Maximum temperature here today 31⁰C, minimum 13⁰C. Dry. 12km/h South-Easterly winds with gusts up to 24 km/h.
Apologies for lack of blogs and lack of visits, but with the dehydrator not working, I had to keep up with bottling, and then when the dehydrator returned in working order, there was still a lot of figs (and they have not stopped yet) to be prepared for dehydrating. I am sorry that I did not weigh all the fruit but I didn't. We have though 5 large bags of quartered figs dry and a couple of bags of sliced figs also dry. Now the apples are ready! I have already bottled some stewed, and some apple sauce from the fallers. But will pick out a few good ones for dehydrating, we have two Granny Smith apple trees. In between we rescued a few quinces from the top of the tree, thankfully there was not a lot this year. The quinces made up 4 large bottles of fruit and 8 jars of jelly. Oh, and of course an overload of haricot beans meant bottling curried beans which we prefer to frozen.
Proof that I have not been loafing!!
I have though each day managed to get out and take at least get one photo - I needed to keep Blip going. If you have never tried it, meet the great community of Blip Here. If you should join please let me know so I can follow. I Blip under the name of 'Charente'.
Unusual sunset. I was a bit late and missed the best of it.
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| Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria). |
Californian poppy (Eschscholzia californica).
Bee on the Sedum.
Bee drinking.
Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), also known as the yellow-legged hornet.
Believed to have arrived in France in boxes of pottery from China in 2004. They have since spread all over France and are bee-killers!!!
Robber fly but not sure which one. Family: Asilidae.
Hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).
As above
Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus).
As above - Male.
A feather plant 😀
Cosmos.
Cyclamen.
Common Spitting Spider (Scytodes thoracica).
So-called because it spits a venomous sticky silken substance over its prey. It has six eyes instead of the eight spiders usually have.
Ladybird (Coccinellidae).
As above.
Pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne).
As above.
Californian poppy with bee.
Wall Lizard (Podarcis Muralis).
The dehydrator using every other shelf as the fig quarters are too big!
