Rural Life

Comice at Pontigne - part 1 - the dance

If it is August, it must be Comice time here in the Baugeois.  Last year was Chartrene, this year it was down to Pontigne to arrange it all, next year it is our turn - help!

Last year, with some young friends, we sang and danced the Windmill in Old Amsterdam - following the theme of fables and stories.  This year's theme was comic films, and as I was given the job of deciding what we would do and setting it all up, they had to put up with an English language film - the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  While much of it would be unsuitable for young, old, horses and cattle, the Time Warp sequence is a good ensemble piece and this year, I also had lots of volunteers.

We have been rehearsing in our garden for the past five weeks, and Saturday afternoon was the performance.  The stage had no shade at all, and we were all in black - I was even wearing a wool dinner jacket - and the shade temperature was 32 degrees by the time it was down to us to open the dance proceedings, so I could really have done without having to do an interview with the compere before we got started.  I am waiting to see one of the videos that was done, but we got a lot of applause and it felt right.

The tug of war that we also had to do that afternoon in the baking heat was a complete disaster - I will say no more about that.  I will do other posts about the decorated floats on the Sunday, but leave you with a photograph from the dress rehearsal last Friday, showing my fabulous troupe of dancers in their finest Transylvanian apparel.

Vegetables for high summer

The weather has turned a bit blustery here in the past 3 hours, but for lunch I was able to pick a good sized bowl of cherry tomatoes, like those shown below, and toss them in oil with feta cheese, basil, salt and pepper for a lovely lunch.  The tomatoes were still warm from the sun when we ate them.

 

Tonight I will be cooking duck legs - they are something that I can leave gently simmering away in the oven in a light stock and with a few vegetables until after the Time Warp rehearsal.  I think tonight I will do them with a couple of aubergines - these two have grown on nicely since the photo was taken!

 

Come winter, when we are desperate for a bit of warmth, these chillies will serve to warm us up from the inside! 

 

But I can hardly wait the 10 days to 2 weeks before these corn cobs are ready to pick - we get the water boiling away on the stove before I run up the garden, chose and pick the cobs, unwrapping them as I come back down the garden so as little as possible of the sugars turn to starch.  Some say I am obsessive about this, but it is worth it!