The Secret Glen

Our farm is very remote; there are very few people around. But there is a wealth of animal life!

Our woodpecker explores the top lawn. We worry about his wood-pecking method- it's usually just a series of taps delivered at a slow rate of around one tap per three seconds. He needs to go to woodpecker school.
 
There are several wild cats in the area who look just like this one. They have ringed tails, like raccoons. We called our wild barn cat Ringtail, but our son chooses to call it Ringworm. Ringworm now has an identical friend. We call the new one Shingles. Ringworm and Shingles sounds like a nineteenth century firm of solicitors.

Limousin cattle spend a lot of time licking their salt blocks; I find this disturbing to witness on hot days.

As regular readers will know, we have visited nearby Gimel les Cascades many times, but, this time, we found a new path that eventually leads to an ancient church deep in a magical green gully... There is a charge for visiting the waterfalls, but the verdant beauty shown here was free to explore! Feast your eyes on the leafy, mossy world we discovered:
























Lush, eh?

The tower is back in action! We've been putting off finishing the exterior of the first dormer window, but Kevin is now adding the cladding, tiling the roof and painting the window surround.


Blocks to enclose the terrace congregate expectantly...


Guttering and fascias start to go up!
We discovered some other farm wildlife when we took down the kayak from the haystack in the top barn:



What is the world coming to when your boules aren't safe in the barn? I don't know why Barnie allowed this sort of nibbly activity right under his nose (beak)! Tsk!

Comments

  1. Ben Reay22 August 2017 at 05:06

    My favourite of these photos are the bookends:
    Like blurry beak of the woodpecker.
    Like the rodent appetite for plastic

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deborah Hockey22 August 2017 at 08:23

      Like that you gained some enjoyment from my inane ramblings! 😃

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The tower finds itself in high demand

Image
I've been asking Kevin to hurry up and finish the work on the south wall for AGES as I wanted the tower in order to paint the north wall. FINALLY, he scaled it and reattached the flailing planks and the loose edge-tiles. He also finished and painted the outside of the little window frames, installing mosquito nets too. It's such a relief to get all of these little jobs done! But was I to get the tower? No. Kevin fell into a frenzy of loose tile fixing all around the house! Eventually, I did secure ownership of the tower and repainted the grubby-looking north wall. No, you can't see the finished job, as, to be honest, it's still a bit grubby. And, after our aerial efforts concluded with no dramatic falls, we returned to some familiar territory of bygone renovation days: fluff puff! We have never managed to finish our master bedroom, mainly because we were waiting for a stretch of good weather in order to build the second dormer window. However, due to Covid-19, we didn...
Read more

Renavoidance?

Image
Don't ever buy a property with 8 acres of land. Unless you have a vast array of top grade farming machinery. I'd like to be sharing with you our achievements with the renovation (and I know that's what you're here for!), but most of our time has been spent mowing, strimming, raking and visiting the dechetterie. Our ride-on mower has more or less given up the ghost, and I really don't think it'd be worth mending/servicing it. I'm not sure how we're going to continue to tame the land with just two push mowers and a scythe. We've decided to leave a lot of our land as meadow, with creative paths mown through it. Farmer Joel has very kindly mown and gathered hay, but this has exposed acres of dry, unpleasant stubble. And you wouldn't believe the amount of dust and grass seed that's kicked up during the processes of cutting, turning, lining up and baling! The time of dust coincided with the time of refreshing the exterior white paint. Thankfully, n...
Read more

The sad ending we never expected to see

Image
You'd probably guessed, but we've sold up and moved back to England. Six years of renovating in our Correzian paradise had to come to a sudden end due to the folly that is Brexit, and the plague that is Covid. These unpredictable twin horrors meant that we could no longer flit between two countries with ease, and neither could our family and friends.  I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of our last views of our little French farmstead.  What do we miss the most? Friends Freedom Stunning scenery Great restaurants Beautiful villages Vide greniers Good wine at good prices Sunshine Empty roads Over and out. Thank you for following our adventure.
Read more