Sommet de Bizourtouse 2001m

Poor weather (wet, cloudy or stormy) has predominated this summer so we haven't got out into the hills much at all. Sheri has a broken toe which is starting to heal, so today we looked for a shortish walk (10km and 700m height gain) in a location we hadn't been to. Port de Saleix is col that features on many of our regular hikes, but we've never ventured beyond it to the east where there is some interesting karst scenery.

Looking East from the Port de Saleix

Descending from the Port de Saleix

From the col we descended beneath some large limstone towers before rising into a hidden cirque to the east ot Girantes.

Limestone towers defending the cirque

A rising path eventually reaches a col with views to the Port de Lhers and Etange d'Arbu and on a day without low cloud Pic des Trois Seigneurs. From here a steep muddy path climbs to the rather flat and featureless top of Sommet de Bizourtouse. On a clearer day there would be good views towards Pic Rouge de Bassies.

The col with Pic des Trois Seigneurs in the cloud

East side of Girantes - the ridge on the right would make an interesting way to the summit 

Vulture

Chough

 

Hay

Last weekend Susie was away for four days running a choreography workshop and it coincided with the only three consecutive days of sunshine so far this summer. So once the rain of the previous few days had dried it was time to launch into hay making. Despite having repaired and prepared the haycutter, after 10 minutes it had broken. I rigged the same temporary repair I had made the previous year and managed to cut about half the hay before it broke again. I couldn't find a suitably sized bolt to make another repair but fortunately Nat our neighbour came to the rescue. He had suitable bolts in his workshop and helped me fashion a repair (having already cut his hay). Another couple of breakages followed but by 6pm all was cut. It may be the last year for this old equipment.

The following day was hot and I turned the hay all day. At 5pm I put it into winrows with the newly acquired andaineur (about 45 years old) then set to bailing with the notoriously tempermental 60 year old bailer. Amazingly after a few duff bails it worked faultlessly and by 8.45pm all was bailed. It had been a long day but before bed I stacked the 125 bails in little stacks of 5 or 6 to keep the worst of the dew off.

Sunday was another hot day. It took until noon for the dew to evaporate from the once again scattered bails, then most the afternoon to transport them 18 at time in a trailer from the field to the barn. Winter feed secure for another year.

Worrying noises from the tractor and it is pretty clear that I have a knackered clutch thrust/release bearing. It's a cheap part to replace but a costly install as the engine has to be separated from the clutch/gearbox. Is it too big a job to do myself? I don't have an engine hoist or a press, so maybe so.

The sheep were let loose in the big hay field for the first time this year which they seem to be enjoying. The grass in the parts which weren't cut is too high for the sheep to see over, so they stick very close together so as not to get lost.

Having managed to move the sauna in through one upstairs window, next was the job of moving the old cast iron bath out of the other upstairs window. I had found the cast iron rolltop bath in the field in front of the house when I arrived in 2005 and refinished the enamel and fashioned a cradle for it, as the old legs had been knocked off. 

It lived under the dining table on wheels for many years, then when I enlarged the house, I hoisted it onto the partially built first floor and into the new bathroom before the house was complete. 

After many years use the enamel is truly knackered and it was time to retire it. The bath weighs about 200kgs and getting down the stairs seemed fraut with difficulties and possible accidents! So the options were to hit it with a sledge hammer and remove it in parts or get it out of the bathroom window intact. The bath is useful for washing fleeces so we opted for the window extraction. 

The only way of attachment was to thread a rope through the central plughole and the overflow hole. Suspended like this the bath would hang at right angles to the rope. Unfortunately to go the window the bath had to be parallel to the rope...and this was the main cause of worry - the point at which the bath would rotate uncontrollable and exert a sudden shock load on the pulley system attached to a heavy oak door post (set into concrete during the house construction). The new bath arrived midway through the defenestration and fortunately the delivery driver was keen to help us. It was reassuring to have another set of muscles on hand, just in case. In the end all went without mishap. The new bath weighing only 45kgs and being somewhat smaller went up the stairs (once the handrails had been removed) with just Susie and I doing the grunt work.

Project tea towel

 

sheep shearing

After the successive heatwaves and droughts last summer and then a very dry and hot March and April this year we were very worried about our meadows. The clay soil was baked hard and fissured, there were too many bare patches and nothing seemed to be growing. Fortunately May and June have been incredibly wet and although things are late this year, everything seems to be doing better now. We've kept the sheep off the meadow in front of the house since March which has also helped. It's now full of the usual diversity of grasses, orchids and other wild flowers. The rattle has spread in the dry conditions, so there is a little more of that than usual.

The wet conditions have made sheep shearing less easy. The sheep have to be confined to the bergerie for 48 hours so their fleeces can dry out. Our first shearer cancelled at the very last moment so the sheep were released. Finally we found another shearer and today the 24 sheep were sheared. Our new shearer is Chrystelle from Erp who has done a fantastic job. In the afternooon she went to shear Jerome's 42 tarasconaise at La Coste and I helped as Jerome was without his usual helper. The tarasconaise are huge compared to our ouessants so all in all it was quite a physical day.

Our flock waiting for their haircuts

Volucella bombylans

Volucella bombylans or the bumblebee hoverfly...a convincing bee imitator, only on closer inspection it only has one pair of wings, its eyes are too large and its mouthparts too short.

Pic de Crabere

With thunderstorms and very heavy rain and hail every afternoon, Sheri, Michiel, Susie and I decided to try and get out and up a mountain in the morning ahead of any storms. Pic de Crabere above the Etang d 'Ayes had yet to be summited by us and seemed a suitably short day out. 

The piste forestière de Mont Ner which gives access from the Etang Bethmale is only open from the 1st of June. This greatly shortens the approach.

One of the cascades feeding the Etang d'Ayes

Looking down on the Etang d'Ayes

It's not a commonly climbed peak and there wasn't much information on the best route of ascent, certainly no paths. From most sides it's very steep grass and bilberry with rock outcrops. The north ridge looked promising so we left the GR10 just before the col and took the path leading to Etang de Bellongue. After a 100m or so we left the path and started a rising traverse looking a for a suitable place to make the North ridge. We climbed too soon and a very steep and slightly slippery slog eventually put us on the summit. Which has surprising good views.

Great views towards Pic de Barlonguère

From the summit the north ridge dropped to a col from where a simple path lead to the Etang de Bellongue. this would have been a very simple ascent!

Etang de Bellongue with Pic de Crabere behind. We climbed straight up the middle of the face.

Reflections in the lakes

By the time we reached the Etang d'Ayes once more the hailstorm started. fortunately it was only 45 minutes or so back to the car which we reached before the thunder started. 8km and about 640m of ascent.

Medium spotted Woodpecker

Starting to get the hang of the new camera....still lots to learn!

 

Spotted flycatcher

 First bird photo with the OM1. After taking the photo I realised that the bird was stuck. If you look very carefully there is a tiny bit of thread wrapped around one of his legs (probably from nest material) which had got caught on the bramble. When I went rescue him, he finally managed to snap it and escape.

First few shots with the new camera

Goodbye Olympus OMD-E-M5ii, hello OM1. Quite a bit bigger than the old camera but hopefully it'll come into its own with the wildlife photography....lots to learn....more later.

Naughty Mr Fox

 

Cascade d'Ars

There's been a lot of rain and few opportunities to get out into the mountains 5without getting very wet and seeing nothing), but yesterday despite the forecast things seemed bright and dry so after a hurried call, we met up with Sheri and Michiel for an afternoon stomp up to the head of the Cascade d'Ars. Great to stretch the legs and look at the recent snowfall.

 

Sauna phase 2

A couple of days of preparation for the arrival of the flat pack sauna. First collecting and erecting a scaffold tower beside the gable of the house from which a plank could bridge to the bedroom window. The larger panels would have to go through the window as they wouldn't go up the stairs. To make life easier I also built a trolley to run on the plank and installed a pulley above the window through which a rope would provide some assistance in dragging the panels up the incline.  The packed sauna weighing in at 300kg was due to be delivered in an 11m lorry...too big to pass the tight corner in Castet d Aleu, so we would have to transfer it to our little trailer and transporter it the last 5km. The palletised package was 1.6 m long, 60cm wide and 2m high, so some modifications were necessary to the trailer too so it wouldn't topple over on route.

I waited in all day Monday only to discover at 3.00 that the delivery day had been changed to Tuesday and I hadn't noticed. Tuesday the delivery arrived at 10.00 and fortunately it was in a small 6m long van. We quickly abandoned the trailer idea and the delivery van drove to the house and deposited it on the drive. 

Sheri and Michiel had stayed the night on Monday and they agreed to help us. The first few panels were small and passed easily up the stairs. They got progressively larger and the side walls 1.2 m x 1.9 m where the first up the scaffold and through the window. They were realitively light and easy. The front and back panels 1.5 m x 1.9 m were super heavy. One was fully glazed with 8mm toughened glass and the other was clad in stone tiles! It took all four of us to lift them out of the crate and move them to the deck. 

I worked out I could remove the glass (3 pieces) and transport them individually but the stone clad panel was going to have to be lifted through the window. It weighed over 100kg. The lift onto the tower was 2m so we moved the picnic table to create a 80cm stage to reduce the lift so with Michiel and I on the tower and Susie and Sheri on the table we managed to haul it up. The worst was over and finally all the parts were in the house on the first floor and just in time as the rain started tipping down. 

A quick celebratory cup of tea, then it was on with the build, which went pretty straightforwardly. Sheri and Michiel left once the last panel was lifted and by 6.00 we had cleared up, wired everything in and we're enjoying our well earned sauna!

 

 

Problems finding a small delivery lorry for the sauna, so I ve switched to extending the deck around the pool, something I didn't have time to do last summer.

Project Sauna

Next project - home sauna. Ways to heal the cripple cracked body....sauna is number one (well maybe personal masseuse is top but unaffordable!). After some debate about infra-red (cheaper to run) v traditional, we decided on tried and tested traditional. There's space at the tope of the stairs after some alterations, so a door is blocked up and a little door added to give access to the space behind the sauna that can be used for storage. 

Next step wiring. Installation will involve bringing panels through the first floor window which may be strenuous and problematic! I'll need a sauna after that!

Morels!!

 It's that time of year again....yummy

After a bout of COVID/flu, food poisoning and increased signs I may have rheumatoid arthritis attacking my Cartlidge and ligaments, my 55th year hasn't got off to great start....oh well things can only get better!

Garden mulched for another year - leaf litter and straw

First morels on their way...another 2-3 weeks and they'll be ready.