Monday, July 29, 2013

Tobacco road.

On the other side of the river Vezere to Chateau du Losse, 10 minutes drive away from Les Granges, are several large fields of tobacco plants. When we first came as tourists to this area about 20 years ago, the whole of this area appeared to be growing it, now, what must be a sign of the times, there is very little. At least some of the old traditional wooden barns will still be used in the drying process in a few weeks time when the leaves are harvested.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Flash of pink!

For those of you who may be a little tired of my obsession with our swallow families at this time of year, a couple of pictures I took a few days ago of the Pink Mimosa tree that is in full bloom at the front of the barn. A month or two ago we were a bit concerned that there was something wrong with the tree as it appeared to be struggling to get into leaf, how wrong were we!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

After 3- 1, 2, 3...

...right, who's jumping first!
Today, the 2nd brood of swallows in the boiler room have left the nest, but the young ones in the barn above are not quite ready for the off. Mind you, I don't really blame them as the temperatures outside the barn are still in the mid 30's in the shade so I think they are quite happy to sit around and let their parents do all the hard work!

Friday, July 19, 2013

Guess what...

...the patio area in front of the house is 100% complete! Which is a good job because our first guests of the year who have rented the main house are arriving tomorrow afternoon, you could say I've cut it a bit fine but the main thing the stone has all been coated 3 times with a special liquid repellent (mainly to stop anything from soaking into the stone by accident) so all is finished...at last!
You can see the complete 'new look' house frontage and patio all dressed and ready, including a brand new 12 seater mahogany dining table in the new main header picture to the blog above this post, hope you all like it!?

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Wildlife update!

 The second brood of swallows have now hatched in the boiler room, the parents are not having to do much sitting on them in the mid 30 degree heat here but that's not making the chicks less hungry, they even thought the flash of the camera was more food on its way in!
Also we had a little visitor in our bedroom the other day, a lovely bat that had been sleeping behind one of the window shutters to the room, that was until we closed them to keep out the sunlight and it obviously moved itself from outside where it was now visible into the darker area inside our room.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Pick your own!

Spotted in the tree at the entrance to Les Granges first thing this morning shows why its not only the blackbirds, jays and sparrows that are enjoying the early morning sun along with a cherry or two for breakfast, this red squirrel sat for half an hour or so getting its fruit fix! I think I'll have to get the ladder out to try and collect the fruit before it all disappears!
If you're having trouble spotting the squirrel, click on the picture to get a larger image.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Summer is here!

As with a lot of europe, the weather here has certainly changed over the last 3 days, first thing this morning the temperature was just over 20 degrees, with a little bit of mist over the river as can just be seen above, now it is mid 30's, we're not complaining though, all the pools are in use and I know I'll be in one of them very shortly!
The above picture was taken a week or so ago when we walked to St Leon, another beautiful day but a bit more cloud, I couldn't resist taking another pic of one of my favourite views looking up the Vezere valley over the church at Peyzac.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Nearly finished....

...at last! The top layer of the patio is now on and all that remains to do is the final 'sanding' of the top surface in order to smooth off all the marks left by the gigantic circular saw that cut the sand stone out of the local quarry, then to fill in the joints and treat the stone with a special chemical that prevents any liquid (like red wine!) from soaking into the stone.
By the way, the above photograph was taken yesterday and has not been retouched, the sky really was that blue!