Rural Life

Heat and Fire

I've lost count of the number of official heatwaves we have had so far this year.  The current one - is it 5 or 6? - has been going on a long time and still has a day or two to go, although we are past the peak, thank goodness.  Everyone is getting bored and tetchy with it all - the continual heat, the challenges of keeping the house faintly cooler than outside, the restrictions, are all wearing people down. 

The latest heatwave has brought in local restrictions on access to woodland areas and what you can do in or near them.  This is a sensible precaution as there is a breeze, everything is tinder dry, there is little standing water outside of major lakes and water courses and we still see the ravages of the big forest fire from 3 years ago.  The Prefet has therefore banned all access to woodland areas between midday and midnight from Friday 15th August to Tuesday 19th August.  This has upset a lot of people.

This is because at Vernoil le Fourrier every 15th August there is the Festival of Hunting.  The grounds they use are, I gather, rather spectacular, on the edge of a major forest and partly wooded to ensure shade for horses and dogs (and humans).  It runs from 10am in the morning, with demonstrations, stalls, exhibitions, feasting and drinking, and is rounded off by fireworks before closing at midnight.  Despite arguments from the organisers that they had lots of tanks of water around the site, that all their visitors were responsible human beings, that it was all a bit unfair and "nanny state", the Prefet was unmoved, and they could only open for 4 hours, from 10am to 2pm.  The weeping and wailing and calling it all unfair has swept across social media and the press.

Not far from the land that we rent, there is a rather splendid chapel - Notre Dame de Montplacé.  The 15th August is a bank holiday in much of Europe for Assumption, celebrating Mary's ascent into Heaven, if you believe in such things.  There is therefore a pilgrimage to the chapel, and a well attended Mass is celebrated at 11am, drawing in the faithful from a fairly wide area.  It isn't too close to woodland, but it is surrounded by fields and copses. 

When we left that area on midday on Friday (tending our plants and cats, not attending Mass), there were lots of cars parked up at the chapel, and yesterday when we left that area, we found that there had been a scrub fire at the end of the track leading away from the parking area.  Today we stopped to look and photograph the damage. 

It would appear to have been a car fire, burning furiously hot (chunks of melted metal and evidence of totally destroyed tyres), which spread into the surrounding grassland, fortunately stopped by broadleaf scrub and presumably some form of fire extinguishing intervention.  Certainly the bulk of the car has been taken away.

I'm not at all sorry the Hunting Festival was brought to a halt at midday.  If a few pilgrims can lead to a small fire, what could a few thousand people on the edge of woodland do?

The heat is doing great things for the garden, however!

This is becoming a daily standard of what gets harvested.  OK we don't have aubergines every day, but the tomatoes are becoming a challenge commensurate with the courgette problem that has been going on for some 6 weeks now.  Then there are the Victoria plums - I've picked loads, and loads have fallen off, and still the tree is overloaded!

I've made jam, I've made crumbles for the freezer, I have a recipe to try for plum fool, and I have a burping barrel in the cellar that takes anything that isn't perfect or that falls on the floor.

And while it is still only mid-August, there are signs of autumn creeping up on us.  Trees that like nice moist soils (poplar, willow) are giving up and their leaves are turning colour and falling.  The swallows and house martens are starting to think about who they want to travel south with (the swifts are long gone).  The evenings are drawing in - while we aren't allowed to water vegetable gardens until 8pm at night (and only until 8am), the gap between 8pm and sunset not long after 9pm gets ever shorter.  The smoke from the wildfires in Portugal has also shortened the light at dusk, which doesn't help any either. 

However a happy harbinger of autumn is also appearing, as cyclamen flowers appear in the lawn, hedgerows, and woodland (when you are allowed in).  Such a pretty flower!

Next weekend is the Comice and Sunday is the parade of decorated floats, and I'll be on ours.  So the blog will not appear until Monday, because I will be way too busy to do anything else next Sunday!

Wish me luck, not least with the weather, and have a good week!

 

Full on harvesting

Down the road at Fontaine Guerin, they might be celebrating the ancient arts of harvesting, but here we are just trying to keep on top of things and failing to a greater extent.  Last weekend we did manage to gather about 4 pounds of blackberries, which were turned into the first Bramble Jelly I have made in years.  The temptation to eat it all very quickly must be constrained, not least as the less durable jams need to be made and used first.  It always looks lovely when it is doing its hard boil phase!

We are now up to 188 courgettes, not counting the ones that "got away" and turned into chicken food about a foot long.  I'm testing freezing courgette cake (savoury with cheese and chilli), and if that works, will be making more for the freezer.  You can't eat a loaf of that a week or you end up looking like a cake yourself!!  I must also give the courgette bhaji recipe another go now the onions have been lifted.

We are drowning under tomatoes, and that is before the main red ones get going, that is just drowning under small, sweet, pear shaped yellow tomatoes.  The Coeur de Boeuf tomatoes are huge and starting to turn colour, although that does take quite some time with them.  The Corne d'Andes are also starting to ripen, and I don't like to think what is happening in the triffid zone that is the companion planting paradise of tomatoes and cristophine vines!  The individual Coeur de Boeuf tomatoes can weigh as much as 1 pound (450g or so)!

I picked a mixed tray of produce today, and we counted it a victory to off load 2 courgettes, 2 chillies, and 5 tomatoes of various sorts on our unsuspecting next door neighbour.  He looks like he needs feeding up anyway!

In a few weeks more, it will be sweetcorn time.  Yesterday I counted 24 lots of corn silks, which is manageable, but we have 59 plants so I suspect there will be a few more than that, even if some are small and more suited to chicken treats.  For some reason, the computer and all the software don't think you should be allowed to see that. 

But its not all about fruit and vegetables (although it seems like that sometimes), there are flowers too.  Most of the flowering plants and shrubs are over, but the variegated Birthday Rose that climbs over the front of the house is still going strong, and the flowers are beautifully scented in the evening.  Don't bother asking what rose it is!  It is a climber we bought locally 15 years ago, and that is all I can remember!

The cats all deal with summer in their own ways.  Monsieur Clause over at The Garden has decided that the only way to get through this summer is by living on the ride on lawnmower, on the seat, protected by a tarpaulin.  He gets room service delivery of food and cuddles, so why should he change?  Rebus has discovered the Gutter.  It is a stage all our house cats go through it seems, but there is something comforting for them about the zinc gutter on our neighbour's house and makes it the best place to slump of an evening.

Next week promises heat, courgettes, tomatoes, plums, peaches and more courgettes - that's me sorted out, how about you?  Have a good week!

 

 

August festivities and harvests

Normally I find that things quieten down in the first couple of weeks of August, before exploding into action again after Assumption (15th August) as we go into Comice season and preparations for the Rentrée.  This hasn't been the case this year, with Convivial'été having its last hurrah of the season on the 1st August in Vieil Baugé.  The Comité des Fêtes was on war footing, despite a number of key players being away on holiday.  We were supported by the Baugé en Anjou technical services and tourism teams, but everything food and drink was down to us.  By 7pm we were girded and ready for the off.

And that was about the last moment of peace until 10pm!  I was taking dinner orders, not payments, just orders.  The first was at 7:30pm and the queue didn't stop until we had sold out of sausages and chips and andouillettes (rather unpleasant to my mind tripe sausages) and chips at about 10pm.  I stopped the queue at one stage for 30 seconds to put a sweatshirt on as the evening was cool, but that was it!  A chum took a picture of the clouds and caught the queue.

There were two bands.  I totally missed the exotic Bulgarian folk music, complete with strange machine - this is an official photo.

The second band, Pet't J Bus, were a lot of fun.  A punk ska combo who delighted in taking French classics and turning them into ska anthems, with the occasional own creation thrown in (although that might just have been the sound test), which seemed a bit more "basic", if you see what I mean, and less suitable for a family audience.  I did do a couple of videos but there is no chance of loading them on YouTube today, so here is a photo for ambiance.

We weren't the only ones having fun and frolics.  Chinon had its mediaeval market weekend, with lots of people dressed up in fun costumes, lashings of food and drink and music.  I imagine it was impossible to park too!  Anyway, another robbed photo, this time of our favourite brewer, Simon, without his glasses, but looking suitably of the period!

And if that wasn't enough fun, the Comice season kicked off early this year, with Beauvau (tiny village, but gave it's name to Place Beauvau in Paris, which is rather important) trying to rekindle the Comice spirit in its area.  We remember fondly an amazing Comice there perhaps 12 or 14 years ago with 4x4 demonstrations, a chainsaw wood carver, a competition for the biggest pumpkin among other delights, and close to the centre of the village.  This year was all about tractors and ploughing.  We had a lovely ice-cream each from a local farm and admired the range of tractors, but only stayed 20 minutes.

All the preparation work John did on the kitchen garden beds, with rotovating and adding loads of quality compost is paying off.  We are now up to about 150 courgettes harvested, and for the past couple of weeks have also been picking large quantities of small yellow pear-shaped tomatoes which are wonderfully sweet.  Today's haul also included two cayenne chilli peppers, and a green pepper, as well as some yellow carrots and an onion.  We will eat well and healthily tonight I think!

Earlier in the week I was able to pick the first Coeur de Boeuf tomatoes.  While not the largest on the plant, this one demonstrates the heart shaped form of the tomato and deep colour that gives it its name.  It was also delicious with a good dressing as an accompaniment to whatever we had for dinner that night.  There are many more of these to come, and they make a very good tomato sauce.

We've also been picking loads of blackberries - I will be making bramble jelly tomorrow for the first time in ages (I hope I can remember how!) as a real treat for the winter.  Today John was attacked by, or possibly flirted with, by a huge bumble bee.  Once removed from his shirt and placed on a plant, I was able to get a good look - what a marvellous specimen, and well over a centimetre long.

Next week the heatwave returns, but that might also ripen up more plums and tomatoes, so it could be a very red and purple post next week!  Have a good week!