This morning Angus and Sophie are heading off for eight old varieties of tomatoes.' The Font' wants to peel and confit them for a ' I've got lots of time during the second lockdown' salad. The greengrocer e-mails us to say that he'll be there at seven but ' Can we please remember to wear a mask ?'.
At six thirty it's bright enough for a walk through the sunflower fields. Each flower seems to have two bees working diligently away. Where do they go when the sunflowers are harvested ? What else could possible keep them busy en masse during the rest of the year ? On the far side of the valley the farmer has raised the netting over the apple trees. There is now an unattractive grey plasticy shape on the landscape.
Hygiene dictates that our morning croissant is again served in a paper bag. Angus scores it 8.8/10. Sophie thinks it warrants a 14. She'd happily have a second .... or a third.
The Tilleul tree has been given a sign indicating that it was planted in 1789. Angus thinks it improbable that a linden tree would last that long. The oaks yes, the lindens, no. We have some of them in the garden- sickly things that ooze black sap onto the ground.
I shall have to research the longevity of tree types but for the moment Angus is unconvinced that they were planted to commemorate the revolution. Madame Bay makes a foul smelling herbal infusion from dried Tilleul leaves.
So starts another day in a French village in high summer. No pilgrims, few locals, no visitors of any description. The motorway busy with Belgian and Dutch cars heading north in case a 14 day quarantine rule is imposed. The Brits have already gone. The fancy rental house that goes for $10 thousand bucks a week in high summer had been let to an English high court judge and his wife. They managed to get two seats on the BA flight from Toulouse to London before the 14 day quarantine was imposed. They have been forced to leave their very shiny grey Mercedes estate car behind . It will be collected at a later date.
Sunday morning music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FaE32klkhc
8 comments:
Where do the bees go after the sunflowers finish -- these days that's a good question. It's a really tricky business managing the continual boom and bust situation that bees find themselves in with monocultures. Canola is just as bad. It's why we need crop margins full of wild flowers, and bee friendly gardens.
And like you I am very dubious that the linden in question was planted in 1789. More like 1989 for the bicentenary. A well pollarded linden can live for about 300 years, btw, but there is no way the tree in the photo is 231 years old.
With Angus's well-honed expertise in awarding grades, I am surprised he hasn't been called upon to resolve the UK's 'A' levels and Highers marking controversies....
The majority of those sunflowers look remarkably fresh considering the extreme heat and lack of rain.
We had our 9.9/10 croissant again yesterday - a special breakfast treat on Saturdays. Over the years they have rarely varied in quality, beautifully light and fluffy inside.
The answer to your bee question is the Tilleul. That black stuff is actually a kind of mildew which grows on the sugars in the sap they exude. The bees collect that sweet stuff (before the mildews proliferate) and make it into the most divine honey on the planet. They eat their honey (if humans haven't stolen it from them) to cover themselves in the 'busts' between the 'booms'. In fact bees love monocultures, and canola is one of their favorites, because being essentially lazy little bugs doing a mindless job, they like to only have to work out how to appraoch and harvest one thing. If it is one rewarding thing they will stick with it rather than hike round the countryside fighting with dozens of different varieties of the unknown, each producing uncertain results.
Thank you. That explains the Tilleul tree on the village green is covered in thousands of happy bees earlier in the summer. It's quite remarkable not solely for the number of bees that cover it but from the low pitched humming sound which can be heard in The Rickety Old Farmhouse. Truly a singing tree.
I'd imagine that the exodus from Europe was pretty large. It is hard here in NZ, as a lot of families have members in Australia. My brother and sister live in Adelaide and kids live here in NZ. It is almost impossible to get between countries, and if you did get permission to travel there would be a 2 week quarantine at either border and an additional $3,000 at both places. So a trip that would normally only cost $500 to fly between both countries will now be a 4 week minimum and aprox $7,000.
Love the sunflowers and Sophie photo.
Hari OM
let me help Angus out...
"Linden trees typically have a lifespan of a few hundred years, but there are several examples of specimens across the world that are believed to be more than a thousand years old." (Sourced from Everything You Need To Know About The Linden Tree.
In return, may I download the sunflower image for my own visual delight only??? It brought a tear to my eye for the joy of their faces, the simplicity of their life... YAM xx
We have two lindens in front of our cottage and the noise from the bees in them in spring when the flowers are out is an astonishing roar. Never realised lindens and lime trees were one and the same. :)
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