A whole year in one blog post

It's been a while, hasn't it? Well I'm still here, just not been in the mood for blogging. The good news is that I got my 2 year's all clear recently, and whilst both mental and physical health have been tough at times, I've managed to get away on and thoroughly enjoy 5 holidays this year! I realise looking back that I have barely written a thing about this year, so I think I'll make this a recap of the year type post which can also serve as my Xmas newsletter to friends and family, complete with pictures. Lots of pictures. So grab a cuppa and sit down comfortably as this will take a while!

I managed to get to England twice this year to see Mum. Spending a week with her every six months isn't ideal and I would probably try to do this more often, but it's not cheap travelling there on a plane, and is a long journey by ferry (I go as a foot passenger but have a cabin both ways so that ends up making it almost as expensive as flying). Plus I've been busy travelling elsewhere this year (sorry Mum!). I seem to spend all my time in England eating, all those naughty fattening things that I can't get here in France, but for just one week thankfully it doesn't seem to put too much weight on! This year I went over there in August, as well as in the winter, but as usual the weather wasn't great (not that it was at home either), but it was lovely seeing the countryside in the summer and all the beautiful front gardens as we were driving around. My Mum lives in a beautiful part of the country, in Somerset, very close to the borders of both Dorset and Devon, so when we are out and about going out for lunch we are often dipping into the other counties, which are gorgeous too.

In April we took the Moho out for a spin, just an overnighter down to the Morbihan on the south coast of Brittany for some birding and to make sure everything was working OK prior to our May holiday. We still didn't see any bluethroats and I still haven't got the hang of selfies.

In May we set off in the MoHo down south for three weeks. We'd been looking forward to it for ages, ever since we returned from there in September! We travelled around some of the Aude department, the Pyrenees Orientales and went back to our favourite place in Spain, the Aiguamolls wetland reserve near to Roses on the Costa Brava. Being spring and nesting season it was great for bird watching but I also loved seeing the wildflowers in full bloom, as later in the year these places become really parched. There were times that we experienced the Tramontane wind, which is a nasty strong cold wind blowing off the mountains, but all in all after the first few days, the weather was great and it was wonderful after a long winter to get into shorts and T-shirts, and go swimming. The upside to camping is that we mostly get to stay at places with swimming pools, whereas if we were paying for a hotel with a pool, it would be very pricey indeed!

I've seen these Scarce Swallowtails (Iphiclides podalirius) before but not for years, so it was a delight to see a whole lot of them enjoying the Valerian plants at Rennes-le-Chateau in the Aude dept.

We rounded the corner and there it was, the Pyrenees mountain chain right in front of us.

Me at Lagrasse, in the Corbieres region of the Aude dept.

Collioure, in the Pyrenees Orientales dept, not far from the border with Spain.

Me at the Aiguamolls wetland reserve on the Costa Brava in Catalonia.

Yours truly again after she'd been for a swim at the campsite in Spain next to the wetland reserve. Thankfully no mossies here!

And it's me again folks, at the lovely campsite beside the Aiguamolls reserve.

At the end of the trip we visited the Chateau de Peyrepertuse, one of the many Cathar castles in the Aude dept. They were all built high up on craggy rocks in very defensive positions.

The Queen of the Castle! Seriously, it was quite a hike to get up there as you can see from the previous photo, and K had to haul me up some of the steep steps. I was really proud of myself when I made it to the top.

We didn't have much time when we got back before my brother Malcolm came over and we set off in the Moho again! After experiencing sleeping in the not terribly comfortable occasional bed made up of the sofa cushions the previous year, Malc decided he'd prefer to sleep in a tent, so I had fun in Decathlon crawling in and out of tents and trying out blow up mattresses so I could get the kit in advance of his arriving. He then had to try out the pop up tent, and most importantly, figure out how you fold it all up again! After doing this a few times once we were away he became a dab hand at it. 

We spent an enjoyable week travelling around the coast of Finistere, which is the furthest west department in Brittany and the one place Keith and I had not seen very much of previously. Coastal Finistere is very rugged and it all seemed quite different from our part of Brittany, which made it all the more interesting. At times we experienced wind not unlike the Tramontane down south, but this time blasting straight at us off the Atlantic! Though I was quite surprised to see so many of the tender plants which I'd been admiring down south and wishing I could grow in my garden - olives, bananas and oleander bushes amongst others. It's quite mild in these coastal areas of Finistere in winter but it doesn't get as hot in summer as inland Brittany but the exotic plants seemed to thrive there.

This is supposed to be a two man tent but that would be a real squeeze!

 Pointe de Raz, one of the westernmost points in Brittany.
My bro and me trying not to get blown off the cliff!

 Keith and me

Playing on the beach with my brother - Keith doesn't do paddling and stuff.
I think this was the beach at Saint Michel en Greve.

Back home I got the mothtrap out a few times but I didn't get very into it this year. I was however really chuffed to trap my first Lime Hawkmoth and first Small Elephant Hawkmoth!  The only really special things in the butterfly department were the return of my favourite little Lulworth Skippers and a visit by a Queen of Spain Fritillary, otherwise it was a rather uneventful butterfly year at home.

Small Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila porcellus).

This summer we've both been busy with painting! Our exterior woodwork was looking dreadful with the many coats of varnish painted over the years making the wood look really blotchy with different layers which have peeled and been recoated umpteen times. It would be practically impossible to sand them all back to the original wood and start again, so we made the wise decision to paint them instead. Now after a good sanding and two coats of quality exterior paint the house has had a facelift, but it took some getting used to. It's now painted in Rouge Basque! It's not finished as the weather turned and it's a major job with the amount of windows and doors that we have, but it's more than 3/4 done and the rest will have to wait until the spring.

The front of the house after its makeover.

Keith doing a bit more here and there this rainy autumn.

I've been painting indoors so I can keep going through the winter. All these years we've been here we've put up with bare plaster on the middle floor landing and stairwell, and in my toilet and bathroom. I haven't felt much like redecorating and anyway, all my time was taken working in the garden. This summer was dry so the only thing I did really in the garden was water, until the heavens opened in September. I've finished the loo and bathroom and I'm now onto the hallway outside our bedroom. I'm only painting in white but it looks so clean and bright now! I'm really enjoying it too as it makes such a huge change.

The before pic; you can't really see what a state the plaster was in.

The after pic, looking from the toilet into the bathroom.

After another quick overnighter down in the Morbihan just to get into the Moho swing again, we set off on yet another trip down south. We wouldn't normally have chosen mid October as a time to set off, but the reason for going at this time was because towards the end of the month we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary (25 years)!!! Where have the years gone?!!! I thought this was a good excuse to go away again and Keith didn't take much encouraging when I suggested it. This time we chose to go to the other side of the south of France, to Provence. The last time we were there must have been about 17 or 18 years ago - we'd visited a few times when we lived the other side of France as the Cote d'Azur was our closest coastline.

Provence was lovely, but there was just so much to see and we only had two weeks including travelling time. You could spend months here exploring. It was busier than the other side of the country and small villages had plenty of shops compared to the same size ones in the Languedoc which were just sleepy hollows. It was also parched dry as they've been experiencing a drought for quite some time. With no wildflowers to speak of, I hardly saw any butterflies at all - I wasn't expecting much at this time of year but had hoped to see a few, but it wasn't to be. Our first stop in Provence was the town of Avignon which was busy and had quite a vibe which I haven't experienced anywhere in years. I enjoyed it and wished we'd had more than just an overnight stop there and a couple of hours to whizz around the old town. Never mind, Have Moho, Will Travel is my motto though we might have to wild camp to save on the pennies if we keep taking this many trips in her!

On the way down we stopped at a friend's for the night - we met Monika for the first time on a Moho meetup in Spain last September, although we have known each other for years in the virtual world. Our Mohos enjoyed seeing each other as well, and again, I tried to steal Olivia, her darling little dog, but no luck!

Moho meet in the Auvergne - and Monika and me.

Olivia and me.

After Avignon we crossed the beautiful Luberon mountains to the Verdon regional nature park as we'd heard that the gorges there were fantastic. Well wow - it was! I think autumn is probably the best time of year to visit as the colours were amazing, adding to the drama of this amazing scenery.

Mary Moho made to look tiny in the Verdon Gorges.

Verdon Gorges.

Then it was time to hit the coast and we spent a few days around Bormes les Mimosas/Le Lavandou, where the weather was just delightful, no wind and warm and sunny. Just what you need with winter looming!

Oh, the glorious Mediterranean!

At a campsite at Bormes les Mimosas - every pitch had a shaded area like this!

Yup I got my flabby bits out again and went to the beach as we were camped right beside it.

That was the last of the good weather and we headed off to a campsite near Arles where the Mistral was blowing again. For our silver wedding anniversary we did something we haven't done in a long time - we took a bus! We went into Arles for lunch, and had a curry. Haha! We know how to live! We also had a day driving around the Camargue - the birding wasn't great but we got to see loads of flamingos up close, which was something new and interesting. These last couple of photos are from Les Baux de Provence in the Alpilles range between Arles and Marseilles. Les Baux was so interesting (although the wind was horrendous) we didn't get to seeing anywhere else in the Alpilles. Something to do another time!

Keith and Mary Moho at Les Baux de Provence. It looks glorious but the wind was absolutely evil!

Does my bum look big in this?

And here we are, we came back home to a wet rest of autumn and there have been few days where the sun shone all day long since mid July, which is when it seemed like someone switched summer off. Thank goodness for our trip away as we wouldn't have had any Indian Summer if we'd stayed home. Even our Scottish housesitters said that the weather was not dissimilar to Scotland......

View down to the lake with the Liquidambar showing up well on the right.

Last chicken standing - Andrea just after a moult in mid November - now she's looking quite smart but she is the last hen left and I hate that she's all alone, but I won't get any more chickens.

Sooooo, what else to say? Well I don't know if you have got the idea yet that I'm not very happy at home but come to life when we are away..... I have to assume I still associate home with the sick house or something. My doctor doubled my dose of antidepressant this spring and I felt fairly OK all though the summer but fell into a dip again as soon as we got back from this trip to Provence, just like I did last year after returning. I'm back to climbing a mini mountain to get out of bed in the morning and my motto is 'mañana'. I feel like I need a rocket up my non-existant arse to get me going. Anyhow, this is only a part of it, but after spending last winter battling the brambles, ivy and saplings in the woodland yet again, amongst the many other jobs outdoors, we made a decision - we absolutely have to move as it's just all too much for both of us, we're not getting any younger and we originally said we'd give it 10 years and it's been 13. 

However, when we thought about it, there's absolutely nothing tying us to Brittany. We can get British food goodies online which we've been doing lately so no need to take the car over to go food shopping in England any more. I can fly to see my Mum from other airports and ditto for my brother coming to see us. So guess where we are planning to move to? Down south of course! We've always thought it would be too hot, but with aircon and a swimming pool to cool us down in the height of summer, I can't see it being a problem. The benefits will be lots more sunshine in winter (and the rest of the year), plenty of warm days in the early spring and late autumn that we rarely have here in Brittany. Not to mention glorious views, a whole host of new bird and butterfly species and a thousand and one new places to explore on day trips and mini breaks in the Moho.  It's the Pyrenees side of the south of France that we're looking at, the Pyrenees Orientales or the Aude departments. Amongst my wish list which includes a swimming pool is an olive tree in my garden and an oleander hedge! And a much, much smaller, manageable garden.

So the plan is to put our house on the market in the spring and cross fingers we will be moving next year. Now you realise why we are painting...... Whoever buys this house gets ready made compost and leaf mould, plus the bins, water butts, firewood, a ride on mower, and two ducks. What more could you ask for if you want a self sufficientish lifestyle?! :-)

I'll finish off by wishing you all, friends, family and any of my blog readers still out there a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Mandy xx

Middle Spotted Woodpecker and December's tree surgery

Brrrr! We are having a cold snap with real winter weather, something we haven't had for more than a few days here and there for quite a few years. The lake has been frozen over for about a week now and every morning I have to go out and take fresh water to the hens whose water bowls have frozen solid. I'm doing the same for the wild birds' water too as they can't drink from the lake edge. It's still not been as cold as in the early years here when we reguarly had -8C, but it was down to -5C/6C a few times. I'd also forgotten about freezing pipes so we've nearly lost our kitchen cold water feed a couple of times but I've got to the tap to run it just in time, however because it's been so long since we had such a cold period I'd forgotten about the 2nd floor shower room, so the cold feed is frozen solid there! It's the first time I've worn my thermals for quite a few years too. Aaarrgh, roll on spring, I can do without all this! (However, the sun is shining all day long..... it is so much lovelier than the milder gloom and drizzle which is due to come back soon.... you just can't win!) (That blurb was written two days ago and the end of the freeze has just started with cloud and some drizzle!)

We have a new(ish) visitor to the peanut feeder. It's a Middle Spotted Woodpecker which is a fair bit smaller and a lot prettier than the Great Spotted Woodpecker. We've seen it here before many years ago (and a Lesser Spotted too) but this time it has become a regular visitor. I haven't got any very good photos so far because the only times I've had my camera to hand have been when it's been either early in the day with low light, or just plain gloomy with low light!

Having seen the state of the peanut feeder in K's photo it was time for a new one, and thankfully he found a spare feeder in the barn, ditto a seed dispenser too which is hanging on our other feeding station. I've now found a good use for the last of the rubbery windfall apples as the blackbirds are enjoying munching on them. This is the kind of weather when it's really important to feed the wild birds and especially to provide them with fresh water to drink and bathe in. (But you knew all that, didn't you?)

This is Keith's photo.

The ducks have managed to keep a small pool of water unfrozen; unfortunately for all concerned this is not close to the bank where we can put food. At first K managed to break the ice but the next day it was already too thick! Dirk is hopeless on the ice and skids everywhere and looks like he's about to break his legs, and although Rachel is managing to get up onto the ice more easily than him, she doesn't seem to want to walk over to the bank where the food is. Luckily K had a brainwave and the pole he was using to break the ice with was put to good use again - this time with the apple picking basket holding duck food! He can just reach to put the food on the ice and the ducks are happily eating it from the water. Honestly, these creatures don't want much, do they?!!

Going back to December, our 'tree man' came and felled a load of trees again, just like he did three years ago. This time some largish trees had to go, mostly due to crowding out with other trees. I had to decide which ones were most important to keep - for example, although I hate to see a beautiful lime tree being cut down, I have five of them, yet only one cedar, as we already felled one of them which had obliterated the path down to the beach. So out of three specimen trees growing into each other, the lime had to go. In the photo below it's a sycamore which has had the chop as it was shading out my liquidambar. We have loads of sycamores so that wasn't a difficult decision. All this wood will be good firewood in two years time.

The monster shredding machine. This was parked right outside the chicken run and the poor hens cowered indoors for about three days, terrified in case the scary monster started making loud noises again. Sorry hens! We have kept a lot of the shredded wood and put it down on the veg patch paths again, and also on the path leading down to the lake.

The lime tree getting the chop but one of these three trees had to go.

Originally the tree man was going to have a bash at removing the fallen stand of alders in the lake, but as the water level had risen by a couple of feet since he first viewed it this was deemed impossible and he will return next year when the water level is at its lowest. He had a mate in to help as there was a fair bit of work involved here - anyway I had a brainwave and suggested that as they couldn't do the tree in the lake, could they prune my apple trees and reduce the height considerably. We had already asked him to clear the stream banks of brambles which were taller than my head - this is a job that's bad enough doing every year but when you haven't done it for three years it gets out of control. I can tell you we both breathed a HUGE sigh of relief at not having to prune the apples and pears this year!

Taken from my living room window - man up an apple tree.

I'm surprised they managed to climb up these relatively thin branches - and so overcrowed inside the trees too.

Afterwards, one of the trees with lopped off branches. All these fallen apples have been feeding Redwings and Fieldfares this winter.

The stream is visible! The other side has now been cleared by the owners of that land - it will grow back but K is going to try to strim it and keep the brambles and nettles down. In the past I've wanted to keep the nettles for the wildlife, but there are times when nature just has to be controlled. There are tons of nettles out in the ditches for the butterflies and moths to lay their eggs on.

At this time (December) there were still some leaves clinging to the Liquidambar tree and glowing in the sunshine.

Even on the ground they retained their colour for a long time. This way you get to enjoy the colourful leaves for much longer!

I'm jumping backwards and forwards in time but I have already uploaded the photos and can't be bothered to delete and rearrange the order here! In this cold sunny snap it seemed a good time to burn all the crap we've been piling up in the veg patch waiting for there to be enough to have a good bonfire. We are not supposed to have bonfires anymore for environmental reasons and because of the nuisance to neighbours. Well we didn't really know that but we do now, although having googled to try to find the law on this one for our department, all I can find is a lot of conflicting information on government sites. What else is new?!

You can see how much stuff there was - a mix of brambles, whippy elm growth, sycamore saplings, ivy and a fair bit of dead thuya hedge, plus a lot of veg patch weeds. The official advice is to compost or shred your garden waste (we do, but you can't do this kind of thing!) or take it to the tip. This would be quite a few trailer loads plus a lot of the twigs and stems would need to be cut to fit into our small trailer, all of which takes a lot of time. I've been cracking on with clearing the jungle much faster by not having to snip up bramble stems along the way.

It did produce a lot of smelly smoke but it's not like we're doing this every week - in fact it is only our fourth bonfire here in 12 years! We won't have one again though now we know it's not permitted. Since I wrote this one of our neighbours has had a smelly bonfire..... :-)

To finish off, whilst I was clearing up our overgrown pathways I found this twig with some interesting fungi on it. It's dead wood and the twig is thinner than my finger so the fungi is really small. I wasn't entirely sure if that is what it was but the underside of the fungi looks a bit like Turkey Tails. The small bits look like scale insect though!

Honestly, the less frequently I blog, the longer my posts get. If you made it this far, well done! It's been quite a marathon for me writing it..... :-)