Limousin Life

The weather has been scorchio since about the middle of June. All the vegetables are planted and ticking along nicely, the grass has gone brown and growing much slower. This means more time to enjoy the garden and over the last week or so, we have been sitting watching all the comings and goings in the garden.

We’ve had the pleasure of seeing a couple of Golden Oriels land in the tree and the kingfisher has also returned to fishing in the pond. The water is good foot or so lower than it was back in June but it’s still a valuable source of food and water for a lot of wildlife.

A baby hedgehog appeared in the garden one day and I was able to get close enough to take a picture of it.

Whilst doing some routine weeding in the veggie patch, I spotted a fantastic lizard in amongst the cucumber plants. It was almost flourescent green and I was lucky enough to have the camera with me at the time. I’ve seen it on a number of occasions but never seen it displaying such vivid colour before. Quite extraordinary.

The hot weather triggers huge swarms of flying ants to appear from underground. The lizards take advantage of this and there is an afternoon feeding frenzy with a plentiful supply of their favourite food. I spent an hour trying to photograph one catching their prey but they are just so quick, it was all over by the time I pressed the button. I did manage to get a good picture of one of these comic creatures though ….

In the last week, there has been a noticable influx of fledglings in the garden. Green Finches, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Wagtails and Redstarts are to name just a few. The award for the most spectacular display goes to the Martins. The fledglings landed on a branch that Steve put in place in the Willow tree after we cut it back last year. It was meant for the Kingfisher and it hangs out right over the pond. While they waited patiently, the parents, in flocks of about 10 or so, swoop down and catch various insects off the surface of the water. Every now and then, they give their prize to a fledgling who excitedly starts flapping it’s wings and twittering at the site of a parent bird coming towards them. It has been difficult to get a picture with no telephoto lense, but Steve managed to get a shot taken through the binoculars …..

Since Steve’s random dismount at the Mandragore, I’ve had to take over doing all the jobs he would normally do. This includes, doing the oil change on the van. It was long overdue and with Steve strapped up and unable to do anything, I had to take up the spanners and get dirty.

The oil filter on the van is right at the back of the engine and the only way to get at it is from underneath. There isn’t enough room to get underneath so we borrowed some ramps from our good friend George.

Steve moved the van into place and then proceded to talk me through the procedure. First removal of the belly pan underneath the engine. A bit of a fiddle and some comedy moments but I finally manage to drop the cover off - onto me at first as I was lying right underneath it!

Next challenge was to see if I could find the oil filter. I can see it, but blimey how the hell do I undo it? Steve hands me a strap specially for the job. I’ve got about an inch of space to play with and after about 20 minutes of fiddling and swearing I managed to losen it.

Next, can I undo the sump plug? OK where’s the sump plug? “It’s under that big metal thing called the engine block” Steve said helpfully! OK, sump plug identified. Steve hands me a variety of different size spanners to try. Got the right size, now get my weight behind it and … Well I’m obviously not heavy enough …. OK, foot on the inside of the wheel for leverage and get my weight behind it - voila, it gives.

OK, so I know I can get the filter off and the oil out. Steve runs the engine to get the oil nice and warm. A big plastic bowl and here we go.

First empty the oil. I manage to complete this without covering myself and everything else in hot oil. Second that filter. “Keep it as upright as you can, it will be full of oil”. Easier said than done, whilst lying on your back with the filter at full reach but who am I to argue? Here it comes, oil spilling everywhere - lucky I put thost marigolds on. Operation complete so on with the new filter - hand tight as instructed and sump plug back in.

Now for the easy bit. Tip 5 litres of oil down into the engine and take a reading from the stick. Looks about right, now to start the engine and see if I’ve put that filter and oil plug in tight enough. A few nervous moments later, it looks like everything is “oil tight”.

Feeling rather pleased with myself, I forgot just one last thing - I’ve got to get that cover plate back on. Lying on my back with front end balanced on my knees, I wrest the hinges into place first and manage to get a nut on. A quick scew to my left and re-screw the side bolts one by one and then tighten them.

That’s it, my first oil change. It wasn’t that difficult really, well specially with an expert on hand

I have a new enemy in the vegetable patch. It makes lots of tunnels and eats my parsnips and carrots from below ground. Whilst weeding the other day, I noticed 3 parnsips had disappeared with only the leaves left in place. The parsnips had been pulled down from underground.

Next to these are my carrots. I found 4 carrots, all chewed to pieces and some with only the carrot tops left strewn on top. The following day, I checked again. Another parship and some carrots gone.

What is this mysterious creature? It’s not my other enemy the mole. Mr mole will only eat worms, not my prize vegetables.

Someone suggested it was probably a field mouse or vole. So straight down to the hardware shop and promptly purchased 2 mouse traps. The first night I laced with with a nice piece of banana and some nuts. The next morning, they had been eaten, the traps set off but nothing caught.

The next night I tried a different tactic. I place a pea on the spike as I thought the banana and nuts were too easy to reach without standing on the trap.

It worked. The next morning on checking the traps, there was an extremely large rodent. Not a field mouse or vole. After speaking to Lucien next door, he told me it was a rat. They are regular visitors to his garden, especially to eat the pigeon food which gets strewn everywhere.

Apparently they have very diverse diets and will eat vegetables from underground along their tunnel systems. I’ve never seen a rat before and always thought they were really big brown rodents. There is a wide variety of them and I’ve done the research on the net and found mine.

I believe it to be the Wild Norway Rat - it had the same grey colouring and was about the right size.

I don’t like killing wildlife and I try to avoid it as best I can, but I only had 14 parsnips in the first place and within 2 days they were down to 10.

So another lesson learned for next year. I’ve already started the research for ways of stopping them getting into my vegetables in the first place.

A truer word couldn’t be said about this marriage vow. On Sunday 29th June 2008, during La Mandragore, a 100km offroad mountain bike ride from Confolens to Nieul, I met Steve sitting in the back of an ambulance with a broken collar bone.

Since then, I have been nursing him every day. Aside from the collarbone, unfortunately he also damaged a few ribs and this is stopping him from moving around very easily - if at all. As he has broken the bone in three (he likes to make a good job of it), his shoulders are strapped back to hold the pieces in line with each other in an attempt to improve the healing process.

He needs help washing morning and night, getting dressed and help getting into and out of bed! I consider myself lucky though, as I think of those who do this service and more for years and years with no end in site. At least it should only be for a month or so.

Slowly things are beginning to improve and we are off to see the consultant again on the 22nd July. This may or may not be a good day, he will have a further x-ray to see if the bones are joining correctly. If not it may mean surgery but we are staying hopeful.
Funny when I think, that the first year I met him, he broke the other collarbone!

It was one of those mornings where the birds were singing and the sun was shining in a cyrstal clear blue sky. There was a heavy dew everywhere and as I took a walk around the garden it was a moment of absolute tranquility.

Here are some pictures to capture these very rare moments of natural perfection …..

After battling for weeks with the bizarre weather, we are finally enjoying some of the first sweet pickings from the vegetable patch.

I picked a couple of dozen pea pods swollen with juicy fresh sweet peas. We’ve had them both raw in salads and cooked - they taste sensational.

The small strawberry plants I was given by our good friends George and Ali have settled in well and we have had a few bowls of lovely sweet fresh strawberrys. Luckily for us, wild strawberrys grow all around the garden and although small, a great addition to their larger conterparts or just sprinkled on top of icecream - delicious!

My final sweet picking of early season is some new potatoes, freshly dug. I only put a few in but each one has produced a good 6 to 8 succulent tubers which we’ve eaten with a variety of fresh fish and good local Limousin Steak.

The vegetable patch is looking really healthy and the space is now full. The dwarf beans which started off very slow, are now full of flowers and the first signs of small green beans are appearing. The tiny leeks I put in have survived the onslaught of rain during the storms and are now beginning to get bigger.

I have finally managed to get some lettuce going and have planted a variety called Battavia. I started them off in small pots and then put a bottle cloche over each one to give it a good start. Between all the longer growing salads I have continued planting rocket, raddish and cress.

There was a major attack of blackfly on the Parsnip and Beetroot. I mixed a solution of vegetable soap and water into a spray bottle and this seems to have done the trick. Everything looks like it has survived although some of the leaves have shrivelled and browned.

The leaves on the garlic are just starting to go over so it will nearly be time to dig these and dry them for storage. The cucumber plants I put in now have small yellow flowers so I hope to see the start of some cucumbers soon. I am also trying a couple of melons but I’m not convinced they will make much progress but we will see.

Squash corner at the back has taken off and is now looking more like a jungle. I hope I get a good crop of squashes this year. There are already signs of small pumpkins showing.

Finally, the tomatoe plants have surived so far with the help of a strip of plastic sheeting to protect them from the worst of the weather. I have a couple of cherry tom plants which are now looking quite strong and healthy with about 4 to 5 other varieties - although small - are still alive!

So far I’m pleased with progress and will report on the pickings over the coming months.

It’s official, the first day of summer (according to Google) and it’s come with a bang. Temperatures are up into the 30’s and we’ve had some spectacular thunder storms.

Everything in the garden is growing at a full rate of knots and some of the flowers are flourishing in the warm weather.

There have been a few surprises with a fantastic crop of deep red lillies growing at one corner of the pond (sure they weren’t there last year).

Also, I’ve had more time to plant some perenials this year which I’ve grown from seed.

These include geraniums, pyrethrum and geum. It’s been a bit hit and miss with things like rudebeckia and echinacea and the earlier cold weather killed off most of my attempt at growing lobelia from seed.

The sweet peas I planted by the patio doors are glorious and their scent is outstanding.

So far summer is off to a good start, long may it continue ….

Cosmos in full flower

Spectacular Red Dahlia

It was the weekend of the 14/15 June and I joined my team Beauvallet to compete in the 24 Hour Mountain Bike race at Bonnac-la-Côte. A 24 hour race is just that - riding a 6km offroad circuit for 24 hours. The objective is to do as many laps as possible and we were competing for the mixed team (50/50 Men to Women) prize.

Steve’s brother Andrew flew over from the UK to join us to make up our team of 8 riders. We spent all of Friday afternoon frantically packing the car, trying to work out what to take to make the whole thing more comfortable. The forecast was for a good weekend and we were off at 7.45 Saturday Morning.

Beauvallet Team Camp

Arrived at the site and met Theo our team captain. He had already set up camp for us and he’d brought his big wagon which was full of equipment. First job was to connect up to electricity using meters of extension leads. This was going to provide battery charging and also power for the all important fan heater for drying clothes if necessary.

Grub Ticket

We were all given a number board for our bikes, a souvenir T-Shirt, a band for our wrist so that we could take food from the 24 hour revitalement available and finally a card for our 3 food entitlements - lunch, evening meal and breakfast.

After a quick lap of the circuit, it was nearly 11am and everyone gathered at the arena for the Le-Mans style start - all riders had to run to collect their bikes from a team mate before setting off on the first lap. I was given the job of holding the bike for Olivier our first rider out. The countdown started and then they were off. We did a good exchange and then I found myself in a mellay of bikes and riders all trying to get a good start - chaos but all part of the spectacle.

The Le Mans style Start

READY

STEADY

GO!

I was due to be the 3rd rider out. The lap times were roughly 16 to 20 minutes so it wouldn’t be long before I was away. The change over area was set up just before the finish line so that riders could exchange the small electronic timing device on their ankles and ride over the special mat which registered the lap time and lap number - all important for the final results.

Team Captain Theo, Olivier and Steve have a chow down

Everything went fairly smoothly all day. The sun was shining and our team of 8 were doing consistant lap times. In the arena was a large tent where you could pick up your meals and sit down in comfort to eat whilst watching the entertainment and other riders. There was a marching band, jazz band and some riders doing very clever tricks over obstacles (like cars!) in the arena.

The rivitalement area was next to the change over pen and you could go there at any time to get a bite to eat. Cake, dried fruit and fresh juicy orange segments available as needed.

Theo’s Bike with home made light set up

The day was starting to draw to a close and we were now getting prepared for our night time riding. Lights are all important for this stage of the race - the brighter the better. As always, Theo had come prepared. He’d brought every conceivable light set up imaginable and there was some pretty interesting home made systems getting fixed to the fronts of bikes.

My Bike with LED light strapped to the front - Merci Theo!

I had a set of second-hand lights, which we bought a few seasons previously, mounted on the top of the helmet. Theo didn’t think that would be sufficient so he zip tied a huge LED wand light to the front of my bike - I was now a light house!

My first night shift was due around 11.20 so at about 8pm I decided to take a shower to wash off the day and get my evening meal. Arrived at the shower block and it was completely empty and seemed unused. I soon found out why. There was no hot water and I had to wash down as best I could with cold water and a flannel! Very refreshed (!), I went with Andrew to get my nosh and there was a blues band playing for the evening entertainment - very civilised.

During the night we decided to change from doing 1 lap each to 2 in order to make the rest period longer through the night. The average time for 2 laps at night was about 40 minutes. This meant between us, we could get about 3 1/2 hours rest before our next shift.

Olivier (lef) and Cyril (right) rigging up another home made Light set up

My shift was rapidly approaching. Feeling a bit jaded after a long day, I got kitted up and set off to the warm up area. I was a bit late for my shift after a problem with a puncture and unfortunately Cyril had to go out and do another lap (thanks Cyril).

11.40 pm and finally on my way and I dropped down the first descent. Cripes where did all those rocks come from? Riding at night is quite a different experience. The lights flatten the terrain and now you can’t see the bumps and dips in the trails. It’s a much more bumpy ride and overtaking was interesting!

Out for my 2nd lap and still feeling quite good. About 1/2 way round the circuit I start to fade and by the time I finish I’ve gone bang! After the change over, I get back to the car, strip off and try to wash off the 2 laps with some cold water on a flannel. Now feeling dog tired, I crash out on the matress in the back of the car - ahh bliss.

In a flash it’s 4 hours later and my next shift is due in about 45 minutes. I feel rough. I don’t think I’ve eaten enough during the day and early night hours and starting to suffer a bit. Luckily I saved a piece of baguette from dinner last night so I stick a banana that I’ve brought with me into it and get that down as quick as I can. Then into my kit for another 2 laps.

Slightly recovered, it’s nearly 5am and so the light is better but I still go out with lights as some of the trails are under the darkness of trees. I put in a reasonable 2 laps knowing that I should only have about 1 more to do later that morning.

By now I’ve run out of dry shorts and jerseys and everything is damp from the night. Theo sets up the fan heater and I hang everything on the meat hooks in the wagon and shut the doors. I go over and get breakfast - orange juice, coffee, bread, jam, 3 dognuts and some fruit compote. Downed the dognuts, juice and coffee - that’s all I can manage to stomach for now. Saved the bread and jam for after my lap.

Kit has dried after an hour and I’m due out at 8.40 (ish). I roughly calculate that this is probably my final lap and I have to say I’m feeling quite relieved by the thought. We have been so lucky with the weather. We’ve had no rain and the course, although damp with overnight mist and morning dew, is still riding well and fast. I put in one last good lap and a bit saddle sore went off to get another cold shower!

It’s All Over

The horns went off at 11am as riders came charging in trying to get an extra lap in for their teams. That’s it, all over a full on 24 hours of riding mountain bikes. Everyone looked tired but happy. The event was very well organised and all credit to the Bonnac-la-Cote crew and all the volunteers.

Beauvallet Team on the Podium and the Flowers received by all the Girls

The prize presentation was at 11.30 and there was the usual words from the Mairie and the organisers. Our team won the mixed category and we went up onto the podium all in our kit. Andrew, was really chuffed and stood there proudly wearing his new Beauvallet kit. Steve’s team came 2nd Scratch - they had won last year but were beaten by a team from the Dordogne this time.

Olivier pouring us all a well earned glass of champagne

In his usual style, Theo gathered all the team together for a celebratary drink of Champagne and treated us all to a sausage sandwich. All packed up, we headed home, fortunately only 40 minutes drive away. When we got back we had the van and the car to unpack and then we all had a nice hot shower and another glass of champagne to finish. By 5pm we were all in bed and amazingly, we slept right through to 7 am the following morning - wonder why?

Here are some of the rest of the team

Team Captain - Theo - MERCI Theo

Celine, Cyril and Chukka their 7 month old puppy (so cute and well behaved)

Andrew (Steve’s Bro) rode really great throughout

Me still managing a smile (with lots of saddle sore)

As I came in from the garden yesterday, I noticed something on the petal of the Clematis growing just outside the patio door. On closer inspection, it was a spider (albino?) having an afternoon snack on an unsuspecting honey bee. It’s quite amazing to think that the bee is about twice the size of the spider.

Something I’ve noticed when you spend so much time in the garden, you start to get more in tune with what’s going on. So when something different appears or happens, you tend it spot it straight away.

As Spring is now moving into summer, there are a few fledglings about. They follow ‘mum’ around waiting for the next tasty morsel. We were lucky enough to watch a group of green finches on their test flights yesterday. Their colours are fantastic when they catch the sunlight.

Last night about 9pm I heard the magpies making quite a noise outside. When I looked out the window, I saw two adult magpies escorting the scraggy farm cat down the drive and up the steps to the garden. They were quite deliberately following him one after the other. Their young one has recently fledged and I would imagine they wanted to make sure he was well clear of trouble.

Lizards are about with abundance now the weather has warmed up. The common small brown ones are everywhere, dashing all over the terrace, up the walls, in the guttering and also get into the window sills. They are currently fighting out their territorial limits and mating of course. A more spectacular looking lizard who lives here is the Lacerta viridis. I have a couple who have taken up residence in my veggy patch and they are often out sunning themselves while I go about weeding.

The tadpoles have now turned to tiny frogs with dozens of them making their way to pastures new across the grass. It’s difficult to see them until they move and mowing the grass is turning into an exercise of quick swerves to the left or right to miss the little bliters. I also have a few that are now living in my veggy patch too, which is a welcome thing for me to help beat the slugs.

So it’s all happening at the moment in the garden, all we need now is some consistent summer sunshine which we can all enjoy.

I’ve been busy planting out all of my veggies that I started in pots under cloched boxes. It’s been a strange month because it started very hot and dry and it’s been hard work keeping up with the watering. Then we had a dip in the weather and some things stopped growing all together and others rotted.

This is the run down of how everything is getting on:

French Beans - I haven’t been able to germinate any beans directly sown, only in pots. I’m not sure why this is but I made sure I planted enough to spare in case I lost any to slugs. They have been slow to start because of the funny weather but some now have their second and third leaves.

Tomatoes - These germinated quite successfully, then in April it was so cold they stopped grown completely and some rotted away. I had to start again in late April and early May. Planted out 6 cherry tomatoes and 8 standard tomatoe plants under bottle cloches. One of the cherry tom plants has out grown it’s cloche, and others are still only an inch high! The standard tomatoe plants are very slow going but I’ll leave them in and hope they catch up.

Squashes, pumpkins and Courgettes - I turned over the old compost corner at the back which was used for all my veggies last year. This has become my squash corner. After trying for weeks, I finally managed to germinate some squash seeds and they are all in along with a couple of courgettes and pumpkin. They are all still going and have escaped slug attack so I hope growth is good in the coming weeks.

Salads - Well for some reason, I’ve failed miserably on getting a good crop of healthy lettuce. There are a couple of red frilly and green rosso’s looking good but that’s nothing compared to the number of seeds I’ve planted. It’s been a bit of back luck in one way, as we have had extremely heavy rain fall which I think has washed a lot of the seeds away. Still determined to get something going, I’ve now put some seeds in pots and planted a few under cloches direct. We have been enjoying cress and rocket for weeks now which is very satisfying and tasty.

Potatoes - I’m hoping to dig some early potatoes soon. No flower heads just yet but they must be imminent. After I’ve cleared them, I’ll use the space for some winter veggies.

Cabbages et al - Put in 6 very healthy cabbages for autumn picking and they seem quite happy. A mole managed to dig up 2 of them but I put them back in, watered well and so far they are still looking lively. I’ve also started the Brocolli which will be ready of the winter months later this year and early next. Four have gone in and I’ve put a further 4 seeds in pots to stagger the growing.

Peas - Although you don’t get a lot of peas from each plant, they are delicious straight from the garden.

I’ve made the use of the short hedge along the edge of “squash” corner and have some healthy specimens full with pods waiting to ripen.

The other peas have been planted into the patch next to the beans and I’ve used some old tree branches as pea sticks.

These were later going in and much smaller but they have their first flowers just appearing.

Spring onions - These are a bit of a mystery. I’ve planted 4 or 5 times now and each time - NOTHING. I’m beginning to think it’s because they are a very old pack of seeds so I need to go and buy a fresh packet as I’m sure they are not that diffcult to grow.

Root vegetables - Parsnips are going strong and assuming the moles don’t get them, we’ll be enoying them this winter.

Carrots are another awkward customer but I’ve managed to get a few going and keep planting in succession. Beetroot has taken off all of a sudden and the purple and green leaves look a blaze in the patch.

All in all, it has been fairly successful so far - but hard work. I have planted some cucumbers, sweetcorn and small squashes down behind the hedge at the end of the garden as a bit of an experiment. It captures lots of heat there but it’s very rough ground and full of weeds. The constant cutting back of the grass and nettles might put an end to the idea next year, but we’ll see how it goes … Until then, here are just some of the lovely radishes we’ve been enjoying since mid April ..