Suninfrance

Nope - not a caster oil plant. Think bigger - much bigger.  Has grown from nut to tree of 7ft + in 6 months.

Hi Clair No, that's not it.  I'm waiting for my friend to send me a photo over, and when she does, I'll post it. Jan

Unfortunately I don't have a photo, but I'll try and describe it. The nut (fruit) was planted in May 2009 and the tree is now about 7ft tall with the trunk at the base around 10in in diameter.  The leaves are similar to a Gunnera, but the tree is not this plant.  The leaves are what I can only decribe as Maple in shape, but they are massive, being around 18in+ across.  The stems at the moment are very green and "fresh" looking although the base of the trunk is woody.  The nuts form in clusters and have an outer cover which is slightly prickly.  The nut itself is slightly sticky to touch. Just can't believe how quickly this thing has grown and am intrigued to know just what it is. Any tree experts out there?  Can anyone help? Jan

Thanks suein56. Was never interested in photography until I came to France and with a decent camera and so much to photograph, it has become a hobby.

Thanks all - that helps.  And thanks parsnips for your "no tax-speak" reply.  I don't know why I got so confused.  Easy to do these days I'm afraid. I understand now why our tax d'habitation has remained low, as we have no street lights, dustbin service, etc.  We do have a minor road though.  Not many neighbours either, we are a  bit "rural". I think we may need to take a trip see the horrid man at the tax office again, but this time, maybe take along someone with better french and knowledge of the system to help with a bit of translation for us, although we do know now that the guy speaks very good English. Thanks again all. Jan

Me and himself have been here 5 years now, but there is still some confusion over the Taxe D'habitation and Taxe Fonciere. Having been hauled across the coals 2 years ago by the horrible man at the tax office re our D'habitation, (no previous owner of our house had declared any alterations and he wouldn't believe us when we told them we brought the house with 4 rooms, sanitation and electricity).  We had the guy round to take measurements for the new tax form and were told that our taxe d'habitation would increase.  So we fully expected a new bill which would be much inflated.  However, we are still paying the same amount for the d'habitation.  Yesterday however, we got a VERY much inflated bill for our Taxe Fonciere!!!  Has our tax office got it wrong yet again. Please can someone explain to me in "French Tax for Dummies" language what each of these taxes are for? I am also told that because we are below the income threshold for tax we do not have to pay one or other (or both).  I am very, very confused. Jan

Thank you - I'll get her to try that as she is on SFR. Jan

A friend has a service on her phone which takes messages when she is not in.  However, none of us are sure how to get to those messages.  I know to retrieve the last call it's 3131, but what about the message service.  Does anyone know what number to dial?  This is landline by the way and not mobile. Many thanks. Jan

Thanks Chris Knew you'd come up trumps.  I thought they might be pipestrels, but wasn't sure if they were too big. Onto moths, we seem to have a glut of Jersey Tigers in the region at the moment.  Just beautiful. Many thanks. Jan

No-one? ????    Chris - can you help?

Thanks Will. Our new card is "in the post" apparently.  Hopefully all will be returned to normal when it arrives.  Jan

Seems Sky have had another change around of their numbers and we can now no longer receive Channel 5.  It skips from 104 to 106.  Also in the five years we have been here we have received the local news from the area we came from, Look East, but that has now changed to London News.  Any idea where BBC East is now located as it's certainly not on 101 and neither is ITV for that region on 103. I do wish they wouldn't do that.

Can anyone tell me what these bats are?  Found behind  a folding shutter on a friends patio. [IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/suninfrance/IMGP1289Correction.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks for the comments Sue.  Much appreciated. Chris - I had the snake moved because I have 5 cats that love to play with anything that moves.  I was giving the snake a fighting chance having watched my moggies "play" with a smaller version last year. I am a nature lover, so was protecting the species.  Here I seem to get one large snake a year, an see no others for the rest of the year, so assume it was just sunbathing.  At least I know that wherever it is, it is safe from my cats.

Many thanks.  I does me best.  Doesn't always work out, but that's the joy of digital cameras.  You can delete as you go along. I'm pretty hopeless at remembering the names of the flowers, particulary the wildflowers, but I do enjoy being a "happy snapper".

Hi Clair Thank you. Unfortunately my Flickr subscription runs out tomorrow and I'm not renewing it.  Not that it's hugely expensive, but I've discovered people nicking my photos and claiming them as their own.  You can still view my photos on http://jan19230.phanfare.com which at the moment is free, and copyright is copyright - and you get music with the slide shows too. I don't mind at all if you link to it. More the merrier. If you PM me your e-mail address, I'll add you to my contacts you will get an update (hopefully), each time I update the site. Jan xx

OH scooped up offending snake in his fishing landing net and took it for a walk up the hill and deposited it on a nice patch of cool green grass, then legged it home.  No harm to snake, but it hissed all the way to it's new home. As for the mice.  Humane trap with peanut butter (crunchy or smooth - they don't care - but they love the stuff).  Then remove snake to at least 3 miles away and it won't come back.

I have Chris's site saved under my favourites and always refer to it.  Wasn't sure about this one though, but as you say, I'm sure it's not the venomous kind because of the eye shape.  Still managed to scare me though as I wasn't expecting to find that in broad 34C daylight outside my back door.

Looks like a gremlin.

Just went to get my washing in, and found this on the path between me and the washing line. [IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/suninfrance/P1060554.jpg[/IMG] About two foot long.  Scared the living daylights out of me.  Is it just a harmless grass snake?

New Picture It's definately a Redstart.  Thanks for all your help everyone. Now I can sleep without it's song going through my head. Jan

RSPB don't have this one on their website but I found it's song on http://www.xeno-canto.org/europe/recording.php?XC=31738 Not this particular warbler I'm afraid.  I'm starting to get obsessed with this little bird now.  It's song is lovely when you first hear it, but because I can't place it, it's frustrating.

http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/suninfrance/?action=view&current=P1050844.flv Not sure if this link works, but if it does you will need to turn your speakers up Not a Wheatear, although it does look remarkably like one.

Thanks for the reply.  It's not a woodpecker though.  They have a very distinctive call.   The bird sort of warbles with a "wee-woo" at the end. Sorry best way I can describe it. Jan You can check out birdsong on the RSPB website.

For the last 3 years this bird (which I have never before seen) has been driving me crackers with it's song.  So I am calling all bird buffs and twitchers to help me try identify the culprit. Today, while I was taking a short video to try and capture the  birdsong, I spotted a speck at the top of one of our fir trees and I am sure this is the bird.  My apologies for the naff picture, but the tree is very tall, the bird was at the top and I was on full zoom with no tripod. Can anyone tell me how to get a short video onto this forum from Photobucket, and can anyone tell me what they think the bird is?  I can always check the name against the birdsong files on the RSPB website. [IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a231/suninfrance/P1050845a.jpg[/IMG] Many thanks. Jan