European Buckthorn in the Touraine Loire Valley

European Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica (Fr. Nerprun purgatif) is one of the few European species in a genus which contains about 100 species, most of which occur in the tropics. It can be found in England, south to the Mediterranean and east into Asia as far as Kyrgyzstan. It's French name 'nerprun' is a corruption of 'noire prune' (black plum). 

The plant forms a bushy shrub up to 5 metres tall. The wood is dense and solid, but not used very much. The black fruits are toxic to man, but birds will eat them and disperse the seed.  Both the fruit and the bark are violently purgative. An extract from the berries has proved very effective in treating coccidiosis in domestic rabbits. The fruits and shoots were once harvested for use as a textile dyestuff.

The largest specimen I've ever seen, on the Etang Purais nature reserve in the Brenne.

 

It is the caterpillar food plant for the Brimstone butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni (Fr. Citron) and if you see a bright yellow male Brimstone fluttering about there is likely to be a Buckthorn in the vicinity.

Parisian Bubblers

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Australian bubblers. These are the Parisian equivalents.

There are 103 Wallace fountains in Paris, supplying fresh drinking water in the streets. They were a gift to the City of Paris by long time resident Sir Richard Wallace, an Englishman. Wallace, the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford had inherited a fortune in 1870. 

Installation of the fountains started in 1872. They are cast iron and painted in the dark green approved for streetscape furniture by the City. The biggest ones are 2.71 metres tall and weigh 610 kilograms. Wallace himself sketched his idea of how they should look, and decided on their size, construction and cost before taking his design to a professional sculptor for refining. Their principle design feature is the four caryatids, in four slightly different stances or attitudes.

Today visitors and residents of Paris are encouraged to use the Wallace fountains to refill their water bottles, and reduce plastic waste. At the moment the fountains run a continuous stream of water into their basin and users simply put their bottle underneath to catch it. But in today's world that is wasteful so experiments are underway to see if pressing a button to dispense set quantity of water will work.

Sydney Rock Oysters

When we were on the South Coast of New South Wales we were treated to oysters for lunch, which Susan declared to be the best she's had.

Sydney Rock Oysters (*Saccostrea glomerata*) are the preferred species of oyster in Australia, found in the estuarine waters of New South Wales and southern Queensland. They are threatened in the wild (and in some fisheries) by the invasive Pacific Oyster, coincidentally the species of oyster now dominant in French cultivation. They thrive in sheltered bays, rivers, and estuaries, attaching themselves to rocks, piers, and other hard surfaces. They main centre of production used to be the Georges River in Sydney, but that fishery was closed after multiple pollution events and poisoning.

Sydney Rock Oysters take 2 to 3 years to reach market size, and their growth is influenced by water temperature, salinity, and food availability. Unlike Pacific Oysters, they are well-adapted to Australia's fluctuating coastal conditions, including variations in salinity and water temperature. Their shells are usually thick and irregular, varying in color from white to dark purple or brown.

The Australian aquaculture industry has invested heavily in breeding and disease resistance programs to improve the sustainability and quality of the oysters. We had them raw on the half shell, opened and nicely presented by the bloke at the oyster shack.

Now Wash Your Hands

When we were driving back to Canberra from Queensland in November last year we stopped for lunch (as tradition dictates) in Cudal, something I have been doing since the late 1980s. I can't remember the previous names of the establishment I stop at, but the latest incarnation is "Platypus Pantry" - and it's the best of the lot.

I had an excellent toasted egg and bacon ciabatta (with tomato sauce, thank you Susan), but of course, before you eat you must wash your hands. This is done in the very Australian way: at the water tank, drying your hands on a towel hanging on a nail. The only jarring note was modern style hand wash.

It's a bit tricky photographing this kind of thing with people sitting around, but Susan managed it.

Teaser

This photo is a teaser for a blog post that will probably appear next week.

Yesterday was a very long day, but a very interesting one. Stay tuned...

May 8

Today we are off on a date appropriate adventure. Here's a clue.

We saw our first poppies of the year yesterday.

No Blog Post Today

There's no real blog post for today: this week has (so far) been mainly medical.

Susan had a physiotherapist (kino) appointment on Monday, yesterday I had an appointment in Tours for a trip through the atomic donut, and today I'm at our GP. And... last Friday Susan was at the opthalmologist. Which hasn't left a lot of time for anything else.

Let's hope neither of us get old.

Melanoma

Warning: photographs of a medical nature follow.

 

 

 

I imagine most Australians have at least one skin cancer spot of some sort removed in their lifetime, and Australians are very aware of the damage the sun can do. Here in Europe the sun is not so fierce, but if you are Australian you should still go for annual checkups on those spots and flaky skin blemishes.

We have always tried to see a dermatologist once a year, but a few years ago the one we had been going to, in le Blanc, retired. It proved remarkably difficult to find a replacement. Luckily, after a tip off from our GP (Fr. médecin traitant) we found a new, much younger, dermatologist in Cormery.

I had a large freckle on my left arm, near my elbow. Some time ago it had doubled in size and changed shape and become two tone. Our old dermatologist saw it and pronounced it nothing to worry about. But I was sceptical nonetheless, and when we were in Australia my sister spotted it and sucked her teeth. And many years ago when we still lived in Australia I had had a spot cut out very close to this current worrying one.

So I was very glad to get an appointment with a dermatologist who was more modern in outlook and skillset. I phoned in January, and the appointment was in April. 

The dermatologist checked all my spots carefully, burnt a couple off with nitrogen and told me she needed to cut the suspect spot out. So I returned a few days later for the surgical procedure.

It bled a bit and I had a change of dressing even before I left the clinic and I had four stitches.  Being on the elbow it was a rather awkard position, but I had very little trouble with it. I carefully dabbed it with antiseptic every day and changed the dressing. Two weeks later I was back, to have the stitches out and get the pathology results.

It turned out to be a melanoma, removed just in time. The lab results show it was quite shallow, and the doctor managed to get all of it. However, she didn't take a big enough margin around the cancerous cells so I need to go back in June to have a bigger chunk taken out by another doctor who does more surgery and is at the clinic every Friday. The appointment clashes with our cardiologist check up, so I'll have to phone and change that.

Unfortunately the original wound has opened up a bit since the stitches came out, so I'm still having to swab and dress it every day. I hope a bigger wound isn't going to be too problematic. Luckily I have a window with no work in June and I've been able to block off some recovery time, just in case.

We liked the young all female team (a specialist dermatologist, a locum, and a practice nurse/receptionist) that make up the small dermatological department at the clinic. They clearly work well together and are very organised. The atmosphere is relaxed, kind, respectful and professional.

A Cake for the Fire Brigade

As you may remember we had a chimney fire recently. As a thank you for coming out on Easter Sunday and attending to our emergency I made the crew some ANZAC biscuits (recipe here), and some hedgehog cake (recipe below). 

Hedgehog cake is a no-bake cake. It was a favourite in our family during my childhood. I don't know where the recipe came from (this one is not the original, but adapted from Lynn Hill's chocolate tiffin on Clandestine Cake Club website). I don't know where the name hedgehog cake comes from either. Places like Starbucks and the Candelo café sell it as chocolate biscuit cake. Others, like Lynn, clearly know it by the name chocolate tiffin.

Ingredients
200 g butter
50 g soft brown sugar
30 g cocoa powder
200 g Golden Syrup
400 g plain sweet biscuits
500 g dried fruit (any mixture of sultanas, apricots, cranberries, citrus peel, figs, cherries that you like, in any proportions)
250 g very dark chocolate

Method

1. Grease and line a 20 cm square tin, making sure you have a generous overhang of baking paper (for ease of lifting out the finished cake).
2. Crush the biscuits so you have about half very fine and half in chunks of about 1 cm. 
3. Cut any of the larger dried fruit so that everything is roughly sultana sized.
4. Put the butter, sugar, cocoa and Golden Syrup in a large saucepan and heat gently to melt the butter and mix everything together.
5. Add the dried fruit and the crushed biscuits, stir well and make sure everything is well incorporated. This will take longer than you think, but it will all come together eventually.
6. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and press it down firmly with a glass.
7. Leave in the fridge to cool and set, at least an hour.
8. Break up the chocolate and put into a bowl. Set the bowl in a cast iron pan half full of simmering water and leave the chocolate to melt. Or carefully melt in the microwave.
   
9. Once the chocolate has melted take it out of the water, stir to ensure the chocolate is smooth, then spread over the cake.
10. Leave to set at room temperature, which will take ages (several hours). Before it is completely set, score cutting lines in the chocolate to make it easier to divide up and serve.
11. Once cold and set solid, lift the cake out, carefully peel off the baking paper, then cut into 16 generous squares, or 32 half squares (logs or triangles).
12. Serve with a rich semi-sweet Loire Valley white wine from appellations such as Savennières Roche aux Moines, Jurançon, Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh, Vouvray or Coteaux du Layon.

Vintage Hermes plate courtesy of London Bruno.

The biscuit used by my mother for hedgehog cake was the otherwise very uninteresting Marie biscuit. These are not available in France except occasionally with Polish labelling, in Noz. Any really dull plain sweet biscuit will do. French supermarket shelves are full of similar biscuits. I used two packets of petits beurres.

You could try it with a well aged Chinon too...

If you live in a Golden Syrup free zone, use a mild supermarket blended honey, or Dutch apple syrup. 

 

I dropped the cakes off with one of the fire officers mothers, and they messaged me to say they were very touched by the gift.

See Birds

...but don't feed them!

A set of three Australian seabirds:

A gathering of Australian Pelican. We've written about these birds before, and even photographed them on the same sandbank 7 years ago.

The Greater Crested Tern. This species is pan-global, with 5 sub-species. This particular bird was photographed at Cabbage Tree Bay, Manly.

Silver Gulls. They're not as huge as European Herring Gulls, but they're capable of being as much of a nuisance.

Duck!

(or is it?)

I was sorting through some photos, and asked Susan about the photos of the little goose she took at Yarangobilly. It turns out that it was an Australian Wood Duck.

The Australian wood duck, maned duck or maned goose (Chenonetta jubata) is a dabbling duck found throughout much of Australia. It is the only living species in the genus Chenonetta. Maybe if there were more members of the genus they could reach a decision, but it looks like a mini goose to me.

Sometimes I think it's just as well I'm not an taxonomist.

Walking Around Boussay

I took these photos three weeks ago, so things have moved on a bit since then. But they are too good to waste, so here they are.

 

An abandoned well in the hamlet of la Boissiere.

Marsh Crane Fly Tipula oleracea (Fr. tipule potagère).

A canola crop with the hamlet of la Boissiere in the background.

Arable farmland in the Claise Valley.

Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus (Fr. Méloé enfle-boeuf violet).

The former orangerie, now a holiday let, in the grounds of the Chateau de Boussay.

Horse chestnut avenue in the grounds of the Chateau de Boussay.

Grape-hyacinth Muscari neglectum (Fr. Muscari).

Chateau outbuildings.

The moat around the Chateau, and the stables.

Chateau de Boussay.

Bee'd

On Tuesday afternoon I noticed a couple of honey bees hanging around in our front courtyard. I wasn't particularly worried, because (I thought) there's nothing there for them. Susan rang Bernard, who popped over that evening, took a look, and agreed that nothing much needed doing - or could be done. There was also 30 or 40 bees in the attic bathroom which were shooed out. As they were standing there a bee popped out of a drain hole in the bathroom floor - which they then blocked.

Bees thinking they've found somewhere.

Yesterday, as Susan was preparing lunch I realised I could hear a bee swarm. I wandered outside, and the air was thick with insects.

A decision has been made

Ten minutes later they had coalesced into the traditional mob of bees, and ten minutes after that they had settled in to the void beneath the attic bathroom floor.

There's nothing responsible we can do about it, so we're in wait and see territory. 

What larks!

Pictures of Preuilly

Photos taken on some of my recent walks around town.

The Guinguette is setting up for business

Les Cochetières

Reflections in the Claise

Preuilly-sur-Claise on a Monday morning 

The Claise

Fete St George

Last Saturday was the fete St George. St George is the Patron Saint of Preuilly (and a lot of other places) and his feast day (23 April) is when one of Preuilly sur Claise's fairs is traditionally held. There have been occasions in the past when the fete wasn't held (most recently the plague years) and occasionally in previous centuries the town was fined by the authorities for not holding the fete and its associated cattle market. The cattle market is long gone, and apart from a couple of professional sellers, these days it's mainly locals selling their extra stuff, and organisations fundraising.

Unfortunately, the fair is held at peak brocante time in the Touraine, so it can clash with events in neighbouring towns and be a bit thin on the ground. Last year was fairly active, but this year the competition meant that it was a bit quiet.

Sylviane with her donkey Brunelle, selling homemade biscuits 

But: it's a chance to get out and be sociable with the townfolk, and say hello to the second home owners who arrive about this time of the year.

Tour de France 2025

On Friday the detailed route for the 2025 Tour de France was made public. We have known for about 6 months that it will be coming through Preuilly on the 13th of July, and we have all been making guesses as to which path through the village it will follow.

We can now stop guessing. The cyclists will arrive on the main road from la Roche Posay, cross the river and turn right at the Abbaye towards Bossay and Martizay. After that they follow the main road to Azay le Ferron, and on to Châteauroux.

Looking towards the Abbaye in the direction the bikes will be travelling

Bubblers

We've written before about drinking water fountains in Australia.

Here are three more:

Massive in Manly 

Moderne in Marimbula

Wacky in Walcha

Strange Things on the Beach

I've often noticed clear jelly-looking crescent shaped blobs washed up on Australian beaches and the shorelines of coastal lagoons and lakes, but never really thought about them much beyond "they must be bits of jellyfish - or something"

Mystery blobs on the tideline

The blobs are actually thousands of moon snail (Conuber sordidus) eggs embedded in a matrix of mucus and sand. The female snail lay her eggs in a single line within the sandy matrix, which then takes on water and forms the crescent-shaped jelly substance. The egg sacs break up in the water after a few days, releasing planktonic larvae from the eggs.

Not so much of a mystery now

The egg mass can grow up to five times larger than the snail which laid it, growing between 5cm and 10cm in length. These ones were photographed from the boardwalk around Merimbula Lake, Southern New South Wales.

A conuber sordidus egg sac in the water