Whose Chick?

Yesterday, when I was cutting our grass, I spotted what appeared to be an injured chick hopping about on the land we have reclaimed. It looked as if it could have an injured wing; it certainly did not attempt to fly...

As usual Elizabeth was out with the camera...

My first thought was a Cirl Bunting but on consulting the photographs I took earlier in the year it was nothing like a Cirl Bunting.

So it was out with the bird book. Three contenders looked similar - Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and the Wood Warbler but the beak is too chunky, more of a finch's beak...

Looking at the finch's my best guess would be a female Chaffinch... However it was still hopping about later in the evening and was being attended to by an adult bird which at a distance did not look like a chaffinch...

I will stick with female Chaffinch unless anyone reading this can enlighten me...

I did have a look around the garden today but the chick was nowhere to be seen so we will never know if it managed to fly or became prey to one of the many cats that prowl our garden at night...

Strawberry Fields Forever...

Having been away for just over a week, we arrived back yesterday to be met with a garden gone mad! The lawn was like a meadow, the weeds were knee high and the soft fruit, salads and vegetables in the potager looked amazing!

Today, whilst Colin took the lawn to task, I've started work on the strawberry patch, which has grown from just six free plants from the UK and ten French plants which were given us as a gift. By planting up the runners last year, we now have well over 100 plants.

The netting cage Colin made for the strawberries has been a huge success producing a bumper crop without a  nibbled fruit in sight...

I've picked fourteen pounds of the beauties today and prepared some of them for dry freezing by washing and drying them, setting them out on a tray and then sprinkling with sugar ready to put in the freezer.

These are some I prepared earlier...

And of course there are plenty more where they came from..

So it's strawberries with everything from now on! We'll be enjoying some to end our anniversary meal this evening!

Wedding Belle...

June 2nd 2012 was an extra special day for us. Whilst everyone else back in the UK was busy celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, we were guests at my "old" friend's daughter's wedding in her home town of Southport, England.

We had the pleasure of riding in an old fashioned bus, which caught everyone's eye as it made its way carrying guests to and from the church...

To say the bride was radiant is an understatement...

Caroline looked absolutely beautiful and as she and her new husband, Richard, left the church they were showered with confetti and congratulated by guests and well-wishers alike.

For both sets of parents it must have been a very proud day. So much planning - much of it by Caroline herself - made for a wonderful day and whilst the weather was not at its best, at least the rain held off until the evening when the celebrations had moved indoors.

The cutting of the cake rounded off the formalities...

And then it was time to party...

Congratulations to the newlyweds and may they have a long and happy life together!

A tower with a view

If you go to the Vendee coast one of the places well worth a visit is the Chateau D'eau, a 70 metre high water tower open to the public. Full details can be seen in the picture below. As always, just click to enlarge.

The beast itself...

This photo shows the scale better

The viewing platform

and what a panoramic view...

Where is the tower? - to the east of Notre Dame-de-Monts. The D82 will get you there.

And don't worry there are NO steps to climb, access is via a modern lift... Great... Much more civilized than the old lighthouses with 350 steps up and down... Then two days later you think your legs are going to fall off...

Stone polishing

Whilst on holiday at the coast we collected a few pebbles from the beach... as you do...

However after many previous collections we have now become more experienced at selecting the right type of pebble for polishing... Many look as though they will polish well but are too soft and disintegrate during the first stage of polishing.

Below is this years selection. These will be grouped into batches of similar stones both in size and texture and then begin the long multistage polishing process.

The initial stage of the first batch of the stone polishing, using the abrasive 80 grit, is complete and we are pleased with the results so far.

The same batch is now busily turning away in the polisher for the next week using the finer abrasive 220 grit. Following this there will be another week's grinding using 400 grit, followed by a week polishing with cerium oxide polish.

Hopefully the result will be worth blogging about!!

The Hammock...

Since we cut back and trimmed the bases of the popular trees at the back of the garden it has improved the position and outlook from our hammock...

This week Elizabeth's son David has been over on a break and took advantage of the weather and the hammock to listen to his music...

David is one of the casualties of the recession with a good degree in Maths and journalism he has been unable to find full time work since graduating last year but one...

The holiday gave him chance to relax and forget the pressures of the current employment climate.

A bit of a surprise!

Last year we had a tree full of Hazelnuts... We did not manage to harvest any as the woodpecker, probably assisted by the squirrel managed to eat the lot!!! See here

This year, with the severe frosts, all the catkins shrivalled and died before the leaves even appeared on the tree so we assumed that we would have no hazelnuts at all.

What do we know...

The tree appears to have the start of small hazelnuts... Amazing... unless of course they all fall off!

If they do mature we will be ready for that pesky woodpecker this year...

First step - a scarecrow made from the big yellow waterproof Elizabeth modeled here. I suggested she could be the scarecrow but *?!!*?!!!**??! was all I  got.

Second step - Old CD's hung in the tree.

Third step - One of my old jumpers hung in the tree.

Fourth step - an air rifle and stuffed woodpecker... Bon appetit.

If any of our readers have any more ideas we would be only too pleased to try them...