The Tilleul Tree

Getting by in rural France

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This was where I walked the dog this evening. Fields of sunflower and baled hay. It's a nice place to live.

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Right, this looks weird. But, it's going to be a very tasty, dark brown alcoholic drink in the winter. Clever move eh? It's french walnut liqueur, or 'nocino' as the Italians would call it. Grab some walnuts before they develop too much, add some sugar, spices, vanilla and orange zest, (and a litre of vodka), leave for two months, then decant and let it mellow. Rumour has it the Romans made this. I'm already understanding why. Bring on those long winter evenings!

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I love garlic. This year's crop is in, dried and stored. Every year I grow about 150 bulbs, all from two original ones. It's free apart from weeding time, tastes great, and is good for you. It's a good thing all round.

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These are the 'ruchés' (hives) of the beekeeper in our village. It's good to see the local bees at work. We eat a lot of their honey!

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Did I say this was our pool? I keep it crystal clear, with some work each day. And look after the flowers too. It is GREAT when we can swim in it.

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Can't resist photographing some of the sunsets in the garden. This one from a few days ago.

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It's been a good year for cherries here. Neighbours and friends have given us loads. Jam has been made! Our tress are not established well enough yet and a late frost hit the few we had. But large old trees around here are laden. As many as we like, for free!

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We cleared a patch of day lilies from outside our back door in the winter. All these poppies sprung up in their plac, with a fe Californian poppies mixed in.

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We've got two foals in the fields surrounding us. Here's the most recent arrival.

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A hoopoe in our garden. We see this quite often, so probably nesting nearby.

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Meet Rocky, our new cockerel. He's à Maran, black copper variety. It's a breed from the region and they lay dark brown eggs. They're also quite tasty apparently. A good dual bird, and I plan to keep a few of them. Rocky will hopefully have a part to play there.

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I know there's a bit of a bird theme going on here, but I love these migratory flocks. These pictures were taken in late February. There must have been around two hundred birds in the big group.

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A cattle egret. I'd never seen or heard of these before. This was one of a group in a neighbouring field during the winter.

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My Barbezieux cockerel, picture taken in January. Although it's taken a while, I think he's now matured to adult status and doing what he should be doing. Fertile eggs will be loaded into the incubator soon.

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I think this must be a young blackbird, puffed out against late winter chill. He does have two legs if you look closely!

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My willow teepee (its about two metres in height). I picked up a load of it from a local garden. I took this photo soon after making the structure and it's now begun to shoot. In another month or it should have filled out. Entertainment for the kids!

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We had a new boulangerie open up in the village next to us. Good news. The existing close options weren't as good as you might hope. This one lives up to expectations. Plus I'm beginning to get my head round the range of breads available here.