From our Correspondants

Walking Today:     3.8km
Swimming Today: 1.25km

The blog post today is derived from recent correspondence (or at least emails) from readers and an update or two on previous posts.

It's been pointed out that talus (pronounced "Tal-oose" - at least around here) is a term for a medieval castle defence fortification. It's a sloping wall at the base of a castle curtain wall, similar in angle of course to the slope on our talus at the back of La Basse Cour. Maybe not a surprise as much of military defence architecture originated in France and was then transported to England by Guillaume Le Conquerant and his descendents or to southern Europe via the crusades.

The picture of the Moon I posted has taken on a life of its own in the Twittersphere via the #FLOrion15 hashtag of the MOOC I am taking. It's still being quoted, re-tweeted and favorited and was mentioned in the week four course email from Professor Grady, I've gained a few more followers too (still trying to work out who Lolo2003 is though .....).

Charlie is an elegant horse but he's now been moved from the field next to us - Pip has lost his friend and has unfortunately, on the rebound, taken to fighting other cats up trees.

And the chainsaw has responded to its busy January by breaking its brake band, so it is back at Mecadom (the mechanics) just two weeks after being serviced. Hmmmm When I took it in today there were two gendarme cars outside, there were three police inside investigating the theft of a Voiture Sans Permis (VSP) from the compound. For UK readers a VSP is one of those ridiculously small two cylinder, two seat cars, very slow "cars" that can be driven legally without a full driving licence. Can't think the thieves got very far or very fast in that!