2012-07-27 Storm over Cailho......

All taken from our window.



These are not the mountain on fire, this is the morning after the storm and this is steam.

2012-07-27 Garden in Summer

This little purple flower below, is the start of an enormous amount of flowers on the         Goji berry plant, one of two we bought in a dusty corner of “Norma” earlier this year, they were reduced and had been neglected…now they are both good sized plants, but only one has flowers at the moment.

2012-07-20 Sweetcorn

 

 

We grew Baby Sweet corn this year, each plant has had about 6-8 cobs, but even so i think it is a poor return for the amount of space they take up, most of them are frozen now, it will also depend on how they freeze as to whether we grow them again.

 

                              

However we had a good crop of “normal” size sweet corn, and this odd one !!

2012-07-20 Swallowtail Butterfly and a few others.

 

 

 

 

This is a Broad-bordered Bee Hawk- moth, quite a mouthful, but flies like the Humming bird Hawk-moth, but apparently not related.

 

 

 

 

This is the Humming-bird Hawk-moth

             

 

                 

this is one i thought might be yet another species, but turns out to be the Bee moth, but a bit faded!

                        

 

                     

This is a Brimstone, possibly a “Cleopatra “

    

Scarce Swallowtail (which is actually more common here!)

          

 

                          

A blue, don’t ask which one………….

                        

Ladybird on the sweetcorn.

                        

2012-07-19 The Sun Oven :O)

 

 

We were interested to see if we could make a solar powered oven, and we fascinated to discover that it could be simply made from 2 cardboard boxes, black paper, glass pane and tin foil. Dave took about an hour to put it together, and IT WORKS REALLY WELL !!

 

The thermometer in the bottom had to be removed after a short time, as the temperature exceeded the 100C that the thermometer is limited to.

 

            

Sweet potatoes……4 hours at Reg.  “SUN HOT”  they were perfectly cooked, soft and very tasty !

                   

Dave from product design !

Vegetable casserole , better as the glass didn’t steam up and need to be turned.

             

Bread and butter pudding……..now its getting interesting !!

2012-07-14 Frederic & Almuth’s 25th Wedding anniversary……

 

 

We were in fact 3 days early for this event, but we had John (Dave’s brother) with us and thought a Saturday drinking beer at Dausse ….Why not !

We gave them another photo book, the last one was for their 20th anniversary, and has become the thing to show visitors, so we thought another would be a good idea…..After we had given it to them, Frederic was reluctant to look at it….I later found out he thought if he looked at it he would cry….great softy !

Frederic demanding his right to open their present !

 

               

Frederic folding the paper for a second use…….it has 25 years stamped on it, I hope he knows some long time married people !

 

 

Lorri, John and Dave half way down from Dausse.

2012-07-13 Flowers, Butterflies, Spider and other bugs !

I dont have a name for this “ladybird beetle”

or this pink sipder.

These are Giant Banded Greylings, making more Giant Banded Greylings !

And a very similar Rock Greyling

Bignonia or Trumpet flower, has been fantastic this year, we have three growing over the pergola. 

        

The Glycine, or Wisteria flowering for the second time…….. I thought it went well against the jute cloth we put up as shade this year, and the pink solar light.

 

      

I have never been a great fan of Pelargonium's but this year, they have looked great, the reason I am not keen, is the smell of the leaves, but then mosquitoes don’t like then either :O)

So next year I am intending to plant them under each window, I have already bought the window troughs……so watch this space 2013 !

 

  A slight problem with our tomatoes this year, turned out to be Tomato Canker, treated with Bouillie bordelaise ( copper sulphate ) and it took a bit of time, but the tomatoes are cropping thick and fast now (mid August).

 

Dave found this Stick insect. He is calling it twiglet !