Well it’s been over a month since I posted a blog, the days fly past and summer is here. Last year I accidentally dug up some lizard eggs, (here) and found some more the other day in the same place, an earth-filled cavity in the low wall, obviously a favourite spot for Mme Lizard to lay, I quickly and carefully reburied them and covered the soil with some gravel, I hope they will survive this time, ( l found last year’s batch all shrivelled up, and hoped it was not due to my disturbing them.)
a cricket:
and a charming little beetle, with lovely colouring like the shot-silk lining of a posh jacket, this is definitely inspiration for a colour combination:
Our lavender is teaming with various hover bees, hovering hawkmoths and butterflies:
Wings ablur a hawkmoth sucking pollen, to the left you can just spot the tiny hover bee, which looks like a small version of the hawkmoth, with it’s long probing proboscis. I love seeing the bees fully laden with pollen, pollenious thighs describes them quite adequately I think!
I never cease to be amazed by chestnut trees, their highly scented pollen fills the air in June, and these fronds eventually become the prickly fruit casing that we all know, in the second photo you can just see a tiny fruit forming once the frond has turned brown and fallen to the ground.
……strange that the above becomes this, (I haven’t a photo so a painting will have to do):
Graham never lets a small thing like car design prevent him from turning our 2CV into a pick-up! Here he is having collected our new fridge:
Graham has a new grass-cutter for the old 70 year-old tractor ( our Porsche!) here’s a pic of a day’s cutting. The tractor has a few gears missing and is very heavy to heave the steering into place; partly perhaps because of the one time he had a “professional” work on the steering, when he got it back he found that when he turned the wheel to the right the tractor turned left, and vice versa….a novel way to run a tractor, however, as you can imagine, Graham lost his sense of humour with that unexpected mechanical innovation!
I love the track marks , this is going to make a fine drawing, when I get time!
Just look at the Dordogne at the moment, it is looking positively luscious!
I’m off to iron some sheets now, we have a changeover of guests tomorrow, the garden is weeded and watered, my hands torn to pieces by thorns, and plasters everywhere, the lawns all mown. Then back to the drawing board, literally, there are 2 expos coming up, in August and September.
lizkingsangster 
Graham,……..forgive me but your air conditioned Citroen is…..shall we say a novel idea…but is Liz not a bit cold and cramped stuck in that thing? Perhaps you could spoil her and cut a window in the fridge door.
Laters John
Sent from my iPad
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I must admit , I was concerned we might be arrested, but then, here, as you well know, they drive with their feet on the dashboard and arms dangling out the car windows , both hands otherwise engaged, (i.e. one holding a cigarette, the other grasping the phone) so why not take a fridge on a picnic? xL
Reply from Graham: Dear John, you want to go to Perigueux, it’s 38 degrees, and the car has no air- conditioning, what do you do, you stick your wife in a fridge!
Graham, BLOODY HELL…I’ve just seen that photograph with the cricket on….it’s massive, looks about 30ft long. What in God’s name do you feed them on? Maybe you should rename your house Jurassic Park!!
Laters John
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Graham reply: faced with the enormous cricket problem in our garden, I have removed the fridge from the 2cv ( including my wife) and bolted in a 20mm anti aircraft gun to control the incredible insect life at La Crabouille…..who says Citröens are not adaptable? Still rebuilding the traction, but now, this time in earnest!
Nice blog today,Liz and terrific photos. That beatle is amazing. A very posh beatle!MLCLMX
Oh we only allow the best in our garden!xL
Oh Liz it all looks gorgeous. I remember trying to photography those humming bird hawk moths for ages last time we were there. Love the fridge pick up. Very Graham. Deepest Surrey doesn’t look too bad either at the moment, but somehow not as exotic.
Love to you both
Xx
John
Yes, I remember you staring quietly day after day at various shrubs and bushes like a cat waiting for his prey, we all left you to it, thinking, ah John is quietly losing his mind! But then I also remember seeing the resulting photographs, which were utterly beautiful; my little camera does no justice to these extraordinary insects. XL
What a gorgeous post, summer really shines out of it, it all looks so beautiful 🙂
Thanks Phil, I feel guilty because I have a backlog of your posts to catch up on, I’ll get there eventually!!
what a lovely post Liz, I feel as if I was there…wish I was. Your photos are beautiful, that beetle particularly.
I wish you were here as well, maybe soon…..? Yes I’m very fond of that beetle, we haven’t always had them , I have noticed them in the last couple of years, now whether is due to different planting I don’t know, but that is the beauty of the internet, I can look it up! ( and keep in touch with you) xxL