as if the jays they chased away last spring have made a comeback.

The most exciting event to report is that when Rob and I were coming home from a walk the other day along the side of the marsh a water rat European Water Vole swam up the stream alongside us for quite a way. We were talking as usual but it didn’t frighten him/her off. I was wondering if it could be a beaver, but a dive into the water showed off a ratty tail

This morning when I opened the kitchen shutters I almost stepped on a toad. He was very still (pretending to be a stone) and stared at me.

Now you must go and see the adorable, furry, bundles of fun that Mary Lou is babysitting at the moment.

Butterfly

As I was washing up after lunch I saw my first butterfly of the year. It was a Common Brimstone (Citron in French). The butterfly fluttered over the wall across the road and disappeared.

The lady at the post office saw two (red) squirrels as she walked to work through the park this morning. Last night when we went for a walk before going to bed we could hear two owls calling. Spring is in the air.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday
While doing my weekly shop at the supermarket I was amazed to hear that they’d tapped into all of my favourite tunes on my computer: Bob Dylan, Tracey Chapman, Peter Gabriel, George Harrison… it was all very strange because they usually have the radio on which is useless - or perhaps I imagined it?

The afternoon found us trying to sort out my Social Security. I seem to have been taken off the list somewhere. It’s very complicated in France and I’ve been having problems for 3 years now, since I set up in business. We were amazed to see that all of our letters were scanned and on the computer so that whoever is unfortunate enough to get landed my case can see what went on. At least my blood tests have been paid for so I’m still in there somewhere…

Tuesday
Christian started his new job at head office on Monday. Apparently he talked and drank coffee all day which he found very boring. He’s used to being rushed off his feet all day and missing out on lunch. He’ll be moving into a house he’s renting with a friend on Friday and his birthday is on Sunday (23 already).

My pupil whose daughter is adopting a little girl from Haiti looked much more relaxed. The plane with the orphans arrived at midday, just before her lesson with me. They were really worried that the children would be trapped there because of all the problems with kidnapping. This adoption had been set up a long time before the earthquake.

I went for my usual leg treatment and just missed the bus by a few seconds so I had to wait in town for the next bus; another afternoon gone..

Wednesday
I got out into the garden; pruned the roses right back and cut away the dead ivy. There is a nest cradled in the branches of the ivy, so I was careful not to disturb it. I’ve got so much to do in the garden, it’s a real jungle, but I didn’t see any lions and tigers.

Rob got home at around 6 and it was light enough to go for a walk to the sea, it made a lovely change. We saw and heard blue tits calling to each other We know that spring is on the way when we can go for a walk in the early evening.

Birds, bees and the rest

Sunday

In the past I’ve written about the dwindling numbers of sparrows and butterflies on different occasions. I’m pleased to say that I think that I’ve made a difference. When I put out scraps of bread I can sometimes count as many as 20 sparrows as well as blackbirds sharing the crumbs. This afternoon I was watching the action in my deutzia bush outside the kitchen window. It is alive with bees and butterflies, mainly painted ladies but there was also a rather large swallowtail type butterfly which hung around for a while so that I could observe him/her.

So I think that next I would like some more tiny blue butterflies, I haven’t had one of those in my garden for a few years and we seem to be a bit short of Emperor and other dragon flies at the moment. I’ll let you know what happens ..

Monday

There were more and more butterflies as the afternoon wore on. Whenever a car or pedestrian passed by the butterflies flew up into the air. I’m sure there were at least 50 on the side of the bush that I could see. Later I was ironing in Dom’s room (nice to have more space – I now have an ‘ironing room’) I heard some juvenile chattering and a blue tit with one of it’s youngsters came in search of food. The parent was very busy picking insects from the branches and feeding them to their chick. It was pretty windy and both of them had quite a job hanging on.

This morning the painted ladies are slowly coming back as the day becomes warmer and they’ve been joined by a couple of red admirals. There is also a rose chafer ‘caressing’ the flowers. I wonder who’ll turn up next?

Feeding the birds

I’ve been observing the birds that feed on the scraps of bread I throw into the garden. The blackbirds are the first to arrive in the morning and sit on the wall looking down hopefully, reminding me to throw out the scraps. The magpies are quite happy to scare the smaller birds off so that they can gobble all of the bread up. When it was colder the starlings would arrive as a group to feed and to my surprise would not chase the sparrows off. The sparrows are very nervous feeders with the exception of a few greedy ones. Mr Robin arrives on his own and waits to feed alone.

Sometimes I put out stale brioche (a delicious buttery tasting sweet bread) which I’ve noticed get eaten first in preference to the bread. Is it because;

1. It’s easier to spot because it is a yellowy colour and stands out more,
2. It’s softer and breaks up without so much effort?
3. Birds have a sweet tooth – ahem, beak?

The spring is coming

We’ve had a beautiful week. The sun has shone and the days are definitely warmer. The mornings are really cold due to the clear skies overnight. A couple of days ago a carpenter bee hit the kitchen window. A lot of people are frightened by their appearance (big and black) but they are quite harmless. I read somewhere that when the males get the urge they will try to mate with any thing that is dark and shiny, I can’t find confirmation of that now. Ours aren’t quite as big as this one.

The tree in front of the house has lots of buds ready to blossom, but this afternoon I was surprised to see one or two leaves unfurling. There are quite a few daffodils out and other flowers not far behind. This evening there was a tit right at the top of one of my Russian olive trees singing his heart out.

In the last week a new road sign has been put up on the road to the marsh warning that frogs an toads may be crossing. We’ve already seen one or two toads out in the evening and heard the frogs on the marsh this afternoon.

All we need now are the squirrels in the park to come out and a lizard or two on the kitchen windowsill