Productivity in the lower potager this year has not been as good as we had hoped, partly because of its condition, drainage and so on, and partly because, its bottom end being 8m lower than the top of the garden, it is darned hard work carrying tools up and down.
It is likely that we shall allow the grass to develop there next year and enlarge the potager at the top, nearer the house. We can probably grow that by about forty percent with a bit of effort.
The wild areas are developing nicely. We need to do some more work to prevent them being taken over by nettles and brambles, but there is a good variety of plant life in there, and the birds and insects seem to love it. The buddleia is attracting a number of species of butterfly, adding to the life of the areas and providing a nice spectacle (as well a superb photo opportunities) from the terrace. Pictured below are Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on white buddleia.
Flattening of some of the growth suggests that either a mammal larger than, say, a rabbit has been around or we have been visited by aliens. Either way, a couple of smallish areas of about half a square metre each are completely flattened, and there is a bit of disturbance leading to them.
One of the willow whips that we planted in the spring is doing extremely well, as you can see.
The original twig extends for about sixteen inches (40cm) out of the soil, and you can see how well the new growth is doing. Behind it is a new oak, which I think will need to be moved to avoid excess competition. Clare is actually a few metres behind, so don't think it is that big. In fact it is about one and a half metres high.
For some time we have been feeding the wild birds with a seed mix that is quite heavy on black sunflower seeds, as well as peanuts (which we have to buy in bulk from England, as we have never seen them sold as wild bird food in France).We have had to stop feeding the birds for a while, as there are a couple of rats that we think live in the barn next door, that come regularly to our feeders and help themselves to their bounty. To deal with them, we have purchased a live trap (very humane, although I don't think the rats would worry about doing the decent thing by us) and some poison. The problem with the poison is twofold:
1. It can leach into a minor water course and
2. If carried back to the barn, it could put at risk the semi-feral cats (who are very useful in controlling smaller rodents) and the chickens, both of which live in the barn where we think the rats nest.
- We may need to use the trap, but what to do with the little blighters when we have caught them? It was easier with mice - they are unlikely to bite and are less at risk of carrying nasty diseases.
We have received confirmation from CPAM of continuity of our cover. I assume that to be what they intended - what they actually said was "You are affiliated to the CMU under the criterion of residence, and this is how much we shall be asking you for". There then followed a figure almost 50% more than our tax bill for the year! On an even more positive note, we have both (being over fifty years of age) received our invitations to collect from our doctors the kit to enable us to submit our biennial samples for testing for intestinal cancer - which looks like it may be an unpleasant collection exercise - and Clare has received her invitation for breast screening. My routine annual blood tests include a test for the marker for prostate cancer. We are very happy with the routine screening offered.
Tania is now moving into her new apartment, and we shall travel to Paris on Tuesday in a hired van to help her with the last few things and to collect and bring back here a few large items that she can't accommodate in her new place. I think Wendy and Phil will still be here, which means the hellhounds won't be left alone all day (and most of the evening).
Meanwhile, Hobie is not doing quite as well as we should like. He seems to be reacting to the cooler, wetter weather by having increasing difficulty getting around.
As intimated a few weeks ago, we have been loosely following the annual Big Brother thing. I think it absolutely right that Rex, the walking ego, should have been built up to the point where he was convinced that he would win, only to be knocked down at the last minute and, more to the point, to be beaten by the people to whom he has been most unpleasant for the whole period. Rachel and Mikey in the final was most appropriate, and Rachel being declared winner is a victory for the good guys.
During the week I received a request for a photograph of a particular bird. On my PC I have over 42,000 photographs, many ordered by date taken, with useful file names like DSCF1234.jpg. It took a while to visually scan all those thumbnails, only to find I didn't have one! I have now undertaken a project, using the superb ACDSee software that I have installed to manage my photographs, to categorise and catalog all of my images so they can be easily searched in the future. It's a job I have been putting off for a lot of years and it doesn't get easier with time!
At the same time, I have started using an online photo album service. Over time, I have looked at various possibilities, including DeviantArt, FlickR, Google (Picasa online albums), FaceBook and MySpace. None of them has given me everything I want. A colleague has strongly recommended SmugMug, which seems to come quite close to all the things I want to do at the moment. My albums are at http://photos.keithchanning.com and are available for anyone to view. I have started with a small selection of the wildlife images I took in South Africa back in 2005. Comments would be appreciated, not only on the images, but on the album layout, ease of use, etc.
Have a good week.
À la prochaine
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