We are camped beside the étang de Bellebouche, one of the larger lakes in La Brenne, which lies in between Vendœuvres and Mézières-en-Brenne. What I didn’t realize on our first visit here seven years ago was that there are a…
Author: Franco
Exploring Bellebouche
Posted in 2011 Autumn Tagged with: dragonflies, France, nature, odonata, photography, travel, wildlife
Le Parc Naturel Régional de La Brenne
Rarely do I use such long titles but in this case it’s pretty much enforced since that is the glorious full title of this, our first main stop. The tail end of our first week has been advertising bad weather…
Posted in 2011 Autumn Tagged with: dragonflies, France, nature, odonata, photography, travel, wildlife
What a Difference A Wind Makes
The last serious journey we made towing Guillaume was returning from the New Forest in the middle of August. On that journey we managed a blissful 30 m.p.g. That was about the best we’ve ever done. Today, having crossed the…
Black Beauties
My main quarry on this trip was a dragonfly I’ve been wanting to see all year; a Black Darter (Sympetrum danae). They aren’t scarce nor do they have a particularly restricted range, being pretty much all over the northern parts…
Posted in 2011 Summer Tagged with: dragonflies, England, nature, New Forest, plants, travel, wildlife
Odo-nutter Network
Now, look, I’m no great fan of management B.S. Darwin knows, I have to suffer enough of it in my time. One of the worst aspects was attending professional functions and being asked to “network” with others. That used to…
Posted in 2011 Summer Tagged with: damselflies, dragonflies, England, nature, New Forest, photography, travel, wildlife
Scary Spiders
Not that Franco and Francine are prone to getting stuck in ruts, but we’ve headed for the New Forest yet again. The scariest aspect of this trip is that Satan’s Little Disciples are on the loose from their sanity-preserving schools…
Posted in 2011 Summer Tagged with: dragonflies, England, nature, New Forest, photography, travel, wildlife
The Pinail Trail
Last year, whilst trawling a few fellow dragonfly enthusiasts’ websites, I discovered an interesting looking nature reserve in France called La Réserve Naturelle du Pinail or the Pinail Trail for Anglophones. Of the 90+ species of Odonata in France, this…
Beer o’Clock
The press is on strike. Now there’s a thing. We have been unable to buy our French newspaper, Aujourd’hui, with the weather maps for the coming four days. Quite why the press thinks that a strike would adversely affect many…
Space at a Premium
Last year farmer Luc’s lake was not looking healthy enough for his liking. Most of the fish in it had died and much of the lake’s surface was covered with weed. Mind you, it did support a large population of…
Posted in 2011 Spring Tagged with: damselflies, dragonflies, Fanjeaux, France, nature, photography, travel, wildlife
Lunch at Gruissan
Fanjeaux was suffering from the Pyrenean effect with overcast skies today whereas, 50mls/80kms away, the Mediterranean coast near Narbonne was expecting clear weather. A good time to go and finally investigate an area we’d been meaning to look at for…
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