Village flowers - mostly wild

I wandered round the village yesterday morning after doing the animals and was amazed by the amount of beautiful flowers in two little lanes.

The ubiquitous Mysotis, forget-me-nots, are everywhere.  It doesn't seem to matter how many plants I pull up there are more again the following year.

These are more iris from my neighbour's verge.

 Common cow parsley in the lane, but it's really lovely when you look closely at the little florets.

And unfolding bracken fronds - I love the curls of the "buds".

This pink flowered plant is Crane's-bill alongside the buttercups.

This is one of the many horses belonging to a neighbour.  Who is in a field opposite my hay field . 

Here you can see the hay field and behind it the sheds which house my animals, barn and polytunnel.

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The hawthorn is in bloom and it is so pretty especially when you look closely.

Another of my neighbour's horses which he keeps for endurance competitions.

This clump of iris are in another neighbour's garden.  They are smaller than the ones on my other neighbour's verge and very sweet.  

I'm not sure what this plant is, but I really like the way the stamens are held proud of the bloom.

Below is another neighbour's pond which is full from the tremendous amount of rain we had in April.

Periwinkle, Vinca major, is all over the place too and I love the way it spreads and covers the ground.

Another wild flower which I don't recognise, but in drifts it gives a red-pink tinge to the tops of the verges.

This is another of my neighbour's irises.

And lastly an iris bud, promising a beautiful flower.

Three things I like:

1.   The soaring temperatures and sunshine we've been enjoying these last few days.

2.   My village.

3.   My current Book Club book - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Animals and a Beautiful Iris

The first photo is of Daisy and Alfie on the windowsill.  They love this position, which takes them away from the extreme heat of the woodburner but they have the warmth of the fleece that they lie on in the sun, and if they turn round they can watch the small feathered fliers on the bird table.

The next is of Purrdy mid yawn.

My neighbours have the most wonderful iris which flower on the verge around their garden wall.  The colour of this photo isn't absolutely true; it actually has more red in the real flower.  This is the first one out and when they are all flowering it is really something.

The Cream Legbars, the ones who lay blue eggs, are becoming much less shy now and I can begin to approach them without them skidaddling across the run.

Here are Betsy and Basil cuddled up together, sunbathing on the old pig shed corrugated roof.  It really retains the heat this metal roof and they spend a good part of every day lying here.

I have several new fish and this peculiar example is one of them.  The toad tadpoles are following very  closely. It's a very strange fish and I have no idea what is. 

It came from the garden of people who had moved in to a house with a pond they didn't want, so they knew nothing of the fish.

This is one of my favourite places to sit and read, particularly from about 17.00 hrs when the sun is beating down onto my back as I try to get through my Book Club book in time for the next meeting. 

This year there is a wisteria just starting to flower and  there is also a vine growing across the pergola so I might be able to pick grapes without much effort while I'm relaxing there.  We built it after I admired a friend's pergola, and I spend many early evening sitting there.

Three things I like:

1.   Panfried trout fillets with new potatoes and greenhouse salad.

2.   Having logs ready in the trolley on the terrace - easy to fetch into the house.

3.   Finally planting some twisted hazel twigs I brought back from Cornwall.

Mill path walk, blooms and strange walking companions

My two Khaki Campbell ducks and their drake keep escaping into the goat field.  I don't know how they're getting there, but they can't seem to get back and it involves me in a lot of wandering around the fields and going through the barn and unlocking and locking gates to get them back into their area for bedtime.  Each gate is secured with a combination bike lock since we had trouble a few years ago with the gates being left open by person or persons unknown.  The original Muscovy duck is refusing to stay in the duck field where the pond is at all.  She now sleeps in the henhouse with the hens and doesn't spend any time with the other ducks except the Khaki Campbell's when they've gone AWOL.  What is it about animals and the grass being greener?

The hen eggs are being turned night and morning in the incubator and if everything goes to plan the first chicks should peck their way out of their little calcium packages on or just after Saturday, 2 June.  I have added three more eggs, so there are now fifteen possible births.  I love having chicks they are just so adorable the first few days and it's great watching them grow into independent birds.

Yesterday afternoon was full of sunshine a friend and I walked along a very pretty path near St Nicolas du Pélem past a mill with a stunning waterfall.

This is a little building in the garden of the mill house and I just love the little wren finial.

It was a lovely, one and a half hour walk with just a few people passing us saying "Bonjour" and then suddenly in the distance what looked like two tiny ponies being led and a dog.

As they came nearer, it turned out to be a man with two thirteen year old Shetland ponies and - not a dog - but a goat!   It reminded me of being in Tobago when one of the locals would bring his goat down into the sea each morning for a paddle and a walk along the beach.

He stopped and talked to us for a few minutes but his goat didn't want to leave us clearly feeling there was unfinished business with Hugo the dog. 

I realised that there doesn't seem to be any wild garlic, ransomes, around in Brittany like in England.  At this time of year in Cornwall you can smell the garlic around your feet as you walk along.  There was though a flower I never remember seeing before, like a nettle, but with yellow flowers which I now know is Lamium gaieobdolon - yellow dead nettle.  There was lilac too

The lilac will go towards my purple photos as will this magnolia bud on a tree in a friend's neighbour's garden.

In my own garden growing up the middle leg of the pergola is this Clematis Montana which I think is Elizabeth, like my daughter, and a French lavender with a bee visiting it - not well in focus, but I like the composition.

I lost one of my favourite earrings on Wednesday.  It was a red drop made from wood which was light and didn't pull on my ear. 

I retraced my steps and left my 'phone number with two places I had visited, but no luck.  Buxxer, buxxer, buxxer!  

I really need to find someone who makes jewellery so they can make me another pair by copying the one remaining earring.

It was not a valuable earring by any means, but I really liked it - just simple and not glitzy. 



This evening I should have been collected a Muscovy drake for my five Muscovy girls, but the seller 'phoned me this morning to say that after she let her hens and ducks out this morning the fox visited and massacred all her birds. It's a devastating thing to happen and I really feel for her.  It's horrible having to clear up the awful mess after a fox attack and to lose all your birds is dreadful.
Three things I like:

1.   Finding that on a grey, rainy day like today it's 10 degrees C hotter in front of the woodburner than outside.
2.   Having a day when I don't have to do anything at all.
3.   Knowing my friend has had an operation and come home safely again.

Nantes Brest canal, ducks, flowers and fish

Friday evening saw a big electrical surge here in the village due to a storm damaged cable.  EDF, the electricity company arrived and cut off the power for two hours while they did the repair - one of the fuses had melted completely.  My lights were so bright in the sitting room it was as if a football stadium's spotlights were on in here.  Unfortunately, it left me with a non-functioning microwave, five 'phone bases and the electric garage door motor.  Seems as if I have a claim to make on the house insurance and they then contact EDF for confirmation of the surge.   

Thank goodness the weather has been better over the last two days.  In fact, not just better, wonderful!   The sunshine prompted a picnic lunch alongside the Nantes Brest canal and then a leisurely walk, followed by a sunbathing and reading session for the rest of the afternoon in the garden - lovely!

Plants along the bank and water boatmen skimming along the surface of the water.

The osteospernum is in my neighbour's garden.

The beautiful orchid is in the old railway track lane and the bluebells have come up on the verge around my field.

The pansies are in my neighbour's garden - I love all these blues and purples, especially after all the yellow spring flowers.

In my garden, the clematis is now in full bloom and Alfie has crept into the photo too.

I love this wisteria - and the perfume as I walk round this corner to the utility room is just delicious.

Purrdy enjoying the very, very warm afternoon sun.

Bert, Ruby and Boris enjoying dandelions.

These were broom flowers in the lane this morning - what a yellow!

My new big, strangely-shaped fish in the pond with some of the original normal residents.  This fish is 12"/30cm long from end to end and "frilly".  The tadpoles seem to like being with it all the time.

The original ducks leading the four new Muscovies back up the field to the pond.

It looks as if I might have the chance of a Muscovy drake later in the week.  My original Muscovy duck has given up staying with the rest and flies over each day into the hen/goat field and is now going to bed in the hen house. 

Three things I like:

1.   Sunbathing again for the first time since the brilliant March weather.

2.   Hearing that my son and some friends are coming  to stay at the beginning of June.

3.   Starting the incubator this morning with fourteen eggs from my hens.