All out now!

The last brood of swallows have just left the nest this afternoon in the main barn, the above 2 haven't got very far yet, about 6 feet away from the nest but at least they are now free.
It's been the busiest year we've had with swallow nests, 2 in the boiler room with a total of 11 young and 4 nests in the main barn with at least 16 fledged, should have been more but unfortunately all of the young in one of the nests died mid way through the rearing.
Only a few weeks remain now for all the young to get up to speed before the mass exodus to Africa starts!

Deer spotting!

Just as I was on the phone to my mum in England earlier today I spotted these 3 Roe Deer in the field opposite Les Granges, get the camera quick I thought and as usual couldn't find it so I did think they would have moved on by the time I'd found it!
Quite unusual to see them considering it was late morning with quite a few visitors now in the area using the footpaths along the river side, after very quickly informing our guests  it turns out that one family had already seen them on their morning walk to and from the boulangerie, so they must have been in the area for some time!

Terrasson, a link! .

We had a trip out last week with daughter and son in law Charlotte & Dave to Les Jardins de l'Imaginaire, a place we'd heard about from our customers but as usual somewhere we'd never made time to visit, a large area with different areas of various themes of plants plus some very spectacular views, especially over the old town.
The above view had some information in the walk guide which caught my eye as there was a link between the Terrasson Abbey and Le Manoir des Granges. The Abbey, which sits magnificently on the cliff edge over looking the Vezere valley was restored "like new" by an architect monk who also restored the famous Abbey of Mont St Michel and here's the link, it was restored in 1889, exactly the same year that Le Manoir was built, I'm pretty sure there was no monk working on our property when it was built!

On top of the world!

A few days ago at about 7pm we took a slight detour on the way to St Leon sur Vezere to take in the view on a beautiful evening from the Cote de Jor. I'm sure I have already posted a picture of this but every time we take a trip here it never fails to impress.
The point at which these two pictures are taken is not actually the official viewing point but it is the clearing in the trees where all the para gliders launch themselves from the near sheer drop on the valley side, rather them than me!
Above, the river flows through St Leon and curves around in front of the view point, pasing the Paradis campsite (below) and eventually past Le Roque St Christophe and our property, how lucky we are!

Stormy weather!

After two or three weeks of perfect weather, a couple of nights ago we had what has been building up for a while, an amazing thunder storm, at about 2am Monday morning, constant flashes of lightning and extremely loud thunder passed over head accompanied by a couple of inches of monsoon style rain in the space of about an hour or so. Garden now well watered and pools topped up, the weather now is cloudy (as above) but still very warm, top 20's in the shade so still very nice!

More room for the Walnut Store!

Here it is, after a few weeks since my post about the work to remove a flower bed, we've finally got to put out the parasol, table and chairs for the Walnut Store's extra area for our guests. They can now either sit and dine around the pool or in the courtyard area, so in the morning or afternoon you can either have sun or shade, the choice is yours!

Wrong stopping place!

Look at this for a brilliant piece of camouflage, this large moth, which was about 5cm wide, was on the roque terrace gite wall, if it were on a tree then it may have been a bit more difficult to see!