C'est parti pour les travaux - Work has at last started

The big machine arrives to start work

Day one and the first drainage trench is dug to channel spring water down the hillside away from the house (looking downhill)

The bottom end of the slope where the "aqueduct" carries the water away underneath the track in a large buried pipe

The end of the drainage pipe, bringing the spring water well away from the house

The smaller white drainpipe is for carrying rainwater from the roof of the house

new rainwater drain from the courtyard side of the house, leading into the pond for the frogs or for gardening!

Work in progress at Ropion

State of progress as of 7th July

It might not look like much, but the pile of stones next to the old house we know as 'Ropion' (after the last person to live there) is gradually reducing in size and height.  It's great to see some tangible progress here and to be able to recover some nice building stone for potential future projects.  The stone has been buried for many years, ever since a large section of building collapsed years ago, probably due to water damage to the earth mortar which held it together.

Anne's Santiago blog

http://enroutepoursantiago.blogspot.fr/?m=1

Where there are frogs there are snakes

This afternoon suddenly became quite sunny and humid and as I have been tidying up and mowing the grass around Ropion (the little house opposite La Côte) I went over to have a little break.

As I walked over towards the back of the plot and the woodpiles I suddenly saw two large snakes (sun-bathing I think in the open.  I'd almost forgotten about snakes at La  Côte but anyway I think thay were grass snakes (coulevre) rather than adders (viper) and in any case they didn't hang around to be identified.

I think that the blue tit nesting in the wall was also fairly disturbed by their presence judging by it's behaviour.

Apparently snakes like to be around places where they can eat frogs, hence the title of this entry.  Makes sense when you look at the previous blog entry.

Wildlife at La Côte

People keep asking me if I get lonely at La Côte on my own (Anne is off walking to St Jacques de Compostela at the moment).  The answer is that apart from keeping pretty busy gardening and processing piles of wood for firewood, there are plenty of animals around to keep me company.  There are over a dozen frogs in the pond to sing me to sleep every night, an ever increasing population of rabbits, the kestrel, various small birds nesting in holes in walls and of course the bees who live in the base of one of the acacia trees are very active any time the sun shines....

Le clos après un nettoyage récent  Le clos after a recent tidy up

A walk around Le Grand Pressigny

mill.....

....and millstream

We went on a lovely walk this Sunday with our walking group from Dangé St-Romain around Le Grand-Pressigny, the weather was a bit grey but the sun attempted to shine from time to time.  We walked through the museum grounds but unfortunately didn't have time to actually visit the inside of the museum itself.

End of the line....

A very closed and for sale café

View with the Chateau (museum) in the distance

The chateau and modern museum extension seen from an unusual angle on our walk

remains of the spiral staircase in one of the towers in the Chateau

Giant Auroch

A beautifully restored street in Le Grand-Pressigny (but not the right-hand part!)

A well-earned degustation of cake and cider at the end of our walk

Signs of spring at La Cote

Japonica

Periwinkle

Flowering prunus?

Flowering prunus?

Japonica

The daffodils

Plum tree in flower

Daffodil close-up

Japonica

Japonica buds ready to flower

Whispering grass or Si J'etais un martian

The dovecote where the two swarms of bees came from

The big swarm in an apple tree

Yesterday we said goodbye to two swarms of bees who had recently occupied two fruit trees at La Cote, we think that there my have been as many as 50 000 bees in total!  We would really like to have some honey from the bees but we are not quite ready to start bee keeping so through friends locally we found good homes for the bees and more crucially somone who knew what they were doing to come and collect the two swarms safely!  They did end up looking a bit like Martians though with all of the protective gear.... next time we will be ready to start our own hives!  :-)

Thinning out the woods above Ropion

09/03/2014

It has taken a long time to get this particular project off the ground as it were, although we have wanted to do so for a long time.  We have realised that the woods on the "cliff edge" above the little house we know as simply "Ropion" were far too close for comfort and were likely to fall on the roof of the house in a storm.  So we arranged to start from the field above giving access to the tractor necessary to pull the trees with rope and cable in the right direction when felled.

13/03/2014

15/03/2014

15/03/2014

29/03/2014

30/03/2014

30/03/2014

07/04/2014

07/04/2014

07/04/2014

As you can see the process started finally in early March this year, the weather was just too wet to attempt it before.  There have been a number of small landslides from the hill slope above in the past and we wanted to avoid more happening when dead trees, or trees simply too close to the edge fell.  It's going to be a big change, but for the better in the long run and in the short term we have temporarily had to take down two sections of fence to allow access for the tractor and to avoid damage. 






You can immediately see the change in the view from above Ropion and how much clearer it is around the building.  We can now see over to the hills in the distance near Oyre.






















We were a bit worried about the last few big oaks which had to be felled and these were both "guided" with ropes from the tractor to help the direction of felling.  As you can imagine there was a mighty crash as each of these two trees (each weighing several tonnes) hit the ground.  But all was well, with the last one being a bit awkward to fell just slightly brushing one roof tile as it fell.

Both trees down on the ground by the slope waiting to be tidied up in due course, but not really in the way.  All the stumps have been left in the ground to help consolidate the higher ground.







Here you can see the (nearly) final result which gives us a much clearer space around the house and fewer fears for future storm damage.  Also, the increased sunlight should help to reduce the future build up of moss and lichen on the roof which has been causing problems with rainwater run-off.  Finally we will also in due course have an improved access to the track and the woods for future works in the woods once we add a gate to the re-erected fence in due course.  A satisfying result as well as a bit of firewood ready for future winters!