Getting out and about a few weeks ago

It's turned so chilly and gloomy of late and I doubt I'll be wearing T-shirts again this year. I'm ready to dig out my winter woollies. But I'm behind as usual with my blogging so here are some pics from a couple of walks going back to the end of September and the beginning of October, so I'm already looking fondly back at the sun and T-shirts!

The first was a lake (Etang de Boulet) only about 15 mins drive from home - we'd been here once before for a short walk years back but hadn't realised there was a track all the way around (I'm not up to that one yet!) and that there were boardwalks and a couple of bird hides, although these are rudimentary ones without seats - but you still get a view out over the lake hidden from the birds. The lake level was very low as you can see from the first photo. I'm standing in what would be the lake bed during a wet winter but a perfect 'lawn' had sprung up! There wasn't a lot around in the way of bird life other than lots of Coots, some Great Crested Grebes, a couple of Little Egrets and some Cormorants, but it may be worth checking out in winter for ducks. I did see a guy with a tripod and either a huge lens or spotting scope, so I'm guessing there must be some interesting species at times.

Yours truly.

Lake view over grassland area and the beach area by the sailing club.

There was still plenty of Odonata about -
top is a Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum),
bottom a Western Willow Spreadwing (Chalcolestes viridis).

Me shooting dragonflies from the boardwalk.

I think this is a female Southern Darter (Sympetrum meridionale).

Another boardwalk - I'm guessing the ground
is quite boggy in places in the winter.

The main path, the boardwalk signs with funny looking dragonflies!!, and fungi.

A Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) and some freshwater mussel shells.

His truly.

Another day we went for a walk in the forest of St Aubin du Cormier. A friend had told me about some interesting rock formations - this sort of thing is not common around here where the countryside has only gently rolling hills, but there is a steep mini peak in the middle of the forest and these rocks at the top. They are used as climbing rocks - not much of a climb if that is your sort of thing, but then again, there's not a lot of places like this in the vicinity!

Me again!

I prefer pics of me taking pics of something.

Or distant ones like this!

My friend had also told me about the Maison Forestière, but I was disappointed as it appears to have been modernised, at least on the outside, although looking somewhat tatty. I can find no more information about it so I have no idea if anyone lives in it - I doubt it somehow, though it may be used as a shelter or office for people still looking after the forest. These houses were inhabited by the guardians of the forests in days gone by.

How it once looked....

..... and how it looks now.

K is still going out for his bike rides and I don't know why he gets to see interesting birds which don't seem to be scared off by his bike, yet when we are on foot, or even driving slowly along the lanes, they don't appear to be around. Anyway, on this particular ride he came across a Wheatear as well as a Stonechat! I've only seen two Wheatears in Brittany, one on the north coast and one on the south coast. According to the RSPB Wheatears are migrant birds and overwinter in central Africa, so it must have been about to be off, as these photos were taken on 3rd October. I'm not sure but think this is the male in non breeding plumage.

Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) on the left and Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) on the right.

Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe).
You can click on the photo to view larger.

I've plenty of garden photos to share - I just need to get my non A into G and sort them out! Have a great weekend, whatever you are up to. :-)

Great news from my Oncologist!

You can guess what I'm going to say from the heading, can't you! WOOHOO, Mandy does a happy dance.....

Met with my Oncologist this morning and he said there is nothing cancerous showing on my Petscan so I am free of the dreaded C word right now! The other good news is that I can get the annoying port removed too - I had thought from reading UK and US forums that it would have to stay put for a year but no, not here, so that's brilliant as I find it quite uncomfortable at times. There was no sign in my scan of a parastomal hernia either as I was concerned as I have a bit of a bulge above the stoma which wasn't there to start with. I also have an appt with a pain management doc to discuss my problem butt as I still can't sit without donut cushions, and can discuss possible drugs that might help with the neuropathy with him (although according to the Onc they don't usually work). My view is that they are worth trying. I can't type properly any more due to it so that's the only blot on the horizon; thank goodness for my Kindle as tapping out text with my stylus is a lot easier and I can use my mouse OK so photo processing etc isn't a problem.

I have to have another colonoscopy in two months to check for polyps which are pre cancerous things which can be removed at the time of the colonoscopy and if they do find any I would need to have a colonoscopy every year, if not then every 3 years or so. I'll be seeing the Onc every 6 months and will have either an ultrasound or a petscan before each appt with him.

So for now I just breath a sigh of relief and let time heal me.

A Painted Lady, just because. :-)

I can't believe a week has gone by since I last blogged, but I've been tired and lethargic again with odd bouts of energy interspersed with spending time in bed sleeping during the day because I've been wide awake and reading during the night, and feeling generally blah. I suppose it is not surprising as the previous week I was full of energy and got out and about quite a lot. I am not too bothered about feeling like this as I know it's normal now (although it is still quite frustrating!). 

I do have photos to share but wasn't in the mood and I haven't read any of your blogs either - I will rectify that as I'm feeling a lot happier right now, so I will catch up with your blogs and my own very soon. I just wanted you all to know the good news and to thank you for the support you have given me over the last year - it has helped massively so thank you all so much. xx

A visit by the Queen of Spain, another Lepidoptera lifer and some Skipper caterpillars (all within two days!)

I was hardly expecting to see any new butterflies this year at this late stage in the season, but whaddya you know - I've seen two lifers in two days!! Coupled with a Skipper which I haven't seen for a couple of years, and isn't exactly common in my garden.......

It all started when I noticed a self seeded lavatera (aka mallow) in a now weedy shrub bed where we removed a rather old and leaning precariously lavatera this spring, to make space for a different shrub I'd planted near it last year. I noticed it was looking rather chomped and that there were several leaves curled up upon themselves. Closer inspection revealed some grey looking caterpillars within. I decided I'd check what a Mallow Skipper caterpillar looked like but thought that was wishful thinking. 

Next thing I know, I'm walking past the veg patch thinking "oh there's another Silver Y moth nectaring on some flowers", when I suddenly realised, "ohmigod, no it's not!". It was in fact a rather worn looking Mallow Skipper. I think these skippers are one of the last skipper species to be seen in the season - indeed I haven't seen a skipper at all since about the end of July. It's been a couple of years since I saw one of these guys so that was rather exciting, and I managed some zoomed in photos through the fence wire of the veg patch whilst it was feeding on several flowers.

It wasn't until the next day that I got around to checking out their caterpillars, and amazingly that is exactly what those grey guys wrapped up in the lavatera leaves were! I just had to have a closer look so apologies to the caterpillar but I removed one from its leaf to get some shots, then put it carefully back later. These caterpillars will overwinter as larvae before pupating in the spring. I'm not sure though if they will stay there wrapped up in the leaves, as although these lavatera plants don't tend to drop all their leaves in autumn, they don't all stay put either (I'm trying to remember here as I don't normally think about it). However I also have some wild mallows in the chicken run and those plants die back almost completely during winter, most of the stems too, so I've no idea what happens to the caterpillars if the butterflies lay their eggs on those wild plants. 

I'm leaving the caterpillars be and not going to try to raise them indoors, as they'll be perfectly happy outside and I won't disturb the plant until the spring when it can be weeded out. I have other lavatera and I don't want or need any more.

Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae) on Verbena bonariensis.

Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae) on a Marigold (with annoying stem in the way
but I was the other side of the fence so it couldn't be helped!).

And a few more pics of the Mallow Skipper.
You can click on the photo to view it larger.

Here's the caterpillar of the Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae).

They are easy to ID with the yellow marking behind the head.

This is the small Lavatera plant showing some of the curled up leaves
which contain a caterpillar inside.

That in itself was excitment enough as up to now the only butterfly caterpillars I have found have been Large and Small Whites and Swallowtails. But!! A little while later I was wandering past a forsythia thinking "is that a flower?!!" - yes it was; there were in fact two flowers - must be something to do with the rain we had in August and September which has made some of my shrubs flower again. Then I noticed a small brownish butterfly perched above my head - oh joy - that makes three Hairstreaks which I've seen in my garden now. It's a Brown Hairstreak and the host plant is blackthorn (aka sloe), although they also use bullace. This forsythia is very close to my three plum trees, which include a damson (or bullace), so here's hoping it may have laid some eggs!

Brown Hairstreak (Thecla betulae) on Forsythia branch.

Brown Hairstreak (Thecla betulae) - it's a female as I can see
from this and other photos the golden patch on the
upperside of the forewing showing through.

Not the best photos ever but a lot better than none of something so totally unexpected!

I think those of you who are butterfly lovers will have guessed how over the moon I was at those three finds..... so guess how I felt the very next day to see that Spanish royalty had deigned to visit my veg patch?! I didn't know which fritillary this was at the time and took loads of photos - I had to zoom in as I didn't want to disturb it trying to get closer, but it was a very obliging butterfly who flitted a few feet away and would come back again, sometimes actually stopping on the bark chippings by my feet! He or she kept opening and closing its wings all the time which was a qood thing as I knew I'd need a pic with the underwing markings to help with ID. I was tickled pink when I found out it was a Queen of Spain Fritillary as I'd always imagined that butterfly to be something special and regal and probably only living in Spain...... but they are migratory so visit Brittany! The host plants, amongst others, are borage and heartsease violas, of which there are plenty in the veg patch, but I don't know if they breed around here. According to Wikipedia "it is resident in southern Sweden and Finland, and on the coastal sand dunes of the Netherlands (Bretherton, 1990)" so you never know.

Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia).

Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia).

A totally amazing butterfly week! :-)

By the way I have identified that flower from my last post as Honeywort or Siberian Motherwort (Leonurus sibiricus). Google it and there is little information about it regarding its virtues as an ornamental plant or whether it's a great nectar plant for pollinators. But there is plenty of discussion about smoking it or drinking it as 'tea'. It appears to have another common name.... Marijuanilla! ;-)