The Basque Country

It's pouring with rain as I write this and I've got an apple crumble baking in the oven from the meagre pickings from the orchard. It all seems so autumnal that I fancy a sunny trip down memory lane. This time last year we spent a fabulous 10 days in the Basque country, which straddles the border with France and Spain on the Atlantic coast, all nestled into the lower parts of the Pyrenees mountain range.

I've never really shared these photos apart from a posting here about San Sebastian in Spain as part of a 7 day blog challenge back in March, and one of my French Friday postings about the Villa Arnaga, whose gardens were utterly remarkable. The Basque country is so completely different to where I live in Brittany, with the only similarity being that the native people have their own, totally incomprehensible language! The architecture, the mountainous scenery, the cuisine, are all different, although some of the coastline is as beautiful as Brittany, but in a different kind of way; it's still rocky but there are more cliffs the further one gets into Spain. The climate is wet and mild and all sorts of plants grow outside there which are not remotely hardy up here in the north west of France. All that made me want to move there and I felt quite unsettled when I first came back home, but a quick look at the property prices in that part of France and I soon changed my tune. It's obviously where everyone want to retire to - if you can afford it!

The weather was warm and sunny most of the time we were away, sometimes as warm as 25C, whilst our friends who were housesitting for us suffered cloud and gloom and about 18C - pretty much what today is like, plus rain!

I'm just going to pick out a few random photos and post them here, then give you a link to my Picasa album if you'd like to see any more.

Typical French Basque architecture with Piment d'Espelette decorations.
A chocolate/bonbon shop in St Jean de Luz, France.

Colourful boats in front of Fort Socoa, near St Jean de Luz, France.

A spot where we stopped for a picnic.

The lower foothills of the Pyrenees. Wild horses roam free up on the mountainsides.

More beautiful Basque architecture at La Bastide Clairence, France.

Here we are in Spain, looking at the river which marks the border
between the two countries. The town of Hendaye is on the French side,
and the town of Hondarribia on the Spanish side.

Umm, no thanks!

One of the really wild horses who ambled over to check us out,
on our way inland and uphill to the Foret d'Iraty, France.

This point was about 1,500m high and that was the only ski station that we saw.
Further inland the mountains get much taller.

The higher we went, the more the autumn colours became apparent.
It's so mild, lush and green down near the coast it's like we went from autumn back to summer.

A beautiful house in St Jean Pied de Port, France.

This lane is part of the pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostela,
or St Jacques de Compostelle as it is known here in France.

Lesaka, up in the mountains and just over the border in Spain,
where the houses had quite an alpine look to them

There are some fabulous forests here!

Espelette, the village where we stayed. The small town is famous for its mild chilli
which is used in place of black pepper as a table condiment, and liberally flavours their cuisine.

The local hotel where we ate a number of times and learned to understand and
pronounce a few Basque words on the menu! 

If you'd really like to see more, I have an album in Picasa all in date order and captioned, which I made for my mum. It's not public but anyone with the link can view it. There are rather a lot of photos in it, although you can view the thumbnails and just pick out a few to look at - if you're bored and it's raining where you are too!

The secret life of a chinese cabbage patch

Since being able to observe the miniature life in my garden with my macro lens; even better now that I have extension tubes which show things up even closer, I'm starting to notice just how many insects there are amongst my plants! One day I had a good look around my chinese cabbage (or chinese leaves as some of you may know them by). I couldn't believe the life that was going on in amongst all the leaves!

Some of these insects are sap suckers, some such as flea beetles munch holes, some are good to have around, and some such as spiders are predators on other insects, such as flies and the really tiny flying insects that I think just settle (and therefore often become prey for the spiders laying in wait). Don't worry, I have not posted any spider photos here even though I found a number of them on the plants. One day I will do a spider posting and those who don't want to see can avoid as I will give you due warning!

Green Leafhopper (Cicadella viridis)

Green Leafhopper (Cicadella viridis)

An unknown Leafhopper

Froghopper - unknown species of superfamily Cercopoidea
The difference between the two is that the Leafhopper has spiny legs.
Froghoppers are the insects whose nymphs are hidden in Cuckoo Spit!

The above are all sap suckers, but in small numbers like this they are not going to make much difference. I've already got holey outside leaves due to slugs which I feed to the chickens, and when the plants are fully hearted up, which they are starting to do, the inner heart is absolutely fine for us to eat.

This is a nymph stage of a Shield Bug who will probably grow up
to become the Cabbage Shield Bug!
Possibly Eurydema sp.

This is an adult form of the Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina)
I see quite a few of them about the garden, including their nymph stages.

Red Velvet Mite (Trombidiidae)
About 2-3mm long, all over the veg patch at the moment.
These are not related to the red spider mite that you find on houseplants
and are in fact a good creature to have in the garden.

Of course there are flies about!

This one is tiny and rather cute with interesting wing markings

And this one, whose pose I love!

There are still Flea Beetles about, but not in such great number
now so they can do little harm to the plant. This is the kind of
flea beetle that I see with the naked eye -
it's the size of a flea and hops just like one.

I thought this little guy was a real cutie, but guess what it is?
It's another species of Flea Beetle! Still cute though.

There are Plant Bugs from the family Miridae, another sap sucker.

And the occasional Moth having a rest on the leaves. I've no idea what this is,
but it isn't the Cabbage Moth as I checked!

Sometimes interesting solitary predatory wasps come along such as this one,
which is probably the Ichneumon Wasp, Pimpa rufipes.

It was crawling about quite oddly and I thought it may have been injured,
but then it flew off!

Another day I was passing and spotted this fabulous Cricket sitting on the leaves.

And then I discovered this oddity.
I named it the Duck-Billed Platypus Beetle.
Thankfully an entomologist put me right and told me this is in fact
a Dung Beetle of the genus Onthophagus
and very probably Onthophagus vacca

Another view of it

As well as spiders mentioned above, I've also found harvestmen and today my first slug. I'm not taking a photo of that!

September flowers

Summer seems to have gone out with similar colours to the arrival of spring, with many yellow blooms. There's also quite a touch of orange due to various annuals which complement the autumnal colours already emerging. In the latter part of the month we've had a really good amount of rain which has meant I have more time for gardening as I haven't needed to water anything except those plants in pots. We still need far more rain to reach the deep roots of trees and large shrubs but most plants, I'm sure, are breathing a sigh of relief (as am I!).

Earlier in the month it was the time for pretty pinks from some of my later flowering sedums, which have continued to flower throughout the month (although this first pale pink sedum has been slightly munched by the Sedum Ermine Moth caterpillar which attacked my purple leafed sedums last month, totally decimating them).

Honey bees and a Silver Y moth enjoying the nectar on Sedum spectabile 'Brilliant'

A Peacock butterfly and a honey bee

Sedum telephium 'Autumn Joy' covered in honey bees.
This variety has thankfully not been attacked by caterpillars!

More pink flowers from the Golden Oregano in the foreground,
and the tall spires of a plant which I think is Polygonum something-or-other.
Taken at this angle so you can't see the total mess
that my poor hostas became!

All month my Verbena bonariensis has continued to flower - new self seeded plants with fresh new flowers to attract butterflies appear here and there and everywhere (including all over the veg patch!).

Small Copper butterfly on Verbena bonariensis

Pelargoniums have been flowering like crazy -
this is my favourite, 'Mrs Pollock'

Small flowers appear in late summer on this little Abelia,
but one needs to get down to its level to fully appreciate them!

I treated myself to some new shrubs, Potentilla 'Goldfinger' and
Caryopteris 'Heavenly Blue', both of which really attract pollinators,
and flower for months through to October

There I was thinking my Yucca wasn't going to flower this year....

Along by the cellar walls the Hydrangeas continue to give pleasure
with their slowly fading colours

Heliopsis? seen through the leaves of Spirea japonica 'Goldflame'.
The question mark is due to this yellow flowered plant coming from a
plant swap, so I never knew what it was called.

Sedum telephium 'Autumn Joy' at the end of the month, the fading blooms of the Coneflowers
along with Stipa grass.... and of course, a self seeded Verbena bonariensis,
with obligatory butterfly on it (a Small Copper again!)  

My huge sunflowers are past their best after wind and rain
have battered them about, but still the bees are enjoying what
is left of the blooms (and the finches are loving the seeds!)

Bidens in the foreground which is slightly invasive, but a good
tall plant for the back of a border. It is late flowering but an
early heavy frost will finish it off, so in a good autumn it can flower for ages,
other years not for very long! Heliopsis? behind.

Bidens and Heliopsis? seen through my Dogwood,
Cornus sanguinea 'Winter Flame'

In the centre is one of this spring's self seeded Bronze Fennels,
which I transplanted here and is now flowering amongst
the Verbena b. and Calendula

The following is a general view just after I'd planted the Caryopteris in the place where I'd dug out half a ton of day lily roots. I also dug out another ton of dogwood roots elsewhere and moved a Weigela which had scorched in full sun into that shadier place.... the new Potentilla will replace the Weigela in the sun.... and so the work continues, hopefully to work out next year.

And if it doesn't, I'll just carry on as usual, lifting, dividing, moving.... forever, as that is just how it is, in the ornamental garden. Nothing stands still, and even when you do get it 'just right', it won't stay just right for too many years!

Back garden, work in progress.