We spent a wonderful week in Lindsay and David’s house in Blars. The house is comfortable, well designed and well built. The big garden is beautiful and houses many animals, thanks to the big diversity in plants and flowers.
We’ve never encountered so many different kinds of butterflies in the wild ever before. Plus all kinds of beetles, including stag beetles, and frogs and toads.
Beautiful grasshopper video 1 Beautiful grasshopper video 2
Link to the birth of the Saturnia pyri
The common midwife toad
We first heard the common midwife toad when we were at Sabrine and Thorsten’s place. We thought it was a bird, but Sabrine assured us it wasn’t. You can find a recording of the sound here. The toad is named for the fact that the male carries the eggs on it’s back until they hatch. The adult toads are only about 5 cm long, which is quite small. So far, we haven’t actually seen any of them, but we’ve heard them on all our house sitting locations.
The dogs
We’ve grown really fond of Benny, Jezebel and Joshua. One morning, we took Benny and Jezebel out for a walk at 6:15h in the morning, because we wanted to beat the heat. We hadn’t realised that at that hour, roe deer are still out and about. Benny gave us a scare when he chased one. Christophe went after him, but even though Benny isn’t as fast as when he was younger, and Christophe is in very good shape, he couldn’t keep up with him and Benny rapidly disappeared out of sight. Fortunately, as Lindsay had said, he rejoined us of his own accord after about 5 minutes.
Due to a recent paralysis, Jezebel has to stay on a leash when going out for a walk. The exception is early morning, when we let the dogs out for a quick pee after the night. Jezebel will take advantage of the opportunity to run back and forth as fast as she can. She’s just a black streak going up and down the path. She happily comes when called and would probably jump straight into your arms if allowed.
Joshua is a true Beauceron. He’s happiest at home, guarding his property. He loves to play tag and hide and seek, but he equally enjoys simply being with you. He accompanied me each morning when I went out into the garden to collect gooseberries for breakfast. He likes them too, so every 5th berry I picked, I gave to him. He was very polite in taking them from me. One day, Christophe did a nap in the shade of a tree and of course, Joshua was there, napping with him.
The cats
As predicted, we never saw Toots. But Huey wasn’t shy and showed himself quite regularly. Most importantly at meal times, but he also accompanied us when we took the dogs out for a walk. He was near a lot of the time, but like many cats, he kept mostly to himself. And he seemed to be well aware of the fact that he’s a beautiful cat with his long black hair and 2 white whiskers.
The chickens
The rooster and his four hens were easy to look after. In the morning, we removed the droppings from their house and gave them food. Every other day, Christophe would clean and replenish their drinking water. And every afternoon, we would collect 4 fresh eggs from them, sometimes in exchange for some old bread soaked in water. They seemed happy to us in their large enclosure.
Video of the 4 hens with their rooster
Neighbours and horses
On the evening of our arrival, we were introduced to the neighbours: Eveline and Jean-Louis. Lovely people who served us Ratafia, a local and quite delicious drink. Many years ago, Eveline and Jean-Louis started breading Cob Normand horses. Their son and daughter-in-law Olivier and Beatrice, have now taken over from them, though Jean-Louis still helps out. We visited the horses with Beatrice. What a great breed they are! Big, beautiful, gentle giants.
Watch at the Norman cob in action
New friends
One of the nicest things about being full time house sitters, is that we get to meet many people. And practically all of them are nice people. Or, in the case of Lindsay and David, really nice people. We would love to visit Blars again, not just as house sitters, but as friends.
