Sunday 20 October 2013

More of a flutter than a twitter... but a few tweets included!

And I don't mean a gamble, either...

The beginning of the end of October and there are still plenty of butterflies around...
Yesterday I saw dozens of Speckled Woods [Pararge aegeria] Tircis as I walked around the meadow to assess this Winter's tree and land work...

There is an ant trying to hitch a lift here... or else he's practising his scales!!

also, in the potager area we still have appreciable numbers of Clouded Yellows and a few Peacocks, Red Admirals and the odd Map...

Clouded Yellow... they never stay still!!
and on the 15th an utterly mad Humming-bird Hawkmoth working the Gaura flowers in the front bed...
in the teeming rain!!
Needed its antennae checking, that one!!

The Chiffchaffs are still here in good numbers...
I saw the first of the seasons Great White Egrets in the long field on the left as I drove from Grand Pressigny towards Abilly...
and Pauline saw a Crane [Grus grus] Grue Cendre yesterday...
just the one trumpeting away... and flying North East...
must have taken off early that morning, got so far...
and then realised that everyone else had stayed put at the previous nights stopover!!
The Black Redstarts are still around and the Robins are back!

A bit of Eperon de Murat news...
Pauline and I went to Ferrière-Larçon on Thursday evening to see what the new plans for the site were...
it was a presentation by the Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre.

Hopefully...
a walkway from the road to the Murat farm to the main fields of the site itself...
and a pathway round...
the mayor, Gérard Henault, bemoaned the current main access that requires people to be "below 30 years old and have alpiniste skills"...
and the fact that he is getting no help at all on purchasing the farm itself...
the intention being to turn it into an interpretive centre, housing permanent and occasional displays as well as providing shelter for visitors in inclement weather.
Then, a couple of people in the audience {owners of Murat?} started arguing about the size of the plaque [about a foot square, apparently]...
and I was reminded of a meeting long ago when a committee I was involved with spent three hours discussing the first item on the agenda...
of vital importance, of course...
the colour of the cover of the college diary!!
[If I'd been the chair that would have gone to a sub-committee!!!!]

And then comments were made about the size of the car park...
if it was for more than two cars it was going to be too big!!
"We don't actually want people to visit"... was the opinion of the very vocal minority...
the same couple who were concerned that a foot square sign was going to be too big!

Actually, neither do the guardians of the site want too many visitors...
understandable, considering the rare plants & insects and the ancient fortifications...
so they are intending to install infra-red footfall counters in a couple of places...
it was also pointed out that it is about a kilometre from the proposed car park to the site itself...
many people will satisfy themselves with any display that may be at the farm and drive on, mentally ticking it off as "visited".

There are too many trees now on the site... especially the junipers... mainly there through neglect / lack of management and the current sheep are too selective [read fussy] and are not munching them properly...
they really ought to use Scottish Black Faced sheep...
not as fussy, about the only thing they won't eat is Nardus stricta [Mattgrass] which is too siliceous for even them...
the Wildlife Trusts use these for their "Flying Flocks"...
as do the LPO [who advertise their excess for sale at the back of L'Oiseaux magazine...
along with their excess Highland cattle! 
I'm tempted by the latter for here... 
only tempted mind!]

So these, along with the trees that have rooted into the defensive wall [vallum] and are slowly destroying that, must be controlled with more vigour!!
Major snag here...
removing the trees on the vallum will lead to erosion of the unprotected wall....
so a long roof will need to be constructed until other vegetation establishes...
don't hold your breath on that one...
apart from the obvious cost...
the example shown [from elsewhere] met with assorted gasps and disapproving grunts!!
It did look ugly... like a poorly built wood store!!

The two speakers were very poor, though...
the first swallowing the latter half of most of her sentences...
and the other spoke at the computer screen all the time!
Fortunately, monsieur le Maire often sub-titled what was being said by his comments!!

More interesting and understandable was the PowerPoint presentation... including two aerial views of the site...
one from 1950 showing all the little fields and very few trees...
Look at all the very little fields in the top right corner...
and the vallum is already marked by a tree line...
the smaller wall [muraille] is just visible as a faint line almost the same distance from the main wall...
as the main wall is from the tip.
and one from 1970 showing one vast field over all but the tip of the protected area!!

So we watch with interest....
whilst I can still manage to scramble up from the stile at the bottom, Pauline cannot...
so effectively is barred from the barré!!


6 comments:

Susan said...

Let me know if there is anything I can do to support the site. I didn't realise this meeting was on (and anyway had a prior engagement). I hadn't realised the farmer wasn't supportive or that GH wants to buy the farm. Hopefully I'll see him (or more likely Maya) on the weekend -- fungi foray in the Foret de Preuilly) and I can have a chat about it.

He's quite right about access. It's a scramble getting in, but scarier getting out, coming down that slope. You can get in up the top via a gate (that's where Raymonde was delivered to the time I visited).

Tim said...

Raymonde was able to be delivered to that gate because she knew the landowner...
apparently they've also been trying to buy that thin curved field [the strip of orange peel to the WNW of the Eperon]...
if I heard right, for the last 30 years...
and GH has been trying to get funds from the powers that be for the farm purchase...
but to no avail...
mind you, they have only just funded the Tabac conversion!!
And that was to the benefit of the whole community.

On another note... do you know anyone with a load of coings to give away?
No one around here seems to have a quince...
and the ones in town that I can see over walls are just left to rot!!
Locked away in abandoned gardens...
what a way for a quince to go!
They need their own Quango!!!

Tim said...

And.. as for the climb and descent from the stile... it is not only dang erroos... it is damaging the slope as people try to find a safer route up...
last time we went on an orchid walk, at least three Bee Orchids were destroyed by people trying to make foot holes!!

And when we went on the LPO's Raptor Watch outing the path had become a gully at the steepest point...
just before the barbed wire!!
But going down isn't as bad as going up for us...
we use Lekki sticks!!
Marvellous on all but the steepest ascents...
especially descents...
they give you four feet...
two with sharp points.
And mine is designed to become a monopod, too! Very useful.

GaynorB said...

We have a small quince tree. If N&A haven't already used them you are welcome to them. Email if you've forgotten the code for the gate.

Susan said...

I'll see if I can score some quinces off our orchard neighbour.

Tim said...

Gaynor & Susan,
Thank you both!!
Quangs welcome...