Northamptonshire v Drôme Provençal

We've just returned from two weeks in England visiting Jo's mother, who has recently left hospital & now lives in a retirement home.

Kathleen, Jo's mother, is 95 years old and says she is too young to be in such a place. It is easy to empathise; it must seem to her that she has been shuffled off to somewhere she didn't choose to spend her last days. However, in reality she must now have 24 hour care, as she cannot move easily by herself, is registered blind and also deaf. Twenty-four care in your own house is incredibly expensive, more than we or Jo's brother Nick could afford, so there is really only one choice!

While we were there we hung many of her own pictures in her room, collected her own armchair and bought her a powered wheelchair.

All the caring staff seem to be very caring, so hopefully Kath will soon begin to appreciate her accommodation more

We stayed with my daughter & partner who live in the South Northants countryside. It was interesting to compare the bird life there with that back home in France.

We immediately noticed the large numbers of wood pigeon in England. In France we have small wild pigeons and doves, but I've not seen the really big ones, larger than partridge. I couldn't help thinking how well they would go in the pot!

Here in France we see the occasional shy blackbird, while in England there were large numbers as well as many thrushes. It was a thrush that sang to us from a tall tree each evening as the sun went down and also led the dawn chorus, at the disgustingly early hour of 3.30!

Many swallows and house martins in England, but as I've mentioned earlier, we saw no swifts, whereas here they always seem to be screaming their way through the village.

A big change in the last 20 years or so is the presence of birds of prey in the English countryside. Certainly where we were, we saw the occasional red kite whilst buzzards were almost commonplace!

One lunchtime we ate with our son near a large lake in Milton Keynes, where there were over 100 Canada geese on the water. We noticed that at one moment they would all be facing one direction and and an instant later, all of them together were facing a different direction; another mystery of nature.