January at Le Port

                Le Port in winter - a misty evening and a steel grey river.

Le Port has been neglected for two or three years because of the chaotic goings on in London from 2009 to 2011. The gutter that flooded the main house was finally mended in the early summer of 2011 at a cost of Euros 2,500 with the old zinc being replaced by new. This gully has been a problem on and off since we took on the house in 1976 and was full of cracks and holes. The leak has stopped and everything has dried out so worth every Euro.

With the Droad, arrived on 7th following a prolonged spell of wet weather to find the river high (four stones below the upper ring on the bridge) but the weather was often  dry and sunny but with misty mornings and some days of anticyclonic gloom - and this persisted until 19th, the day before our exit. There was shock to discover that moles which had entered the courtyard in the previous 18 months had bred super-moles which had constructed 110 mole hills, mostly since early November. Looking after the other residents of Le Port has always been regarded as an obligation but this dynamism looked like pure provocation...! (see below)

 This was a work stay to compensate for the neglect and the walnut orchard was first cleared of the branches cut by an artisan in December. This took a day and a bit but we could not light the bonfire to burn the branches because the pile of wood and garden rubbish was still sodden from the rain; neither was it possible ten days later despite the lack of rain. The oak tree growing beneath the plane tree near the bridge was cut into logs which have been left in the open to dry for next winter and will be taken into the barn in September. Remaining branches were dragged beneath the plane tree as a wildlife refuge as they could not be burnt either. Then the vines were cut, the four on the newly constructed metal frame made out of the old vine supports from the front of the house. They had suffered a bad dose of blight along with the walnuts the previous summer during the cool wet July  and they were well cut back this winter. A dose of Bordeaux mixture is planned for the early summer to prevent a repeat. All the roses were trimmed and then given a dose of fertiliser - this is especially the work of The Droad.

The Droad trimming roses on the barn. In the foreground the 110 molehills! (click to enlarge)

 The roses along the front have never done well, we thought this the result of Joachim cutting out the growing points but the problem has persisted so the Droad has dug out a tuberous lilly which filled the beds and it is hoped with some attention to the soil, fertiliser and then manure, there will be an improvement in the growth of these roses.  The orchard was cut and self seeded wild plum cut out to allow the cowslips space to flower  in March and April and the daffodils in March.  The front lawn was cleared of leaves and lightly cut using the tractor mower so the house looks lived in once again and the river can be seen from the orchard.

During October the Le Reseau de l'elecricite de France (REDF) had upgraded and buried the electricity cables along the track allowing the eradication of unsightly concrete pylons . They used the field as a turning point for their lorries and took turf to cover up the holes left by the removal of the pylons; as a result it is in a bit of a mess but will no doubt, recover. Unfortunately they had to disconnect the phone line from one pylon so that it sagged and got tangled up in the walnut trees so we had to ask France Telecom to come and they tightened it up.  The electricity supply is now reconnected and we can now run the electric oven without blowing the fuse for the entire house. We also attempted an upgrade of the modem to Wifi but this was a total failure as we could not get our computer to recognise the new Livebox connection. We did manage to get a wifi phone so it can be carried around so no more dashing around upstairs and downstairs to pick up the fixed line phone when it rings. The ancient but expensive oil central heating continued to work well in spite of a total lack of maintenance since it was put in!  The open fireplace worked better than it has ever done without any smoke coming out into the room - the first time this has ever happened - but possibly due to the windless weather. So the house was warm despite the cold outside and its draughts.

The Droad braved the very high river to keep herself fit for white water on the Lea Valley legacy course, (London) later in the month and took Hal's old stunt bat. Even so it was several minutes before she could generate the energy and technique to make any progress upstream but eventually managed to find slightly less relentlessly fast water and reached the bridge and then the Ceou waterfalls above. She made four such trips in all, each on slightly slower water as the river level fell, as well as doing continual work on the garden and trees. Not bad as she is now 63 years old. We hope to spend more time here when she retires after April.

The weather was cold with a low of -4c some days but up to a max of 8c on others. On the colder days there were large flocks of birds. Flocks of 300 chaffinches with about 5% greenfinches and 300 starlings were counted in the walnut orchard during the middle period when the weather was at its coldest. In spite of several hours of observation the finch flocks seemed very homogenous and no other species were seen.On the coldest mornings finches gathered in the upper branches of the lime tree 60 feet up possibly to warm themselves in the sunlight. It would have been warmer up there than close to the frozen ground. Near the river there were groups of great tits at all times and variable numbers of blue tits and they used the walnut orchard too but in lower numbers . Several great tits had sufficient excess energy to mildly mock their watcher.  A willow tit was identified  on the 18th bullying the blue tits and trying to drive them away from a favoured ivy covered poplar tree on the river bank. The woodpeckers were active with drumming on several days and Green and Greater spotted were seen but no middle spotted which is normally more common. Nuthatches were frequently seen too and could be heard tapping and calling, but no tree creepers have been seen here for more than a year.  Herons were catching prey in the field behind the walnuts probably because the river was too high and fast for them to hunt easily on its banks. Cormorants were seen flying over the river.

The one rarity was a rough legged buzzard seen on several days. The white head, white under the wings and dark terminal bar on the tail were all seen. It would spend its time perched in a tree and then fly down to the ground, searching for prey one supposes.  This must have been a vagrant as it is supposed to be nearer to the Arctic circle.  A kestrel was also present on several days.