Flowers and fauna

It's been a quiet and not too hot week this week, time to rebuild strength and energy after the sapping heat, ready for the next round, as we are, after all, still only in July.  I've been out to lunch twice this week - both meals were excellent.  Once in Chinon, where the Restaurant de la Gare produced a weekly menu that was so enticing, it was a real challenge to choose what to eat!  And it did not disappoint either.  The second meal, with the Ladies That Lunch, was at Chigne where a small village restaurant is building a really impressive reputation for good food and excellent service.  The choice was more limited, but the food was delicious.  I don't believe in taking photos of meals like that, so instead, here is a sunflower, because it is that time of year!

Other plants are looking very pretty too.  Wild chicory is tough as old boots and seems to thrive on thin soil and extreme temperatures to produce a really magnificent display of flowers.  These are by the parking for The Shack.

In the spring, I bought something that purported to be a hydrangea from a local discount supermarket.  It was basically a forked twig, so I was pretty dubious, but it wasn't expensive and didn't say it was one of those fancy blue or pink ones, depending on the soil.  Instead it was supposed to be a strawberries and cream style pyramid flower one.  I repotted it, because it was in something the size of a yoghurt pot, which wasn't going to be feasible outdoors, and plonked it with the other random plants by the front door.  We were pleased to see leaves and amazed to see positive growth, so the fact it is now flowering is rather beyond our expectations!  I'll have to look after it a bit better!

I've had a bit of time to look through more of the videos from the row of fruit trees at the bottom of the Meadow and found some rather fun things.  It's a nice sheltered place for roe deer to raise their young - I've followed a Bambi's progress a couple of years ago, so was pleased to spot new deer life once again.  Small already seems to know the area!

There is still just a hint of the spots he would have had when first born on his coat.

A couple of weeks later and he has grown rather, although still very attached to Mum.

Dad is also in the area (or we assume he is the father) and rather disapproved of the camera - honestly, these poor cameras of mine to get a pasting from boar, badgers and deer!

Less obvious, but there are pine martens in the zone.  In general they move too quickly to be anything more than a blur on a photo, unless there is something they want to do that happens to be where the camera is pointing.  Not easy to spot, but it is there!

The badgers are always a delight, here are three, yes, three, rummaging for fallen cherries.

The fox family continues to delight me in the videos.  I've seen the cubs a few times in person too, but less recently.  They may have moved on or become much more shy as they realise humans aren't their friends.

I am not a fan of coypu - I'm sure I've said before, they are a non-native, invasive species that damages water courses and competes with native fauna for scarce resources.  I mean, look at all those babies!!  Having said that, even baby coypu are rather cute.

They may be vegetarian, but female coypu will defend their babies with agression.  The fox knew to run away!

And I can attest to the bravery of a defensive coypu female!  Yesterday, while wandering around the Meadow, sussing out the blackberry situation, I met Mamma Coypu with two of her babies.  We both froze (the babies continued doing what they do), so I had time to dig out my phone, turn on the camera and take a few photos.  Something unfroze in her and she charged at me, so quick as a flash I growled at her (they have big teeth and I have heard that if they bite, like badgers, they don't give up), which stopped her in her tracks.  She then gathered the two babies and ran off.

Assuming it was the same female, three of the babies haven't made it - I can't be too sorry about that.  Like I said, they aren't native and they are competing in this awful summer for very scarce resources.  I prefer my badgers, martens, hares and foxes.  Having said that, respect to her as she was quite scary, despite being the size of a Jack Russel terrier.

In theory, the week ahead should be quiet, but hot.  While I (reluctantly) believe the second prediction, I am not so sure about the first.  Life in France has a way of springing surprises on you.  At least we are well away from the current batch of wild fires, although we are on orange alert for fire as there has been no rain to speak of around here for ages, everything is tinder dry and there are strong breezes.

Have a good week!

What a difference 10 miles makes

I have to say that I've not gone rubber necking myself to see the damage, I've taken the two relevant images from Facebook pages dedicated to the town.  The heatwave broke on Wednesday, with rather vicious thunderstorms kicking off at about 5pm around here.  After such prolonged heat, the end was always going to be dramatic and I do worry when people say they are looking forward to a good thunderstorm to clear the air.  Many years ago, when I was a child, that might have been the right thing to say, but now climate change and the more erratic and extreme weather conditions that brings, mean thunderstorms are often something to be feared.

Here in Bauge en Anjou, we had some rain (not nearly enough), but also some really violent gusts of wind, so that rather than go and buy a new kettle, as intended, I scuttled home to check on cats and put the wooden heron in a place of safety, then sit and watch the rather marvellous "real time lightening" website tell me where was having a bad time.  I could see that we were lucky and that the main storm centre was further north despite a few close lightening strikes.  I could also see it wasn't moving that quickly.

Those that know la Fleche should recognise the main road beside the river - I gather most of the platanes on this stretch had some branches down.  For those that know the little car park beside the town football and athletics stadium, ALL of the plane trees there were uprooted.

I gather the winds were measured at 140 kmph, which might be just about OK in winter, but not when trees are in full leaf and weakened by high temperatures.  Much of the town received serious quantities of rain, leading to flash flooding, with evacuations and emergency shelters being opened up including at the local gymnasium.  Those poor people!  It will take the community a long time to rebuild from this, and that row of trees is gone forever!

I can attest to the sudden gustiness of the winds - it was actually quite hard to see the way home from Bauge to Vieil Bauge at times due to all the dust in the air.  Just one shrub was a bit damaged at home, but at The Shack a large birch tree was toppled by the wind.  It had died earlier in the year and we had been worrying how to bring it down safely.  Luckily for us, it fell in just the right direct to cause the least damage and be broadly accessible for sectioning when the weather is cool enough.

Honestly, there should be a large tree there, but there isn't!

Tuesday was the Fete Nationale here in France, with the morning's television dominated by the massive military parade in Paris down the Champs Elysée.  We missed a chunk of it, including the massing of the Friends of Ukraine, but we were home from cat feeding in time to see our favourite bit - the Engineers of the Foreign Legion marching down with their axes over their shoulders.  They even have their own speed for marching, rather slower than anyone else, and a band to beat out the time for them.  They are wonderfully scary and it is comforting to know they are on "our" side!

If there has been a Fete Nationale, our own village Diner Champetre is never that long after - in fact it was last night.  I eviscerated a large number of melons, went in and out of the refrigerated trailer more times than seemed strictly necessary, dispensed bread and melon, and was tray monitor for the returned crockery and cutlery.  While many of you were watching England and France slog out a rich and exciting football match, we were wiping down and drying 280 plastic trays, while taunting our French chums about the score line.  We went home at 4 - 2!

Today we were doing final property checks on houses that we thought would have escaped the worst of the storm - fortunately we were right.  We are both tired and a bit groggy - just right for watching the insane riders of the Tour de France race (and no doubt sprint) up an extremely steep mountain road to win today's mountain stage.  I'm inclined to believe Pogocar is an extra-terrestrial as he seems in another category altogether, and when we saw him in the flesh last year, I was surprised at how small and slight he actually is.

The week ahead should be cooler and calmer!  Have a good one!

So What Else is Happening?

Now in our fifth (non-consecutive) week of heatwave, it is getting boring.  One new joke and then I'll move on.

("Is it hot outside?"  "Shut up!")  Shamelessly stolen from a Facebook page, but it says it all.

In other news, currently we are up very promptly each morning to make best use of the less hot time, particularly if we need to do anything at all physical.  So my trips to la Fleche market each week get earlier and earlier.  This week It was even more imperative that I got there promptly, as as the Far Right candidate in next year's Presidential elections made it known that she would be at the market to launch her campaign.  I was at my cheese vendor by 9:10am, and his apprentice was eager to tell me that I had done the right thing, as they had been told that The Arrival would be at around 11am.  I was able to have a relatively gentle tour of the stalls and merchants I use (I had to go as I have regular orders with some), and be gone by 10am.  As I left, I could see the security presence building, although the general pleasant view was unimpeded.

In the end, the visit itself was a damp squib.  I had spotted groups gathering and the odd camera crew doing vox pop interviews.  I gather the Far Left and Ecologist demonstrators made so much noise, Madame could not walk through the market and talk to stall holders, and had to be hustled out of the area after a quarter of an hour - such a shame that a convicted felon can't walk through a market without causing concern....

The only other real excitement was the sight of dark and menacing clouds yesterday morning at Bauge market - sadly they didn't come to anything for us, the rain line stopped about 15 kilometres to the south.  I'm very jealous.

So as promised, I turn to our four legged friends to entertain you this week.  The first is just a bum shot of a hedgehog, but one of two living in our courtyard at the moment, and profiting from food put out for the numerous feral cats in the zone.  We need to keep them ticking over as at some stage soon there will be slugs and snails again and I don't want them (the slugs and snails) eating my plants.  My lemon tree has not recovered from having all its new leaves munched by the slimy hoard.

I have taken the opportunity offered by the warm weather to bring in and check over the two trail cameras that are out there in the land.  Trail Camera 2 has a fixed position off the beaten track of humans, and has always produced some lovely images.  While there were only some 380 files, of which 50 were of a new leaf flapping in front of the sensors, there was a good variety of fauna out there to keep me amused.  

In March, three rather hairy boar came to check things out.

In May, a young stag came to show off his lovely new antlers and get rid of the fuzz.

A young badger had a run in with a pesky bramble, but won in the end.

And a fox waited patiently for something, perhaps Godot.

Eventually at least one of the fox cubs found its way over to this area and had a mooch around - all very exciting for a young cub!

Trail Camera 3 is taking more work, going through the files.  For a start there were some 1500 files, of which half are 15 second videos.  Secondly, the camera is by the earliest of the cherry trees, and who doesn't love cherries?  And thirdly, a lot of animals had young to feed, and it is a quiet area, so there are lots of slightly hidden cute baby animals doing their thing.  I shared some a couple of weeks ago, with squirrels and foxes.  Here are a few more.  Following on the fox theme, here is a vixen on watch while her cub seeks out a cherry or two.

And you really can't beat a fox cub being cute.

Or can you?  How about a badger trying to scratch an itchy tummy?  I think this is adorable!

There will be more fun and games from the fallen cherry zone soon - it looks like there were three fox cubs and three baby badgers too, so lots more furry fun.

I am now off to cut out fish shapes, while watching the Tour de France - this is the saving grace of a heatwave at this period - something to snooze in front of/take an active interest in on the television!  

Here's to a safe end to the heatwave in the next few days - have a good week!

Countdown to Heatwave Number 3

This week has been about recovery and some semblance of normality after a seriously unpleasant period of heat.  Sadly it seems it was just a short reprieve as the thermometer slowly climbs back to rather unpleasant levels, although we are not expected to suffer 40 degree heat this time round.  The catch this time is that "they" can't predict when this one will be over.  So the forecast for the next couple of weeks is for daily highs over 30 degrees, but not too many nights over 20 degrees.  We have to enjoy the respite while we can, so last night it was live music at the local pub.

It was the second visit by this rather impressive duo - she is a virtuoso singer, and he is a guitar teacher who is slowly getting into the idea that occasionally, if he has a nice neutral backing track of drums, he can let rip.  Last night there was a bit of audience participation too!

For the garden plants, it is a bit of a respite too and a pot of day lilies decided that it was their time to shine - they have been stuck in this same recycled container for about 4 years now, and this year is definitely the best from them.

We rescued a six pack of pinks from a favourite discount store and planted them out before the last heatwave in a recycled container and a proper window box.  The ones in the container are really giving it their best shot and looking quite wonderful!

I was doing some watering and found that the rhubarb was being used as a zone for a lot of indecent shield bug activity - the leaf was positively quivering with over 20 of the things.  I don't think they caused the brown marks on the leaves, but I don't feel quite the same about that rhubarb plant at the moment!

Another insect that has been enjoying life recently was a newly hatched swallowtail butterfly that thought the Meadow was just the most wonderful place yesterday afternoon.  It led me a merry dance trying to get a few photos of it, and while this one is quite good, I have to confess that it has been trimmed down from the original, where the butterfly was just a cream splodge near the middle!

Right now, it is 36 degrees in the garden (and 27 upstairs in the house), and this is just the start.  For the coming week, any activity will be in the morning and the afternoons will be spent watching the Tour de France on television (no other cycle race will do) and working through trail camera photos and videos to share with you next weekend.  There are only so many photos of scorched grass I can share with you, and there are cute baby badgers and fox cubs that will be far more entertaining than I can be!

Have a good week!

We survived!

That might sound a bit glib, but the recent prolonged and severe heatwave has proved to be fatal to some and it will be a while before the figures for premature, heat related deaths is known.  Already hospitals, morgues and funeral directors are overwhelmed, and the full impact is not yet felt.  But on Friday the heat was less - it is extraordinary that we felt such respite as the temperatures fell from about 43 degrees down to "just" 38 or so.  We even went out on a jaunt to Chinon!

All the cats got through this round of heat, although one is suspected of falling out of a window, as he was sprawled on the window ledge.  He might have jumped deliberately, but that would be even more silly.  The Boys in the Country conned us into grooming them extensively to remove the winter floof that remained, and they couldn't be bothered to rub off in long grass.  This is the aftermath of grooming two barn cats over three days - I could have needle felted a new cat from all of this!

Among the house cats, while Rebus managed to find cool places in the garden (and on window sills), Zola (the fluffiest) suffered, lying dramatically across door entrances to catch a hint of air movement.  Poirot, being old and wise, just spread herself along a cool, hard surface and exposed her belly to whatever fan happened to be nearest.

We let the chickens out each morning and they found deep cover under shrubs and trees and laid smaller eggs than normal, so seem to be OK.

In the kitchen garden, the "soft" herbs have suffered quite badly with the sorrel burnt back, the dill going to seed and the chives fading.

However the Mediterranean style vegetables have quite liked the conditions and are carrying fruit.  The pumpkins have grown hugely but it is too hot for female flowers, and the cucumbers are happy now they have support to climb up their tower, again it is too hot for female flowers at the moment.

The cristophine vine is less convinced, as it is a tropical plant rather than Mediterranean or desert, and growing tips have been fried off.

In the wildflower Meadow, the blue spectrum flowers (mainly marjoram and scabious at the moment) are coming into their own, to the joy of pollinators of all kinds, who happily scoff while I watch, but as soon as the phone camera is out, disappear in their droves!

So how about us?  Our daily rhythm was severely disrupted, getting up about 3 hours before normal, eating a larger meal in the middle of the day and then resting like sticky, beached whales as near to a fan as possible (on Monday we bought the entire remaining stock of fans at Mr Bricolage to replace our broken ones).  We dealt with the Boys in the Country very early, so they could slope off into the undergrowth and find cool patches.  

In search of something useful, but not mentally taxing to do, I did bring in a trail camera that had been in a new position.  i thought the batteries might be used up and I was right as after 4 months, there were some 1,570 files on the SD card, and an initial view says they weren't all us.  To be honest I wasn't sure what we would find, but all the usual suspects are there: boar, deer, foxes, pine martens, pheasants, hares, badgers, lots of badger activity, coypu, squirrels, pigeons, hunters.  What has been rather nice, among the bits that I have looked at, is evidence of successful breeding.  If you look at this reel for example, you will see a youngster getting to grips with the trapeze set up its parents seem to enjoy.

I shared a photo a while ago of the fox cub by the kitchen garden.  Here s/he is with Mum.

The cub is quite well hidden but clearly has found something to nibble on - perhaps a nice, tasty slug?  You can see them better in this one.

Finally, here it is on its own at night, although I'm sure Mum was quite close by as this one actually predates the two daytime videos.

I am only a third of the way through triaging the content of the trail camera and I'm really excited by what I've been seeing, so I hope to have some more snippets for you next week, unless the weather is nice for doing things outdoors and then I may get distracted!

Anyway, here's hoping for a more normal week for all!  Have a good one!

How to cope with hot weather

A week into the latest hot spell, and it is getting deadly serious - I use that word advisedly.  The last time there were temperatures like this for a similar duration in 2003, thousands died in Paris and elsewhere due to the heat.  There were 4 fatal drownings yesterday, and there will likely be more today, although I guess not all make it to the national news.  With 42 degrees in our garden in the shade, and forecasts of over 40 degrees for the next four days, we are on war footing.  We advise others to be equally vigilant.

To be fair, one of my ways of coping was to travel to England for a good part of last week, and while the journey each way was long, a bit tedious and rather sticky, I did find opportunities to cool down.  A visit to Greatstone beach on the Fifth Continent was curtailed by a thunderstorm, but the short plodge in the English Channel was welcome.

During a visit to Penshurst Place, I met the Drinking Bear automaton - an excellent advocate for keeping hydrated I think you will agree!

While after a good roam through the gardens at Penshurst, we had to take advantage of the tearooms to rehydrate ourselves - plus a bit of sugar to keep the system ticking over!  The hot herbaceous border was magnificent but thirst inducing.

At Eastbourne, we were able to stroll along the promenade, admiring the fog sitting on the cliffs above while enjoying a delicious sea breeze - as I said at the time, thousands of visiting pensioners cannot be wrong!

All that exercise did mean we felt justified in indulging in an ice-cream sundae, but that was also hydration and cooling down at the same time!  I have to say, these weren't cheap, but the most amazing quality and stuffed full of, in my case, chocolate chunks, in others' cases, cherries and chocolate liqueur.

All the products from this café that we tried were excellent, and some of the local residents agreed and were plotting how to get their share.  I was firm - I think there are fines for feeding this lot anyway.

The reason for Eastbourne and the whole visit really was the exhibition Comrades in Art at the Towner Gallery - I won't write about that here or today as I need to take my time and process what I saw and learned, and it deserves more than a passing comment.  I was immensely impressed to see that the AA had put out signs to direct people to it, even though access is currently difficult due to the Tennis tournament.

I was even lucky enough to watch a hot air balloon float along the valley below my host's house, as proof of rather lovely weather.

But all good things come to an end, and yesterday, after lunch with an old school chum, I got on a fog bound ferry and headed home.  Driving down from Dieppe (17 degrees and foggy at 10:30pm), things warmed up slowly, so that at Rouen it was 19 degrees at 11:15pm, at Alencon 20 degrees at 1:00am, le Mans 21 degrees at 2:00am, and as I turned into our road at 2:45 in the morning, it was 23 degrees.  I was greeted on the doorstep by the night slug warden, doing a good job as usual.

After all that, I had to be up very promptly this morning to be able to leave the house with any degree of comfort, and have the joy of the heatwave for the next four to five days at least.  Gym classes are cancelled, and I will need to cancel work parties for the village float too.  I also need to buy fans, as two of ours have died with the heat - b*****y typical!

Have a good week!

Heatwave Number 2

It seems like only 2 weeks ago that we were getting excited about the end of the unprecedented May heatwave, and wondering if it would go with a bang or a whimper.  On Friday the temperatures started ramping up again, and today the weather station in the garden says 34.5 degrees at 4:20pm, so not yet the hottest time of the day (around 5:30pm).  We are back to early starts, keeping the windows closed and shaded during the day, a constant hum of oscillating fans and an unsightly selection of shorts and t-shirts to keep things as cool as possible.

No chance of me getting product placement money, but there are other brands available!  Yesterday at 7pm it was only 31 degrees, as you can possibly make out!  This morning at The Shack, the local bird population was getting its trills out early and also trying to compete with the sound of what might have been a rave party, or just some chaps letting off steam.  It was annoying enough to send us on to The One Acre Wood, but not before I had noted a number of our avian friends.

This is a screenshot from the Merlin application - I'm not sure if other reputable bird song identification apps are available, but it works for me.  The Golden Orioles were in fine voice today - clearly they like techno music - making a noise in the wooded area at the bottom of  the Meadow.  In the Orchard I met a rather nice butterfly - not a variety I can identify easily, and it is too hot to dig out my Observer Book of Butterflies and Moths I'm afraid (other butterfly identification books are definitely available)!

The wood was wonderfully cool after the direct sunlight in the Meadow and Orchard, and also full of very loud birds, but not as great a variety as at The Shack - it is amazing how much noise a Song Thrush can produce!  It was the first time we had been for a few weeks and now all the leaves are out, it is a chance to take stock of what is dead/dying and needs to be felled on a cooler day.  The plot next door was clear felled in 2020 using heavy machinery, so the light is very different, but the drainage is also affected.  That plot hasn't recovered from the treatment, with none of the chestnut boles coming back to life, rather rank bog grass in places over winter, and only pioneer species taking over the area.  As it is registered woodland, it can't be ploughed for crops, but no one seems interested in replanting trees, even Mother Nature.  Some of our trees are suffering from the changed conditions, as well as from climate change, but you wouldn't know it from this photo.

While laziness is affecting some of my productive gardening, other aspects seem to be working of their own accord.  For two years, we have been recycling tea leaves onto the rhubarb bed at home.  Last year we did well, this year it has gone nuts, and shortly I must go and make a pile of crumble topping to freeze as a batch of rhubarb crumbles for the winter.  There is also a very large pot of rhubarb fool in the fridge for eating now.

A friend of mine's family are all current or retired professional flower growers and sellers.  My friend's father has moved into sheltered housing (aged 91), so they are having to dispose of his kit and property in order to fund his new lifestyle.  I bought a couple of earthenware baskets as interesting planters for the front porch.  I bought some trailing lobelia for one and a couple of surfinia petunias for the other, bulked out with supermarket stumpy petunias.  The results are currently gorgeous.

This latest heatwave brings climate change to the fore in our minds.  I read two reports this week, one saying that the North Atlantic Drift of Warm Water, or whatever they call it now, is shutting down, bringing us a climate similar to Siberia and making northern Europe uninhabitable.  The other said that the latest El Nino event would mean we are heading for the hottest period in recorded history, with drought, fires and extreme weather phenomena.  Certainly something is happening and we will have to adapt or die.  Our own little experiment leans towards the drought and extreme phenomena - for the fourth year in a row the beast (the cristophine vine) is back and looking stronger than ever.  This is essentially a tropical plant, living its best life in rural North West France!

I've got a busy and exciting week ahead of me - I hope I will be feeling up to doing a blog next Sunday, otherwise you will have to wait for Monday!

Have a good week!