Purple Toothwort Walk ..continued reportage

Crossing the bridge at Angles sur L'Anglin we walked towards the Low Town Cemetery, climbed the cliff instead of going further along by the river (hopefully, we would return to that point from Le Remerle dam).  My friend went ahead of me but I managed without stopping so was quite pleased. Onwards to the Roc a Midi and just beyond to the cliff edge* for a good view over the valley, then one has to retrace steps to avoid private land. Turn left at the road, see the large cabane to the right, continue to a modern cabane and continue straight ahead into La Vallée Sêche where it was verdantly green. Lots of treefalls across the winding path. Be alert to the changing atmosphere as one progresses and suddenly one is out into the open. Turn left and into Lassais. Turn right and right ( left takes one to St Pierre de Maillé) where a spectacular length of one metre logs are stacked, and we are heading back towards La Confluence. Eventually one has a choice to turn right but we head on towards the river where we discover the first crop of Purple Toothwort.   Across "the passage de gués" when the water level is low enough it is possible to walk across and I have seen quad bikes cross, I see a favourite place of mine which I love to arrive at.
We find the track alongside the river to the dam and water is low enough to pass on the rocks and edge of the dam.
The trees have been cleared and one can see the house on the Route De Vicq,recently purchased and being renovated after years of emptiness.  Further along some kind of dislodged drainage or water vent probably for the house high above?

We continue at a better pace but are stopped again by brilliant arrays of Purple Toothwort.  Kew Gardens describes it well.  http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:662042-1

We found rough steps up to above the caves in the cliffs (we didn't access those). I 'm sure I've never climbed or descended these before but up I scramble determined to not stop except for enough time to turn and take a photo.  We were back to the furthest rock cliff (see above)*.

We descend to the river and return to the junction where we had started to climb the official randonnée footpath, then back towards the bridge, before which,  'a gilet jaune' was espied, face downwards off the beaten track,  yet on investigation there were no limbs or torso and not even the dog that it would have fitted.

Our walk ended... 4.5 km per hour of the 2 hours. Not speed walking but very enjoyable on a warm day. I still thought we had covered a lot of ground.

NOW:
Here for me is a quintessential, visual image of Springtime in France.

and here,
the newly replaced terrace shelter, whereat No.15 English Tea Shop scones and cakes replace whatever calories one had lost!

A walk around the other side of the valley

I have volunteered to keep company, though not to keep up speed or ability of someone who is SUPERFIT, aiming to walk the GR70 ... me thinks it will be a doddle for her but she will have 3 others with her. Not I at their pace!

My turn this week to choose a route and miraculously she has never explored it!
This the first of posts about today.
She puts the app on... we call it NORA as we ignore her telling us this and that!   NORA tracks our route and speed, altitude and steps!

When we were on the homeward strait, returning by the river, we found Purple Toothwort...
photos on next posting...  BUT, by a "particularly beautiful in Nature display" of them,we found a black beetle which I am convinced is an Oil Beetle. It is many years since I saw one.

 http://wild-life-in-france.blogspot.com/2015/03/violet-oil-beetle-in-france.html

I rather like the fact that females drag the male around for an hour after coupling! Poor things!

Really a very interesting article and beetle... There were bees around the toothwort but i don't know if they were solitary bees that the beetle likes to go home with!  One looked more like a bumble bee and articles say that these visit for the pollen.

Walking

My friend is in training for a GR70 walk from Puy de Velay to La Cevannes and I am supposed to be helping her; in doing so, helping myself to become fit. She is very fit!
I am very pleased that today I did not feel pain from the groin or knee, and left foot toes only tweaked 'eek' a little.  It was warm in the afternoon.  She in shorts, me in leggings. She with a hat, me without.

We walked about 15 km in 3 hours with 181 different levels (?) according to the app which we've called NORA as we have to ignore her.  We did 20,000 + steps (double recommended for the day).  So.... apx 5km per hour; not bad, as opposed to 4.5km we did last week and 3.50 to 3.75 km I did with another friend.
This was my best yet and with the inclines. Not bad for someone whose M.E. prevented her from walking indoors with, in the last 20 years, diminishing relapses.    I can't improve on this not for a long while. She however on her own did in the last week a walk of  6.5km per hour for an hour!

On the walk we didn't hear a cuckoo despite being on agri-land and woodland. Neither did we see birds or animals at all!
However, she took me across a dry bocage of land where wild  fritilllarie de pintade (Snakehead fritillary) were in bloom including one or two white ones.
Not yet home, we crossed the roundabout at La Roche Posay, enabling a close-up photo of the model horse.  La Roche Posay has a well renowned race course.

Here it comes... lalalalah!

.. . flames from the sun in June..
WE have had three days of high temperatures and a BLUE SKY! 
Out with winter - in with summer! 
Out with wet - in with dry.
Out with woodburners and in with alfresco eating!
Out with indoor tasks and in with gardening..
Sunday was a weather transition day and a rest from work day.
What is the meaning of the word "rest"?
A new route was discovered on an old railway track. Take the car across the departement border, park up, walk the lanes to arrive at a straightish track.   It can be walked or cycled ... involves some roads. More later!
After a two and a half hour walk I mowed one lawn for two hours... The next day the other lawn but the mower forced me to stop after an hour and a half.  The next day another hour and it was mostly finished but the wall and fence wildness needs taking control!  Grass cuttings were left as it was quicker.   The grass was getting too long!  I prefer to collect the mowings!  Then my legs became wobbly with that old known feeling that hasn't happened for a long while, so I stopped knowing a town drive and shop had to be achieved because the stock cupboard is low.  
I like to ensure that I have replacements for food and household stuffs. Hate running out of stock cupboard items. No one to borrow  cup of sugar from here, although the village shop is a blessing. When one goes to the town which is a 40 minute drive one has to do other tasks to also justify the journey! It can take hours.

Yesterday, eventually was KIND. It was so nice to be treated, to sit al fresco with a glass of red St Nicholas.  But the centre of that tow is so busy and noisy!
I never managed to get to the shop for  induction ironware   nor to the DIY store for electrical hanging lamp necessities!
Home and crash into bed at 8h30... having lost four hours sleep that morning.

The kitchen is being a pain for the man installing it.
One gets monkeys for peanuts and whilst design is a forte of IKEA,  especially packaging.. (they are BIG on cardboard, paper, plastic.  I intend to weigh it all, including the metal and plastic parts included in the packaging that we do not need)  they are hopeless in quality on other criteria!
Designed not to last!!!!!
Capitalism! Global waste!

The doors have fine hair line gaps so have to have 'the attention to detail' that my friend can give and the 'not yet in use tap' has a drip!  PLUS to my annoyance,  the sink hole is in the wrong position so when the tap movable spout pours water on the sink, water splashes and lies on the sink bed!!!!!!! GGGRRRR!!!!!!!

Ah... but it is beginning to look clean and tidy...
How it will work for someone who likes cooking will be  the test of time...

I have no time for reporting photos or other stories on the progress of this almost final stage of the six year french house renovation  on a budget.

When I can STOP working then maybe I shall get back to posting!

What really matters though is that to have had company here since early March has been good for my brain and emotions.  Again I have missed the cake club and other things ... because my friend here cannot stay and will not stay and maybe that is sad but reality!  I have also missed things because I have to get the kitchen installed. Even if I do not do the bulk of manual labour, I am on hand with the second pair of hands, to do as bid with holding this and that and to be consulted on this and that as well as making refreshments.

I could not have achieved the renovation work in this house without him and when he goes on his travels  I wonder if he will ever return..,for he will have done the last downstairs room and saved me thousands of l'argent!

I THANK HIM even though it has been six plus years of being separated.
The tears and heartache diminish over time as stress decreases!

Confluence: La Gartempe et La Creuse rivers: two rivers and their hamlet

I like being at these kind of junctions!

On Saturday my friend accompanied me on this walk I had been intending for some time.  The track wasn't always where I wanted one,  and in one place woodland had been ploughed by the farmer!
The confluence was difficult to see through the river bank shrubs and trees. The soil was alluvial. Lovely word...the land probably isn't geographically speaking such,  but... I like the sound of words...

Uxorious is another word I like the sound of ... and the meaning!

The ground was strewn with interesting stones;  a large 'potato stone' I carried home!  Some of the rounded stones were far too huge to move but a river could dislodge and move them over the years!

We came across a millenium garden out in the middle of nowhere.  Now that isn't true. The somewhere was Confluent - an agricultural hameau and when I saw it a few years ago, on a Patrimoine day,  it seemed untouched.
BUT NOW, if you look on Google map you can see where builders and farmers have carved out the soil to renovate a house, expanding land like a gravel pit but it isn't one.   AND also, several buildings have been re-roofed with red brick colour metal.  OH DEAR! What of conservation? 

We went because I wished my friend to see the wind powered turbine invented, constructed by Ernest Bollée and one of his sons Auguste, who, I think also have something to do with the invention of bicycles and I was led to believe that the auto-moto-velo museum at Chatellerault has information about them.   I have a leaflet somewhere!

PHOTOWALK
The Millenium Garden is rather nice and I can imagine sitting on one of the available benches in the sunshine of peaceful solitude reading a book.... 

 Walking at the edge of planted crops to reach the river...

 Along a pea field the tracks of deer or small chevreuil?

 Oh...how did the crow get into the cage... we watched and thought... then saw a dead one in a second cage. Were they bait?  Or had they entered the cage set to catch partridges?  We each wanted to release it but cautious?  Then he opened a door whilst crow or rook sat still until his freedom fighter had returned to a distance.   The black bird cried 'phwew' as he got free!  Hop Hop ... something wrong with a wing or hungry bird needs to gather strength.  We continued looking back seeing him still on the ground.. But then, when we got to the fox or badger holes we saw a rook or crow soaring as if to say 'Thank you".

On the way back two man made lakes seemed much bigger than when I was last there. WE came across a dolmen which was once considered the best in the region but last century it was destroyed. 

PEOPLE!!!

The stones around once marked the limit of the tumulus ... it was once a burial hill...

 As we came to the road it all looked so different.  But there was the wind turbine in the distance.

 And now the uniform holes for plastic doors and windows... and the razing of the countryside...

 Old French stone house

 How to create a wall in a barn...

 Gates of importance...

 all at the crossroads                           at                                                    on the site of

 

 red metal roofs!

 beautiful old shutters and their nailed crossbars...

 how many people ever stayed here?

 ans the gate is secreted from view

 Times of old...