Well, sadly, this week I am not sitting in the sun but have been forced indoors by persistent drizzle. On the one hand, this is good news as we desperately need rain to revive the garden. On the other hand, we have become used to sitting in the garden in glorious sunshine. Or in a nice warm but shady spot to write up the blog. It has also got a bit colder and I may now have to go to the wine cave for a warm up, perhaps a shot of Calvados to warm the blood!

It has been an exciting week for the owls and for us. The baby owls are almost ready to fledge and after last week’s rescue we hoped the parents would look after their young. Not so, I’m afraid. On Tuesday morning at around 7am, Mrs. Parish and I were just in the process of waking to the French news on the bedside radio when we heard a dreadful commotion from outside in the courtyard. Mrs. Parish was sent to look out of the window and shouted that Moggie had caught one of the owl chicks. So, I leapt from my bed and we raced downstairs and out into the courtyard in our pyjamas to rescue the chick, which by the time we grabbed Moggie, was not moving.

We threw the cats indoors and decided that the owl was probably still alive and the best thing to do was leave it alone and let the parents come and take charge. A few moments later a rather stunned little owl got up and stumbled around before a very shaky flight back up to the nest. It is clearly ready to fledge and we have seen it now several times fluttering out of the nest to the TV aerial. 

Now our neighbours are certain that we are mad English as who else chases a cat and owl around their courtyard at 7am in just their pyjamas! We did what all good English people do in such circumstances. We went back indoors and made a cup of tea.

The parent birds have taken a bit more responsibility since this incident. They have taken up sentinel positions either side of the gite. One on the TV aerial and one on the perching tree. From their they can scan the courtyard for any sight of one of our cats and then start up a series of screeches before dive bombing them to keep them away from the nest area. They continue this vigil into the night and we are woken several times by owl screeches and hoping we don’t hear the sound of a chick in trouble!


Baby owl on the gite TV aerial looking no worse for a close encounter with Moggie

The parents are also taking more control of their offspring who yesterday and today we have seen one of the fledglings come out and sit on the TV aerial and a nearby telephone wire. But they get sent back to the nest quite quickly. We think there are two chicks and hopefully they will have learnt how to avoid the cats. The problem is that Little Owls feed mostly on the ground and that makes them a bit more vulnerable. Mind you the cats are getting very nervous about the constant aerial bombardment and are keeping under cover.


Mummy Little owl(left) supervising junior

We have been out and about for several village repas in the past couple of weeks. We went with some friends to a new event at nearby Lassay for an African evening with food and music. The food sadly was not great and was cold (it should have been hot!). We sat with a French friend, Pascal who is a local stone mason and took down the ruined building here at La Godefrere. He was there with his wife and friends. A few days later we heard from him that he was disappointed with the food. But he was more upset with the wine that was served. The wine was a cabernet rose and fairly sweet. Pascal was complaining that it was totally wrong to serve a sweet wine with a meal. He reckoned it was a dessert wine. The food he could just about forgive but not the wine!

The music was however really good and the evening raised money for disabled Africans so it was worthwhile. Last week we were invited by Giselle and Daniel to go to a village repas with them and Giselle’s daughter and son in law with their two teenage children. This was a much better (from a food point of view) and they served beer so no wine disasters. It was a good evening and a nice mix of ages from the very young to the very old. It was also a typical evening repas, where the start time was 7-30. Daniel said to call round to go in their car at 8-30 and we would go for aperitifs to their son in law Jean-Yves. We eventually got to the repas at around 10pm and still had to wait another half an hour before the food was served!

So, now it begins – the Tour de France has started and I am watching the end of stage 2 while I write the blog. The rain has stopped but I am still indoors and doing two things at once! The Tour is a fascinating race and of course everyone in France has an opinion. It is however some tome since a Frenchman won the race and it has been dominated in recent years by the British which gives us some bragging rights. Anyway, for the next three weeks we will be glued to the TV in the afternoons. The good thing is that as well as watching the cycling you get to see some remarkable scenery as the race continues across all regions in France.


The Tour de France started yesterday

Next weekend we shall have our own little Tour de France as we have some friends from Weymouth coming to stay with their bikes. They will be cycling to us and then we will have three days of cycling out to local restaurants and then wobbling back afterwards. We may have to find a yellow jersey for the lead rider. Thus far in the Tour proper we have a Welshman, Geraint Thomas, in the yellow jersey and that can’t have happened before. 

The advantage with writing the blog is that I can start on a Sunday morning and come back to it several times during the day. In is now nearly 6pm and Mrs. Parish is wondering why she has no drink. I need to visit the cave and make sure that we have the appropriate wine. As we are having sausages for supper, I think a nice robust red would do the trick. The sun has just arrived so it may be that we should have a nice aperitif in the garden and may be our supper out on the patio.

We can then watch as it gets to sunset and the owls start to hunt to feed the little ones. The owls have been catching moths in the air showing amazing flying agility. They catch the moths in their claws and then land to transfer to their beaks before flying up to feed young in their nest. After that we can see the bats come out just as it gets dark and they also feed on the poor moths.

But, before all that aperitif time.

Bonne soiree
Graham