Rumble in the...lilac

Last night, not long after 10pm we went out to watch the ariel ballet of the bats. There are three of them--we've written about them before. Thankfully, they no longer use the walls behind the shutters to roost and must have found somewhere far more suitable. Their acrobatics as they flit around, over and along our roof is a joy to watch. We think they're common pipistrelle.

Anyway I became distracted by quite a bit of rustling around the foot of one of our clumps of lilac suckers. We have two of these clumps--originally both had flowering lilac bushes but these have, at some point, died or been cut down. We thought it might be voles or mice rustling through the leaf litter and Niall said he'd heard it before in the same place. Eventually, as it continued, curiosity won out and I went and got the flashlight to have a look.

As we got closer we could also hear faint clacking sounds which certainly intrigued us.  What we found were male stag beetles crashing round the old stumps of the original lilac. We counted at least 5--two were fighting each other which explains the faint clacking sound. We are complete ignoramuses when it comes to beetles. Thanks to some BBC wildlife programme I once watched I recognised these as stag beetles and knew they are protected; but for the rest ... we know nothing.

Presumably they have all homed in on a female. Not that we saw one--just the males with their characterisitc pincers.

If a tree falls in a forest.....

Yesterday it was blowy. As we're on a ridge, the NNE wind was quite noticeable. It wasn't cold, just windy and shredded leaves bowled across the parched grass. The odd dead branch fell and more pine cones than normal clattered to the ground. To our left is a small woodland. No one maintains it so as a result it is dense with undergrowth and quite tangled. Occasionally something crunches to the ground in there as well.

Yesterday some friends of ours came round for a pre-dinner drink. We all heard a crack, not a very dramatic one and didn't notice anything amiss so we assumed it was yet another dead branch. Quite a bit later, our friends had gone and we'd finished watering the orchard; Niall went to turn off the outside tap and saw that one of our trees on the edge of the woodland had come down.

horizontal tree

Well not exactly.... the tree in question had been growing at a 45 degree angle when we bought the house last year. It was --sort of-- wrapped round another. The crack we heard must have been it slowly losing its fight with gravity -- it is now fully horizontal. 

new 90 degree angle

The interesting thing is the bark has just cracked a tiny bit but not split at all. So, in theory it could carry on growing as it is. No doubt, in time, it would develop a kink where the young branches would bend slowly back to the vertical for the light.

Obviously both cats are delighted with their new exciting climbing frame. They should enjoy it while it lasts as it will soon be turned into logs!

A 'quiet' Sunday lunch

Today the skies are blue again but it is pretty blowy after two days with patchy showers. Not that they have amounted to much. We'll still be watering the orchard and our neighbour's roses this evening. 

all set for lunch

 Last Sunday it was another one of those seemlingly endless very warm high summer days that May was full of. We lazed as one does on a Sunday and then bestirred ourselves enough to get the BBQ going and rustle up some salad to go with the turkey kebabs. It was quiet, even soporific and the cats had dozed off somewhere in the shady undergrowth.

kebabs just going on the BBQ

We had just managed to remember to take a picture of the table set for lunch when an almighty screetching, chittering and scrabbling broke out.

The nieghbours who live in Paris --the house is their maison secondaire-- have fouine (Beech Martens) in their attic. If you have never seen a fouine think red squirrel on steroids/weazel. 

rocks 'thrown' by the fouine

They are noisy and very sociable critters who like to play. Obviously there was yet another disagreement over fair play--this has happened before--and the result was yet another small rock of calcaire thudded down from the eaves of the nighbour's house. The back wall of their house is the boundary so we find these stones on the drive.

mini floral tapestry

close-up pocket sized wild flower meadow

At Christmas a friend of ours in Massachusettes sent us a packet of New England wild flower seeds. The dearly beloved other half -- Niall that is -- decided to sow them in March, we wrote about it here. We weren't expecting that much as one never knows how long these seeds have been in packets and, as a city boy, initially homesick for pavements; his green thumb isn't very green. Although to be fair, it is getting greener by the week. 

a mini-floral tapestry

They didn't do much to start with despite watering. However, latterly they have decided to show they do exist. The packet said it was enough for 350 sq ft but in the event they were sown over a patch of about 3ft by 7 ft --- one should always read the instructions/information!! Although we didn't know it then, if they'd been sown over the indicated square footage I doubt we would have noticed them. 

From the outset I teased him about the likely outcome, but I'm eating humble pie and he is having the last laugh as the photos show. It may be pint-sized, and the flowers are definitely 'dinky', but we do have a mini-wild flower meadow. 

the lizard orchid under tilleul

Our other orchids -- lizard orchids -- are now flowering as well. Perhaps not as pretty as the bee orchid,  we are still very pleased to have them in residence. They have all grown in deep shade, one under our tilleul, the other 3 under a cherry in our hedge.

Acadie again

Last month we went and visited the Abbey in Beaulieu sur Loches. We wrote about it here. As we were leaving we spotted another reference to the French Acadian settlers of what is now Nova Scotia, Canada.

It was a small marble plaque put up in June 1988 in memory of an Abbé who ministered to the Acadians who had remained when the English took control.

plaque in Beaulieu sur Loches

It reads*: 

In tribute to the Abbé Jean Mandé Sigogne, born at Beaulieu-les-Loches 6th April 1763, died 9th November 1844 at Pointe de l'Eglise [Nova Scotia, which became a province of Canada].

For 45 years he was the spiritual and temporal guide of the Acadian population of Nova Scotia, which allowed them to survive and maintain their identity.

*[Antoinette's translation]