70+ en

The cranes are flying south now. They are on their way to southern Spain or North Africa. Yesterday a flock of about 20 was passing our house. Luckily they communicate a lot, so you catch sight of them. In 2012 we visited   Hornborgasjön  to see cranes. It was a great experience to watch about 20.000 cranes gathered, and impressing when they changed places between their eating / dancing place and their night quarters. Each morning you could watch them coming back in thousands. Last year we went to Pulken in spring to see the cranes. Not as many as at  Hornborgasjön, but closer to home - shorter drive. Danish

Jardin de Marqueyssac  is situated only 1½ km from  Camping la Cabane It is a fantastic area with garden and park where  150.000 boxwoods are pruned twice a year with hand-shears, and the finest shapes occurs. The garden and park is situated 130 meter above the river. The cliff and calcareous soil makes growing circumstances special. The cliffs will absorb heat in daytime in summer and release it at night, and the river provides  haze and fog in winter and  thereby shelter the plants from the frost. That makes it possible for plants that normally grows in warmer climate to thrive here. There are various sinuous walks - more  than 6 km - and some with wonderful views to the valley. Here different pictures  from the park: And the view to another fantastic village in Perigord:  La Roque-Gageac : Danish

Nice view from my kitchen window - especially because the roe deer no longer visits my garden any more. We made the fence higher after they had eaten roses, strawberry plants and even some rhododendron. At one time we had three roe deer visiting and eating windfall apples. Now they will have to settle for apples on the way leading to our house.   But they are a lovely sight. Danish

With practically no rain in two months and a massive larvae attack on gooseberry - and red currant bushes the harvest will not be big this year,. Luckily the larvae (from what I think is the Gooseberry Sawfly) doesn't  seem to like  the leaves on the blackcurrant bushes, so there will be some to pick.  However the cherries have provided great amounts, and the figs  also seem to produce lots this year. That is one of the delightful things about having a garden. What succeeds every year is different, but there is always some. I just hope not too many plants will wither before the rain comes. Red currant juice ready for the Christmas  red cabbage to be made. Red Currant Juice: Cook 1 kg red currants  with  4-5 Dl water (15 minutes) Strain in a jelly bag. Measure the juice and add sugar.  For 1 liter juice you add 375 g sugar. Dissolve the sugar and let the juice boil before you remove from heat and add Atamon. Pour the juice in cleane...

In 2014 we made 6 slug fences in the garden to prevent the Spanish Slug (killer slug)  👎😱 crawling on the vegetables we eat  raw. It worked well for a couple of years, but it got crooked with time, so last year and this year we have altered it We have combined  4 to 2, and dug posts in the corners and fastened the fence with screws. Now it will hopefully keep the shape. At the same time we made "window boxes" for strawberries. A row of garden tiles is stabilizing further, and makes it easier to mow the lawn without  hitting the snail fence. The strawberries planted last fall is in bloom now. It will probably be a true buffet for the blackbirds. I guess we will have to cover with net. We have just completed the last 2 snail fences. Danish

Aurora I saw this beautiful butterfly in the garden, but I wasn't able to find it in my books about insects and searching the internet didn't help. I sent the picture and question to   Danmarks NaturGuide  and very quickly received an answer. It is an Aurora. I actually knew that one from the garden. It is the one with the two big yellow-orange spots, but no way had I imagined it would look like that in a "folded" version. Besides telling me which butterfly it was, I was also sent a link so I could read more about the Aurora:   https://naturguide.dk/ aurora-den-smukke- foraarsbebuder/ What a lovely help to get. Danish