Bastet

Sunday 14th December - Marché de Noël at La Mothe St Héray in Deux Sevrès.   Includes marché aux truffles from 9.30am, and truffle recipe tastings from 11.30.   There will be craft workshops for children at the restored water mill (Moulin du Pont l'Abbé) from 2pm, and guided tours of the mill at 3 and 5pm (with a bilingual guide)    Plenty of street events, including performances by local choirs, as well as the 60 stalls both indoors and outside.  These include handmade gifts, local handicrafts, local food and drink delicacies and British Christmas goodies!.   Something for all the family, well worth a visit.

Interesting reading Craig. The feeders are nowhere near the windows so maybe it was a reflection of the tree & sky. If it's not minus 5 degrees after dark this evening, I'll take a bird's eye look at the house from the outside.  It was more odd though, the way the little chap sat on the windowsill looking in for so long. Nothing resembling a silver milk bottle top is in that room !!

Although we have four cats, three of them are very lazy and hardly ever leave the house in the winter and the other seems to be more interested in mice. We put seed etc out for the birds around and near a tree about 20 metres form the house but blue tits & robins often come right up to the back of the house & perch on the back of the bench outside the window. One evening recently a blue tit keep dashing itself against the back windows and then just sat on the windowsill, looking in for about 15 minutes. It didn't seem injured or stunned at all.  I thought it was attracted by the light so I turned it off and the bird still sat there.   We turned the outside light on, went out & moved the window box a few inches and it finally flew away. We left the outside light on for about 10 minutes and thankfully, it didn't return. What would have caused this behaviour?   Can they lose their bearings?

In the Leclerc in St Maixent L'Ecole (79) there are veggie-burgers but they're not very inspiring.  OK for a barbie I suppose, if the vegetarian doesn't want to be left out. 

"...does it seem a bit expensive to you?" Yes, it's certainly not cheap at that rate of coverage, but I suppose you could just pile it around the vulnerable plants, not cover the ground in between...It's also possible that the price varies with other suppliers but I haven't been anywhere else to look for it......

Was in Melle today so checked out the garden centre & found that this product is actually sold as Paillis Chanvre, (did I say I couldn't read the handwriting?) and is in 100 litre bags for approx 19€. That amount supposedly covers 2-3 sq m.

My pleasure.  I just hope I've read his writing correctly. It could have been chauvre, so I posted a question on a language/dictionary forum about mulch possibilities and the response was it was definitely chanvre.  If it wasn't for the fact that the cats would probably love it as a loo, I'd look into getting it for our garden....

[quote user="Chas"]Our pages jaunes and pages blanc are delivered about March each year.[/quote] Maybe they're distributed numerically according to dept ?

Okay folks, it appears that the mulch our commune is using something called 'Paille de Chanvre'.  The best translation I can come up with is that this is shredded hemp.  The commune have obtained it from a garden centre in Melle, 79, where coincidentally, the wife of the Chef de Commune works.  It's behind Intermarché, where Mr Bricolage used to be. I have no idea of cost or its availability in other garden centres.

When we first moved to France 6 years ago, our neighburs gave us theirs and I'm sure she said she'd ask for a new one though the Post Ofice. Of course, that might have all changed since then.  Also bear in mind that new ones will be issued in August.

Interesting; thanks.

Just out of interest, do items in these shops tend to be cheaper or more expensive than the same English products in french supermarkets?         

I'll try asking our across-the-road neighbour when I see him next. He used to be in charge of public works here.

Going back to an idea suggested earlier, I'd like to say that our local commune has mulched all the public flower beds with what looks like finely shredded wood. It's pale in colour and is definitely not sawdust. Anyway, within days, the suface was covered with dead snails so I'd say it works pretty well.  If we ever get a summer, I imagine it'll also help moisture conservation.

There's also an Asian supermarket in Niort, and a spices seller who goes to various 2 Sèvres markets as well as selling direct:  www.12m-saveurs.com