Springtime at home

Time for a break from my travels and write a bit about what's going on at home! We had a lovely few days of sunshine and even two days with temps around 25C, which was a real treat. Two days later on Sunday and it was wet, windy and 9C. I guess that's April for you.

Keith has planted out my Olive tree (at long last) and made a nice wooden surround for it, and I also found a pretty lime green Smoke Bush at the garden centre so he's planted that out too with the same kind of surround. In the distance he is attacking my new (teeny tiny) veg bed! We needed to add a bit of interest to this area since the fruit trees had to go, yet the Olive can be pruned to keep it from getting too large as we don't want the insurance company complaining about another tree too close to the house!

Not sure why the photo is at this angle. I was trying out my new phone camera (actually no different really from the previous one, both Motorolas). Think the phone or my finger slipped or something. Anyway you can see some of my herb bed, which has become rather overgrown and woody, well some of the plants anyway. Where the hedge is we used to see all the neighbour’s pool over it, which shows how much the Oleanders have grown in six years! There’s even a ‘rogue’ tree which appeared above the hedge a few years ago. I haven’t tried to ID it yet, something I keep forgetting about. I guess a seed was dropped in some sparrow poop!

This is my new veg bed. It's just 1 x 3 meters and should be fine as all I really want is enough space for one courgette, three cherry tomatoes and some salad, spring onions and herbs. If I find I need more space then he'll do me another bed the same size parallel. He's gone to a lot of trouble making these nice surrounds and treating the wood and varnishing it.

The big problem unfortunately is very heavy clay soil, which has sat under gravel and geotextile for goodness knows how many years and was probably all compacted by diggers when the house was being built about 37 years ago. What you see here is horrible clumps after K has tried to 'dig' over the patch! Since then it has been left to dry out and he has managed to reduce the size of the clumps and I have even put on my wellies and walked up and down, stomping away trying to break up the hard lumps. 

On top we have added what's left of our homemade compost, lots of spent compost from all the pots of dead plants that were killed this winter by the sudden freeze, and some gravel then on top has gone three sacks of bought potting compost. Another three sacks and it should be about right. I do need to be able to make a drill to sow seed! In a few years of this stuff mixing together then hopefully the structure wll be much improved, after all my herb bed was like this to start with and is miles better now.

Honestly, I go from the sublime to the ridiculous. My last potager was dry sandy free draining soil which needed lots of watering, and this is the total opposite!

My new Smoke Bush (Cotinus coggygria) called ‘Golden Lady’. I just love them in this colour and they turn lovely orange in the autumn too.

I went for a walk along the road which runs along the ridge here looking out over the valley. At the moment it is Lady Orchid (Orchis purpurea) season and there are loads of them in this area - just sadly none in my garden!

I thought that this first one might be a hybrid but I have been assured by several people who know their stuff that it is just another Lady Orchid, and that they can vary a lot, much like so many other orchids. It makes identifying them really hard!

Now this one I knew was a Lady Orchid, as they mostly look like this.

I've been told it's possible this one is a hybrid, i.e. a cross between two orchids, in this case Lady Orchid and unknown. I have found Lady x Military Orchids in this part of my local patch before so who knows? I certainly dont!

This is looking towards the Pyrenees on the right and the Corbieres on the left. Where that bare patch is on the hillside is because people/builders/farmers have been dumping spoil over the side of the hill, which peeves me no end. And because of this, with all the rain we had in January and February, it just ran off that bare patch and pooled in the field below, killing off the crop and leaving that bare white chalky patch. I'm quite surprised that some of the hillside didn't collapse into the field below.

Looking back in the other direction, towards the Montagne Noir. We used to walk down this track during Covid as we were restricted to 1km from home, and called that lone tree the 'Lollipop Tree'. The track comes to an end at a field at the bottom but you can walk along the edge of the field, then there is another only used by animals track to follow, which joins another proper walking route. At least it gave us a bit of choice when it came to where we could walk during those times and gave us a loop walk to do. Thank goodness that time is over!

One of the Star of Bethlehem family, Ornithogalum divergens, flowering in the grass verge.

The initial white blossom period is over (for now, until the Robinia starts flowering) and Lilac is flowering everywhere, both in gardens and also in the wild. The scent whilst I was standing here was really lovely, due I expect to the heat. The bare fields will mostly be sunflowers later on. 💛

Another tree in bloom right now is the Judas Tree (Cercis siliquastrum) which is mostly growing in gardens but also here and there in the wild - also along the banks of the motorway on our way to the coast, which is a nice sight. This one was just growing in a hedgerow.

Looking back towards home with my house on the left and the top of the old part of the village in the distance.

I have my usual orchid lawn at this time of the year - the Early Spider and Sombre Bee Orchids are going over, whereas the Yellow Bee Orchids (Ophrys lutea) below are just popping up. There will be more Early Spiders later as I have a whole patch of them that come up later in the back garden.

Finally, my new Wisteria floribunda, which I bought to replace the previous climber that never came to anything. I was going to replace it two years ago but when we went to bury Hallie here we discovered that the Bignone (Campsis radicans) that we thought was dead had started sprouting. So I potted it up but it still never came to anything, and died again - properly this time - yet it's a vigorous climber for everyone else! So let's hope in a few years I will have a lovely display of Wisteria over this arch as it's been bare for too long!

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into springtime in our neck of the woods. At least there are a few butterflies around now on the warm days and plenty of bees, and even bees already going into my bee hotel! I haven't seen a Swallow yet though....

Provence Trip Sept 2024 - Part 5 Wildflowers on the way to St Veran

After Sisteron we headed to the town of Guillestre in the Queyras Natural Regional Park where we based ourselves for a few nights. From there we headed to the highest all year round inhabited village in France, St Veran. Obviously there are ski villages which are higher but people don't live there all the time. We drove along beside the river Guil and stopped at this place which looked scenic to take a few photos.

Growing in the gravel above the river I found some wildflowers! They are also species I've never seen before either which was nice. Finding wildflowers in September is quite rare due to the dryness in most places so that was quite surprising, as they were not low down right beside the river so couldn't have drawn moisture from it where they were situated.

This is Alpine Willowherb (Chamaenerion fleischeri).

Grass-leaved Scabious (Lomelosia graminifolia).

I'm pretty sure this is the Heineken Hoverfly (Rhingia campestris), which I haven't seen since we left Brittany.

Narrow-leaved Valerian (Centranthus angustifolius).

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus).

I saw these flies - Bumblebee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans) on the right and Fat-palped Tachina (Tachina ferox) on the left - on this Scabious when we arrived at St Veran, but I thought I would include the image in this post as it's about flowers and insects. As usual all these images can be clicked on to view larger which brings up the images more sharply.

Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 15 Gorges du Segre, France

We saw a spot suitable for eating our packed lunch down by the stream so I managed to scramble down the bank to sit on the rocks (note my blow up cushion, which I take everywhere! I still can't sit on hard things).

This is a Lackey Moth (Malacosoma neustria) caterpillar.

This picture shows where glaciers were 25,000 years ago, and you can see where we walked - from the Bains (thermal baths) of Llo, up the river valley, then around and over the hill where St Feliu is marked, then a steep slope down to the top of the village. You'll need to click on the photo to see the details.

This Pink was very bright and pretty though I have no idea what it is as there are umpteen species of wild Dianthus in Europe.

Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea).

The view. There was the worst haze I have ever seen - there should be mountains across the valley there! Yet we were in lovely warm sunshine so apart from the lack of views, it didn't matter.

Possibly a Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). It has spotty leaves.

Keith is very good at taking photos of me with my eyes closed! 😀

Broad-leaved Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza majalis)

My favourite flower of the day was this Black-eyed Heron's Bill (Erodium glandulosum). Erodiums are related to the Cranesbill Geraniums, but much smaller plants.

Houseleeks, one of the host plants of the Apollo butterfly, along with sedums. The one on the right and bottom is the Cobweb Houseleek (Sempervivum arachnoideum). The other one that is flowering I am not sure but could be the Common Houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum).

We decided not to hike up this steep hill to the remains of the chapel called St Feliu, which you can just see at the top. We wouldn't have had a better view up there due to the haze.

Another Fritillary that I can't ID. Without pictures of the underwings, Fritillaries are very difficult to ID. This might actually be the same species as the unknown one in the previous post.

Another photo by Keith - this time it's a Robber Fly with prey of Provence Orange Tip butterfly.

The only part of the walk that I didn't like was the very steep descent back to Llo, and I thank goodness that I had my alpine stick to help. I find steep slippery slopes terrifying - the last thing I want to do is land on my bum! 😱

We came out at the top of the village. I just love this kind of old rounded slate tile that is still seen here and there in old villages in the mountains.

Down at the bottom of the village with the old ruin of La Tour del Vacaro in view on a hillside.

Back to where we parked near the Thermal Baths. Our route started off to the right out of this picture.

Well what a day! Other species of butterfly seen but not photographed:

Speckled Wood
Provence Orange Tip
Orange Tip
Black Veined White
Large White
Comma
Spanish Gatekeeper
Brimstone
Cleopatra
Clouded Yellow
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
White Admiral (or Southern White Admiral)
Small Heath
Wood White 

Total approx 26 species for the day. 💜 The good thing is that this place is only 2.5 hours from home, so I certainly want to come back again, though I would like to walk further along the paved road towards the refuge next time.

The next day we went home, via Villefranche de Conflent, another Vauban citadel not far from Mont Louis. I don't have any great photos from there so I am winding up this travelogue with a final photo of me with a very strangely presented chicken kebab!!!

I hope you have enjoyed coming along on our travels with us. Many thanks to those of you who comment and let me know, or like on facebook. 

Pyrenees Trip June 2024 - Part 14 Gorges du Segre, France

This was the last full day of our holiday, and it was perfect. So perfect, it made up for the not so good weather during the first couple of weeks, and the lack of interesting fauna and flora.

We headed to Llo, where I had read about a circular gorge walk that sounded interesting and just about the right length for me (about 7km/4 miles).

We followed a quiet paved road which lead uphill, but not steeply. In any event, there was so much stopping to look at the wildflowers and butterflies that the uphill wasn’t a problem!

The first butterfly I saw was this one below, one I’d never seen before. It was perched on one of its host plants, a Cranesbill Geranium. The sides of the road had lots of large flowered Cranesbills along it, not something I see very often in the wild.

Alpine Saxifrage (Saxifraga paniculata)
Geranium Argus butterfly (Eumedonia eumedon) * (a lifer!)
Either Common Spotted (Dactylorhiza maculata subsp. fuchsii) or Heath Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata). I can’t tell the difference and as you will see, I saw many that are one or the other (or indeed, something else!). The ones where I took photos of the leaves had spotty leaves.

Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia)

All along the way we walked beside this mountain stream, the Segre.

Above and below: either Heath Spotted or Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza species)

Yet more lifers! I saw five on this day! Asterisk denotes a lifer.
Iberian Marbled White (Melanargia lachesis) *
Pearly Heath (Coenonympha arcania) *
Unknown Fritillary

Round-leaved Restharrow (Ononis rotundifolia). I thought this was a delightfully pretty plant.

Apollo (Parnassius apollo). This is the butterfly we have been longing to see for years. It’s not a lifer as we saw some in the Jura mountains above Geneva more than 20 years ago, but we weren't into photography much back then, and didn’t have a digital camera at that time, which helps i.e. taking loads of pics! There were tons of Apollos flying about along this road and up the gorge banks. 💜

These are Keith’s images, as mine were not so close up.

Heath Fritillary (Melitaea athalia).

Piedmont Ringlet (Erebia meolans) * This butterfly took a liking to K’s foot, and jumped onboard to drink some of his sweat!

Unknown Blue butterflies. I'm not sure if they are the same species though they look similar. Possibly Amanda's Blue?
Alpine Saxifrage (Saxifraga paniculata)

Below is the only building we came across, a farmhouse called Mas Patiras.

Large Wall Brown (Lasiommata maera) * Slightly larger and lighter than the regular Wall Brown.

We came to where we turned off the paved road at a bridge and looked around for somewhere around the stream to have our picnic lunch. The rest is in the next post.

Relief map showing the Cerdagne and the places that we went to. Not marked is Llivia and its hill, where we went in the last post, bottom left.