Under thundery skies, the herbaceous borders at Boisjarzeau are at their colourful best. The wet spring this year has saved on the watering but the garden meadows are unusually thick with false oat-grass and barren brome with little space for wildflowers. A sward full of yellow rattle would impede the grasses and promote floral diversity…
Tag: Turtle dove
Casola in Lunigiana, Tuscany
The precipitous mountains of the Alpi Apuane hold the rarest and most sought after seams of white marble that are mainly worked on the western facing slopes high above Carrara where the quarries leave blazing, white scars on the bare peaks. On the eastern flanks, in the villages around Casola in Lunigiana, the lower hills…
Capo d’Orlando and Torrenova Coast
The wonderful art deco architecture of Capo D’Orlando is all ice cream and alabaster; it works so well under a bright sun and glare from the blue sea. There are buildings where the relentless summer heat has peeled the paint and cracked the façade, but the town is being repaired and smart new apartment blocks…
Catching up with old friends in the South Charente
A few days in the South Charente at Boisjarzeau in late July provided the opportunity to catch up with some good friends. This included the large coppers in the small, damp meadow beyond the lake seen for the first time in 2018 and not found in 2020. Thankfully, a single female was on the water…
The last hurrah
The song from the woods is gone; nuthatches and woodpeckers still occasionally sound off but the small woodland birds now rove in chattering flocks. Migrating and local turtle doves are feeding in the sunflower fields but scatter on approach, unsurprising as they are a favourite quarry hereabouts. A young buzzard mews persistently and will remain…
Beyond Lagkada
On Good Friday (26th April) the villages come alive in the evening, everybody is in the street or eating on the terrace. In Lagkada opposite the cafe, young people light Chinese lanterns that wobble into the air and float dangerously over the stone houses. At Agios Nikolaos, after long months of winter sleep, the car…