Another Day in the Country

Today we took our Gite guest to ride in canoes down one of the local small rivers about four miles from our place.

These photos were taken along the side of the Gesse river as we were waiting for the canoes to pass. Trouble was, the river was flowing faster than expected and when we arrived, the canoes had already passed.
Wheat is one of the crops grown in the area, the harvest has been going on for the last three weeks and after they cut the wheat the straw is put into these bales. They are about six feet high when they are placed on the flat side, so many of the farmers will put them up as wind breaks in the winter, or even use them as a temporary fence.














After we arrived at the landing area for the canoes we had a picnic with our guests along the side of the river. These sunflowers were growing next to where we had the picnic. Most of the seeds are used as sunflower oil, as the French are not big into eating sunflower seeds as a general rule.
I was trying to get a photo of a bee that was on this sunflower, but by the time I got the shot ready he was gone.

Another weekend trip.

The first weekend in May we decided to go to Montsegur. Montsegur is one of the chateaus that the Cathar religion had retreated to in the 1200's when the Catholic church, and the King of France was trying to unify the southern part of the country with the north. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monts%C3%A9gur


As you can see by the photos although there is somewhat of a stairway to the top, at times you were almost in a crawl position to get to the top.

Clark about half way up.

Where is everyone?

The view from the top. One of the amazing things about the place was trying to figure out how they were able to get the wood beams that were used in the construction up this mountain. Would loved to have been there on a clear day, as the views were spectacular.

End of the Tulips

This seems to be the final week for the tulips in the Garden. I missed taking photos of some of the better displays of color, but maybe I will get some better shots next year. The tulips in this photo are in their third year. This year I forgot they were here and added about three inches of topsoil on top of them. Although they came up later than in past years they have been in bloom for two weeks.










The iris in this photo were some of the iris that I brought from San Francisco when we moved here six years ago. The origional plants were given to me by a friend in the early eighties. I planted them in the garden in San Francisco, and they soon took over most of the garden. I dug them all up in the early ninties and as I was carrying them to the trash can. Our neighbor Karen asked me if it was OK if she took some of them to plant in her garden. I warned her about how prolific they were and she said no problem. As they proceeded to take over her garden, she started giving them away. When we moved, they were a going away present for me.


This is one of the tulips that I planted about six years ago. I am always amazed about the stamina of this tulip.

Last Saturdays Trip

We went for a drive last Saturday over to the east side of the Haute Garonne. As we were driving we saw this ruin on a hill and decided to explore. Ruins like these dot the countryside of south west France, and many of them date to the 12th to the 14the Century. In most cases it is difficult to find out much about them but it is one of the things that we like to explore.

This is the Chateau as you approach from the road that goes past it. As you can see there is not much left that you would be able to restore. Many of these ruins are old fortified chateaus that are still owned by heirs of the original owners.

This is a view of the Chateau from the gate that you see in the above photo. One thing that was interesting was the flowers that were still growing that had probably been planted several hundred years ago.

This is a view from the other side of the Chateau. The village below is Montbrun Bocage. There are many buildings in the village that date back to the 1500's

Sunday Morning in the Garden

This is the flower bed that I will keep showing for the year. It is the beginning of March and the tulips are comming up on schedule.
Closeup of the tulips from the above photo. This is their third year, and each year they are multiplying.
Tulips in their second year.
Grape hycinthes in their fifth year. Very dependable bulbs and provide about six weeks of color.

Sunday

This is a post card picture of the church in our town. This card is from the early 1900's.

The church has been undergoing a restoration project that started in November and is still in progress. Over the next two years they are going to restore the interior of the church also.

This photo is taken from the back of the church. the part of the church the closest to us in the photo was the chapel of the original chateau that was built in our town.

The cirque comes to town.

I have mixed feelings about the French circuses. When we first moved here almost six years ago I was very excited to see the animals grazing on the riverbanks and the tents that they would set up in our Place du Cirque, down by the river. The ones that come to our town are very small operations. Almost all of them have a petting zoo type setup for the children. When I see the care that they give to the animals I am impressed.
I do have a problem with the fact that the animals are caged most of the time when they travel from town to town. This circus that was here last weekend had a mother Bengal Tiger and a cub that was about six months old. The fence that you see in the top photo is where they were caged. The mother was pacing the cage and when the caretaker would come to the cage, she would put her head to the bars of the cage for him to scratch. The cub on the other hand was laying on it's back and the caretaker would reach into the cage and scratch her belly.