It has been a much quieter week this week, no storms although a lot of rain, no one changing house, no major local events, just getting used to the change in hour and adapting as the weather gets cooler and it becomes more difficult to dry laundry outside. The colours this year are amazing. I thought it was supposed to be related to a bit of a frost, at which point leaves turned bright colours, but we've not had a frost yet and the colours are better than I remember. Sadly I spot the best when driving and therefore can't safely photograph things, so multicoloured hedgerows and golden avenues have to be left to the imagination.
One of the best trees for colour is Sumac, but it is also an invasive thug, so I have never planted one. On the other side of the road in the Country, there is one, and its suckers have managed to get under a road, a fairly deep ditch and a big leylandii hedge to produce a couple of bright saplings.
Rather more appropriate to the area are field maples, with their vibrant yellows - the magnificent reds and ambers are from hybrids related to Canadian maples, and while lovely, are expensive to buy and take a while to get into their stride. I only got to our big field maple after the leaves had mostly fallen to provide a golden carpet by the ponds.
It appears to be the season for yucca flowers and this magnificent specimen is in a friend's garden. Ours has two spikes that might make it or might get caught by a frost in a couple of weeks before they are out.
The 1st November is a day when the French remember their dead, and shops and market stalls make a killing on selling chrysanthemums that have been raised to flower just at the right time. I have managed to overwinter a couple, so didn't buy any this year to decorate the garden. This display at the War Memorial at la Fleche, which if it lasts and the weather is kind, will serve both for All Saints (1st November) and for the Armistice Day celebrations that are taken very seriously in the town. La Fleche has a famous military school, hence the vast number of names on the memorial.
We had another go at trapping feral cats this week, and much to my surprise, we were successful with our first go, getting one that I was keen to trap too. This is Wally, who was a girl, but has now been spayed. Much spicier than her brother, Wimsey, but less ferocious than her father Randolf, she took a bit of evicting from the garage after her post-op convalescence night. She won't be a kitten factory, and that is the main thing.
I had a mooch through the many photo files from the trail camera, to see what was good apart from the overly cute red squirrels. Pine martens are challenging as they do not stay still, but you can get a good badger photo if they don't know the camera is there.
There were loads of photos of deer, or at least parts of deer - ears, bottoms, torsos, but few that were really nice ones of them facing the camera and not pulling faces. This one worked quite well.
And this one rather appealed as well.
I'd better get a few badger, fox and deer videos loaded up as back up for next time I have few photos to frame a blog around!
This week will be devoted to remembering how to cane chairs and to finding a bit of space in my office area - the recycling bin is temptingly empty, so I can get rid of stupid amounts of stuff that I no longer need (indeed I have to question whether I ever needed much of it in the first place!). If the weather is favourable, I will also do some strimming, as we have Projects to get moving on.
Have a good week!
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