Zeltus

Now I have the opportunity, I have started a project whereby I walk the South West Coast Path. This, my first leg, took me from Exmouth to Sidmouth. I don’t have much of a camera, just the one contained in my old and ancient mobile ‘phone (kindly donated by the son of a friend). But it’s good enough to provide me with an album reminding me of what I have done and when.

I’ve created a flickr set to hold these photos. Just click on the photo to go to the album and view the whole lot, hopefully correctly ordered by location.

I’ve no idea what my next leg should be. Or when. This project has no timescales or deadlines (other than the one true deadline!) I’ll do each leg as and when it suits me. And it suits me to do no more at this stage until the blisters caused by my new boots heal up a bit! :-)

If someone can help me identify these bugs, I’d would be most appreciative. A number of these nurseries appeared in the Autumn, mostly on our Mallow shrubs.

I started off by assuming that they were nursery colonies of Firebugs (or Gendarmes, as the French generally call them – « masques-nègres » "Masked Nigger" is the local non-PC name for ‘em) – English children prefer the more socially acceptable but coarser "Bonking Bugs" – and indeed, it is all they ever seem to do!

But now I’m really not so sure – yes, they are on my Mallows, the seeds of which Pyrrhocoris apterus enjoys eating. But Firebugs have the typically flattened bodies of Hemiptera whereas these show the more rounded shape that indicated true beetles. Unless it’s simply that these are immature forms of some other Hemiptera. I also believe there are a few adults shown in the photo and, if so, they certainly are not Firebugs. And finally, Firebugs are a very bright red whereas these are a rather darker blood-red colour.

Anyway, if anyone can help me identify these bugs, it’d be one less thing for me to puzzle over.

Technorati Tags: beetle, firebug, france, gendarme, hemiptera, Pyrrhocoris apterus

The rain has brought out the salamanders in the forests. Yet another reminder as to why we own a house in France! :grin: Not native to the UK, they are slightly startling when first seen by us Brits. The ones around here are bright yellow and spotted, although there is a fair amount of variation around Europe (everything from pure black, to bars rather than spots and orange rather than yellow) Quite common (everything is here, it seems) they are not that often seen because they prefer to be mobile during the dusk and night time

Regrettably, the best chance of seeing one is probably when a car has run it over – like frogs and toads, they don’t hurry across nice warm tarmac.

I didn’t try to handle the one I spotted – nor did I let the dogs eat it! Their warning colours are there for a reason – the skin exudes a toxic substance that I prefer not to get on me. Although I am pretty confident that they are not that poisonous that they can’t be handled briefly. But why disturb the creature any more than I have to? I found mine by brushing the ground litter away with a stick – something I always do in the hope of finding some edible mushrooms – alas, after all this time, I never have. But the salamander was a much appreciated consolation prize.

Like the picture of the dormouse, I “borrowed” this photo from Google Images. I am ashamed to say I failed to carry a camera around with me yesterday – s’always the way, the one day you need a tool, it’s not to hand.

Technorati Tags: fire, france, salamander, salamandra

Summer gave way all to easily to Autumn and whilst it was a superb season while it lasted, Autumn is now gently allowing Winter to creep in. Time to start preparing to move out until the warm weather returns in Spring.

The leaves on the trees, after the best display we’ve ever seen, are now dropping rapidly, and it is time to pollard our Poplar trees.

The French are very enthusiastic about the practice of pollarding. And generally I am happy to believe they know what they are doing and follow their example. This decorative pollarding does mean that an otherwise large tree is kept to a reasonable garden size. The French leave a finger on each stump and I blithely follow their lead. I’ve no idea what it achieves but I would hazard a guess it’s to encourage the tree to sprout new growth as soon as possible in the Spring.

The newly pollarded trees look very bare and sorry for themselves. Not at all a pretty result. But in the Spring, they’ll all come good and look very attractive throughout the Summer.

Before coming across this form of pollarding, my understanding of the word was to describe a large mature Elm or Oak that had been completely decapitated in it’s youth as a source of a decent stave, long, long ago and had survived the experience by growing ever more lustily.

Indeed, many of the large, mature trees seen today (or rather, where Elms are concerned, the pictures of large mature trees :-( ) quite probably underwent this treatment. Yet most of us think this is the normal and natural shape of a mature tree. Does anybody still remember the Umbrella Tree, near the bottom of Salford road on the hill up to Cranfield? A magnificent example that like so many, succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease in the 70′s, it was a classic mature pollard.

Finally, despite their love of the practice, the French appear to have no special name for it. They at best make use of the verb tailler – “to prune”. Sometimes, French is a romantic, expressive language. And at other times, it is quite earthy and plain – there seems to be very little middle ground.

This also highlights one of the benefits of the English language – very little of it is English, it’s all been stolen from other languages. And is all the richer for it. The French attempt to protect their language from external influence is, of course, a fool’s errand.

Technorati Tags: autumn, elm, oak, pollard, prune, tailler, winter

A rant, albeit a mild one.

Why oh why do people write reams and reams of potentially useful (or even, not) information on their pages and then FAIL TO DATE THE DOCUMENT! :-SWEARY

The times I have looked for something on the ‘net, thought I’d found it only to find that it related to an obsolete issue or software version. This in itself it not so bad – after all, it might be categorised as “historical” – but only if it is dated! Even professional writers don’t seem to understand that without a date, readers cannot easily decide if the subject matter is still pertinent.

At least blogs auto-date their entries, which, if they do nothing else, is worthy of a cheer or two.

OK, <Flame off> normal service will now be resumed.

Technorati Tags: date, obsolete, page, pertinent, rant, web