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

A Walk in the Forest

The other day I wanted some ramsons (wild garlic) to use with a fish dish I was planning to cook for dinner. Luckily our local forest has a secret (ahem...not very...) ramsons patch, so I went for a walk in the forest.

 

White Asphodel Asphodelus albus (Fr.  Asphodèle blanc).

Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. Ail des ours).

These are the new young leaves of Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis (Fr. Muguet). Don't mistake them for Ramsons, because they are toxic. These were growing right next to the Ramsons in the photo above.

A teensy weensy female dagger fly Empididae in a Wood Anemone.

Hornbeam and Sessile Oak forest.

Silky Wall Feather Moss Homalothecium sericeum (Fr. Homalothécie soyeuse). Maybe...

Bank Haircap Moss Polytrichastrum formosum (Fr. Polytricie élégante) and Rough Stalked Feather Moss Brachythecium rutabulum ... Maybe...

Polypore Lenzites sp.

Bank Haircap Moss.

Checking Out the Early Orchids

I needed cheering up the other day so Simon and I went for a drive around our various local orchid sites to see what was out yet. 

 

Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula (Fr. Orchis mâle).

Early Purple Orchids.

Knitting bombed bicycles over the voie verte (greenway) in Bossay sur Claise.

Monkey Orchid Orchis simia (Fr. Orchis singe).

Country road.

Lady Orchid Orchis purpurea (Fr. Orchis pourpre).

Early Spider Orchid Ophrys sphegodes (Fr. Ophrys araignée)

Lupin crop.

Canola pollen on the road.

Steamed Cod with Ramsons

I stole the idea for this combination of steamed cod and ramsons from the Restaurant l'Image, around the corner from where we live, and modified their method.

Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. ail des ours) is a wild garlic leaf, in season in the forests of the Touraine in April. On Friday I went to the 'secret' (not very...) location in the Forest of Preuilly where I imagine half the village goes foraging. You can also buy it sometimes at farm produce markets and fresh foods stores such as Grand Frais.  If you are foraging your own, please make sure you are certain you can distinguish it from lily of the valley (Fr. muguet), lords and ladies/wild arum (Fr. gouet tacheté) and autumn crocus (Fr. colchique), all of which look remarkably similar to Ramsons at their stage of growth in April, all of which grow in the same habitat, and all of which are toxic. Please also adhere to foraging best practice and take no more than 10% of the leaves at a site, and no more than you need for your own personal consumption. Ramsons really pongs when you are handling the leaves or standing amongst the plants, but its flavour once cooked is quite delicate.

Ramsons growing in the Forest of Preuilly. You can see where someone before me harvested a few leaves.

Ingredients

2 fillets of cod (or similar white fish)

15-20 young ramsons leaves

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp Szechuan pepper, ground

Method

1. Arrange the ramsons leaves on one of the cod fillets.
2. Lay the second cod fillet on top.
3. Season the cod with the salt and Szechuan pepper.
4. Cut the cod into bite sized squares.
5. Place into a bamboo steamer.
6. Steam for 5 minutes.
   

Fire!

We haven't had our wood burning fire burning for about two weeks, but yesterday we decided the weather was miserable enough to light it. 

All was going swimmingly well, until it started roaring. Normally that's a bit scary and it settles down of its own accord, but this time it ran away. Susan noticed we had a proper problem when she saw the flue glowing bright red. I rushed outside (in the rain) and the chimney was smoking like I've never seen before - at which stage she called 18 for the pompiers. There's no photos of any of that.

I gently poured a large saucepan of water over the log that was burning in the stove itself, and after 16 years had cause to use the fire blanket. I felt so efficient!

The pompiers arrive

After 10 minutes the Preuilly pompiers arrived (who were impressed by my actions) and all 6 of them sprung into action, removing the T section that joins the stove to the flue. It was full of clinker like detritus that was glowing red hot and had been blow torching up the chimney. They also checked the rest of the house and the attics. 

Then they called the Loches brigade - who have a longer ladder and a heat meter - just in case they needed to do something from the top.

Susan gave them all the info about who cleaned our chimney and when (it was done just before we went to Australia, but the fire wasn't lit before we got back in December) and they told us to call Bertu to get it all cleaned and reattached.

Two fire engine's worth of pompiers

It wasn't what we had planned for a Sunday, it was kind of scary but also interesting to see. We feared we had over reacted, but were relieved to be told we had done exactly the the right thing

Not the Easter Bunny

Before you say "awwwwww cute"...

Susan photographed these rabbits in the Australian Alps last year

Normally the story told is that European rabbits were first introduced to Australia in 1859 by Thomas Austin, a settler who asked his nephew in England to send 24 wild rabbits which he then released on his property in Victoria for hunting.

But rabbits actually arrived in Australia with the first fleet in 1788, and there were at least 59 other attempts to introduce the animals. All of these were domesticated meat animals, but they never became an invasive species.

A recent combination of genetic research and a trawl through archives has discovered that the story as recounted is basically true, but there are some interesting details.

The rabbits came from Somerset, but "wild rabbits were by no means common round Baltonsborough. It was only with great difficulty that he managed to get six; these were half-grown specimens taken from their nests and tamed. To make up the number he bought seven grey rabbits that the villagers had kept in hutches, either as pets or to eat." (Joan Palmer, granddaughter of the nephew in England)

Thus, 13 rabbits were sent from England, but they had increased in number over the 80 day voyage to Melbourne. Rabbits do that...

The reason that these rabbits were able to survive in the wild is an accident of this genetic variation. Whereas the previous rabbits were of individual breeds, the mixed lineage of the "Austin rabbits" obviously gave them a survival advantage.

Within decades, they had spread across most of the continent and by the early 20th century, rabbits had become a major pest, wreaking havoc on the environment and agriculture. They fed on native vegetation, leading to soil erosion and the destruction of habitats for native species. Their burrowing and grazing habits caused widespread damage to crops and pasturelands, costing farmers millions in losses.

Efforts to control the rabbit population have included fencing, hunting, poisoning, and biological control. One of the earliest and most ambitious physical barriers was the Rabbit-Proof Fence, constructed in Western Australia in the early 1900s. However, rabbits often found ways around or under such obstacles.

A rabbit trapper in Braidwood NSW in 1923

Biological control methods had more significant success. In the 1950s, the introduction of the myxoma virus caused rabbit populations to plummet by over 90% in some areas. However, over time, both the virus and the rabbits evolved — the virus became less lethal, and rabbits developed resistance. In the 1990s, a second virus, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), was introduced with some success, though resistance is again emerging.

Despite all these efforts, rabbits remain a persistent problem. They continue to impact native ecosystems and agriculture to the cost of about 200 million Australian dollars a year.

These days, the Easter Bunny has been replaced by the Easter Bilby.

The original research is here https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dna-profiling-solves-australia-rabbit-plague-puzzle

More Aussie Bins

Last weekend I wrote about public litter bins.

This week, more bins. The first are in Batlow, apple capital of NSW. The attractive bin surrounds catch the eye... 

but maybe not as much as the fact that some of them are WiFi enabled.

The bins in Wagga Wagga are, however, distinctly LowFi.

Ear 'Ere

What's all this then?

Regular readers may recall that in 2017 I had a Basel Cell Carcinoma cut from my nose. 

On Monday we finally managed to get to see a dermatologist to get a "Controle" (check-up) done on our various spots and freckles. I have a spot on my ear that the dermatologist wasn't sure about, and Susan had a similar spot on her arm.

Yesterday we revisited the dermatologist, me to have a biopsy, Susan to have her spot excised. My ear now looks like a Donald Trump tribute act, and Susan has a hefty sticking plaster on her arm.

We return in two weeks so the Dermo can admire her handiwork.

The Loches Hospital Clock

Recently a friend of ours has been in hospital after a heart scare, so we've been to visit a couple of times. One of the random things we found in the hospital was a large late 19th century clock, plonked in the middle of the corridor at the top of the stairs in the medical ward.

It is listed as an historic object and was made by the workshop of Louis Delphin Odobey and restored a few years ago by Gilles Vassort.

The Odobey family tower clock making business was set up in the Jura in the 1860s and run by three successive generations for a hundred years. They were unusual in that they made from scratch all the components of their clocks, using custom made machines powered by water. It is one of the reasons they never diversified, and finally closed when the fashion for tower clocks in buildings dwindled. Other clock making businesses, especially those making grandfather clocks (Fr. comtoises) used an army of peasants working in a cottage industry to produce parts for clocks which were then centrally assembled. At their peak, Odobey were making 100 tower clocks a year, and employed 80 people.

The Demarcation Line at Café Brûlé

In 2013 I wrote about the demarcation line at Café Brûlé and how I finally identified where it was by working out the distances on the signposts and the building in the background of the old photo.

It would be a more difficult job now. The building in the photo was demolished in 2017 when the intersection was replaced with a roundabout and car park.

All is not lost, however. On the corner, approximately where the the milage post in the above photo is, a memorial and information board have been erected.

It would have made identifying the location both more difficult because of the lack of background buildings, and easier because of the memorial and board. But because I identified it for myself while the building was still there, I know the information is correct.

What's New at Chenonceau?

 Tulips (Fr. tulipes) in the kitchen and cutting garden (Fr. potager).

Wisteria (Fr. glycine) on one of the farm buildings.

A technician and a house steward secure a 16th century apothecary pot with silicone gel.

The World is shrinking...an 18th century globe made by Dupin de Francueil and Jean-Jacques Rousseau at Chenonceau.

18th century scientific instruments made by Dupin de Francueil and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as part of their bid to get accepted into the Academy of Sciences.

This bed has been given a makeover, with new silk draperies.

This living willow fence was made last month by local wickerworkers l'Osiers de Gué-Droit. Much classier than the wire mesh that it replaces.