C'est parti pour les travaux - Work has at last started

The big machine arrives to start work

Day one and the first drainage trench is dug to channel spring water down the hillside away from the house (looking downhill)

The bottom end of the slope where the "aqueduct" carries the water away underneath the track in a large buried pipe

The end of the drainage pipe, bringing the spring water well away from the house

The smaller white drainpipe is for carrying rainwater from the roof of the house

new rainwater drain from the courtyard side of the house, leading into the pond for the frogs or for gardening!

Work in progress at Ropion

State of progress as of 7th July

It might not look like much, but the pile of stones next to the old house we know as 'Ropion' (after the last person to live there) is gradually reducing in size and height.  It's great to see some tangible progress here and to be able to recover some nice building stone for potential future projects.  The stone has been buried for many years, ever since a large section of building collapsed years ago, probably due to water damage to the earth mortar which held it together.

Anne's Santiago blog

http://enroutepoursantiago.blogspot.fr/?m=1

Where there are frogs there are snakes

This afternoon suddenly became quite sunny and humid and as I have been tidying up and mowing the grass around Ropion (the little house opposite La Côte) I went over to have a little break.

As I walked over towards the back of the plot and the woodpiles I suddenly saw two large snakes (sun-bathing I think in the open.  I'd almost forgotten about snakes at La  Côte but anyway I think thay were grass snakes (coulevre) rather than adders (viper) and in any case they didn't hang around to be identified.

I think that the blue tit nesting in the wall was also fairly disturbed by their presence judging by it's behaviour.

Apparently snakes like to be around places where they can eat frogs, hence the title of this entry.  Makes sense when you look at the previous blog entry.

Wildlife at La Côte

People keep asking me if I get lonely at La Côte on my own (Anne is off walking to St Jacques de Compostela at the moment).  The answer is that apart from keeping pretty busy gardening and processing piles of wood for firewood, there are plenty of animals around to keep me company.  There are over a dozen frogs in the pond to sing me to sleep every night, an ever increasing population of rabbits, the kestrel, various small birds nesting in holes in walls and of course the bees who live in the base of one of the acacia trees are very active any time the sun shines....

Le clos après un nettoyage récent  Le clos after a recent tidy up

A walk around Le Grand Pressigny

mill.....

....and millstream

We went on a lovely walk this Sunday with our walking group from Dangé St-Romain around Le Grand-Pressigny, the weather was a bit grey but the sun attempted to shine from time to time.  We walked through the museum grounds but unfortunately didn't have time to actually visit the inside of the museum itself.

End of the line....

A very closed and for sale café

View with the Chateau (museum) in the distance

The chateau and modern museum extension seen from an unusual angle on our walk

remains of the spiral staircase in one of the towers in the Chateau

Giant Auroch

A beautifully restored street in Le Grand-Pressigny (but not the right-hand part!)

A well-earned degustation of cake and cider at the end of our walk