Botany Outing to Panzoult

On Sunday 16 June the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine sallied forth from l'Ile Bouchard to a limestone ridge just outside the picturesque village of Panzoult. The main drawcard was the magnificent display of the rare and protected orchid Red Helleborine Cephalanthera rubra that one can expect at this site in the middle of June. They did not disappoint, but the site has a wealth of other rare and protected plants too, and I saw several species new to me. Sadly we did not have the opportunity to visit the dovecotes in the area, which are apparently outstanding (although I am told not in very good condition).

I took a great many pictures on the outing and really struggled to choose just a few highlights for this blog post. Almost everything I photographed was another highlight! Adding to our enjoyment of the day was the warm sunny weather -- a real rarity so far this year.

The object of our visit, the lovely Red Helleborine. It was growing everywhere, and many of the flower stems were considerably taller than I had seen before.

These Beautiful Demoiselles Calopteryx virgo were exhibiting some interesting courtship behaviour on vegetation over a small stream. The green and bronze female was wing flicking and 'tail-lighting' (raising her tail so the pale underneath was visible). If you see a male demoiselle doing this he is signaling aggressive defence of a territory. Presumably it means something quite different if done by a female, as this male persisted in his approach, eventually landing on her and grasping her behind the eyes as a prelude to mating. If the female had been reluctant to mate she would not have been hanging around in the male's territory anyway. There were about 4 males and the same number of females in just a few square metres. These small streams are very important for the Beautiful Demoiselles, which are pickier about where they will breed than the more common Banded Demoiselles C. splendens. The Beautifuls like shaded, colder, more aerated faster flowing water over a clean gravelly or sandy bed.

The striking chlorophyll free root parasite Ivy Broomrape Orobanche hederae was sending spearheads of flowers up from the ground in large numbers.

The view over the vallon. We walked from the house on the right in the distance, in a big arc, crossing the stream halfway. It's a beautiful place, and the barley crop is looking very good. I was told they are expecting a good harvest. Barley is the most important cereal grain used as stock feed here, and is one of the first crops to mature and be harvested. This is a high yield low protein winter two-rowed non-shattering Hordeum distichum variety according to François, one of the professional botanists in the club. He also passed a comment to the effect that farmers are choosing barley varieties on the basis of their high yields, regardless of whether the cattle like them (which I gather they don't, and my further reading suggests that summer barley with high protein is the more usual choice as stock food, and the winter barley is used for malting -- I will have to quiz him further about this). More information from readers in the know would be welcome. Barley is by far my favourite crop visually, as it looks beautiful for the whole of its time in the ground.

Ecologists talk about flower-rich grassland a lot. It is the ideal habitat for many species of insects and should exist in vast swathes across Europe. Sadly it no longer does and its loss is one of the main reasons for severe declines in certain plant, bumble bee and butterfly species. I think the picture below gives you an idea of what a good natural flowery grassland should look like. The main flowers you can see are Red Helleborines, Crested Cow-wheat Melampyrum cristatum and Common Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus. The first two are rare and localised chalk grassland specialists, the third is common in all but very acidic soils.

An unusual hypochromatic Bee Orchid Ophrys apifera var flavescens. A normal Bee Orchid is pink and brownish, like this one in our orchard. These hypochromatic individuals have a mutation which means they lack (or are very low in) all except a yellow pigment. There were at least two of these in the grass at Panzoult. Bee Orchids are very prone to mutations, which I presume is a by-product of the fact that they frequently self-pollinate rather than rely on insect cross-pollination services.

These sorts of grassy banks and roadside verges are becoming an increasingly important habitat network. François had quite a lot to say about local authority's roadside management practices and has worked out that the area of verges in the département roughly equal a sizeable National Park. He pointed out that for decades the local authorities have been making a rod for their own back by frequent mowing. The mowing and the fact that the clippings are not removed make for an ever increasingly fertile strip of land, with ever increasing rates of growth. Plants like nettles that thrive on the increased fertility were increasing, plants like orchids that need low fertility were decreasing. One good thing to come out of the economic recession is the willingness of those who control the purse strings to listen to the conservationists when they mention win-win approaches such as a reduction in mowing. It began with fauchage tardif (late mowing), which was a good start, but François reckons that the local authorities still didn't quite get it and mowed everywhere between 1 and 15 September, whether it was necessary or not. Now some authorities are displaying fauchage raisonné (intelligent mowing) signs. This is much better. These local authorities are restricting mowing at intersections to a short distance in each direction, and often not mowing at all in the autumn, but waiting to see if the frost will do their work for them. Not only does this save fuel, time and other resources, but the routine restores a more natural balance for the plant life, encouraging and protecting a wide range of wild flowers. Plus the shorter range of visibility means that drivers are more careful and drive slower. François would like to see it go even further, as he thinks the collection of clippings for rabbit and goat food should be routine and maybe even some grazing along the roadsides could be reintroduced.

Surfboat Stockton

 

A team of surf boat rowers practice at Stockton on the New South Wales coast.  Surfboat rowing is supported by the surf lifesaving clubs and by the Navy.

A Neat Angle

Modern nylon fishing line is an environmental nightmare, frequently garrotting, incapacitating or amputating limbs of wildlife that encounters bundles of abandoned tangled line. This simple bin on the Old Wharf at Merimbula on the New South Wales coast neatly solves the problem -- so long as anglers and walkers take on the responsiblity of disposing of their own and others' line. The supply and fitting of these bins is the sort of thing your fishing licence goes towards paying for in New South Wales.

Don't Forget Our Poster Campaign

To download one of our posters for your area, go to this link about our poster campaign.

Many thanks for helping if you can, we really appreciate you taking the time.

Did you know that we also write a blog about touring the Loire Valley with Célestine? We hope it is a good read not just for potential clients, but any visitor to the Loire, and update it every 10 days or so.

Plus, Simon is experimenting with a mobile website for those of you who use a smart phone. At the moment he's struggling with how to make the regular website redirect automatically, but if the link doesn't work properly and you are interested you can find the mobile site here. Any feedback will be welcome.

A Reminder of Why We Live Here

The 'new' bridge over the Claise in Preuilly-sur-Claise, taken at dusk from the old bridge.

(Photo taken 9 June 2013.)

Eyes on the Hairstreaks

There is a received wisdom that the false eyes that form part of the pattern of many butterflies has evolved to allow them to fool and thus evade bird predators. However, one researcher in the US recently wondered if it might be used against a much smaller, but perhaps deadlier butterfly predator. He began to conduct tests with an American species of Hairstreak butterfly, a member of a family of similar looking species that exists more or less world wide.

Ilex Hairstreak Satyrium ilicis, photographed at Chaumussay last June.

He discovered that his Hairstreaks successfully evaded jumping spiders every time, despite laying their eggs in an environment where the spider was abundant and persisently hunting. When he tried the jumping spiders on other species of lepidoptera, the spider caught the butterfly or moth every time. His conclusion was that Hairstreaks had evolved false eyes to evade spiders and other small arthropods, not birds or other large vertebrates.

Ilex Hairstreak.

With the Hairstreaks though, it's not just a matter of having false eyes. They have a false head, made up of the eyespots and their tails. The butterflies shuffle their wings constantly, as if they are drawing attention to themselves, and indeed, the scientist, Andrei Sourakov, noticed that the shuffling and shimmying increased when there was a spider present.  The spiders seem to be hard wired to attack what they think is the head end, and will carefully move around a butterfly in order to position themselves appropriately. In the case of the Hairstreaks, the spider always attacked the false head, not the real one, and as a result, many Hairstreaks lose that section of their rear wings, but live to fly another day.

Purple Hairstreak, Neozephyrus quercus, photographed in the Parc de Boussay, July 2011.

I suspect that this behaviour and evolutionary response also applies to other false eyed and tailed butterflies, such as the Short-tailed Blue Everes argiades and the Long-tailed Blue Lampides boeticus. I also think that the arachnid enemy here might be crab spiders. I've seen several of the beautiful red and black crab spider species Synaema globosum lurking about in the same Downy Oak tree at Chaumussay that I know the Ilex Hairstreak lays eggs in. They are less than a centimetre long, but will take prey the size of a Honey Bee.

Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni, in the Brenne. Photograph courtesy of Tim of Aigronne Valley Wildlife.

The study also calls into question the visual acuity of these spiders -- maybe it's not as good as previously believed.

Mighty Amboise

 The huge chateau of Amboise sits in the village of the same name, overlooking the Loire. It used to be even huger, but much of it has been demolished, leaving only a massive curtain wall and a much reduced remnant of the chateau. It makes a great driveby and photo opp from the island in the river, but doesn't make it very high up our 'full visit' list as so much of the interior is 19th century. The best bits are the ramp for riding into the castle, and the chapel, which is a lovely 15th century flamboyant gothic building (but even it has 19th century glass, and a grave that might contain Leonardo da Vinci's remains, although they were rather too conveniently 'rediscovered' and moved here from the site where they were originally buried). We were talking to a local gîte owner recently who said he was amazed by the number of people who visit the chateau but never make it to the chapel. Considering the amount of interest in Leonardo since Dan Brown's popular fictional tale, I'm amazed too.

The chateau does feature significantly in the lives of the Valois kings though, so it is always nice to see the place which links so much history together. It was here that Marie d'Anjou raised the 14 children of Charles VII, and many subsequent royal children grew up here. It was here that the young Charles VIII ran through a doorway, hitting his head on the lintel and fatally injuring himself. And it was here that François I spent much of his time while he waited for the completion of the palatial hunting lodge of Chambord that will forever be associated with his name.

Update: and as Fly pointed out in the comments, not forgetting the Amboise Conspiracy in 1560, when the bodies of 1500 Huguenots associated with a plot to assassinate the young King François II were suspended on hooks from the façade of the chateau.

The Lights Go On All Over the House

After a pause of 18 months when no work on the house took place, a little gentle bricolage has now recommenced. We didn't intend the break to be so long, but renovating takes it out of you.

Sitting in boxes in our graineterie we have the light fittings for almost every room in the house.  The bulk of the wiring for the house has been done for a couple of years, and so putting the two together is a quick win.

The office light in action.

Simon has fitted the wall light in the office. Up till now we have had a light bulb hanging precariously from some exposed wires. It worked, but wasn't elegant. Now we have a neat black metal 'officey' looking light fitting above the window.

He has also drilled out a hole in the stone and fitted the va-et-vient (two-way) switch for the dining room, which was previously just swinging about on its cable. Now one can switch the dining room light on or off from by the sitting room door or near the kitchen door without it seeming like a foolhardy thing to be doing.

The new kitchen bench light does its thing.

In addition, he's attached the under cabinet light over the kitchen bench, narrowly failing to electrocute himself in the process. Previously we had been using a desk lamp sitting in the angle of the bench, plugged in to one of the kitchen appliance powerpoints, while a piece of bare live cable stuck out from under the glasses cabinet. The newly installed light is nicer than I remember it being. I'd had my heart set on a rather expensive light that we reluctantly decided we did not wish to spend the money on, and we were having difficulty sourcing it anyway, so we bought a cheaper, less stylish one. With some distance now, I think the bench light looks great.

Red Rocks

 The dramatic red rocks on the shoreline either side of Merimbula Old Wharf, New South Wales.

An Australian Bookshelf

So what might you get on the well read Australian's bookshelf? 

Here's a random selection in a friend's house. 

(Not) Surveying Butterflies Around Boussay

I have two local survey areas which I monitor for STERF, the long term butterfly study run by the National Natural History Museum in Paris. The first area is around Chaumussay, and the second around Boussay. The Boussay transects are all wetter than the chalky Chaumussay ones, and include some wet natural grassland (dominated by Purple Moor Grass Molinia caerulia), some brande (Besom Heath Erica scoparia scrub) and some forest and hedgerow as well as one transect which runs along a track between two arable fields.

 A male Dainty Bluet damselfly Coenagrion scitilum, lurking about in the Purple Moor Grass. While I was photographing him he zapped across to the next blade to catch and eat a small black gnat that had foolishly landed there.

On my 6 June survey, conditions were much the same as I've described for the day before at Chaumussay. If anything, it was hotter, with very little cloud, but there were still hardly any butterflies. On these lusher, less calcareous sites, the only butterfly in any numbers was the Wall Lasiommata megera (not a species I would particularly associate with wet sites, but they like grassy sunny tracks on the fringes of woodland or bounded by hedges). At the end of the survey I popped over to the village of Boussay to check the limestone ridge there for orchids too, so once again I saw more orchids than butterflies. It's not the wet that has delayed the butterflies on the Boussay transects -- some of the species I have recorded here in previous years like damp sites. It has to be the low maximum temperatures in May delaying the adult butterflies on the wing.

 A female Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus munches a Buttercup Ranunculus sp leaf.

The butterfly selection was so poor on this survey that I didn't even bother to take a single photo of a butterfly during the afternoon. I did, however, see a wide variety of interesting wildlife, including a Western Whip Snake Hierophis viridiflavus crossing the path in front of me, head up and hissing; and a swarm of Honey Bees Apis mellifera gathering in a Common Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna on the edge of the forest.

 Fly Orchid Ophrys insectifera, so called because the flowers are supposed to look like flies. Personally, I think they look like a Viking wearing a babygrow (or possibly a Winston Churchill style velour onesie).

 Like most small, demurely coloured orchids, Twayblades Neottia ovata are worth a closer look.

 Narrow-leaved Helleborine Cephalanthera longifolia -- bright egg yolk orangey yellow in the throat, pure white flowers and no bracts at the base.

  White Helleborine C. damasonium -- slightly dirty lemon yellow in throat, creamy coloured flowers, each with a bract at the base of the twisted ovary.

Greater Butterfly Orchid Platanthera chlorantha. pollinated by long-tongued moths attracted to its vanilla scent at dusk. You can see the nectar reward in the tip of a flower spur appearing over the 'right shoulder' of the flower facing you.

One of only three species with spotted leaves, out of 40+ wild native orchids growing here, Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata is also one of the few local orchids that does not grow on the calcareous sites.

Violet Limodore Limodorum abortivum -- who'da thunk such a glamorous flower was a parasite?

(Not) Surveying Butterflies Around Chaumussay

As regular readers know, I participate in a national butterfly monitoring project run by the Muséum National d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Last Wednesday I sallied forth with my clipboard to walk my transects around Chaumussay, counting butterfly numbers and species in a systematic way on particular sites. My Chaumussay sites are mostly dry limestone, with two natural grassland sites on steep slopes, two transects that run along tracks through crops and one that runs through improved cattle pasture.

A male Adonis Blue Polyommatus bellargus nectaring on Common Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus. This was the only species flying in any numbers. They are a limestone grasslands specialist which over-winters as a caterpillar.

I didn't manage to get in a May survey because the weather never got good enough to bother going out to look for butterflies when I had the time to do it. Luc Manil, who co-ordinates the project, said it was as if nature had just come to a halt in May. Plants didn't grow and butterflies didn't emerge.

 A Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis, one of many orchids I saw. This protected species is easy to spot on the limestone roadside bank at Chaumussay as you take the road to le Petit Pressigny.

By 5 June though summer had hit with a bang. The afternoon was very warm, although cloudy, and with a light breeze. All around me farmers were manically making hay. They hate having to wait until June to take their first cut of hay, and the mowing, windrowing and baling activity was relentless and furious. I got shoo'd off my last transect as the farmer was coming up the lane on a tractor towing a rake.

 Bedstraw Broomrape Orobanche caryophyllacea -- not an orchid, but still magnificent. This is the largest and frilliest broomrape here, common and easy to spot. It is described in Rose as 'deliciously clove scented', but since there was a steep ditch and bank between me and it, I limited myself to photos.

Even so, we hadn't had enough warm days for the butterflies to respond. I was shocked by how few individuals I saw, and how few species. I saw more orchids (14 species, dozens of individual plants) than butterflies (8 species, 28 individuals).There were no Violet Fritillaries, none of the larger whites and all the species that over-winter as adults must have died, as I didn't record any.

I think this is the shield bug Odontotarsus purpureolineatus, but I've never seen it before. Thanks to Eric on Le Monde des Insectes online forum for pointing me in the right direction.

But that doesn't mean it was a wasted afternoon. I saw lots of things besides butterflies, and there are lots of caterpillars around. The butterflies are coming, and my next survey should be a completely different picture. To make up for May's deficit I will try to schedule the next survey for late June. Already the swallowtails are turning up, ready for summer.

One of the somewhat unexpected additional impediments to my butterfly surveying. This huge pile of lumber has appeared, plonked right on the path of one of my transects. Surprisingly, this is where I recorded my 'best' species for the whole afternoon -- a Southern White Admiral Limenitis reducta.

A female Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa rests on vegetation by a ditch. These at least are abundant and active at the moment.

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Orchard News: After telling everyone that our cherries would be at least another week, the Burlat has snuck up on me. I picked the first kilo yesterday. Burlat is an early variety, and has been in the market for over a week, but the our orchard always lags the commercial production.

Closerie de la Bruzette

Just recently we had occasion to stay overnight in a lovely chambre d'hôtes at Fondettes. The Closerie de la Bruzette is run by a local family, who have lived in the house for several generations. Charmingly, they have furnished the rooms with pieces that were handed down from the current owner's great-grandmother. It is in the fashionable style of her day, known as Henri II (which is 19th century, but in a renaissance revival style). This type of furniture tends to be huge, and quite robustly decorated with ornate carving and elaborate cornices. I think it is often made from chestnut, and is generally way too big to fit in a modern room with any degree of comfort or elegance.

Bedroom.

The furniture at Closerie de la Bruzette was quite the nicest examples of this style that I have seen and I liked the way the owner had sensitively modified some of it to fit modern bathrooms. He had also had a staircase built of reclaimed timber, and had bought a few modern pieces of art from a local wood sculptor which made a nice link between past and present.

Bathroom.

The family are friendly and all speak some English. They very kindly offered a garage for Célestine, and discreetly warned us that the other group staying there all talked very loudly, so they hoped we would not be disturbed. A shared kitchen / dining room, equipped with fridge, sink and hotplate, is made available to the guests so you don't have to go out to dinner if you don't wish to. Likewise, one of the enormous sideboards is full of cutlery and crockery for the guests' use.

Communal dining room.

The place is in a very quiet area, with plenty of private parking and a large garden to enjoy. The only warning I would issue is to make sure you have a very good map or GPS, as the back blocks of Fondettes is not the easiest area to negotiate if you are unfamiliar with it. It does make a very good base to explore Tours and the area to the west of that city once you get your bearings though.

Closerie de la Bruzette.

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Botany Club Outing: There is an outing to look at Red Helleborine orchids at Panzoult on Sunday 16 June. Meet at 2.30 pm in the car park in front of the Mairie at L'Ile Bouchard (to the right, between the two bridges).

Out with the Old

In general we have been happy with our Aurlane MySpace shower cubicle, and it was certainly an exciting day when it was installed and we could take a proper shower.

One aspect of the shower has not been so good though, and the problem started fairly early on in its life. The duckboard base, which was made of bamboo, began rotting and splitting almost immediately once it was exposed to soap and water. It was also impossible to clean properly, with too many nooks and crannies and narrow gaps between the slats that were too narrow to brush clean even with a toothbrush.

The old bamboo duckboard waiting to go to the tip.

Eventually it began to smell and finally it got to be dangerous. Simon emailed the manufacturer when we first bought the shower cabinet to ask how to best take care of the bamboo, in the hopes of prolonging its life. He didn't get an answer.

Snazzy new recycled plastic duckboard installed in our shower.

Once it was clear something really had to be done he tried again, and this time received a very prompt and helpful response. We could buy a new showerbase, made from recycled plastics, for about €100. That sounded rather expensive and it wasn't exactly our fault that the original one had fallen to pieces and was a health hasard, but we decided not to push it. We could buy direct from the manufacturer, or from a local supplier. We chose to go with a local supplier, Bricorama in Chatellerault, which saved us the delivery fee. It's fairly obvious that this was a known design fault that developed with these showers. To their credit the manufacturer has fixed the problem rather than putting their heads in the sand about it.

The new duckboard is very smart looking and nicer underfoot than the old one ever was, so on the whole, we are happy. One small niggle, after we installed it, we realised that it was missing a foot. Fortunately I hadn't taken the old one to the tip at that stage and we salvaged all the feet off it, which are identical to the new ones. Problem solved.

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Points: There are 2 points for anyone who can tell me what the word for a duckboard showerbase is in French, and another point if you can tell me how it is pronounced.

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Visitors: Our friends Megan and Bryan arrived bearing gifts of exotic smoked cheddar from Glastonbury and jars of stem ginger in syrup. They've left again, on their way to Switzerland, with Lee, their trusty Aussie accented GPS. We plied them with local wine (Domaine des Rainettes, Bourgeuil, cab franc 2008 - very good, lovely raspberry nose, velvety mouthfeel) and homegrown strawberries (which we made them pick themselves...) Megan spotted a third little Pyramidal Orchid in the middle of the orchard, so I am chuffed to bits. This means that all of the orchid species have established new plants this year.

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Poster Campaign: A couple of years ago we asked readers to print off and put up posters to promote our custom day trip and tour business Loire Valley Time Travel. We thought you might be kind enough to help out again, by placing posters on notice boards at workplaces, where you have French lessons or anywhere you think someone planning a trip to France might see it. If you would like to put up a poster for us, please click on this link to the original post, which gives you links and instructions for printing off the posters. Once again, we would be delighted to treat you to the sights of Preuilly in Célestine if you are in the area and you let us know what clever spot you've stuck a poster.

We don't all see things the same way

One of the most beautiful orchids in the Claise valley is also one of the rarest in the département - indeed over most of France except the south east. The Red Helleborine Cephalanthera rubra is easy to find on our dry wooded limestone buttes in late May and June, but it occurs almost nowhere else in Indre et Loire and is uncommon or extinct in all the surrounding départements.

Red Helleborine.

Like many orchids, it has a very particular trick to get itself pollinated. The flowers do not produce any nectar, so they are not attractive to most insects as there is no reward. Nevertheless, they are insect pollinated - by a small black bee called the Harebell Carpenter Bee Chelostoma campanularum and a closely related species, C. fuliginosum, both of whom specialise in collecting pollen and nectar from Bellflowers Campanula spp.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower C. trachelium.

It's not the female bees that pollinate the Red Helleborines though. It's the males. The Red Helleborines look just like Bellflowers to the male bees, whose visual system is very different to ours. The little bees use Bellflowers for more than just food. They use them for shelter too, crawling inside for a nap during the day, or overnight. The male bees, ever hopeful of finding a female, crawl inside the lookalike orchids, thus collecting the pollenia and transferring it on to the next orchid they visit. The orchid has evolved to time its flowering in relation to the Bellflowers in order to exploit these particular bees.

Susan

See also Rampion Bellflower C. rapunculus on Loire Valley Nature, where I have included a photo which shows a bee sleeping in one of the flowers.

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La Chasse: When I went down to the boulangerie yesterday I noticed that the local mounted hunt were in the abbey carpark getting dressed in their uniforms. Hunt season is over so I assume they were attending a mass. Yesterday was the Feast Day of Sainte Diane, who of course has no connection to Artemis. So was it a coincidence or not? I asked the grocer if he knew what they were up to, but he said he didn't and suggested I go and ask -- 'They won't eat you!' -- but I had other stuff to do, so didn't go down there and pump someone for further information.

Retirement Paradise

People often ask us if we will go back to live in Australia. The answer is maybe, but maybe not. As with most people it depends a lot of finances and family. There are very few places in Australia that we feel we would enjoy living. This is one of them, and our friends who do actually live here know how lucky they are.

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Orchard Update (sort of): The annual production of dolmades has begun. Sadly, not with our own grape leaves, which are struggling, but with those plundered from friends' vines.

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Welcome: Today we are expecting our friends from England, Megan and Bryan, for an overnight stay as they head off to the Alps for a camping holiday. Megan is a heritage professional, originally from New Zealand and an ex-colleague of mine. Bryan is an artist. The dishwasher was returned from the repair shop just in time! Along with the dolmades I have made (yes, made, not purchased...) céleri rémoulade, carottes rapées and guacamole.

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Renovations: Bricolage has recommenced, with Simon constructing a wood storage area under the stairs. It doubles as a means of hiding all the ugly electrical cabling coming from the fuse box and gives us a neat storage space for the vacuum cleaner and a shelf as well. He is sporting a quite impressive bruise on his hand, where he bashed himself in the process of putting the piece together.

He has also installed a new temporary plug in our bedroom. Up to now, power in the bedroom has been via an extension cable run from a power point in the office. So now we can do away with the cable across the landing (although we still have a cable across the door way of the bedroom).