Rural Life

Summer Storms

Last weekend for the Comice (story to follow), the weather was hot, really hot - like 32 degrees in the shade.  That sort of hot spell ends with a bang, and sure enough on Monday 22nd there were storms rumbling around.  We were on the edge of three during the day, but could see the major clouds tracking to the north west of us.  Angers got a hammering (40mm in two hours), as did La Fleche, and up near the Belgian borders, things were very unpleasant we heard.

Since then, the weather has been gently cooling down a bit, but that doesn't stop Atlantic depressions sending in more storms and we got hit last night.  It started to rumble around at about midnight, and eventually cleared off at about 3am, but not after freaking out the normally quite mellow cats, and completely trashing our garden abri.  We heard the thunder and rain and some distant knocking so John got up at about 1:30am to see if he could see the problem, and said he could see through the roof of the abri.  The following pictures show what was left of it this morning.

 

 

Dramatic stuff, wouldn't you say?  I would also add: what numpty thought that plastic sacking that wasn't up to being exposed to direct sunlight would be suitable for a summer shelter?  The stuff disintegrated, and disintegrated further when I was picking it up off the lawn to tidy up this morning - if anything was ever not fit for purpose, this was it!!  Next year I think we will have to invest finally in a decent summer shelter, after all, it is up for about 5 months of the year.

Restaurant Review: Le Belem at Savigny sous le Lude

As today was a special day, we went out for lunch, but a Monday in August is not always the easiest of days for this.  Our first thought was to try the workers' menu in Genneteil, but that is closed until the 22nd August we found.  Next stop was Savigny sous le Lude, where Le Belem was open - Plan C was Buffalo Grill at La Fleche!!

Le Belem is also a superette, and must be a lifeline for those living in this small and rather remote community on the border between Maine et Loire and Sarthe.  They do outside catering (traiteur), but we were interested in their menu ouvrier - 10,50 including wine, coffee extra.  They do have an outside terrace at the back, but the clouds were just a little too threatening, and there is a bar area in front, but the restaurant is laid out with a number of tables and a maritime theme - le Belem was a famous French sailing ship.

For your 10,50 Euros, you get a choice of wine, cider or mineral water, and naturally there is a carafe of tap water available (chilled and very palatable), while the red is perfectly pleasant.  There is a buffet of starters - this had a good mix of things with and without mayonnaise, the hard boiled eggs were without the black rim to the yolk, there was only one starter with fish, and the rillettes tasted home made and were fabulous.  There was a choice of main, including beefburger, andouillettes (and therefore not to British tastes in general), but we chose the roast sucking pig.  You also get to choose your vegetable, and while there was a healthy option (green beans), and a sporting option (pasta), we had to try the house style chips.  These turned out to be crinkle cut wedges of fried potato and were wonderful - and the pork was melting and the light sauce on it with garlic and thyme was the perfect compliment.  It was one of the best main courses we have ever had in our researches on the menus ouvrier.  There was a limited cheese board and a choice of puddings.  There were rich and sticky things, but we opted for iles flottant and lemon ice cream, both of which were very good.  The coffee has ensured we stay awake into the afternoon, if you know what I mean!

We were the only clients, and the music selection was a bit eclectic (les Pretres, Viennese waltzes and some form of celtic/country mix), but if complaining about the muzak is the only bad mark, I think you will agree, this has to be good!  Of course, first you have to find Savigny sous le Lude!

 

La pluie au Vieil Bauge - or a bit of a wash out!

Currently Maine et Loire is facing severe water restrictions due to the drought - since March we have had perhaps an inch of rain in total, which is not enough to get grass, grains and maize growing well, while the market gardens near La Loire are having a difficult and expensive time of it.  Bauge itself had magnificent weather for their Millenium celebrations on the 13th and 14th July, so why did the much needed rain have to fall on Saturday when Vieil Bauge had its own village fun day?

There were a good number of hardy folk at the petanque competition that started at 1:30pm, so that although the semi finals and final were played out under torrential rain, the participants were too involved (and too well lubricated) to care all that much.  The dog obedience and agility show, that was the novelty this year, ran in front of a hardy few who got soaked while appreciating that all the dogs would have been eliminated in proper competition as they went the wrong way round jumps or generally misbehaved - it was a wonderful demonstration.

Many had pre-booked their dinners so from about 6pm people started to converge on the party site.

 

Until we re-arranged the catering tent, they were not prepared to approach for their drinks however, but once that was sorted, they came.

 
I can be a bit acerbic about the Cadets de Baugois, but this jolly band made the best of things by cramming themselves into the trailer we had hired for the dance band (who had relocated to the Community Centre), and instead of marching and playing, just played.  They did jolly well and were more in tune than usual.  Of course the challenge was to find a place for the conductor.

 

This didn't work entirely well, so he tried another option, where he could use both hands.

 
He did end up in the trailer with the band in the end, but UK Health and Safety would probably have been horrified.  People took it all in good part, and some thought about dancing.

 
But in the end, as the fireworks were cancelled, people either drifted off home or went to the Community Centre to dance, while we got to eat our dinners and then dismantled some of the shelters and put away the vulnerable or valuable goods.

 
It was a shame the party was rained on, but at least we were able to ensure that a large part of the day's festivities carried on.  Durtal's River Festival had to be cancelled completely, and the decorated boats will not be seen at all this year, which must be very frustrating for the many volunteers who put in hours of work creating them.

 

Good things in the garden

There are all sorts of good things in the garden at the moment.  Looking among the foliage I found this pumpkin starting up.

 
While in among another bunch of leaves I found this cucumber that will be a nice addition to salads next week.

 
The fruit is doing well again this year (although we won't talk about the disaster that was the apricot crop) and the pear tree will need to be supported soon for this weight of good things.

 
But this fig has my name on it for this weekend - it looks wonderful!

 
Peach leaf curl can be a real problem, but an old "astuce" over here is to hang egg shells in your peach and nectarine trees to reduce its worst effects.  There has been so little rain this year, I can't really comment, but anything is worth a try as chemical remedies are withdrawn and not really advisable if you have roaming chickens.

 
And finally - compare these two pots with chilli plants in.  All plants come from the same batch bought for me last week by John when Pepper the chicken went on a destructive rampage in the well protected pepper and chilli bed (now even better protected).  The ones on the left were potted on to the big pot on Thursday last week, the ones on the right were potted on today and are the colour the whole batch were on purchase.  It goes to show that some good quality compost can turn round a weedy looking performer!

 

The Pilgrim's Return

I was working away this morning on a number of tenders when I got a call from John to join him in town as quickly as I could.  "Bernard is due back at any time now and a bunch of us are waiting to greet him!"  So I dashed off as quickly as is possible here, parked up and found John waiting with a number of others, including Annick, Bernard's better half, and the local press photographer.  A little while later and a murmur went up - "He's on the way, nearly here".  Why all this excitement?  We haven't seen Bernard for a couple of months now as he has been doing the Pilgrim Trail all the way to St Jacques de Campostelle.  He finally got there last weekend.

I'm not totally clear on all Bernard's reasons for doing the pilgrimage, but part of it was that he wanted to find himself and that he wanted to prove he could do something like that to himself and his family.  He did a bit of training, including with the Sunday morning group, and got the right kit, as he would have to carry EVERYTHING with him.  It took him 61 days and I lost count of the number of kilometers but certainly near or over 1,500.

Annick gave us updates from the route - he had got to Dax, he had grown a beard, he was into Spain, he had slept in Police cells as a pilgrim can demand lodgings from the community and they are obliged to provide, he had slept in the board room of a fire station too on that basis.  On Sunday, we were told he had made it, although after weeks on the trail he found being among some 200,000 other pilgrims a bit difficult.  But now, she said, it is time for him to come home.

To a round of applause and some cheering, Bernard made the last few yards to his favourite cafe in the town, was photographed for the paper and then settled in for a drink or two with his friends.  Sadly we couldn't stay to celebrate with him - work called.  But we were delighted to have been part of the Pilgrim's Return, so very proud of him, and perhaps just a little jealous too.

 

 

 

The Black Iris

I guess I sort of promised to get the picture of this up when I worked out how to get round the Explorer 9/Typepad problem, so here it is in all its glory.

 

All the irises are long over now though, and the cherries are ripe and falling (when they aren't been eaten in obscene quantities), and the lawn looks like a desert waste as we haven't had a drop of rain since the 2nd May.

 

Disappointed with Typepad

I have been concerned that over the past week (since I upgraded to Explorer 9 in fact) that I have been unable to present blogs as I would wish nor have I been able to add photos. This is very disappointing as I have invested a lot of time and effort in getting the three blogs I have to represent what I want them to. I will be complaining to Typepad about this. I tried to leave a nice picture of a black iris, but was unable to.

Is is a lawnmower?

John is never tired of saying that here you must expect the unexpected around here.  Yesterday evening we were invited to dinner with some chums who are over enjoying the Easter vacation.  John also used to do their lawns, but they have changed gardener.  As we turned into their drive, we saw our host with a black herbivore of some sort on a rope.  John's reaction is best paraphrased as "I've not been replaced by a goat AGAIN, have I?"

Fortunately not.  Our friends were working away in their property yesterday afternoon when they saw what they thought was a goat walking up the road.  It turned into their drive, so both dashed inside to find their cat to ensure she wasn't spooked by this apparition (Skye is a scaredy cat) - they also hoped it would just walk on by.  To their horror, they found themselves pinned in the house by the animal, which proceeded to demolish one of their rose bushes.  Dave climbed out of a window to go and find the owner, while Pauline tried to encourage it away from the house.  She gave up after she had been butted a couple of times.

Dave found some people who had goats, but hadn't lost one, but never the less came and caught and tethered the beast, so when we arrived, the Black Marauder was tied up with a bucket of water and some nice lush weeds grass to chew on.  Closer inspection helped us to identify that he was a sheep, but one with a bad attitude as he then butted me too.  Sweet he ain't!

 
A little while later a neighbour of Dave and Pauline's turned up to say that she knew who the sheep belonged to, but could they hang on to it until the next day as the owners were out.  As it seemed happy eating the weeds grass, and was securely fastened, that was OK.  We thought the drama was over.

How wrong!  At about 9pm, the neighbour called to say the owner was about to come and claim the sheep, was that alright?  Absolutely - we all trooped out to wave a fond farewell to Sheep.  A little while later the neighbour turned up with the owner in a Fiat Panda.  We were astounded as three children also emerged from the car, and even more curious as to how sheep would be transported the 5 miles or so to its home.  Simple - three children on the back seat and Sheep in the front foot well!  Apparently Sheep is about 11 years old, had dodged a bullet when 1 year old and facing slaughter for a barbecue, and had been adopted by these people.  He was acknowledged to be a bit of a brute, butting people constantly.  this isn't nice when you have horns like this!

 
The bad attitude was explained when we found out his name - in  translation he is called Pink Carnation!

 

Luscious leeks

Since we moved to France, I haven't had too much luck growing onions and onion related plants - garlic, shallots, leeks, chives, spring onions.  However last year in August at the la Fleche market, some gentlemen of a certain age (as we say here) were selling bundles of young leek plants that looked so good I could not resist.  I did also have some space in one bed where the party lettuces had been removed and I couldn't think what else to do.

They stood all winter and in the very cold snaps seemed to freeze solid and looked very sorry for themselves when they thawed out, so I was pretty well resigned to another waste of time, space and money.  However as things warmed up, they have put on bulk and started to look normal, so now we are trying to eat them all before they run to flower.

Because it is getting warmer, they are thinking about flowering and they have suffered a bit, some bits can be a bit stringy, but long slow cooking seems to get round that, and the three that went in the veal parcel casserole last night cooked gently for about 2 hours and just melted in the mouth.  I think we have another dozen to eat, and then that is over for the next 9 to 10 months.  The trick will be to spot those nice chaps at the market again in August!!

 

James Holland, 20th Century Artist

Spring is definately in the air and I should be posting like crazy about all things rural, but another blogging project is distracting me slightly and I would like to point it out.

My third blog is about the life and work of my father, James Holland.  A Kentish artist born in Gillingham, who spent the last thirty years of his life living in the village of Pembury near Tunbridge Wells, James Holland was a noted figure in the Thirties in the art world of London.  He was one of the Three Jameses, producing political cartoons and commentary that was anti-Fascist and anti-war (he never went on holiday to Spain for example, because of Franco).  He saw at first hand the ravages of the Nazi regime and the War that had been necessary to crush it, which shocked him profoundly.  More importantly, he was part of the team that designed and created The Tonic to the Nation - the Festival of Britain - which is being celebrated in London this year, marking its 60th anniversary.

So keep an eye on what is going on here, as well as in this blog, as I promise to have some tree felling pictures soon!  But here is a flavour of the pictures on the other blog.