Early autumn, due to lack of rain.

UPDATE:   see video of the bridge here:  https://www.facebook.com/KnowmadicMike/videos/10156230710545709/

Forgot to add this!!!! Completed on August 8th.  

Also forgot to mention my brief trip to UK to celebrate my 62nd birthday; many thanks to Andy for looking after me so splendidly.  No fotos to protect the innocent!

The last month or so has seen the sunshine continue and the ground look more and more parched. This has meant that some of the trees are already shedding their leaves and that the sweet chestnuts are not fat and juicy but rather pathetic. They should not be dropping from the trees until the start of October. So maybe my plans for a harvest of chestnuts and chestnut bread baking may have to be shelved. Lets see.

Scarecrows to frighten off the Otters (they are lit from behind at night) these will be placed at the inlet and outlet to the lake.

Fungi starting to appear.

Logs for strengthening the fences

Dead fir trees: my source of logs!

The hunting season started on Sunday 9^th September and so the priority has been (for me) to get the fence repairs done so that a) the hunt can't easily put their dogs in to the land and b) that wild boar do not enter. This has meant finding recently fallen trees to use as logs to protect the bottom of the fence or to fell trees if no dead ones available. The logs are then pinned to the fence with wire staples which all makes for some jolly back breaking work. But I so enjoy enjoy the solace of the wood and working carefully and safely alone as I make the repairs. I hope to have this task completed by October 3 (when I leave for a UK break). French hunters are mad!  So we try not to go in the woods on a Sunday when they hunt as they shoot first and work out what they have shot second!  And in the afternoon they seem to be somewhat inebriated! Not the best combination.

We had two weeks of solid catering including one where Heidi and I were cooking for 10 anglers as well as the family, John (the bailiff) and myself. And it is hard when you are presented with a couple of anglers who only eat meat and potatoes! Anything else being some kind of spawn of the devil!

In the midst of this I was also planning for the visit of my dear friend Andy. I wanted him to see La Ribiere (of course) but also something of France. It would be an adventure for us both as I have not seen anything more than Limoges other than Lidl in St. Junien! (Not that I am complaining!)

Limoges station: Benedictines.

Intrepid tourists!

Pont St. Etienne: Limoges

So I planned a three day circular trip, mainly in the Dordogne, taking in Brive -la- Galliarde, Rocamadour, Domme and Bergerac; about 500km, By happy chance I looked at a brochure and saw that the Gouffre de Padirac (chasm and caves) were just 8km from Rocamadour: spectacular. The whole trip was a revelation, empty roads, not many holiday makers, few children, reasonable food, nice hotels and good company (the best actually).

Dordogne Church; coffee stop!

Cheeky statue in Brive of Sisyphus. (Poor old Sisyphus, his eternal punishment to roll the large ball up a hill only for it to roll down again, and he having to start again. Pointless, but good for developing the glutes!)

Window in the church at Brive

Rocamadour (not my foto) as I didn't have my helicopter with me.

Looking down on village of Rocamadour from the Holy City!  St. Amadour is supposed to be buried here; he was discovered in a grave in 1199 since which time many miracles have happened and the village is place pilgrimage.

The path to the top is very SLEEPERY!

Not quite getting the hang of "selfies": Do I press here?

One of the very many chapels in the "holy city"

Hot air balloon  over the Roc!

The chasm opening; Grouffe de Padirac

Thankfully there are also lifts!

The mites go up and the tights come down!  So I remember from geography lessons 50 years ago!

An amazing experience involving walking 400m then a boat ride 500m and then a further 300m of caves then the return. Unhurried, well planned and not commercial. Most enjoyable.

Gate into Domme.

View over the Dordogne river.

Posing in Bergerac.

Traditional river boat for moving goods down the river.

Back here now for fence repairing, cooking and the usual mix of hard work and beautiful scenary until my break in the UK on October 3.

Foto post 2: 07 August. 2018.

Domaine de la Ribiere:  approx 80 acres.  40 wooded, 20 lake, 20 fields, grass and buildings etc.  Enough to keep us all busy!

To the north of the lake is an amazing place (my favourite). As you can see from the picture it consists of stands or blocks of different types of trees some of which had been coppiced in the past.  Sadly the previous owners of La Ribiere did nothing with any of the forested areas and they are in a diminished state, this will now a major project for me (and others).
Heidi and I are working on building up the B&B business expecially for next year and as part of that I am working on reopening some of the woodland pathways and making some new ones.  The task is to provide walks for visitors that will in no way interfere with the anglers. To facilitate this I am going to embarke on building a bridge to enable access to east end of the woods north of the lake. The northern side of the lake has a ditch running alongside it leaving a wide bank for the anglers to use, but this needs to be as undisturbed as possible as it affects the angling. So visitors have to be shifted to the woods above the lake. 
The lake is in a valley and all the wooded areas north and south slope down to it.
In the following picture:
WHITE =  the ditch seperating lake from woods on northern bank.
DARK BLUE = Anglers only paths
LIGHT BLUE - Existing paths
YELLOW = Recreated paths
PINK = Proposed paths

 I am thankful for a professional strimmer - requiring goggles, ear muffs and protective vest and gloves - and the amazing Honda self propelling mower to hack my way through undergrowth to uncover or create the pathways.

This is an ongoing project and will take time as you will see from teh following fotos that the woods need clearing to enable the paths. But I am trying to follow either pre-existing but overgrown pathways or those made by the deer or wild boar.  At the same time preserving the hideouts and "secret" areas where these animals hide, live, breed.


There is a just decernable path here, which needs to be cleared and signposted.

 Old piles of wood need to be left as they are an important habitat for insects, small mammals and reptiles.

 This area had been coppiced many years ago and now the dead wood needs to be extracted.

 In other areas the amount of dead wood and fallen trees and branches means many happy hours of clearing so that old avenues and paths become usable again. 












Bringing the wood back under "management" is important as contrary to popular opinion once managed a wood will not return to a natural state; if just left, it just becomes an unmanagemable wilderness that doesn't benefit the trees, the undergrowth or the wildlife.

 This glade is completely hidden, surrounded by a fir plantation and thickets of brambles. It is where the deer hide and feel safe.  It will be left untouched.

 In the glade an unexpected food source, a plum tree or rather a whole group of trees.

Another section of the wood is more natural, not previously managed with piles of stones and also a stream, and a "wallow" used by the deer and the boars. Again an area where things need to be left as untouched as possible.  Given that wild boar can be quite ferocious it is also important that they be left undisturbed.

The area near to where I am planning my bridge and stairway up the bank is an area of coppiced beech and hazel.

I have started to clear the area of fallen dead wood.  

 The branch shows the location of the bridge over an almost dry stream - in the winter this is more like a small river and almost three feet deep in water. The span of the bridge will be about 12- 14 feet and I hope about 18 inches wide.

 The bridge will be made from a few birch trees which are growing nearby with very straight trunks.  A job for the chain saw. Then a small flight of steps will be sunk into the rather steep bank again made from tree trunks.

I hope that a few vistas will be opened up so that the absolute beauty of the trees can be fully appreciated and also to give some vantage points to look over the lake without disturbing the anglers.

The lake looking east at sunrise.

La Ribiere is part of a national forest and as such it beauty needs to be preserved and enhanced so that its biodiversity is maintained and the flora and fauna can flourish. 

You can imagine just how happy this work makes me - a far cry from Waitrose! And good to know that I am doing work that frees David and Heidi up to concentrate on the anglers and the guests in the various accommodations. So that La Ribiere develops as a biodiverse and sustainable resource for years to come as well as being one of the best carp lakes in France.

Hopefully the next blog will feature the bridge building.  My culinary exploration continues and I hope to also write about this in the near future.

Finally,  the chickens are becoming remarkably friendly even occupying empty chairs at dinner.

July 07.

Welcome to my first foto-post.  All pictures taken during the last three weeks.

The most beautiful time at La Ribiere is undoubtably when there is a great sunset, here the tranquillity is emphasised by the full moon rising.

Bamboo:   it spreads and grows at an amazing rate, spring up 14 feet in as many days and then sending a "runner" underground for the next shoot. 

As the sun moves round it catches the trees and they become alive: teh main drive down to teh lake is full of specimen trees each given space so that they can be appreciated to the full.

This place is wild flower heaven, at the moment areas are blue with cornflowers.

Last week there was a mass hatching of mayflyies and dragonflies: this one took a fancy to my finger!

Cooking is an dwill form a great part o fmy time here. I am investigating regional foods (of which more later) but I knocked out a couple of apricot frangipane tarts for us and the anglers.

Cep mushroom spotted on my early morning walk.

Day 2, same mushroom cooked with garlic and shallots finished off with some creme fraiche a great start to the day. The pharmacists here will sort mushrooms and advice on which are or are not edible.

The cigar tree or Catalpa: one of the specimen trees here. A wonderful tree native to north america and one of teh many imported trees here in the aboretum.

WItches claw fungus:  definitely not one for breakfast!  Amazing nontheless.

The old butchers market place in Limoges and home to the shrine of Saint Aurelien, patron saint of butchers.

After a productive time making a path through the woods using a mower without  the grass box!  And trying to become the green man.

Yes, I really was coated in grass and fern cuttings: perfect for camoflage.

This place is also butterfly heaven.

This weeks selection was a bit random but life here is also a bit random, The weather can dictate eventsas, for instance, this week we had a storm, it lasted only about an hour but took out nearly a dozen trees and we were without power for 26 hours.

More soon.  Au revoir.

Just in case you did not get my update:   (This is a newer/expanded version also!)

A big thank you to everybody who has written or texted to find out how I am doing in France. The short answer is that it just couldn't be better, it is all I had hoped for a so much more. Actually, I have settled in life here at “La Domaine” much quicker than I expected. Almost from the moment of my arrival I got stuck in. After nearly two weeks I have a routine which is basically fixed around the available daylight and also avoiding the heat of the midday.

The day starts at dawn, which is around 5.45 at the moment and by 6:00 I like to be on my first walk round the lake which door to door is around 2 kilometres. I feel very much the countryman: Cap, Green jacket, green tee shirt, green shorts, green wellies. It is very much my walk to work and is almost as magical a time as sunset. The lake often has a slight mist on it and all is quiet. Just of late the walk has become something of a foraging session, today for instance my 2^nd breakfast was based on a “Cep” mushroom that I found yesterday morning and harvested last night. Cooked in the Limousin style, with garlic, shallot, parsley and finished with crémé fraîche and served on toast. In France, you take any foraged fungi to the pharmacy where they will sort them and show you which are poisonous and which safe to eat. Very helpful in prolonging life! My 1^st breakfast is taken after my walk and before opening the pool.

Tasks so far have ranged from feeding the donkeys – now my regular task as I try to befriend Violette and Kind – clearing paths, cleaning sluices, and the two major tasks at the moment; 1. of getting the bed and breakfast accommodation ready and 2. this last week feeding six hungry anglers. The later being a task I have found a bit stressful as for instance tonight I cooked for them and four other guests no problem in cooking for 10 itself except that they were paying for the food and that makes a big difference. But I survived and they are all still alive.

The B&B project is very hard work but also very exciting as we prepare to have six rooms plus TV room /lounge and the large kitchen/restaurant ready for our first guests who arrive in just under a month and are staying for a week. It is great to have input into this project especially as we plan forward to 2020 and beyond (remember that David, Heidi and I all have worked together when we were all management consultants) and this combines with the 6 gîtes the chalet and the pool complex

By 10pm I closed the pool and am usually taking my sunset “walk home” round the lake in the opposite direction. The sheer beauty of this place just hits me every time. The walk home is normally when I see deer. But the is also something magical about walking in the woods knowing that you are alone save for the wild life and the more you blend in and slow down the more you see. My senses are getting attuned to listening and walking as quietly as possible.

In the 2.5 weeks I have been here apart from a Sunday afternoon walk round the locale - La Ribiere: all of 8 dwellings and then taking in the countryside adjoining this property I have only been off site to go shopping for food (Lidl and Intermarche) and a trip to Limoges - which also heavily featured food, courtesy of the central market and yesterday I went a bit crazy in Monoprix and Géant Casino (A supermarket) where I bought regional cheese and a couple of bottle of two different Chestnut based liqueurs, again very regional.

Days are full and long, the work sometimes hard, but I am very very happy and realise more than ever I was not ready to stagnate in Waitrose and Witton. This is a great adventure, David and Heidi so welcoming and fun to work with and the satisfaction great.

In terms of this blog  I hope to make it a bit of a photo journalism; lots of pictures with explanations, rather than a diary of my “doings”. David has kindly offered to lend me one of his cameras so that I can take better pictures than afforded by my smartphone.

I hope to have the first “foto post” type blog up soon.

Thanks again for your messages, I am sorry that I cannot reply immediately and individually, but I will do so in due course. …… About to make cherry vodka and also cherries in Cognac as we have an abundance of fruit which I am picking by the handful off a tree that must have 100kg of cherries on it, sadly mostly out of reach, (except I chanced getting on the barn roof for today's haul)….. well you gotta haven't you ... all those free cherries!

The blog will continue soon ........  next chapter.

Having arrived back in the UK on August 1, 2017 and ending up in hospital on August 2 as the Dengue Fever turned out not to be Dengue at all. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham blasted “whatever it was” out of my system by putting me on very powerful IV antibiotics for 5 days: it transpired I had Typhus.

Anyway, this changed my plans considerably and suffice it to say I decided to stay in the UK be semi retired find a small flat and take up a part time job. Six months on and with my health now under control I realised that I had made a big mistake and was just not ready to settle down!

The upshot being that on Wednesday, 13 June I depart these isles for the Limousin, in the Haute Vienne Region of France where I am going to work alongside some dear friends who with their family have taken on the running of a 100 acre estate comprising a carp fishing lake (the principal business), some gites, a chalet and a bed and breakfast facility. 

I propose to protect their privacy and so, the blog will be very much about what I am doing, learning and experiencing along generic themes rather than a diary of events. I hope you will enjoy it.

The lake is huge and surrounded by woods which were laid out some 100 years ago but have been terribly neglected for the last 30 years.

I am going to be helping with the management of the woods, the land, the property: woodsman, grass cutter, gardener, chalet maid, sous chef and general handyman. 

For more informatin on the place see www.domainedelaribiere.com

I

Google Earth of the approx. 100 acres of the property:  What an exciting prospect!

La Domaine ......  if you basically follow the road along the side and bottom and cut up to the edge of the woods around the lake you get a feel for the size of the property. Go look for more detail on google earth at " La Ribiere, Pageas, France"