The Good Life Diary 2010

Surprisingly, despite the colder evenings, the bats are still coming out at night, though the swallows and swifts left early on in the month as did our black redstarts, though I think Elgar may have had some hand in that! With the disappearance of the redstarts, the two lots of robins have finally returned and will probably be with us until the spring when another lot of black redstarts will make their presence known.

The most spectacular migration to whiteness at this time of year is certainly that of the cranes as they head towards the Pyrenees and on to Spain. They make the most wonderful sound and often, unlike geese there is a lack of formation in their flight. They seem to fly quite haphazardly, singing to each other as they go. It really looks as if they are having the most fantastic time! It was while we were at Marciac market that we saw the first large group flying above and it seemed that everybody stopped what they were doing in order to take in the spectacle and smile!

With Fin back at school, we are now busy with the pottery, preparing for the Christmas fairs. As well as the tiles on there own, we are making wooden boards for keys, coat hooks, salt boxes, pot stands, tables etc. all with tiles incorporated.; So now Dave has the opportunity to do one of the things he loves doing the most (besides fishing) which is working with wood.

Probably the highlight of October for us has been the sighting of a herd of about 20 wild boar which we spotted while driving home one evening. They were busy grazing in a field where the maize had just been cut and therefore did not seem to be bothered by the headlights of the car. There are plenty of wild boar around, but they are rarely seen, so we consider ourselves fortunate that we have so far seen boar twice this year and this must be the biggest herd we have ever come upon. Now we look forward to the local chasse (hunt) remembrance meal on November 11th when we will no doubt be eating sanglier in nearly every course. Thank goodness we are not vegetarians!

This month brought with it a few days of much needed rain and within days, the pond was full and the lawn lush green again. Many locals favour September as the temperatures tend to remain in the high 20s and low 30s making it a much more tolerable heat in which to work in.

We too have been busy and for the last few weeks we have enjoyed holding our first stall at Marciac market. As well as providing the perfect outlet in which to sell our goods, we have also found it a great way in which to improve our French and to immerse ourselves in the local community. Unlike Britain, it is relatively easy and cheap (under a euro) to have a stall which means that often you will find people setting up small stalls in order to sell the excess from their potager, often proving to be the best vegetables around!

Mushrooms have been for sale in their profusion, which has added to our own frustration at not being able to find any. When we lived in the New forest, we knew exactly where to find the ceps, parasols and oysters, rarely coming home empty handed, whereas here, we have had no luck whatsoever. To add to our frustration, we have heard our French neighbour boasting about the amount of ceps he has found recently. Our French friends have proved to be incredibly generous and accommodating, but not to the extent in which they will share the secret of where they find their mushrooms! We have not come home from foraging totally empty handed however, and have been collecting sufficient walnuts and hazelnuts to last us for the year.

We attended a couple of great music events this month, just when we thought there was an end to all the festivals etc. The restaurant/bar at Lupiac lake held an end of summer bash featuring an excellent 7 piece ska band that amazed us all by energetically playing a non stop two hour set, followed by another, half an hour later. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

A little later in the month, we went to a British beer festival where Dave treated his taste buds to some much missed real ale and we enjoyed an incredibly lively Irish punk band. It was quite bizarre to witness a band made up of French and Irish members, dressed in Scottish tartan trousers and kilts, singing and playing Irish songs/tunes and introducing them in French!

September is always a busy month for vide greniers (car boot sales) and we went to a very big one at Isle de Noe, a very pretty village about 20 minutes drive away. Unlike the UK however, there is seldom a bargain to be had and gone are the days when the British would import French antiques to the UK and make a profit!

We continue our work on the house and have a long list of things to do during the cooler months, including finishing the old pig sty which we are turning into an out-side kitchen. We took great care in filling in the gaps in the out-side stone work and were relieved to see at the end of the job, that the bats were still able to fly out at dusk time.

Unfortunately the change in temperature also brings other animals in, including mice and pine martins. The latter, we managed to get rid of by playing very loud music in the loft for a few days as apparently, they hate noise. It did the trick!

A more magical visitor was the giant peacock moth which may well have metamorphosed from the caterpillar that I discovered last month. I like to think so!
All the birds are back now, looking very dapper with their new plumage and the swallows have been swarming for the past few weeks, getting ready to leave for warmer climes. This means that dawn is again, a magical time when numerous bird songs can be heard whereas when it was hot, Michael (our cockerel) was the only bird we would hear. We have also had some huge golden harvest moons and some beautiful dawn skies that have taken our breath away.

This has certainly been the hottest month of the year, with temperatures reaching 44c at times. There has also been a distinct lack of rain, which has meant that the water level in our pond has become worryingly low. This has enabled us to finally spot the two carp that Fin introduced a few months back, along with what must be hundreds of small fry.

As well as being incredibly hot, it has been really quiet due to most of the birds hiding away to moult and only the sparrows and the doves can be heard in the dawn chorus. Our cats therefore, have had to confine their hunting to the lizards and rodents; Needless to say that there are a lot of tailless lizards running around at the moment.

There has also been a profusion of butterflies this month (including the stunning swallowtail) and at night we have seen the tiny spotlights provided by a number of glow worms wondering around on the lawn.

One of two exciting discoveries this summer has been the huge green caterpillar that I found on one of our hornbeam trees, finally being identified by the Natural History Museum as being that of the giant peacock moth - the biggest moth in Europe.

We also spotted a nightjar for the first time while driving back in the car one evening. She had obviously just caught something and was just sitting in the middle of the road, so the headlights picked her up perfectly before she finally took off into the night sky.

As with last month, August has been a month full of various music festivals and fetes. The Marciac jazz festival was excellent this year and we managed to see quite a variety of different bands around the various bars and in the square.

Jamie Cullam was one of the headlining acts and we heard reports from those who saw him, that the concert was truly excellent and that the little man fairly rocked on stage.

More recently, we attended the Samatan African festival, which is held during the first w/e in September each year. This very pretty town was transformed into a colourful reflection of all things African including a large market, art exhibition and stage with African music and dancing through-out the town.

Over the last few weeks, we have been very fortunate to have some lovely guests staying in the gite. Everyone who has stayed has provided us with very positive feedback (see postcards section) and obviously appreciated their surroundings as much as we do. Even the haphazard ringing of the church bells has not gone unappreciated and a friend of ours, during his stay, recorded the sound as a ringtone for his phone.

The church bells go off just three times a day; going back to the time with there was a bastide here, the 8 a.m. peels would raise people in the bastide for work, the 12 p.m. ring would remind them of the (very long) lunch break and the 7 p.m. ring would be to call people back into the bastide for the evening (whereas now it acts as a reminder to our son that it is time to watch the Simpsons on TV).

After nine weeks of holidays, our son returned to school and only three days later, there was a national strike resulting in the school being closed for the day. The French are unhappy at the suggestion that the retirement age should be changed from 60 to 62. This is not surprising from a nation that spends more time sleeping than the Japanese and 1½ hours a day eating, as opposed to ¾ of an hour in the UK.

‘I think I would like to live there’! Commented the radio broadcaster as she passed on this information…..Well we certainly do!

As summer arrived and the longest day was had, the cuckoo suddenly stopped singing and the frog chorus slowly faded.

The moorhens (quite sensibly) left the pond after finding the continuous stalking of three cats, too much to bear.

We solved the mystery of the disappearing robins; apparently, as soon as the black redstarts arrive in the spring, they oust the robins from their territory, leaving them to find alternative accommodation for the duration of the breeding period. So it looks like our robins won’t be back for a while.

Elizabeth and Nigel (the geese) are now much bigger (and brighter) than our Peking ducks and continue to charm us. Given that they now have names and are evidently sociable beings, it is doubtful that they will end up on the dinner plate. Also in the enclosure, we have a sitting duck. There are a dozen eggs under her that are due to hatch later this month and if they do, then we will be successful in providing all our own poultry.

We have been enjoying some wonderfully warm weather over the past few weeks, just perfect for picnics and swimming. Fortunately, we have found one or two special places that are perfect for both.

On really hot days, we have been walking down to our neighbouring lake (Monpardiac) for a cool early evening dip. When it’s really hot the Pyrenees have some wonderful picnic spots by waterfalls and rivers where the air is so clean and the temperature is that bit cooler.

We have also discovered Lupiac lake where there is actually a proper beach and a rather nice bar where they have live music in the evenings through-out the summer. Although it is a 40 minute drive from here, it is well worth the drive, particularly this time of the year when the fields of sunflowers are evident.

In July, we had the Mirande Country and Western festival and enjoyed the spectacle of the line dancing cowboys and girls, Harley Davidson motorbikes and huge American cars that descend upon this small French town for a few days.

Also in July, we enjoyed the Latino festival at Vic Fezensac which was incredibly colourful and lively providing some excellent Latin music, along with some amazing salsa dancing.

Our son’s band (VoltR) was busy this month so we attended a number of free rock festivals and concerts all around the Gers.

The Marciac Jazz festival is now in full swing and as usual, is providing a wide variety of music, street entertainment, art exhibitions along with a wide selection of bars and restaurants to frequent. Apparently some people in the town transform their lounges into restaurants and bars, just for the two weeks of the festival.

We finally completed our outside bread oven and managed to successfully cook enough pizza for nine people the other day; so future guests will be pleased to hear that pizza may well be on the menu!

We are continuing to work on the pottery and are now selling our wares, along with our excess vegetables at the local market, every week. This has meant a double sacrifice of having no lie in on a Sunday morning and missing the omnibus edition of the Archers. Interest has been shown though, particularly in our handmade tiles, so we are optimistic that the sacrifices will be worth it.

We have received enquiries about posting to the UK, but at the moment, we would prefer just to trade locally; guests will of course be welcome to view and purchase.