Gubur Dhaura

Gubur Dhaura is a small suburban nature reserve in Canberra. The name means 'red ochre ground' in the Ngunnawhal Ngarigu language and its first English name was Red Hill. The hill sits on the watershed between two creeks and is 642 metres above sea level, 31 metres above the valley floor below, offering panoramic views of suburban Canberra and the surrounding mountains. 

A view of suburban Canberra and the surrounding mountains from the nature reserve hill.

Aboriginal people camped here, made tools and collected ochres for at least 5000 years. European settlers grazed animals here in the early 19th century. From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century the site was mined for iron, gold and kaolin.

Apple Box Eucalyptus bridgesiana (with some mistletoe).

Aboriginal people used the red and yellow ochres from here for ceremonial purposes. The Europeans wanted the white clay and the iron ore for their industrial activities.

Apple Box gum nuts (seed pods).

The site was open forest, dominated by Apple Box Eucalyptus bridgesiana (a species that likes well drained clay soils) until the European graziers arrived. Grazing, ploughing, clearing, pasture 'improvement', quarrying, mining and dumping have all had a tremendous impact on the site. The introduction of rabbits didn't do the site any favours either. Nowadays there is abandoned mining and agricultural equipment strewn about the place, much of it heritage listed and discreetly secured to modern signage and pedestrian way markers to prevent theft.

The boulders on the hill are home to a colony of Cunningham's Skink Egernia cunninghami.

The handsome robber fly Apothechyla sp finds plenty of prey on the dry vegetation.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Alpine Botanical Garden

A lovely view in the Alpine Botanical Garden on Schatzalp in Davos. 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Cars We Have Seen Recently

Has anyone mentioned that it's been hot??

Unbearably hot, in fact, but the one good point is that people who are normally reluctant to take their precious cars out in the rain have been out and about. These are some of them:

A 1948 Talbot Lago T26 roadster by Figoni et Falaschi

Frazer-Nash BMWs

You can see us on the road, rain or shine: here we are at Villeloin-Coulangé

If you want to explore the Loire Valley in style, rain or shine, check our tours at www.tourtheloire.com

Point Zero

Technically, Tours and Saint Pierre des Corps are two separate municipalities, but they adjoin one another and the boundaries are not always clear. Traditionally Tours is the larger and more influentual city, bourgeois in outlook. Saint Pierre des Corps on the other hand, is a railway town, with strong Communist leanings.

Under the A10 autoroute, between Tours and Saint Pierre des Corps, one of the pillars supporting the roadway is painted entirely red and white, with a black '0' in the middle. It is a symbolic representation of the reconciliation between the two municipalities, dating from 2009 and created by the Pôle des Arts Urbains (the Centre for Urban Arts). It's a slightly tongue in cheek attempt to acknowledge the genuinely felt division between the two places that the A10 emphasised by physically marking. The A10 itself follows the route of the old Canal du Duc de Berry, so the division, both physical and emotional, between the two communities is long established.

In close proximity to the site are the gigantic SNCF railway workshops and the massive Saint Pierre des Corps water tower, a real landmark. Plus the huge steel sections which can be linked together to make a coffer dam to protect Tours from flooding (and sacrifice Saint Pierre des Corps).

Some locals think it's rather fun, others think it's nonsense. Personally I'm inclined to be a fan. I like the way it is hidden in such an unexpected location, where only those taking the rat run under the autoroute will see it. We had no idea it was there -- we were in the area to photograph the water tower. Frankly I've seen public arts money spent to much less effect.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Intermittent Blogging

Blogging will be intermittent for a while. I'm lacking the time and the energy.

Buried in the Forest

On Tuesday 18 June Simon and I, Gaynor and Tim, and Bob did a 7.5 kilometre walk in the Forest of Preuilly. The highlight was going to see the Resistance encampment, with its graves and remains of their mobile kitchen, deep in the forest. We already knew the graves at Péchoire, but none of us except Simon had ever been to the other site connected with the World War II skirmish of 23 July 1944. 

Goldsmith beetle Carabus auratus (Fr. le Jardinière) on one of the forestry tracks. It sat like this for at least a minute -- amazing for a beetle that hitherto I only have blurry photos of one disappearing.

The day of the walk started of cool, but after lunch the humidity and heat soared. Later, in the middle of the night we had a very energetic summer storm. All of us picked up quite a few minute ticks from the long grass on the unmown forest rides (the record was Tim, with 16!), and horse fly season has started, so no more walks in the forest are advisable for a couple of months. 

Female Moustached Darter Sympetrum vulgatum (Fr. Sympétrum vulgaire).

The graves of three of the eight Resistance fighters killed in the forest by the Germans on 24 July 1944. Arrested at the nearby Chateau de Bossée they were brought here to their encampment in the forest, tortured and finally shot. They are buried more or less where they fell. 

Photograph of Sergeant Gaston Goblet on the cross marking his grave.

The remains of a mobile military cantine at the Resistance encampment site. Meals for the maquis troupes Carol and Epernon were prepared on it and it marked the central bivouac for both groups. The Germans used explosives to render it useless, and the wheels and stockpots were later stolen.

One of a number of old pollarded Hornbeam trees in the area of the Resistance encampment.

Wild native Foxgloves Digitalis purpurea (Fr. Digitale pourprée) in a glade.

Bundles of firewood awaiting collection.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Feather Steak

This is a reworking of a post I wrote ten years ago and has always been one of the most popular posts on the blog.

Feather steak goes by a number of names -- paleron in France, flat iron steak in America. It's also called top blade and patio steak. The name 'feather' comes because there is a large nerve running through the meat, with many smaller nerves branching off in a feathery pattern.

Cut thin and flash fried, feather steak makes a very tasty and economical meal. It is a cut of beef you can nearly always get in France, but not seen so much in anglophone countries.

It is from the less well regarded front end of the beast, and if cut thicker and used as a stewing steak, it is known as blade (as in shoulder blade, which is more or less where it comes from on the animal).

Depending on how it is cut, it will currently range in price from €7/kilo (for blade) to €10 (for feather) at one of the large supermarket chains. What's more, the label will inform you that the beast the meat came from was born and raised in France, killed and butchered in France (with a reference number so you can check exactly where and by whom). Perhaps most interesting of all, the label will say that this meat came from a cow (vache), as opposed to a steer, and she was not a beef breed, but a dairy cow (laitier).

It may seem odd to clearly label meat as not from a breed specifically developed for meat production, but take a look at the type of hefty heifer that these steaks probably came from, and you will understand that we are not talking about the sort of gaunt mobile bags of milk that modern intensive dairy farming demands. Strictly speaking, these Normandes are a dual purpose breed.

The big nerve down the middle of feather steak is most off-putting looking and often mistaken for gristle, but if the meat is cooked extremely quickly and not allowed to cool before being eaten, the nerve does not toughen but is more like firm jelly. You do need to check that all the gristle around the edges is trimmed off though, as that is like leather.

Pat the steak dry, smear with oil, season generously with a pepper blend (I use Ducros 5 Baies) and a little sea salt then sizzle for no more than a minute a side on a dry cast iron pan that has been heated until it is smoking. Pull off the heat and stir a little crème fraîche into the pan juices. Serve immediately with fried potatoes of some sort.

According to a commenter on the original post:

The cut: It sits on the side of the shoulder blade and when sliced looks like a feather with the nerve like the quill. Cut like this it is good for casseroles. However, if the nerve is removed it gives two flat muscles that are very lean with a good flavour and firm texture. These are also good for daubes and casseroles but also for flash frying. Excellent value for money.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Brain Cancer Bus

Whilst in Australia in December 2017 we followed this bus for some time.

Brain cancers are the third biggest killer of Australian children (after congenital abnormalities and land transport accidents). An article in The Conversation gives an overview.

Brain cancer is particularly tricky to treat, because of the blood-brain barrier, meaning that the body has a natural mechanism for blocking the transfer of drugs to the brain.

Buses are a particularly good means of advertising and raising awareness of all sorts of things. They frequently feature creative clever designs and like us, you might spend some time behind a bus, giving you plenty of time to absorb the message. 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Chimney Sweeper Moth

The Chimney Sweeper Odezia atrata (Fr. le Ramoneur) is an upland grassland species. I photographed this one at nearly 2000 metres above sea level in Switzerland. The subtle white leading edge of the upper wing tips is diagnostic on this otherwise sooty brown moth.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Place du Monstre, Tours

Between the covered market halls and the buzz of Place Plumereau, where everyone hangs out on summer evenings to share a beer and catch up with friends, there is a much more discreet little square in Tours. Officially it's known as Place du Grand Marché, but almost everyone refers to it these days as Place du Monstre. It's a great spot to start the day -- not, I hasten to add, in the McDonald's that has opened at one end, but next door, in the neighbourhood bar, opposite the long established hat shop. Buy yourself a pastry at one of the bakeries along the square and settle down with an excellent coffee on the terrace of le Tourangeau for some people watching.

Further Reading: The Tours Val de Loire Tourist Office page for Place du Monstre is entertaining (and in English).

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

New Apothecary at Chenonceau

To celebrate the 500 year anniversary of the birth of Catherine de Medici, the Chateau of Chenonceau has recreated the apothecary that once existed in the stable block. The Queen was always surrounded by scientists such as her doctor, Augier Ferrier, and Nostrodamus, her herbalist. The latter was so reknowned that the Queen called him to court in 1555.

A local furniture maker has worked for three years to restore a monumental set of cabinets for the apothecary. It took Fabrice Hulak, who has lived and worked in nearby Azay sur Cher for fifteen years, nearly two years to restore the individual wooden elements before putting the whole thing together, another year's work. He's very aware of how lucky he has been to work on this once in a lifetime project.

Laure Menier, the curator of Chenonceau, has wanted to reinstate the apothecary for a long time. Then three years ago she had the opportunity to buy the apothecary from a Florentine palace. The nine wooden cabinets, 3.8 metres high and 1.8 metres wide, were delivered with four boxes of bits -- a real jigsaw puzzle.

Hulak, and his old apprentice master Patrice Goulon, from Bléré, took on the task in the autumn of 2016. There were no plans, drawings or instructions. There wasn't even a photograph of the apothecary in situ in Italy. As he worked on the cabinets he discovered that they showed the signs of being altered over the course of their life.

The apothecary has been reinstated in the stables, where the original one was. The Florentine cabinets have been adapted to fit the space and the beams in the ceiling. Mouldings have been remade, suitable pieces have been found to fit and later modifications reversed so the apothecary is a Renaissance piece of furniture.

Hulak worked at least three days a week on the project, and sometimes two weeks straight. All the while he was engaged in honouring other commissions too.

The longest task was to take the cupboards apart and remove all the old varnish, then replace or reglue the little carved motifs and the broken acanthus leaves. It was very precise and fastidious work. He had to reconstruct the cupboards, remake 400 metres of mouldings and the doors. It took nearly two years to remake all the elements before he could put it all back together.

Everything was done in the workshop, then reconstructed in the room in the stables. All the carcasses of the cupboards are oak, and the facades walnut. The glass for the doors, artisan blown like in the period, were ordered from Lyon.

Hulak has also done all the other items of furniture in the display, including an enormous Renaissance three metre high by three metre wide buffet in rosewood and walnut. That only took him three months!

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Late May Flowering Orchids in the Orchard

I've had a lot of comments and queries from the public this year about Pyramidal Orchids. They must be having a good year and producing lots of flowers in shocking pink spikes that people notice. Then they get curious about what they are. In other years it has been the Lizard Orchids that people ask me about. They notice them flowering in their lawn and wonder what they are.

 A rather pale Pyramidal Orchid. 

Normally they are bright pink, but every now and then a pale one will turn up.

 A typically coloured Pyramidal Orchid, swarming with Iris Weevils.

 A little group of Pyramidal Orchids.

 Lizard Orchid.

Bee Orchid.

Further reading, on Loire Valley Nature:

Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis (Fr. Orchis pyramidal)

Lizard Orchid Himantoglossum hircinum (Fr. Orchis bouc)

Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera (Fr. Ophrys abeille)

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

A New Staircase for the Donjon

The donjon (castle keep) on the Royal Citadel at Loches is getting a new wooden entry staircase. Visitors have to get across the steep deep defensive ditch to enter through Henry II Plantagenet's medieval gatehouse and the old staircase was getting distinctly rickety. The young man working on this long riser was a cheerful soul, interested in what I was telling my clients when we visited and happy to answer questions about his work. He is set up on the roof of the 14th century caponier (a sort of bunker designed to defend the ditches, outside of the curtain wall of a castle).

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Walnut Liqueur

Liqueur de noix, day one.

It's time to start thinking about making walnut liqueur again. Traditionally it is started on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, which is 24 June. The walnuts need to be green, before any woody shell has developed. Then they are chopped into several pieces and put in the bottom of preserving jars. Add sugar and spices such as vanilla pods, cinnamon sticks, cardamon pods, Szechuan peppercorns and star anise. Other flavour elements such as lemon or orange rind can be included. The jars are topped up with eau de vie, white or red wine and/or vermouth, and the lids  closed but not sealed. Over the next few months the brew will slowly change colour as the tannins from the walnuts migrate into the liquid, some of them transforming into flavour compounds in the same way that red wine matures. The liqueur is supposed to be ready for Christmas but I find that usually it is not yet quite matured enough and is best filtered and bottled at the end of November but left in the cellar for another six months to a year before drinking.

Day two.

Day six.

Day thirteen.

Day one hundred and sixty-three.

Filtered and bottled in December, ready to give away.

I've written about making walnut liqueur, or liqueur de noix as it is known in French, before. See Walnut Witches Brew.

Yum

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

Travelling the Snowy Mountain Highway

 Gorgeous views, as you would expect on a mountain highway.

The Snowy Mountains Highway connects the south coast of New South Wales with the Monaro High Plain, crossing the infamous Brown Mountain (1243 metres).

 Yes, it snows in Australia.

B Double semi-trailer rigs must stop, uncouple their trailer and hand it over to a colleague to bring down the mountain.

 Once down they can hitch up again.

A semi-trailer on the road.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Alpine Clover

I spent ages trying to identify this plant as a milkvetch (Astragalus sp or Oxytropis sp), but it turns out to be a clover, Trifolium alpinum. I photographed this one in Switzerland in the middle of its range, at just under 2000 metres (it can be found from about 1700 metres to 2800 metres). The species is an important native forage plant for all those charming cows in the mountains, and a good stabiliser of eroded areas. They like cold, damp sunny sites with poor acid soil.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Repairing the Roof of Saint Ours, Loches

The Romanesque Church of Saint Ours, on the Royal Citadel in Loches, has a very unusual roof, in the form of two octagonal pyramids known as dubes. Made entirely of cut stone, they are unique in France. Unfortunately they seem to have been a bit experimental, and have clearly always leaked. Even after repairs in 1850 they have continued to let water in. Later, during the 20th century, there were several attempts to seal them, all to no avail.

Today they form a damp halo over the building (the last thing you want in any building, let alone a historic one!). Green and brown algae is thriving and very visible. The stone is crumbling inside and out, leaving deposits in the nave and blocking the gutters.

View of Saint Ours from the Louis XI tower.

Now, as part of a global restoration of the church which will include the stained glass, organ, belltowers and wall paintings as well as all the structural elements, the local authority is determined to find a permanent solution (which will also meet the International Convention on Conservation of Historic Monuments requirement that any intervention will be reversible).

The plan is to cover the bases of the dubes with lead sheeting. The lead will be shaped to fit all the contours of the stone, including the joints, and will reach up to the top of the buttresses. The lead will then be treated with an acid to age it and make it almost the colour of the stone. At the same time any masonry requiring repair will be dealt with, and the guttering and downpipes on the north side reviewed.

The first of the dubes under scaffolding and being inspected.

The total cost of repairing the dubes inside and out is estimated to be €556 000.

Previous conservation work undertaken as part of this project includes:

Drying Out the Narthex

La Dame de Beauté Gets a Facelift

The church is also an important swift nesting site, so we will be trying to ensure the work is done in as swift friendly way as possible. 

Donations to support the project can be made via the Fondation du Patrimoine.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Natural Born Killers

During a spell of hot dry weather in late May I photographed a series of flower crab spiders with their victims in the orchard. Here is a selection. I photographed at least twice as many individuals as I'm showing you here.

 Ashy Mining Bee Andrena cinerea captured by a Xysticus sp on Fodder Burnet Sanguisorba minor subsp muricata (Fr. Pimprenelle polygame). 

 Glanville Fritillary Melitaea cinxa (Fr. La Mélitée du Plantain) captured by Thomisus onustus (Fr. la Thomise enflée) on Field Scabious Knautia arvensis (Fr. Scabieuse).

 Glanville Fritillary captured by T. onustus on a Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis (Fr. Orchis pyramidal).

Knapweed Fritillary Melitaea phoebe (Fr. Le Grand Damier) captured by T. onustus on Field Scabious.

Four-spotted moth Tyta luctuosa (Fr. Noctuelle en deuil) caught by T. onustus on Field Scabious.

As you can see from the photos, the flower crab spider Thomisus onustus comes in pink and white or yellow. It also comes in green, and can change colour as necessary for camouflage. Sometimes they are nearly invisible, but having said that, they can be remarkably brazen, and are far less concerned about concealing themselves from a photographer than the Xysticus was.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.