A couple of years ago our neighbour ‘accidentally’ climbed across a ditch and cut down our 200 year old oak tree – by the time I had seen something was going on and charged across the field ranting and raving it was too late to stop it. Likewise we are all too familiar with the [...]
When we bought our house in south-west France nine years ago people seemed to talk of little else but termites and the dangers they presented to house and home. Tales abounded of armies of termites creeping underground and devouring everything in their way, with a special preference for house foundations and woodwork. It was said [...]
Now we’ve (temporarily at least) stopped our invasive plant from hurling the pool terrace into the swimming pool it seems to be the turn of the animal life to move in. It started a few days ago when a bat managed to get into our house. Our ‘house’ being an open plan converted barn, the [...]
One thing I’ve noticed this year that I don’t remember seeing before is enormous flocks of birds circling around all the time – many thousands of palombes (wood-pigeons) fill the air in great sweeping flocks. And a very impressive sight it is too. The palombe is also the most hunted bird in France, with special [...]
Our youngest daughter has always liked horses, and spent many years trying to convince us of the reasons why we should get one. Our stories about having nowhere to put a stable worked quite well for a couple of years, until one day in the ‘shed’ she noticed that there were feeding trays and the [...]
You can’t see it very well in the picture, but this is a meadow field of white, pink and purple flowers leading down to a lake. Very pretty indeed and it was a pleasure to come across when i was out cycling yesterday. Mrs B tells me they are called ‘Cosmos’ flowers and quite a [...]
I’ve admitted before that once you’re up and running with gites they are really not much like hard work – apart from Saturdays when they need cleaning of course. Personally I manage to avoid that by claiming I need to cut the grass -coincidentally this mowing takes me exactly the same amount of time as [...]
OK it’s Christmas so I can drift away from serious matters for a moment. I’m trying to employ this chimp to sit my daughter’s maths brevet (exam) for her in a few weeks time. And then perhaps it can my do French tax return afterwards.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about hornets and probably won’t be the last. Despite having a lovely picture and a few explanatory words at hornets in France, this blog and its old comments about hornets continue to draw the crowds, ever fascinated by the growing threat that hornets apparently present to us sensitive [...]
Twenty five thousand years ago it was prehistoric man who roamed our region of south-west France – perhaps the earliest established settlements of man to be found in Europe. Hunting, fishing and living in caves were what passed for entertainment, as seen in the paintings of the Lascaux Caves and numerous other prehistoric sites in [...]
I’m looking for urgent help from any nature lovers out there. I have just received an email from someone who lives in SW France,with the following question: “our squirrels are red and some have brown/black tails. Suddenly I have some that are total brown or brown with black tails. Are these the young or are [...]
Over at francethisway I have some sections that are more interesting to do, and some less so. My personal favourite section (and one of the favourites with visitors to the site) is the one about wildlife in France. We don’t have an enormous amount of detail about each animal – there are better scientific and [...]
We survived the ‘people arriving for a holiday’ period – which all went very well, as we basked in glorious sunshine, the garden was looking good, the barbecues had been scrubbed, and everyone was happy. Then, disappointingly, on the day that the holidaymakers arrived, the temperature fell about 15 degrees, and the rain arrived. This [...]
Living in the heart of the countryside, we do get quite a lot of animal life paying us a visit. Some of it is very welcome. For example, we get a large variety of birdlife – from blue tits and chaffinches, to the buzzards and kestrels overhead. Sometimes the kestrel likes to sit in the [...]