Rural Life

Day 3 of Deconfinement Diary - well that's what my brother said I should call it!

Wednesday is market day in la Flèche in the Sarthe department, just over the border from us and a mere 18 kilometres on the roads (a bit less as the crow flies, but not much).  It is the best market for miles around and I have been using it every week for the last 15 years.  During confinement, that was actually a bit dodgy, and I was probably lucky I wasn't caught by the Evil Gendarme.  The ones that I met, who checked my attestation getting into the market, were always fine and charming.  But a friend knows people who were fined and sent home without getting their goodies, so yes, I reckon I was lucky.

With deconfinement, it wasn't totally clear how the market was going to work, but it was certainly going to happen.  When I got there this morning, the clothes, shoes, kitchen goods and live chicken stands were all set up facing le Loir.  If you wanted the good stuff - food, flowers, plants - you had to join the queue (again), as numbers in the inner square where that bit of the market was, were still tightly controlled.

The big difference going in this week, was that if you didn't have a face mask on or with you, you were given one (and possibly a sharp talking to).  Fortunately I had mine, so once numbers allowed, I was let in to shop until I dropped, or couldn't carry anything else.  I was able to get all that I wanted (or could remember - total fail on bananas) - butter, milk, yoghurts, rice puddings, cakes, cheese, fish, salads, vegetables, black pudding (the real French boudin type - yummy), paté, bacon, and gossip.  What bliss!

Some stall holders weren't finding it as easy as you might expect.  You would think that with an enclosed space and newly found freedom, people would take the time to look at all the stalls.  It appears not!  My friend Brigitte took the following two photos - she sells beautiful cut flowers, and this was her first week back at the market.  She found she was on the side of the square less visited, with few passing by.

As a contrast, she took a photo of the "main drag" through the centre of the square, with rather more people.  It is particularly sad for her as at each end of her row, there were big stands selling plants, but people went round the back of her to get to them.  Both fishmongers were on the main drag, as well as the coffee bean stand.

The bloke that sells yoghurts was on the other side of the main drag, and was also having a slow time of it - again his first day back.  I heard him discussing the challenges of positioning with either a journalist or local councillor, so there may be changes next week.  It is very hard for these small producers as the markets are their main route for selling to the public, and they really do need people to come back to them.  As the Yoghurt Man said, it was like trying to rebuild the business from scratch - the 10 years he had already spent on the markets seemed to be forgotten by many.

 

Day 53 of lockdown - a sad and worrying day

Actually the day started well - John put in a sterling morning's work on the extra space needed for the potato bed, while I mowed the lawn, so we used the fine part of the day well.  I also had a bit of a go through one of the raised beds, removing self-seeded tomato plants - one of the dangers of home made compost, as nothing kills tomato seeds.  Something else that doesn't disappear in the compost bin is the outer layer of teabags - you can see what gets left behind here.  We are not pretentious with using loose leaf tea, we are helping our soil!

This afternoon was less interesting weather-wise, so I decided that the 7½ pounds of (mostly) stoned cherries I had been hoarding for a year or two finally ought to be turned into jam, lots of jam.  Cherry jam is a bit of a pain, and I refuse to pay the extra for jam sugar (inner tight-fisted peasant coming out there), so I add a handful of frozen blackcurrants to the mix to provide pectin.  It is still not the hardest set jam but it is lovely in tarts and on brioche!  Here it is cooking away.

None of that is sad or worrying I hear you say, and you'd be right.  While I was fighting the good fight with the cherry jam, there was a murder in the road outside our house.  Our neighbour's cat, who gave birth a couple of days ago, was outside, as were her owner and another neighbour.  She was sniffing around on the road, when a brown car came round the bend at the bottom of the road on two wheels, drove at speed (despite the 50km speed limit and approaching junction at the road, swerved and deliberately hit and killed the cat before speeding off through a stop junction, presumably to see how many more the b@st@rd could kill as he sped through the centre of the village.  Neither of us saw it, but John got a blow by blow description from our neighbours, who are naturally very upset and shocked.  John ended up cleaning the road.  Our girls are going to get the road safety lecture this evening, although they will likely ignore us.

Sometimes people are awful shits.

Day 52 of lockdown - a little bit of everything

I think I said yesterday that I had to leave a note on the post box about how many face masks we might need?  Well overnight some peckish little monopod decided that my sticker was exactly what it wanted for dinner - look at the state of this!

It's been a funny day, with a GP appointment, a visit to the supermarket (cat food and rice still in short supply, but plain packaged flour in huge bins!), little work, nice weather and zero motivation.  So I thought I had better make good on my promise of making ice cream, not least as I had bought half a litre of best, unpasteurised, direct from the cow, cream yesterday.  Here it is churning away, and if you spot any little black dots, those are vanilla seeds from pods I brought back from Guadeloupe.

The slow stages of making ice cream were also a good excuse to watch the government announcements on easing of lockdown from Monday next week (staring the Man from le Havre).  Some of it had already been mooted, but the new map was revealed without the amber bit - Centre Val de Loire has gone green for those who are interested.  It was nice in the supermarket (there is a point to this surprising statement) in that I saw a number of chums I've not seen since lockdown started.  One is pretty vociferous against the Government, and I had had a bit of a hit back at her on social media about something she'd posted, so it was good to discuss the issues face to face and not while swearing at the intermittent nature of WiFi and the problems of autocorrect on the phone.  She is normally pretty strongly for the unions and the far left, so I was surprised when she said that they were also useless and incoherent - her anger was at the amount of perceived lying that was going on - about PPE, about bonuses to health care staff (her daughter in law had not yet received hers), and about the state of the health service in general.  But when we got onto the school issue, she said that she was really pleased that her grandson would be able to go to school half a day or a day a week from next week, as she felt he was becoming afraid of the world outside his house and garden.  The little darling (he is rather cute) is only 4!

Anyway, for most of my readers, this photo of the TV screen is the one that will interest you.

Borders closed for the moment, no restrictions on travelling up to 100km as the crow flies from home (carry a justification of your home address with you however), while beaches and lakes will only open if the local mayor can convince the Préfet that they have measures in place to ensure social distancing is maintained.  Still no bars or restaurants can open unless for takeaway.  They also exhort those that are vulnerable to stay home and confined as much as possible, but it will be personal choice.

In that vein, I had to speak sharply to these two (Poirot and Zola) about setting a good example on social distancing.  This is not good, although it is rather cute.

Given their size, this is rather better, and still rather cute.

Day 47 of lockdown - another wet one

I know, it's good for the plants, not least the fruit trees.  And better it rains a lot now and then dries up for the second half of May so that the cherries don't split, but in lockdown, wet days are just that bit harder to cope with.  The house also cools down in the rain - we actually had a fire yesterday evening!  It wasn't that cold, but we needed something to ensure the cats were suitably comfortable (OK and us too).  Nibbles approved!

The boys in the country needed feeding today, so I left John making pots of rice pudding (with cardamom flavouring - yummy) for the week, while I went to see how they were doing.  I got the biggest, fattest tick I've seen in a while off Fergus while he stuffed his face on fish flavoured cat food.  Once they had all scoffed enough, they escorted me down the garden to pick more broad beans and check on the other good things growing down there, and then tried to see if all four could fit on me in some way at the same time.  I need to be like Vishu and have 8 arms I think, to satisfy all their cuddle requirements.  That will be the instant good news come 11th May - we can go and see the boys together and then come home via the One Acre Wood - that is going to be such a good day!

Anyway, once that was all done, I went to check on the wild flower meadow.  The view down across the valley from there shows that while not raining hard, the air was think with moisture, and it wasn't the best day to be out.

The orchid torture continues.  While the early orchids are nearly over, the lizard and bee orchids are starting to send up their flower spikes to take over.  I've been looking for the bee orchid flower stems for a while, and today I found some.  I reckon by the time lockdown is lifted, we will have our first flowers.

Once home from all that, and as John had finished his creations, I decided it was time to deal with the black bananas hanging over the kitchen work surface, so made banana bread.  It should be nearly ready by now, so I had better stop typing and get this loaded up.

 

Day 43 of lockdown - no politics here

This afternoon at 3pm (French time) the lovely Prime Minister stood up to give a speech in the House of Deputies about the plan for getting out of lockdown.  I gather it went on for at least 1 hour and 6 minutes.  I've not listened to it and I'm not going to talk about it here (or at any rate not today).

The other thing I'm not going to write about today is face masks - I'd planned to have a nice cathartic rant about stupidity and face masks, as I thought the weather was going to be pants.  It wasn't so I won't.  Perhaps tomorrow or Thursday.

Instead, more of the usual - cats, plants, vegetables - you can zone out here if you like.  I won't know so I won't be offended.

This morning we discovered a rat burrow - actually not so difficult to discover, as there was a vast pile of freshly dug soil and rubble outside the chicken run - like a giant mole hill.  John has borrowed our next door neighbour's old but effective rat trap and placed it in the burrow entrance - of course if we catch any, we will have to deal with them as it is a live trap, but we really didn't want to use poison as it is too indiscriminate.  If a mouse eats some and is then caught and eaten by a cat, the cat gets very ill (how I lost one of mine I think).  The contents of the trap could be tomorrow's excitement!  Our neighbour is very excited anyway.

This afternoon was cat in the country feeding time.  Fergus was cross with me as he swatted Spooky who wanted a cuddle, so I told him off. He went and had a really high quality sulk at me at a distance.

Once I had dealt with three of the boys, I went to check out the wildflower meadow - all was looking very lovely, although the pesky bee orchids are still being very shy.  In a couple of weeks I expect I won't be able to move for the wretched things, but currently they are hiding.  I did meet this very fine furry caterpillar though - eating its way through what seemed to be clover, it was about an inch and a half long.  I wonder what it will be when it grows up?

Donald decided to help me take photos in the meadow, including my favourite irises (for tomorrow), and other bits and bobs.  I suspect this is not how to take selfies!

Finally, I picked a few broad beans - they are still very tiny, so ideal for pretentious chefs, but I'd got to that stage where I could wait no longer!

Day 40 of lockdown - baking failure

Day 40 - this is closely related to quarantine, which indeed can be related to the French word for 40 (quarante) so wouldn't it be nice if this was nearly the end?  But no, we have another 15 days of this to go as a minimum, and it isn't really clear what "normal" life will be like on the 11th May here in France.  I guess we just keep smiling?

I was at the supermarket yesterday - first time in about 3 and a half weeks I think (John did the previous visit).  Some things were still a bit scarce on the shelves - pasta and rice were limited, as was flour and certain cat foods (notably those for older cats), and wine boxes.  There had clearly been a run on red wine boxes!  I got the last of the own brand cabernet sauvignon red - victory was mine!  This is a bit bizarre as the warm and sunny weather usually means a run on white and rosé.

Anyway, knowing that flour is scarce due to lots of home baking, naturally I too had to jump on the bandwagon, plus we have a lot of eggs at the moment.  I thought I ought to reprise my quatre-quarts chocolate cake, but with a few tweaks.  I swapped out some white sugar for light muscovado, some ordinary (well, local, organic) flour for chocolate powder and chestnut flour, and swirled in chunks of dark cooking chocolate at the end.  I used a relatively low oven, a cake tin with a protected base and a double layer of paper liners.  I checked at 35 minutes of cooking and it had risen nicely but needed to cook more.  I checked again 25 minutes later, and it was cooked, but o dear - really badly slumped in the middle.  Let's hope tastes better than it looks!

And if it tastes as bad as it looks, well, we do have a very good bakers in the village!  They are also one of a very few allowed outlets for my friend who grows and sells flowers (cut flowers) to get her product out there.  Up until now, I have benefitted from free flowers in exchange for services rendered, but this week I supported another of my local businesses and bought my own bouquet - isn't it lovely?

After taunting me for nearly a week with huge and pregnant buds, the orchid has relented and opened up; one bud yesterday, and another today.  Was it worth the wait?  Well judge for yourselves with this close up of the flower that opened up yesterday.

 

Day 30 of lockdown - another Wednesday

It is Wednesday, so it is market day at la Flèche - another anxious drive up the road and a surprising amount of traffic.  Normally there are quite a few lorries, but today there were a lot, or so it felt.  There were also quite a few cars, but no police checks on the way or while queueing to enter the market square.  I was earlier, and the queue was just as long as last week but seemed to move through more quickly.  The lady in front of me thought that 4 metres was a good distance for social isolation!

Anyway, I was able to stock up on cheese, milk and butter, and I bought nice fish and chicken wings and got a good dollop of vegetables, so I felt that small cakes were my rascal's reward for my efforts!  Today there were more cars parked in the town, so I was by the river.  Le Loir is the little brother of la Loire further south, and to my mind rather prettier.  When she is in full flood, la Loire is majestic and huge, but in the summer, the river bed is full of sandbanks and the water takes up perhaps a third of the space.  She is also treacherous and deadly.  Le Loir seems to have a more stable flow and has many small, pretty towns and villages along it, with the occasional chateau, and a few weirs.  Here is the view at la Flèche.

On the 4th April (day 19 of lockdown) I wrote about setting seeds for the new growing season.  Well, some are coming up - 17 butternut squashes, a similar number of sweet corn and lots of Moneymaker tomatoes.  With very limited window sill space indoors, we are getting them used to the great outdoors already!

John pruned back the rambling rose on the side of the house that is on the road, but he did it a bit late, so there were a number of buds in the prunings.  We put them in a vase and now one is out already, and very beautiful it is too!

 

Day 21 of lockdown - waiting for an orchid to bloom

First off an update on yesterday's post - we have indeed captured our first Asian hornet "reine fondatrice" or mother of queens.  I got the confirmation this morning.  So that is 10 hornets' nests less this summer, which is something to feel good about.

Anyway, that is our third week of lockdown completed.  The weather has been overcast, cool and wet, so it has felt more constraining today.  Even the baker's was closed, so no trip up for the daily baguette.

Time drags on a day like this, and so little things become important, and you reflect on silly things.  Here is one - a watched pot never boils.  Well yesterday that was certainly true with the broccoli to go with our pot roast chicken - I set it off before preparing the cheese plate, resting the chicken and making the sauce, and when that was all done and the wine opened and tasted, the broccoli still wasn't boiling!  

But more irritating than the broccoli that doesn't boil, is the orchid bud that doesn't burst!  Our first mini-orchid did so well last summer, and I nurtured it and kept it alive (normally I kill them very quickly), but then the flowers faded and died (after 4 months, so not unsurprising), and I thought that was it.  I went away for a few days in January, and when I got back I found tiny new flower buds forming and got all excited.  Then as each got to half a pea size, they turned brown and dropped off.  A new way to break my heart.  So when this lot of buds started, I wasn't convinced, but it is bigger than half pea size, it isn't turning brown - can it please hurry up and open!!??

Day 19 of lockdown - good reasons to stay "in"

For anyone worried about the visit to the vet with a cat yesterday, she is OK, the wounds were self-inflicted and have been cleaned.  She has had cortisone and anti-biotic injections and gets soothing cream rubbed in the wounds twice a day.  She has been enjoying the sun today.

Apart from a quick trip to the local market for fish (yes!), olives and tea, we have been very much in lockdown mode today, but in the garden in the main as it is warmer out than in!  John has been playing with his pressure washers to make sure they still work (they do), and then blasting the 20 year old garden bench and the garden chairs to get them ready for the new season.  Here's a thing.  Virginia creeper suckers do not come off plastic with a pressure washer or a scouring pad - you heard it here first, folks!

I've been happily sowing seeds in cheap and improvised propagators - sweet corn in the Blue Peter style propagator as I don't have root trainers.

While in the proper propagators (well Lidl, 4 for 4 euros anyway), I've got sunflowers, lettuce, coriander, chillies, cherry tomatoes and butternut squash - many butternut squash.

Finally, what do you do with goose eggs?  Well, I will probably make a quiche tomorrow with a couple, but I thought I would see if my ducks would like to try to hatch one.  They don't seem too convinced!

And on that slightly bizarre note, I'm off for drinkie-poos in the garden.  Know where you left your sanity for when this is all over!

 

Day 18 of lockdown - and all the reasons I've been out

Not every day in lockdown is extravagantly exciting, although I do try to spread out the fun through the week.  However I have four things to leave the house for today (which makes it sound not so much like lockdown actually).  In the morning, there is of course the stroll to the bakers for (today) croissants, baguette and a pizza for supper.  I was also able to properly admire the new door at the bakers!

After lunch I combined two of my trips out, in that I had to do a bit of work for John, and on the way back from that, I stopped at the local pig farm to pick up my order of pork products and an organic chicken (the lady who does those uses the pig farm as an outlet).  Jean-Yves had worked hard to get a safe and orderly process for paying for and picking up purchases in the farm yard.  There was a perspex screen to keep us separate, we all had to bring our chequebooks and own pens, only one person picking up their parcel at a time.  It worked well.  Strangely I spotted the bloke from the post office, who I had seen the morning before at the bakers, and in the afternoon at the supermarket.  We agreed we had to stop meeting like that!

My final trip out shortly is to take a cat to the vet - it looks like she has managed to slice her face and neck with her own claws, stupid creature.  I've warned her that she will probably have to wear a Cone of Shame overnight in future!

No pictures of the wounds (nasty), but instead a catch up on photos from earlier this week.  This is what was left of the banana bread yesterday.

This is a close up of the forsythia, which will probably be over by next week.

And here is a cat in a tree - not the one going to the vet I hasten to add.