Water, water......
It's been a couple of weeks of intensive watering as temperatures in the sun have been well into the 30s. However, most of the plants in the front, as well as the rose I planted across the road, seem to be doing well. The greatest success is clearly going to be a late-flowering clematis that has made its way out from the pot by the front door up to the porch roof and out and up the grapevine which ends up over the balcony. Also, the trachelospermum jasmoinides in a pot on the balcony has got about two thirds of the way along the balcony and is now covered in bloom. The pansies are finally giving up; however, as I planted them in November and they have given a brilliant display for most of the time since, they don't owe me anything. I shall plant pansies again next November.
I had spotted one or two interesting wild plants by the roadside and was about to go and dig up some samples but the local commune has been round clearing the verges so that is that for another year. I've had a real bonus from the poppy seed I scattered on the back ground last year, though; poppies popping up all over the place. Against that, there is a wild yellow poppy that I snaffled from the roadside last year that didn't look as though it would take but survived long enough to produce seed; the seed clearly hasn't taken yet. I say “yet” because Jo had admired some wild sweet peas I had tumbling over a fence in my garden in Reading and I brought out lots of seed for her garden about three years ago. Nothing......until this year when several plants have appeared. Sometimes you can't hurry nature.
The back garden is in full flow. I've eliminated some of the plants I didn't know but have discovered I don't want but most of the perennials I have bought this year seem to be taking. It'll be a year of wait and see. The stocks I grew from seed are all planted but haven't got very high or robust; the compost they sell here seems to be quite poor (mostly chewed up wood) and quite expensive. Will bring more back from England when I take the car over.
Literary Festival
Daniel has been helping to organise a literary festival, Lire en mai, in Nyons and so I went along to sample it. The main sessions are by authors invited to discuss their work. The setting was superb: the walled garden of a house right in the centre of Nyons. The talks I heard were, however, disappointing. The microphone being used seemed to scramble what was being said to the point where it often defeated my command of French. Also, I was reminded that people who can write well can't always speak well (or interestingly). The French do love their theory and “philosophy” but when the discussion turned to “the necessary tension between the author, his characters and the reader” I gave up. Still it was a pleasant way to pass an afternoon.
Supermarkets
The English, or Anglo-saxon, “model” for driving the national economy is much criticised here, for some good reasons, although I'm not sure model is the right word (muddle, maybe?). There is much more emphasis here on quality of life, although also much anguish at the persistent unemployment rate. About three months ago, one of the supermarkets in Vaison, Intermarché, decided to open on Sunday mornings, totally against the prevailing work ethic. I went soon after it started and found the place heaving with customers. I thought then that the other supermarket, SuperU, would have to follow suit. Sure enough, it has now happened. The tensions between customer focus and free market forces on the one hand and sensitivity to workers quality of life still have to be worked through. I find the common French knee-jerk reaction to favour the quality of life of workers encouraging but quality of life also requires having an income (i.e. job) and there are too many French people without the latter. Over time, perhaps there will be a way to resolve these tensions better.
dimanche 31 mai 2009
lundi 11 mai 2009
Aix, Veggies and Pizza
Aix and the Var
Daniel was going to Aix to see his son Kevyn and then both were going on to a vineyard in the Var so he offered to take me along with him. I accepted gladly. The 2-hour drive to Aix passed quite quickly with Daniel pointing out sites of interest and, particularly, a three-span suspension bridge over the Durance just outside Cavaillon which is now by-passed and has a wooden roadway. It would have been interesting (probably in a Chinese sense now) to have been able to cross over the wooden roadway.
Lunch at Kevyn's flat, then on to the obligatory boules, then an apero watching the world go by at a cafe on the Cour Mirabeau, the Champs Elysée of Aix, and then on to a wine tasting evening that Kevyn had helped organise in a seminary. The seminary was built around a large courtyard in the middle of Aix and included a chapel, the chapel of the Oblats. The Oblats were apparently a sect of lay people who wished to observe a quasi-religious lifestyle. The peace and quiet in the courtyard, after the bustle of Aix just outside where we had had the apero was striking. And the wine tasting was informal and enjoyable; a really good evening.
The following morning we were up early to go to the Terre Promise vineyard, about 40-minutes drive away in the Var, which had provided two of the wines at the tasting, a rosé and a red. Kevyn and a number of his student friends work there in the summer helping to get in the grape harvest. It turned out that Jean-Christophe, who bought the vineyard a few years ago and is a wine enthusiast, had sold all his stock of rosé but hadn't got all of it bottled, so needed help with the bottling. We duly piled in and, after a longish but very enjoyable day, had managed to bottle and package 4000 bottles and around 200 magnums. The work was done, by a half-dozen of us, in a great atmosphere: focussed but relaxed and joky with a short sampling break and a leisurely lunch. I came away with half a case of bvery good wine for my pains.
On the journey back, Daniel did a detour to show me more of the Var countryside and the St Victoire mountain, oft-painted by Cézanne. The countryside surprised me in that, being significantly farther south, I had expected it to be more arid than that around Mollans. In fact, the opposite was the case: the greenery was generally much softer, more like southern England or the Morvan in Burgundy.
Vegetables
My terrace is now beginning to look like a nursery. The veggies I've sown primarily for Steve and Jo's veg. garden have needed potting on and there are now myriad pots of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and cucumbers cluttering it up, plus trays of perpetual spinach, broccoli, stock seedlings and sprouting dahlia tubers. This is all very satisfying but the plants in the wall at the back of the terrace are blooming and it's difficult to see them for all the pots around. I've resolved to get most of this sorted by the end of the month so that I can enjoy the terrace. The vegetable plants that Steve and Jo don't want will go to neighbours; Monique has already said she wants some perpetual spinach and Jean-Marc and Florence next door have a new veg. garden with only tomatoes in it so far.
Pizza Evening
The pizza evening tonight was outside on the terrace of the Bar du Pont, the first time this year. Barring rain, it should be outside now until the end of September at least. Even Mt Ventoux has been losing its snow. There's still some on the north side but the south side is clear. To be exact, it wasn't entirely a pizza evening as Roberto came with a huge supply of mussels and chips as an alternative. Whatever.........as my friend Steve commented, it's evenings such as this that remind me why I came out here. “Balmy” is the English word that best describes it and I love such evenings. Also, for the past week I've had the door from the balcony into the living room open most of the day and can now enjoy breakfast and lunch on the balcony. And the flower show out front has started to attract the camera enthusiasts who pass by. That's summer.
Daniel was going to Aix to see his son Kevyn and then both were going on to a vineyard in the Var so he offered to take me along with him. I accepted gladly. The 2-hour drive to Aix passed quite quickly with Daniel pointing out sites of interest and, particularly, a three-span suspension bridge over the Durance just outside Cavaillon which is now by-passed and has a wooden roadway. It would have been interesting (probably in a Chinese sense now) to have been able to cross over the wooden roadway.
Lunch at Kevyn's flat, then on to the obligatory boules, then an apero watching the world go by at a cafe on the Cour Mirabeau, the Champs Elysée of Aix, and then on to a wine tasting evening that Kevyn had helped organise in a seminary. The seminary was built around a large courtyard in the middle of Aix and included a chapel, the chapel of the Oblats. The Oblats were apparently a sect of lay people who wished to observe a quasi-religious lifestyle. The peace and quiet in the courtyard, after the bustle of Aix just outside where we had had the apero was striking. And the wine tasting was informal and enjoyable; a really good evening.
The following morning we were up early to go to the Terre Promise vineyard, about 40-minutes drive away in the Var, which had provided two of the wines at the tasting, a rosé and a red. Kevyn and a number of his student friends work there in the summer helping to get in the grape harvest. It turned out that Jean-Christophe, who bought the vineyard a few years ago and is a wine enthusiast, had sold all his stock of rosé but hadn't got all of it bottled, so needed help with the bottling. We duly piled in and, after a longish but very enjoyable day, had managed to bottle and package 4000 bottles and around 200 magnums. The work was done, by a half-dozen of us, in a great atmosphere: focussed but relaxed and joky with a short sampling break and a leisurely lunch. I came away with half a case of bvery good wine for my pains.
On the journey back, Daniel did a detour to show me more of the Var countryside and the St Victoire mountain, oft-painted by Cézanne. The countryside surprised me in that, being significantly farther south, I had expected it to be more arid than that around Mollans. In fact, the opposite was the case: the greenery was generally much softer, more like southern England or the Morvan in Burgundy.
Vegetables
My terrace is now beginning to look like a nursery. The veggies I've sown primarily for Steve and Jo's veg. garden have needed potting on and there are now myriad pots of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and cucumbers cluttering it up, plus trays of perpetual spinach, broccoli, stock seedlings and sprouting dahlia tubers. This is all very satisfying but the plants in the wall at the back of the terrace are blooming and it's difficult to see them for all the pots around. I've resolved to get most of this sorted by the end of the month so that I can enjoy the terrace. The vegetable plants that Steve and Jo don't want will go to neighbours; Monique has already said she wants some perpetual spinach and Jean-Marc and Florence next door have a new veg. garden with only tomatoes in it so far.
Pizza Evening
The pizza evening tonight was outside on the terrace of the Bar du Pont, the first time this year. Barring rain, it should be outside now until the end of September at least. Even Mt Ventoux has been losing its snow. There's still some on the north side but the south side is clear. To be exact, it wasn't entirely a pizza evening as Roberto came with a huge supply of mussels and chips as an alternative. Whatever.........as my friend Steve commented, it's evenings such as this that remind me why I came out here. “Balmy” is the English word that best describes it and I love such evenings. Also, for the past week I've had the door from the balcony into the living room open most of the day and can now enjoy breakfast and lunch on the balcony. And the flower show out front has started to attract the camera enthusiasts who pass by. That's summer.
vendredi 1 mai 2009
May = Summer
May = Summer
It's been a good few days. Today is muguet (lily of the valley) day in France (and celebration of workers, etc, of course). But driving the short distance into Buis I saw several roadside vendors of bunches of lily of the valley. Traditionally, you give it to your beloved on the 1st May here. And Chelsea got a good result in Barcelona!
Steve, Jo and Mana came round to eat a curry and that reminded me that the French have no taste for chili. I put none in it but the cloves and ginger had Mana gulping glasses of water although she declared the curry to be very good. When I cook a curry here, I hold on the chili and put a little bowl of cayenne pepper on the table for those with more tolerant and chili-friendly palates. I think Indian cuisine is still something the French as a whole have to discover.
The weather, after a spell of being changeable but dry, has really started warming up and the roadsides have begun showing their full range of colours. The coronilla are still providing a blanket of yellow on the slopes and the broom is about to join in. Judas trees (I've never seen one in England, don't know if they have an English name) and tamarisks are joining in as also are amalanches, which grow wild as small bushes rather than trees here, and the early valerianne which generally seems tot be coral red rather than the more pervasive pink which shows later. At closer to ground level, poppies are now abundant and show well against the type of euphorbia, with lime green bracts, that grows all over the place. The purple salvias are out and I first saw today the blue wild chicory. White campions are everywhere (I've never seen the pink variety here, which is much more common in England) and irises of course. Ladies slipper is abundant as also is vetch and star of Bethlehem, which again I have never seen in England. A few are now residing in my back garden. Against that, the show of blossom on almond, cherry, apricot and peach trees is now over and I'll have to wait a month or two to see the results of that in the market; cherries first and then peaches and apricots.
I haven't done a lot in the garden other than water, prick out some seedlings and plant the star of Bethlehem. However, I did dig the little trench needed for one side of the arch I want to put in. It really needed to go down 18 inches but, a foot down, I hit solid rock. So a foot it is going to have to be, with some concrete around; it should do the job as there won't be much growth up it this year.
And I've started playing around with possible formats for the brochure that will contain my English translation of J-F Colonat's guided tour of the village. Single rather than double column, the column running ~2/3 across a landscape A5 page with French and English pages facing one another seems to work best and I think it can be all made to fit, with photos and maps, on 16 pages of A5 but.................On decent paper, people will probably pay a couple of euros for that, which will get the production money back. Double column A5 portrait, will require 24/32 pages, which is what Daniel originally had in mind, so I may have a persuasion job on my hands.
It's been a good few days. Today is muguet (lily of the valley) day in France (and celebration of workers, etc, of course). But driving the short distance into Buis I saw several roadside vendors of bunches of lily of the valley. Traditionally, you give it to your beloved on the 1st May here. And Chelsea got a good result in Barcelona!
Steve, Jo and Mana came round to eat a curry and that reminded me that the French have no taste for chili. I put none in it but the cloves and ginger had Mana gulping glasses of water although she declared the curry to be very good. When I cook a curry here, I hold on the chili and put a little bowl of cayenne pepper on the table for those with more tolerant and chili-friendly palates. I think Indian cuisine is still something the French as a whole have to discover.
The weather, after a spell of being changeable but dry, has really started warming up and the roadsides have begun showing their full range of colours. The coronilla are still providing a blanket of yellow on the slopes and the broom is about to join in. Judas trees (I've never seen one in England, don't know if they have an English name) and tamarisks are joining in as also are amalanches, which grow wild as small bushes rather than trees here, and the early valerianne which generally seems tot be coral red rather than the more pervasive pink which shows later. At closer to ground level, poppies are now abundant and show well against the type of euphorbia, with lime green bracts, that grows all over the place. The purple salvias are out and I first saw today the blue wild chicory. White campions are everywhere (I've never seen the pink variety here, which is much more common in England) and irises of course. Ladies slipper is abundant as also is vetch and star of Bethlehem, which again I have never seen in England. A few are now residing in my back garden. Against that, the show of blossom on almond, cherry, apricot and peach trees is now over and I'll have to wait a month or two to see the results of that in the market; cherries first and then peaches and apricots.
I haven't done a lot in the garden other than water, prick out some seedlings and plant the star of Bethlehem. However, I did dig the little trench needed for one side of the arch I want to put in. It really needed to go down 18 inches but, a foot down, I hit solid rock. So a foot it is going to have to be, with some concrete around; it should do the job as there won't be much growth up it this year.
And I've started playing around with possible formats for the brochure that will contain my English translation of J-F Colonat's guided tour of the village. Single rather than double column, the column running ~2/3 across a landscape A5 page with French and English pages facing one another seems to work best and I think it can be all made to fit, with photos and maps, on 16 pages of A5 but.................On decent paper, people will probably pay a couple of euros for that, which will get the production money back. Double column A5 portrait, will require 24/32 pages, which is what Daniel originally had in mind, so I may have a persuasion job on my hands.
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