Water restrictions

Di Tornai writes

Hi Everyone

It's been madness lately with no rain and high temperatures making gardening a little arduous this last month or so. 

As some of you will be aware, there is talk of water restrictions coming into play if the wet stuff fails to fall out of the sky in sufficient quantities. The following link shows an interactive map allowing you to check what conditions apply to your departement and town/village.

http://propluvia.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/propluvia/faces/index.jsp

From what i understand, the use of hose-pipes and well water is currently/maybe restricted. There are some well-tested strategies to conserve water that may be the difference between your garden making it through or not. In fact, conserving water is always wise.

1. Place a bucket in the shower to collect water while your shower reaches your preferred temperature.

2. Use grey water from your washing machine. Consider using environmentally detergents.

3. Use the water from your condensing dryer reservoir.

4. Use washing-up water.

5. Clean your hard surfaces with a broom rather than hose.

6Place a brick in the toilet cistern to reduce the capacity each flush.

7. Water early in the morning and, preferably, later at night when the lower night-time temperatures allow better/longer absorption and less evaporation.

8. Spot water your plants so that you concentrate on plants that have higher value rather than randomly water the entire surface.

9. Water deeply and less frequently as opposed to lightly sprinkling the surface daily.

10. I'm not going to mention the value of mulching to conserve water - you know my views on that!

11.Similarly, i'm not suggesting showering with a friend, but someone might want to explore the merits and report back!

Do your best to stay cool and hydrated. It will pass, eventually! 

Di

NB the restrictions locally place the Baye, Seye and Bonnette rivers under the maximum crisis alert until 31st October, so if you use these rivers as a source of water check the instructions in the link above.

Know your wild flowers

Most local authorities no longer use herbicides or pesticides on open spaces (except cemeteries, sports grounds or some roads). The result is that many areas have been invaded by weeds and wild flowers.
The CPIE ( Centre Permanente d'Initiatives pour l'environnement) proposes a walk to discover and identify the plants. Sunday 12th May, from the lake at Caylus. From 14h.
Free, but by reservation at  CPIE Quercy Garonne 05 63 24 06 26 ou mdp82@wanadoo.fr

But will MacDonalds do it?

A number of Toulouse takeaway restaurants are participating in a scheme using glass containers for your midday meal. A refundable deposit of 5 euros is added to the bill and the containers are supplied by a start-up company, who also pick them up and wash them.
The idea is that with re-usable containers some of the thousands of plastic and cardboard boxes would no longer need to be collected and recycled. It is estimated that about 10000 such containers generate 3 tonnes of rubbish each day in Toulouse.
The scheme's promoters hope more restaurants will sign up to make a significant impact on the city's rubbish.

What rights to walk in the woods?

Many of us like to take a walk in the woods, often with a dog for company. But do we have any right to be there?
Not if the woods are privately owned, when express permission is needed. Of course if there are footpaths or public tracks these may be taken. Landowners are concerned that unauthorised entrants may try to cut wood, collect mushrooms, cause damage or start fires. They state that the same restrictions apply as when walking across cultivated fields.
Presumably chasseurs have such permission and so many woods are not managed by their owners that it seems unnecessary to have such a sweeping statement.

Counting sheep

Chasseurs in the area around St-Enimie (Lozere) have begun an annual census of wild sheep - known as "mouflons" - in the Tarn valley. There are reckoned to be around 300 beasts, a fairly stable population. Chasseurs have a permit to cull 140 annually so this time of year when lambs are being born is a good time to make the count. The area available to the sheep is some 20000 hectares, but it is thought that they are sticking to the valley as there may be a new natural predator, wolves.
Because wolves dont much distinguish between wild and domestic sheep, shepherds and chasseurs want more freedom to hunt the predators. If presumably the wolves are controlled there will be more wild sheep to be hunted. A "win/win" for the hunters. Not so good for the wild life.
Perhaps the chasseurs will fall asleep counting all those sheep.

Civil war in the Bearn?

Béarnais amateur fishermen in the Pyrenees accuse the professional Basque fishermen off the coast of plundering the stocks of returning salmon to the detriment of their right to catch up to three fish per year on their fly fishing lines. Naturally the professionals refute this and claim they are being pilloried for following their right to make a living by netting the fish at the river mouth at Bayonne.
It is reckoned some 20000 salmon will return to the Gave de Pau and the Gave d'Oleron and attempt to return to their spawning grounds in the mountains.
The methods used by the professionals are claimed to be illegal: use of nets at unauthorised depths, preventing the fish from passing. They claim, however, that the tides will raise the depth and allow many fish to pass unhindered.
The amateur fishermen up stream reckon that if more specimens were in the rivers they could lead to an increase in tourism, with salmon stalkers no longer needing to go to Scotland or Norway for their sport.
Stocks are carefully monitored by government environment officers, but the dispute has apparently gone to court for clarification. Both sides agree that cleaning up the water is necessary to keep the fish coming.

March for the planet

Zero interest loans for improvements

Previously available for a bouquet of home improvements designed to make homes more eco-friendly was eligible for interest free loans but from today any one of the approved improvements will be eligible for a loan up to 10000 euros. Loans are normally re-payable over 15 years.
Work such as roof or wall insulation, double glazing, installation of heating systems (excluding oil) and use of renewable energy will be eligible. The work must be carried out by approved installers.
The link below gives more information.
https://www.ademe.fr/particuliers-eco-citoyens/financer-projet/renovation/dossier/eco-pret-a-taux-zero/tout-savoir-leco-pret-a-taux-zero-2019

Spring watch

Not the popular UK TV programme, but a volunteer group called "Spring Sentinels" who have been reporting early signs of spring to the local Midi Pyrenees PETR (an organisation of local government to collect and diffuse information on climate change).
Participants report first sightings (or bird calls) of 10 indicators. These include the first swallows, cuckoo, cowslips, hazel catkins, ladybirds (the 7 point variety), oak buds, vine shoots, yellow butterfly, pyramid orchids and green frogs.
Not all of these appear early in the spring, but it is useful to mark the progress of the season as it seems to be getting earlier each year.

Cowslips: primavere coucou

No doubt readers will have seen hazel trees with their pendulous flower clusters for some time now and we noticed some cowslips this morning. Pyramid orchids will not appear until late April/May, but there are other earlier varieties to look for from mid-March.
This link is to the very interesting report on the activities of the Sentinels in 2018.
http://www.midi-quercy.fr/IMG/pdf/-14.pdf

What will change from 1st January?

A number of fiscal measures take effect from tomorrow. Most important for taxpayers is the introduction of payment at source of income tax, not unlike the UK PAYE system. For most of the readers living on pensions arising from overseas there will be no change. What may affect some readers is the reduction of social charges for pensioners having less than 2000 euros per month; if there is an amount taken into account for the monthly payments it will be reimbursed by July.
The minimum wage will rise to 10.03 euros per hour gross, giving 1204 euros net per month for a person working 35 hours per week. Workers earning up to 1.3 times the SMIC (minimum wage) will be paid a top up of 90 euros per month if they claim it from the CAF. Given that will concern an extra 1.2 million people prepare for delays at the CAF (our comment not the government's).
Overtime payments will be exempt from tax and social charges in a nod to the gilets jaunes, as with the suspension of the increase in fuel duties and gas prices reduced by 2%.
On the other hand the price of cigarettes will increase as will the price of stamps, a red stamp being 1.05 euros and a green stamp 88 centimes.
There is a heating allowance which will go up by 50 euros to an average of 200 euros. Details of the extra 2 million households affected will be published later.
The environmental measures include a 100 euro per window allowance for double glazing (ndlr watch out for more cold calls); up to 4000 euros for changing a car for a less polluting vehicle for less well off workers using a car for work; the ban on using pesticides by private individuals come into force.
Hearing aid prices will be limited to 1300 euros maximum, with minimum reimbursement up to 300 euros and the maximum charge will be reduced to 950 euros by 2021.

The French exchequer will also introduce special tax measures for the so-called GAFA companies (named for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) which make profits from the internet in France whilst being based overseas. Since the EU has opposed a blanket measure it suggests that France has control of its money - something the Brexiteers say is not the case with the UK. Another lie? Sorry for the political point in making this report!

The mountains "have a fever"

Glacier de Ossoue in 2017: Photo Andy Barrejot

 A study by Spanish and French scientists has shown that the average temperatures in the Pyrenees have risen by 2.5% over the last half century. This is almost twice the average rate of the increase in world temperatures (0.84%) in the same period. The most obvious effect is the reduction in size of the glaciers in the mountain range.
Experts examining the whole range of impacts conclude that if the warming continues over the next 50 years the major economic effect will be on winter tourism with the depth of snow being reduced by half. But also rainfall will be reduced - excepting the heavy downpours - affecting major rivers on both sides of the range and summer temperatures will be higher.
Ironically the report comes out just as some Alpine ski resorts are reopening and the Pyrenees will soon be following suit. But possibly in 50 years there will be no Christmas ski breaks in the mountains.

Call to block all major roads

What apparently started as an individual petition calling the government to reduce fuel taxes has escalated into a campaign to block all major roads (routes nationaux, autoroutes, peages) on Saturday 17th November.
It is claimed in a poll that 78% of French drivers find the call to the blockage justified. The price of all fuels, for vehicles and heating, has risen considerably this year, led by a worldwide increase in oil but augmented by fuel duty rises imposed as part of the government's carbon reduction obligations.
Despite the widespread support in principle and the demonstration being on a Saturday it is not known how many drivers will actually take their vehicles into action. But unless you want to take part it may be wise to give the big city entrances a miss that day.
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Sounds fishy

We know that traditionally firemen save cats trapped up trees, but goldfish swept away in floods?
The catastrophic floods in the Aude recently also swept away garden ponds, many of which contained goldfish and other pondlife. One pompier found a goldfish in a small muddy puddle and called it Moses as it reminded him of the Biblical rescue of Moses. Posting the story on Facebook, the fish's owner recognised her missing resident (though no word on the many other fish from the pond) and asked the pompier to keep Moses safe until her garden is repaired.
In the midst of such tragic devastation it is heartening to hear of such small acts of kindness.
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Fuel names to change from today

No longer SP95, SP98 or diesel at the service station pumps, but E10. E5 and B7. These labels are to represent the amount of ethanol present in the fuel, ie non fossil fuel. The labels will be a mixture of colours, shapes and numbers and will be the same in all EU and several other neighbouring countries, avoiding problems of different languages.
No doubt current designations at the pump will continue for some years, with the addition of labels as shown here.
For most of us with petrol cars E10 will the most appropriate (SP95) and diesel will be either B7 or B10 if a choice is given.
This is part of the EU's drive to reduce polluting emissions in line with the climate agreements by indication which fuels are the least polluting (eg E85 or XTL) including hydrogen.
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Was this "fake news"?

A Spanish farmer posted on her Facebook page film of a cow being attacked by a bear. Not on her land she said, but on the French side of the Pyrenees. This was quickly shared as film of a well-known male bear in the mountains, with suggestions that this had taken place in view of farmers with their vehicles. Some internauts thought the landscape was not Pyrenean and the voices were not very French (or Basque), but sounded Slavic. Further investigation revealed that the film had been posted by an official Russian site on 9th October.
Challenged on this the Spanish cattle raiser admitted that the film was not shot in the Pyrenees but was illustrative of what could happen in the local mountains. It is possible that bears have taken cattle or horses, but posting such misleading films cannot help the anti-bear campaigns of Pyrenean farmers.
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Counting the stags

Forestry staff will be making a census of the stags in the Aubrac today (Wednesday). But given that these deer, introduced into the forests of the area some 60 years ago, are large and very timid counting them is no easy task. Hunters and staff will count the calls of the mating males (brame) and expect to get a total of about 250-300 individuals.
Hunters think there has been a small decrease in numbers which they put down to the presence of wolves, though conservationists doubt this and since the census is to determine what action is needed to control numbers perhaps no action is needed.
However there is criticism of members of the public going into the forests at night with lamps in an effort to spot the timid animals. "It's like Disneyland in there" one chasseur claimed.
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Toulouse to ban polluting vehicles

Many of us have the CritAir vignettes in our cars and vans which are designed to be used when air quality in Toulouse and other big cities becomes too polluted. Certain categories of vignette, notably no. 5 referring to diesels registered before 2001, are banned from the city if the pollution levels are at a certain level over a three day period.
But over the next two years Toulouse will introduce a low emission zone from which these vehicles will be permanently banned. Discussions are being held to determine the zone (current zone is all within the rocade) and the technology to be used to identify vehicles and apply the penalties.
So far the current system, in force since the end of 2017 has not been activated at all.
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What are these horrible green bugs?

They are green, hard skinned, smell horrible and are everywhere in our gardens and homes - "punaises vertes". Usually people go into discussions about whether to kill them or not as they come into our houses when the weather starts to get chilly and they emit a distinctive defensive odeur.
But as they do not do much particular harm and probably eat other bugs many people simply eject them from indoors. A local entomologist suggest that trying to eliminate various species of pests, such as Asiatic frelons, is generally a waste of time as others will take their place. Keeping  a diverse environment of plants and vegetables in our gardens will provide nature with her own methods of keeping equilibrium and eliminating native species in favour of exotic imported plants will only encourage pests.
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But they cannot bear these new inhabitants

In the same part of the Pyrenees from which the two hunters escaped the mad cow, their colleagues were yesterday embarking on a "battue" to frighten away two bears which were released into the region last week. Fiercely opposed to the re-introduction of wild life species such as bears and wolves, the shepherds and hunters set out to try to chase the bears who were released last week into high mountain areas. Both females, the Slovenian bears are thought to be pregnant and join a population of 43 ursine residents in the mountains.
The protesters hope to chase the bears into Spain where there is apparently less pasturing of sheep and fewer attacks on flocks by bears and wolves. A local mayor insisted that the groups were not organising an illegal hunt and that many were just out for a walk in the mountains and were unlikely to see a bear in any case.

More water restrictions in T&G

September you may recall was very sunny and dry. So dry in fact that in the east of the department virtually no rain fell. So from 6th October there will be more restrictions on taking water from local rivers. No more than 8 hours per day from the major rivers and only 3.5 days per week from some smaller tributaries of the Aveyron such as the Bonnette and the Sere. And it will be completely forbidden to take water from the Baye, the Seye, the Lere and the Tescou. Many smaller tributaries of the Tarn are similarly affected.
The restrictions apply mainly to agriculteurs, but some readers who live by the rivers may need to take note if they pump out for their gardens.
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