Hottest May period on record

This week temperature records fell most days due to an unusual and stable heat dome that settled over western Europe and stayed.  Most days we were up to 30 degrees by midday, and after that things got seriously hot.  If you wanted to do anything, it really had to be done before noon, and as soon as the outdoor temperature fell below that indoors in the evening, we opened windows to get rid of the super heated air.  That time got later and later as the week went on.  This photo was taken at about 7pm in the evening.

Then yesterday afternoon at about 4pm, things started to change, and by 5:30pm this was rattling around making the windows shake.

Typically, we had been invited to our first BBQ of the year yesterday evening, but our host's garden pergola had a more waterproof cover than ours, so we were able to sit out and watch the rain and hail fall just a few feet away from us.  At home we had 1.5mm of rain, but the main body of the storm tracked over The Shack, and there 12mm fell, saving me from watering when we visited this morning.

It has been very unpleasant, not least as the heat came on very quickly and at a time when it wasn't expected to be that intense.  We've all survived, but for our small, black cat, it has been a bit touch and go.  

Last week I said I couldn't find the first bee orchids to photographe - well, I spotted them again this week along with a couple of others that popped up yesterday.  I don't think it is going to be an amazing year for them, but four flower heads will do me fine.

The raised herb bed I set up in April is now starting to look quite the ticket.  The dill I sowed is coming up nicely and may provide a nice garnish for fish on Wednesday.  The parsley I sowed will keep going for a long time.  The planted sorrel, tarragon and chive plants are looking healthy and llush, and the new sown chives are coming up strongly too.  I sowed more sorrel but the seed was very old and doesn't seem to want to do anything, but that was always a gamble.

In my defence, it isn't easy to take photographs when carrying a frail and crochety black cat in your arms.

Apart from the orchids and herb bed, other flowers are coping better than us with the abnormal temperatures.  There is a patch of weedy opium poppies by the chicken run which are very pretty.

We have some fine banks of knapweed in the Meadow, which marbled white butterflies seem to find irresistible - I thought they were more into scabious, but that isn't out yet.

There are some fine, tall yellow flowers in the Orchard, where we pushed back one of the walnut trees.  I've seen the odd one before now, but this year there are quite a lot.

The early cherries are long gone, prey of starlings and wet weather, but one of the later trees is coming good.  I had thought that yesterday's storm would have damaged all the fruit beyond repair, but this morning we had a tasty and copious snack standing under the tree and I hope to do that again tomorrow.  There's not enough to make jam or do much with, other than enjoy them.

The only other activity of note was trying to make the sister blog to this look a bit more professional and searchable, without any luck.  It is on a different platform, rather more technical than Blogger, and I fear that if I want to improve it, I'm going to have to pay for something more than the free service!!  Foiled again!!  If you want to browse the other blog, you can find it here - James Holland, 20th Century Artist – The life and work of James Holland, 1905 – 1996 .  When it is looking better, I will write about it here.

Anyway, we are now looking forward to a cooler week so that we can get things done.  I have courgettes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, tomatoes and cucumbers to plant out and need to sow the sweetcorn too - things you can really do in temperatures over 30 degrees very happily.  I hope you have good things planned for the week too.

Have a good week!

All change!

Last Sunday, having spent a few very damp and rather cool hours manning a bar for the village trout fishing day, I complained about the wet.  Today, I am tucked away in my office area, wearing shorts, t-shirt and no socks, trying to keep cool as outside temperatures rise to something like 33 degrees.  It is sunny, hot and dry and worthy of a summer's day in July and yet it is only May.  Climate change is a thing, people!

This morning we were early at the Shack, so that I could do some strimming and John a bit of mowing - there are summer crops to get into the ground, but you've got to be able to get near the beds and ground, and the rampant weeds made that impossible.  John made a nice path around the Meadow so that we can walk around in shorts and not worry too much about ticks, although they will always be an issue thanks to the deer we share the area with.

The wildflower Meadow is looking magnificent at the moment, with pink clover, knapweed, ox eye daisies and other plants vying for the attention of pollinating insects.  The area hums with buzzing and crickets and grasshoppers and there are butterflies around too.  Today I saw meadow browns, a red admiral or two, a peacock and a swallowtail.  Along the side of the path I spotted my first bee orchid of the season, but couldn't find it again when I went to photograph it.  I did spot a very fine lizard orchid though.

It's only in the last couple of years that we have also had pyramid orchids in the Orchard, and once John had done a path through there I spotted these two beauties.

So I have confirmed sightings of three different species of wild orchid chez nous - good, but not as good as a garden we keep an eye on, where I found four species of orchid in bloom.  The same three as us (pyramid, lizard and bee) as well as the rather more rare fly orchid - or at least that is what we call it!

Very similar in concept to the bee orchid, the "body" of the flower resembles a fly rather than a bee, and so is rather less pretty.

My evening watering and walking activity is now blessed with strong perfumes from the honeysuckle hedge of a neighbour and another neighbour's magnificent fragrant mock orange bush, which is nearing its peak at the moment.  In addition the swallows, swifts and black redstarts make a racket as I go around the pots and planters.  It's a hard job, but someone has to do it!!

Well, with the computer producing heat, my office is becoming less appealing as a retreat from the blazing sun, so I will leave you with a photo of a small but very fragrant rose I bought from Aldi (other discount stores are available) a few years ago.  It only flowers once each year, so I have to ensure I enjoy it while in bloom.

Have a good week!

A boring wet week

This photo just about sums up the week - it's been unseasonably cold and moist.  Of course it is all swings and roundabouts and a bit of balance after a record breaking dry April and a warm and dry March.  The pendulum has to swing back and it did.

The photo was taken at the annual trout fishing day at the village lake.  I gather there were quite a few rods early on, but by the time I got there, I only counted about 30 or so, many of which were small children or members of the Fishing Club committee.  I saw a few fish caught and rather more jumping for joy or food during the rain showers.  Having said that, it is always a convivial occasion.  Our new village mayor was helping behind the bar, which gave us the opportunity to discuss odd things that are current in the area.  He also provided cakes for the volunteers, which means he is definitely allowed back!

if you don't believe me about the weather, here is another photo from earlier in the week including a bit of very bright rainbow.  My lemon tree by the front door is also being nibbled by snails.

But while the weather is proving to be boring/annoying, if you look around, as ever there are things to delight.  One of my chums on the Comite des Fetes alerted me to it, so I was able to admire the Tulip Tree in a garden nearby when it is in flower.  I have never noticed these blooms before, and they are quite magnificent.

Anyway, that's it for a rather dull week.  If the weather had been better, I'm sure I would have been more inspired with photos from the trout fishing day.  "They" promise better weather by the end of next week, so I hope to have photos of flowers in sunshine and stories about a dodgy chimney for you, fingers crossed!

Have a good week!

Animals and art

It's done!  Our tax return is filed and the payments required look right, so that is over for us for another year.  I still have to sit in on two more tax returns with people who want their "hands held" as they work through the electronic forms, but mine is done!  Yay!

I chose a wet day to do battle with bureaucracy, so there were no challenges to my time and attention.  There have been storms and we have had rain this last week - the first for a good month and boy did the ground need it!  There have also been dramatic clouds.

That particular cloud was all drama and no action, which is fine by me.

In terms of animals, there have been a few noteworthy things during the week.  I bought a nice big pot for our seed-grown yew tree, that will be topiary art in due course.  Naturally it came without holes, so for the moment, it is sitting gathering water, waiting to be drilled.  There is a large spider who has taken up residence in there, and is doing a fine piece of work demonstrating surface tension on water.  As I've seen it up the sides of the pot, I think it has chosen to be there.

One of the outdoor cats kindly brought me most of a lizard during the week, but it was a feisty one!  She wanted to bring it right over to me, but it latched on to the floor mop and would not let go for anything, demonstrating that lizards and crocodiles are related!  Poirot had one attach itself to her face in a similar manner - no one was impressed by that.

On the cuteness stakes, this little fellow is probably the winner.  I knew there was a vixen in the area that was seriously with cub, as I had seen her on footage from one of the trail cameras.  I think she had at least two cubs, as I have seen two playing around the badgers' set.  One has now set up camp in the Garden bit at The Shack.  Yesterday I was sitting listening to birds and cuddling cats on a seat under the birch tree, when I noticed a fox cub coming out of the hedge area, then sitting by the polytunnel frame to scratch, yawn, lick bits of itself and generally enjoy the sun.  The cats were not phased by it.  It wasn't phased by me taking out my phone and taking a few pictures, but then something changed and it ran away.

Naturally we will not feed or encourage it - nature must take its course - but there is something very cute about baby animals, and provided Reynard doesn't do anything silly or destructive, he is welcome to live in the hedge and keep the mice and rats under control.

The art side of the week is that there is a new exhibition opened on Wednesday at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne - Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism - Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism — Towner Eastbourne for the official details.  My dad is one of the featured artists.  There was a pretty useless review in The Times during the week, vapid in the extreme, listing a few artists that they had heard of, and complaining there was too much to see.  Those I know who were at the opening say it is marvellous and very interesting and well laid out - I need to go and see for myself next month.  I took over a few bits for the show in March, including a painting that had been knocking around the place for years and had got very grubby.  The wonderful conservators had cleaned it up for the show - just a foretaste of what is there!

I am ashamed to think how grubby it was when I handed it over!!

Next weekend is the village trout fishing festival, where I will be required to help staff a bar for much of Sunday.  It is therefore possible that the blog will be a day late, depending on the state of my feet and patience after selling beer, soft drinks and wine for 6 hours.

Have a good week!

The bee man came

Following on from last week, when I had to post quicky and close down in order to be ready for the bee man, just 20 minutes after posting, he arrived, with an apprentice, to sort out our swarm.  The bees were well enough behaved that I was not at all fussed to sit and watch from the safe distance of 15 yards or so, as the guys identified the swarm, had a word with them and judged them to be a friendly and sweet swarm.

With my permission, they cut off the branch of apple tree that held the swarm, and knocked it all into a spare nuc (that's a small hive for collecting bees to you and me), getting as many in as they could.  The guy then explained to me that he was hopeful that the queen was in the hive.  She would inspect it, and if it was to her liking, then all the workers would mass around her in the hive by nightfall.  He would come back at dusk and take them away.  With a very Gallic shrug, he said that if she liked the hive, all would be well, but if she didn't, they would fly off somewhere else.

When I mooched past to have a look, they seemed happy enough to queue to get into the new hive, and were making very little noise, so I assumed that the hive passed muster.  We heard the bee man come and collect them at about 10pm, leaving a pot of honey on our back doorstep as he went.  This was a kind gesture, but you don't pay beekeepers to take a swarm away; they are only too happy to get a nice new colony.  This is particularly the case this year, as so many hives were lost last year to Asian hornets.  The fact that I am an active Asian Hornet Trapper might have helped too I guess!  Anyway, a couple of days later, I got a message to say "my" bees were very happy and the Queen was doing her thing.  Along with a nice regal portrait of herself.

Our hornet trapping is doing well finally.  We have caught some 4 or 5 in the garden at home, while the trap in the Orchard, and situated under acacia trees is positively crawling with them.  It is very hard to count how many we have trapped there, but I am pretty sure we are up to at least 9.  I can see why the last week has been so successful, the scent of acacia blossom is so heavy, pungent and full of nectar-promise.  So strong indeed that it killed my sinuses and I am having an evil reaction to it!

This week included the 1st May - International Workers' Day - the most closely observed bank holiday in the French calendar.  So much so, that there have been questions in the Chamber and Senate as to whether bakers and florists can open on the 1st, even with staff paid double time and time off in lieu, as the right to not work on International Workers' Day is enshrined in law.  It was a ridiculously hot political potato this year.  The question about florists is a bit weird to the British, but it is also a tradition to give a small bunch of lily of the valley to friends and relatives on the 1st May, and if you don't grow your own, where do you get them?  We don't have them in the house as cats are allergic, but it is a nice tradition.  I found some growing in a garden to photograph.

Despite what I said about people not working on May Day, our local pub had a band in on Friday night - a flamenco duet, singing in Spanish.

They started quite early for France, at about 9:15pm, so old folks like us weren't too inconvenienced for staying for the second set, where they were joined on a few songs by a couple of local musicians on double bass and on acoustic guitar.  It was fascinating to watch how the two extra musicians adapted to the style of the music and jammed most effectively, given they can have had very limited practice time beforehand.  For those in the know, yes, that is indeed Pierrot of the local punkabilly band D-Track.

I will go off on a popular hobby horse of mine here.  The bar and the live music were a wonderful evening of community getting together and having a great time.  The quality of musicianship was excellent, the bar staff were running around, providing quality food and drink, but also able to enjoy the music and ambiance.  This is what life is about!  It has to be encouraged and supported, because if it isn't, then venues like this disappear, and music becomes the anodyne mush that is churned out by the mile on TicTok and other media.  If there is something going on near you, go out to it and enjoy, or one day when you want to go out, there won't be anything to go to!

End of rant.

While sitting and watching the bee man, I was protected by one of my chickens - Mac the Knife.  She is now probably a bit over 5 years old now, but still provides an egg 6 days out of 7, and is looking particularly fine after a gentle moult.

May is a month of bank holidays - we've had one so far, the 1st, but we have another three to go.  Friday 8th is Victory in Europe day, which is taken pretty seriously in Europe, then the 14th is Ascension (a Thursday, so most take the Friday too and make a very long weekend of it), and finally Monday 25th is Whitsun.  Not much gets done in May, a bit like December in the UK really.  However i will be back next Sunday, with more tales of life in France, probably quite a bit that is uncomplimentary about the French tax filing system, unless I am pleasantly surprised!

Have a good week!

Waiting for the bee man

That sounds a bit ominous doesn't it?  We have a swarm of bees in the garden, tucked into one of the apple trees and by a pesky area of bramble that needs to be sorted out (obviously not at the moment though).  When I went into the garden at 2pm to put laundry out, there was a lot, and I mean a lot, of angry buzzing and loads of bees flying around the tree.  By 3pm, they had all settled into a nice tight lump tucked in the back of the apple tree.  This is as good a photo as I could get.

Fortunately I know people, so made a call or two and shortly a nice sounding man will come to claim the swarm and take it away to a good home.  Much as I would love a hive or two of bees, we can't have them in the garden as we are too close to habitations, while the Meadow and Orchard have badgers and boar who think hives are a sitting smorgasbord of food.

This won't be a long blog as I will have to leap to deal with the bee man when he comes.

During the week I visited the village down the road which has a great restaurant - it was a very good lunch with a bunch of ladies.  I did take a bit of time to look at the twisted spire on the church there - very much contrived by local craftsmen wanting to show off how clever they are.

Less obvious, but just as interesting are the faces carved under the roof line - I'm sure there is a proper name, but it isn't gargoyle, as there are no rain spouts related to them.

And another lot.

It is slightly oxymoronic to say it, but the late spring flowers are much too early this year.  Lily of the valley is effectively over, and wisteria is fading fast.  The first flush of irises are long gone, but some of my fancier ones are still going strong.

The red hot pokers definitely should not be out at the moment, but here they are  in all their glory.  It is going to be a weird year I think for flowers, fruit and other produce.

No sign of the bee orchids yet, but they are always hard to spot at first.  Perhaps they will headline next week's blog.  Anyway, I had better go and be ready to greet the bee man.

Have a good week!

Two forms of culture this week

Indeed - culture of the artistic nature and culture as in planting things - it's been all go this last week!

On the artistic side of things, we decided to take a day out on Thursday and went into Angers.  Since the tramway has been developed, I don't like to drive into the centre of town any more, but a chum had told me about a very convenient park and ride point, so we thought we ought to try it.  

The entrance is still a bit dodgy and the signage isn't necessarily the best yet, but it worked terrifically well, and gave us time to work out where we wanted to go and what ticket would be best.  At 4.60Euros for a 24 hour pass, the system is actually very reasonable, and it meant that while in theory we only needed to go two stops, in fact we could jaunt all the way out to the other side of the city to see what the far end of the line was like, then hop across platforms and come back into the centre, even closer to where we wanted to go, and see even more suburbs, as well as a bit of heritage.

Parts of the route are actually very scenic and give you great views over the Maine to the Chateau and the Cathedral, so it is fun to do.  

Then in the centre of town we headed to the Collegiale Saint Martin - an adapted place of worship - for the Banksy exhibition.  It appears to be a touring exhibition of photos and a few installations, rather than bringing in large pieces of wall or concrete, so you don't necessarily get the authentic experience, and some of the French explanations of pieces were a bit worthy.  

For us, as British people with experience of British culture, well, we didn't need the explanations quite so much, and so many of the images are high impact anyway.  It was free, not much of a queue, you could take a free poster as you left, and there was an apple available for children too on leaving.  Thanks, Banksy!

Banksy wasn't the only controversial art in town either.  From the exhibition, we walked over to the Cathedral to look at the new portico that has been installed to protect the entry arch from weather and pigeons.  The old portico is rather magnificent and still has traces of the original paint work, so it is worth protecting.

There are two ways one can go with something like this - a pastiche of old architecture that purists such as my father would label bogus, but traditionalists might call respectful, or you can go modern.  Going modern naturally annoys people with not being quite the same, different materials, lacking respect and all that.  It also gets called brave and challenging.  I like what they have done.  It protects the original, it is plain and simple and bright, but suitably imposing, so I give it the thumbs up!

But it hasn't all been about arty stuff this week.  With a trailer of best compost, it was possible to get going on the raised beds at The Shack.  The two lower ones are in and planted up, at least in part.  One has two new rhubarb plants, as last year my niece gave me an amazing recipe for rhubarb fool and it is the food of the gods, but you still need the rhubarb.  In two year's time we should be doing really well!  

The other has "soft" herbs, so chives, sorrel, tarragon, and sowings of more chives, parsley and dill, with basil and coriander to follow.  I also did the first of the taller raised beds, which was rather harder work to fill, and that now has waif and stray strawberry plants that we have been accumulating for the past couple of years planted in it, well away from the chickens (like 5 miles)!

Just uphill from the raised beds are a couple of pea towers.

John has a client with a bamboo problem, and so we tend to have lots of very long and quite chunky pieces of bamboo knocking around.  He got bored one day and made a couple of tripods, each about 8 foot high, and they stand around looking slightly shifty.  He has now found a use for them.  The one in the garden (not shown) now has a triangular sun shade sail attached to it to create a sheltered corner at the top of the garden if one wants to hide and read a book.  The other has been planted up as a home for more cristophines - this is something he may regret.

The summer visitors are nearly all here now, nightingales, the cuckoo, swallows, and the swifts will arrive soon, along with the golden orioles and melodious warblers, the grass and weeds grow as you watch and very soon it will be orchid time.  For some aspects of gardening we are doing OK, but in other areas we are very delayed, and the potatoes are getting urgent.  But I do have to remind myself that we are still in mid-April.  

The other fun that arrives in mid-April are tax returns - aaargh!  While we only have to fill in about 10 numbers, those are spread across some 15 pages of internet forms, with explanations and instructions written in a language that is almost like French, but not quite.  Even for the French themselves, there is apparently an AI app which translates tax French into real French! 

Anyway, you have some idea of what will be occupying me - tax and gardening!  Have a good week!