Gardening
The recent weather (temperatures close to 30 degrees during the day and warm evenings) have convinced me it's not yet time to start on winter work like scraping the paint off those bloody beams in my bedroom. So, I've been digging more holes in the road to plant bulbs and still have about another 30 of those that I brought back from England to find somewhere to plant. Should look OK next spring.
My plumbago, in a pot under the balcony, has decided to go mad this year for some reason and has spread itself outside amongst the honeysuckle growing between Jean-Marc and Flo's house and mine and is covered in bloom. At the same time, the Dublin Bay rose has decided to climb and start blooming again so that corner is looking good. My false jasmine (trachelospermum jasmoinides) in the pot on the balcony is also doing its nut and is now within four bars of completing its trip across the balcony, as well as pushing up above the grape vine to just below my bedroom window. Near-neighbour Jean said he counted three separate groups of people stopping outside my house and taking photos and wanted to know why I didn't charge them. Maybe I should put a box out for donations for the village school. The local man who refurbishes old cars as a hobby and whose sister makes scented candles has started making ceramics with phrases on them, one of which reads “Place de l'apero”. A bit twee but I think I might get one for my balcony nonetheless (in blue, if course).
The back garden needs weeding again and it will soon be time to sort out what has survived and thrived and where the gaps are. What is already clear is that the ground there is very poor and needs lots more fertilizer; job for February/March. I've decided that when the winter pansies come around, in 4-6 weeks, I'll transplant the perennials I have in two pots out front into the back and fill the pots with pansies as I did last year.
Food
French prepared meals are generally better than their English counterparts but still not as good as the real thing generally. However, I got a flammekueche from the local supermarket which Steve and I ate this evening and it was really quite good. I'd assumed it was a Flemish dish but it in fact hails from Alsace: it's sometimes referred to as a French pizza but the base is quite different, more like an English water biscuit, and the toppings focus more on ham, cheese and onions. I think it could be good as a less usual first course to a meal.
And......more fruit. The house on one side of me that is let out to all and sundry has a damson tree that is currently full of ripe fruit with no one interested in picking it. I can't just let it go to waste and yet don't want to contemplate yet more jam. I think I may pick it (I know the owner well enough to do that) and freeze it while I decide what to do with it. Maybe a fruit tart or two......
lundi 28 septembre 2009
lundi 21 septembre 2009
Fruit, Weather And A Dog
Fruit Galore
Two weeks ago I went with some friends to help a local small-holder harvest his plums from around 60 plum trees. We picked just over 500kgs in the afternoon and, for our time, got back about 80Kgsand some aching limbs. We were also royally entertained for an hour by the small-holder with aperos that were home-made. There was a fad in the 1970s in England to make your own beer and wine; I remember Boots having a whole department selling the kits and cans of grape juice of various sorts. However, rising wages and reducing booze prices, plus the efforts of Camra and new world wines, knocked this little home industry on the head. And, given that good if unsensational wine is cheap in France relative to the UK, I was surprised that the French would try any home-made stuff. But, it appears, they do; and it can be good as an aperitif rather than as a wine to go with a meal.
Afterwards, I took my two cases of plums home and shared them with the neighbours and the Monday evening pizza crowd. The remainder have since been transformed into jars of jam and chutney. I hadn't intended making plum jam but the chutney was always on the agenda. Many years ago in England my mother had wanted to make chutney and dredged up a recipe from a 1940s edition of Good Housekeeping called Old Dower House chutney. We found that, by doubling the amount of spices recommended, we had a very good chutney. As a base it has plums, apples, tomatoes and onions, all in plentiful supply here in autumn. And the small-holder let me pick a couple of handfuls of apples. All that, plus brown sugar, vinegar and plentiful spices (cloves, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, chili and garlic) makes a great chutney. Of which I now have very many jars to give away when invited out and, of course, to eat myself. I know from experience in England that this chutney keeps for 2-3 years (at least) and even gets better the longer it is kept.
And............the local man who sells his produce on the car park wall opposite the Mairie had a notice offering tomatoes, olives and figs today, all at more than reasonable prices. He had, however, run out of figs when I got to him but promised more for Wednesday. So I shall be there on Wednesday. At the supermarket right now they are selling for over 4 euros per kilo, the market not yet being in full flood. If I can get them for less than half of that then the planned fig jam will be on the way.
Weather and Plants
I was very abstemious this time when going back to see my mother in England and came back with only one clematis (Bill Mckenzie) and one succulent (plus, admittedly, a few bags of bulbs). The former are planted already; I need to think about the latter. I was going to plant some of the bulbs in my pots hanging from the balcony but am a bit worried about what winter and spring winds might do to them. A friend from England should be coming out to see me this autumn so I think I may ask her to bring me some bulbs of miniature daffodils/narcissi and plant those in the pots on the balcony.
The weather here has been much as in southern England over the past 2-3 weeks although slightly warmer here; overcast at times, raining at times but with sunny periods. A bit like classic April weather in England. Here, however, the remnants of summer should hang on for a bit longer so we are due for a spell of better weather to come. Whether we get it or not is another matter. Today, anyway, I was able to resume playing boules and didn't play badly.
And A Dog....................
Daniel has gone off on an assignment to La Réunion for ten days and left the care of his dog, Gillette, to myself and various friends. I feel slightly guilty about not saying I would have Gillette with me all the time, although Daniel didn't ask that. He had already arranged with Jean-Marie to walk Gillette in the morning, with Michelline to let it out at midday and asked me simply to feed her in the evening, which I am doing. She seems quite happy with that and, even though when I feed her I stay around for a time so that she can roam the garden, she seems content to return to “captivity” within the house before I leave. So I don't feel too bad about it; but I do wonder.
Two weeks ago I went with some friends to help a local small-holder harvest his plums from around 60 plum trees. We picked just over 500kgs in the afternoon and, for our time, got back about 80Kgsand some aching limbs. We were also royally entertained for an hour by the small-holder with aperos that were home-made. There was a fad in the 1970s in England to make your own beer and wine; I remember Boots having a whole department selling the kits and cans of grape juice of various sorts. However, rising wages and reducing booze prices, plus the efforts of Camra and new world wines, knocked this little home industry on the head. And, given that good if unsensational wine is cheap in France relative to the UK, I was surprised that the French would try any home-made stuff. But, it appears, they do; and it can be good as an aperitif rather than as a wine to go with a meal.
Afterwards, I took my two cases of plums home and shared them with the neighbours and the Monday evening pizza crowd. The remainder have since been transformed into jars of jam and chutney. I hadn't intended making plum jam but the chutney was always on the agenda. Many years ago in England my mother had wanted to make chutney and dredged up a recipe from a 1940s edition of Good Housekeeping called Old Dower House chutney. We found that, by doubling the amount of spices recommended, we had a very good chutney. As a base it has plums, apples, tomatoes and onions, all in plentiful supply here in autumn. And the small-holder let me pick a couple of handfuls of apples. All that, plus brown sugar, vinegar and plentiful spices (cloves, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, chili and garlic) makes a great chutney. Of which I now have very many jars to give away when invited out and, of course, to eat myself. I know from experience in England that this chutney keeps for 2-3 years (at least) and even gets better the longer it is kept.
And............the local man who sells his produce on the car park wall opposite the Mairie had a notice offering tomatoes, olives and figs today, all at more than reasonable prices. He had, however, run out of figs when I got to him but promised more for Wednesday. So I shall be there on Wednesday. At the supermarket right now they are selling for over 4 euros per kilo, the market not yet being in full flood. If I can get them for less than half of that then the planned fig jam will be on the way.
Weather and Plants
I was very abstemious this time when going back to see my mother in England and came back with only one clematis (Bill Mckenzie) and one succulent (plus, admittedly, a few bags of bulbs). The former are planted already; I need to think about the latter. I was going to plant some of the bulbs in my pots hanging from the balcony but am a bit worried about what winter and spring winds might do to them. A friend from England should be coming out to see me this autumn so I think I may ask her to bring me some bulbs of miniature daffodils/narcissi and plant those in the pots on the balcony.
The weather here has been much as in southern England over the past 2-3 weeks although slightly warmer here; overcast at times, raining at times but with sunny periods. A bit like classic April weather in England. Here, however, the remnants of summer should hang on for a bit longer so we are due for a spell of better weather to come. Whether we get it or not is another matter. Today, anyway, I was able to resume playing boules and didn't play badly.
And A Dog....................
Daniel has gone off on an assignment to La Réunion for ten days and left the care of his dog, Gillette, to myself and various friends. I feel slightly guilty about not saying I would have Gillette with me all the time, although Daniel didn't ask that. He had already arranged with Jean-Marie to walk Gillette in the morning, with Michelline to let it out at midday and asked me simply to feed her in the evening, which I am doing. She seems quite happy with that and, even though when I feed her I stay around for a time so that she can roam the garden, she seems content to return to “captivity” within the house before I leave. So I don't feel too bad about it; but I do wonder.
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