Our Resident Wildlife

The wildlife that has lived in these wonderful old buildings for many years is part of the natural tapestry here, and we see it as our job to ensure that we protect them from the impact of our renovations where possible. They have been resident here for much longer than us, and have 'right of way', so to speak.

Our first discovery were the swallows in the main barn.  There were about 20 couples who were all very quiet when we first moved in.  They would sit on the milking pipes, and watch all the activity...

As we unloaded all our boxes and equipment into the barn, they remained undisturbed - twittering softly and simply curious about the new arrivals.
After only a few weeks, the activity heightened in the barn, and we would leave the big doors open for the swallows to go back and forth, collecting materials for their nests.
And very soon, entering the barn meant ducking under the swooping and wheeling parents, intent on protecting the new arrivals....

It wasn't long before the chicks had outgrown the nests, and the calling became louder and more insistent as they were beckoned out for their first flights...

They have all left now for warmer climes, but we will make sure we open the big barn doors in March to welcome them back home.

Another interesting feathered neighbour is a family of red-legged partridges..

There are six in the main group, and they spend most of their time pecking in the newly exposed manure, looking up when we approach, but not moving until we start an engine - at which point they all run, clucking and twittering, in the opposite direction.

In the smallest house we discovered a small colony of bats...

Being around them was very peaceful, they would remain calm even when we stood beneath them....

And when they became conscious of us, they would twitch slightly, and then flutter silently around the room and disappear up the chimney where they would remain until we vacated again.  As we needed to work on the roof of the little house we left the doors of the opposite barn open, as an alternative home.
They stayed with us while we removed all the old roof tiles, remaining downstairs where we kept the shutters closed for them to keep it dark.  It wasn't long though before they moved into the big barn where they, and their young, remain undisturbed for most of the day.

The other discovery made, while we were removing the old roof tiles, was a tiny nest of mice.  We couldn't leave them undisturbed, as without the shelter of the tiles, the young would have baked in the 38 degree searing sun.  We bought them inside and made them a nest in a warm towel. Feeding them with a cotton bud soaked in cat milk...

It seemed to work, and they became quite active when they opened their eyes after a week.  However a night of major thunderstorms must have proved too traumatic, and the following morning we had to pack the cage away again.

We have a host of amphibious friends at the farm.  Our pond is full of frogs, who sun themselves on the big flat lily pads, and keep the mosquito population at the farm down to almost zero....

We even have frogs living in the EDF electric box, whose croaks would suggest they were slightly larger than their diminutive frame...

I particularly like the toads, who seem to be hiding under everything I need to move.  Turning their warty backs on me, they puff themselves up to make themselves as terrifying as possible, and then sit placidly in my hand as I transport them off to a quiet dark place.  I love the cool dry feel of them, and the way they sit so patiently in my hand.

I think my love of toads began at our last property in Lot et Garonne.  Without knowing much about toads at that stage, we found a large one under a concrete disc covering the water meter.  Concerned that he had got himself into a hole and could not get back out, we decided to rescue him and take him to the nearest pond.  I picked him up and cradling him in my hand, we rode off on the quad to the nearest pond we could find.  We then very carefully dropped him into the water and rode back feeling very pleased with ourselves.  It was only later when we googled 'toad rescues', that we found they prefer dark places on land, and only use ponds to find a mate!

We have a plethora of tiny lizards that spend their days on the hot dry stones of the houses, skittering away as you approach.  But we found this one under a pallet of roof tiles...

It is apparently a marbled newt, and unlike the other lizards he seemed calm and placid.  He was very similar to the toads, sitting quietly in my hand, and moving around very slowly when placed on top of the warm seat of the quad.

We also found a very small snake that had a very big attitude...

and seemed intent on biting through my husbands finger.  Forunately his aggression was not matched by ferocious fangs, albeit they did draw a tiny bit of blood.

Finally we have a few passing visitors, that stay for short periods and then disappear again.
Our first is a pair of deer that graze in the far meadow.  We spot them very early in the morning, but any slight movement sends their white tails up and they bound away.  We have still to capture a great photo as they are so quick... but as the 'chasse' (hunting) season has begun now, we are seeing them less regularly.

Our most awe-inspiring visitor was a buzzard.  He had been sitting on overhead wires and the huge hay bales near the property for a while, hunting in the newly cut fields.  When we returned from a brief visit to England, we found him sheltering from the rain under the barn roof, and although he flew off, it was a lazy unhurried exit.  The following day he sat on a pile of stones in front of the polytunnel - just 20 metres from the kitchen window....

He stayed around the property for another week, but has left us for now.
We can only hope that our visitors will return regularly in the future, and that we are sufficiently careful with our environment, for our residents to continue to call it home.

Our Inheritance - Part Deux.

The fruit trees are not the sum total of our inheritance.  Our farm belonged to the parents of the french farmer who sold it to us.  He is still our closest neighbour and had used the property to over-winter his small herd of charolais cattle before we moved in.  Although he cleared most of the manure piles, he has left us plenty of rotting down manure, in the barn...

And also under the polytunnel...

We managed to sell the polytunnel - a monstrous 15 x 10 metre construction with a 4 metre height. Three frenchmen turned up with a small Peugeot van and plenty of Gauloise cigarettes.  There was much scratching of heads, heated discussion about the best division of labour, and then shirts were removed, cigarettes lit, and with the help of our JCB, they dismantled it in a day.

We were just left with the task of moving the huge steel stock bars, and were then able to see the extent of our slowly rotting 'black gold,' perfect for the new vegetable garden.

The JCB was also employed as a crane to move the huge concrete tank, formerly used to mix the weedkiller for the plum orchards. It was lifted and moved into position in the new vegetable garden.

It holds 1700 litres, and will be ideal not just to collect rainwater, but also to store agricultural water to use for irrigation.
As the property was formerly a working farm with 60 acres of orchards, maize, sunflowers and wheat; it was supplied with agricultural water, piped underground to 4 huge taps along the perimeter of the property.

We have retained the rights to use this agricultural water and at less than 5 pence per bathful, it will be an extremely cost efficient method of irrigating the gardens, and a great bonus for us.

We have also identified the two large mature trees planted beside the houses.  They are both Linden trees (Lime trees)

These were traditionally planted when a house was built in the Perigord, to provide shade for the heat of the summer days.  When they come into flower in late Spring they produce a nectar that is irresistible to the bees and butterflies. It is quite amazing standing under the tree when it is literally buzzing with life, the noise all around you as though the tree itself is emitting the low humming.

The blossom is used to make a herbal tea - an infusion popular in France, and known as tilleul.  It is known to help indigestion and to help promote sleep.  Interestingly it is also used with distilled water as a facial tonic for skin, soothing and relaxing tissues.  It would be lovely to provide guests at the holiday cottages with natural products made on the farm, so an area to explore for the future...

And for those times when a herbal tea is just not enough, we seem to have a huge blackthorn hedge surrounding one of the fields...

Which is absolutely full of sloes, although at this point they have been sucked dry by thirsty wasps and butterflies.

Next year, we will gather early, and steep with gin and vodka for a deep syrupy Christmas tipple!

The Goodies we Inherited

When you move into a new property, one of the real treats is to properly explore, when you have been given the key and it is finally yours.  I love the joy of finding all the hidden gems, that you didn't have time to see when you were simply looking at the logistics of the space, and the potential of a place.
With a farm as old as ours, we were sure the buildings would reveal some old agricultural oddities, but we were not expecting the gardens to provide so much bounty.
Apart from the plum orchards, we seem to have an avenue of mature fruit trees close to the buildings...

There are four cherry trees, two of which have the very bright red cherries that are quite sharp when eaten..

Whilst the other two trees are laden with large, luscious black cherries, full of juice and very sweet..

We also have four varieties of apple trees, which all seem to be heavy with fruit at the moment...

Much of the fruit has now fallen -  and the smell of sweet, cidery, fermented apples lends a special autumnal note to the air.

The old walnut tree takes centre stage in the collection, with its twisted trunk and massive crown...

We spent the summer patiently watching the walnuts develop on the tree....

.... waiting for the little brown veins to appear on the husks to show the walnuts were ripening and ready for picking.
Unfortunately a gang of local marauders were also watching for the signs....

And having spotted them before us, duly set up tag teams to pilfer all the low-hanging booty before we had chance to spot the disappearing harvest.  By the time we realised our folly, they had all but cleared the lower branches, knowing full well we would be hard-pressed to follow them to the upper reaches of the tree.  Our eventual prize was sadly depleted..

But they will be all the sweeter at Christmas knowing - not just that they were picked fresh from our own tree - but that next year we will be ready for our small gang of ginger thieves - and will beat them to the lower branches!

The Seasons are Changing

A beautiful sunrise heralds another day down on the farm in Dordogne...

It still amazes me that it is now mid October, and yet the temperature remains hovering around 24 degrees in the afternoon, and the sun continues to  shine.

We had a white hot August, with little rain and temperatures up into the late 30s for much of the month.  The sunflowers bloomed and then crisped on the stalks; the fields cracked and the rivers evaporated into streams.  The shutters of the stone houses remained shut, leaving the villages looking deserted to the bemused visitors....

... whilst the locals stayed cool inside the metre thick walls of their old houses, only stepping out in the relative cool of the evening to chat over dinner on the terracotta tiled terraces.











September cooled slightly, taking the temperatures down to a more comfortable 30 - 35 degrees, and still the sun shone and the rain remained absent.  The farmers returned to the fields, and the harvest activity gathered pace.  The sunflowers were gathered in, having been allowed to dry, the beautiful golden faces now drooping and brown..

The mechanical harvesters rumbled through the plum orchards; side by side the machines rolled slowly through the avenues of trees;  one shaking and one collecting the tumbling fruit.  As they progressed into the distance, the gentle shake of the topmost branches marked their gentle progress.

And as we have gradually moved into October, the activity has slowed.  The last cut has been made to the fields, and the hay bales have been slowly gathered in.  The huge water pipes and reels have been loaded back on to trailers, and trundled back to the farms, and the last loads of tobacco leaves and maize have been taken back for drying.

In this part of france, there is a special cadence to the seasons - a rhythm that I had been barely aware of, whilst back in England.  Maybe it is because I spent so much of my time in concrete and steel offices under harsh artifical lights, or queuing in thick knots of traffic, but I don't remember the clarity of each season.

Maybe it is the passage of the farmers in this rural landscape that provide the tempo, the landscape that provides the harmony, or maybe I just have the time now to smell, see and hear the clarity of the music.

The Plan

We were always very clear from the outset, that there were three main branches to the plan:

1.  That our new life would incorporate all the things that inspired us.  For Nick, that meant building our own fully equipped gym, and not needing to rely on membership of french gyms that are way too small, always full, and rarely open when you want to use them!
 

In fact this was so important, that one of the first things we did when we moved in, was to set up the prune barn as a temporary gym.  Open all hours,  Satellite TV for your personal choice of music channels, and Sky+ recorded aerobics and yoga classes.  The ultimate in personalisation!

It will also be important to make the most of the rural environment we are in.  The plan is to create wildflower meadows, and gardens bursting with plants to attract insects and wildlife for Nicks photography..

For me, it means having the time and space to be more creative - to design the buildings and their furnishings, and the gardens that will surround them.

And it is also having sufficient room for animals -  those that will provide us with food, and also those that we can provide a refuge for.  In the future that could be a small sanctuary,  but for now it will mean working with Phoenix,
http://www.phoenixasso.com/
fostering dogs from the overcrowded rescue shelters ....  giving them a better life away from the cages, and a better chance at getting adopted, rather than euthanised.

2.  The second branch of the plan is to become more self-sufficient. Not the full-on self-sufficiency of recycled tyre houses......

but just a desire to be less reliant on making money, and more focused on providing for ourselves.  The main part of this plan is to dedicate some land to a raised bed vegetable garden, and also planting a new fruit orchard.  We will keep chooks for eggs, and we will decide how much further to take the 'animals for food' element of the plan as we become more at home in this new life.
Having been a vegetarian for 16 years, and only recently starting to eat free range meat, I definitely need to take it one step at a time! We will try and recycle most of the original materials in the farm buildings - like the hand-made bricks and tiles, and we will be looking into solar and geothermal energy to reduce our reliance on EDF (and the size of the bills they send us), and if we can find a way to sell them back our excess energy,  even better.

3.  The final branch is to gain a sustainable income from renovating the farm buildings and creating a small hamlet of beautiful private french holiday homes.  We want each of the homes to have their own charm and character, typical of the period and the region....

And have employed a sympathetic  architect, to ensure that we maximise all the original features.  Each of the properties should exude charm, but also offer all the luxury of a really nice hotel.  The things that make us want to stay somewhere.... luxury bedding and furnishings, modern conveniences of Sky TV and internet, the facilities - a great gym, an indoor pool, spa treatments, and then the special small details which just make everything feel top quality.

The Old Farm Buildings

The plot has five main buildings, set at the end of a chemin (country lane).  We are the only property on the chemin, and the only other person using the lane is the neighbouring farmer. In fact from our land, I can turn a full  360 degrees, and can only see the rooftop of the farmers house in the distance - an amazing level of solitude.
The plan shows the layout of the buildings..

There are 2 Perigourdine houses and 3 main barns, plus a piggery and a garage.
We loved the layout of the farm because it felt more like a small hamlet, with individual buildings set off the lane that wound through the middle.  This would make it easier to separate each of the houses and barns into individual holiday homes with their own gardens, and plenty of privacy.
Most of the farms that we had viewed had been set around a central courtyard, which was very quaint - but made it difficult to produce luxury private cottages. We liked the idea of creating a village of detached stone character properties, with lots of facilities available if desired, nestling in the tranquility of a rural haven.

The oldest of the 5 properties is the tiny Perigourdine 16th century cottage, captured here on a snowy day last winter...

The Perigourdine houses are local to this area (the Perigord).  They are built from local stone,  with high pitched roofs made of small clay tiles.  Nick fell in love with the romance of this little house.   It is beautifully built - the oak beams in the roof are still honey coloured, intricately veined and held together with oak pegs.  The stone around the windows and doors is dressed limestone...huge chunks of hewn stone carved to fit perfectly, and in complete contrast to the stone used in the walls - all different sizes, types, and colours, intermingled with different coloured wedges of marble held together with lime and mud pointing. 

It is a solid house and sturdy, bedded down into the clay soil not with foundations, but with the patina of generations past - the front step worn concave by the farmers wives sitting on the stoop, peeling vegetables in the warm evening sun!

We even found the house on the oldest accurate maps of  France - the Cassini maps.  It apparently took four generations of the Cassini family to finish the 180 maps in the 1700s, travelling on foot from village to village noting the buildings and the topography of the land.  Here you can see the area around the Southern Dordogne below Bergerac....

The Farmhouse is also an original Perigourdine stone house, and between 2-300 years old...

It would have been a sign of wealth at that time to have had the house rendered, and to have been able to protect the stone underneath, but we will want to uncover all the original limestone and remove the render as part of the renovation.  All the beams in the house are oak, as are all the floorboards, and no signs of damp or rot in the building.  This property belonged to the farmer's parents, and he grew up living in this house.  It definitely feels like a home, and although the interior is more reminiscent of a 70s nightmare...

... it feels comfortable and relaxed.

Our Barn, so called because it is the building we have chosen to be our home, is set between the two houses and is the oldest of the barns (in part).  The original heart of the barn is stone and has some amazing details, low stone lintels and tiny windows picked out with dressed stone.  The building was enlarged at some point in the 20th century with more modern materials, so we will try to focus on reviving just the heart of the building. The cows were overwintered in this barn, so there is plenty of manure and straw rotting down ready for the vegetable garden!

The second barn is the Prune Barn - complete with three working prune ovens and a pervasive smell of warm, sticky, sweet plum jam!

And the final barn is the most modern, and also the largest building on the plot - a massive 7,500 sq ft..  

It served as a hay store and milking barn, and has all the cow byres still in place.  It is a breathtaking space inside... the massive oak posts and beams soar upwards, to the underside of the old canal tiles, which are patterned by glimpses of sunlight.  The ground is ankle deep in hay, and dust motes dance around in the shards of sunlight.... and it feels warm, and soft, and silent.

A beautiful group of buildings to form the basis of our new life....