More adventures in France Episode 11

Another relatively quiet week for us. Things got done, like polishing the car and thoroughly cleaning the house before some dinner guests arrived, but there were no outstanding scenic trips this time. Although, even as I write that, I know that every time we take the car out, if only to buy groceries, we admire the scenery all around us. The wooded areas between the fields, which were all bare, brown and dry when we arrived are already wonderfully green and inviting, while the vines which were pruned back to what looked like dark-grey arms sticking out of the ground topped by a clenched fist, now have a healthy growth of greenery. There seem to be very few really private roads, apart from those which go directly to a farmhouse, and when we are not in any hurry, which is often, we frequently venture off the track and are rewarded with scenes like the ones I have included of the forest near here.
The birdlife too, seems to have increased as the food has become more plentiful. We become aware of the incessant chattering as soon as it begins to get light in the morning, and which continues all day. We have discovered a completely new bird (for us) which is also quite exciting. We kept hearing this strange sound – rather like someone shaking one of those rattle-type instruments sometimes used to accompany South American music. At first we thought it was field-mice rootling around at the base of some bamboo plants, but it was too loud for that. Then I thought that it was the neighbour’s chickens, that sometimes make their way into our garden, scratching amongst the dead leaves in the hedge, but the sound kept moving and seemed to really be coming from quite high up in the trees. Finally we identified it as a Mistle Thrush, so called because apart from insects and other berries, it loves to feed on mistletoe. It has a pleasant fluting song, but when alarmed makes this extraordinary rattling sound, which of course, is why we always heard the noise when we went outside. I’m sure they must all be enormously fat as there is so much mistletoe growing everywhere. It is a parasitic plant and it is that which I saw earlier on, forming large balls around the branches of some of the trees.
Behind the house stands an enormous Horse Chestnut tree which is now in full flower. I have heard that one can make a tea from the flowers and that it can be used as alternative medicine for certain conditions, but quite honestly, I will just enjoy looking at it! The birds and the bees also seem to enjoy it and going too close could definitely be harmful to one’s health! French bees look more like South African wasps and I’ve been told that they have a really nasty sting. As for the birds, well…………they do what birds do and nothing would persuade me to stand under the tree in the daytime! It is, however, a beautiful tree.
We are hoping to be able to venture into the mountains again next week. As the weather seems to have become more stable now, we are unlikely to run into another snowstorm, but then………..you never know!