Leopard Slug

Early one morning recently I was making my way on foot through Amboise and encountered a magnificent Leopard Slug Limax maximus (Fr. Limace léopard) on the footpath near the town hall. My guess is that it lives in the museum courtyard in a nice little damp crevice, and was on its way back from a night of gallivanting along the banks of the Loire (or working over the cafés along the Quai de Général de Gaulle).

Leopard Slugs are very large, up to 20 cm in length. This one wasn't that big, but it was more than 10 cm, and at 13 cm exactly average for Leopard Slugs. Their scientific name means 'largest slug', but in fact one of their cousins, the Ash Black Slug L. cinereoniger, is bigger. We get them here too, but they stick to the forests and are not seen in urban environments.

This one is a very typical pattern and colour, but they do vary quite a bit in terms of how stripey or spotty they are and how brown or grey they are. The thicker rounded front is called a shield, and hidden underneath it is a shell. These slugs take a couple of years to reach maturity, but then don't live more than a year after that.

Their natural range is Central Europe and North Africa, but they have been introduced to many other places, including Australia. Solitary in their habits, they live in damp environments, near water courses, in forests, parks and gardens.

Primarily they eat rotting, wilted and dead plants, moss, fungi and dead wood, but they have occasionally been clocked at speeds of 15 cm per minute as they hunt other slugs.

Cyclamens at Chenonceau

Every year we post photos of a carpet of cyclamens photographed somewhere in the Touraine Loire Valley to usher in the autumn. This year the cyclamens are in the grounds of the Chateau de Chenonceau.

Pear and Chocolate Mousse

If you have a pear tree that delivers a multitude of rather small pears, as we used to have, this is a useful recipe that I developed to use up what we had on hand.

 

Photo from our archive of our homegrown Beurre Hardy pears, ideal for this recipe and in season now.

 

Quarter, core and peel 10 small pears. Poach for 20 minutes in a syrup made from ¼ cup of red wine and ¼ cup of sugar, with half a split vanilla pod added. Meanwhile, melt a block of chocolate. Blitz the pears and syrup to a purée. Mix 250 ml of thick cream into the chocolate, then mix that into the pear purée. Serve with a sponge finger.

Photo from our archives of Doyenne de Comice pears and nashis (Asian pear) in our orchard.

An Evening with Fabre

As any entomologist and many naturalists know, Jean-Henri Fabre was an extraordinary man. He worked as a teacher in the south of France in the 19th century, but his real passion was observing and recording wildlife behaviour. He wrote extensively and remarkably accessibly about the natural goings on around his home. I highly recommend reading him, either in French or in translation. You can find many of his essays and learn more about him in English on this site: http://www.efabre.net/

Not long ago my friend Richard invited me to an evening he was holding at his home. A friend of his was going to talk about Fabre and Richard knew I would be interested. I was having a busy week, with clients for chateaux walking tours every day, but I promised to make it to his evening with friends.

Boy am I glad I did! I was expecting a fairly standard, entomology conference style, lecture about Fabre the man and his legacy, or somesuch. What we were actually treated to was a performance, developed and delivered by Richard's friend, a professional actress and singer. She in turn, had been introduced to Fabre by Richard's partner, Patrick, and she had fallen in love with Fabre's writing.

Because the weather was inclement the performance was in the upstairs of Richard and Patrick's barn, a wonderfully rustic and intimate setting. We heard several of Fabre's stories, including one about a dung beetle, interspersed with the sounds of nature, and song. It was marvellous. At the end a hat was passed around for the audience to contribute as they wished.

Afterwards we all gathered around for drinks and nibbles, and discussed what other local venues would be suitable for such a performance next year.

Hopefully, a Mystery Solved

*Warning. Bodily functions are about to be mentioned*

For the past 4 days I have been suffering from a very upset stomach. This is particularly distressing when taken in conjunction with my radiotherapy treatment, causing a delay in treatment because my bowels have to be empty, but my bladder full. This means the radiology nurses have been sending me off to have a poo, and then filling up with 4 cups of water in 10 minutes. It started last week when I was delayed getting to the hospital and my preparation was interrupted.

I was really demoralised by this, and I was at my wits end trying to work out why, all of a sudden, I couldn't get it right. I started this week feeling ambitious, and increased the amount I was drinking so I arrived fully ready to go. Unfortunately the problem wasn't solved, and Monday in particular was embarrassing to the point I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the effort. I had to reload 3 times, and my 8 minute treatment took almost 2 hours.

I was close to tears.

Then I had a thought... where was all that liquid coming from?

I wondered if drinking too much water could cause diarrhea. Checking Dr Google I discovered that when your body gets more water than it can handle, it can throw off the balance of salts, like sodium, that help control the fluids in your intestines. This makes water move too quickly through your system, which leads to loose, watery stools. Too much water can also water down the acid in your stomach, making it harder to break down food.

So yesterday I reduced my water intake, and bingo. I arrived at the hospital wondering if I had reduced it too far, but no. I arrived, was called, and 10 minutes later I was finished.

I just wondering why no-one at the hospital thought that force feeding me water was the cause, not the solution.

Today, hopefully, these doors will not be the doors to humiliation.

An Unusual Food Blog

I've written before about my new boring diet. Here's photographic evidence:

White ham (de fatted), mashed potato (as plain as possible) and boiled carrots. It was about all I could face yesterday.