Wildlife Spotting

Today has been a bit of an interesting one for a Monday (as usually nothing happens in France on Mondays). As well as the usual mowing etc., there has been a fair amount of wildlife compared to usual. I fed George and Sandy (our two ducks), then went to ckeck on yesterdays progress on the cherry trees. We had quite a lot of black cherry aphid in the orchard, and I had pruned and squished thousands to help the trees out. Not the most exciting, but it's amazing how many can fit under a cherry leaf. Then I caught a wee snake, about a foot long, and showed it to a couple of our young guests who were actually a bit more interested the games on their i-pads. Lastly, a bunch of bees decided to vacate their hive in the roof of the chateau, where they've been for nearly a year, and set up shop in a tree on the front garden. It was amazing how quickly it happened, and how the bees hang off each other to protect the queen in the middle. I wonder what spooked them?!
And Hobo (the chateau mascot, and menace) was generally making a nuicance of himself by trying to catch the bees flying by his head. Best not to do that or he'd end up with a sore mouth - and we might have had to run away very fast.

Sammy the snake

Sammy trying to make his escape

A pretty impessive make-shift hive about the size fo a large naan bread, and maybe three or four times thicker.

It took about ten or fifteen minutes for the bees to congregate, and five minutes for them to decide to move home again.

And this is Hobo. Or Hoob News as I call him. He wanders about escorting people around the grounds and trying to cause trouble.

He's not amused about something in this photo.