Looking To The Year Ahead

 

Looking To The Year Ahead

This is the first year since COVID that the previously traditional crumblies’ lunch has aken place. I’m not sure why the hiatus was so long but crumblies are definitely more at risk from the bug than others. Anyway, it was worth the wait.

We started with some “amuse-gueles” and champagne before the starter of prawns, smoked salmon, ham, pâté and salad. It was almost a meal in itself. The main course was pork cooked in a dark wine sauce with mashed potatoes and an accompanying apricot stuffing. There followed cheeses and a café gourmand with sparkling Clairette. Wine of allvarieties was served throughout the meal by the mayor and village councillors. The meal was free of course. Maybe the idea is to kill off the crumblies through over indulgence.

That was certainly a very good strat to the year. Early this month there will be AGMs for both the gardeners association and the Amitié Mollanaise at which activities for the year will be announceed. AGMs are not generally exciting occasions, far from it, but I look forward to both.

The weather for the last half of January has been surprisingly clement, sunny days with middle of the day temperatures of 12-15 degrees. That has got my green fingers itching but I know I shouldn’t start anything before March. Maybe what I will do is fill some seed trays with compost, put them in the plastic green house and see how they warm up. If they warm up quickly…….?? I still have to do some work on the ground in the allotment. I propose at the moment to turn over just the top 6 inches or so as I don’t want the good material to go too deep. I reckon I can do that in about 4 or 5 sessions. I may buy some cheap compost to go on the top as well, just to improve the texture.

This afternoon I went to Lidl, primarily looking for English bitter which they had sold out of. I’m not sure if they will have any more or whether it was just for Christmas. Supermarkets good are much more seasonal here than in England and not just with perishable goods. I’m not keen on milk chocolate but love dark chocolate truffles to munch while I’m watching football on TV. But you can get them here only around Christmas. I also love kippers but you can’t get them here in winter as you might expect; the fish counters have predominantly shellfish and salmon.

I once met the renowned English judge Lord Denning in February coming out of a taxi that I was about to get into in front of the Grosvenor hotel in London, giggling like a schoolboy. I asked him what the joke was and he said the cabbie had told him that cabbies called the period between the new year and Easter the kipper season; there wasn’t much trade in that period and kippers were all that cabbies could afford to eat.

Anyway, frustrated at not finding any beer my green fingers took hold and I turned to the seed display. I know Lidl keep prices low but I was surprised at how much cheaper their packets of seeds were than in other supermarkets. So………...I bought my supply. That at least stopped the fingers itching for a while. Last year Lidl had a variety of fruit bushes at keen prices and if they have more this year I shall buy more. Fruit bushes don’t need a lot of attention.

Christmas And After

 

Christmas And After

I’ve left it until now to write about the holiday period simply because there si not a lot to write about. Is With many friends absent I spent a relatively quiet but enjoyable time, at friends for Christmas day and with friends at my house the day after. As usual I ate and drank very well.

The weather both leading up to and since the holiday period has been cold but not excessively so with frequent periods of rain. The cold has kept me fron playing boues very much and also deterred me from doing much on the allotment. Just before Christmas I went to help unload a lorry full of good compost which the gardening association had bought, with three barrow loads going on my patch. Since then I’ve spread around 20 kilos of guano on the allotment but that is about all I have done so far. I propose to add some manure but won’t do any sowing or ^planting efore March. Potatoes and onions will be the first to go in.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there are no flowers at the moment but the narcissi bulbs I planted in the autumn are all showing through and should look good in about a couple of months time.

On the feeding front the village organised an old fogies Christmas lunch a week beforehand which I presumed would replace the one which had been organised in January prior to Covid. But it seems that the later will go ahead as well. The village certainly does not intend its old fogies to die of starvation, whatever else they may die of.

Yesterday evening I went to hear the mayor’s annual summary of the year, which was followed by galettes de roi and champagne. The summary of what has been done and what is in the pipline was unexceptional but the costs proved interesting. For virtually all the projects the mayor listed the cosy to the village and the amounts being subsidised by the region or other bodies. I find this process of various bodies contributing to achieve a project, whether it is maintaining roads, ensuring water supplies or subsidising performances at the open air theatre, laudable and very French. Much more budget is pushed down to local evel than in England. It seems to epitomise the French values of “fraternité” and “solidarité” in action.And so now…..I look forward to the first signs of spring.