Life in rural France

[Bullbasket]

Looks as though it's about to stick it's nose into someone else's business!

 

John.

[Vince1159]

1 hour ago, Biggles87 said:

 

What a fantastic photo,the countryside at its best....

[thorfinn]

On 12/23/2020 at 6:50 AM, Bullbasket said:

Harking back to your original post, a few weeks ago, I just happened to look out of the window of my hobby room, and this is what greeted me. They'd wandered in because the gate at the top of our garden was wrecked in the tornado, and I haven't got around to fixing it yet (No. 354 on the "to do" list). They stayed for about 15 minutes, and then wandered out again. Picture quality isn't great, as there is a black mesh fly screen over the window, and it was getting dark at the time.

 

 

John.

I live in a fairly 'urban' area of suburban Baltimore Maryland, and regularly see scenes just like that in the back yard. Deer, lots of migrating geese, a neighborhood red fox and a fat woodchuck living under the shed...and not a hunter in sight. (The fact that the county's Public Safety Building -- including police headquarters -- is at the top of our street about 1/8 mile away seems to help keep out the riff-raff.)

Just before dawn a week or so ago, I saw a good-sized deer standing on the back hillside...and it saw me, apparently unconcerned...and it proceeded to give out several sounds like mini-lion's roars...a sound I had no idea deers could make. Then it just sampled another mouthful of thoughtfully-chewed grass, and lazily wandered on its way into the next yard.

[bentwaters81tfw]

@thorfinnMeet your new neighbour:

[Bullbasket]

15 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Meet your new neighbour:

Yep! That's what happens when you grow old.

[Biggles87]

On the subject of horses.

We've been having some trouble with our french horse ( the one nearest the camera in the last photo ) recently  who broke out of that field twice and really didn't want to go back in, and for a couple of days did not want to leave his stable at all. We had him checked out by the vet who couldn't find anything physically wrong with him and agreed with us that he seemed frightened to be outside, so perhaps something had happened in the field to trigger a bad memory from his youth. Over the next couple of days we managed to persuade him to come out of his stable to eat and eventually to move around in the small area between the stables and the garden and even nibble at some grass, and continued this for a couple of days gradually getting further away from his comfort zone. This morning we managed to lead him across the field opposite the stables to where the pictures were taken (  no cows this time ) and he had just settled and was starting to eat when a hot air balloon appeared over the trees about a kilometre away so we had to rush back in. I once worked with a guy who was in a hot air balloon syndicate who told me that the two types of animals they avoided at all costs were horses and pigs, and we know that ours don't react well to the sound of the burners. After a couple of hours we decided to try another field, which he had also refused to go in previously, and to our delight  he willingly followed the other horse into it and we spent an hour there with him, initially on a lead rope which was eventually unclipped to allow him to roam freely. We'll put them in the same field tomorrow and go outside the gate and hide from them and see what happens. Hopefully we have now broken the cycle and things will return to normal.

 

John

 

[Brandy]

Jealous of your stories. I have been searching online for a retirement place in Brittany or the coast south of Brittany for a while, but unfortunately nothing can happen until I am able to visit and take a look at places. Time to start learning French!

The reason I want to be in that area is very simple - both my brother and sister live in Guernsey and I want to be within easy visiting range!

 

Ian

 

@Vince1159 A la perchoine!

[Biggles87]

Glad you like the stories Ian.

Good luck with your retirement plans, I hope you make it ( to France, that is ).

 

John

[Biggles87]

Just in case I've been painting too rosy a picture of life in rural France, there are some (but not many) downsides, one of which we are experiencing at the moment.

Many of the farmers in this area grow maize to use as a winter feed, and we have three fields close by totalling about 25-30 hectares which are currently being harvested. This involves a large yellow machine which chops up the crop and throws it out into a trailer being driven alongside by a large tractor and is a very NOISY operation which leaves the small road running through the hamlet very messy due to the constant procession of tractors and trailers between the fields and farm. This operation will probably take 2-3 days but mustn't grumble.

Stay safe everyone and conserve your fuel. Sorry mustn't laugh either.

 

John

[Malc2]

Having sent quite some time living outside of the UK, its great to hear about other peoples experiences.

Nice to hear about rural France, please keep up the news and also the pictures of local life and village!

 

Malc.

[Biggles87]

This morning while finishing tidying the stables I looked out across the field ( same one ) to where Frenchie was grazing and saw what I thought was a small deer on the far side of the fence watching him. I didn't think I would get close enough to take a photo so grabbed the binoculars from the tack-room instead and there was the biggest fox I'd ever seen, about the size of our largest Golden Retriever. It continued to watch for a few minutes then wandered off to see what it could find in the field, this was about 1015 so a little late to be out hunting.

 

John

[bentwaters81tfw]

^Obviously been eating GM chickens.

[Bullbasket]

Watch out John. Those wolves are moving north and pretending to be foxes.

 

John.

[593jones]

Wolves did it!

 

[Biggles87]

And horses of course.

As I was watching the horses this morning,  two deer came out of the copse alongside the field, looked around then trotted off across the next field. The hunters were about but not very close, so they were probably just playing safe.

After that I went shooting, but not at animals.

 

John

[Biggles87]

Fun with the local hunt dogs.

As I’ve mentioned before, we are always aware of the activities of the local hunt at this time of year so when we started to hear the dogs this morning we went down to check on the horses who were in the field bordered by the long copse. They were not bothered by the noise which got steadily closer until they were in the copse, but as it’s still early enough in the season for the hunters to be shooting at anything that moves ( including each other ) before checking what’s beyond the target we decided to bring the horses in, and as we were closing the stable doors a group of 15-20 dogs of various sizes from terriers to large hounds burst out of the trees into our field so we were just in time. Frenchie has been known to chase dogs in his field but with his eyesight now deteriorating it would not have been a good idea for him to be charging around and possibly crashing into things and injuring himself.
About 45 minutes later I went down to the local town to collect something and the could still hear the hunters' dogs but they seemed to be coming from a different direction so I thought we’d probably seen the last of them for this morning, but when I returned about 25 minutes later SWMBO was coming around the corner of the house telling me that I’d picked the right time to go out. About 5 minutes after I left she heard lots of dogs again and looked out of the kitchen window to see a large group of them at the bottom of the small field which slopes down from the back of the house. She went out to investigate and heard the sound of one of them in distress, so walked down the field towards the pond at the bottom which can’t be seen from the house because of the trees, and saw that one of the terriers was in the pond and could not get out, the pond is covered in duck weed at the moment so probably just looked like grass to the dog. She eventually managed to get hold of the dog by the collar and haul it out of the water when another one jumped in and had to be hauled out, the rest of them fortunately decided that this was not a good game and ran off followed by the rescued terriers after they had a good shake, covering SWMBO’s legs with duck weed. On the way back to the house she passed the stables where one of the large hounds was standing, hackles up, and growling at the horses with Frenchie giving it a “ come on if you think you’re big enough “ look until with a little encouragement it ran off.

All part of life's rich tapestry in rural France.

Stay safe everyone.

 

John

[Bullbasket]

2 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

All part of life's rich tapestry in rural France.

Oh yes! A law unto themselves are the chasse.

 

John.

[IanHx]

On 6/15/2021 at 2:27 PM, Biggles87 said:

The local farmer has had some of his cows in a field next to our horses for the last couple of weeks and they usually just ignore each other but a few days ago I went to check that the horses were OK and not getting too hot in the current heat wave and when I got to the gate I saw that our boys were close to the far fence and a bunch of cows, mostly youngsters, were watching them eat.

I went and got a camera and as I approached them, the french horse lifted his head up from the grass and noticed the cows so he strode off purposely towards the fence and they all ran away, but not very far. Having shown them how fierce he was he turned around to resume his grass munching ( always has his priorities right our Frenchie ) and this happened;

 

 

 

 

"Are you SURE that's the right end of the gift horse to look it ?"

[Biggles87]

We have had about six days of beautiful, but cold weather which is about to change soon. The morning temperatures (0700) have been between 0 and -3 rising to between 4 and 6 in the afternoons, with a wind chill factor of 4 degs.The only downside has been a temperature inversion locking in the smoke from the many wood burners, including ours, which are still the preferred method of heating for most rural french people. The weather app on my mobile has an 'air quality' scale which has been going down steadily over the last few days and yesterday included a warning for those  with asthmatic  conditions, you win some, you lose some. Anyway we're promised higher temperatures with rain for the next few days. Deep joy!

Have as good a Christmas as current conditions allow everyone, and stay safe.

 

John 

[Vince1159]

Same over here from tomorrow with temp's rising to around 11/12 which'll make a nice change from the last week or so,give me wet/windy and mild anyday...

[Biggles87]

We prefer clear and cold to rain but not for more than a few days at a time. Things are starting to thaw this afternoon but the path from our stables to the field, which doesn't get any sun 'til late afternoon at this time of year is still frozen solid with ruts so it was too dangerous to get the horses out today, but tomorrow should be OK.

Winter Solstice passed, all downhill to summer now. 

 

John

[Bullbasket]

We've had Japanese weather here for the last few days......breedin' cold! But like you John, it's all set to change. It'll be pissisting down for several days to come.

 

John (Stuck between an umbrella and a cold place).

[Vince1159]

No gales yet and not much rain but it's warmed up lovely...

[Biggles87]

15C here at 1400 and still blue sky but it’s starting to cloud over over now.

[Biggles87]

After a few days of rain at the start of the month we’ve settles in to cold and clear weather here, it was -03C at 0700. The temperature inversion continues so we’ve had some lovely sunsets and the days are beginning to noticeably lengthen, heading towards my favourite time of the year.

 

John