7 brothers and sisters!

I can't resist putting yet another picture of the recently fledged nest of swallows in the barn and before you think I can't count, another young one joined this group just after I'd taken the picture!
There's another nest in the barn with young in plus in the house boiler room, a second batch of eggs are being sat on as I write, you can imagine at dusk as all the young return to their roosting places close to their original nests it's all a bit frantic!

By special request!

Just to show we do take note of any suggestions given to us by our guests, this is for customers Pat & Bob who have now safely returned home to the USA, they stayed in the Roque Terrace gite a few weeks ago and Pat commented that a planter would be a good idea to create a screen from other guests, therefore giving a bit more privacy whilst sitting out on the terrace. Before they left we had bought the planter and have since managed to get to the garden centre to buy a good stock of plants for this and the many hanging baskets that Philippa plants to put up around the grounds.
We hope you like the final product Pat and thanks once again for your constructive thoughts.

A little reminder of things to come!

After 2 days of mid 30's heat it's inevitable that storm clouds will gather in the early evening, thankfully these passed us by with some threatening loud reminders that they will be back at some point in time!
Not that any of that sort of thing bothers the baby cardinal beetles who have taken over the gaps in the bark of the lime tree at the front of Les Granges, they're more than happy in the sun that is still shining!

Nest evacuation!

The Black Redstarts have just left the nest that was at the side of the gite pool area, 5 of them are now causing their parents some grief as they flit about from one place to another, two of them above were taking in the afternoon sun, oblivious to the fact I was only a couple of meters away doing some gardening!

Les Granges 'complet' at the moment!

It's a beautiful morning here and since all the poplar trees have been cut down and cleared it now gives us an amazing full panoramic view of le Roque St Christophe, especially good in the early morning sun and also at night when the rock face is illuminated.
Great news is that we now have customers in all the gites so we are full and as of now we will be moving accommodation as and when needed to suit our bookings, all part of living and working in the tourist industry and all good fun!

Non-paying guest!

This is a first, a collared dove has set up nest in the gite pool eating area, a flimsy nest which doesn't look as though it will hold eggs let alone how ever many young there is when hatched!
Whilst on the subject of nests, we've got lots going on at the moment, on the opposite side of the gite pool is a light outside the tobacco barn gite where a Black Redstart has nested on top of it, in the main barn, 4 pairs of swallows are nesting (you can imagine the racket) plus the usual pair in the boiler room, Blue Tits are in one of the nest boxes, one pair of Blackbirds have already had a brood of young that have fledged. Other pairs spotted are Goldfinch, Redstarts, Great & Marsh Tits, Wagtails, Nuthatches, Robins and Wrens. The Nightingales and Golden Oriels have returned plus the Peregrine Falcons are in their usual spot on Le Roque.
It's all go!

It always happens!

A few days before guests arrive, there is always something that goes wrong and this year is no exception! We discovered last week we had a water leak, somewhere in the gite area, not a small leak, 2 litres a minute (4 pints!), nearly 3 cubic metres of water in a day. We looked everywhere and amazingly nothing could be found, With the help of our local plumber we located the underground main water pipe feeding the gites and bypassed the original which thankfully stopped the water meter spinning round!
So last weekend we spent digging a trench for the new pipes to be buried in through the gite courtyard, with massive amount of help from friend and neighbour Ken, back breaking work having to shift stone and earth to create a channel.

Two days later, our guests arrived for their stay in the Tobacco Barn gite, water all connected and not one hint or sign of any problem, all's well that ends well!