Birds in the Botanic Gardens

The Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra is rightly proud of the native wildlife the Gardens support. The most visible group (other than plants) are birds. I took the opportunity to photograph some of the larger avian inhabitants of the garden when I visited in November.

 This Crimson Rosella was sitting in a beautiful gum tree, waiting for his mate, who was in the nest in a knot hole nearby.

 A Red Wattlebird arrives to survey what might be available for lunch at the Gardens' café.

 White-winged Choughs like this one go around in gangs, poking their beaks into anything they encounter and descending on abandoned tables and scavenging the scraps.

Crested Pigeons are much more circumspect, keeping their distance and seeking the shade under the bushes.
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Loire Valley Nature Updates:  a new Habitat label created, with a first entry about Small Rivers added.

Wobbly Wattlebird

While in Canberra in November I visited the Australian National Botanic Gardens with my sister-in-law Rosy's mum. She is a recently widowed retired plant physiologist, and was delighted to have an excuse for an outing to the Gardens.

We started by checking out the excellent visitor centre shop, but when we came out we noticed a bird on the pavement, clearly in distress. It was a juvenile Red Wattlebird Anthochaera carunculata, lying on its side in a most unnatural way, arching its spine and jerking as though it were having a fit.

I rushed inside and told the receptionist, who found a box in the back office and came out, ready to rescue the bird. By the time we got back outside though, it was sitting up, panting, but not fitting. Suzanne stood so her shadow was over the bird, as it was a very hot day. We watched it for a minute or two, and just as I suggested getting some water for it, it heaved itself up of the ground and flapped into a nearby bush. It looked a bit confused and the landing wasn't very dignified, but it seemed like it was going to be alright so we left it to its own devices.

We presume it had managed to fly smack into one of the covered walkway posts and concussed itself.

Red Wattlebirds are extremely common in Canberra, and highly visible, as their raucous calls draw your attention. They are a type of large honeyeater, a family of birds unique to Australia and the surrounding islands, which use their brush tipped tongues to gather nectar from equally unique native plants such as Banksias and Bottlebrushes. Wattlebirds are bold and opportunisitic, so happily share space with man in parks and gardens and are quick to investigate picnic tables and barbecue areas for possible food sources -- they will take meat, bread, cheese and fruit given half a chance.

Rhapsody in Baby Blue

We first saw this car on the Journées Nationales des Metiers d'Art open day at Auto Classique Touraine in April 2011. (We thought we had blogged about it, but looking back it appears we didn't. Tant pis.) As you can see, back then it was looking a bit sad: an empty shell in a not terribly fetching shade of undercoat.



But now the ugly duckling is a fully grown... wotsit. Maybe not a swan, exactly, but something completely different. The car is a 1937 Delahaye 135M with coachwork based on a design by Figoni et Falaschi.

There is a local angle to this story: the Delahaye company was founded by Emile Delahaye, who was born in Tours in 1843. He started building cars in 1894 in Tours, before the company relocated to Paris.

Nice, but you would have to be a willowy blonde with a borzoi to really carry it off.

Simon

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Loire Valley Nature Update: a new entry for Domestic / Feral Cat Felis catus has been added.
A new entry for Hunting has been added.
Photos of Chalk Milkwort Polygala calcarea added to the Milkworts Polygala spp entry.
A new entry for Sweet Chestnut Castanea sativa has been added.
A new entry for Spotted Longicorn beetle Chlorophorus glabromaculatus has been added.

Still Two Boulangeries...

...but will it last? This is the scene chez Sophie et Aurélien, the popular boulangerie 'down the hill' in Preuilly. (Actually, these pictures were taken just after Christmas, when we were still a single bakery town.) The new baker 'up the hill' has been persuaded to stick with it...for now...after a bit of a wobble.

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Loire Valley Nature Update: a new entry for Psathyrellaceae Fungi Inky Caps added.
Photos added to Wild Boar Sus scrofa entry.
A photo added to the Burnt Orchid Neotinea ustulata entry.

A Pantheon*

The Citroën DS was first shown at the Paris Salon of 1955. In the first 15 minutes of the show Citroën had 743 signatures, and by the end of the first day over 12,000 orders were taken.

The DS was Citroën's replacement for the Traction Avant (i.e. Célestine) and was designed by the same man. Everything apart from the engine was new and innovative: the shape (naturally), the suspension (hydraulic and self levelling) the gearbox and clutch (also hydraulic) and they even managed to re-invent the wheel...

For some reason, this year Retromobile was celebrating the 1955 Salon and had a remarkable selection of DS's to drool over, including:

 

Convertibles

Breaks (station wagons, known as the “Safari” in the UK)

And custom models.

And re-inventing the wheel? This one.

We quite like the DS. Not sure it is the best backup car for Célestine, but as a 1950s vision of what the 21st century should look like it's pretty spot on.

Simon

*I am assuming that which applies to gods applies to goddesses.

The Invasion has Commenced

You probably think this is the most boring photo I've ever put on the blog. I, on the other hand, think it is an extremely interesting photo. You will probably partly guess the reason if you look at the same photo with certain plants highlighted. Yes, they are orchid leaf rosettes, but it is where they are that is of most interest to me.

These orchid leaf rosette clusters, and 15 others, are inside the potager fence. They've appeared in the last 10 days or so. They are the first orchids to appear inside the potager rather than out in the orchard. I think they are probably going to turn out to be Bee Orchids Ophrys apifera, in my opinion the toughest and least fussy of the local orchids, and already very common in the orchard, including just the other side of the fence to these. They are also one of the prettiest local orchids, so that will be another bonus. The pattern of the potager rosettes is a bit like one of the nearby orchard orchids 'sneezed' a load of seeds in a fairly narrow stream through the fence and into the potager.

I've been wondering how long the orchids would take to migrate to the potager, and even if they ever would. Now I have my answer.

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The annual Foire au Safran (Saffron Fair) is on Saturday 16 February in Preuilly-sur-Claise, at the Gymnasium. There will be a gourmet food market and restauration sur place (lunch on site -- either takeaway such as fouaces fourrées or a sit-down 3 course meal prepared and served by the team at the Restaurant de l'Image).

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Loire Valley Nature Update: Photos have been added to the entry on the orchid species Autumn Lady's Tresses Spiranthes spiralis.
A photo has been added to the entry for the Bird's Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis.

The Year of the Water Snake Begins

 In the absence of any pictures of water snakes with which to acknowledge yesterday's Chinese New Year, I have opted to post these three pictures of trikes, taken when we were in China briefly in December.

 Trikes of one sort or another -- diesel, electric and pedal powered -- are everywhere in China. They look so practical -- I really want one for pootling up and down to the orchard with tools and produce.

We really fancy having an electric vehicle -- not necessarily like the one above, but the Scenic is getting old and is really bigger than we need now. Dreaming of an electric future has been greatly fuelled by watching Robert Llewellyn's Carpool (which if you've never seen, we highly recommend -- the guests could be anyone from comedians to scientists, but it's the shows with people like Diarmud O'Connell from Tesla and Chelsea Sexton from 'Who Killed the Electric Car' that will make you want to go out and buy an EV immediately).

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Loire Valley Nature Update:  An entry about the bat species Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus, with information and photos, has been added.
A photo has been added to the entry about the dragonfly species Broad Bodied Chaser Libellula depressa.
Photos have been added to the entry about the Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera.
An entry about the Yellow Meadow Ant Lasius flavus, with information and photos, has been added.

Rétromobile 2013 Highlights

Last Friday we visited RetroMobile for the 4th year running

In contrast to previous years, this time we travelled up by train arriving mid afternoon, and left Paris again in the evening to come home. This allowed us enough time to see what we wanted to see, and stay for apéro at the Traction Universelle stand, but not so much  time that we got bored or over tired. We left home at 09:30 and were back just after 23:00.

These are 2 highlights from each of us:

Roland Garros' 1913 Bugatti Type18 "Black Bess"

 

Renault Type DG "Victoria Rothschild" 1913

Ferrari 250GT California 1961

And last but not least, a motorbike -

Vincent Black Shadow

More will follow...

Bob Orange

There is a taxidermically stuffed snake sitting on the reception desk at the Australian National Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre. The snake is a 1.1 metre long Eastern Brown Snake Pseudonaja textilis who came to be called Bob Orange after he was sprayed orange as part of a survey of the reptiles in the garden. He was seen often in the Gardens by staff, who had a natural healthy respect for him (he could have killed an adult human if he bit them and anti-venin wasn't administered soon enough). They are proud of the fact that the Gardens offered natural enough habitat for this wild and elusive creature to thrive there. Sadly, he was accidentally run over and killed some years ago, but other snakes continue to live in the gardens, as do a variety of lizards and frogs.

I very much approve of the way the message the Gardens gives visitors is essentially 'the Gardens have venomous snakes -- we love them. You need to respect them and we'd like you to help us monitor them'. Really up front, the message isn't fluffy, patronising or sensational, but professional and informative.

(Although I have to admit, the part of me with Grumpy Old Git Syndrome wishes they'd just gone for the somewhat less professional but honest 'the Gardens have snakes -- get over it'.)

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Preuilly Weather Update: It snowed steadily here for an hour from 8 am, in big soft flakes that are sticking well and truly. The weather report says it is supposed to snow this morning, rain this afternoon, then snow again this evening, with more rain overnight. It doesn't look like it's going to freeze, so I think we won't have the snow to enjoy for very long -- just more water...Thank goodness we went up to Paris to Rétromobile yesterday and not today (report/s coming soon).

Nature or Business

In the last week or so there have been two disturbing announcements in the French national news. At any rate, they are disturbing if you are interested in the preservation of the natural environment, as both of them appear to pit the environment against economics. It's fairly old-school and unimaginative economics though, and all very convenient if you are not interested in the natural environment. No concept that nature will reward you if you work with it rather than against, no concept that nature is anything other than a freely available resource to ruthlessly exploited on the one hand, or an inconvenience to be equally ruthlessly exterminated on the other.

Sorry, best I could do in terms of a skiing picture...

The first is that the mountain commune of Courchevel has decided to withdraw from the Parc national de la Vanoise. The local authorities view the national park partnership charter as interfering with their plans to improve and develop the famous ski fields there.

 The law in France requires that each commune (local authority) chooses individually whether to sign up to the charter for a national park or a national nature reserve. It is not uncommon for parks to be donut shaped, with a commune inside the outer boundary of the park exempting itself from the park. The Brenne, just to the east of us, was in that situation for years.

National parks here are not really wilderness areas -- people live and work in them, and have to be taken account of in any management plan. They are as much a part of the park as the animals, landscape and wild flowers. Often it is the actions of man which have created the particular importance of the area.

Many French commentators (and I agree with them) can't help feeling that Courchevel's attitude is short sighted in the extreme, however. For one thing, the national park gives them access to a stream of funding that they will now have cut themselves off from, and they will have to stop proclaiming themselves as the heart of the national park. Will investment in a ski industry be forthcoming? What is the future of the French ski fields anyway, in a climate change situation? I also have questions about how well managed the ski tourist industry is in France -- they appear to be losing out to newer, cheaper, more service oriented and consumer friendly ski fields, especially in eastern Europe.

A wolf at the Réserve de la Haute-Touche.

The second piece of news is that the Groupe National Loup (the interdisciplinary group responsible for making policy concerning the conservation and management of wild wolves in France, sometimes referred to in English as 'the wolf parliament') has announced that it will allow the killing and/or removal of more wolves in sheep farming areas. The current policy is to compensate farmers if wolves kill sheep, and only to kill the wolf as a last resort (if a wolf repeatedly kills sheep, usually).

They have announced that the government cannot continue to pay out large sums to placate farmers in these economically straitened times, so more wolves will have to die. As one of the French commentators put it: 'Yeah, right -- we've got 200 wolves in France, and if the country goes broke it will be their fault!' (About 5000 sheep were reported as killed by wolves last year, so that's about three quarters of a million euros paid in compensation. Wolf attacks on sheep appear to be rapidly escalating, but there does not appear to be any discussion of the possibility that some attacks may in fact be perpetrated by the estimated 8000 feral dogs living in the same territory.)

As a sop to the conservationists, the Groupe has now announced that if possible, renegade wolves will be captured and held in research facilities (such as our local captive breeding zoo, La Haute-Touche) rather than killed. How this doesn't cost as much as compensating farmers I'm not sure.

They are also talking about re-education programmes for wolves ie teaching them not to attack domestic flocks. This principally consists of allowing shepherds to fire warning shots at wolves that get too close. Shepherds must apply in advance for permission to engage in tirs éducatifs, and are specifically forbidden to track down wolves in order to 're-educate' them. By this means they hope to create 'zones of exclusion'.

It is a big problem in the communities that pasture their sheep within the Parc national de la Cévennes, a seeming incompatibility between biodiversity and small scale traditional farming. The farmers are faced with losses that are proportionally very high because they have such small flocks -- losing 10 sheep (not uncommonly reported) is a significant loss if your flock is small (average around 350 beasts). To combat the wolves they are taking on extra staff and installing specially trained dogs that live with the flocks to protect them (2 dogs can hold off a pack of 9 wolves apparently). No wonder the shepherds are no great advocates for the wild wolf.

Nevertheless, it seems the antipathy to the wolf's return is much greater in France than in Italy, where the wolf numbers are far higher and the lifestyle just as traditional.

To read more about wolves in France go to my entry on them in Loire Valley Nature.

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Loire Valley Nature Updates:

7 February 2013 photos added to Common Blue Polyommatus icarus page.

Taking Advantage of the Good Weather

The other day there was a rare glimpse of the sun, so I nipped down to the orchard. I needed to empty the kitchen compost bin and tidy up some prunings. I haven't been able to get up the laneway in the car for a couple of months and when I got to the turnoff, not only was it even more churned up than ever, but there was a large pile of laurel prunings at the end of the ruisseau.

I could see who was responsible for the prunings, as they were still at it. The orchard is kind of diagonally opposite the Preuilly sewerage works. The sewerage works is discreetly shielded by a huge laurel hedge. The hedge was badly 'scorched' in last winter's cold, so this year it is being ruthlessly cut back to encourage thick new growth from the base in the spring.

After parking the car by the prunings I walked up to check with the men in the cherry picker that it would be OK to park where I was.

'No, we will be here all afternoon. It will be a real nuisance if you park there.'

'Listen, that's my orchard over there and I want to spend an hour or so working in the orchard. Shall I park here by the fence, where you've already finished?'

'Oh, no need for that, just stay where you are. After all, you have to take advantage of the good weather when you can!'

I couldn't decide whether they were just teasing me with their first response (entirely likely, although they did seem a bit grumpy). I actually think the real reason for the change of tune was that having discovered that I had a perfectly good, French type of reason for wanting to park there, rather than some weird inscrutable Anglo reason, I was deemed worthy of their favour. By the end of the conversation we had discussed the technicalities of laurel hedge management and they cheerily waved me on my way.

Zone bleue

A typical traffic jam in la grande rue, Preuilly-sur-Claise.

The local council has recently introduced restrictions to parking in the main street of Preuilly in an attempt to reduce the traffic congestion. This street is now Zone bleue parking, which means you are limited to 2 hours and must have a blue parking disk on the dashboard. The way it works is that you set the parking disk to show the time you arrived, so that the parking inspector can check you have not overstayed. It is a system that relies on having a parking inspector in the first place (I'm not sure who's designated in that role in Preuilly) and they have to do the rounds of the Zones bleues regularly, to pick up overstayers and liars. 

Zones bleues are in force all over France, and you can identify a parking spot as in such a zone by the fact that it is delineated in blue paint. So far I haven't seen a single person in Preuilly displaying a parking disk on the dash, and it doesn't seem to have substantially reduced the number of cars parked in the main street. Why would it? It's always mostly been a steady stream of people parked for half an hour to an hour while they do their business in town. There is parking in the market place (except when the market is on), in front of the Post Office, next to the abbey and in front of the Hôtel de Ville (town hall) -- all small areas of around a dozen places or less, and usually about three quarters full. All involve a walk of less than 50 m to the main street.

If the council really want to solve the traffic congestion problem, they need to bite the bullet and ban parking in la grande rue altogether except for deliveries and arrêts minutes. Unfortunately, the businesses along the street are convinced their trade would suffer and are against a ban. This is despite having the occasional vehicle reverse into plate glass windows and the vibration of the heavy goods carriers break others as they rumble their stop-start way through town. One good thing though is that because of the crowded main street and the zigzag layout of the route through town, Preuilly hasn't had to create a chicane like many of the surrounding villages now have to slow cars down.

Crocuses Already!

 The crocuses have been out for nearly a week in the 'spare bulbs' bed in the potager. I calculate this is about 6 weeks early. The daffs in the lawn up at the house on the other hand are up, but have no signs of buds yet -- much more normal, although they are in a warmer (but shadier) spot than the crocuses. We've had very few frosts this winter so far, and daytime temperatures have often got into double figures. The big downside this winter has been the endless drizzling rain. Everything is utterly saturated, and has been since November. There is standing water in many fields and the rivers are all running over their banks. We aren't having flooding as such, but it's like living in a giganitic sponge full of water that never dries out. Yesterday when I went to Loches I noticed that the extensive water meadows in the town are all water and no meadow. Goodness only knows when I'll be able to have a bonfire to burn the orchard waste, or when I'll be able to dig the soil in the potager and plant vegetables.

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The reason for my trip to Loches yesterday was an appointment for a mammogram at the radiologists near the station. When I got there the nurse took my details and asked me to take a seat, but warned me they were running a bit late. The mammography x-ray machine was playing up. I noticed that they had a sign saying they didn't take bank card and I told her I only had bank card. She said not to worry, I had my cancer screening letter with me, so there was no charge. After waiting for a while I got called in, and sure enough, the machine played up. I had to have both breasts squished multiple times. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Then she went off to process the images and check them. She returned to say they had observed a tiny lump in my left breast, but couldn't be sure it was really there. To be sure she needed to do an x-ray with the breast even more firmly squashed. Then the radiologist would examine me with ultrasound to get a clearer picture if it still showed up on the x-ray. Since it was still there the second time round, the radiologist duly looked at it, and said I must come back in 4 months so he can check if anything has changed. He said it doesn't look like a tumor though. When I passed by the reception to pick up my x-rays and report the receptionist said 'That will be €20.79 please'. 'But you said there would be no charge!' 'Ah, but the doctor has done a supplementary examination.' I said I would have to go over to the cash machine and get cash. That would be fine, said the receptionist. When I returned with the cash, she handed over the medical documents (patients are responsible for keeping their own medical reports and x-rays in France), a form for claiming reimbursement of the fee (in the absence of my carte vitale), and a card telling me when my next appointment was. She made sure I knew to bring the x-rays and report back with me when I come in June -- people often forget, she said. Annoyingly, the medical records are in an envelope that is slightly to big to fit in a standard file box for storage at home. I had decided that for a mammogram it would be safe to drive myself to Loches, and am relieved to tell you that I did not to have a funny turn on the way home.

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There is a Marché aux truffes (Truffle Market)  at Marigny-Marmande on Saturday 9, from 9 am to 1 pm. Ungraded truffles are affordable, with a walnut sized tuber costing about €20, an egg sized one about €30. There will be a general artisanal food market there, but beware if you don't like the smell of truffles, as it pervades everything.

A Chapel at Risk

 Part of the danse macabre wall paintings in the Chapelle de Tous les saints, Preuilly sur Claise.

The yellow ochre figures are cadavers, come to lead the red ochre shepherdess, lover, nun and widow in the dance of death.

One day in early November last year Marc Dimanche, the secretary of the local archaeological society, came up to me in the street and said 'I hear you would be interested in seeing inside the Chapel of All Saints.' 'Yes, please', I said, 'but we are leaving for Australia in two days time. I'll email you to arrange a visit when we have returned. Oh, and by the way, can I bring my friends Niall and Antoinette? They are historians specialising in the medieval and Niall has a particular interest in memento mori, so I know they would appreciate the chance to see the Chapel.' 'Bien sûr! but don't bring too many people along, as the building is dangerous and we must limit access!'

The simple peg ladder to get up into the roof space and bell tower. This is the inside of the front gable -- rebuilt in concrete blocks after a shameful, and thankfully unsuccessful attempt to pull the building down with a tractor several decades ago (even though it was by then a legally protected historic monument).

So, in January I emailed Marc and we set up a date that suited everyone. I had written about the chapel before, after being tipped off that you can see the inside by peering under the door. For this plain little chapel from the end of the 15th century hides a great rarity inside. The walls and ceiling were once entirely painted, and the theme of the paintings was a very particular medieval motif -- the danse macabre.  I went down there and took some photos of what I could but to be able to see the real thing up close is something really special.

 The tie-beam has fatally cracked under the king post.

I knew the ceiling was painted, but had only ever seen photos of it, and although I had read about the ladder up to the roof, I had no concept of what a Heath Robinson arrangement it was. I expected the paintings to be made up of flakes just waiting to fall off the wall. In fact, where there was still paint on the wall, it appeared to be smooth and well attached, and the paintings were in some ways in better condition than I had feared. Of course, all the figures have been pockmarked as a result of plaster being applied over the top of the paintings, but as is so often the case the plaster and whitewash has protected as well as destroyed.

 The finely carved altar has been broken up and lies scattered around the building. Above the altar platform, a metal tie rod meant to hold the side walls together at the gable has lost contact with the wooden rafter it was originally attached to and that corner of the building looks distinctly wonky.

To read Niall and Antoinette's account of our visit and get some background on the danse macabre you can go to their blog Chez Charnizay. For further details and photos see my earlier post.

A detail of the painted oak vaulted ceiling.

Marc took the opportunity to let us know that the archaeological society is keeping an eye on the chapel. They currently have a project on the go to erect a clock in historic rue de l'Horloge in Preuilly, and they are struggling with developing a new strategy for keeping the museum in the Poterne open under difficult circumstances. On top of this, they would really like to be able to start fundraising to save the chapel, and, just as importantly, convince the mairie (town hall) that they must submit an application for a grant to set the conservation ball rolling. He commented ruefully that the locals just don't seem to be interested, and if it weren't for the incomers in the town, the archaeological society would never raise any money for their projects.

La Chapelle de tous les saints -- from the outside you would never know that the gable has been reconstructed.

He and I have agreed that if any of our readers would like to see the Chapel, they can contact me and I will arrange it. When there is any further news of a public subscription being organised I will naturally post about it on the blog and do everything I can to support the conservation of this special national monument. It won't take very much money to achieve a useful first step, such as installing grills on the unglazed windows, to keep the pigeons out. A thorough job of conserving the paintings and consolidating the building will take a lot of time and a lot of money though, and we will just have to keep agitating.

 The side door of the chapel, which once led to the cemetery. The keystone is dated 1684, so the chapel was already 200 years old when this door was inserted.

 The crude wooden frame which now supports the tie-beam.

Some More Signs You are in China

Following on from yesterday's post:

 On some steps that led off the Great Wall and on to the mountainside.

 Manual dumplings anyone?

Most cryptic of all -- the instructions for the chairlift at the Great Wall.
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Rétromobile, the annual vintage car show, is on 6 - 10 February, at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. To purchase tickets go to their website. To see some of our reports of previous Rétromobiles, see here and here.

Some Signs You are in China

Regular readers will know that on our way back from Australia late last year we stopped overnight in China. The Chinese appear to rather like signs, and will put them up at the drop of a hat. These are some of our favorites:

 At the carp pool in Beijing Airport.

 In our hotel room -- Just say No!

The section of Wall we visited.

Wildlife Watching in February in the Touraine du Sud

 Snow on the arboretum in Preuilly, 7 February 2012.

February is generally the coldest month of the year here. This is the month we usually get at least a few flurries of snow, even if there has been none earlier in the winter.

 Cranes flying north on 24 February 2012, photographed from our orchard.

It's also the month we get our first real sign of spring, as the cranes come back from their wintering grounds in Spain and north Africa to join the great breeding flocks in northern Europe. Listen out for their raucous calls as they fly over in formation.