[scam e mail]

Bonjour all,

  I've been a voyeur for a while ,but felt I had to reveal meself after receiving a dodgy booking enquiry from "Mr Alain Perrin" and paying by bank transfer.The date is laughable ....10th Oct to 30th Dec  !! Nobody in their right minds takes a "vacances" round these parts ( dept 36 ) when it's likely to plunge to 10 below!

It's a french address but originates from the UK

Thought those of you who are tempted should be warned

Luv Water rat

[cherry tree caterpillars]

After a glorious show of blossom from our cherry trees ,within one week the leaves look like lace and the fruit is non-existant .The culprit is a small green caterpillar that seems to stick the leaves together for a day time bed and munches away during the night . This is the 2nd year this has happened, the trees are usually laden with fruit . Spraying would be difficult as not only are the trees high but they are over a watercourse. The apples are also suffering from rotting fruit buds but no leaf damage .Our harvest will be zilch this year. Any advice out there for next year?

[Natural Swimming Ponds]

Has anyone built a natural pool yet? I am quite keen on using our spring which is of drinking quality to dam and make a pool  and would like to use puddled clay .As the water is so pure presumably there will not be a need for a purifying plant area but we will need a warming pool area as the temperature at source is 3 degrees !! The spring water streams into the river about 50 metres away and I envisage a warming pool spilling into the swimming pool then the water spilling into the river or maybe it would need 3 pools to get the temp up a bit . Any Ideas?

[Les Grues Cendrée]

can't believe it , but the cranes are already heading north and we've got snow! .Saw over a hundred flying over our place (36160) yesterday around 4.pm .We did have more than ever heading south during the autumn ,hopefully the flu wont make much of a dent in their numbers.Anyone else hand a sighting?

[Loir again!]

Thanks for that chris. So its Lérot we have and will continue to leave them in peace to do their stuff, maybe they could be shipped out to the regions which have a problem with termites!

[Loir again!]

there seems to be much confusion between species; Fat dormouse is glis glis. What we have is garden dormouse  "eliomys quercinus" which is the one with the bandit mask. I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt for 2 years and although noisy at times we've had no damage.According to the book I've got ,their diet is 80% carnivorous ,mostly insects so I figure they may be doing a bit of good by eating insect pests. Has anyone honestly had any electrical damage caused by them?

[mica sheets]

anyone know where to buy these for old stove doors? I can find them on U.S.A ebay ,but surely with the amount of old enamelled stoves in france there must be a supplier here