Just to make it clear - the title might suggest we have more than one garden, but we have only one garden and that is here in Chamberet!
We have gardens on all sides, and a couple of small fields out the back, so plenty of space for wildlife and pleny of space to hear and be aware of the wildlife. Also in this area there is an amazing amount of birdlife - lots of birds of prey - buzzards, eagles, kites - which can regularly be seen gliding up high.
As for our garden wildlife - there are lots of ants, some spectacular beetles and all sorts of bees, including huge black bees and lots of birds, which grace us with their morning chorus long before it's light at this time of year. Lots of sparrow-type little birds, blue tits, some amazingly fast swifts at the moment, the occasional robin, a lot of noisy magpies and something we think is a black redstart. There's also a recent visitor, not at all shy, with some sort of a crest. A couple of blackbirds made their nest in an orange box which was on a ladder in the woodstore. Unfortunately, one of the local cats must have climbed up the pile of wood as we noticed the box was all askew. We noticed a lack of blackbird activity and when Harry looked, they had abandoned the nest leaving three lovely eggs behind. They seem to be active again around the garden, so we hope they might nest again, though doubt that they'd return to the same place. There are some other small birds, some kind of pippit or lark maybe that is nesting in the back of an old satellite dish!
The other bird which is a resident or lodger of ours is a barn owl! We often sit in the garden in the evening and as it gets dark, often saw an owl or two flying around outside, then noticed screeching kind of noises from one of our chimneys. We are now sure that there are chicks in there and think it might soon be time for them to leave (hoping there's not much damage left behind!). Watching and listening to the owls in the evening is great, and having an owl watching you is even more interesting, as they often perch around and check us out!
We have quite a few lizards, which appear when the weather is warm from various hidey-holes, including in a rose bush near the front door. It's often debatable who gets the bigger fright when I water the rose bush and see something darting out at high speed. Our latest discovery is a toad, or a couple of toads which come out now every night. There has been a bit of a chorus recently so there are obviously quite a few around in our garden and neighbours' gardens. The other nighttime noise apart from croaking and screeching, are the crickets who are actually noisy during the day as well pn warm days and all through the warm nights.
Watching and waiting for the owl is the highlight at the moment - what a simple life we lead! Off now to observe as it's dark here and a lovely soft evening.
© Marie Tyler, 2012
Monday 18 June 2012
Thursday 7 June 2012
The Hoppings come to Chamberet for the Cherry Festival!
Hello again readers! Since I was last blogging here, the whole format and set-up has changed. I'm not very good at consulting instructions, so will press on and hope all turns out well in the end.
The latest news here is the lead up to the 17th two-day Fete de la Cerise this Saturday ('twil be on the 9th of June) and Sunday. When we arrived here last October and found out about the Fete de la Cerise, we rushed out to buy a cherry tree to plant in our new spacious garden. Our neighbour reliably told us that the previous owner had cut down a cherry tree, so we thought we should replace it. Just last week we found out from other neighbours, that this isn't a cherry-growing area! The thing here is apples, which we did know about because of the local apple juice and cider-making 'factory', or maybe it's called something like a 'pommerie' or even 'cidrerie'. I should also add that we have since discovered and identified another cherry tree in the garden, but no signs or any blossom or fruit this year. The weather hasn't been great for cherry-growing I believe - we had hot sunny days in March (up to 30 some days), then rain for weeks, late frosts, then 20s and 30s again, so a lot of plants, fruit and veg are a bit confused.
Back to the Cherry Festival . . . Apparently either our local supermarket, G20, or festival organisers arrange for lots of cherry sellers to come from further south, so that they can't be done under the Trades Description Act, but that's only part of the fun. To my great delight, earlier this week Hoppings type vehicles started passing our door aiming for the Champ de Foire next to the Salle de Fetes (community centre) about 100 yards from our house. Every village around here has a Champ de Foire - it's the word for fairground and in the past would have been where the sheep or cattle market was held, as well as a fairground site. Ours is now a wide open space with a wooded area with lines of trees and rails where the animals would have been tethered.
Part of growing up in Newcastle was an annual trip to The Hoppings,The Moor, or The Town Moor, the largest travelling fair in Europe, held on The Town Moor come rain or shine (very often mud) for a week in June. Then later living in County Durham it would be a delight to see hoppings or 'shows' at various parts of the county or even further south as June approached making their way north to Newcastle, then south to events such as The Durham Miners Gala in July. I had that same feeling of excitement and anticipation this week when I saw a procession of assorted show vehicles with trailers and caravans - it also made me think of 'Something wicked this way comes' a great story by Ray Bradbury. By coincidence I heard on the radio this morning that he died earlier this week.
So, now the hoppings are installed on the Champ de Foire - kiddies roundabouts, what looks like a waltzer, something called Le Tremblaye and other shows yet to be revealed. Over the road stalls with striped awnings have been set up and among the many attractions there's going to be a GIANT Clafoutis (a local cherry tart), demonstration by the local young firefighters, a balloon sculptor, gyropodes (not sure what that will be), and a free dance beginning 9.30 Saturday night - a noisy night ahead with that and the shows, then more fun on Sunday with a free dance at 3.00 pm. I'm hoping that will be like you see in French films, with outdoor dancing to les accordeons! And of course, the usual restauration (refreshments) and a buvette (outdoor bar). The weather forecast unfortunately isn't good with some stormy weather predicted, for Sunday, and storms here are usually pretty impressive, so let's hope it changes for the better and we all have all the fun of the fair!
© Marie Tyler, 2012
The latest news here is the lead up to the 17th two-day Fete de la Cerise this Saturday ('twil be on the 9th of June) and Sunday. When we arrived here last October and found out about the Fete de la Cerise, we rushed out to buy a cherry tree to plant in our new spacious garden. Our neighbour reliably told us that the previous owner had cut down a cherry tree, so we thought we should replace it. Just last week we found out from other neighbours, that this isn't a cherry-growing area! The thing here is apples, which we did know about because of the local apple juice and cider-making 'factory', or maybe it's called something like a 'pommerie' or even 'cidrerie'. I should also add that we have since discovered and identified another cherry tree in the garden, but no signs or any blossom or fruit this year. The weather hasn't been great for cherry-growing I believe - we had hot sunny days in March (up to 30 some days), then rain for weeks, late frosts, then 20s and 30s again, so a lot of plants, fruit and veg are a bit confused.
Back to the Cherry Festival . . . Apparently either our local supermarket, G20, or festival organisers arrange for lots of cherry sellers to come from further south, so that they can't be done under the Trades Description Act, but that's only part of the fun. To my great delight, earlier this week Hoppings type vehicles started passing our door aiming for the Champ de Foire next to the Salle de Fetes (community centre) about 100 yards from our house. Every village around here has a Champ de Foire - it's the word for fairground and in the past would have been where the sheep or cattle market was held, as well as a fairground site. Ours is now a wide open space with a wooded area with lines of trees and rails where the animals would have been tethered.
Part of growing up in Newcastle was an annual trip to The Hoppings,The Moor, or The Town Moor, the largest travelling fair in Europe, held on The Town Moor come rain or shine (very often mud) for a week in June. Then later living in County Durham it would be a delight to see hoppings or 'shows' at various parts of the county or even further south as June approached making their way north to Newcastle, then south to events such as The Durham Miners Gala in July. I had that same feeling of excitement and anticipation this week when I saw a procession of assorted show vehicles with trailers and caravans - it also made me think of 'Something wicked this way comes' a great story by Ray Bradbury. By coincidence I heard on the radio this morning that he died earlier this week.
So, now the hoppings are installed on the Champ de Foire - kiddies roundabouts, what looks like a waltzer, something called Le Tremblaye and other shows yet to be revealed. Over the road stalls with striped awnings have been set up and among the many attractions there's going to be a GIANT Clafoutis (a local cherry tart), demonstration by the local young firefighters, a balloon sculptor, gyropodes (not sure what that will be), and a free dance beginning 9.30 Saturday night - a noisy night ahead with that and the shows, then more fun on Sunday with a free dance at 3.00 pm. I'm hoping that will be like you see in French films, with outdoor dancing to les accordeons! And of course, the usual restauration (refreshments) and a buvette (outdoor bar). The weather forecast unfortunately isn't good with some stormy weather predicted, for Sunday, and storms here are usually pretty impressive, so let's hope it changes for the better and we all have all the fun of the fair!
© Marie Tyler, 2012
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