Firsts
Some welcome sights
GARDENINGFLORA AND FAUNA AND THE FOREST WORLDSEASONS
6/17/20263 min read
The greatest pleasure one gets from living in the same place for a long time, is that there are rarely any surprises. Year round I know what to expect and where I will experience it, from the first tiny violet that appears in the middle of winter, to the flowers of spring and summer that come and go in our garden. In the forest we witness a progression of wild flowers , far too many to ennumerate. And let's not forget bird life, such as the sound of the first cuckoo, the golden oriole or the nightingale announcing their arrival from Africa. There is always something to delight us, and their familiarity brings great pleasure. Yesterday we spotted the first cupidone in the woods...one of our favourite wild flowers. Sometimes known as Cupid's dart, its simple lavender colour and eye of darkest mauve never fail to delight.
I fell in love with the agapanthus when I first visited Cape Town where they bloom in abundance. Of course, when we returned home, we decided that they should flourish in this Mediterranean climate too, and so we nurtured some. The very first flower of the year has just emerged. Soon our flower beds will be a mass of blue, as the flowers wave about proudly in the breeze on their tall stems.
Of course, when we first arrived in this region , many plants were completely new to us, as was the punica, or flowering pomegranate bush. This just looked like a rather boring deciduous shrub when we turned up here in the dead of winter twenty five years ago. But when, that summer, it produced the most gorgeous red blossoms, we knew that it was special. B. recently discovered a tiny offshoot growing alongside it and this has subsequently been planted elsewhere. Imagine my pleasure when I spotted its first ever red flowers.
A few days ago I heard a new sound coming from a nearby tree. It was the first cicada of summer. Shortly afterwards we found an abandoned shell, clinging to an artichoke plant, from where this adult cicada had most probably emerged. Just days later the woods are full of the sound of chattering cicadas as more and more emerge from their lives as nymphs underground .
But not all 'firsts ' are to be celebrated. Today we had an appointment on the coast and as we travelled south on the 'Autoroute du soleil' A75 motorway a dark shadow passed over the car. I looked up. Overhead I saw a line of three yellow planes. They were the Canadairs, redoubtable fire-fighting planes that scoop up water from nearby Lac Salagou to put out summer fires. These were the first ones we have seen this year, but no doubt, as summer progresses , we will be tracking their progress in the skies above us to gauge where a fire may be burning. Perhaps , not such a pleasant reminder as the summer heat increases.
