Saturday, 11 August 2007

Country matters and meteors

Ste Claire
Yesterday's weather - cool, sunny, windy

Our deer seem to have taken up permanent residence in the field just in front of our house. Mummy, Daddy and baby deer come out to graze on a regular basis, either en masse or one at a time - except the baby, he/she is always accompanied by one of the parents. I expect they will be disappearing again once the field has it's second cut which will probably be some weeks yet. In a normal year we have two cuts, one in June and the second usually about now, but this year the growth is still very green and not suitable yet for hay. It won't be long now before the hunting season is back. Early September will bring all the white van men out with their guns and dogs hunting for anything that moves. We hope that 'our' deer may be canny enough to avoid them but there are so many that it seems unlikely. La chasse is part of life out here and something that we are getting used to. But we don't have to like it.

We don't often see Mr D the farmer but he was counting his cows the other day and we stopped to say 'Bonjour' and chat about the weather (which is about his only topic of conversation). We asked if he had had a holiday as we noticed the house closed up for a few days. He very proudly said that they had had a little holiday of 4 days and promptly changed the subject back to the weather again. We were pleased to hear that they had managed to get away even for that short time. Like all farmers his days are long, especially at this time of year.

The sun is out this morning and it has given the valley a glow that is full of promise. I hope it keeps it today. This weekend we will be trying to stay up to see the meteor showers which should be the best for many years due to the new moon and no light pollution. Sunday night/Monday morning are reported to be the best times to see them but they should be visible tonight too. If only we don't get any cloud cover overnight we should be in for a beautiful display
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