Eté chaud, automne pourri, hiver glacial, printemps arabe

That's a line from French hiphop artist Kayna Samet's version of Ghetto Tale.

 In case you are wondering, this is what an automne pourri looks like.

The line from the song translates as 'hot summer, foul autumn, icy winter, Arab spring', and for the second autumn in a row the weather here is glum and wet. This photo was taken, in the rain, on 5 November.

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Fungi Foray: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine is holding a fungi foray in the Forest of Chinon on Saturday 16 November. Meet at 2 pm at the Charles VII intersection. (From the Pucelle intersection take the forest road towards Rivarennes, on your right when coming from Tours.) The mushrooms picked will be laid out and identified after the outing. The focus is on all types of fungi, but there is nothing to prevent you picking for the table.

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Traction News: Yesterday we drove Claudette over to Saint Amand Montrond to attend a series of lectures on the Resistance. We took our friend John, who shouted us lunch, and met up with fellow Tractionistes Dan, Marie Christine and Jean Louis. After the event we all went back to Dan and Marie Christine's for supper. A very convivial time was had by all.

Simpson and his Donkey

The moving story of Simpson bringing wounded soldiers to safety with his donkey at Gallipoli is told to every school child in Australia. He is one of the original Anzacs, a seminal group in terms of how Australians view themselves today. This statue stands in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. If you want to read more about him, the AWM has a page on him here.
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Loire Valley Nature: Photos added to the Buff/White-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus terrestris/lucorum entry. Photo added to the Common Carder Bumble Bee B. pascuorum entry.

A new entry has been added for the Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth Hemaris fuciformis.

Jacaranda Time

November is Jacaranda Time to many Australians. For many of them the flowering of the Jacarandas is also inextricably linked with Exam Time. (November is spring time and the Australian academic year mirrors the calendar year.)

Jacaranda.

Jacaranda Jacaranda mimosifolia is a South American species that is much loved as a street and garden tree in Australia. Its flask shaped lavender flowers appear before the leaves, so they resemble the Paulownias of Chinese origin seen in France in May.

Silky Oak.

To add to the display, they flower at the same time as Silky Oak Grevillea robusta. This native tree has orangey-yellow flowers, the perfect colour complement to the jacarandas. The tree is so called because it has lovely honey coloured wood, with a grain reminiscent of Oak Quercus robur. We have several pieces of furniture made from Silky Oak.

Poinciana.

Where the climate allows these two favourites are joined by another less common red flowered beauty, Poinciana Delonix regia, which is from Madagascar, or maybe one of my favourites, a lovely Australian native, one of the Brachychiton spp (Kurrajong or Illawarra Flame Tree).

 Brachychiton sp.

Fruit Tingles

I am reliably informed, by the small daughter of an Australian arts professor teaching in Utah, that the best thing about visiting Australia is Fruit Tingles. Simon would no doubt agree with her. For non-Australian readers, note that fruit tingles are lollies, not sweets or candies, and what British people call lollies would be called icy poles in Australia and popsicles in the US.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry for the Blue Emperor dragonfly Anax imperator has been added.
Photos of a male have been added to the White-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lucorum entry.

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A la cuisine hier: Rugelach -- a Yiddish cross between a croissant and a mince pie. What's not to like? Simon has eaten about a gazillion already.

Man Imitates Nature

Taken in mid October by Simon, I like the way the sunlight on the electrical wires makes them resemble a gigantic spider's web. It's even more apt as this is the season we get lots of picturesque dew laden real spider webs in gardens and fields.

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A la cuisine hier: The walnut crop has been shelled, netting 400 g of nuts. There weren't very many complete duds but only about 50% of the nuts are in really top quality condition. There was very little insect damage, but a lot of half withered nuts and water damage.

Fossil Ammonites

A couple of months ago I was walking down the street on my way back from paying a bill at the plumber's. Two women were chatting on a doorstep a few houses from where I was and when they noticed me one of them greeted me by name. It turns out I was passing Claudine and Dominique's house. Although I knew them from the local history society, where we are all members, I had never been to their house. Claudine invited me in and they showed me around.

At one stage I admired a large ammonite resting on the fireplace and Dominique asked me if I liked fossils. I said 'yes' and he said 'come with me!' We went out into the courtyard and he rummaged around in a cardboard box sitting next to the wheelie bin, then handed me these five little ammonites as a gift. I was thrilled!

They came from Poitou, the area to the south-west of us. Our friend Charles, who has a fragment of a very large ammonite on his winery tasting bar, says that they are typical of the ammonites from Poitou. The ones like his, found the Touraine, are much bigger and it reflects the difference in the ancient sea bed in the two areas and the creatures that were living there.

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Vets on Strike: Yesterday our local vet, and presumably hundreds of vets all over the country were on strike, for the first time in 40 years. 'Do you really want a world without vets' read the strapline on the notice on our vet's surgery window, inviting everyone to sign the petion at www.stop-marisol-touraine.com. Marisol Touraine is the Health Minister, and a local girl. She has presented a new bill to parliament which includes a paragraph which would have allowed vets to prescribe antibiotics to treat animals, but not to sell them. Only pharmacies would be able to sell them. Her aim is to reduce the possibility of resistance to antibiotics. The vets' argument is that it slows treatment down and/or makes it less effective. They appear to perceive some sort of threat to their profession in terms of how many practicing vets there will be in an area as well and despite the paragraph about antibiotics being removed from the law when it is re-presented to parliament on 13 November, the vets decided to stage the strike anyway, to show they were on the defensive.

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Orchard News: I planted onions yesterday, a variety called White Ebenezer, which was all I could get at Point Vert in Preuilly. I looked them up and I think they must be an American variety, mild, round and white, moderately good keepers. Apparently they make good spring onions.

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A la cuisine hier: Shakshuka or Menemen or Huevos Rancheros or Uova in Purgatorio or even Piperade.

What do World War One and a Stinkhorn Fungus have in common?

That seems like a fairly random juxtaposition, but there is a surprising connection, and it's Australia.

The stinkhorn fungus Devil's Fingers Clathrus archeri (syn. Anthurus archeri) is native to Australia, but is now widespread in France. It arrived in 1914 along with the supplies for the thousands of Australian Diggers bound for the front line.

Two young Devil's Fingers fungi cut open on an fungi foray in the Forest of Preuilly in October.

Fortunately, unlike an American fungus that was introduced in the Second World War, it is not wreaking havoc.

Photo of a very mature specimen taken in Australia, courtesy of Glenda Walter (no relation).

The juvenile fungus looks like a light brown puffball on the outside. If you cut it open it is full of spores surrounded by a layer of jelly and long red 'tentacles'. The species is related to the European stinkhorns and like them produces a foul pong and sticky substance that attracts flies which carry away the spores and distribute them. The mature fungus looks rather like a squid with red arms. They are stinky but completely harmless.

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A la cuisine hier: Buttermilk Cake, to be frozen and eaten later with poached pears and walnut cream probably. This is a simple cake, useful when you have yoghurt or fromage blanc (cottage cheese) that is getting a bit aged. I used Middle Eastern style fermented milk in this one, but any cultured milky product would do. The finished cake is delicately lemony, and somehow slightly spicy, even though there are no spices in the recipe.

Macaroni Cheese, with (purists look away now) added veg and lardons. Many thanks to Gaynor and Antoinette for the impressive supply of cheddar that we currently have in the pantry fridge.

Rabbits in the Window

I imagine this window in Loches with its cutesome dangling rabbits was one of the most photographed corners of the attractive southern Touraine town during the summer tourist season. The owner also sets out a small table and two chairs, for use by people wanting to write postcards. It is utterly charming.

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Fungi Foray: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine is holding a fungi foray at the Etangs de Narbonne on Saturday 9 November. Meet at 2 pm in the carpark of the Maison-pour-Tous de Joué-les-Tours (from Boulevard Jean-Jaures turn into rue de la Douzillere. The Maison-pour-Tous is at the foot of the water tower).

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Grocery Shopping:  Our monthly food budget is €300, split roughly half and half between the supermarket and the market. I used to shop twice a month at the medium sized SuperU at La Roche Posay, about 12 km away, and twice weekly at the market in Preuilly, plus have a twice weekly dairy delivery and visit the boulangerie daily and the butcher and deli occasionally. Just recently I have changed tactics, and I now shop once a month at Auchan in Chatellerault, about 35 km away, and once a month at Loches market, as well as my local Preuilly shopping. Last month this resulted in a significant saving, the equivalent of one of my SuperU shops. It's due to a combination of two things. First, Auchan has a better choice of items that I like, an excellent own brand budget range and a lot more bulk buys. Second, replacing a supermarket shop with a big market shop seems to mean spending less, albeit on a slightly different selection of products.

My choice of Auchan as my current supermarket came about after trying the big SuperU in Loches, LeClerc and Lidl as possibilities. None of them quite came up to scratch. I would rate the supermarkets in this area as follows (from best to worst, based on a matrix of my shopping habits, product preferences and value for money): Auchan, Carrefour, SuperU, LeClerc, Intermarché, Dia, Lidl and Aldi. (Note that there isn't a Monoprix anywhere within cooee.) This is an entirely personal list, taking a number of things, not just price, into account, and I am aware it will be controversial with some readers.

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Movember: I'd like to remind everyone that moustaches matter. If you meet a MoBro, please support him with a contribution to his fundraising pot this month. The funds go towards men's health research and programmes.

Fungi Foray in the Forest of Preuilly

On Sunday 27 October the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Saint Maure de Touraine held an outing to the Forest of Preuilly. The weather that morning was ghastly as we were hit by the tail end of Hurricane Jude. Nevertheless, with the calming of the wind and rain that afternoon about 30 people turned up for the outing. About half were regulars, being club members, the rest those who were primarily interested in picking mushrooms for the table and having the reassurance that a) there wouldn't be a wild boar hunt going on and b) there would be experts on hand to identify what they had picked.

A group just about to head off into the forest.

I chose to go with Jean Pelle, who lives nearby and knows the forest well. He suddenly dived off piste into these hornbeam woods.

I suspect these were the reason.

 

They are the fabled trompettes de la morte Craterellus cornucopiodes. Jean obviously knew they were there and my companions picked a nice meal's worth. Despite their grim sounding name, they are one of the most prized edible mushrooms in the forest, and I often see them in the market during autumn. They can't be commercially grown, so are always wild harvested. According to one of the men in my group, there are two theories about how they got their name. One is that they are black, a colour associated with death, the other is that they emerge around All Saints Eve. Several people were very envious of our haul and said they hadn't found trompettes de la morte for years.

Dead Moll's Fingers.

In any event, their name is not the dire warning you would expect it to be, and they are not as black as one of the club fungi we found, called Dead Moll's Fingers Xylaria longipes (or Pénis de bois in French). Both this species and the Giant Club Fungus Clavariadelphus pistillaris (la Clavaire en pilon) caused some interest, as they are not overly common.

Jean called these Marasme de bois, but I never picked up what their scientific name is, and I can't find anything under their French name. They are Marasmiaceae though, so related to shitake. UPDATE: Jean tells me they are Laccaria spp (Hydnangiaceae).

This is a dog lichen Peltigera cf polydactyla, so only half a fungus (dog lichens are a symbiotic arrangement between an algae and/or a cyanobacteria and a fungus).

Pear Fibrecap.

This specimen of Pear Fibrecap Inocybe pyriodora got handed round for everyone to smell, as this is the main way of identifying the species. It smelled like not terribly good pear eau de vie.

Wood Blewit (left) and Bruising Webcap (right).

Wood Blewit Clitocybe nuda (syn. Lepista nuda, le Pied bleu in French) is a popular edible mushroom, but it has several dangerous lookalikes, especially amongst the violet coloured Cortinarius spp, such as this C. purpurescens. The webcaps used to be considered edible and you could buy them in the markets until it was discovered that they poison by accumulation. There was quite a lively discussion about the pied bleu, as a number of people had clearly been eating the wrong species for a long time. The Wood Blewit, as its English name suggests, grows in woodland, and is an autumn species. Fortunately, those people who have been eating a spring mushroom that grows in fields all these years have been eating a lookalike that is not dangerous.

I've been told how to cook these and survive, but I won't be putting the theory into practice.

The mushrooms Paul is holding are edible -- if you know how to prepare them. Apparently you have to cut off the stems and discard them, wash the caps in water then put them into a saucepan (not a frying pan). Heat them so the water rapidly boils and the mushrooms steam and give up their juice. Tip the juice down the drain and the cooked caps are safe to eat. Frankly it sounds so dodgy I'm not going anywhere near them in the kitchen (plus I never managed to get what they were called). UPDATE: Cloud Funnelcap Clitocybe nebularis?

We found several species of chanterelle (aka girolle) including this rather rare one for this area, Cantharellus melanoxeros.

A very pretty basket of mushrooms, including lots of Wood Blewits and the edible Bolet des charmes Leccinum carpini (syn. L. pseudoscabrum), upper left under the handle.

As it turns out this is going to be the only fungi outing I get to go on this year. I was all set to go on the one in the Forest of Loches this weekend just gone. I left home after an early lunch and arrived at the meeting point in good time yesterday. The only problem was the outing had been the day before, on Saturday...

To add to my deteriorating mood, a gypsy bloke on the side of the road in the forest flagged me down and tried to scam me for some 'petrol money'.

Still, it meant I got to come home and weed the back garden in near perfect weeding conditions.

Beware of Animals

 On the roads 'out west' (ie western Queensland and New South Wales) you have to be constantly on the lookout for stock or large wildlife crossing the unfenced roads. In this instance it was cattle, but it could just as easily have been sheep, emus, kangaroos, feral pigs or feral goats.

Sometimes the roads are fenced, but the fences are set back a long way from the road, forming a wide corridor of bush known as the 'long paddock'. These are droving routes, used until very recently when times were hard, to move stock from one station (=ranch) with no grass in a drought, to another many hundreds of kilometres away that has had better weather. The grazier benefitted from the free grass along the way and the government supported the system by providing watering troughs or holes and corrals for overnight stops along the route. See the Wikipedia entry for more information on the history and current situation for these Travelling Stock Routes (as they are officially known).

The cattle mooching across the road at this point are a breed called Santa Gertrudis. They were developed in Texas, from a mix of Bos indicus and B. taurus breeds (ie both Asian and European domestic cattle) to be an excellent all-round breed, resilient in the heat and having high tick resistance. Cattle ticks Rhipicephalus microplus are a terrible problem in Australian herds, causing fever and death in infected animals.  If your stock is in a tick infested area you cannot move them into the controlled or tick free area on the coast without providing a certificate verifying that they have been treated for ticks and inspected.

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A la cuisine hier: I broke the tip of our oyster knife yesterday, opening oysters for lunch.

Pudding was leftover Krakatoa Cake. Originally this was going to be Chocolate Chestnut Soufflé Cake made as a GF dessert for Tim and Gaynor's curry night. However, I made the mistake of trying out my new silicone fluted bundt tin. The cake declined to come out neatly despite my best persuasive techniques, so I made a batch of chestnut cream studded with blueberries as a disguise, to ooze out and over, and rechristened the cake. It tasted fine, but was still clearly deformed. Silicone baking tins really are a waste of money and space, except for the muffin/cupcake sized ones.

I made 2 pints of custard, thus using up half the egg yolks leftover from the cake plus a litre of milk which had reached its use by date. I divided the custard up into 5 batches and it is in the freezer for Ron. Custard doesn't freeze all that well, but if you are careful when you thaw/reheat it, you can serve it without complaint. Low power in the microwave and frequent stops for rigorous stirring is the secret.

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Wood Delivery: Our firewood merchant made an emergency delivery yesterday morning of one and a half stères (we've ordered 10 stères). We had completely run out of wood and it's getting to that time of year. The wood is aged but wet from the rain and will take a few days to dry out again. He's really struggling with the weather. He's delivered all the dry wood and can't get into the forest to pick up the next tree's worth. The ground is too soft to take a vehicle in. Even once he's got it to the yard he needs a spell of fine weather to cut and split it ready for sale.

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Loire Valley Nature: The Identify Your Orchid entry, which had been completely messed up by Blogger changes and stripped of its images, thus rendering it useless, has been completely revamped. It now has images again and hopefully will serve as a jumping off point if you find a wild orchid and want to identify it.

A photo has been added to the Burnet Moth Zygaenidae entry.

A new entry has been added for Ladybirds Coccinellidae.

Some photos have been added to the Azure Bluet Coenagrion puella entry.

A new entry has been added for Bank Vole Myodes glareolus.

A photo has been added to the Swifts, Swallows and Martins entry.

Some photos have been added to the Bee Flies Bombyliidae entry.

A new entry has been added for Black-tailed Skimmer Orthetrum cancellatum.

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Orchard News: I planted garlic yesterday (thank you to Tim and Pauline for the clove).

Weis Bars

You haven't lived until you've had a Weis Bar. They are a bar of sorbet made from fruit purée with a strip of vanilla icecream running down one side -- check out the ingredients list -- 45% fruit! real cream! -- quality stuff. They are made in the city near where I spent my teenage years and are definitely one of the treats to look forward to when I return. The name is pronounced to rhyme with rice -- not a lot of people know that.

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Loire Valley Nature: The entry for the very common orchid Broad-leafed Helleborine Epipactis helleborine subsp helleborine has been updated. The entry for the very similar but very rareViolet Helleborine E. pupurata has also been updated.

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Visitors: Yesterday Gérard and Marie-France called in after paying their respects and leaving flowers on the family graves in the Preuilly cemetery. Gérard grew up in our house and we were pleased to be able to give him some larger prints that Simon did of some of the photos he had lent us. His grandfather, who features in many of the photos, is buried in the cemetery here and Toussaints (1 November) is traditionally a day when families here remember their deceased relatives. According to Gérard, his grandfather actually wanted to be buried in the courtyard with the horses, but since that wasn't allowed he was given a civil interment down at the cemetery.

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Viral Video: Just in case you haven't seen Hisham Fageeh's video in support of Saudi Arabian women who want to drive, here is a link. It is very clever and very funny. The beard scratching musical effect is particularly entertaining.

Boue !

Anyone who has spent any time in rural France will have encountered the triangular temporary roadside warning signs saying 'Boue !', especially at this time of year. The feast of Toussaints (today) is notorious for being wet, and this photo, taken on this day last year, showing the entrance to the laneway past our orchard, demonstrates the weather conditions perfectly. It was in fact raining when I took the picture and the track has been turned into a rutted muddy slippery slide by farm machinery and nearby ditch clearing work. Boue means 'mud', by the way, or often, more euphemistically, 'deposit' (think dairy cows being herded across the road). Boue is, of course, pronounced 'boo!'

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Curry Night: Last night we went to Tim and Gaynor's curry night. This event is one that the local British expats look forward to eagerly -- real curry! One of the guests said to me that she had boasted to the school mums about where she was off to after the Halloween trick or treating and she had to repeat it 3 times there was such lack of comprehension and incredulity amongst even quite trendy young French mums. Halloween has been adopted by the French, but sadly, not proper curry. Tim and Gaynor put an enormous amount of effort into the evening's entertainment, bringing authentic British Asian curry ingredients and serving up samosas and bharjees with relishes before half a dozen different main dishes with poppadums and most importantly, naan bread, which you just can't get here. The guests supplied an equally wide variety of desserts (not Indian, it has to be said). Everyone enjoyed the annual get together and we all really appreciate Tim and Gaynor's willingness to host it. Hopefully, we have converted a couple of Belgians to curry, even if the French remain dubious.

Boo!

The spider is Nephila pilipes, female, a golden orb-web spider, very widely distributed in the tropics from India and Africa to China and northern Australia. They can have red or yellow knees. This photo of one with red knees and eyes was taken by me in March 2006 at Nourlangie Rocks in Kakadu National Park. They measure 20 cm from toe to toe and in my opinion are probably the most scary and evil looking spider ever!

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Lunch Date: Yesterday we went to Tours to take our lovely young Romanian friend Cristina out to lunch to celebrate her graduation and to thank her for her consistently friendly and professional dealings with our clients. She has been working at the Vouvray winery Chateau Gaudrelle as an intern since the spring, but today is her last day, then she's off to Paris for a few days with friends and back to Romania and job hunting.

Charles from Chateau Gaudrelle was too busy to come, otherwise we would have included him in the lunch plans too. He tells us that the harvest has been disappointing. The quantity is only half what they would normally produce, for the second year running, so it's going to be a tough year ahead financially and to meet commitments to established customers. The sparkling wine is expected to be good, but the quality of the grapes has meant that they will make no very dry or sweet still wines and their typical sec-tendre Vouvray will be average quality.

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Nature News: A flock of Mute Swans flew over the house yesterday while I was hanging out the washing. You always notice Mutes because their wings make a loud noise. Sometimes it's a powerful whooshing sound, but yesterday's lot sounded a bit creaky, like clockwork swans.

There was a big flock of cormorants descending on the Loire at Rochecorbon as we drove along the Quai de la Loire yesterday. It looked like some sort of feeding frenzy.

Jelly Fungus

This jelly fungus appeared a couple of weeks ago on one of the long forked poles I keep for propping up fruit laden branches in the orchard. The prop is made from a branch pruned last year from one of the trees (nectarine or apple I think). The fungus is Tremella sp. According to my mycologist friend Paul there are two very similar species, which require examination under a microscope to determine.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry for White Helleborine Cephalanthera damasonium has been added.

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Television Offer: We have two old style colour televisions, one small, one medium sized, both in working order if connected to satellite. Anyone who wants them is welcome to contact us and pick them up. We can be contacted by email via our profile links in the right hand bar. If no one wants them I guess we will take them to the tip.

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Renovation News: Yesterday we cleared out our front entry hall. We never use our front door, so the fact that the hall has been full of bricocrap for nigh on two years didn't inconvenience us in the slightest, which of course is fatal. Following our whirlwind of activity we now have paint neatly stacked on a shelving unit to the right of the front door and tiles to the left in the porch. The main hall is empty, awaiting me cleaning it, then we can put some more storage units in there and swap some furniture around so Simon's nice dining table can come in from the graineterie and the understair storage is more accessible. Naturally, like every other room in the house, the entry hall actually needs some final touches, like skirting boards, but they are not very high on our to do list.

It's not quite true that the state of the hall didn't inconvenience us at all if I'm honest. For all of the time it has been 'in progress' and a dumping ground we have accessed the graineterie via a step ladder, which is a pain if you are carrying something. But the graineterie has a wonderful set of old detachable steps, which have lain idle propped up against a wall for two years. Now Simon is pondering the problem of how to reinstate them. The hefty wrought iron rings that take the steps' hooks are now too low because we've changed the floor level by laying terracotta tiles. The rings aren't budging no matter what sort of leverage Simon uses on them. Probably we will leave them where they are, at least for now, and put in new eye bolts at the correct level.

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A la cuisine hier: All the hazel nuts have been de-husked. Hurrah! and now we have to shell all the little blighters. Better get cracking!

Ernest-Henry Tourlet and his Herbarium

In the Middle Ages herbariums (herbiers) were collections of illustrations of plants, not dried plants. It was Lucas Ghini, a 16th century Italian physician and doctor to the Pope, who had the idea to dry actual plants for reference. The 18th century French scientist Larmarck said that you became a botanist by picking plants, studying them and creating a herbarium.

In these early days, botanists were principally pharmacists, and the 19th century Ernest-Henry Tourlet (1843 - 1907) was no exception. He was an amateur botanist, and by profession a Pharmacist 1st Class. In those days there was two levels of qualification for many professions, and his father had been a Pharmacist 2nd Class. There was also two levels of high school baccalaureate, and so Tourlet, who began school in Chinon, his home town, had to finish at the prestigious Lycée Impérial (now Lycée Descartes) in Tours. He became interested in botany first through the influence of his father, and then with the encouragement of Alexandre Boreau, the Director of the Botanic Gardens in Angers. Although none of Tourlet's own pharmacy students took up botany, one of his sons became a doctor (the other was a career soldier killed in combat).

Pasqueflower.

After finishing school Tourlet chose to go to Paris to study pharmacy. (The only other place he could have gone was Strasbourg.) He took on some extra subjects at the Sorbonne, studying natural science and chemistry. He wrote his thesis comparing the lives of plants and animals. On graduation his first job was at the Hôtel-Dieu, the oldest hospital in Paris.

Although encouraged to stay, he didn't like living in Paris and decided to return to Chinon. At this time, Chinon had a population of 6000 and was un petit trou perdu ('a hole in the middle of nowhere'). In time he purchased a substantial residence in Chinon, and a farm house at Champigny sur Veude. His collection grew so large and he accumulated so much material that he needed all the available attic and cellar space in both properties. (Both houses still exist, but the areas around them have changed greatly.)

 The local botany club on the Puy Besnard just outside of Chinon, a site of high botanical interest that Tourlet must have known well.

He was an inveterate botanist and collector, even collecting on his honeymoon in Arcachon. His wife knew what she was in for from the start, and it was she who gifted the herbarium to the School of Medicine and Pharmacy at François Rabelais University in Tours after her husband died.

He created the most important herbarium in Indre et Loire, containing 11 000 sheets of specimens covering 1530 species, collected in almost every commune of the department. He also made a general herbarium, with plants from the whole of France, Europe and the French colonies, especially North Africa. The plant specimens were acquired by swapping, buying and collecting in the field. There is also a smaller moss collection which he created with two friends (together they were known as les trois Ernests). One of the members of the botanical society I belong to (the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine) has recently reviewed all the identifications in this last herbier.

 A typical view of the countryside around Chinon.

A botanist's activities in Tourlet's time primarily consisted of collecting specimens, either alone or in groups, identifying the plants collected, and putting them in a herbarium. To this end he carried a press, paper and pencils almost everywhere. Mostly he walked, often great distances. Later he might take a horse drawn bus in order to be able to range farther afield. When he became a bit wealthier he hired a Victoria (a four wheeled horse drawn vehicle) and after 1880 he travelled by train.

He collected some species many times. For example, there are 37 specimens of Pasqueflower Pulsatilla vulgaris in the collection. All his collecting trips are recorded in his cahiers d'herborisation (field notebooks). A network of other amateur botanists supported him, such as Aristobile in Preuilly, Sennegon in Chaumussay and Audebert, the head gardener at the Chateau of Candé. He would request that they collected certain species and their specimens would be dispatched by train to him.

 The bridge over the Vienne at Chinon (during the 2011 works to strengthen the Medieval foundations).

Specimen plants were pressed and dried, then fixed to sheets of paper impregnated with the poison bichlorate of mercury to ensure they were protected against insects and mould. (Background levels of mercury in paper are about 0.3 mg/g, whereas Tourlet's herbier sheets contain 0.5 - 5 mg/g.) Each sheet of specimens was labelled with the name of the species, the place found and the date. The conservators working on the restoration of the herbarium had to have their urine tested once a week to ensure their levels of mercury were not going up.

Determinations (identifications) were made using the work by DuJardin, the only good Flora that existed for the area. Tourlet also corresponded with all the prominent botantists of the time, such as Gustave Rouy and the Abbé Coste, as well as writing scientific articles himself. The arguments were starting between the lumpers and the splitters, so there was a lot of correspondence flying about! I love the French expression for those taxonomists who habitually split established species into many new species with finely nuanced differences -- they pulverisé les especes!

Tourlet's penultimate project was to create an inventory of vascular plants in Indre et Loire (in fact, finished after his death by Jean Ivolas). It lists each commune a species was found, who collected it, any subspecies, and the type of habitat it preferred. Today it is responsible for certain plants believed to be locally extinct being refound. Finally, there is his Flora, still only in manuscript form, but with a dichotomous key for identifying the plants of the area.

The herbarium is both a set of historical documents which must be preserved and a modern scientific study tool. It tells us much about the way of life of a 19th century botanist as it also includes more than just plant specimens -- scientific journals/articles, tickets and delivery notes, correspondence. There are so many documents we can follow Tourlet's life on an almost day to day basis. Like many of his generation he corresponded most days (including to fellow botanists on the eve of his wedding). The documents can be used to verify and cross reference the sometimes barely decipherable specimen labels. It is the only complete herbarium for Indre et Loire, and is an important tool for monitoring biodiversity today.

The work is so thorough it can tell us not just about changes in wild plants but cultivated ones too. For instance, in 1802 there were 180 sericultures (farms growing silk worms) in the Chinon area. Tourlet tells us that by 1866, due to a severe outbreak of disease, there were only 70 remaining. We also know from Tourlet that by 1815 licquorice was no longer grown in the area, out competed by cheaper imports. Other aspects of history are touched on too. He records Hoary Alyssum Berteroa incana for the first time in 1870. It is not a native plant, but a weed which arrived as seeds in the hay brought to feed the Prussian horses when their troops invaded.

Tourlet's herbarium holds the type species (echantillons types) for a number of French native plants. These are the benchmarks against which all other identifications of the species are compared and the specimen on which the original taxonomic description of the plant was based. The specimens can be used for DNA testing as they are already existing well identified plants with many samples immediately available. This is a surprisingly rare commodity.

For all of these reasons the Ministry for Research provided a grant to conserve the collection and get it into a state where it could be used as a scientific resource once again. One of the main aims of the project was to put the collection online. When the University Pharmacy Laboratory team lead by Marc Rideau started, they had a working botanist's herbarium, not a proper archival collection. Specimens weren't fastened to their sheets, labels had faded.

The first step was to re-present all the specimens, giving them new acid free museum quality paper (Heritage Woodfree) sheet backings, fixing them down with reversable glue (Evacom) and removing all metal fixings. The original sheets are quite well preserved, but without transferring the specimens to acid free (and mercury free) paper, they are impossible to use. Also the quality of the original paper Tourlet used fluctuated, probably with his changing financial circumstances and with changing manufacturing processes in his lifetime.

Next the identifications had to be checked and new labels written (the old ones were frequently a challenge to decipher). The sheets were grouped taxonomically and put into sleeves. An image bank was created, including all the old labels. Now there is an online searchable database of the whole herbarium and the university has applied to Monuments Historiques for formal listed status for the herbarium, to give it legal protection for the future. This requires the creation of a new category of object which can be listed by Monuments Historiques.

It has been a pioneering and benchmark project. The University now wants to assist with doing the same for every historic herbarium in France in museums and universities.

Source: This post is written from the notes I took at a lecture given by Marc Rideau, Emeritus Professor, University of Tours. Apologies to Marc if I have misunderstood or got anything wrong.

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Fungi Foray: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine will be holding a fungi foray in the Forest of Loches on Saturday 2 November. Meet at 2 pm at the Pyramide de Saint-Quentin (on the D31, Bléré road, between Saint-Quentin and Loches). The fungi gathered will be laid out and identified by experts at the end of the outing. The emphasis is on learning to identify all types of fungi, but there is nothing to preclude you attending and collecting edible species for personal use.

Bugs in the Plumbing

Earlier this year a PhD student working on a project in the Forestry Department for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) posted a request on an entomology list server that I am a member of. He is studying whether the introduced Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalis has the potential to become a serious pest in Europe. His request was to those entomologists based in North America who could provide him with samples from the bug's native territory. He wanted to compare the DNA of these specimens to specimens collected in France, to determine exactly where the French ones had come from.

He received helpful responses from many of the list members based in the US and Canada. Several people said they had studied the species themselves and outlined their conclusions about its potential as an economic pest. It seemed that it was just considered a nuisance pest, as it has a habit of overwintering in domestic dwellings, but doesn't cause commercial damage, even in high value seed orchards (plantations where the crop is tree seeds for propogation).

Photo courtesy of Tim from Aigronne Valley Wildlife.

That is, until a Canadian scientist mentioned that she had written a paper about the bug's ability to pierce plastic plumbing pipe! Everyone was fascinated, and the Canadian entomologist provided a link to her paper so we could read all the details.

She was invited to study the bugs after a manufacturer of plastic plumbing pipes started getting reports of weeping pipes. From the beginning there was a suspicion that it was the bugs causing microscopic holes, as they were always present when this problem was reported and when examined under magnification it was clear that the holes were being made from the outside.

Photo courtesy of Tim from Aigronne Valley Wildlife

Bugs were collected and put in boxes with various sorts of plumbing materials. Examination of the material showed that they had attempted to pierce everything -- all types of plastic and even copper. However, the only material they were capable of actually getting all the way through and causing a hole that leaked was PEX, an elastic polyethelene. These PEX pipes are 2mm thick and come in several colours. The bugs were not attracted to one colour over another, and there is no indication that they can sense the water inside. It seems that they instinctively try to pierce everything under their feet.

So, if you discover mysteriously weeping pipes in your home, search for Western Conifer Seed Bugs inside. We've had them in our house, in the spare bedroom (which is alarmingly close to the small bathroom, as Tim pointed out to me when I emailed him to ask for the photos). The species is quite common now in France -- but don't worry too much, their pipe puncturing activities seem to be fairly rare.

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A la cuisine hier: Mussels, cooked in white wine with leeks, celery, garlic, parsley and thyme.

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Nature News: I've had an email from Carolyn, a contact in Amboise, who tells me she has just been involved in some hunt monitoring on the weekend. Apparently there was a battue (beat style hunt) of Cormorants planned on the Loire near Langeais. The League Pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) got wind of this and arranged for its supporters to be prepared to be there and record the activities of the hunt. At the last minute, probably because there were going to be television cameras there, the hunt was cancelled. The LPO has sent a strongly worded letter to the Préfecture pointing out that the Loire is a nature reserve which acts as a wildlife highway and dormitory for all sorts of species, especially migrants. The high numbers of Cormorants in the area at the moment are due to birds that have nested in Scandinavia making their way back south for the winter. The nearest fish farm to Langeais is 11 km away, so there was no justification for the hunt, even if one disregards the fact that the species is protected. Carolyn clearly rather enjoyed the experience and said it "Ended up being a good chance to meet some interesting people and in a beautiful setting." UPDATE: Here is a link to the TVTours video of the event.

I attended yesterday's fungi foray in the Forêt de Preuilly (fortunately the weather calmed down during the afternoon and we weren't rained on or at risk of being squashed by falling trees). Once I've catalogued my photos I'll write a post about the outing.

The Dirran Servo

Filling up with petrol at the Dirran Servo (ie the Dirranbandi service station) last December. It's the only fuel available for many kilometres. The servos in the other small towns on the route in this area have all closed.

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A la cuisine hier: Red Fruit Sorbet, made from cherry vodka syrup and raspberry coulis.

Cherry Trifle, made with lady's fingers soaked in cherry vodka syrup, jellied home grown black cherries and custard topped by cream and decorated with sour cherries pickled in vodka and a sprinkling of choc chips.

Garbure, made with confit de canard, a jar of gésiers I had lurking in the back of the cupboard, a load of root vegetables, a can of beans and some ham stock. Oh, and cabbage.

Pizza, topped with buffalo mozzarella and char grilled peppers. I made the dough from half white wheat flour and half wholemeal spelt flour. Served with a green salad.

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Orchard News: I gathered the last of the walnuts yesterday and pulled the last of the leeks. About half the leek crop went to seed. The saffron is flowering. It's always such a shame to pick such pretty flowers and throw the petals away.

Bottle Tree

This is a mature Bottle Tree Brachychiton rupestris, a street tree in the outback town of Dirranbandi, Queensland. The tree is native to Queensland and is much prized as a cultivated plant now because it is very tough and has such a distinctive form.

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A la cuisine hier: Curried Carrot Soup -- zingily spicy, but (ahem) don't forget to remove the bay leaf before whizzing.

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Quiz Answer: No one even made an attempt at guessing where the carvings on Thursday's quiz were, so I have posted the answer at the bottom of the post for those who are interested.

The Weather

This is what the weather forecast was for Wednesday 23 October 2013.

This is what we actually got.

A timelapse video shot by Simon out of our office window.

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A la cuisine hier: Four duck legs have been rubbed with my secret* confit cure and have been left overnight. They will be slow cooked later today. *Salt, juniper berries, black pepper, thyme, bay leaf, pimento, coriander, sugar, garlic and eau de vie de prune.

Mystery Carvings

 4 points to anyone who can tell me where these carvings are (name of building required, not just place name).

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A la cuisine hier: In an effort to use up the clearly excellent but unloved cabbage in the fridge I made a small batch of coleslaw yesterday. Now, coleslaw is one of my least favourite things, but still I make it from time to time because Simon will eat it if it's doused in sufficient quantities of mayo*. In order to come up with something that might challenge my antipathy I tried this recipe from Clotilde Dusoulier on Chocolate and Zucchini. This undoubtedly means Simon won't eat it, but Clotilde is right -- ginger root makes a terrific flavour pairing with raw cabbage -- but that's about as far as I will go. Coleslaw is coleslaw, innit?

That still left me with half a cabbage, so half of that has gone into chicken soup, my standard Yiddish Oriental fusion recipe. A good rich stock disguises cabbage admirably. Should I turn the rest into that cabbage soup classic from south-west France, garbure? I've got some duck legs in the freezer that need using. Or should I stir fry it? What would you do?

*Ken -- I tried your 'chuck it all in together' technique, and it's brilliant!

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Quiz Answer: The carvings are on the Tour Saint Antoine in Loches.