Building stone walls and paving

There is for me something deeply satisfying in the work involved in building stone walls, stone paths and paved areas. Such work, which can be physically demanding on account of the weight and abrasive nature of the items as well as the repetition of tasks, combines the physical and the useful with the aesthetic, like indeed many forms of craftsmanship. I have, in the past, practiced the trade of carpenter/cabinet-maker and I would say the same of that too. I don't think of the end products of either of these crafts as works of art. They are made by hands and tools and the human mind, but, above all, they are functional. Art is, by definition, useless, and so is perhaps essential in other ways.

The photographs in this article show some of the stone work I currently have in progress in Gascony. All of it uses local materials, much found, some purchased. Very little mortar (lime and sand, with an occasional dab of white cement) has beeen used, except for some of the bottom and top layers, and the angle stones. As the walls have been back-filled with rubble and small stones for extra drainage, and then with earth, this dry stone technique should enable surplus water to find its way out without creating undue pressure. At least that is what I hope! 

work in progress: the second layer terrace is under way in this photo, but is now more or less finished, as below, taken from the mid-level and with plantings in progress

the second-level terrace, now finished apart from the topping stones, still to be cut and laid.

I cannot pretend to be an expert in building rough stone walls, and I make many mistakes for sure, but I do apply myself when I work at this and try to do a good job. So far, the ones I have built seem to be holding up alright, but time will tell I suppose. We are definitely not in the pyramid league here! This project revolves around a two layer stone terrace with a mostly stone (I will be replacing the non-stone parts with stone steps) stairway leading up 17 steps and linking the top level to the bottom via an intermediary terrace which I have also paved. Since these pictures were taken, I have started to extend the bottom layer to the left of the staircase. The system will be similar on each side, with some changes in levels to adapt to the ground.

As well as some of the steps (temporary), the pathway that leads from the house to this staircase is made of river-bed pebbles that come from the Garonne river, nearby (see first photograph below), which are also used, alternately with irregular off-cut slabs salvaged from a local stone-cutter's yard, to pave the middle terrace part (bottom two photographs below).

Plantings are under way on the top terrace, and also in beds set into the middle level. At the bottom level lies a wide, sloping and grassed field with a lake at the bottom of it, about 100 metres from the bottom wall and, in between, some fruit trees that I have planted and which will probably be increasing in numbers.

This article also shows, below, some photographs of stone paving in other places that I have seen and thought to photograph. These will probably provide inspiration for future work.

Stone floor paving inside a chateau currently being restored: Château de Fargues, in Sauternes, near Bordeaux. An example of how to do it!

pebble stone paving in Granada, Spain

At the end of last-summer's work sessions, I cremated my favourite espadrilles which had been worn out by so much unsuitably hard effort. At other times I try to wear more suitable footgear for this work. 

Setting your password

A friend just sent me this. You may have seen it before, but in any event it very likely echoes many experiences we have all had in this wonderful world of virtuality and pseudo-security. When one thinks that Big Brother is watching everything anyway...And what on earth is he going to do with all this information, the sorting of which would require most of the unemployed in the world, and quite some training for them in the process.

Todd: Sorry, your password has expired - you must register a new one.

Did anyone discover my password and hack my computer?

Todd: Sorry, but your password has expired - you must get a new one.

Why then do I need a new one as that one seems to be working pretty good?

Todd: Sorry, you must get a new one as they automatically expire every 30 days.

Can I use the old one and just re-register it?

Todd: Sorry, you must get a new one.

I don't want a new one as that is one more thing for me to remember.

Todd: Sorry, you must get a new one.

OK, roses

Todd: Sorry, you must use more letters.

OK, pretty roses

Todd: Sorry, you must use at least one numerical space.

OK, 1 pretty rose

Todd: Sorry, you cannot use blank spaces.

OK, 1prettyrose

Todd: Sorry, you must use additional spaces.

OK, 1fuckingprettyrose

Todd: Sorry, you must use at least one capital letter.

OK, 1FUCKINGprettyrose

Todd: Sorry, you cannot use more than one capital letter in a row.

OK, 1Fuckingprettyrose

Todd: Sorry, you cannot use that password as you must use additional letters.

OK, 1Fuckingprettyroseshovedupyourassifyoudon'tgivemeaccessrightfuckingnow

Todd: Sorry, you cannot use that password as it is already being used.

When the underdog wins: the final of the French rugby championship

Many of us tend to like it when the underdog in any form of contest wins whatever the struggle, fight, or competition may be. Call it the David vs Goliath complex, or the small is beautiful syndrome, or the (back to school here) beat the big bully story re-told.

There was one more example of this just over a week ago when, in the final of the French rugby union season (XV-a-side) Castres Olympique beat the Rugby Club of Toulon quite convincingly, despite the apparently close score of 19-14 (finals are usually close).

The Castres team celebrate their 19-14 victory over the Toulon all-stars

It should be said the Toulon had just, 2 weeks previously, won the European Cup (known as the Heineken Cup on account of its main sponsor), beating the favourites, another French team called Clermont. But Toulon were clear favourites for this French cahmapionship final, having defeated the title holders, Toulouse, in one semi-final, and despite the fact that Castres had beaten (to most people's surprise) Clermont in the other semi-final.

Rory Kockott, the South-African scrum half for Castres, who is hardly a world name but who is a key player in their game, scores the try that turned the match.  

Rugby Union is now a fully professional sport and, in France, all top teams recruit a growing proportion of their players (and even their trainers) from all over the rugby-playing world. This requires money, and the more you have, the more you are able to recruit star players from wherever, and this tend to draw more spectators into the stadoums where you play. Toulon is a prime example of this pattern, with stars, albeit somwhat ageing, like Jonny Wilkinson (England) Bakkies Botha (South Africa), Matt Giteau (Australia) or Chris Masoe and Carl Hayman (New Zealand). But Castres, although it has some players recruited from outside France, has no international stars in its line-up and been trained for a number of years by a little-known (but well respected in rugby circles) French tandem, Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers. One of the main reasons for this is the relative modesty of the town of Castres (in the Tarn departement of South-West France), and hence its budget. Even with a big pharmaceutical company (Pierre Fabre) as its main and historical sponsor, the Castres Olympique's annual budget comes in at under 16 million euros per annum, placing it in 9th place in the top budgets for French professional rugby clubs and looking tiny alongside that of Toulouse, which stands at 35 million.

So the underdog won. So what? Well, for a start, it showed that monay cannot buy everything, even in modern sport. It also rewarded several years of consistent hard work and good results from this club who has regularly finished in the top 4 or 6 teams of the 14-team championship recently. Yet they hadn't won this competition since 1993. What goes around comes around, and all I can now hope for is that the club I support, Stade Français Paris, whose performance over recent years has been, shall we say, disappointing (only 10th place in the French championship this year, but a finalist in the second European cup) will do much better next year with its budget that places it amongst the top 4 or 5 spenders.

Make love not war, and eat together: Bonobos show the way

Bonobo monkeys, or pan paniscus to give them the species its latin name, share with their larger cousins, the common chimpanzee, a considerable majority of their genes with us humans. In fact these two species are our closest remaining relatives on this planet. The behaviour patterns of the bonobo in its natural environment in the Congo basin have several interesting aspects, the best known of which being their almost constant fornication with almost any partner available. And, as a probable result, far lower levels of agressivity than the larger common chimpanzee, and an apparent absence of jealousy since partners, for both sexes, are multiple. It is clearly a case of "make love not war" with the bonobo. It is also said that bonobos tend to be matriarchal in their organisation and that the females use sexuality to control males. Humans do this too, in some cases!

But this rampant albeit rapid sexuality is not the only endearing aspect of the bonobos' behaviour. They are also capable of concern for each other, apart from those seen as potential sexual partners, and also prefer to share food rather than eat alone. The experiment conducted below shows this latter, perhaps more surprising aspect of their social conduct. Hitherto, many thought that only humans had this preference for sharing their food with others, even unknown strangers, to eating alone.

Autumn leaves and a strange phenomenon

I was recently in Lubljana, the capital of Slovenia (see article here on this beautiful town), and I noticed a curious phomenon on a tree while walking around the castle that dominates the town. In a long line of horse chestnut trees, all of which were bare after the late autumnal loss of their leaves, the branches on the side of just one of these trees had not only retained most of their leaves, but these were still bright green (see photo) in late November. This lead me to investigate the mecanisms behind the changing colour of leaves in the auturmn, prior to their being shed by deciduous trees.

The mysterious chestnut tree in Lubljana, still with green leaves on part of it in late November

Why are leaves green or other colours anyway?

First of all we need to understand what makes leaves green. This colour is due to the presence of a substance called chlorophyll. This is in constant production during the growing season, as sap rises from the roots up to the leafy part of the tree or bush. It is utilised by the plant to absorb solar rays and produce food. When the sap slows down, and then ceases to rise, production of chlorophyll also slows down and then ceases. The last part of a leaf to change is, logically the vein system as these are the parts most loaded with chlorophyll. Leaves apparently contain as much yellow pigment as green during the summer months, but, when the stronger green colour ceases to be produced, the yellow shows through more and more. This explains why leaves turn yellow in the autumn. Of course some leaves may turn orange, red or brown. How come?

Different kinds of trees, and sometimes the same trees in different places (climates, soil types, environments will make for these differences), will produce a varied range of colours in the green leaves, but also in their leaves as these change colour before falling. One evolutionary theory about red colours in autumn leaves, for instance, is that these have some kind of insect-repellent function, particularly against aphids. In any case these pigments are either present in latent form in the leaves or not. Arotenoids make leaves turn yellow, orange, or brown. Not all leaves contain anthocyanins, another type of pigment which cause colors like red and purple to appear. Anthocyanin is formed when sugar gets trapped in a leaf after the chlorophyll is gone. Then, when the leaf is exposed to sunlight, the anthocyanin turns leaves red or purple.

So how and why do leaves fall off trees ?

If  I have understood it right, it is part of a survival system. Leaves contain water and this would freeze in the winter. The tree uses sunlight energy to form a kind of seal between the branch and the leaf. This area, called the abscission zone, swells when the sap ceases to pass throught it, causing the connection to be severed and the leaf to drop to the ground, where it finds a final use as compost to fertilise the soil as it decays. A protective layer is immediately formed where the leaf previously met the bark, stopping the entry of mushrooms or predators and preventing water evaporation. The annual change of leaves also eliminates certain predactors like insects which attack the leaves and live in them. Growing new ones each year is a another form of response to these attacks.

And why were the leaves still green and still attached to this part of just one tree?

Unless some prankster glued them on, I have no idea! If anyone has a suggestion, I would be very grateful. It has been observed that global warming and higher levels of CO2 have slowed down the colour-change process, but, if this was the case here, then surely all the horse chestnuts in this row would have retained some leaves. No there was just one, and the leaves were green! 

And it looks like our friend Richter has the changing colours of leaves in his mind when he painted this one

Who are you, and where are we going?

Rest assured, you are NOT in for a session of brain-curdling existentialism here.

This is the traditional time of year when people start drawing up balance sheets, producing end-of-year statistics, and all of that stuff. As it has now been 2 full years that this blog has been going, so I thought it made some kind of sense to give you readers a little feedback on where you come from, what you like most, and what sort of things I have been up to here. I do not know most of you, and most of you do not know me. So I guess this is my way of saying hello, even if I realise that this article is not going to boost any of the statistics kindly provided by Google on the readership of this blog.

So here goes....

I actually started this blog on October 6th, with no idea of where I was going, apart from the fact that I wanted to write about, and show images of, things that I enjoy in life. I suppose the word "sharing" is appropriate. I certainly prefer it to "showing-off", which is how some construe the fact that people write these things. I certainly do not do it for money, and I have managed it while working pretty hard over this period. So it is a spare-time activity, and has in fact been far more time-consuming that I anticipated. This in turn explains while the regularity of my publications has been erratic.

Over the past two years, I have published here a total of 346 articles (excluding this one), received or made 993 comments, and you are 46 to have become "members" of the site so far. Over the 25 months of its existance, More than just wine has therefore seen a monthly average of 13,8 articles published. This has been much lower over the past year, due to my work load and other activities. There have been a total of 405,686 pages seen (at the time of writing this), and last month's figure was 22,247.
In november 2010 (the first full month of activity), there were 411 visits, In November 2011 there were 13,101, and last month doubled that figure. So we have progression in numbers. I suppose that is a good thing?

Anyway, thank you for coming!

And where do you come from, dear readers?
Here is the top ten list per country so far:
USA 77,885
India 61,566 (thank you cricket!)
UK 51,886
France 32,588
Germany 12,641
Canada 9,085
Italy 8,006
Australia 7,748
Spain 5,653
Holland 2,336

About which subject matters (these are my self-determined categories) have I posted the most articles?
Wine 77, Motorbikes 74, Good looking 38, Painting 32, Sports 31, Places to go 29, Litterature (read on) 27, Life & all that (ie "various"), 25, Just for fun 22, Sounds good 13, Feels good 9, Tastes good 8, and, last but not least, Pet hates 6. 

What have been the most popular articles? 
I know, popularity is not everything, but I find this interesting all the same, although it has not (and will not in the future) guided my choice of subject matter. It is interesting to me to note that my main subject matter (wine) has not placed a single article in the top ten. 

Painting, with 4 articles in the list, is the clear winner, so maybe I should change jobs and become an art critic? My sports column places 2 articles in this list, both about cricket, which regrettably I barely get the chance to see, living in France. The other categories represented here (motorbikes, sounds good, looks good, places to go) place just one article each in this short list of ten.

 

Entrée	Pages vues
Sachin Tendulkar, a very great cricket player and ... 14 avr. 2011, 6 commentaires	50665
Down the Loire to Nantes 11 janv. 2011, 8 commentaires	13947
David Hockney sees 22 oct. 2011	13545
2011 Cricket World Cup: a total victory for the In... 4 avr. 2011, 5 commentaires	13257
Lucien Freud and painting 7 janv. 2011, 2 commentaires	11663
Isle of Man TT circuit with Guy Martin anybody? 6 avr. 2011, 2 commentaires	11359
Taj Mahal, the singer 22 juil. 2011, 2 commentaires	7589
Gerhard Richter: back again 16 juil. 2012, 5 commentaires	6821
Steve McQueen 8 déc. 2010	6067
Gerhard Richter: a timeless painter 10 juil. 2012, 2 commentaires	5112

Jackdaws, rooks and crows: on behaviour and habit

I should say at the outset that I am not an ornithologist: just an occasional and curious observer of things that go on around him. I was struck, just this morning, by the apparently strange behaviour of one of those medium-sized black birds (I think it was a jackdaw, but it could have been a rook), that hangs out in the park area below the building in which I live in Paris. One can find ways of determining whether these birds are crows, rooks or jackdaws. Apparently jackdaws have blue surrounds to their eyes, but I didn't get close enough.

I should also apologize for the poor quality of the photos in this article. They were taken with my telephone and a zoom effect to get close enough without causing the bird to fly away, despite the boldness these animals often show. And I was on my way back from the gym and a good session, so my arm was not that steady.

Anyway, what you see in the first three pictures are this jackdaw (let's call it that as I am not too clear about the distinctions) pecking at the wrapping placed around an electric cable due to feed a lamp-post that has not yet been fitted. Why was the bird doing that?

The only explanation I can come up with is that force of habit has engrained the idea that plastic, and particularly the white plastic bag variety, often contains food, and so it is worth pecking at to get inside to the goodies. These birds hang out all the time in the park, perching on the surrounding buildings, cackling and crowing, squabbling and chasing away the former winged inhabitants which were pigeons. Their cry is pretty unpleasant, but they have clearly adapeted well to human presence and untidiness, and will swoop down on any object seen on the ground. I am pretty sure that this one thought he might find some bread or a sausage or something inside the plastic wrapping. I guess it proves that you can fool some of the people, at least some of the time.

On a recent visit to Vienna, I saw another jackdaw who had perhaps become an art lover, perching on one of the sphinx sculptures in the gardens of the Belvedere palace. This was just after seeing a young lady, a Japanese tourist, cupping one of the breasts of another sphinx with her hand whilst her boyfriend photographed the scene. I do not know if they then reversed roles, but I missed the picture in any case!