Left overs!

A lot of our guests this year asked about the amount of maze/corn that was growing in our area and wondered why the crops had just been left in the fields to the point that the plants were collapsing and the cobs appeared to be rotting, well, on my last walk nearly all of the fields have been harvested and as you can see above this is what remains, all the maze has been stripped off the cobs and the left overs disgarded out of the back of the massive combine harvestors over the fields to eventaully rot back into the soil, always a strange sight after months of walking through 'forests' of corn fields.
Below, now that the nights have turned very cold, an early evening pic of the mist rolling down the Vimont Valley toward the Vezere at Le Moustier, time for those lovely open fires in the house I think!

Bordeaux Museums 1

 This museum, the Musee des Arts Decoratif, based in a beautiful building that was originally built as the Hotel de Lalande in 1770, now houses a fantastic collection of all things decorative, a lot of which was produced in the Aquataine area.

Everything from porcelain, furniture, paintings, glass and a lot more on display from the 17th up to the 20th century so no wonder we spent 2 hours walking around all the permanent displays, even better, it was free!!

A few days off in Bordeaux!

For the first time since the beginning of May we have no people staying with us so it was an ideal time to take a break and visit Bordeaux, a place we've heard about from our guests who have been for a day trip or explored on their arrival after travelling by plane or train to our area. Don't be fooled by the picture above as it was taken on a Monday when the streets were not that busy compared to the Saturday we arrived when we thought the whole of France were shopping in the city!

The city itself is fantastic, of coarse a complete contrast to Le Moustier, magnificent huge historic stone buildings, streets, museums, bars and cafes made for a great stay and I'll post a few more pics over the next few days of a few of my favourite bits.

Timber!

With the fine weather we've been having this week it's meant we've been able to work outside in the grounds of Les Granges, so the island of shrubs and trees at the front of the property has been one area that has been 'attacked' and one evergreen felled in order to get more light to the shrubs below plus it's made a massive difference to the view to and from the house.

Next years gateau noix!

This is the total of our walnut harvest for this year, not a very fruitful year as the unusual wet and cold weather in the spring affected the buds on the trees. We think we have probably only one third of the crop we had last year, never mind, here's to a better 2013!
The weather this week has been excellent, yesterday afternoon got up to 25 degrees so at least what walnuts we have got will be nice and dry ready for storing!

Winter work starts!

Well, here we go, we can't turn back now, our project for November is to sort out the front entrance and patio area outside the house. First thing to do, discover what lies beneath the existing steps to the front door, what there is under a thin stone layer is at least an inch of concrete over what is the original 1889 stone steps, obviously this has been done as the steps had worn over the years.
Our aim is to uncover the original steps and if too worn see if we can turn over each stone to restore the entrance to it's original state.
Time will tell and we'll keep you informed of the progress over the next few days/weeks - keep your fingers crossed!

Spot the lizard!

Things have warmed up over the last couple of days thankfully, still sunny but cloudy now so when the sun comes out it's very warm, so much so that the lizards are still very active, I spotted this one on the outside barn wall where the robins have been nesting, relaxing in the sun but nicely camouflaged!