My Life in the Charente

Round and About Confolens

2012-03-07T16:53:00.003+01:00

Before I start with this latest missive, I am delighted to announce that, having just completed 2 years of blogging, I have now accumulated 200 plus followers. Wow, it is hard to believe, but very gratifying, that so many of you out there find my blog worthy of all that support. My thanks to every one of my followers, not only for reading my blog, but for leaving such kind comments.

At first glance, Confolens (not far up the river from the chateau at St Germain I featured 2 blogs ago) would not appear to offer much in the way of memorable visual experiences, but with a little advance research, and the expenditure of some shoe-leather, these are the foremost historical locations to be discovered in the town, which is built on an old Roman road.

The picturesque highway sign on the town approach.

The present bridge across the Vienne river is built of granite and limestone and it replaced a Roman bridge. It dates from the end of the Middle Ages, but has been considerably altered. Until they were demolished in 1777, it boasted three fortified towers, some 10 metres (33 feet) high. The last span on the left replaced a drawbridge. Being for many years the only bridge on this section of river, it saw a heavy traffic of men, animals and merchandise. All of these had to thread their way past shops, built on the bridge, but now long gone!

The striking architecture of the hospital, which was originally the convent of St Clare. In 1792, the hospital was transferred here from the "old town" nearby. An upgrade in 1895, paid for by a legacy, altered the facades and increased the building area. Further extensions were built between 1927 and 1932 to accommodate the 205 bed spaces which there were in 2005.

For further information see HERE

A view across the Vienne from the hospital to the church of St Maxime

The imposing entrance to the church of Saint Maxime is a work of the 13th century, and in typical local Limousin style. The church is confined by adjacent buildings and it was difficult to get back far enough to take this photo!! The original romanesque church, mentioned in records from 990, has disappeared as a result of numerous reconstructions.

and on going inside, one finds an interior completely altered in 1499, to provide two unequal naves, separated by elegant columns.

The large stained glass windows are relatively recent!! They were made upcountry, at Tours, in the 19th century

A number of 15th and 16th century colombage (half-timbered - or "post and beam" in the USA) houses still survive in the Rue de Soleil area near the church, as can be seen in the two photos below.

This nearby fountain, now converted into a planter, caught my eye.

The old donjon on a hilltop, all that remains of the castle of Confolens.

Views from the top of the hill, with the tower of Saint Pierre church very prominent in the centre.

The gateway (from the outside) of the 13th century Courthouse, which also allowed entrance to the castle and the town. The existence of a courthouse testifies to the importance of the justice system in operation in Confolens at this early time.

(and from the inside)

and I was proud of this view I shot from inside the gateway, framing the Saint Maxime church spire.

If you should want to stay in the area, it sounds as if the centre of Confolens may not be the ideal place for you; see Leon's blog HERE

Not very far away from the town, one of my followers has a B and B at Exideuil see HERE . Please note that I do not normally "plug" any commercial activities on my blog, but in celebration of my new 200 follower milestone, I have decided to make a very rare exception!! I must emphasise that we have not visited or stayed there ourselves, so leave you entirely to form your own opinions!!

WILD RABBIT WITH RED WINE

2012-03-02T10:07:00.000+01:00

The other day, one of our neighbours kindly brought round for us a rabbit that he had caught on his property. He has live traps, so the rabbits are not harmed at all in the process. It was skinned and dressed, ready for me to cook. After looking through a few recipes, I decided to do my own thing, as there was nothing that really took my eye. I judged that the mix of red wine with a game animal sounded just right, so the following is what I did. I have since tried this recipe with a chicken and "wow", that was good as well! The meat just fell off the bone!

1 1/2 lkg (approx 3.3 lbs) dressed wild rabbit with the liver
Large pinch sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoon flour
2 medium onions, finely chopped
250gr (About ½ lb) mushrooms, chopped chunky

1 small hot chilli finely chopped (optional)
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1 tablespoon dry parsley
1 bay leaf, crumbled
2 cups red wine
1 cup water

Wash the rabbit well, drain and dry. Remove the fore and hind legs; cut the hind legs into 2 pieces at the joint. Cut the saddle into 3 or 4 pieces and place in a casserole with the liver.

Heat the oil and cook onions, chilli and mushrooms until the onion is soft. Add the flour and stir off the heat until well mixed. Put back on the heat and add the water and wine stirring well until the mixture is gently boiling and thickened. Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Pour the sauce over the rabbit and bake at 130C (260F) for 3 hours.

I served it with potatoes and leeks from the garden, plus some broccoli from the market. We both said it was the best rabbit we have ever tasted, very tender and extremely tasty. Long, slow cooking obviously had a lot to do with it and the recipe seems ideal for a slow cooker, for those of you who are out all day.

St-Germain-de-Confolens

2012-02-24T15:46:00.002+01:00

Earlier this week, we took advantage of a clear, sunny, calm but very cold day to visit St-Germain-de-Confolens; a very small medieval village, now accommodating only 98 souls, situated at the confluence of the Vienne and Issoire rivers, not far from the Charente boundary; the village grew up below its chateau walls and the inhabitants occupied themselves in the industries of milling, tanning and granite extraction, all of which have now virtually ceased. Milling and tanning declined in the 19th century and granite extraction took place until the 1970's. Once again, I took too many photos, but I have tried to pick out the best for you.

The sort of view which an early attacker might have had of the imposing chateau, built on a promontory overlooking the river confluence. The castle was first mentioned in documents prepared in the year 1073 and was much rebuilt over the next 500 years. It has not fared so well in the last 500! It's a very steep walk up the narrow road to the top - cars not allowed!

Once up there, the panoramic views of the Vienne river are spectacular. A month ago, all was white with snow, and blocks of ice were floating in the water!

Again the Vienne river, upstream of the last shot

A view of the ancillary buildings, built within the chateau walls (as they were) and including the 12th century chapel of Saint Vincent on the left and what might be a house for the priest on the right.

Another aspect, showing part of the old cemetery, perched on a ledge overhanging the steep drop down to the wooded Issoire river valley, which runs on the rear side of the chateau.

Next, some more photos of the crumbling, but still very substantial structure. What an effort to have built all this, on top of a hill, 950 years ago, although the granite was close by!

Probably an embrasure from which the defenders could have fired down on those laying siege to the chateau.

One of the village streets; barely a small car width!

The Vienne bridge was originally built in the Middle Ages, but road widening works in 1901 regrettably destroyed much of this character. The bridge would have also had, at one time, a town gate or toll, to control access to the village as part of its defences.

Across the Vienne bridge and on the way out of the village, a faded example of a tin advertising sign, once so common all over France fifty or more years ago. It's always good to see such reminders of past times!

Once again my thanks goes to Nigel for all his research.

P.S.

I am a verification free blog. The new system introduced by Google of two words, quite often almost impossible to read, I find infuriating and time consuming. Your comments will be sent to me for approval only, no verification needed. I am hoping that more people will follow this lead. I get very few spam comments but when I do I can remove them at will .

Go to Dashboard, then ‘settings’, ‘comments’ go down to ‘Show word verification for comments’ click on No and save settings. If you are using the new blogger you will need to revert back to the old interface and take the same route.

Apple Cobbler

2012-02-18T11:59:00.000+01:00

Having been housebound for the last couple of weeks due to the ice-covered roads, the normal exploring and photo-taking activities have been on hold. We have also not tried any recipes worthy of passing onto our faithful followers, so this is a recipe from the archives which I hope you will enjoy.

APPLE COBBLER QUICK AND EASY

Ingredients

8 medium apples, peeled, core removed and sliced ( My apples were all fallers, so they were not perfect. Good apples; probably 6 would be enough)

1 cup sugar

1 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Method

Combine apples, sugar, orange juice and 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Cook until apple is soft.

Meanwhile combine flour, salt and baking powder, stir in milk slowly mixing all the time, then add remaining butter melted separately.

Combine the batter and the apple mixture mixing well and pour all into greased baking dish.

Bake at 190C (375F) for about 30 minutes or until batter browns and rises.

There is no crust on this cobbler, but we enjoyed it. It would taste great with ice cream, cream or custard.

Cherves-Châtelars - A Walk with a Surprise at the End

2012-02-11T15:35:00.000+01:00

We have joined a local French leisure club, to try to improve our French. It seems to operate year-round except for summer, and they play scrabble and belote, the latter being a 32 card whist-type game, the precise rules of which are currently a mystery! Scrabble in French is also an acquired skill and we are presently limited to 2-4 letter words, although the other players are keen to assist us!

Other activities are short visits and short tours; one of the former had been arranged recently, and although rain threatened and Nigel was starting a dose of flu, we decided to go along, as the property to be visited was on private land - a rare opportunity for a look around.

We drove to Cherves-Châtelars where we met everyone at the communal hall. The destination was not, at first, at all clear, as we all roared off in cars in pursuit of a leader, coming before long to a halt on a roadside verge near a dilapidated farmstead. We then abandoned the vehicles and ambled along a lane, across the delightful, undulating and unspoilt countryside, towards our goal - as yet out of view.

I'm sorry that there are more photos than I normally put on a post, but it was difficult to pick the best!

No this is not what it looks like! One of the knowledgeable locals (most of them have lived in the area all their lives) has pointed out a natural spring bubbling away at the side of the road.

We then came across this lovely stone house, which had some gorgeous windows; we were told this was the original residence for the monks who operated the priory next door

Note the tall figure at the front of the group; who says I can never find Nigel in a crowd :-)

We then saw the 'surprise' just around the corner, the remains of this stunning old priory

It is on private property, but we had the kind permission of the landowner to take a look around. As we walked, one of our companions explained that the priory was thought to have been built around the time of William the Conqueror, nearly 1000 years ago! – it was founded by Benedictine monks, in this now very Catholic country. We were told that a number of protestant churches still exist in France, chiefly in the south and towards the west coast.

The following photos of the nave are taken from the now demolished transept

How did it get ruined like this? Well, there is a heady sense of history involved with this place over the last 1000 years. Some 400 years after it was built, the priory was ruined in the fighting during what the French call the “ wars of religion”, a period of Protestant/Catholic wars, which started in 1562 and were ended by the Treaty of Nantes in 1598. But that isn't the end of the history witnessed by these walls............ see later

Walking around the side to other buildings

and from the back, what remains of the apse

beautifully carved capitols (thought to be 12th century), above and below, on each side of the nave

ancient floor slabs

Would this be an old altar ?

and more recent history, just up the road.....

This small sign tells us that some 3 kilometres down this little track (too muddy to walk this day) was a concealed hut, where many of the local WW2 French Resistance fighters (Maquis) used to operate from. (see my blog 55 for more details).

Maquis bush covers large areas of France

We then came across this sign which says the tree behind it was planted in 1978 by the children of Cherves-Châtelars, in memory of the local Maquis group (named Bir Hacheim), who operated in this area in 1943-44, sabotaging German military activities. As part of this work, we were told they built an observation platform high up in the priory walls, to carry out surveillance of troop movements in the valley below.

Luckily we managed to see all this in dry conditions, but the walk back to the cars was a in very damp cold drizzle, which did not help Nigel's ailment!

I hope that you enjoyed this surprise tour as much as we did. I was completely dumbfounded to see all this; I cycle all these roads regularly, but this was one very interesting little road I had missed!

My thanks to Nigel for all the research he did for this post.

Two Years of Blogging!

2012-02-07T17:16:00.001+01:00

It was on 8 February 2010 when I became motivated to write a formal blog. I originally started a version for family and friends two years earlier, so they could see progress made with the restoration of the house we bought in 2005. I have spent the last 6 summers in France, doing what work I could, in both the house and the garden, while Nigel worked in the UK to pay for it all ! Due to company takeovers and mismanagement, Nigel became fed up with his working life, so, in October 2011, he decided to walk away. By the end of the year, we had moved lock, stock and barrel to France and retirement. Our house in the UK was on the market then, but I am happy to say that in the last week, contracts were exchanged and we are thankfully no longer UK homeowners!

But back to the blog - it has been two years of fun, and meeting people through blogging; I have had the pleasure of many personal contacts. The family and friends for whom the blog was originally started, are few, but I now have officially 188 followers and 'new' friends from all over the world. I would never have believed when I started out, that so many people would be the slightest bit interested in what I was doing. Obviously I was wrong, and I would like to thank all those who follow my blog, leave such kind comments, and those who are interested enough to ask me questions. I try to vary my posts between local tours, home, garden and cookery, so I hope that there is something interesting for most tastes.

I have to admit that I sometimes find the blog time-consuming, but I have discovered that even if I take a break, everyone is always there waiting for me when I return! Thanks for your confidence and support. When either of us have not been well, I have had both comments and personal emails full of concern; it really is appreciated.

It has been a great two years, thank you everyone. I will finish off with a few of my photos of our house and garden, taken over the past years . For those who have joined my blog more recently you can read a little more about me HERE

Our French home in 2005

and what it looks like now.

The garden after the septic tank had been put in 2006! I might add this was mostly clay from the excavation, which, with a lot of stone, we had to remove.

and now :))

also the vegetable garden

This wall was between the kitchen and a bedroom! We knocked it down to make a big kitchen/diner!

The same view today.

and the kitchen 2005

The kitchen as it is now

Our bedroom 2005 had an earth floor and a very low ceiling

and the change to now! The little doorway is still there, but with a new glass door. We have tried to keep everything as original as possible. The hole in the wall to the left of the window is the old oven, (our house originally housed 3 families). The window sill is in fact one large stone with a dip in it, originally a wash basin.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few "before and after" photos of our home in France. Once again thank you all so much for not only reading my blog, and passing comments, but for many of you that have become friends as well; I am truly honoured.

Photos taken 5 February after waking up to a blanket of snow.

and the robin peering through the window

while the sparrows and chaffinches gather under the feeder.

Round and About Mazerolles

2012-02-03T14:18:00.004+01:00

On the same day that we went to Marthon, see here and here, we drove through Mazerolles, sited near the top of one of the local ridges, at 330 metres (1000 feet) above sea level.

Whilst the town had a population of 1004 in the mid 1800’s, numbers have dropped enormously since then, and today, sadly, only about 328 residents occupy the town. A sign, perhaps, of the departure of country people to seek work in the towns, over the last 150 years.

Driving past the church, I noticed the door was open, so I thought it was good chance to take some photos.

The Church of Our Lady of Mazerolles was built in granite in the twelfth century and restored in 1855. The section on the right has clearly been added after the original building was erected.

The side of the addition. This provided a new altar, and further stained glass windows.

walking through the doorway

pews and confessional in the later addition

the beautifully worked pulpit in the original church

the altar in the original church

You can see we were here around Christmas time!

This is in the later addition.

As I left the church, I noticed this house and barn hiding behind the trees.

and directly opposite the church is the Mairie with the war memorial in front of it.

Beetroot with Orange Sauce and Five Spice Mango Chicken

2012-01-29T15:56:00.002+01:00

As we have so many beetroot in the garden, I have been looking for new ways to cook them, especially as we both prefer them hot rather than cold. The other day, I discovered this recipe here and we both loved it so much, that I thought that I must share it with you all. It really is very special, and what was left over, tasted even better when re-heated the second day.

Beetroot with Orange Sauce

I dug out 3 quite big beetroot which I roasted, skinned, and cut into chip shapes. I am sure precooked beetroot would work just as well.

225 g dark brown sugar

150 ml malt vinegar

15 ml cornflour

Juice and grated rind of 3 oranges (I only had one, but I used all the zest and for the extra juice which I realised I needed, I added a bit of apple juice which I had on hand)

Preheat oven to 150°C/ 300°F/ Gas Mark 2. Put the strips of beetroot onto a baking tray.( I put them directly into a pyrex dish).

Mix the sugar with the vinegar in a pan over low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour and some of the orange juice together and set aside; then add the rest of the juice to the pan with the grated rind. Simmer for another 5 minutes and then stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the ingredients. Pour over the beetroot and then place in the oven to warm - about 5-10 minutes, or until ready to serve.

This dish was definitely a 10/10 and I will be cooking it again and again.

The second night I served it with rice and the following recipe, but hot* not cold, see at the bottom:

Five Spice Mango Chicken

Serves 8

Preparation 15 mins (Chicken pre-cooked)

750 gr cooked chicken with no bone
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mango Sauce

2 large mangoes peeled (I often use tinned if fresh are unavailable)
8 mild (I use hot!) peppadew peppers from jar. (These originate from S.Africa but I have seen them on the shelves in the UK and Australia. I am sure bottled small peppers would do as well, or a home roasted red pepper or two)
200g/8oz Greek yoghurt
6 tblesp mango chutney
1 tblesp Chinese 5 spice powder
Juice 1 lemon
Few drops of Tabasco sauce

Garnish

Fresh salad leaves
2 mild peppadew peppers thinly sliced
Lots of chopped parsley

1 For the sauce cut the flesh of 1 mango roughly into pieces and put into food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and whiz until smooth and blended. Season with salt and pepper.

2 Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and mix with the mango sauce in a mixing bowl. ** Cut the flesh of the remaining mango into 1 cm pieces and mix in with the chicken mixture. Taste and check seasoning.

3 Spoon the chicken mixture into a dish, decorate with the salad leaves and sprinkle over the peppadew slices and parsley- serve cold.*

** If you want to prepare the day ahead, omit the chopped mango and leave it mixed with a little lemon juice in a bowl. Just stir in before serving.

* To serve hot simply add one teasp of cornflour to the mango mixture before blending in the processor. Then add the chicken and mango, put into a shallow oven proof dish and bake at 200ºC for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with peppadew and parsley and serve. ( I sprinkled with the pine nuts as I had some roasted leftover from a previous dish, I forgot the parsley!).

Cold, it was delicious with toasted pine nuts sprinkled over. Hot, every bit as good!

This originates from a Mary Berry recipe and was sent to me by an "old" school friend. It really is fantastic; I have tried it both hot and cold.

See HERE For the original recipe.

A very quick and easy dish to cook and the result is good enough to serve up at a dinner party.

Enjoy

P.S. 30 Jan 2012 17h00 It has just started snowing! So much for the mild winter!

Round and About : 'Marthon' Part Two

2012-01-23T17:30:00.001+01:00

For Marthon Part one see here.

Looking down from the hill where the castle keep still stands, one can clearly see the River Bandiat running through the valley below and between the streets of the town. The Bandiat is a small (and quite short) river, only 91 km long and is a tributary of the Tardoire. The river bridge in the town has been restored fairly recently, as you can see below.

Quite near to the river is the building below. The entrance doors look more appropriate to a religious building, but the structure itself does not. On further investigation, I think this is the Chapelle-Porte (chapel-doorway), the gateway to the castle. This is a tall building which combines a chapel on the upper storey and the gateway to the castle below and was built into the defensive walls around the castle. See Here

On the opposite side of the road and a little further on, is the Church of Saint Martin

The roman style Church of Saint-Martin on the edge of the town has seen better days, the stonework being badly cracked in some places and having temporary timber supports in others. It is unusual, in my limited experience here, to see a church in a rather neglected state; religious life does however go on here regularly, judging by a paper list of services pinned up near the entrance. It does have some attractive features; the photo above shows the belltower with its arched openings. The photo below shows two more - the statue in a niche above the entrance and the unusual arch inset in the walls at ground level - this is called an 'enfeu' and is a tomb, likely to be that of a local dignitary, who would have been originally buried in the church wall itself.

Sadly the church door was locked, so we were unable to see what the inside looked like! Below is a modern plastic sign in French and English, highlighting the features of the building.

As always click on the photo to see it larger and read the writing.

This rear church wall appeared to have small openings which had been filled in over the years, but the one on the far right was in fact a very small stained glass window - see below. In other places, the stone has decayed and crumbled.

This house below was opposite the church, across a small lane. I just liked it as I thought that the owners had done a fantastic job of restoration; I loved the well in the garden.

Here endeth the Tour of Marthon, but on the same day we also visited Mazerolles and there the church was open, so watch this space.

Market Day just before Christmas

2012-01-19T16:52:00.000+01:00

We were very sorry to have missed the Christmas market itself, due to the terrible weather, but we did get to the ordinary monthly market just before Christmas (22 Dec 2011), to see what was for sale. I took a few photos, so you could see we were not short of food over the holiday period.

No shortage of apples!!

Cheeses for everyone.

The French eat masses of oysters over Christmas and New Year and there certainly were plenty here.

There is usually a lot of livestock at the monthly markets, but there was not so much here, being Christmas, I guess.

Cold feet? Plenty of colourful choice here to keep them warm!

Cold tummy? You could have a feast on this hot paella.

Every rainwater downpipe, or street sign, throughout the town, seemed to have a small tree tied to it.

and

back home again to enjoy the oysters which we bought :-)) They are very cheap at the market; this 'bakers' dozen cost €4.40

Round and About : 'Marthon' Part One

2012-01-13T17:21:00.000+01:00

On Monday we had occasion to visit the small historic town of Marthon to do some business. We thought it was an interesting place, and with lots of photos taken, Nigel will help me write this up in two parts.

Situated near the border with neighbouring Dordogne, on the banks of the gently flowing (well, most of the time, I hope!) river Bandiat, it reportedly has a population of about 500, hardly different from the year 1793, when records appear to start! In the late 1800’s, the townspeople numbered in excess of 700, but where they all went, we could not discover!

When we arrived we quickly found a small car-park; my first photo was of what I presume to be residential accommodation over some offices. Note the two pigeons in the pigeonnier!

We walked under this old arch

into the centre of the town, imaginatively called "Main Street" and the main road through the town.

As in most small French towns, a weekly market is held; here in Marthon in a small flagged ground level space under one of the ancient stone buildings in this street.

One can understand how little this place has changed over the last 600 years or so. Not much concession is made for the motor vehicle! We saw a large articulated lorry negotiating this street - it mostly filled the space you can see between the dotted parking lines on the left and the kerb on the right!

The few narrow streets in the town centre are dominated by the ruins of the Chateau de Marthon, a polygonal shaped castle built in the Middle Ages. In its time, it must have been a formidable structure, providing means of shelter for the local residents from attack by hostile forces. These were the days of the 100 Years War between England and France, when the English occupied and controlled vast swathes of the countryside in this area. Today, only the castle keep and a few other bits of wall remain, as you can see in the following pictures. This fragile tower is set high and clearly visible from all around. It was reduced in height by 1 metre in 1960, presumably for safety reasons, as it is now looking rather wobbly!

This cave was under the castle; it looked pretty empty and I was not brave enough to go under the building to look closer!

The view from the castle with the church in the distance - centre of photo, just above the wall

The river Bandiat running through the trees, with another small village and farm land in the background

The local hotel and restaurant - lunch (generally 5 courses) for 11 euro!

Hope that you enjoyed the first part of this walk about; the photos of the church and the river will be in part two.

Cream of Celery Soup

2012-01-09T15:22:00.001+01:00

We have had a good supply of celery from the garden this winter, and as soup is so warming, it often appears on the lunch menu! Here is my recipe, made up as I went along!

CREAM OF CELERY SOUP

3 medium onions chopped coarsely

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons of oil

1 whole celery plant (mine was from my garden so I used the many outside stalks for this; centre stalks kept for eating separately). The outside stalks were a bit stringy, so we chopped them into very short pieces (6mm/quarter inch) to avoid the strings

5 medium peeled potatoes, chopped coarsely

2 bay leaves broken up with stalk removed

1 chilli chopped (optional)

chicken stock or water with a stock cube

Milk

1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

6 to 8 whole black peppercorns

10 parsley stalks with leaves. Chop the stalks and the parsley leaves separately

Cream or crème fraiche

In a large saucepan, sauté onion in butter and oil until soft. Add chopped celery, potatoes, bay leaves, chilli, parsley stalks and salt and peppercorns. Add equal amounts of stock (water & stock cube if using) and milk until the vegetables are almost covered. They will soon soften and settle under the liquid. Reduce heat and simmer vegetables gently until tender.

Put in liquidiser with the parsley leaves and liquidise until smooth. (You may have to do two lots). I use a wand and liquidise in the saucepan.

Return the soup to pan if necessary, and heat through for 2-3 minutes until steaming hot. Season to taste.

Add a whirl of cream or crème fraiche just before serving.

This soup keeps well in the fridge for several days or it freezes well.

P.S. yesterday I added a tablespoon of herbes provence (mixed herbs) and it was even better!

Just liquidised in the saucepan, if a bit thick, add a little extra milk or cream

and the end product. Enjoy.

CATCHING UP !

2012-01-05T13:58:00.000+01:00

Well, Christmas and New Year is now behind us, and thanks to the lack of internet connection, I am running well behind schedule! See the last post for the reasons! We now have yet another new modem, which, touch wood, has worked for two days running!

I was going to do a post after Christmas day, but due to technology, I have not had the necessary facilities. We had a very quiet day on the 25th, with just the two of us, and Nigel was not feeling well, with a sore throat. He did manage to get through Christmas lunch and after that he steadily went downhill. We started the day with almost a white Christmas, as we had quite a heavy frost.

Our Christmas lunch menu changed right at the last minute, as we found a supermarket duck on special offer! All menu plans that had been partially in my mind changed decisively after this lucky acquisition. We also managed to find some reasonably priced smoked salmon, so that was starters organised.

You can barely see the small slices of circular bread under the salmon, but this bread is specially made for the purpose, and has a lovely lemon flavour to it. We only discovered this bread in the supermarket recently when I was looking for snacks for friends coming for a drink. It was a great find.

I forgot to take a photo before I started slicing, so you are now viewing part two!! The duck was not quite as pink as I would have liked, but it did taste delicious. I served it with roast potatoes, the latter from our summer garden, and beans that I had bottled - also from the garden. There was an amazing amount of meat on quite a small duck; we had two cooked meals each and then two final portions cold for lunch. The carcass went in the pot with some vegetables and we thoroughly enjoyed the resulting soup.

We followed this with cheese, which the camera did not capture, and then Christmas pudding with rum sauce.

This was accompanied by Roche Mazet Syrah. A favourite of ours, it is a good value Rosé wine from South West France

The Christmas cake I made remained unsampled for several days, as Nigel was quite simply not very hungry. He's making up for it now!

On Boxing Day morning we had been invited to drinks, and Nigel decided that if he stoked himself up with medicine, he just may make it. It was a gorgeous day, blue sky and the sun shining down. The car was reading temperatures of 10ºC (approx 48F). I could not believe this was Christmas; it was a very abnormal weather pattern. Hopefully this was not to be the lull before the storm!!

A few photos I took while driving through the wooded lanes to our friends.

I have never noticed this painting on the barn wall before and it is a road that I use quite often. I suspect it may be quite new.

On guard !

and what the dog is guarding.

Just a view of the road and countryside with a blue sky.

A few stone houses seen en route.

I do not think I have ever seen a horse's mane quite this long. These horses also appeared to be enjoying the weather.

and last but not least, a wintry sunset on Boxing day at home.

OFFLINE

2011-12-31T14:49:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that I have not gone AWOL!! Our modem was giving trouble, so we arranged to get a new one two days after Christmas. The replacement when switched on in the morning, connects very briefly, then disconnects for the remainder of the day!!!! The broadband company cannot solve the problem remotely, so the earliest we can get a technician here is the afternoon of 4 January. IF it then all works, I will be back blogging ASAP.

Happy New Year

This is sent with thanks to a friend down the road. Be with you all again soon (I hope). Diane

Joyeux Noël et bonne année / Happy holidays

2011-12-20T15:05:00.001+01:00

To all my followers who celebrate Christmas and the New Year, I offer the following greetings:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Joyeux Noël et bonne année
Geseënde Kersfees en 'n gelukkige nuwe jaar

Glædelig jul og godt nytår
Prettige kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr

Καλά Χριστούγεννα! God jul och gott nytt år
Beannachtaí an tSéasúir
Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo

Feliz Natal e um Prospero Ano Novo
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Sawadee Pee Mai

I am sure that I have omitted many languages, particularly those from Asia, but I have tried :)

To all those that celebrate at other times of the year, may I wish you happy holidays and a fantastic 2012!

These photos were taken around our local shops and supermarkets. Sadly, as you will have read in my last post, the Christmas fair did not happen!!

Wishing you all a Happy and peaceful Christmas, and a very healthy and prosperous New Year from the Charente.

Tempete (Storm) Joachim in France

2011-12-17T13:29:00.000+01:00

Storm Joachim raged eastwards across France on Thursday night and Friday. As I type this on Saturday morning, I gather that there are still 70,000 houses without power. Eight departments are on orange alert for flood risk, and three for avalanche risk. Rail and air transport pretty much came to a standstill, but it appears that they are back to normal today.

Yesterday, we had planned to go to a local village which has the biggest Christmas Fair in the area, to take photos for you all. I am sure it must have been cancelled; there was no way that they could have managed in the main street with the torrential rain and the gale force winds. Very sad, as I was so looking forward to it.

I thought you would be interested in a few photos taken locally of a small stream that runs through Vitrac St Vincent. It is normally only 2-3 metres (7-10 feet) wide and very placid!

Thankfully we had no damage at home, but there are large branches and trees down in many places, and on the West coast many people had to be evacuated from their homes. At least we do not have to water the garden with 60mm (about 2.5 inches) of rain overnight and during the morning!

Guess you could always swim to the picnic table which is on a mound.

This is where the stream passes between several houses so it has to remain narrow, but I wonder how much water has actually gone into these homes!

Finally the clouds break and lift, while the sun leaves a delicate pink tinge.

Champagnac-la-Riviere

2011-12-14T16:36:00.002+01:00

I have looked everywhere I can think of for some history on Champagnac-la-Riviere, but I am unable to find anything except dry facts and statistics! Despite it being so apparently undistinguished, and having taken the photos earlier in the year, I thought I would go ahead and let you see what a lovely little village it is.
Champagnac-la-Rivière has about 558 inhabitants and lies in the wooded Tardoire river valley, within the department of Haute Vienne. It is close to Oradour-sur-Vayres, part of the district of Rochechouart. For those that did not see my post on Oradour-sur Vayres, which does have some history attached to it, see HERE

I never did find the Château pictured above, despite following the signs to it!! I suspect it was behind closed gates at the end of an avenue of trees, but there was no sign at the gate!

Above and below, the pretty church. Sadly the doors were closed, so I could not take photos inside.

Thanks to Magda who has discovered for me it is the church of

Saint-Laurent-sur-Gorre: église 12è/15è.

This barn was just to the side of the church, which showed to me just how much the farming community and religious life are interlinked in rural France.

Above and below, some of the residential properties. According to one website I visited, there are 76 vacant properties in the village, one of which no doubt is the mansion pictured further on!

The following three photos are of the Mairie with the small travelling market outside. These mobile shops are indispensible to country folk who can't or don't want to travel far to the shops.

If you are interested in buying the mansion above, which requires lots of renovation(=money!), see the phone number below to contact.

This view of the same house, with the church spire behind, makes it look quite spectacular!!

The main street through the town sports a bar and a pizzeria, both of which looked very nice from the outside. I was there just before lunchtime, so there was little activity - everyone was at the market!

Of course no village or town in France would be complete without its war memorial.

Sorrel Soup

2011-12-07T18:02:00.001+01:00

I have at last managed to raise enough energy to make some soup! As there is so much sorrel in the garden (see my last post), that is what I decided to utilise. It really is very yummy, and so very quick and easy to make. I did, quite a long time ago, put a link to my cookery website for this soup, but here it is in full. I have had this recipe for some time, so cannot remember where it originated from.

Sorrel is very easy to grow, and seems to survive both hot and cold weather. If you have never tried it, please give it a go. I love adding the leaves to salads, as it gives a nice tangy flavour and I often add it to my chard or spinach dishes as well. Rumex sp. R. scutatus (French sorrel), R. acetosa (garden sorrel),

Bunch of Sorrel

SORREL SOUP
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
2 chopped cloves garlic
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 cup chopped chives
3 tbsp. butter
Large bunch of coarsely chopped sorrel - stalk removed
1 litre hot chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onions, carrots and garlic in butter until soft. Add flour and sauté about 2 minutes. Add a small amount of the stock to prevent burning, stir and then add sorrel and chives, sauté until wilted. Add remainder of stock slowly while stirring, then simmer 3 to 4 minutes to develop the flavor. Season to taste.
Liquidise lightly and serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese or a little cream.

Enjoy

My November Garden

2011-11-30T13:38:00.000+01:00

Just a few photos taken around the garden this month. It is surprising that we still have butterflies flying around, as well as flowers in bloom that should be well over. I even have bulbs that are coming up, but I have no idea what they are! Watch this space!

Cosmos still giving a show of colour

The snowball bush which looks so magnificent clothed in white in spring, but looks equally good in its autumn colours

A fallen rose, there is one more bud, but I wonder if it will ever open!

Thriving marigolds

The hydrangea still has a bit of colour, though fading fast.

Peacock Butterfly

I am not sure what this insect is, but I am certain it is doing an excellent pollination job!

Love lies bleeding is still hanging in there, though looking a little jaded.

A few zinnias still giving a bit of bright colour

The medlar fruit is only supposed to be collected when the leaves turn yellow, which they have now started to do. Meanwhile, there is little fruit left on the tree; it has already dropped and the butterflies are enjoying the remains squashed by the last lawnmower excursion of the year.

Still masses of red hot chilli peppers

Healthy chard

Winter beetroot; we have had a couple and they taste pretty good to me!

Cabbage

Sorrel; I love sorrel soup, but my energy levels have been low and I have not made any since we returned.

Celery

Another younger batch of beetroot and celery plus some celeriac, more chard and a few leeks. Yes that is a potato plant growing in the foreground but unplanned!!

For those that have kindly been asking after my health, we had a very difficult visit to the lady specialist doctor yessterday; she did not speak one word of English and with medical terms it was not easy. Nigel can cope with simple conversation, if it is not too fast but....... under the circumstances he did very well. It is thought that the cough is possibly an allergy, but the medical brigade are not at this stage too sure what!

I have come back with enough tablets to make me rattle and I have to go for x-rays; we think I have to see her again in two weeks time but …….. our own Dr says he will phone her and will then phone us back with what he can find out!

All I want to do is to stop coughing so we will see what all these tablets will do…..

The laptop is still not well either - I am working on the old, very slow laptop!!

Armistice Day - 11 November 2011

2011-11-22T14:40:00.001+01:00

As is well known, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the Allied and German forces signed an armistice (technically not a surrender) which marked the cessation of First World War hostilities on the Western Front in north-east France. What is less well known is that hostilities continued in other regions, especially in parts of what are now Russia and Turkey, for some time afterwards.

The date was declared a national holiday in many Allied nations, to commemorate those members of the armed forces who were killed during the War. Observance of the day now includes remembrance of all those who fought and gave their lives in all Wars since then.

In our locality, sited near the boundary between Occupied France (about 60% of the country and controlled by the German army) and Vichy France (the balance, run by that part of the French army which had signed an armistice with the Germans and hence under their control) in the Second World War and hence an active area for the French Resistance, the day is particularly significant. One of the main roads through the area is named after Claude Bonnier, the leader of the French Resistance in the area.

Below is a picture of the Remembrance ceremony at our local war memorial. A small unit of the French Army was present to represent the country's military at this important occasion.

One of our local residents has an impressive collection of First World War memorabilia and the following three photos show a part of a small exhibition which he had laid out in the Salle des Fetes for public viewing.

And to close, here is a picture of us at the Remembrance ceremony, all dressed up with poppies and warm clothing - a cold wind was blowing, but we were warmed up afterwards by a selection of whisky, pineau (a local drink 50% cognac and 50% wine) and pastis (an aniseed based spirit - Ricard is a well known trade name), all of which were on offer at the exhibition!

Thanks to Nigel for all his help once more in this post. For those of you who have kindly asked after my health, I am still coughing a little during the day, the new medication has helped, but at night I am still coughing badly. My Dr is at this moment trying to make arrangements for me to see a specialist who we hope may come up with some answers. With the continual coughing I suspect that I have now cracked a rib, but as there is little that can be done for it, I hope that it will heal in its own good time. I have cracked many ribs during my riding days so I know the feeling well!!

Please note that my laptop is seriously playing up so if there are delays in my comments you know why!!!

The Drive south......

2011-11-14T14:23:00.000+01:00

Many of my readers will know this drive so well, but I thought that I would put on a series of photos for readers from other parts of the world. Sadly the sun always seemed to be in our eyes, whichever road were were on, and many photos were taken on the move with my £70 Samsung, so I ask your forebearance with the quality!

Autumn colours by the side of the M20 heading out of London to the Channel Tunnel

Not sure, but this was probably a junction between the M25 and M20, but I thought it was an interesting photo of the four level intersection.

The Folkestone White Horse is a stylised figure carved into the chalk of Cheriton Hill near the Kent coastal town; an echo of the more famous and much older similar figures in southern England. It overlooks the English terminal of the Channel Tunnel and was completed in June 2003.

In the queue waiting to board the train that takes us through the tunnel

and on the train. I may add here that I hate the tunnel; when on my own I always travel by ferry. I am not happy with the closed in feeling and being under the sea!

Environmentally friendly maybe, but I am still happier 'on top'.

In my view, the French have brilliant graphics on their motorway signage and the signs often inspire me to dig a little into the history illustrated on them. This sign, and the one that follows, are in northern France and depict events from the Second World War, fought bitterly in this area.

La Coupole is a bunker complex built by Nazi Germany in 1943-1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets against London and southern England. Constructed in a chalk quarry, the complex comprised an immense concrete dome above a network of tunnels that were to house the rocket launch facilities. However, due to heavy bombing by Allied forces, the Germans were unable to complete the work and it was captured by the Canadian Army in September 1944 The site was subsequently abandoned and it lay derelict until the mid-1990s when it was redeveloped by the French into a museum.

Eperlecques is the site of another part completed rocket launch base, built and captured in the same time scale as La Coupole. It was designed to launch up to 36 rockets daily and was constructed with the aid of 2000 slave workers. Today, the bunker is preserved as part of a privately owned museum that presents the history of the site and the German rocket programme. It has been protected by the French state as a Monument Historique since 1986.

A shorter route south was suggested to us, and mistakenly we thought Paris might be quieter on a Sunday, so we took a trip on the Paris "Peripherique" (ring road).... Not a good idea!

Most of the views we had of the great city (above and below) were all underground!! I wouldn't like this in the daily rush hour!

Beauce is a highly productive, very flat, agricultural region southwest of Paris planted mainly with wheat, sugar beet, maize (corn) and barley.. Production has been diversified to include rape seed, potatoes, vegetables (for the canning and frozen food industries), and pulses.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see.....

Valencay is in the Loire valley. Its 12^th century Castle was rebuilt in 1540, but an owner in 1747 knocked down a lot of the building; the much reduced castle is what can be seen today. Its owners seem to have struggled with finance and taxes – nothing changes!

Le Dorat is an ancient town in the Limousin area, with fine examples of Romanesque architecture, especially the 11th Century Collegiate of Saint-Pierre, pictured here.

We took many pictures of road signs, but due to the adverse light conditions, the above were the only ones worth publishing!!

Finally we made it home!

and the boxes and furniture arrived the next day

to await unpacking!

This post has, with Nigel's help, taken several days to write. I am still not well and I have a really bad cough which is causing major headaches. What with lack of sleep I am not a very happy person at the moment. I see the Dr again this afternoon so fingers crossed...... I will get back to blogging eventually!

Well, we're back together, in France!

2011-11-03T17:11:00.002+01:00

Firstly, thank you to everyone for all your kind comments. I did manage to answer a few, but with one thing and another, I'm sorry that I didn't have time to get to you all.......

My drive back to the UK house went well, and I stopped off en route to say au revoir to four ex Rhodesian friends, who all live in the English counties to the south of London.

I managed a couple a days of packing before I went down with the worst cold/flu that I can ever remember having! I felt terrible, but the packing had to continue, albeit much more slowly than before! Nigel was also unwell, but maybe his winter flu jab helped him avoid the full effects. I had my flu shot a few days later, so I hoped that would be the end of it all. No such luck and I still have a really bad cough!

Nigel completed his last day at work on Friday 21 October and the day of moving (29 October) arrived quicker than we could bat an eyelid! Keith, our France-based "man and van" turned up as arranged, and with a neighbour's help, we had the van loaded quite quickly and on its way to France.

Keith and his capacious van provide a service we highly recommend to anyone moving to or from the UK to Europe. He is friendly, reliable, reasonably priced and can pack like a magician; we never thought that it was possible to get all our bits into the van but manage it, he did. He does deliveries, removals and collections, full and part loads, works throughout UK, France and Europe including islands. and has storage facilities in both UK and France. For quotes and enquires, email keith232@hotmail.com

This is the back half of the van when the doors were opened! Up front was the fridge, the freezer, the tumble dryer, innumerable cardboard boxes, not to mention the euonymous plant in its barrel!!!

It had just passed mid-day when the van left and we were also ready to depart on the trip south ourselves, when we detected a binding front brake problem on the Clio. Luck has to be on your side occasionally, and on this Saturday lunchtime, it was! One mechanic was still at our local garage and he sorted out the problem in double quick time. When Nigel asked how much he owed, the mechanic said his reward would be for us to have a safe trip to France! Exceptional (and all too rare) service!

At the moment we are in total chaos dealing with a van-load of boxes, but the most important thing is we are both here at last. There is much sorting out to do but I will be back blogging when I have more time/ feel better. A bientôt!

Taking a Break

2011-10-03T09:37:00.000+02:00

This post is just to let you know that I will be "off air" until sometime in November. We have a number of major changes happening in our life and I need some time out to get things in order. I am driving back to the UK this week and Nigel and I will be packing up the house over there and taking the opportunity to visit friends and family while we have the chance. Nigel has at last handed in his notice at work and the van arrives for our furniture at the end of October. November and December will be the time for resettling in France on a permanent basis. These events have been a long time in arriving and we hope that all runs smoothly, especially for the Euro!! We didn't pick a good time to adopt it full time! I cannot believe we bought here in France in 2006, and for so much of that time Nigel and I have been separated. Hopefully happy days are ahead and Nigel will get the chance to unwind and relax a bit.

I'll finish with a few random photos taken over the last couple of months. 'See' you all very soon. If I get the the chance, I will pop in and leave you the odd comment.

Red Admiral

Vegetables still doing well at the end of September.

Around the garden, pampas.

Windswept skies that look just like a waterfall to me.

Morning sunrise.

Evening sunset.

Blue Tit peeking through the lounge window

I think this is a bush cricket, but my identification of insects is never very good!!

OK so now I am hopping off for a short spell.

A Bientôt

Green Bean Special

2011-09-29T15:32:00.000+02:00

I'm still picking quite a lot of green beans from the garden, so I decided it was time to think what else I could do with them, apart from the usual options. Looking in the fridge to see what other garden produce was there, I came up with this original (??) recipe.

I put a small dollop of butter and a little olive oil in the bottom of a saucepan; no, I did not measure either of these!

I then added:-

1 sliced medium onion
1 sliced green pepper
1 small chili (optional)
A double handful of green beans topped and tailed and cut in half
1 yellow courgette (zucchini) sliced.

I cooked this all lightly for a few minutes then added:-

1 chopped medium to large tomato
1 heaped teaspoon of curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

I put the lid on for 5 minutes, stirring in the middle of the time. The vegetables were still quite crisp and I then added 2 good size dollops of creme fraiche and cooked for 1 minute.

I quite enjoyed the dish hot, but cold as a salad it was absolutely delicious.

Enjoy- and soooo easy!

Chimney Sweep

2011-09-24T13:37:00.000+02:00

No, this is not the story of Mary Poppins, or of Dick van Dyke, but the story of my French roofer, who I discovered this year is a chimney sweep as well. I was expecting to get a photo of a black, grimy face with white eyes peering out of it, but it seems the job is much cleaner these days, than when poor young children were taken on to do the job in the chimneys of days gone by.

Although we have owned the house for 6 years now, because we are not here in the middle of winter, we have not worried about the state of the chimney. We did not know when it had last been cleaned before we bought the house, but we thought that maybe it was time we did something about it. With a fire in the chimney and no proof of annual cleaning, the insurance will not pay out!!

It was not as easy as planned; the whole woodburner stove had to be uncoupled and moved forward so that he could cover the fire place, work from the top and collect all the junk at the bottom.

Having never seen a chimney sweep at work before, I was fascinated, and also delighted, that I would not have a soot covered salon

Up the ladder; sorry to say, the sun was in front of me, despite being in the late afternoon and I could not get a better focus! Moving to the other side....

Removing the very heavy concrete block from the top of the chimney. Our chimney sweep is very short and slim but is incredibly strong. Earlier this year he carried a railway sleeper across the garden for me single handed!!!

Getting started

Luckily he has good balance

and no fear of heights!! Health and Safety? what's that?

The difficult part lifting the concrete block back up again. I could hear the grunts from the ground and could see the straining muscle.

Phew- made it.

Just look at that, all spotless and back in place. I might add I am very glad the blue cover was there; at least 15cms (6 ins) of black yuck, spread over the whole floor of the fire place, was vacuumed up - so pleased it was done, but then it all has to happen again next year!

Just as the work was completed, our neighbour (who also wanted his chimney cleaned) arrived with the deputy mayor, and we all celebrated the achievements with a drink or 3.

Some Like it Hot - we do !!

2011-09-18T19:48:00.001+02:00

SWEET CHILLI SAUCE

Courtesy of Galloping-Gourmets

I have been blessed with a gigantic crop of chillies this year and decided this is one of the best ways of preserving them. I have also dried some, and frozen some more, but freezer space is short, so it is out with the jars!!

1 kg of peeled chopped de-seeded tomatoes (masses in the garden this year)

2 table spoons of grated or finely chopped fresh and juicy ginger
A whole head of garlic, peeled and chopped

18 large red chillies - (the original recipe said 8 but I decided it need more kick!) use your discretion !
4 Tbs of Fish Sauce (Nuoc Mam in France)
600g sugar
200ml of vinegar (I used tarragon white wine vinegar but apparently any sort works)

After peeling, deseeding and roughly chopping the tomatoes, put in a blender. Blend lightly, then add the ginger and the garlic and blend for a couple of minutes.

Chop up the chillies, seeds and all, leaving the stalks – advisable to wear gloves for this!

Add all this to the tomatoes and blitz to a puree in a processor -

Add the 4 tablespoons of fish sauce.

Put all this mixture into a big pan, then add 600g of sugar and 200ml vinegar

Stir well and bring to the boil. Cook on medium heat for a while stirring occasionally, as it thickens, turn down heat to simmer. A small froth or scum will form - skim this off and discard

Keep simmering stirring occasionally. When the sauce has thickened and reduced, pour into the jars; seal and label. Best to leave for a month before using. It will probably make about 4 normal size jam jars full. As you can see I am using up whatever bottles I have available!

I might add that my Father-in-Law who says he has lost his taste with age thinks this sauce is wonderful, he can taste it!!! Beware, très fort (very hot).

Enjoy.

Oradour-sur-Vayres

2011-09-13T14:46:00.000+02:00

Oradour-sur-Vayres was spared the appalling wartime fate of its similarly named near-neighbour Oradour-sur-Glane, as a result of an error made by a German Waffen SS battalion commander in 1944, when they were retreating from the fighting taking place after the D-day landings in Normandy. French collaborators told the SS that one of their officers was being held by the Resistance in Oradour-sur-Vayres. (Wikipedia)

The SS battalion, commanded by Diekmann, instead sealed off the town of Oradour-sur-Glane, (see my post HERE) having confused it with nearby Oradour-sur-Vayres and ordered all the townspeople – and anyone who happened to be in or near the town – to assemble in the village square. I will not go into details here as my previous post covers the story. Enough to say that Oradour-sur-Vayres escaped the mass murder and these are a few photos that I took there earlier this year.

As always the photos are viewed much better enlarged with a simple click.

Arriving at the town, the first thing I saw was this beautifully laid out roundabout

After parking my car, the building which then took my eye was the church, with the war memorial to the side of it

I walked around to the front of the church, which I have since discovered has very recently been restored

I walked inside and took the following photos of the quite lovely interior

After leaving the church, I wandered just up the road to the beautiful building that was the town hall (Hotel de Ville)

Looking back down the road you can see the town hall on the left and the church further down on the right

A view of the back of the town hall and behind where there is a lovely park

Some views of the smaller typically French streets

I took this photo when driving through the town last month. I thought it looked pretty with the flags; they had obviously been doing some celebrating.

A large scale map for walkers and ramblers. Many small towns in France offer this facility to visitors

The official website of the town (in French) http://www.oradour-sur-vayres.fr/

It was a dark and stormy night!

2011-09-06T20:03:00.001+02:00

There was a very noisy and stormy evening here a few days ago. I was fascinated by the changing sky and took several photos from various positions, which I thought you might enjoy. I have to say that, at the end of this celestial display, despite watching the rain falling not too far away, we did not receive one single drop!! The clouds and thunder circled all around us for a while, then dispersed for about three quarters of an hour, only to return with even more visual and sound effects. I have tried to place the photos in the order that I took them.

Early on, with the rain very visible at the back on the right

My neighbour's sheep in the foreground, getting on with what sheep do!

The sun just starting to set

This looked like flames in the sky to me

Suddenly the sky started to clear

As the sun caught the edges of the cloud

But then it returned with a vengeance

August Around the Garden Part 2

2011-09-02T13:08:00.004+02:00

I have not really got many flower beds, but what there are, appear to produce some amazing blooms. The seeds are mostly out of cheap mixed packets, so I have not got a clue what I am growing, even after they flower, as I have insufficient knowledge to be able to identify them!! Here is a selection of some.

A mixed selection

Perhaps one of you out there can tell me what this beautiful specimen is

Linda and Sheila both think that this is a marigold, so I will happily go with their thoughts. Thanks to both of you.

Zinnia

Mixed Zinnias, Pink cornflower to the right.

Cosmos, see header photo also

Hydrangea

I think that this is Love lies Bleeding

My favourite rose with the best perfume ever. I tried to find out what its name is from the local nursery, but I was told that I would need to take a flower to the Royal Horticultural Society to find out. That means I will never discover its name!!!

This is not the "normal" sunflower; not only is the seed a completely different shape to the norm, but there are about 15 branches on this plant and each branch has up to to 8 or 9 flowers or buds. It is at least 2,5 metres tall or 8 to 9 feet. It smiles in many ways every day at me!

and a few interesting bugs -

finally this pretty little specimen

I looked in my book, but gave up on the identification.

Noushka help please!!

Noushka says "it is a bug larva! They all look quite alike at this stage and it will have to go through 1 or 2 more moults! I'll see tomorrow if I can be more accurate!"

Further from Noushka :- I think it is a Shield bug larva, going by the of Carpocoris purpureipennis! If that helps!

See here, mid-page:http://aramel.free.fr/INSECTES10bisbis-01.shtml Aramel is good place to start looking for ID's. Otherwise, you can find links to all sorts of "reference website" on my blog!

August Around the Vegetable Garden

2011-08-28T19:39:00.000+02:00

A stroll around the vegetable garden during the month of August revealed the following sights; the flowers in our garden will follow in the next post.

The artichoke that did not get eaten!!

Young chard

Celery

Aubergine (Egg fruit/plant)

Green beans

Baby beetroot

Young cabbage

Red hot (I know from experience) chillies

Yellow courgettes (zucchini)

Peppers

Pumpkins

Tomatoes

Figs - always plentiful here

Granny Smith apples - my favourite

Quinces by the dozen; I have a VERY healthy crop this year!! Removal of an old plum tree close by a year ago has certainly encouraged growth. Now up to my ears in quince jam and jelly; we have passed some round to our neighbours and will look forward to eating our way through the rest during 2012!

The large ones above are, I think, even hotter than the little ones - Chilli sauce and jelly coming up....

Methinks I am going to be busy in the kitchen - quinces, figs, chillies etc, but so glad the late rains ( and a lot of work) have provided such a bountiful harvest.

Meeting Another Blogger and The Winner is.......

2011-08-24T12:00:00.001+02:00

Early last week, I took a drive to see Roz and her husband Neil from Dirty Feet and Rubble in my Hair . What a delightful couple! Neil was busy building his workshop and what a magnificent job he is doing. So as not to disrupt the good work, we left him to it. Meanwhile Roz took me off to see the horses that she works with, and also one of her own. Having lived and breathed horses for many, many years of my life, it was such a pleasure to be back among them. Roz had told me what great horses Friesians were and what fantastic temperaments they have; how right she was - I have never seen such friendly horses. So much so, that it was difficult to take photos. They just wanted to have a fuss made of them. It is a breed that I have not encountered before, having worked in racing stables. I only had thoroughbreds in my care and most of my show jumpers were ex race horses.

I managed to catch these three as they came rushing across the paddock to meet us.

I am sure Roz will correct me if I am wrong, but here she is (I think) with with her own Friesian on the left. As all the Friesians are black, I was getting a bit confused as to which was which! The Chestnut is about the same age and is there for company.

The two youngest ones to be born; I love their curly coats, which sadly they will grow out of!

and with their Mums.

I could not resist taking a photo of this family on the farm. They are a very small breed and these little chaps are about the size of guinea pigs at the present time!! I would loved to have taken one home!!!

then there was this bunny who I suspect had made an escape from one of the runs; he was gorgeous with his long floppy ears.

Oops I digress, I went to see Roz and the horses! In the evening, Roz and her friends were practicing for a musical ride, which is coming up quite soon. I went along to watch and to see the Friesians at work. I gather that they make fantastic carriage horses and that they are excellent at dressage. I was also very interested to hear that the South African Police have recently acquired a number of Friesians to work with, because of their amazing temperaments.

Roz showing the paces; just look at that beautiful view behind her.

The riders concentrating hard. The horse on the left is a young stallion and although he was very full of himself, he behaved impeccably.

I think that there should be 8 riders in the full ride, but 2 were missing on the evening I was there. Here are the four Friesians together afterwards. Roz second from the right.

Thanks Roz for a fantastic day and taking the trouble to guide me all over the place. It was so good to be back with horses again after a long spell away.

AND

The winner of the giveaway is number 7 Dolly

Congratulations Dolly, I will be emailing you and the jewellery will be winging its way to you quite soon.

Going, Going, Gone!

2011-08-20T16:05:00.000+02:00

At the bottom of our garden, we had a beautiful cedar tree; on returning to France this year in April, we noticed that it was not looking very happy and within two months, it was very definitely dead and black. Plans had to be made to remove it, but as it was about 17 metres (55 feet) high, and it was surrounded by hedges and electric cables on two sides and my shrubs on the other two sides, it was work for professionals. The local neighbour was happy to bring it down for us, but we were worried that if something should go wrong, we didn't want to be the ones paying to sort it it! We eventually found a fairly local tree surgeon with excellent insurance and we felt much happier about going ahead with the job. All photos can be enlarged with a simple click on them.

The tree before we started; you can see how little space there is around it.

The tree surgeon on his way up to fix ropes and anchors

The lower branches already off, and if you look carefully you can see the chipper machine 'spitting' out the chippings of smaller bits of wood which we did not require for fire wood.

Out on a limb

In more ways than one!

Getting there

Last bit ready and

going

with a perfect landing.

Putting some style into the tree stump

and the mushroom appears

The large bits of trunk were put around the mushroom and now all I have to do is fill the centre with earth to make a raised garden. This should look spectacular next year (I hope), when it is planted and has plenty of colour.

The stack of firewood to keep us going for winter. We have been advised not to burn cedar on its own as the smoke is very tarry and clogs up the chimney, but we will use it with oak of which we also have a pile. The chimney is going to be cleaned this week, so winter here we come!

I would like to say thank you so much to Darren and his father who did all the hard work and left the garden in a spotless condition at the end of the day. To anyone who needs their help, I highly recommend them and they can be contacted on their website at www.viennetreeservices.com No, I don't make anything out of this! I just feel that their work was excellent, at a reasonable price and I am happy to make a recommendation. They work in Departments 86 Vienne, 16 Charente, 79 Deux-Sèvres and 17 Charente Maritime.

Don't forget the giveaway, see HERE to be drawn on the 24th August

The New Wall !

2011-08-14T19:24:00.000+02:00

We bought our house in France in 2005 and the photo below is what the front of the house looked like at that stage.

In 2006, we stripped the walls of the house of the old moth-eaten plaster, as you can see below, to expose the beautiful stone. In a bygone age, people had applied plaster to the stone walls of their houses to demonstrate to their neighbours their newfound wealth. We did the opposite!!

The shutters had received one coat of paint at the time of the photo below but you can clearly see what we thought was a solid gate and fence.

By 2010, solid it was not; strong winter winds and rain, together with too-short hinges and poorly seasoned supermarket timber used by the (now bankrupt) builder, had caused the gates to drop in the centre, so they didn't open properly. We had them replaced with new purpose made oak framed units, filled in with sequoia panels. These should last a bit longer, we hope! See HERE

By early 2011, we had got fed up with trying to patch the fence, which the wind had blown over a couple of times in the intervening years. The posts were rotten!

While Nigel was here in July, we removed the whole fence, and deposited the remains at the dump, which by this time was where it belonged!

At the end of July, we employed a local builder who dug the trench

and put in the foundations.

At the beginning of August, the wall was started

and by the afternoon it was at full height, only one man doing all the work!

Almost there, only tidying up still to do.

Now compare this photo with the first one, what an improvement :-)

I apologise for the strange tint in the last picture, but the camera obviously couldn't cope with the odd colour sky and a slight drizzle when I took this.

Nigel has not seen the wall in 'real life' yet, but I hope he will be as happy as I am when he gets here.

Don't forget the giveaway, see HERE to be drawn on the 24th August

Milestone: 200 Posts and another give-away!

2011-08-10T20:52:00.001+02:00

I have got a few good reasons for a give-away with this post! Firstly, this is my 200th post; they seem to have gone by in a flash and I have really enjoyed writing them! Secondly, another birthday is just around the corner and I don't want to think where that time has gone! Thirdly, this month sees our 30th wedding anniversary and what an amazing 30 years it has been. Sadly, we will be spending the day in different countries, but we can drink to each other over a video call on Skype. Celebrations will come later! What would we have done without Skype during our long periods of separation? - life would have been even more difficult, so a big thanks to them! I would like to say thank you so much to Nigel for a very happy 30 years, I hope it will be very soon that we are together in France and separation will be a thing of the past. We have done so much together, but so much apart; retirement, hopefully, will be a long and happy period of togetherness.

I have made the choker, bracelet and earrings, shown below, to give away; all you have to do to win them is to be a Google follower of my blog and comment on this post. Easy!! I will then select the lucky winner in two weeks time with random.org and notify you all of the result. The winner can then provide me with their postal address and I will send the package off!

I will finish this post with a few interesting statistics from the last 199 posts and my thanks to my loyal followers:-

All time history of page views = 26,890

Number of comments to date: 6,953

Blog with the most views = Mystery French classic car update 401 viewings
Second = Some bugs and insects around our Charente garden 205 viewings

Top 3 page views (by country) =
United Kingdom 6,245
United States 6,124
France 4,770

My blog has been viewed in 105 different countries; I am amazed and delighted but I think there are still another 60 countries out there which I must attract!!

At this milestone, my sincere thanks go to all my followers for their dedicated interest and comments to date; however, the most viewings from one person, have been made by my blogger friend Jean , so my thanks and appreciation go especially to her. I hope I can continue to find and write about subjects which will continue to attract and interest my followers.

Good luck with the give-away competition!

Exideuil

2011-08-05T16:46:00.000+02:00

In May, I visited the small town of Exideuil which is situated in the department of Charente, with the beautiful Vienne River running through it. It is also on the main railway line between Limoges and Angouleme. The inhabitants of Exideuil are called Exideuillais, and the town is on the edge of the world famous meteorite crater at Rochechouart.

The meteorite that hit the Earth between Pressignac and present day Rochechouart, is reputedly part of one of the 15 largest ever meteorites to make contact with our planet's surface (source: museum Paul Pellas, Rochechouart).

In 1969, scientific researchers in the region advanced a theory of a meteorite which hit about 214 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic age. It was about a mile wide or 1.5km in diameter and weighed some 6,000 million tons and hit at a speed of 20 km a second. The energy released was some 14 million times that of the Hiroshima bomb. A crater 20 - 25 kilometres wide was formed within 42 seconds of impact, vaporising some 8 cubic miles of the earth's crust and vitrifying a further 42 cubic miles. Phew!! All life within 300 miles of the impact at modern-day Rochechouart would have been wiped out. (Source: Association Pierre de la Lune).

For further reading please see HERE

The Mairie (Town Hall / Mayor's office)

The Vienne river which runs along the rear of the Mairie.

Houses in the main street. Note the well outside in the pavement; I bet this was a great meeting point in years gone by.

I just loved these roses that ran along the fence where I had parked the car

and I was completely fascinated by these two small doors under the fence with beautifull initials on them. The mind runs wild dreaming up what they may be there for, or what is behind them!

An attractive corner in the centre of town. Note that the streets were very quiet as I was there during the French 2 hour lunch break!

Of course, no town in France would be complete without its own war memorial.

The Church door

L'église Saint-André d'Exideuil

The steeple from various angles

Photos inside were far more difficult; the only light came from the doorway and I do not like using flash in these buildings. Many people object, and I do not want to incur the wrath of the locals!

I hope that you enjoyed this small tour. At some stage, I would like to go to the Rochechouart Meteorite Museum when Nigel is here and I will to do a post with more information on the Meteorite.

Turkey Wings

2011-07-31T21:03:00.001+02:00

Turkey Wings.

The other day, while out shopping, I saw a rare sight - packets of turkey wings, and on special offer! They were all trimmed, and only the thickest part of the wing was in the packet; 10 pieces in all and with the promise of lots of economical meals! Furthermore, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to try something new.

Ingredients

Turkey wings (I had 10)

Oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Garlic salt

Barbecue seasoning

1 Large onion

1 Red or green pepper

1 Small chilli

A little butter for sauteeing

5 tblesp Tomato sauce

Dash of Tabasco sauce

1 garlic clove (or more according to taste)

1 teasp oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

I put the wings into an oven pan with a light coating of olive oil, and sprinkled both sides with pepper, garlic salt and some barbecue seasoning. Popped them into the oven at 180˚C (356˚F) for about 45 mins.

Meanwhile I chopped the onion, pepper and chilli, sautéed them in a little butter until just soft. I added the tomato sauce and tabasco, cooked for a few minutes longer until just boiling. I then added the crushed garlic clove, some salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoon of oregano. I cooked it for a few more minutes, then switched off the heat.

I took the wings out of the oven at 45 mins and smothered the sauce over them; the dish then went back into the oven until the sauce had browned slightly and was bubbling well, about another 30 minutes.

Serve with vegetables of your choice; spiced rice works well. The meal was delicious and I will certainly keep an eye out for turkey wings when I next go shopping; they were not expensive and the big wings contain a lot of meat. Enjoy!

I apologise for the poor quality photos, but I almost forgot to take them....... all a bit of a rush, as the cooking seemed to take priority!!

C'est la vie

2011-07-28T12:16:00.002+02:00

When I was harvesting some potatoes the other day, I came across this small pile of eggs. Thanks to Susan's post of a few weeks ago, I immediately recognised them as lizard eggs. I carefully moved them to a sandy spot, where I hoped that they would continue to develop and hatch, without fear of me disturbing them with a spade or fork. You can see the size of them compared with my fingers; some were smaller than others.

Nearby I saw this little chap, no more that 25mm (an inch) long, who had presumably very recently hatched

Noushka tells me that these two photos are of newts. I was a little surprised as we have no water near us!

This lizard is a little bigger with markings, but still very small

adult wall lizards on a railway sleeper

and in the house

I managed to get this very distant picture of a hoopoe in the garden the other day and which I have tried to blow up so it is visible. You can see how the bits of rain we have had have greened up the lawn, though it is still quite brown in places!

and just to end off, I loved this evening sky of windswept clouds, which I took last night.

Charentaise Floor

2011-07-25T16:35:00.001+02:00

The Charentaise pebble floor that I have been following in the posts HERE and HERE has now been finished.

I have not seen it yet, but the owners, who spent many hours working on this floor, pebble by pebble, have sent me the following photographs.

Nearly there!

and finished.

It is very impressive and I am sure that they must be very proud of what they have achieved. Well done you two.

The Akubra hat and its control over rainfall

2011-07-20T09:53:00.001+02:00

Many years ago, while on a visit to relations in Australia, my husband treated himself to an Akubra hat - the Rolls Royce of Australian headwear. He thought that it would provide perfect protection against the sun in South Africa, which is where we lived at the time. It has in fact been rarely worn, as each time it came out of the cupboard to be worn, the heavens opened and the rain poured down. It became a joke that if we wanted it to rain, we just had to bring out the Akubra!!

Well, as we have had hardly any rain in our area of France since March, and the lawn is looking a bit like a fire has swept across it, we decided that it was time the hat made a trip to France. Nigel duly arrived at Limoges airport on 13 July (in a slight drizzle) and that night we had our first proper rain in months!! It has hardly stopped raining since and all the jobs that needed to be done outside are being well and truly delayed!

The magical rain hat!!

One of the jobs is to take the old wooden boundary fence down and dispose of it before the builders arrive to put up our new wall at the end of July. As Nigel has a problem with his feet, he has to take care and can only work in short bursts.

Looking at the weather forecast, this period of rain continues until the 25th (the day Nigel returns to the UK!) when the sun is due to come out once more!! Spooky maybe, but it is very strange that the rain commenced when the hat arrived. To date, we have had just over 30 mm (about 1.2 inches) in a week. Not a massive amount, but it certainly has made a huge difference. The rain has not been heavy, which is good, as the ground is so dry it would have just run off the top. I now understand why farmers are never happy with the weather; if only it would rain all night and the sun shine all day.

The results of the rainfall speak for themselves : -

Thanks Nigel, I will be wearing the hat after you leave and hope that it does the same for me. I might add that it is a bit big for me and I cannot see where I am going, but if it rains what the heck :-)

Nuits Romanes

2011-07-15T21:23:00.002+02:00

Last Friday, I went with my neighbours to the "Nuit Romanes" held in the 800 year old church of Saint Maixent in nearby Vitrac St Vincent. The name means the "Roman Arts" (see Here) (Merci Vagabonde for the info) or some people think it is "Romantic Nights" and for the seventh consecutive year, these cultural events (all free of charge!!) are being held at 100, yes one hundred!! different church and abbey venues throughout Poitou-Charentes (our department/county/state) during July and August. Culture is rightly very important to the French, they are determined to incorporate their ancient buildings in the celebrations and the high public demand ensures that each show is very well supported. At our event, the church was packed. We arrived early and managed to get seats for the first part of the two part show, but there were many later arrivals crammed into extra seats and standing space at the back of the small building.

The first part was musical, led by Matthew Saglio , a young and very talented cellist. I did not think this would be my type of music at all, but I was intrigued by his skill and the music he produced; it was a very magical and romantic moment in memorable surroundings. The whole show was in "son et lumiere" (sound and light) style - music with changing lighting effects. I am afraid that my photos are not very good, as not only was it dark, but I was not able to use the flash. I am sure, though, that the following will give you some idea.

The second part of the show was outside on a flat grassy area down by the river, and featured a group of fire dancers, two women and two men. Luckily it was a beautiful, but cool, evening, and although I had a jacket on, there were many people simply in short sleeves! Again I regret that the photography does not do justice to the skillful presentation; besides it being dark, the movements were so fast, it was difficult to capture adequate pictures with my little camera. I did take some videos, but because my internet connection is so slow, it is impossible to load them on this post.

There was also a film show outside the church which showed the history of the church and of Vitrac, and I believe that afterwards there was also a chance to taste some of the local farm produce - conventionally cheese and wine! As I was with friends, and they were ready to leave after the fire dancing, I missed the tasting opportunity, but nevertheless, it was well after 23h00 when I was dropped off at my front door. I am not aware of anything like this, certainly not on this scale, in the UK and I'll be keeping the event in my diary for next year!!!

For further information see http://www.nuitsromanes.poitou-charentes.fr/