A walk into the past

I was born in a young country, discovered in 1500. The age of certain structures in Europe never ceases to amaze me. There are pre-historical sites dotted all over the place, but they tend to be cordoned off and in some cases you need to buy tickets, they're not part of everyday life.

The other day we embarked on a long walk to the oldest part of the village, where the first houses were built around the year 800, in a place called "Les Eglises." It's now a cemetery. We had to pass the younger parts of the village, such as the Vieux Pont, built in 1492.

Looking back, from the same spot:

After we crossed the bridge, a very steep hill awaited us.

We went up and up and there were fantastic photo opportunities from such a vantage point.

We finally arrived at the oldest thing in the village, a fountain that had existed for centuries before being "christianized" by a Breton abbot (St Méen) who lived from 520 to 617. It's not very easy to find, you have to walk around the cemetery, then cross a little bridge to get there.

The cool water was very refreshing after the long uphill walk!

We haven't been able to walk very much lately because of the rain, but as soon as it gets reliably sunny again, we plan to visit the "Pierre des Druides," allegedly a pagan sacrificial site. It's in the middle of the woods between our village and a little hamlet. I hope we don't get lost!

One of these days I'll post some photos of the prettiest houses in the centre of the village. They're much younger than the fountain, as they were built between the 13th and 16th centuries...

Flowers in coffee pots

I posted this photo a while ago, among a bunch of other very colourful arrangements:

I found another trio of coffee pots with flowers and they're just as delightful!

Looking at the background of both pictures, they belong to the same person, clearly.

Ultrasound

This is funny and quite unexpected...

A night at the pub

View_From_Here sent us this hilarious joke:

I was at the pub the other night and overheard three very hefty women talking at the bar.

Their accent appeared to be Scottish, so I approached and asked, "Hello, are you three lassies from Scotland?"

One of them angrily screeched, "It's Wales, Wales you bloody idiot!"

So I apologized and replied, "I am so sorry. Are you three whales from Scotland ?"

And that's the last thing I remember.

Bird watching

We ordered some binoculars and they arrived a while ago, together with a little book of photos and descriptions of common garden birds.

So far, I have identified the the majority of the most frequent visitors, but a couple of them have me completely confused. I have to order a better book about the birds of Europe...

We also put a couple of fat and seed balls hanging from the window shutters in the kitchen. The number of customers has been increasing steadily.

These are photos from the internet, as I don't have a decent enough camera to attempt taking my own pictures.

Magpie

The magpies building their nest have sparked our interest in bird watching. We can't see into the nest at all, but we assume there are young birds there, judging by the movements of the parents. Now we have to wait and try to catch a glimpse of the fledglings leaving the nest.

Male and female house sparrows

House sparrows are very common and the females like the seeds we have on offer. They perch on the telephone wire just outside the window, and "piu" quite loudly before coming to the ledge to feed.

The ballet

We observed a daily continuous ballet in the distance. These birds form fairly large flocks and fly round and round, disappearing behind the trees, then re-emerging where you least expect them. I couldn't tell what they were, even with binoculars. The other day we went to Uzerche, visited the garden centre, then went to a nice bar on the church square for a couple of drinks (TW, CC and IG will remember it). We noticed the same ballet around the church. They were near enough and would land on the roof of the church every now and then, so we finally identified them. Apart from the ballet, there's nothing spectacular about feral pigeons...

Feral pigeon

Some cousins of the above are far more interesting and look more attractive:

Collared dove

The collared dove is much smaller than the feral pigeon, with a pinkish tinge to its feathers.

Male blackbird

Female blackbird

Blackbirds are terribly common, but it's nice to observe their behaviour. The females seem to spend long periods on the ground looking for grubs in Monsieur Soup's garden. The males like to use the drums Mr Soup uses to collect rainwater for long baths and a good drink.

Carrion crow

I'm not very keen on these. The name alone puts me off.

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

These finches are lovely and colourful. I was very proud of myself when I managed to identify them. It took me a while to learn to notice markings like bibs and wingbars.

Great tit

Identifying the great tit correctly was another achievement. From a distance, it's easy to take them for blue tits, but I did notice the black head, white cheeks and broad black stripe on the chest.

The blue tits are our most frequent customers and we're absolutely in love with these cheeky little birds (so is Pirouette).


We hope to see some of the more exotic species as summer approaches and they migrate from Africa. Last year I saw a hoopoe and that was quite a sight!

Hoopoe

Bird watching is great fun and for people like us, who used to think "a bird is a bird," being able to tell them apart is very gratifying. Seasoned birdwatchers may laugh at us, but you have to start somewhere...