Search This Blog

Thursday, March 01, 2012

2012-03-01 Garden, Birds & Bees…

 

The proof that I do get up at 5.00am, just before making tea and scurrying back to bed…..

P1020937

 

Preparing the cherry trees for grafting….the one in the foreground is the washing line!!P1020938

Never one to do anything by halves, Dave cut it down with his chainsaw.

P1020939

These are the three grafts from the black cherry on to a wild cherry.

P1020951

“Here’s one we did earlier”….    last year  !

P1020953

Experiment time!

Don’t know if this will work, 2 of the 3 grafts died on this one last year, so we carefully (not with the chainsaw) took a sloping cut to clear all last years attempts away, and then grafted another one at the bottom of the slope to give some balance, the last years graft is well away, we had another like this, but when it was in full leaf, it was ripped off in a strong wind.

P1020955

 

We believe this is a Cirl Bunting, the picture is taken through the window at about 15m, so i apologise for the poor quality, but i didn’t want it to fly away :O)

P1020941 P1020943

Thrush, we don’t see many here, but in parts of France where they do….they are considered a delicacy  :O(

P1020947

P1020949 P1020950

Nice to see the crocus again, they first flowered in January, and then were killed off in the “big cold” these have been the more sensible group.

 

 

Now for the Bee’s………..we had some mason bees in our wall, so I hung up some canes for them…….now we have lots…….each day they are either, building chambers or hatching from them……I am assuming that the chap with the white “nose” is a new hatchling ?? anyone know?

P1020979 P1020981 P1020982

The one in flight is an adult….as he has a red/ orange bottom…..

This is a very sad sight, these are the Mimosa trees, which at this time should be in full yellow blossom, however their bark has begun to peel, so they may only be good for the fire !

P1020956

Kiwi waiting for her staff to attend to her, whilst she sunbathes…….

P1020966

Friday, February 24, 2012

2012-02-24 Driest winter for 70 years !!

One bonus of the dry air, is that we are able to see the Pyrenees in the far distance.

P1020919

 

 

P1020920

This is lake Vesoles, which would normally be over Daves head at this point !

P1020925 P1020926 P1020929 P1020930 P1020933

Monday, February 13, 2012

2012-02-13 More frozen Cailho……

P1020903

Lots of the plants, which had got going earlier in the year…are now ‘freeze dried’…..

P1020905

Even these Fly Agaric mushrooms were frozen.

P1020908

All the 3 water butts each one containing 300litres busted !

P1020911

Frozen river

P1020913

P1020915

The big lumps of ice across the road are from our reservoirs…stayed like that for about a week, it was SO cold….and DRY !

P1020917

Some people were not quite so lucky…….this patch of ice was impassable for about a week, forcing people to take the safe route OVER the mountain passed the lake

Friday, February 10, 2012

2012-02-10 Big Freeze at Cailho

 

Whilst we were bathing in 16C in Lanzarote, the temperatures in Cailho plummeted to –10 C Here are some pictures of the frozen river etc.

 

 P1020882 P1020883 P1020381  P1020884 P1020889 P1020891

This is the notice put up by the mairie to inform people to check their water meters, and neighbours houses in case they are frozen !

P1020897

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

2012-02-08 Lanzarote……. Ringed Doves, Spanish Sparrows and Rose Ringed Parakeet and ....stuff !!

P1020425

Us eating out (we did a lot of this, as its not all that veggie friendly in France) and we were on  HOLIDAY !!

P1020697

It was COLD !

P1020700

Best to have a NAP !!

 

P1020714

We crumbled some bread on the balcony, within minutes it was like a scene from ‘the Birds’ !!

P1020721

These are Spanish Sparrows (you can tell by the sombreros )

 

P1020737

Also VERY tame !

P1020778

I like this one as there is a very beautiful chimney in it !

P1020779

This one is auditioning for Creature comforts i think !

P1020781

Dave is interviewing him….

P1020787

Sparrows, sorry Spanish Sparrows aerial display team…….

P1020811

Can you guess it was cloudy and we were bored ?

P1020812

What’s worse, Dave has found a ‘burst mode’ on the camera………you can’t imagine how many pictures of S. Sparrows I have had to sift through…..(that does not stand for Spanish !)

P1020813

 

P1020833

Here was the sun on this day ! oh boy was it hot, when you were under it, I can’t imagine being here in the summer, you would fry !

 

 

OK…..moving on….THE PARROT SKETCH….this ones Alive !

P1020842

The Rose Ringed Parakeet….one of 2 parrots of the Canary isles….. (?)

P1020852

 

P1020868

‘Burst mode’  caught this one eating the dates !

P1020859

 

Joining in with the Air Display Team………….another Burst mode shot !

P1020871