It's June

 

It’s June

It’s June so I really need to write an update to my blog and that is just what this is.
On the flowers around the house the work is more or less done (more on that later) and the compliments have been flowing so that is gratifying. The roses are more or less over, as is the honeysuckle, but the jasmine has started blooming so the scent on the balcony is maintained. I need to replace some pansies that have been in a trough since winter but that is mostly it.

The allotment has needed watering every other day but that is mostly it too. I have lettuces and rocket at the moment, also some chillis, and a bit of weeding to do. The garlic has been harvested and is a reasonable if not generous crop. The rest is planted with the usual selection of vegetables. The unexpected development is that where I planted bean seeds I seem to have a crop of sunflowers. I’ve no idea how that happened but they all look strong and healthy. I’m going to have to remove a lot of them and propose to transplant several of them into spaces in front of my house. I’ve no idea if that will work but I’m going to try it. Earlier this week I had the English conversation participants here at home and it’s possible they will take some when we have our final meeting before the summer break over at the allotments.

On that front the work on the scrapbook we have been doing is almost complete and next week I hope to be able to take the scrapbook to the Mairie for display in the hope of attracting more students.

The book, THE BOOK, the visitors’ guide to Mollans, is with the printers and should be available in early July. Most of the shops in the village are happy to sell it without commission and I’ve made a poster advertising it to place in camping sites around. I need to sell around 120 copies to get my costs back but if and when that happens it should make around 1800 euros for the village school. For me that will be a good result.

With all this going on boules as taken a back seat I’m afraid. And I need a new project for nextwinter.

It's That Time Of Year

 

It’s That Time Of Year

France where I am is seasonal in more ways than you might expect. I like dark chocolate, in truffles for instance, and you can get them only at Christmas. Something similar happens in Italy where my Italian cousin resides and who sends me dark chocolates with an intense coffee interior that are obtainable only at that time of year. There is no weather related reason for this so it must be something to do with perceived commercial interests.

Anyway it is strawberry and asparagus time here now and I think I have just about had my full of both. You have to indulge when they are available because neither will be in a couple of months’ time, asparagus in much shorter time; and neither is suited to freezing. The good news on that front is that cantaloupe melons are already obtainable and they, unlike strawberries, taste the same whether they come from France or elsewhere. And I can look forward to the soon arrival of cherries and then apricots, peaches and nectarines.

But this is the time of year I really like because there is so much to do. Being retired one thing I have a lot of is time. In winter it is a problem but not now and the weather allows lots to be done. It’s work, which can be a controversial issue here, but the kind of work that I like. I have heard some people here, maybe newcomers to the area, complain that the French here don’t want to work, they are lazy. But that seems to me a misunderstanding of the underlying attitude, which puts quality of life before work. The people here can work, and often do, very hard, but they want to do it when it suits them. If they have earned enough for the week and the weather is fine, why not go fishing? No one is trying to, or expecting to, get rich and create a commercial empire. It is counter to the northern European (protestant?) ethic of having to improve your circumstances through hard work (which will necessarily be rewarded?).

Anyway my hard work is on the allotment and on the flowers in front of the hose. I’ve not yet done a lot in the front apart from some plants to replace daffodils on the balcony. This year I’m going to try some sunflowers in the front. One of the reported sayings that is always in my mind is that, around 1917 Diaghilev apparently advised Nijinsky “Etonne-moi” (astonish me). It echoes a thought from a cousin of mine many years ago who said that if you are going to fail, fail gloriously. I think sunflowers could be stunning and I could put two or three in pots on my balcony and across the road. We’ll see if that works. I’ve bought another jasmine for the front so maybe I should rename my house jasmine or honeysuckle house but the rest is still to be decided. The lilac next to my front door is already in bloom so I’ll have a perfumed balcony from now on.

The allotment is under control at the moment. I have to erect the plastic greenhouse friends Steve and Jo gave me before they left so that I can transfer seedlings now growing on my balcony. There’s a bit of weeding to do but not much. Over the next three weeks I have to remove the remaining leeks and cabbages and prepare that area of the allotment for planting tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and chillis. I’ll adjust these according to the space available and plant lettuces, spring onions and carrots where there is remaining space. The aromatics, mint, winter savory and oregano, are already there. I probably won’t bother this year with basil which I can grow on my kitchen window ledge and rosemary, parsley and sage I already have in abundance in front of the house. Thyme grows wild al over the place so I don’t need to cultivate that.

Rebirth At Easter

 

Rebirth At Easter

There’s not a lot holy about this one but it is nonetheless something I very much look forward to. For different reasons distant friends whom I look forward to seeing have delayed their arrival beyond the usual date but should be here around Easter. Easter, a bit late this year, is also when a lot happens on the gardening front. The allotment needs to be in shape to receive the vegetables I shall be planting at some point in the first half of May. I’ve spent considerable time clearing the over winter debris and weeds and still have a bit to do but that should be completed in good time. I want to re-erect the fragile (plastic) greenhouse that friends Steve and Jo gave me on their departure two years ago to hold the seed plantings that I’ve made and which are now sitting on my balcony. I also need to think about the flowers I shall plant in front of the house and which I shall purchase in the first half of May. A visit then to the market in Vaison is on the agenda. The planning and the doing keep me preoccupied and that is great. At this time of year I feel rejuvenated and that is a kind of rebirth after the winter months.

Book Number Two

Writing is an obsession for me and has been since my schooldays. It has continued into my retirement and there is quite a lot I have written for my own amusement and to clarify my thoughts; writing, I find is a way to do that. Anyway I’ve decided to put what I have written together in a book I shall simply call writings. The English version is essentially done in three sections. One section is articles I have written inspired as a converse to Voltaire’s Lettres Philosophiques or Lettres Sur Les Anglais: an Englishman’s observation of the French. Another is a collection of reflections on subjects that occupy my mind from time to time, late in the evening when I sit in the summer on my balcony with a glass of Calvados to hand. The third is my sole attempt at fiction. My mind tends to be analytical so I do not find fiction easy but I have felt the need to attempt it. So I invented a character, in retirement like me, who goes through some adventures of which I have experience. The effect is intended to be humorous, the reader will decide.

Claudine Cellier, a close friend, is not just my translator but also my encourager and critic, has already translated much of the text. So the book will appear in French as well as English.I’ll publish the book myself so it will be a case of vanity publishing. In my case, I think, not so much vanity as obsession.

World News

Much that happens in the world passes me by in my small secluded French village. However I cannot escape the headlines. I have come to see history as a struggle between a small coterie of powerful and rich to become richer and more powerful in which the vast majority of populations have been mere pawns. Only in the last couple of centuries have the pawns united on occasion to briefly state their case. In the latter part of the 20^th century they managed it for longer and there could be hope that the interest of the majority might prevail. However events have since taken a backward turn and I fear that the age old fight is on again. War of any kind is never in the interest of the majority and I can only hope that the majority will realise what is in their interests and act to ensure that their interests prevail.

Spring And Cooking For The French

 

Spring And Cooking For The French

Spring

Spring announced itself this week but is predicted to take a break next week. Anyway it is coming and lasted long enough for me to get some useful things done. I’ve cleared the space where I will plant potatoes and onions but my seed potatoes could do with more time to continue sprouting so I will delay planting them for another ten days. I fed the gooseberry bushes and the garlic and shallots that are already well on the way and hope that will provide results in June. I also planted some climbing bean seeds and some spring onion and spinach beet seeds on my balcony. So vegetable growing is on the go. I have some more weeding to do among the leeks and cabbages and have to think what to do with about 10sm covered in cress. If next week is as dull and wet as the weather forecast predicts further action will have to wait a week and then I shall go to the market in Vaison to see what plants are on offer. It’s a temporary pause but I can feel the adrenalin flowing.

I have about 10 daffodils flowering out front and primroses are flowering on all the sheltered banks around. I haven’t noticed any violets or Japonica but they will certainly be around somewhere. And forsythia is blooming on my allotment. I’m waiting for the sunflower seeds that the birds that feed on my balcony always drop to sprout in the pots below so that I can transfer them to the allotment too. There’s a robust aquilegia there and I ‘ll have to think what other flowers I’ll grow there, probably marigolds or nasturtiums because both are easy.

Cooking For The French

Last night I had Daniel and Jean-Claude around to eat and I cooked a Chinese style chicken with rice, water chestnuts and bean sprouts. Jean-Claude was delighted but Daniel much less enthused; he liked the chicken and rice but not the water chestnuts or bean sprouts. This is a common problem I find when inviting French friends. Most, but happily not all, of my French friends have very conservative and traditional tastes. Spices are a risk. Saffron is OK but others are debatable. Chilli in any significant quantity is a definite no-no. I once asked a French friend why there was always fresh ginger in the supermarkets but no one seemed to cook with it. The answer was that the French make a tea, “tisane” with it but, cook with it? Never. Yet the rougail de saucisses I made a couple of weeks ago was roundly acclaimed and full of ginger. I think the problem may lie in innate traditional French tastes. I remember a programme years ago in which some renowned English chefs were invited to create a meal for their French counterparts. The meal went well, as expected, but what was not expected was the French reaction to the desert, made with elderberry flowers. The French gastronomes were delighted with the desert and all said “but we have elderberry flowers, why don’t we use them?” I suspect that, prior to this, any desert served to the French using the flavour of elderflowers would have been regarded with suspicion. However once tasted and used by a French chef it would be happily accepted. A friend who has spent time in Thailand, as I have, has the same reaction as I to the meals offered by a Thai lady in the village. We both say that the meals are OK but they are not Thai. Why? Because they have been adapted to French tastes (and, in fact, are popular here). They lack the authentic Thai flavour. But give the French an authentic Thai meal and most of them won’t like it. Perhaps it has something to do with travel. The French, in general, don’t have “la bougeotte”, itchy feet; after all France itself an offer almost any kind of holiday you want. So they tend not to have the experience of authentic foreign cuisine as much as other nationalities do. Only those French who have travelled extensively are likely to appreciate it.

Rewriting History

 

Rewriting History

The weather is inclement so not much boules playing or gardening and too much TV watching. I’m already to go on the allotment but need to wait another week or so. IMarch is the starting point for me. So here’s another blog post.

The TV watching hasn’t been entirely without point though. I was aware that archaeology h had gone high-tec, no longer just scrapers and paint brushes, but not up to date on recent findings, some of which I find greatly pleasing. I have always been much more interested in social history, books like Mayhew’s London, Akenfield and Montbaillou, than the kings and wars I was taught about at school; and some recent findins have reinforced that. In particular some findings about the so-called Dark Ages in Britain after the Romans all left, a period of presumed misery about which there is precious little documented evidence. Now, it seems, we understand it wasn’t like that at all.

I was taught that after the Romans all left (which they didn’t, only the army left, or most of it) Germanic Anglo-Saxon hordes invaded the country, laying waste to the land and driving the Britons, mostly Celts, into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. Good kings and wars stuff that. With the new archaeological evidence, the picture doesn’t look like that at all. It looks rather more as follows.

There were probably already some Anglo-Saxons in England at the time anyway, through trade. But the Romans left a bit of a vacuum so a few boatloads arrived on a beach somewhere (sound familiar?). The local lord of the manor thought “great, I can use more manpower to farm more of my land”. The locals thought “great, more choice of whom to couple up with” and they all got coupling and farming together. Word got back to the continent that England was a good place to be (lots of pretty girls there) and boatloads more came over. DNA proves that at least the coupling happened. Of hundreds of skeletons unearthed from the period only a tiny minority show signs of violence; so no bloody invasion, perhaps a few spats (“too many foreigners here” – sound familiar?) Other technologies indicate extensive building and farming and that England was thriving at the time. The Celts in Cornwall, almost certainly not all Celts, far from beaten and cowering in rocky enclaves were doing a roaring trade with countries across the seas and building large settlements. Of course this may not be exactly as it happened but it is a more likely version than the one I was taught at school.

All this gives me the same feeling of elation that I felt when I came across chaos theory in the 1990s, which destroyed all those neat little equations I had been taught in physics. I do love it when everyone has to think again. It may be obtuse of me but it does brighten up a gloomy day.

Civilisation At A Crossroads?

 

Civilisation At A Crossroads?

This is one of my occasional “thoughts from my balcony with a Calvados to hand” pieces except that it is too cold outside to sit on the balcony. But there is still the Calvados.

I think the next few years may be a turning point in human civilisation. It’s easy to overlook how recent higher levels of education for the masses have been. In the UK it didn’t start until the 1944 Education Act and didn’t have much effect until the 1960s. I think t was pretty much the same in most other advanced European nations. I do remember from my school history lessons that collectivism, as against mob rule, didn’t start in the UK until the mid 19^th century, with the Tolpuddle martyrs, only gradually gathering force decades later. France did start it earlier, at the end of the 18^th century but remembered it only intermittently afterwards. Before that there were the rich and powerful on the one hand and the servants. Dictators and would-be ones always militate against collectivism unless they can organise it in their support. Is that where the world is going now?

What could prevent it? I think the answers les lie in George Orwell and education. Every body now should read George Orwell but they don’t and won’t. I believe, but don’t have the figures to prove, that Europe is probably the continent with the highest average level of education er inhabitant. If this is so then Europe is the only continental bastion against the move to a return to servitude and serfdom for most of the population. A collectivism of European nations is required.

The odds are quite heavily stacked against it. The rich and powerful, people or nations, control most of the media and therefore most of the means of persuasion, used to further their own interests against the interests of the general population. Forget whatever you were taught about civilised principles such as honesty, decency, thoughtfulness for others and abhorrence of corruption, this is a naked battle for power. The gloves are off. Russia is actively trying to create discord in Europe.

So can Europe (alone?) with stand the forces against it? The next few years will provide the answer and decide whether the world recedes into a quasi mediaeval state, with its wars, famine and plagues, or whether civilisation as we have come to know it continues, in Europe at least.

Footnote

Blaming the attacker for the attack is a ploy well known in feminist circles: she asked for it. Lies are a standard ploy of the extreme right, known as a useful tactic by such as Hitler, Mussolini and Johnson and now Putin and Trump. Misinformation is a standard tactic in war, made more likely when nations fail to unite. Education and collectivism are the only defence.

February And Trump: A Deadly Combination

 

Dead February

I feel I should write something this month but February is something of a dead month for me, Why? Because even in January there are vestiges of the end/ beginning of year celebrations and there can be some good weather. In February the weather is debatable and so far it has been damp and gloomy. I am longing for March. In March the weather improves, I can play boules more often, I can start serious work on my allotment and the bulbs I always plant out front are blooming; it is spring, which always gives me a psychological lift.

The one good memory of February I can recollect was in England when my children were young. We went to a local park and came back with some frog spawn in a jar which I put in an old saucepan in the garden. The following year we had 4-5 pairs of mating frogs. In the year after February was extremely wet and the clay in the garden soil resulted in pools of water everywhere, all filled with frog sporn. So we took two buckets full of frog spawn back to the park. Repayment with very generous interest.

I can feel my fingers twtching and wanting to garden but know it is too early, even for planting seeds which I shall shortly do. I’ll start them in my living room and then transfer them on to the balcony. But even that needs to wait a couple of weeks. The one thing I have been able to do is buy seed potatoes, which are starting to sprout in my junk room. When March arrives I can get going and, by the end of May all will have been sown and planted both around the house and in the allotment. Until then I find myself in limbo, with jst a sigle daffodil in the front to console me.

On the cooking front I’ve been searching for some Chinese curry paste and finally found some on Amazon. When passing through Paris in days long past I often ate at a restaurant called La Pagoda at the foot of the boulevard St Michel. They did an excellent chicken curry and I’ve often thought about tryingto replicate it at home. Now is my chance. Unlike in Indian curries the vegetables need to be fairly crisp. I shall try it on some French friends who can’t tolerate much chilli. The last time friends came to eat I made a rougail de saucisses which went down very well. There’s someone in the village who makes that and offers it as a take-away meal and I find that rather insipid and dislike chewing on the casing of the Montbeliard sausages that every recipe seems to include. Trying to get the casing off these sausages when cooked is a thankless task. Instead I used Morteau sausages, took off the casing when they were cooked and added lots of ginger and cumin and also some sage and turmeric and topped it all off with fresh coriander. Two of my friends asked for the recipe so it obviously worked.

Heil Trump?

Trump swinging his demolition ball seems to be causing consternation all around, even in his own party. Using it against multinational agencies is certainly very destructive, particularly for those around the world providing aid to those who need it. It is not clear to me whether he is using it as a negotiating tool or whether he is simply being destructive and I don’t suppose he cares either way. It obviously feeds his ego.

By siding with Putin and the Israeli IDF Trump clearly shows that he believes militarily stronger nations have the right to take territory from militarily weaker ones. Military and economic power bestow the right would seem to be the new rules of the game. That has very wide implications, for Taiwan for instance. The implications are stark for Europe too; and for US bases around the world. If the USA is to take no part in the defence of other countries, other countries have no need of them. There are important implications for NATO too. Maybe NATO needs an Asian alliance, with or without the USA. If smaller countries are to bt the mercy of larger ones their only effective defence has to be very wide ranging alliances. The USA need have no fear of Russia but what about a Russia, China, North Korea alliance? There is little honour among dictators.

Limiting Trump’s destruction will require coordinated effort by other countries and the strength of the US courts will be tested if he is not to weaken democratic processes in the USA for which he clearly has little regard. It’s a big ask.