Pond life and carding

more vintage machines from Lee Sharp on Vimeo.

We borrowed an old carding machine from Patrick and Michelle to make lighter work of carding all the fleeces; They still need a hand card to make rollags before spinning but the machine saves a lot of work.

Despite only being 5 weeks since we filled the pond it's already full of life - frogs and insects as well as some snails and fish we bought.

 common blue damselfly

 pond skater

 libellula depressa

 water boatman

The symbiotic garden is doing well and at last we have some sun, though the storms and rain are ever present.

Sheep shearing

We found out a few weeks ago that Transito who comes to Susie's dance classes used to be a sheep shearer, and she agreed to come and shear our sheep. I have some sheep electric shears but they always seemed to just get stuck and I assumed I lacked technique or the shears were poor. In flat it turned out they were blunt and after some honing on the diamond stone they worked fine. Transito hadn't sheared for 10 years but her technique hadn't been lost and she made light work of the sheep.

 

Rupert was also on his annual visit and got to see all the action which might come in handy as he's just bought a 100 acre farm in Australia!

Just before the shearing we noticed that one of the lambs, "tiny dancer" was very lame after some inspection we think he fractured his front leg below the knee. Some bandages, a splint made from half a piece of bamboo of the appropriate diameter and hopefully it'll heal in a couple of weeks.

Another new orchid discovery at Quélébu - a bee orchid

Update

Last week my dad and his partner Jane came to stay. We went for a few walks and visited Foix. The weather was a bit poor but fortunately they got to the mountain view.

On the last night of their stay, Susie and I were awoken at a quarter to five in the morning by the chickens squawking. Susie was first on the scene and found a badger in the hen house! We had forgotten to close it before bed. The badger made a break for the hole in the fence it had made, but got stuck allowing Susie to give it a bit of a kick up the arse!! The cockerel was crowing but the hens had scattered. I quickly found Shelley in the grass but we feared the worst for Nutmeg and Zsa-zsa. Fortunately an hour so later they returned and all was well.

This week we have had hot weather in the mornings and storms in the late afternoon. Two sheep have been sheared but one of Susie's dancers is an ex-sheep shearer, so professional help maybe at hand for the others.

Orchids

There was snow almost down to the level of the house this morning. Although it snowed a few times here, it only settled above 950m, so fortunately it wasn't a repeat of the catastrophic snows of May 2010.

I managed to protect some of the less hardy plants so no damage was done.

It remained cold all day but I ventured out to photograph some of the orchids in the meadow.

Tongue Orchid

Green veined orchid

Loose flowered orchid

Birdsnest orchid (a parasitic plant)

Oyster mushrooms

The weather remains unseasonably cold, but a "find" today to cheer things up - 2 kgs of oyster mushrooms!

I'll cook them in wine, vinegar and herbs then store them in olive oil.

Wild

Wilded boar in our wild, wild wood! from Lee Sharp on Vimeo.

last lamb

Hopi gives birth to lamb no.8

Cascade d'Ars

After some fresh snow in the mountains the day before yesterday, Susie and I decided to venture out. The cascade was in full flow and the fresh snow on the pines made for some pictures.

Near the falls in the early morning the rocks were still verglassed and I took a little fall - no damage done.

The snow on the ground started just below the head of the falls but we found a sunny place to lunch surrounded by wild daffodils and with views to Pic Puntussan.

The onward path towards the Etang de Guzet required crossing some névés, steep in places, with traces of old avalanches.

An easy descent through fields and woods.

Back home the eggs Shelley has been sitting on didn't hatch - either they weren't fertilised or she let them go cold. We may have to get some new hens from another source!

Lamb number 7!

Apache with her lamb 

The Pyrenees Contemporary Dance Residential is now over and everyone has returned home. The Show (Spectacle) was a great success with about 100 people attending and over 200 euros raised for the MJC in Oust who provided the dance space and kitchen for the whole event. Big thanks to Kate at the MJC, Taeko who cooked amazing food for us all, our teachers Anders, Joelle, Lewis and Matt and those who attended the show. Two days of cleaning up after the residential and Susie and I are exhausted - time for a sauna in St Girons!

Today we finished the pond in our symbiotic garden.

Pyrenees Contemporary Dance Residential

Its been a very hectic few weeks preparing and running the dance residential. 4 teachers, 18-20 dancers from France, England, Finland, Germany, Norway and New Zealand and 6 days of workshops culminating this evening with an evening performance which we hope will be well attended.

Tomorrow a walk up Joubac, before they catch their flights in the evening from Toulouse.

A few days ago another surprise arrival - a lamb for Nanouk!

Sheep pulling faces

Typical spring weather with sunshine and showers and the old hail and thunderstorm. The lambs are growing up quickly, though they don't like having their pictures taken!

The new field is now fenced and linked to the amphitheatre field through a cleared passage under the trees. Still have a bit of the amphitheatre field to finish fencing next week, then I can get the sheep in there to start nibbling the brambles that are starting to shoot. Put the camera trap in there last night and the new link between the fields has already been visited by our resident badgers and fox.

 new field

 the link

 the amphitheatre field

In the woods the flowers have started - violets, spurge, helibore, wood anenomes, cuckoo flowers, early purple and common orchids and bluebells.

pergola

The old pergola made from some tree branches (amazingly 5 years old already), gave up the ghost during the winter and started to disintegrate as the wood rotted. So time to make a new one. Easy to build but not so easy to re-thread though the kiwi and climbing rose that had wrapped themselves around the old structure! I made another picnic table too (the one I made last year was destined for the gite).

All in the nick of time, as winter seems to have ended after a long 5 months and temperatures are back in the high teens with a South wind too. 22 degress predicted for later in the week - bliss!