#lafosse50150

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A variation on the theme of autumn colours

In France, autumn colour isn’t restricted to the trees.

November 1st is Toussaint, All Saints’ Day. It’s a holiday here - and no doubt in most Catholic countries - as it is considered to be the day when the living think about and respect their dead. For several weeks leading up to the end of October, shops, markets and pavements are covered with pots of brightly coloured chrysanthemums in flower and these are purchased and placed on the graves of loved ones. The local cemetaries are a celebration of colour until the frost and rains of November lay waste to the blooms.

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Golden light on a golden day

In a little valley at the bottom of the hill, between La Fosse and Chérencé-le-Roussel, there’s an old stone building used for cattle store / shelter. There are two oak trees which are always late coming into leaf but also - autumn gales permitting - slow to let their golden, dessicated leaves fly away. The light really was this golden and the contrast that warm and mellow.

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Jardin des Plantes, Avranches

I’m tiptoeing into my long-neglected Tumblr blog to blow off the cobwebs and see if it all still works. I’ve carefully switched on the electricity and the water and opened the shutters and what do I see? A winter visit to the Jardin des Plantes at Avranches in southern Manche. Worth a winter stroll, on our visit there was a mulberry in full green leaf, an acer also in full leaf but autumn golden, and far out in the baie, le Mont-St-Michel, a ghost in the distance.

Because it is in the town and more or less on the coast, this garden is sufficiently protected for a few early daffodils to be in flower and a large bumblebee to be looking around for food. Too chilly for nectar to be flowing, even in the few available flowers.

The Jardin des Plantes isn’t enhanced by the busy road running alongside it but it still makes a pleasant place to spend an hour on a sunny December afternoon. The bumblebee, dusted with pollen, on the winter-flowering honeysuckle, appeared to think so too.

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Only half-way through this year’s Tour de France and we get the posters for next year’s event. The reason Manche Tourisme is so excited is that the opening three stages are in and around Manche and Calvados in 2016 so book your accommodation now and go and watch the stars whiz past on their bikes and grab yourself a keyring or baseball cap from the publicity caravan as it sweeps past ahead of the riders.

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It’s jam-making time. The apricots are gorgeous this year and the first batch of low-sugar jam tastes of a wonderful summer.

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The acquisition of honey bees... part 1.

Gorgeous old house in a beautiful location above a valley... with honey bees behind the shutter and masonry bees in the chimney! We ignored the masonry bees (and they ignored us). :-)

We consulted the highly experienced and always helpful Chris Luck of PlanetePassion and he told us how, from his experience, we should go about hiving this colony with minimum stress to the bees... and to us. The preferred procedure (preferred because it doesn’t involve balancing on a ladder) is to access the bees from inside the room by opening the window. But as that wasn’t an option here - understandably, the owners were unwilling to have their bedroom full of irritable bees - the ladder was the way to go. We’d certainly have been less confident and probably less successful without his advice.

We had several near-disasters during the process, learned a lot (at the expense of maybe 100 or so bees, unfortunately) but they are now (more or less) happily re-homed at La Gauterie, our workshop premises in Perriers-en-Beauficel.

And Patrick did replace the shutters the following day. No one would have known they - or he - had been there...

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It was the annual “visit your local riverside mill” event last weekend. We’ve been to the most local one in Cuves several times but went to look at a small one just outside Vire at Roullours this year. Amazing how little fall of water is needed to drive the wheel outside which drives the milling wheel inside... and there’s the resulting flour. We bought some farine semi-complète and also some sarrazin flour to make Breton-style galettes (buckwheat crèpes).

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After an abysmal start to the day - rain, mist, cloud - this afternoon was gorgeous. This morning I was covered in waterproofs while I walked an increasingly soggy dog but this afternoon, I had to put the aircon on in the car to reduce the interior temperature while I pulled off several layers of clothing. Top photo shows the view across the Sée valley from the top of the drive at La Fosse, the second photo is the view to the north and the third is the view to the west. Stunning.