Esca

Esca is a fungal disease that is hitting the Loire Valley vineyards hard. Many winemakers have lost thousands of vines over the past few years. There is no currently available effective treatment for the vines once they have the disease and it has the potential to turn into a crisis of Phylloxera scale proportions (when at the end of the 19th century a root aphid which introduced a fungal disease nearly wiped out the French wine industry).

Part of the problem is that the disease is actually caused by a group of closely related fungi. The only treatment that kills them, sodium arsenite, is a known carcinogen and so toxic to all living things it is too hazardous to use and has been banned. At present it isn't even sure how the fungi are transmitted -- whether they are soil, water or air borne. However their means of transport, they enter the plant at the level of the graft, and affect the root stock. The vine reacts by blocking off its vascular system, but the fungi propogate rapidly and very quickly the plant kills itself by blocking so many of its sap runs that it starves. Typically the leaves turn yellow with a characteristic pattern.

Removal of affected 35 year old vines in Vouvray. The remains were burnt, but these vines were only middle aged, so it is a blow to have to replace them. Photo courtesy of Chateau Gaudrelle.

The French National Agronomy Research Institute (INRA) is working on finding a solution, and has clarified what the symptoms are and identified the specific organisms concerned, but a cure is proving elusive. At the moment, it seems that inoculation of root stock with the oomycete Pythium oligandrum may have promise. This organism is a parasite of many harmful fungi as well other undesirables such as Botrytis and Phytopthora. It not only directly parasitises the fungi but causes the vines to react by stimulating healthy growth and chemicals to defend against pathogens.

New certified clean plants ready to restock the vineyard. Photo courtesy of Chateau Gaudrelle.

In the meantime, winemakers are turning to all sorts of alternatives. Some are planting wild leeks amongst the vines, in the belief that their associated mycorhiza can combat the esca. Others are 'playing music' to the vines, using devices which send out periodic audible tone patterns which the inventors claim disrupt the proteins of the esca fungi and prevent them from growing.

Charles and I discuss the Genodique 'music box' in the cellars of Chateau Gaudrelle before it goes out into the vineyard. I am extreeeeeeeemely sceptical...

My reading suggests that soil conditions play a part, and parcels with residual herbicides or vines that have had their soil microbia disrupted are particularly at risk. Another risk factor that most people agree on is when a warm wet spring is followed by a dry summer. This type of weather pattern always seems to cause a serious outbreak of esca. Once the disease is detected in a parcel of vines, those vines and their infrastructure are removed and new vines from a nursery that can be trusted to supply clean stock are replanted. The disease can take hold and kill very rapidly (within months) or the vines can linger on for several years with symptoms including yellowing leaves and slow maturing grapes.

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Fête Nationale: Simon went to the celebrations in Preuilly, held on Saturday night, and really enjoyed himself so he made a video. There were fire eating zulu drummers, loud, generous and colourful feu d'artifice and the traditional bal populaire, at which the Madison was danced to Just a Gigolo well into the night. And in case you are wondering, only anglos refer to Bastille Day, and lots of communes hold their 14 juillet Fête nationale celebrations on the eve.

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A la cuisine hier: The sour cherry syrup has now infused sufficiently, so was strained and bottled, yielding 2 litres for adding to fizzy water, or perhaps instead of cassis for various kir style drinks. The sour cherries macerating in sugar were also ready to have a bottle of cheap vodka tipped over them. They will sit in unsealed jars somewhere reasonably warm for a month to 'brew'. My friend Christine told me that in the old days they were sat out in the sun, although she has also been told by an old lady that the proper way to do it is to put them out in the moonlight.

I picked 5.5 kg of sweet yellow cherries from the enormous tree on our orchard neighbours' plot. We ran into her the other day on the way to the pool and she suggested I help myself, although warned me that they were full of asticots (maggots). It's true that some of the fruit had the tell tale shadow under the translucent skin that indicates it is infested with cherry fruit fly. However, most of them are pretty well perfect. I've set aside some to eat fresh and Simon has make an Asian sauce (basically plum sauce but made with yellow cherries instead of yellow plums). I'll take a small jar around to her in a few days. Even if she doesn't cook Chinese food, it will go well with cheese.

Yellow cherries aren't grown commercially, but they are widely grown in gardens here. The theory is that the birds don't notice they are ripe and ignore them. I don't know what variety this one is. It turns butter yellow when ripe. Our yellow cherries are Coeur de Pigeon and Napoléon, both of which get a rosy blush when ripe, so the birds aren't fooled at all. They also ripen much earlier and it seems to me that this is the real key. Birds get an awful lot of early and mid-season cherries, but leave the late ones. I think they've got tired of cherries and have moved on to something else.

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Orchard News: A Marbled Fritillary Brenthis daphne spotted laying eggs on our tayberry. Their caterpillars eat brambles, so why not tayberries. This is a new record for the orchard, and somewhat of a surprise. This species seems to be only Fritillary butterfly doing well this year, and I have recorded it for the first time at one of my Chaumussay transects too (where it was not a surprise, but I just hadn't ever seen it there before).

Kosciuszko

In a little park in Cooma there is a simple, modern memorial to the late 18th - early 19th century Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Cooma bills itself as the 'Capital of the Snowy Mountains' -- by virtue of it being the headquarters of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, even though it is actually on the Monaro High Plain, and not really in the mountains themselves.

 It's where teams of workers, many of them Polish immigrants, or those from other eastern European countries, came to work in the 1950s and 60s. But there was already a Polish connection in this neck of the woods, as the explorer Paul Strzelecki had named Australia's highest mountain, in the heart of the Snowys, after one of his heroes.

Most Australians couldn't tell you who Kosciuszko was, I suspect, and they certainly don't pronounce his name correctly. The mountain is 'kozzy-oss-koh' to Australians (whereas the Polish pronunciation is something like 'kosh-chyoosh-koh'.

There is a Kosciuszko connection in France too -- he lived in France at various times in his life and there is a monument to him at Montigny-sur-Loing. Napoleon was one of the few people who did not unconditionally admire him, and instead despised him as a romantic fool. The name lives on here too, with our former Ecology Minister and close colleague of Nicolas Sarkozy, Nathalie Kosciuszko-Morizet, a descendent of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's brother. She is running for Mayor of Paris next year, against the impressive and popular Anne Hidalgo, the current Deputy Mayor.

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Ile de Ré Reflections - New Bird: The White-spotted Bluethroat is considered endangered in Europe, but on places like Ile de Ré, where we went camping recently, it is making an excellent recovery. The reason for this is salt. On Ile de Ré, sea salt is still produced in the traditional way, by evaporating shallow man made ponds of sea water until only the salt is left. Of course, producing the salt is a bit more technical than that, but it means that there is a landscape created and maintained in the salt marshes that really suits this pretty little bird's breeding requirements. We had never seen one before, but on a visit to the salt museum at Loix, we noticed a male hopping about on a bank just by the front door.

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Helping Pollinators: Lynn Dicks from the UK Natural Environment Research Council has written a very helpful overview on the Valuing Nature Network of the 4 things everyone, from farmers to scientists, agrees will aid pollinators. In brief, they are:

1. Provide habitat with flowers for food, and suitable nesting and resting places.
2. Acknowledge and value pollination services in the agricultural industry.
3. Monitor pollinators using systematic, scientific methods.
4. Reduce overall use of pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides) and fertilizers.

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Stupendous Orchard News!: Yesterday evening I mowed the potager for the first time this year. By some miracle I managed to miss by a whisker a large Epipactis orchid in bud that I have never before noticed. This is a new and completely unexpected species for the orchard. I assume it is going to turn out to be Mueller's Helleborine Epipactis muelleri, but it might be Broad-leafed Helleborine E. helleborine. I shall have to wait until the flowers open to be sure. That makes 6 species this year in the orchard.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: Tagliata, steak and salad with an Italian twist.

Cherry Ripe

Undoubtedly the most sophisticated of the classic Australian chocolate confectionaries, Cherry Ripes are covered in dark chocolate, with a cherry / coconut interior.
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Tour de France: This year the famous cycle race spent two days in our area, overnighting in Tours on Thursday. Simon scoured the route to find the best place for us to go to watch the race. He chose Montrésor, and imagine our delight when we arrived and found the most perfect parking spot for Célestine in the shadow of the chateau ramparts. We invited Niall and Antoinette to come with us on a picnic as they hadn't 'done' the Tour before. Niall was sceptical, but by the end of the event, totally converted! Kath and Roger, who live across the 'border' in Vienne and write Our French Adventure, spotted us and came over to introduce themselves, which was really nice too. The weather was warm without being scorching, our vantage point in the village could not have been beaten for a comfortable view of the caravan and race, and we shared way too much delicious food in the company of good friends. We hope you spotted us on television!

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: 2kg of sour cherries put to cherry syrup (1kg sugar, 2l water, boil until reduced to about half, leave overnight then strain). The remaining sour cherries sorted, destalked and frozen.

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Bees versus Honey Bees: Jeff Ollerton, Professor of Biodiversity in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Northampton, has posted on his blog about his frustration with regularly having to explain that the problems in the apiary industry are a different issue to the decline in wild bees, but the two things are regularly conflated by the media and the public. The issues with the domestic honey bee's health and mortality have to do with husbandry. The main issue affecting wild bees is loss of habitat, leading to lack of food and nesting places. Pesticides are a side issue, although should not be ignored. Honey bees are not particularly important for providing pollination services in the overall scheme of things, but wild bees and hover flies are.

Jeff concludes:

Honey bees are (like any other agricultural animal) a utilitarian species that provides us with a range of benefits...If honey bees become the central focus of ...[conservation] strategies (and funding), due to confusion in the minds of the public, MPs, policy makers, businesses, the media and other influential bodies, then wild pollinators would lose out. 

Everything

A couple of weeks ago we had a small gas leak which meant we had to call the plumber. When he arrived, the gas leak turned out to be a quick and easy fix, so Simon asked if he could install our sink, which we've only been waiting 20 months to use.

Things to do with a Traction Avant jack #59 -- propping up a newly glued in sink.

Pascal, bless him, agreed quite happily and has done a beautiful job. It's another great milestone in our house renovations.

Pascal constructing the neatest possible evacuation drainpipe.

He told me I needed to have kept phoning the office at Bertucelli's where he works. For small jobs like this the plumber only turns up if you are persistent. I said I'd phoned, emailed and gone up there numerous times and had given up reminding them. I think he was a bit shocked we had been left waiting more than a year and a half all the same. While the glue on the drain pipes was drying he asked to see our attic bathroom because he had only seen it before the bath went in and wanted to see it finished (it isn't quite, as we need to get a cabinet made for the wash basin, but you can see how it is supposed to look). He was suitably impressed.

Voilà ! A fully functioning kitchen sink! No more washing up or scrubbing vegetables in the laundry.

The Portuguese guys who installed the granite bench tops would have done it, but because there was a mistake with the hole size, the replacement custom made sink was delivered after they left.

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Produits de terroir:  The conditions on Ile de Ré are responsible for 3 special products for which the island is famous -- potatoes, sea salt and oysters. Several of the oyster producers offer dégustations (tasting sessions). We went to one with an attractive set up where you sat on a stool to a high rustic table overlooking the bay and partook of a selection of seafood and wine. We chose the €14 mix of 6 prawns (crevettes) and 6 of their #3 oysters with a muscadet from Sèvre et Maine (across the bay to the north, around Nantes). The prawns weren't from the island, but had been caught somewhere dans le coin (unspecified but nearby) according to the young woman who served us. Number 3 oysters are the middle size (they range from 1 to 5 -- see my previous post on oysters). It was a very, very pleasant experience. The next day we bought a dozen #2 for €6.90 from a producer with a stall at the market at Ars en Ré, which were superb. We could have gone out and harvested our own, had we but known when we visited the Grouin, where individuals can go at low tide and gather oysters above the line where they are farmed. This is called pêche à pied and you are allowed to take 5kg of oysters bigger than 4cm for personal use according to a woman I spoke to on the beach.

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Another Convivial Lunch: Yesterday we had lunch with about a dozen of the Archaeological Society members, hosted by the President, Bernard and his wife Christine at their wonderful late medieval farmhouse. I made a Greekish salad with some superb lettuce given to me the day before by Tim. My vinaigrette got the nod of approval and questions about what oil and vinegar and what proportions (olive, walnut, sherry, 5:1:1 with a pinch of salt, if you are interested). Sprinkling toasted mixed seeds on the salad was less successful, and I saw at least one person picking them off. Whilst my outfit of flowing white linen was rated très chic, I was also informed that I have a Belgian accent (I don't pronounce words like puits correctly). Simon was designated Monsieur Drôle by the hosts' 4 year old grand-daughter. The meal was cold meats and salads followed by clafoutis and apricot tart. Everything was delicious and we enjoyed chatting with everyone.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: I put 600g of sour cherries to clafoutis and Simon made pasties for a picnic today.

Dinner at the Chateau

Chateau Valcreuse is a 19th century country house owned by our friends Caroline and Alexander. During the summer months they run it as a high end bed and breakfast (or chambres d'hôtes as B&Bs are known in French).

Alexander rang us one day recently to tell us they had English guests who read the blog, and since he and Caroline had been meaning to invite us to dinner for some time, he thought we might like to come over and meet Nina and John. We did not hesitate, as they employ an excellent chef!

 A table: John, Caroline, Gerard, Alexandrine, Crystal, Alexander, Nina and Simon.

It turned out there were two other guests staying at the chateau, Gerard and Crystal, who are Flemish, and so we were 8, with 3 languages between us. We began with a champagne apéro by the pool, but once the sun went behind a cloud we decamped to their wonderfully comfortable sitting room.

Alexandrine, their housekeeper, served more drinks and verrines of red lentil velouté topped with toasted pain d'épices crumbs (it sounds weird but looked attractive and the spices in the 'gingerbread' blended well with both the slightly sweet crunchy crumbs and the smooth savoury soup). Moving on to the dining room the menu was foie gras with jerusalem artichoke purée, followed by roast leg of lamb served with a jus, girolles mushrooms and parsnips. I had Maroilles, Roquefort and a Brebis Fougère from the cheese platter, then dessert was a Belgian chocolate moeulleux with homemade vanilla iceream. Yum.

 Denis the chef, who came out to tell us we were eating légumes de la guerre (meaning that Jerusalem artichoke was all you could get during the War). The combination with the foie gras worked very well

A still white moeulleux wine was served with the foie gras, a red with the lamb, but unfortunately I didn't catch where either was from. With coffee Alexander produced a bottle of ice cold genever, which we non-Flemish assumed was the same as gin. He was delighted to be able to educate us. It smelled like gin, but tasted more like vodka, and was clearly very good quality, as it was very drinkable.

 My Belgian chocolate moeulleux, properly squidgy and gooey.

Caroline and Alexander are such good hosts, thoughtful and generous, that it's no wonder all their guests rave about them. We enjoyed meeting Nina and John and discovered that we know and love quite a few of the same areas in England too.

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Donkeys in pyjamas: Not all the donkeys on Ile de Ré have dreads but they all wear stripey pyjama-like trousers when working and are known as ânes en culottes. This is a nod to the old practice on the island of protecting the donkeys' legs from salt and prickly plants as they worked on the salt marshes. Nowadays the donkeys don't do anything more strenuous than providing rides for small children.

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Sour Cherries: I have started picking the sour cherries in earnest now. 7kg yesterday, destined for liqueur and clafoutis to start with. Simon has made a batch of his ChilliCherry Sauce. Any readers within cooee and not overwhelmed by their own cherries are very welcome to get in touch with us if they would like to come and pick their own (email us through our profiles on the right side bar if you don't already have an address for us). 

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Other Orchard News: The grape vines are in full leaf and sending out shoots and tendrils. The white Chasselas grapes have not flowered, so there won't be any grapes from them. The black Hamburgs have a nice showing of tiny grapes coming. It looks like being a moderate but not huge crop, which is just fine.

 If you live in Europe and are madly weeding your vegetable garden at the moment, please be careful of Wild Parsnip. It is capable of giving a very nasty 'burn' (I have the painful blisters on my wrist to prove it).

Natural Born Killers

What's the deadliest carnivore you can think of? I bet dragonflies aren't anywhere near the top of your list. But maybe you should think again.

Lions' successful kill rate is less than a quarter of the number of hunts undertaken, sharks just over half. Dragonflies, on the other hand, could be the most effective hunters of all, according to some new research, catching 95% of their targeted prey.

Researchers say they are apparently insatiable too. When kept in captivity they will eat absolutely every fly offered to them. One researcher gave up trying to find out what their limit was, after offering 30 flies one after another to an individual dragonfly, who gobbled up all the unfortunate flies with alacrity.

A female Blue Emperor Anax imperator eats a Flesh Fly it has captured in a wheat field.

Dragonflies brains are different to other insects, allowing them to focus on a single victim in flight, no matter what else is milling around. The brain and the wings are also linked in a way that allows minute and virtually instantaneous adjustments to the flight trajectory. They constantly manoeuvre themselves into a position so that the prey is steady in the same place in their visual field all the time.The prey is oblivious to the dragonfly's attack, as it swoops in from behind and below, scooping up the victim in a basket formed by their bristly legs.

Dragonflies fly differently to other insects too. They can hover, fly backwards, upside down, with one wing missing, pivot and manipulate each wing separately, all at a speed of 50 kilometres an hour.

A female Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa rests on vegetation near a ditch.

They are incredibly visual creatures, with a 360º field of view. Many of the big dragonflies will blatantly come up to anyone moving into their territory to check them out. They'll fly past a couple of times, then ignore you. What you probably don't realise is that they can see you whether you are in front of them or behind them.

They are effectively deaf though, so you can make as much noise as you like while dragonfly watching.

 An Orange-spotted Emerald Oxygastra curtisii, resting, but giving you an idea of how they approach prey.

The new research about their ability for selective attention was done in Australia by Steven Wiederman and David O'Carroll. They reported their findings in Current Biology. It seems the US military is taking an interest, as dragonflies share characteristics with drones.

Thanks to regular reader Sheila from Texas for alerting me to this new research.

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Rasta Donkeys: Until we moved to France I had no idea there were different breeds of donkey -- much less huge ones that appear to have been bred by the Rastafarian movement if their dreadlocks are anything to go by. These are known as baudet de Poitou and there are lots of them on Ile de Ré, the much loved descendents of pack animals.

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Orchard News: Now something has eaten my nascent aubergine! But the peppers are fighting back and have already produced new flower buds. The few crimson clover seeds that have germinated are starting to flower. I sowed crimson clover to provide ground cover and green manure, but I assume the ants find the seeds very tasty.

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Claudette News: Yesterday we took Claudette on an outing. Not really a proper outing, as we drove her over to Michel the panelbeaters, in convoy with Jean-Louis and Suzanne in their Traction, which was rear-ended recently and also needed Michel's services. Michel and his wife Annick live near Cheverny, so it was a nice, long drive. Michel uncovered some inappropriate fibreglass repair to the base of the doors, which would have been cosmetic at the time it was done, but is actually making the rust problem worse. He is going to repair the front passenger door and the sill that side, plus a couple of other holes. He is also going to repair the door hinges and rehang the doors. After the brakes, which Jean-Louis has fixed, along with many lesser problems, the precarious nature of the back doors was something I particularly wanted sorted. 

After the business was completed we moved on to lunch, all heading off to the Hotel de la Gare in Montrichard, where a jolly good time was had by all. They have a great buffet, generous simple traditional mains and an impressive cheese trolley. We take clients there frequently. Jean-Louis was delighted to find they stocked his favourite wine. Once lunch was done Michel and Annick went to visit her mother at Saint-Aignan and we headed for Chateauroux, where Jean-Louis and Suzanne live -- via several impromptu stops.

The first petite pause was to Joël Delaunay, a winemaker in Pouillé (the source of Jean-Louis' favourite tipple). The winery is certified as agriculture raisonnée ('intelligent/integrated agriculture' ie not organic, but pesticides are not applied prophylactically or as a matter of course, but only when 'reasonable', and crops are monitored carefully.) All the while as we travelled Jean-Louis pointed out houses that had Tractions in their garage. We couldn't necessarily see them, but he knew all the Traction owners in the area. 

This led to our next stop, which to our surprise was the locked compound of the Gendarmerie in Ecueillé. It turns out that one of the Traction club members is a policeman, and it was his day off. All the gendarmes live in the compound, so we stopped off for a cool drink and a chat. His Traction was parked alongside the police vehicles, as was a Traction we know from several encounters in Preuilly. It has just been sold and I think he was looking after it temporarily.

All in all a very social and fun day.

Soapwort

Soapwort Saponaria officinalis (saponaire officinale in French) is a member of the carnation and campion family. It grows throughout Europe and Asia Minor, on damp uncultivated soils.
It's called soapwort because it contains saponins. If you soak the plant, especially the roots, in warm water you can produce a soapy lather, and this liquid soap was used for centuries in the processing of wool. The plant is sometimes called the fullers' herb, because they would use it to clean woollen cloth (fulling is a stage in woollen cloth manufacture). In some places the whole sheep was washed with soapwort prior to shearing. Even today it is sometimes used by textile conservators when cleaning tapestries. It would also have been used in the local lavoirs (public laundries) but there doesn't seem to be any real truth to the story that if you see soapwort growing it indicates there was once a laundry or a fulling mill or field close by. The plant is common and widespread, and whilst it would have been encouraged to grow near these facilities, it would also grow and spread in any damp undisturbed place. Until last year, before the farmer sprayed the hay meadow in front of our orchard with herbicides and ploughed the field up, there was a substantial patch on the ditch by our gate. Now, to photograph it for this blog post, I had to walk around the corner to the Moulin de Chanvre, where there is a lovely patch growing by the culvert.

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The Ports of Ile de Ré: The small island of Ré, just off the western coast of France near La Rochelle has several picturesque small harbours. This one is Saint-Martin-de-Ré, where we stayed recently, taken at dusk.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: 5kg of sweet red cherries stewed and frozen. I stoned half with the cherry stoning 'machine'. Now I have a couple of cherry seasons under my belt I have got to grips with the various idiosyncracies of this device, and have managed not to spray indelible cherry juice all over the kitchen. The other half I left with their stones in. Not only is this less work, but in theory the cherries should taste better by gaining that hint of almond flavoured cyanide from the stones. The ones with stones in are for pudding type desserts, the ones without stones for cake type recipes. Any excess juice I will jelly.

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Swimming: Has commenced in earnest. The weather is conducive, the water in the Preuilly pool is 28° and Laurent has returned in fine form. Antoinette, Pauline, Simon and I met up for a morning's swimming yesterday.

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Orchard News: Something has eaten all the flowers on the peppers and chillies!

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Farming News: Haymaking continues apace and the harvest has started. Headers are on the move and it's the barley first by the look of it.

Tourangeaux Bonnets

The local museum in Preuilly, housed in the Poterne below the chateau, has a fine collection of about 30 Tourangeaux bonnets. Intricately embroidered, with minutely goffered brims, they were worn by all adult working women from 1860 to just after the First World War.

A married woman's bonnet.

They developed after the Revolution, when the sumptuary laws which forbade the wearing of lace by anyone but the nobility were abolished. Coupled with that, Josephine Bonaparte developed a taste for French provincial lace and so popularised such laces at court.

A case full of Tourangeaux bonnets in the museum at Preuilly.

Little by little, each region of France developed recognisable styles of headress. The mechanisation of tulle manufacture and Valencay lace made them more affordable. The Touraine was a rich provence and the embroidered floral bonnets here were unlike anything elsewhere. For ordinary daywear women wore a round mousseline bonnet, barely decorated. But for going to the market or other little outings, women had a more elaborately embroidered bonnet with 14 motifs. When the outing was more formal or more festive, the bonnet worn could have 21 or 28 flower motifs. The number of flowers was always a multiple of 7, for the 7 graces of women in the catholic tradition (wisdom, intelligence, science, counsel, strength, piety and fear of God).

Demonstrating the goffering technique. Valencay lace is wrapped over and under fine metal wires (known as 'straws' in French) to create tiny tubular pleats. Pots of starch, gum arabic and laundry blueing are on the right.

Often the centres of the flowers are done in jours d'Angles, a nearby drawnthread needlelace tradition, which is determinedly kept alive today by a few women in the town of Angles-sur-l'Anglin. The bonnets of unmarried women featured a large single flower, usually a rose, that covered most of the crown. Once they were married, they wore bonnets with a pair of roses on the crown, to symbolise the shared love of husband and wife. These central motifs are then surrounded by a garland of other flowers, which once you were married, came to represent your children.

Side view of a bonnet.

Not everyone made their own bonnets. If you were well off, you could purchase embroidered bonnets from any number of specialist workshops. Amazingly, the workshops rarely duplicated a bonnet. Needless to say, they got quite competitive - who would turn up at the fete in the most beautiful, best laundered and most exquisitely goffered bonnet? Apparently the miller's wives were the most noted for their abundantly and delicately embroidered bonnets.

In the days when women all had long hair, but washing it was rather a rigmarole, a lovely bonnet to keep your hair free of dust or to cover it up if it was getting a bit dank, was an entirely practical item of clothing.

If you want to see the bonnets, the museum is open Sunday - Friday afternoons during the summer school holidays.

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Saint-Martin-de-Ré: This is the answer to yesterday's quiz about where we went camping. This picture is taken from Google Earth, with the campground outlined in yellow. The entire town sits within one of the forts designed by Vauban for Louis XIV. Saint-Martin-de-Ré is on l'Ile de Ré, just off La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast of France, and a couple of hours to our west. It is the birthplace of Nicolas Baudin, explorer, naturalist and career naval officer, who was sent to map the coast of Australia and collect specimens of plants and animals on behalf of the French government just at the same time as Matthew Flinders was similarly engaged on a mission for the British.

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Orchard News: To my considerable surprise the last of our sweet cherries have survived our absence. I thought the bit of rain a few days ago would cause them to split, and the birds would eat them. But today I picked 7kg of fabulous cherries. A few had split, but the birds must be so over cherries that they seem to have left the tree entirely alone. The variety is Géant (Giant), a late cherry that benefits from being left on the tree, so I am very happy indeed. It seems a shame to cook them, as they are so good fresh. However, I don't think we can munch our way through 7kg in a couple of days. And besides, cherry sponge pudding in the winter is something to look forward to.

The strawberries have really slowed down, to just a couple of hundred grams every few of days. Some tomatoes are beginning to set and the peppers have buds. One of the aubergines has a flower, but the zucchini has been eaten by snails. The leeks are looking good, but there is no sign of the potatoes flowering. The celery doesn't appear to be doing anything.

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Heatwave: We are set for a canicule (heatwave) with temperatures yesterday going over 30° and predicted to stay high for the next few days.

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Global Weather News: For those of you who are interested in climate change, here is a link to an excellent programme by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation which explains the mechanisms which give us our weather and how they are changing. The programme has received world wide attention and acclaim as an excellent layman's overview of the situation as we currently understand it.

The Best Mussels in the World

We bought a kilo of mussels from this boat in Eden Harbour, New South Wales, last December. They had just been harvested from the mussel beds across the other side of the bay -- you can see them from the harbour. The owner assured me that he had just come back from Europe where he had tried the mussels everywhere, and he had travelled all over the world. These were undoubtedly the best mussels I would find anywhere. They were certainly very large and they were very good. Unfortunately, I'd had a stupendous eggs benedict breakfast at the Waterfront Café in nearby Merimbula, and couldn't really do the mussels justice at lunch time. They cost $10 a kilo (the equivalent of €7.85 -- normally I pay €5 or €6 per kilo at the fishmongers in Preuilly market, for mussels half the size and rope grown at La Rochelle.)

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We're Back!: We got back yesterday afternoon from a mini camping break in our newly acquired tent. Two points will be awarded to anyone who can guess where we went. Here are some clues:

• we saw rasta donkeys in pyjamas (1 bonus point if you can tell me what they are usually called in French.)
• we camped within the walls of one of the finest historic defensive complexes in France (1 bonus point if you can tell me the name of the architect).
• we ate lots of oysters.
• we saw rare birds breeding on saltmarsh.
• there were more bicycles than cars and every second shop was a bike hire place.

We had a great time although having a piece fall off the car on the motorway on the way home was not ideal. Fortunately Simon is the sort of bloke who has a toolbox full of random stuff, some of which might come in handy for any given emergency. Photos and blog posts to come.

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Quiz Results: chm is the winner with 3 points. He was the only one who correctly guessed the name of the place, and from there it was an easy step for him to get the architect. Second was Anton who got both bonus points, but did not guess the place. Third was Lady Justine, who I was very tempted to give an extra bonus point to as she was so close and had reasoned very well. She was the first to guess the donkeys.

Surprisingly, although several people guessed that the rasta donkeys were the breed called baudet de Poitou, and I have awarded them points, no one picked up on the 'in pyjamas' part. The phrase I was actually looking for is ânes en culottes, and you will find out why in a few days.

So, the answers to the questions are:

We went camping on Ile de Ré, inside the 17th century star fort created by Vauban around the town of Saint-Martin-de-Ré. The donkeys are a tourist attraction in the town and known as 'donkeys in trousers'.

A Mongrel Landscape

An information board on the lookout at Twofold Bay, Eden, about alien invasive plants and their impact in Australia. Because it was spring when we visited last year, and the season had been good with plenty of rain, it was very obvious just how many invasive aliens there are in the landscape, since they were all merrily flowering away. Even though I already knew it is a problem, it was still shocking to see how ubiquitous and how dominant some of these invaders are. They were everywhere on roadsides and shorelines, and even in the National Parks.

Sorting Out the Skimmers

Come July those lovely dragonflies with the blue dusted abdomens are on the wing here. They are the Skimmers Orthetrum spp and we have four species recorded for départements 36, 37 and 86, plus two similar looking Chasers Libellula spp. Only the adult males have the pruinose dusting that makes them go blue. Females and tenerals (juveniles) are yellow with black scallops down each side (don't mistake them for Clubtails, which apparently often happens if you are a beginner).

Black-tailed Skimmer (mature male), photographed on the boat ramp in Preuilly.

Black-tailed Skimmer O. cancellatum: This is the skimmer you are most likely to see, between May and September, peaking in June and July. It has clear wing bases (distinguishing it from the Blue Chaser) and black pterostigmas (the coloured cell on the wing near the tips). The thorax does not have pale stripes and the appendages (tip of the abdomen) are black. My observation is that this species is most often seen close to larger watercourses like rivers and canals, usually sunning themselves on bare ground or zipping about defending their territory.

White-tailed Skimmer (mature male), photographed on one of my Boussay butterfly transects.
A mature female photographed near the Maison du Parc in the Brenne can be seen here.

White-tailed Skimmer O. albistylum: Always a less common species, but by no means rare, flying between May and September, peaking in July. They have clear wing bases and black pterostigmas like the Black-tailed, but can fairly easily be distinguished from that species by the pale stripe running down the middle of the thorax, from the back of the head and between the wings, and pale bands on the side of the thorax. The appendages at the tip of the abdomen are white. My observation is that they are most often found in rank grassland, often a long way from any watercourse or étang.

Keeled Skimmer (juvenile male) photographed in our potager.
His abdomen will develop the blue dusting within days.

Keeled Skimmer O. coerulescens: Smaller than the above two species (more the size of a Common Darter) and much more localised in distribution. They have long yellow pterostigmas and pale thorax stripes. When mature they have only the finest black lines and dots on the abdomen. Like the White-tailed, my observation is that this species is found in rank grassland away from water. They fly from June to September, peaking in July.

The fourth species it would be possible to see here is the Southern Skimmer O. brunneum, which looks like a large, late flying version of the Keeled. They are very localised and uncommon.

Broad-bodied Chaser (mature male) photographed at an étang in the Foret de Preuilly

Amongst all these slender 'blue arrows' you will also find the big bruiser Broad-bodied Chasers Libellula depressa, abundant and often dominating the étangs. They have much broader abdomens and black wing bases, so are not too difficult to distinguish from the Skimmers.

Prepping the Museum

Our local museum is due to open to visitors on Saturday 6 July, when the school holidays start. It is staffed by volunteer teenagers and as a result is only open during the holidays. Prior to the new season some members of the Société Archaeologique de Preuilly gathered to refresh the paint work and 'spring' clean.

Dominique painting.

 John painting.

 John sweeping out the bread oven.

Jill and I cleaned the collection of prehistoric tools and their glass cabinets. As Jill said, it gives you a whole new perspective on these objects -- mainly what a pain they are to dust! Simon did a nice job of painting a door and a window. Naturally the morning's work ended with an apéro (a lovely buttery Chardonnay from Crissay-sur-Manse and St Michel galette biscuits) before we broke up for lunch. After a suitable interval we reconvened and worked till 6pm.

Many thanks to Bernard and Christine (as ever the lynch pins), Dominique and Sylvie (who admitted that history was Dominique's thing, but cleaned a cabinet of stone tools anyway), Dominique R, Jill and John (who are ever on hand to help with the museum), Mme Galland ('specialiste pour les petits objects') and Jean-Claude. Our thoughts are with Marc as he recovers from an illness, so couldn't be with us.

The museum is open 6 and 7 July, then from 13 July to 31 August every day except Saturday from 2.30 pm to 6 pm. Entry costs €2, but if you hold a Pass réseau de musées de Claise et Creuse you get in for €1.50 and receive a gift on your fourth visit to museums in the network. The museum, with its fine collection of lace and Touraine bonnets, as well as flint tools, a Roman coffin and 19th century tools from farming and trades, is located in the Poterne, just below the chateau.

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 Weather Update: After several days of warm properly summery weather we had a downpour Tuesday night -- not unexpected, and indeed, ideal in terms of not interfering very much with one's activities and welcome in the garden. Wednesday morning remained a bit drizzly, but that was OK as I was just out paying various bills. It stayed drizzly for the afternoon too, which was not so OK as I wanted to pick the last of our sweet cherries and some of our sour ones. Being unable to bring them in probably means we will have lost the sweet cherries. But it's back to full sun for the foreseeable now, according to the Météo, and the 4 sequentially ripening sour cherry trees will give me plenty to do over the next couple of weeks.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: A kilo of broad beans shelled, blanched and frozen. Sadly not our own home grown, as I never got any planted due to the persistent wet.

Pretty Pink Paeonies

This photo of our front courtyard dates from a fortnight ago but I just hadn't got round to posting it on the blog. The pretty pink flowered paeony was given to me by my sister years ago when we lived in London. This year the buds opened and the very next day there was a deluge, before I had a chance to photograph the flowers. Amazingly, they survived the rain unscathed, so I made sure to photograph them the day after that, during one of our few bright and sunny episodes. The flowers lasted a week, despite being rained on almost every day.

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How is he going to harvest that?

This farmer has seriously miscalculated the weather and soil conditions this year and ended up with a very strange mixed summer crop. He's had several goes at ploughing and planting this field in the spring, once with maize and once with sunflowers (the sunflowers are not volunteers from last year). Neither is looking spectacular. This photograph dates from a week ago.

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Chimney Swept: Pascal from Bertucelli's the plumbers came yesterday to sweep the chimney. He's a nice man. When I pay the bill I'll get a certificate, to prove to the house insurers that we have had it done. It's a requirement of the insurance.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: Grilled herby chicken and rhubarb crumble served with homemade strawberry icecream. I stripped 1.7 kg of top quality redcurrants from their stems and froze them. I had picked the redcurrants the day before at my friend Pauline's place. She's been banned from making redcurrant jelly, and has 20 redcurrant bushes loaded with big fat redcurrants, so if you fancy any and are prepared to pick them yourself, get in touch... She came out and helped me pick, but I imagine that was displacement activity to delay the whirlwind of housekeeping prior to some guests arriving.

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In the Field Yesterday: Male Ilex Hairstreak butterfly Satyrium ilicis nectaring on a Lizard Orchid Himantoglossum hircinum. Marbled Fritillary butterfly Brenthe daphnis nectaring on Wild Privet Ligustrum vulgare. Hummingbird Hawk Moth Macroglossum stellatarum nectaring on Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia conopsea. Hummingbird Hawk Moths are one of the most important pollinators of Fragrant Orchids. The White-tailed Bumble Bee mimicking hoverfly Volucella bombylans var. plunata nectaring on Round-headed Rampion Phyteuma tenerum. Orange-spotted Emerald dragonfly Oxygastra curtisii resting on a grass stalk. All seen on limestone sites near Chaumussay.

Wildlife Watching in the Val de la Claise Tourangelle in July

The hot pink spires of June foxgloves are replaced by shocking pink Purple Loosestrife growing in the roadside ditches. Every now and then, there will be a stand of pearl pink soapwort, pastel cousin of the crimson Carthusian Pinks of May.

Check out umbellifers (wild carrot and the like) or scabious (below)  - they will often have beetles such as this longhorn Stictoleptura cordigera visiting them.

The average maximum temperature in July is 26°C. It is the sunniest month on average, with 240 hours of sunshine.

Don't be tempted to mow over any brown remains of orchid spikes in your lawn yet. The seeds take a surprisingly long time to properly mature and you need to leave them another month at least.

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Lights Out: Tonight will be the first night of a new requirement for French businesses to ensure that the lights in non-residential buildings are out by 1am, or no more than 1 hour after the last employee has left. Hooray! no more passing office blocks and schools all lit up, with all the computer monitors flickering blue light. Many local authorities, Preuilly included, have already decided to turn off street lighting in the early morning rather than run all night -- saving money and benefitting the environment.

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In Our Kitchen Yesterday: Cheesy Olive Damper -- Simon made Ken's Cheesy Quick Bread Loaf recipe and added sliced black olives.

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Preuilly Pool: Contrary to the impression given by the notice pinned to the town hall board and at the entrance to the camp ground in Preuilly, Preuilly swimming pool is not open every day except Thursdays during the month of July. As Antoinette, Simon and I discovered this morning when we turned up ready to swim, it will open from 6 July (until 1 September) on that basis. The notice telling you this is stuck to the reception desk glass, so you have to peer through the (glass) main front door to see it. Sheesh! and they wonder why no one uses the excellent sports facilities the town provides...

The Montevideo Maru Memorial

 While we were in Canberra in November-December last year we took the opportunity to visit the recently dedicated memorial to the Montevideo Maru disaster at the Australian War Memorial.

The Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society has worked tirelessly to reveal the truth of this World War II tragedy. Members of my family attended the dedication ceremony in July 2012 because my great-uncle Eric was one of those killed in the action.

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Commune de Preuilly News: According to the minutes of the most recent council meeting, the council is going to trial traffic lights on rue Chaumont-Patin in September. If they work as hoped they will then be installed permanently. It will mean that the streets coming off rue Chaumont-Patin will all become one way and parking will not be permitted in rue Chaumont-Patin.

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The Preuilly Triffid

Can you tell that this door is never used? This extremely robust Night-scented Tobacco Nicotiana sylvestris is a volunteer, having self-seeded from last year. It's growing through a plastic mesh doormat into a tiny crack in the pavement. The stems are a good 30 mm in diameter.

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Chaumussay Butterfly Survey 30 June: The butterfly situation is still dire. No Fritillaries (except Queen of Spain on the hot dry limestone), no skippers, no forest species. I think the hairstreaks have emerged, but they were staying at the tops of the Downy Oaks and not coming down to be identified. Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns and Adonis Blues the most abundant species, but still nothing to write home about. The only remarkable presence is continuing high numbers of Pearly Heaths. However, I did have the pleasure of being accompanied on the survey by blog reader Mary and her husband Bill, who are from Arizona, but house sitting in Ferrière-Larçon until the beginning of August. I was pleased to be able to show them some of the nice natural history sites in the area and Bill got some excellent photos.

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In the Kitchen Yesterday: Haemul Pajeon (Korean Seafood Pancake) - don't try and turn it, just put it under the grill.

Bar Beach Kiosk

 Hidden away on Bar Beach Road, by the entrance to the lake at Merimbula, many tourists never discover this gem of a place.

 The Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae are not too pushy, but ever alert for scraps.

We were taken there by friends who live locally. I love the way the owners use Facebook to keep their customers informed.

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In our kitchen yesterday: I bottled up a batch of preserved orange peel, ready for use in sorbets, cakes and chocolates. 5 litres of chicken stock made, and a  litre and a half of vegetable stock. A kilo of peas shelled and blanched. Lunch was dolmades made from our own vine leaves and elderflower cordial made from flowers collected along the bief (millstream) in Le Petit Pressigny. Dessert in the evening was some of the 500 g of freshly picked strawberries and 2 kg of sweet red Géant cherries from our orchard with home made strawberry icecream. I also picked a kilo of redcurrants at Tim and Gaynor's (the cicada is still sitting in the redcurrant bush). The redcurrants have been stripped from their stalks and frozen.

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Shopping at the market yesterday: a petite boule loaf from the boulangerie (85 cents). A kilo of new ratte potatoes, 500 g peas, a bunch of carrots, 500 g broad beans, 2 leeks, a zucchini, 500 g apricots, 200 g button mushrooms, a bunch of celery, 5 vine tomatoes (total spend on 3 local market garden stalls about €20).