Sharp is the night, stars with frost alive

Oska knows that Winter is now drawing close - as it is certainly colder and we've had frosty mornings - glittering in early morning sunshine and for a week or two we've had beautiful, sharp-sunshine days. This has enabled us to do a little more construction work in the garden (yes, I know, is it going to be like the border with Mexico I hear you ask ...?) - it is only the remaining part of the pergola/walkway/fencing structure, so we will now have a sort of 'lawn courtyard' between the house and the swimming pool, with rosiers grimpante (that's your actual French for climbing roses) clambering along all the sides, to soften the sturdy oak! 

     
​     And I'm pleased to report that I am not legless,
     the ankles are intact, and the wildflower area
     has been scythed - and someone just managed
​     to take a snap as I completed the task. Couldn't 
     do anything with my hair for days - all those seeds.

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The Autumn colours are rapidly changing with the cold - deeper golds and reds now and the many berries are more distinct:

We have started work on creating a little area in the garden in memory of Noella's sister, Jan, who died last December. This comprises a bed of blackcurrant bushes (Jan was the world's best jam maker and blackcurrant jam was her extra special one) and will be planted around with lavender bushes; and for the summer we will sow sunflowers; and around the bed we are planting a coppice of fruit trees - greengages and pears, and we'll place a bench there, made from some of the old oak planking we have from the barn. We believe she would have liked this.

We have been attempting a bit of an audit on the bird-life in and around the garden here - and we must thank our good friend John Hall for helping us and providing some expert verification to counteract our 'spotting' owls that turn out to be tree-stumps. So, here is a list of what has been around .... in order, left to right - willow warbler, green woodpecker, red kite, honey buzzard, black redstart, golden oriole, turtle dove:

Well, we've had BREXIT and now we've got 'TRUMP'  -  and our neighbours are now worried that the third Apocalypse rider will be the election next year of Marianne Le Pen. So, we'll just have to wait and see and, in a world where we're told we are in 'post-truth' politics, go for some long walks in the Aubrac hills to get in touch with some sanity: