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...

Multistorey dwelling

We are not sure of the creature that produced this multistorey dwelling, it could be the dreaded Asian Hornet or perhaps the European hornet.  The linked articles provide good commentary on both.

But you have to admire the scale of the structure created from 'paper mache' made from chewed tree and plant material...

Interestingly the article says the nests in trees are often hidden by foliage, a fact I am well aware of!! When cutting a large beech hedge I used to have as a property boundary I sliced through a wasp nest with the hedge trimmers... The wasps were not to pleased and I received a couple of nasty stings... C'est la Vie...

That foam wasp nest destroyer is certainly good stuff!

The nest was on display at our local chateaux Chateaux Rivau but there was no description evident as to what it was.

Clover mystery..

Our lawn consists of 9 parts clover to 1 part other green weeds..

We have noticed that one clover plant has variegated leaves. As we haven't come across this before, we wondered if it is recognised by any of our readers.

It forms a rather attractive little plant, so we are reluctant to remove it. Any ideas anyone??

This One's for Jean...

Jean, a very good friend of ours, writes a wonderful blog about baking which can be seen here

I say this only to point out the contrast with what is to follow.

In a moment of insanity I bought a packet mix to make "macarons".. I will live to regret it.

The results are here....

My only defence is that the instructions on the packet are in French

and I was VERY tired when I made them. Well, hey ho! NEVER AGAIN!!!

For all future baking ideas and recipes, please refer to Jean on the above blog address!