Game reserve

I made a surprising discovery today-- we`ve got lions living in our hangar (what the French call an open-fronted barn). Before you all panic or think perhaps the problem is rather that I`ve got bats in the belfry, I had better explain that I am referring to Ant Lions, though if you were an ant you would find these mini-
predators as redoubtable as we find the larger version.
   To start at the beginning, as I was parking the car in the hangar, I became aware of several small funnel-shaped pits in the dust at the side.  At first I thought water had been dripping through the roof, but in view of the drought conditions at the moment this struck me as unlikely. Then I realised that these were ant-lion burrows or rather traps. I have never seen these either in France or England, but I recognised them from Gerald Durrel`s description in his `My family and other animals`.
  The ant-lion is a cunning predator of ants.  It digs a funnel-shaped pit about 3 inches across with steep sides. When its prey, the unfortunate ant, accidentally wanders into the trap, it finds itself slipping down towards the bottom where the lion is concealed. Grains of sand are displaced which alerts the lion. To make sure of its prey, it throws a stream of sand particles at it, which inevitably leads to the ant losing its footing and tumbling into the claws of the lion.
  To test my theory I displaced some sand on the side of one of the craters with a straw and sure enough, a shower of sand was hurled up by an unseen form at the centre. Claws could be vaguely seen. Really quite sinister and I`m glad I`m not an ant.
   Yet another exotic piece of nature which adds interest to living in this fascinating part of the World!

Airbus crash

I have read carefully the report of the Black Box info, something which some news services seem not to have done. It`s nonsense to suggest that as the senior pilot was on rest period the aircraft was left to someone inexperienced to fly!
  The scenario is as follows. The plane turned slightly to avoid a storm but still entered an area of turbulence with presumably icing conditions.  This led to the pitot tubes freezing which deprived the computer of reliable airspeed information. The computer therefore gave control back to the pilots.  So far so good.
  The second pilot raised the nose and increased engine speed thus gaining height,  not a bad thing when in trouble in a plane. But he then appears to have cut power, presumably confused by the lack of airspeed info  As he kept the nose up the plane slowed and stalled losing height rapidly with the nose still up. It was at 38000 feet and fell without any significant recovery for three and a half minutes till it hit the sea.
Now I am not a pilot but I can read. The correct action in case of stall is to drop the nose to gain speed possibly increasing engine thrust too. This was not done. Remember, they had three and a half minutes and 38000 feet, plenty of time and height to do something constructive.
  Two alternatives only appear likely. (No 1) It is not possible to recover an Airbus from a stall. Or( No 2 ) the pilots were not competent to do so Either alternative is worrying and I am glad Kim is coming home by boat.
  It occurs to me that the increasing reliance on computer info to fly planes may have led to the pilots being unable to fly `by the seat of their pants` I really can`t see how the loss of speed indication made the plane unflyable.  The sensation of descent in a stall is unmistakable and should have led to an instinctive recovery response by an experienced pilot as a skid leads to an instinctive response by an experienced driver. Perhaps the answer lies in the `experience` of the pilots. Thousands of hour spent monitoring a computer controlled flight is different to having experienced several real life stalls Perhaps there is a case for a period of stunt flying in a light plane as well as the traditional Link simulator.  Whatever I hope the report finds the real answer and not just a whitewash to clear the Company or the Insurers!

It aint `arf hot, Mum!

Lets talk about global warming and secheresse (drought) as everybody in rural France is doing when they can tear themselves away from the troubles of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. If you have never heard of him you`re lucky, go back to your hermitage. It seems that global temperatures have risen over the last twenty years or so, not a lot,  a couple of degrees. We could live quite happily with that but it seems to be melting the polar ice-caps which has raised sea level by an inch or two. Informed scientific opinion (more realistically described as a wild-arsed guess) suggests that this could continue and get worse and you might need your wellies if you live at current water-level.
  The opinion is that we wicked humans have brought this catastrophy on ourselves by burning `fossil fuel` oil ,coal and gas. It would be better if we reduced these to a much lower level  Politicians jumped on the band wagon,of course, it`s what they do best. Lets TAX petrol and electricity, was their knee-jerk reaction then folks won`t use so much(and we`ll get some more tax without getting diselected. But there, people would persist in using their cars so not much came of this. To object to this is like goosing a feminist!
  In fact I can give you a word of comfort, of a sort. It doesn`t MATTER whether we are causing global warming. America, who are by far the heaviest users of fuel have consistently refused to cut their consumption and it would be naive to hope that the Chinese will obligingly renounce the use of cars now they are getting more affluent. Would you give up YOUR car to help the climate? I don`t think so. If humans are causing the problem they wont change till it`s too late.
  In fact there is a school of thought that suggests that humans are irrelevant. The world has been tropical much longer  than temperate according to the fossil record without any help from us. ``Geologically speaking we are living the end of the last ice age and moving towards warmer temperatures. We can adapt to a warmer world by moving north or south to areas which are becoming more habitable  Greenland may be able to be colonised for example. England will have to grow grapes not corn and France can cultivate coco-nuts! Seriously, though, we can adapt and the human race is in no danger.
   Think how much more serious a problem would be posed if a global cooling was the problem! then indeed we would be in trouble. Again the fossil record suggests there have been times when the ice caps met at the Equator and most life on Earth was starved out. A bit of warming we can easily cope with. Take some ice with it!

                 Bye for now! Going to take a cold shower!
 

The image is all

I hope you have enjoyed some of the pictures I have put on the site. A blog would be a really sad thing without some illustrations. After all it is truly said that one picture is better than a thousand words. You will understand my horror and dismay, then, when I tell you that my trusty little camera breathed its last on Saturday.  The lens assembly jammed and every effort to recall it to duty failed  It just sat there, its lens sticking out like a dog`s tongue, and nothing I could do made any difference.
   You may say that it was not the end of the world. I am not a well-equipped photographer and the item in question is an old Fujifilm Finepix with only (only!) 5.1 Megapixells. A compact camera then but I have taken some 4000 shots with it and would have continued happily. I think it is often the photographer rather than his equipment that is the crucial factor in a good shot. Did you hear the story of a photographer giving an exhibition of his work who was approached by an author who remarked ` What an excellent camera you must have to take such fine photos.`  The irritated photographer riposted `What a fine pen you must have to write such good books`
   I would have liked to replace my trusty Finepix with a similar model and chose a compact by the same firm. However, though it was similar, technology had moved on and provided my new friend with some new features, some of which may serve when I get used to them,but which nearly drove me crazy at first. It recognises faces.. Well I can do that, I know a face when I see one!  It was set to a mode which automatically chooses between loads of different settings. However it seemed to have difficulty in deciding.. well, will it be the portrait mode, no lets try the night setting with flash, without flash... As it havered it made a whirring noise which was irritating in itself and promised a quick drain on the batteries. I researched in the instruction manual (or I would have done if there had been one. I had to bring it up from a CD before I could ) and succeeded in disabling the face recognition and changed the scene recognition for a more normal automatic mode in which the camera seems much happier.
  It may be thought from the above that I am not happy with the camera. No, indeed now I have adjusted it to my taste I am finding it easy to use and giving at least as good results as its predecessor. Perhaps it`s just I am an old stick-in the-mud, who finds it difficult to adjust to change.  But I will get there in the end.

   Bye for now!                  

Feeding the beasts

Oh, it`s not all beer and skittles running an Ark as I`m sure the original Noah would confirm. When you think of the amount of supplies he had to embark without hope of a port to re-provision... well, I`m glad I wasn`t in his shoes!  Even in my own case, keeping the animals fed and healthy is not a bagatelle.
   The cats and dogs are relatively simple. The cats mostly eat the cheapest croquettes available mixed with a bit of cheap cat meat for taste.  Gremlin as an invalid has the right to a sachet of higher class cat- food to persuade him to come in for his medicine. But the sheep are a bit more complicated.
  We originally got them to keep the grass in the field under control, which they do.  Trouble is, grass doesn`t grow all year round and they need hay in the winter and maybe even in summer if we don`t get some rain soon. We ran out of hay last winter and found that our regular supplier had none and said he wasn`t doing hay any more cos it was more trouble than it was worth. He suggested a couple of possible suppliers who said they had none as it wasn`t the time of year. What to do?  As usual, we consulted Sylvia , our Maire`s Secretary, who knows everything. She turned up a supplier, in fact one of the men we`d rung earlier. He delivered a bale the next day and said he hadn`t realised who we were. He wouldn`t take any money for the bale saying it was not of salable quality, though our sheep ate it happily enough!
      Warned by this fright, I made sure to order two of the round bales at the proper season, which is now. M. Migné delivered two fine bales ok and I made sure I had the price in cash, much preferred for such transactions for tax reasons no doubt. But as you can see the bales fill up the barn, leaving the poor car out in the open. So I have spent most of the day re-arranging the wood stock and the remains of the old hay so I can push the bales back. They are MUCH heavier than you would think, I have rolled one into place but will have to ask my neighbour Phillipe, who is strong as an ox, to give me a hand with the other.  It has occurred to me it would be easier just to cut the grass with a mower but it wouldn`t be as much fun. I have never kept sheep in the UK !

      Bye for now!

Weather or not

Here in Poitou-Charentes the weather has been unseasonably hot and dry. As the French say,c`est pas normale  a blanket condemnation of what they`re not used to. But in fact, the weather has not been vastly different from what I remember from when we first bought this house in 1990. We used to call settled, summer weather `boring old Deux Sèvres weather` when the days dawned blue and sunny each morning and you could plan a picnic or a walk without the proviso `if it`s dry`  It would be most of the time. You can normally count on sunny weather up till 15th August when the summer storms start. The heat builds over three days, then a spectacular thunderstorm clears the air and the the cycle restarts.
   Problem is, the weather pattern this year, though normal enough, has started much earlier in the year. As I write, the sky is the colour of a bruise over our buildings and the thunder is frightening Laika, who has a `French` attitude to thunder.We have had two heavy rainshowers this morning, which must have exasperated the farmer whom I met this morning in a nearby lane driving his tractor equipped with a hay turner. It`s the first rain for weeks, and coming the day after he has cut his hay I don`t suppose he`s pleased. I`m pleased with a good soak for our potager but it does nothing much for the water table as much evaporates or drains off., and the local water boards are making threats to ban watering, car washing and swimming pool refilling. A sensible precaution of course but not much comfort for farmers with young crops and amateurs of kitchen gardens which will fail to crop if they cannot be watered. To say nothing of the people with empty swimming pools.
  The effects of thunder on our animals varies wildly. The cats ignore it and so do Jilly and Toffe two of the dogs. Laika is terrified, running to and fro and needing to be comforted all the time.At present she is in her sleeping cage in the corner of the room, not such a silly idea when you come to think of it, the Farraday Cage effect would protect her from a lightning strike!
  I have a make-shift system of water-storage for the garden, a 45 gallon drum which catches water from the barn roof and overflows into a water butt. It fills well in a shower, it`s running over now, but it pales beside that of our Loubillé neighbours Jacqui and Adrian Brown (no relative). They have converted the old slurry tank beneath their former farm building to hold huge quantities of water. See their site The  French Village Diaries which I can thoroughly recommend. I have been threatening for ages to build a block storage tank with a pool-liner and if summers go on being dry I shall have to bite the bullet and build it. Then at least our potager can be legally watered `in the dry`
   See you soon!

SSSSnakes!!!

I like snakes, and so does Mrs Noah, as can be seen in the picture on the right, which I hope she will not mind me publishing. It records a close encounter with an amiable python a few years ago at Aldershott. They seem to cause an irrational fear in most people especially women, over and above the fear of their possible poison.  The Bible cast the Serpent in the role of the Tempter of Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and thus get her and her husband thrown out of the Garden of Eden. `Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the Garden?` Genesis 3 v 1.   However I feel that this was perhaps allegorical and women have a built-in urge to question orders given by anyone, especially if they are not explained! However God punished the serpent for his poor advice -And because thou hast done this thou art curst above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon your belly thou shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of thy life`,v14
 So the poor snake has had a very bad press since biblical times. Certainly here in Poitou Charentes he is feared and killed by the country French if they encounter one. I was witness to such an attitude a couple of years ago. I was driving down a country road when I saw a large grass snake crossing in front of me. I stopped and put on hazard lights but a French registered car (may the driver fry in Hell an appropriate time) pushed past and deliberately ran over the unfortunate reptile leaving it writhing in agony in the road. I could not help him except by putting a term to his pain by cutting off his head with my knife, a deed which left me quite tearful and which worried Kim when she saw how upset I was.
   I was reminded of this episode and moved to write this entry when I saw two days ago a snake crossing the road in front of me. At first I thought it was a strip of green packing tape blown by the wind, but realised just in time that it was a coulevre or grass snake frantically wriggling across the tarmac. In a moment he had reached the verge and disappeared but I am always happy to see one of these attractive and inoffensive animals.

I may be a dead mammoth but my tusks go marching on

I cant think of anything topical to muse on today, so will return to my hobby of pocket knives. In my last article I was talking of the myriad materials used to embellish the handles of these little works of art and I mentioned mammoth ivory. It may seem strange to think of using such an esoteric substance but nevertheless some cutlers do , and there are reasons both logical and romantic for doing so.
  Firstly there is the prohibition of using elephant ivory. CITES ( Convention International against Trade in Endangered Species ) limits very severely the use of ivory which endangers the survival of the elephant. Mammoth ivory is not concerned and is bizarrely classified as a mineral! Certainly its use does not endanger species the damage being done some ten thousand years ago by the heating of the climate after the last ice age. Incidentally, the bleeding hearts who say wicked mankind is responsible for all bad things will have difficulty in putting this climate change at humanity`s door. The invention of the camp fire by a few thousand Neanderthals? Hmm, not very likely!  It appears that there is no shortage of mammoth ivory, as tusks and even whole mammoths emerge regularly from the permafrost, though the supply is of course finite.
    The second reason for using it is romantic. What glamour in having a fine knife covered with this most ancient of materials.  There is even a theory that this ivory, having spent 10,000 years buried near the Pole has soaked up magnetism which is beneficial to humans. It`s expensive of course and only found in quality pieces. I have to confess I don`t possess one...
  As to appearance,  mammoth ivory is similar to the elephant sort but has a brownish or more rarely bluish tint  due to iron or copper in the soil in which it was buried. Cutlers like to include some of the outer crust to give interest to the handle
        That`s all for now, I hope you found it interesting.

Begging with menace

On Saturday when I was coming back from dropping Mrs Noah at Bordeaux Airport to go to Bristol, I unwisely second-guessed my GPS and found I was heading South instead of North.  The clever device soon showed a get- back- on- track route which looped round via minor roads, including traffic lights against me. As I approached the lights I saw a crowd of people at the side of the road, offering screen cleaning to the stopped cars. Although I clearly gestured that I did not want this two girls covered the screen with suds, wiped it off and held out their hands for pay. I handed over two Euros only to be told by the left hand girl that it was not enough and was then approached by the right side girl also demanding payment for her efforts. I hit the door locks and as the lights then changed I got away without further hassle
  Now I dont deny that the service shows initiative but I dont like the attempt to extort more money than the service was worth.  A few years ago a Romanian woman called at our door and showed the same reflex  She asked for a contribution to her medical expenses and when given five Euros asked for 500 Euros saying that she needed it to pay her bill!  A few moments later another woman came to try her luck too.
 Am I alone in finding these begging approaches close to demanding money with menaces?  It certainly coloured my view of Romanians for some time.