tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756890683892290112024-03-13T06:14:07.736+01:00THE THIRD LIFE OF CAROLINE VRETIREMENT: TIME FOR KNITTING, BEACHCOMBING AND TRAVELLINGCaroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-13789961176152460932012-02-16T09:57:00.000+01:002012-02-16T09:57:46.074+01:00Well we finally had a few snowflakes for about half an hour here last Friday! We were beginning to feel a bit left out of things here on the Costa Finistère. It has hardly even frozen, just a little more the last two mornings when we have had -5, but it quickly warmed up to 6° yesterday with a bit of sunshine.<br />
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But even here, the weather has forced the price of vegetables up 33%. My usual 3€ went up to 5€15 (I took an extra cabbage as well).<br />
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All the talk of snow and ice has got me knitting socks, one pair last week, another finished last night. It's very rewarding, they go quickly, use up odds and ends of wool, and are very comfy to wear. <br />
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My new blog on Wordpress is doing well - <a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/">http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com</a> (do go and have a look and sign up if you haven't already) and I get a few new followers every day. But it's extremely time consuming. And they won't let me run ads or affiliate links which I really need in order to earn a bit of money. So rather than leave Wordpress and lose my nascent following, I think I'm going to set up an identical blog here and just copy posts each time.<br />
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The sun reached my back, north facing terrace for the first time at midday two days ago, just a corner of it, but it's a sure sign that winter is almost over... and that I shall have to put the power hose over everything soon.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiEh9Bjq1Ay4foxrPN63LJ6JtZ-c25DfVaYfTBCZnNWpRd7jJ9uxyClUEDHh-_qLSAjm-4J1bLjpFKBQ37bsh0S0tz7qLBsFp5NNDGGb3Sjdv1mx-fepjBvyD7DZFUgH5fEEFyFWR7L0/s1600/terrasse+premier+soleil.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiEh9Bjq1Ay4foxrPN63LJ6JtZ-c25DfVaYfTBCZnNWpRd7jJ9uxyClUEDHh-_qLSAjm-4J1bLjpFKBQ37bsh0S0tz7qLBsFp5NNDGGb3Sjdv1mx-fepjBvyD7DZFUgH5fEEFyFWR7L0/s320/terrasse+premier+soleil.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-89257835576067218512012-01-24T20:23:00.000+01:002012-01-24T20:23:21.752+01:00CHINESE NEW YEARI went with a large group yesterday evening to La Saigonnaise in Quimper to open the festivities of the Chinese New Year. We had a really good evening, the food was good, and they did a little dragon dance, just for us!<br />
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You can just see my blonde fringe behind the nearest lady above!<br />
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And today I went to l'Instant T, a nice little restaurant that does lunches (I lunched with Yves there last week) and teas, and had hot chocolate and a slice of gâteau breton au caramel au beurre salé, with another small group! Delicious. This is a photo of their very comfortable tea room:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-qJ_wUx2iTV68Mh9r-YxKL4Q8KZydrjEav0iGX1DM-TwEgWHnhP9h14IXxffs-tnVCOWHv4nx7KRvGg-OByLdJSF37p9Nj3oATqa4TfuuxNyW1PJF9V6cPadNcsW7MYMnZuIX-4wmlmU/s1600/p9160074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-qJ_wUx2iTV68Mh9r-YxKL4Q8KZydrjEav0iGX1DM-TwEgWHnhP9h14IXxffs-tnVCOWHv4nx7KRvGg-OByLdJSF37p9Nj3oATqa4TfuuxNyW1PJF9V6cPadNcsW7MYMnZuIX-4wmlmU/s320/p9160074.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-52322081446955909302012-01-15T09:58:00.000+01:002012-01-15T09:58:00.884+01:00BOB HOPEI came across this video in another blog I was reading just now. It made me laugh, it also brought tears to my eyes. My blog is refusing to embed videos, you'll have to click on the link, but do, it's worth it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-HeETwJSUc&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-HeETwJSUc&feature=player_embedded</a><br />
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I looked up Bob Hope's biography. Looking at his facial features I wondered whether he might not be of eastern european origin. No, he was born British (maybe he retained a British passport later, who knows), in London, in 1903. He moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents to the States in 1908. He died in 2003, a couple of months after his 100th birthday. His name really was Bob Hope. Apt, really.Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-69600745689266848932012-01-09T17:51:00.000+01:002012-01-09T17:51:07.066+01:00WEST SIDE STORYI went for a blood test this morning. I don't mind blood tests, what I do mind is that in France we have to do them "à jeun", which means without eating anything beforehand. I hate getting up, washing, dressing and going out in the fairly early morning without anything in my stomach. I don't know why this is, I don't think that in England, for instance, you have to have an empty stomach. <br />
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Just routine, to get a prescription of my thyroid pill and see what my blood sugar levels and cholesterol are looking like.<br />
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It's so mild. I went out in a short sleeved t-shirt (to make the blood sample easier) and a light cardigan this morning, barefooted in thong sandals (Fitflop ones, you know? the ones that are meant to firm up your thighs? they do actually, I hardly ever wear anything else). <br />
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I'm keeping to my resolutions - my blog is up to date, the <a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/">http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com</a> one, and people seem to like it. I have lost over two kilos this week, and I've done some gardening. In fact, I'm going to clear a space tomorrow to plant a row of broad beans.<br />
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On Saturday I went to a performance of a version of West Side Story, done on percussion and xylophones, vibraphones etc, with four voices. The music was absolutely fantastic, I didn't realize that that sort of keyboard percussion was so versatile and attractive. And physical, the woman playing at the front of the stage certainly didn't need to go to the gym after her performance, she was all over the place. The whole thing took place behind a sort of metal mesh curtain, upon which was projected the story line in the form of sort of cartoons. It was excellent. What was NOT excellent, however, was the English of the singers, particularly one of the men, whose accent was laughable and spoilt the whole thing. If he's touring France doing an English-language show, shouldn't he have had coaching beforehand? Trouble is, he evidently thought his English was great.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_SE6eaBpgDI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_SE6eaBpgDI</a><br />
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This is a video of the^percussion group, no singers, doing something else, Bach, or an arrangement, but it does show their virtuosity. I'm having no luck embedding it in my text, you'll just have to click on the link. I hope it works, I can't check it before publishing.Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-48756991441421837822012-01-08T15:11:00.000+01:002012-01-08T15:11:42.284+01:00ORGANIC VEGETABLESFor the past two years, and up to last October, I had been fetching an organic vegatable basket in Loctudy, some 20km or more from Quimper. The vegetables were good quality, my basket cost me 8€ a week, but I had no choice, it was all prepared in advance, and although if you told them you really hated a certain type of vegetable (chard in my case) they'd change it, you always got a lot of root vegetables for instance in winter, that are not as pleasant to use as salad and tomatoes in summer. When the price of fuel went up, it was costing me a ridiculous sum of money just to go and fetch my basket, all the more so as I stopped off at the organic supermarket near the farm and did my weekly shop there - superb quality, but pricey. So I opted out in October. <br />
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I was a bit lost at first, I had to make "decisions" about what to buy, instead of just taking what was given to me, and I'd lost the habit. I will not buy vegetables in supermarkets, I try not to buy vegetables that come from outside France. Which meant I had to go to a small vegetable store, with fairly limited choice and which was again, a bit expensive. I still go there sometimes.<br />
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Then I heard about a farmer's wife three kms down the road who sells vegetables, not organic vegetables, but fresh. Three times a week, she has a little shop in her barn. You can choose just what you want, she has a good choice, and is sooo cheap!<br />
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A couple of days ago, I bought 4 leeks to do in vinaigrette, a huge cooked beetroot, three red onions, a bagful of spinach, nice small leaves, a large bunch of parsley, a green pepper, four or five carrots, all for 3€. <br />
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I did cooked oysters with spinach, cream and gruyère that night. Have a look at my new blog project <a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/">http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com</a> for pictures and the recipe.Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-48683268849734945502012-01-04T15:52:00.000+01:002012-01-04T15:52:24.430+01:00CHESS TOURNAMENTI went down into town on Monday evening to be present when names were drawn out of a hat for our new tournament. For the SECOND time, I drew the champion of the last tournament. I don't know what message the universe is trying to send me... he was there and insisted on playing immediately. Our first game lasted 10 minutes, the second 35 minutes (I'm pretty proud of having withstood so long), and there we are, the tournament is finished for me. We are forty one players, how I manage to draw the champion all the time is a mystery.<br />
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I'm doing quite well on resolutions. My new blog <a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/">http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com</a> is on schedule, which is more than one can say for a lot of people who were in the starting blocks with me, and I have quite a few followers. Have YOU signed up yet? Please do, just click on the follow button at the very top left hand of the page if you find it challenging to fill in a form to follow via email. The result is the same. I really want you to see what I'm doing.<br />
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I've lost 2kg since getting back from London (or rather, to be honest, since leaving for London, I don't think I put on much weight over Christmas, we eat nice healthy stuff and I didn't drink a lot).<br />
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I took Ellie to the vet yesterday for her vaccination, and she'd put on weight too, so now she's on reduced rations prior to a serious exercise campaign.<br />
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And, third resolution, no gardening until today, for the simple reason that I wasn't about to get soaked and catch pneumonia just to keep to a resolution. We had a ray of sunshine this morning (gone now) and I went out and cut back my raspberry canes, and the rather long top shoots of my eleagnus hedge. Took about ten minutes, but that's sufficient !Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-32597673340338999202012-01-02T14:18:00.000+01:002012-01-02T14:18:12.094+01:00NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONSHaha, it's a bit like Charley Brown and the football (Lucy invites him to kick the football and whips it away at the last moment, but he always gets caught...), making new year's resolutions. We know they'll get whipped away, but we make them anyway.<br />
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So mine this year are several (like that maybe one will get to survive?):<br />
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1. <strong>I'm going to take more care of my body than my mind. </strong>It's so much more difficult. But I'll try. Not quite sure how. Yesterday, 1st January, I missed lunch, not so much to avoid calories, rather that I was not hungry. So that one was easy. No outdoor activities (a little walk on the beach for instance) were possible as it chucked it down all day. Today the sun it out, so it's decision time.<br />
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2. <strong>I'm going to do a minute little something in the garden each day. </strong>Even if it's just taking the secateurs down with me when I pee the dog, and lopping the top off something.<br />
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3. <strong>I've taken on Project 365 on Wordpress</strong>, which involves posting once each day on<a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"> my new blog</a>. If you haven't visited it yet, go and sign up, it may even interest you.<br />
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OK, bets are open. Which resolution will last the longest? Which will I drop first?<br />
That's easy, isn't it!Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-74161769783887183432012-01-01T15:17:00.000+01:002012-01-01T15:17:08.364+01:00HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012It's been so long since I last posted, I'll try to do better this year. As I write, the rain is <em>teeming </em>down, but it is really mild, enough to go out without a coat if it weren't for the rain. I've just got back to the Finistère from spending Christmas in London with Nicholas, who spoilt me rotten with good food, comfort and tlc. I nearly didn't get there at all, since my Belgian housesitter was caught up in the Belgian general strike and couldn't make it. Luckily a very kind friend here in Quimper moved into my house with his son to spend Christmas here and look after my animals.<br />
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And I had a bit of a problem getting back from London too, my plane arrived 40 minutes late at Charles de Gaulle, I had to wait 35 minutes for my luggage (which one has to reclaim and transfer oneself when leaving from Orly) so I missed my connecting flight, the last one to Quimper that day. Endless queueing, explanations, transfer to hotel for the night, paid by Air France luckily, so having left Nicholas' flat at 10am Thursday, I didn't get home till 11am Friday (Tokyo-Paris would have been quicker!).<br />
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No festivities for New Year, just a dozen oysters and a glass of good white wine, followed by duck breast and chips. Quite an acceptable end to the year.<br />
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One important thing I did in November was to go down to Paris for the evening/night for Paul McCartney's one and only concert in France 2011, first time I'd seen him live. Nicholas came over from London for the evening to accompany me, very jet set, and we had a very good evening. Sir Paul is very good value, he performed for three whole hours with incredible energy and good humour. His voice hasn't changed, and he is very fit, thanks to a vegetarian diet I expect. But as I said to Nicholas, easier to be a vegetarian when you have a cook to do it for you!<br />
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In the last three months, I have been quite active in the creative sector, but I'm only just starting to write it up on my arty blog <a href="http://crafthanded.wordpress.com/">http://crafthanded.wordpress.com</a> . Do go there now and sign up to receive blog entries in your email box, like that you can keep up with what I'm doing effortlessly. <br />
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I've also started a new blog today, in which I am going to try to keep up a post a day. It's called One French Word <a href="http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com/">http://onefrenchword.wordpress.com</a> . You can sign up for that one too! I need the encouragement of having followers. What I've decided to do is to take a French word a day, explain its meaning and pronunciation, and give a few examples of how to use it. <strong>BUT</strong> it's going to be a <strong>FOOD</strong> word, and I shall attach to it a recipe and hopefully a photo. This should be of interest to far more people than just vocabulary and grammar. Tell me how you find it.<br />
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Happy New Year !Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-90820481002643576462011-09-10T19:10:00.001+02:002011-09-11T11:10:08.873+02:00HORSES AND FOOD (no connection whatsoever here!)<div style="line-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px;"></div><div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px;">Source: <a href="http://www.horse-photographer.co.uk/Horse/horse-1-5.jpg" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">horse-photographer.co.uk</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/alexmyers/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Alex</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div></div><br />
The headquarters of the horse welfare organization that has been taking care of Shahdlou for the last few years since I left le Mée is now in Daoulas, which is only 30km away from me. Before it was near Lille! So I went up there at the beginning of the week with my cheques to take care of his keep until the end of the year, rather than sending them by post. I was able to meet the person in charge, and had a good chat about how often his feet are done, and how often he sees the dentist. I came away satisfied with the care he is getting. It's just a shame that he's so far away, in Nozay, just above Nantes. An all day journey there and back, for a quarter of an hour of cuddles (he gets tired of cuddling very quickly!).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ABMO65WaWTXf8cDcf6WeOB-3Lh9VuOzIl2_MCGrwjvoKqYwAk-HiE4XDF5dJBealumO0XBZqds4AqugGJAgfAui0aUQykjStmxRq7RLypk48DiOrfAAmX9tueYfFXCxeRni5oI3HDMw/s1600/Shahdlou+11+mars+2011+225+N_+Besnier.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ABMO65WaWTXf8cDcf6WeOB-3Lh9VuOzIl2_MCGrwjvoKqYwAk-HiE4XDF5dJBealumO0XBZqds4AqugGJAgfAui0aUQykjStmxRq7RLypk48DiOrfAAmX9tueYfFXCxeRni5oI3HDMw/s320/Shahdlou+11+mars+2011+225+N_+Besnier.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The first two pictures above I took when I last visited, he is with the very nice farmer who takes care of him. And the last photo was taken by the organization this winter, he's all fuzzy in his winter coat. He is considerably thinner than when he was with me, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and has lost muscle, which is not surprising as he is now 25. Looks good doesn't he?!<br />
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So lets catch up on food! I have lots of food pictures to show you, things I have cooked, recipes I have picked up on the web.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrrvzmqtbAXEkC3CeexYpIZbCUW39YZTZEWVwwSOsEMfu360iP66ZoXzCMcglwEOcbElas1VjtRIwiFWxktuAtNQoh5Hqs_wFOwi5kROUy61vhtyhC995ZWDsypgCzrKcsVdtCucRNpY/s1600/Seared+beef+bento.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrrvzmqtbAXEkC3CeexYpIZbCUW39YZTZEWVwwSOsEMfu360iP66ZoXzCMcglwEOcbElas1VjtRIwiFWxktuAtNQoh5Hqs_wFOwi5kROUy61vhtyhC995ZWDsypgCzrKcsVdtCucRNpY/s320/Seared+beef+bento.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Seared beef bento! I marinated a chunky piece of beef (quite a small piece) in grated garlic, grated ginger and Kikkoman soy, and seared it in a very hot heavy frying pan for about a minute on either side. Served topped with fresh red chili, fresh spring onions and toasted sesame, over pink sushi ginger and some raw peas, with on the side cucumber salad with sesame and a chunk of lime. A nice ripe apricot for dessert.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYeOshzzcvyIEAibgQK40awMD5TsUsA7vfF1p5wbPxlh2hjj6HUhcMVDXzjgke_NejdKHvGwspsRHaeK0IDh5VbJgE1GQ2tFA77LJ-OvpXsoBMmUMOCtEtcUsL-c7Dh1n_Gv6scLDC64s/s1600/nasturtium+and+broad+bean+salad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYeOshzzcvyIEAibgQK40awMD5TsUsA7vfF1p5wbPxlh2hjj6HUhcMVDXzjgke_NejdKHvGwspsRHaeK0IDh5VbJgE1GQ2tFA77LJ-OvpXsoBMmUMOCtEtcUsL-c7Dh1n_Gv6scLDC64s/s320/nasturtium+and+broad+bean+salad.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The makings of broad bean and nasturtium salad. Just add vinaigrette and chopped chives!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaP3tBUWSnV5U_sHUUN5wX7nJ4pxZYaqt01tXGXO_P7LqmxQpXYnhgHUN2-50j8K8tMzIkLhyphenhyphenZYHaBUQEqIBsFAxOHTxt5aL3-fP0obo9xnkidhgoWX1LhL72mAyizg6SUwsZGqWc5IPc/s1600/Live+spider+crabs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaP3tBUWSnV5U_sHUUN5wX7nJ4pxZYaqt01tXGXO_P7LqmxQpXYnhgHUN2-50j8K8tMzIkLhyphenhyphenZYHaBUQEqIBsFAxOHTxt5aL3-fP0obo9xnkidhgoWX1LhL72mAyizg6SUwsZGqWc5IPc/s320/Live+spider+crabs.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Live spider crabs</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJBqXkWy5P9UfxfsVwaRJs77swiJeT-2aRGEgsWNQr_DO_5ClodTZxUI2ucr6NSTTTXAWX1vW8OjQcLV88dI8VG3cuE5CliqP9GeAywTQAggaHdSnv4SL7uqeD_iCdEDJ_ugLSoLNeyPE/s1600/Cooked+spider+crabs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJBqXkWy5P9UfxfsVwaRJs77swiJeT-2aRGEgsWNQr_DO_5ClodTZxUI2ucr6NSTTTXAWX1vW8OjQcLV88dI8VG3cuE5CliqP9GeAywTQAggaHdSnv4SL7uqeD_iCdEDJ_ugLSoLNeyPE/s320/Cooked+spider+crabs.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooked spider crabs</td></tr>
</tbody></table> In June my neighbour gave me a couple of small spider crabs he had just fished. I cooked them, made a mayonnaise, and had them for my supper!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyhNfH1S4wQ5WkVJPfOKssJQaHc6g43d8dK-qs2z89FUtLF7jIFY7eosfeLhKz6Xf-xiDlS8ha3wHFYuWlwOb3SpLYW2ByaZZBDWlthHC4TGHjSL8qsqxdBcb9AUjAnYKrBuMjni6KGE/s1600/Uncooked+pastis+gascon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyhNfH1S4wQ5WkVJPfOKssJQaHc6g43d8dK-qs2z89FUtLF7jIFY7eosfeLhKz6Xf-xiDlS8ha3wHFYuWlwOb3SpLYW2ByaZZBDWlthHC4TGHjSL8qsqxdBcb9AUjAnYKrBuMjni6KGE/s320/Uncooked+pastis+gascon.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this <em>pastis gascon</em> when it came out of the oven. The recipe? You put two sheets of filo pastry, at right angles to each other in a tart dish. Brush all over with melted butter. Peel core and slice 6 to 8 apples. Slice a couple of apples over the filo. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of demerara sugar (or any sugar actually), and a tablespoon of armagnac (I used Fine de Bretagne, an apple alcohol similar to Calvados, but it should be armagnac). Put another couple of pieces of filo, paint with butter. And so on to three layers of apple. Gather up the filo that is hanging over the edge of the dish, crumple it delicately like tissue paper, add another couple of pieces of filo in the centre to form a rose (no apple should be showing). Brush all this liberally (very liberally) with melted butter. And put it in the oven for half an hour or so. Just be careful the filo only goes golden and does not burn. Serve with a little cream. It's very spectacular and quite easy. And always produces oohs and aahs!<br />
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When I pruned my vine in May, I used the leaves to make <em>dolmades</em>, something I have been meaning to do for years, but never had time in Le Mée. My vine, in fact my whole garden, never sees any weedkiller, bug killers, or anything that is not totally natural. So I'm not afraid to use any leaves for food. I first blanched the leaves quickly in boiling water and spread them on a tea towel to dry. I then made a stuffing, with onion, garlic, raw rice, raisins, olive oil, lots of herbs like parsley, thyme, spring onion tops, salt, pepper, and a skinned tomato all pulped up.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3J9MaQpVRw_M61xZ9w_CMNWanBOPoAo6XMg86O9wL5-D-b-opZ4JFPt6MKhMrYOq-4gmC5Sjbx3XF3NbuI1X-5_XUg5YAqYnf8fyAzutrfyZEKrItSKxHR0a5N31O68lvU7fVFQBpr8/s1600/END+MAY+2011+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3J9MaQpVRw_M61xZ9w_CMNWanBOPoAo6XMg86O9wL5-D-b-opZ4JFPt6MKhMrYOq-4gmC5Sjbx3XF3NbuI1X-5_XUg5YAqYnf8fyAzutrfyZEKrItSKxHR0a5N31O68lvU7fVFQBpr8/s320/END+MAY+2011+004.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I placed a teaspoonful of the mixture in the centre of each leaf and made envelopes (far easier than making spring rolls, the vine leaves are not at all fragile).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUplmZ15XwLZosTNz-vnyr-8O2WYgPqLsjs9M-Up_0ycvJqAUsgJNJAyIM5yosgeGAgrs3ICZWNNRv1D1TupXZ4-lwJsayTd-iFmvRPoCnEzDv0xEEmSmZbQedLeUlqECmiBWtc2AsWPM/s1600/END+MAY+2011+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUplmZ15XwLZosTNz-vnyr-8O2WYgPqLsjs9M-Up_0ycvJqAUsgJNJAyIM5yosgeGAgrs3ICZWNNRv1D1TupXZ4-lwJsayTd-iFmvRPoCnEzDv0xEEmSmZbQedLeUlqECmiBWtc2AsWPM/s320/END+MAY+2011+006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho36E7YB90u4QL_oM31CaDZfJj5YeGJD3maiRoZrQGmAEVenPaEiqkk7NWRhNLcyqYIUB4dKp64IMcXMgkSmhXFadCmiy1z-8BgNCVORq4V_KQOIPOHbTa0jlAlg2-_rO95TPNs5JDqvI/s1600/END+MAY+2011+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho36E7YB90u4QL_oM31CaDZfJj5YeGJD3maiRoZrQGmAEVenPaEiqkk7NWRhNLcyqYIUB4dKp64IMcXMgkSmhXFadCmiy1z-8BgNCVORq4V_KQOIPOHbTa0jlAlg2-_rO95TPNs5JDqvI/s320/END+MAY+2011+008.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
And packed them into the bottom of a saucepan with more olive oil and a little chicken stock, about half way up the little packets. Simmered for half an hour. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1lwl-2LqP4F_oQJ2IezT0LrmdvnB_lAzPPTzoMzM47P-iwtiAuRUA-d0lg6M-hTswkwXFcNvOECinFm6Oby_N54UP4RhHi_LcE6xkCnpM_cFaKu5Zf2Vbym52ocjxUKvccG72xEPX7I/s1600/END+MAY+2011+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1lwl-2LqP4F_oQJ2IezT0LrmdvnB_lAzPPTzoMzM47P-iwtiAuRUA-d0lg6M-hTswkwXFcNvOECinFm6Oby_N54UP4RhHi_LcE6xkCnpM_cFaKu5Zf2Vbym52ocjxUKvccG72xEPX7I/s320/END+MAY+2011+009.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Quite a lot of trouble, and actually if truth be told, I don't like <em>dolmades</em> all that much, but you get a sense of having something for nothing which is pretty cool!<br />
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For one of my summer vegetarian lunch parties, I did a <em>tatin d'aubergine.</em> You cut about three or four aubergines into 0.5cm slices, sprinkle them with salt, and leave for an hour. Rinse very well under running water and squeeze out like a dish rag. Fry in a little olive oil. Brown some pine nuts and sprinkle them in the bottom of a tart dish. Put one sundried tomato in the very middle of the dish, and a layer of aubergine slices overlapping to cover the bottom. Then sundried tomatoes to fill up all the gaps and quite a lot more over the aubergine, then another layer of aubergine slices. You can add squeezed garlic over the aubergine, or dried oregano. DON'T salt. Then top the lot with some ready rolled out puff pastry, tucking in the edges. Oven for half an hour or so, until the pastry is nice and golden. Put a large plate on top of the tart dish and turn the whole thing over so that the pastry is on the bottom and the aubergine on the top. It should be served warm or hot, and should not be turned out until you are ready to eat or the pastry goes soggy. I serve it with green salad. Everyone is always very impressed by this dish, even people who are not fond of aubergine.<br />
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I think that's it foodwise.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5DUjRwEDHeXwqKMWbqk5NGDZ4wTwkwMwCu53MYQkQh7XX4JF7VQtDu3LlogKTI9WR9i1dEbOU8g77XfItR69_30wrP2SZa6_hfhP4pf8v_TVOhxt3I1T6JqdM6SLCnVrk9OIcHGag_4/s1600/END+MAY+2011+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5DUjRwEDHeXwqKMWbqk5NGDZ4wTwkwMwCu53MYQkQh7XX4JF7VQtDu3LlogKTI9WR9i1dEbOU8g77XfItR69_30wrP2SZa6_hfhP4pf8v_TVOhxt3I1T6JqdM6SLCnVrk9OIcHGag_4/s320/END+MAY+2011+010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpSGsSO369_bdgrqZxEMU9e98al06of0jOVBU8TvK2rvNrGjSnxe8fBjb4QK4mF-zK-S61c9m5wb20O7wq09O0NED-65KIelicQ2BV21-gSO7Y5iWB8bLWzfukCRhUOUocqT6ctyPDzM/s1600/Some+nice+fresh+garden+salad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpSGsSO369_bdgrqZxEMU9e98al06of0jOVBU8TvK2rvNrGjSnxe8fBjb4QK4mF-zK-S61c9m5wb20O7wq09O0NED-65KIelicQ2BV21-gSO7Y5iWB8bLWzfukCRhUOUocqT6ctyPDzM/s320/Some+nice+fresh+garden+salad.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some nice fresh salad from the garden</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdiLb6FC4OTpGoBXI4YHXKFD4FR-dtVirm5qcHc_y5Sks4Tar27zcYhCFM6u8bvBapQNYYriTKL12Wm74fSOBTgAEZt-gShCU4lUCHnfqRota2Fi8xZvJoOyU1S0PU88Xpy9X52qqKH4/s1600/Garden+raspberries+and+wild+strawberries.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdiLb6FC4OTpGoBXI4YHXKFD4FR-dtVirm5qcHc_y5Sks4Tar27zcYhCFM6u8bvBapQNYYriTKL12Wm74fSOBTgAEZt-gShCU4lUCHnfqRota2Fi8xZvJoOyU1S0PU88Xpy9X52qqKH4/s320/Garden+raspberries+and+wild+strawberries.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">and some raspberries and fraises des bois</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com2Finistere, France47.945786629051554 -4.086914437500013347.419657629051557 -4.9642509375000134 48.471915629051551 -3.2095779375000131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-22598815498154353902011-09-07T12:32:00.000+02:002011-09-07T12:32:11.312+02:00THE SOCIAL PAGEKatharine Hepburn has been my role model for years. Someone less like me I think you couldn't find. But I keep trying in little ways! Those of you who know me well might find one definite similarity, but it wouldn't be politically correct to spell it out here!<br />
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This is part of an interview of her conducted in 1979. Thirty years ago... I wish I could get access to the whole interview. Anyone know how I might do that?<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_iooSis7bk&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_iooSis7bk&feature=player_embedded</a><br />
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Time to catch up on friends and social!<br />
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In April, May and June I did quite a few <a href="http://www.quimper.onvasortir.com/">ovs</a> Sunday lunches, where I decided the theme and provided the main course (and sometimes either starter or dessert) and the people who wrote their names down brought wine, cheese, nibbles, dessert or starter. This was a good way to really get to know people, just 5 or 6 around the table. And of course the weather was glorious so most of the time we could eat outside.<br />
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I gave a lunch party for part of my pottery group beginning of July (I cut one of the party out of the photo! Sorry Monique!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9yEgsLfyj6p7qaLbgBBlkl3hO68DZNEGLvOkVFO-lIof07TUG09EoEgoc9fsHeSY-92inHttGRjxzFJiuIuXNRuj_6U2ss4NPKbzFrifNEAOrCM9XTJqOdUdk99jARRTAPRMQLCm9_iI/s1600/juillet+ao%25C3%25BBt+013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9yEgsLfyj6p7qaLbgBBlkl3hO68DZNEGLvOkVFO-lIof07TUG09EoEgoc9fsHeSY-92inHttGRjxzFJiuIuXNRuj_6U2ss4NPKbzFrifNEAOrCM9XTJqOdUdk99jARRTAPRMQLCm9_iI/s320/juillet+ao%25C3%25BBt+013.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My friend Marcelle, my pottery teacher Cléa and her mother, Ariane, also a potter</td></tr>
</tbody></table>And Ellie enjoyed the sun and the flowers!<br />
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I had another visit from my <a href="http://www.couchsurfing.org/">couchsurfer</a> friend Tim, who upset a martini that I had just made him and did penance by slurping it up off the counter... (I don't think he'll be happy with me for posting this photo, but then maybe not, he has a good sense of humour...),<br />
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and a quick visit from Naresh and François-Xavier who are now settled in Normandy (after Delhi, quite a change in climate and the view out of the window).<br />
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My brother Steve came for a couple of days and treated me to not one, but two Michelin starred restaurants! Both were excellent. One in Loctudy, the other Pont Aven. The weather was lovely and we were able to eat outside on the terrace at home (when we ate in, which was not much!), but I only managed to get one very bad photo to prove he was here.<br />
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Can you see, he's having toast and Bovril for breakfast!<br />
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Svenja, whom I met last year in India, and again in Geneva when we had a reunion of some of the group who had been at the ayurveda boot camp together, came from Berlin for a week in August, her first time in Brittany:<br />
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And Yves was here for almost two weeks in August, a record! The weather was not magnificent, but we did manage to get out into central Finistère (Pont Coblant, montagne St Michel (not to be confused with Mont St Michel) and the burial chamber at Castell Ruffell, Coat Pincoat, just above Roudouellec, Finistère, of which a picture below, but when we went it had been nicely cleared and there was grass all around. Yves did a really good drawing of this.<br />
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We also went to the Chapelle de Beuzec a lot,<br />
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a really beautiful spot and quite quiet compared to the rest of the area, with a chapel and a calvaire, and nearby a piece of land for sale that I would really really like to buy (if I won the loto!). There is also a holy well (quite a long way from the chapel) which has been renovated very successfully. <br />
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Yves did another good drawing of this. I say "we" paint and draw, but in fact I walk the dog most of the time. I'm not good at drawing, and my sort of painting has to be done in my studio, not outside. Still, I have gathered lots of material to work on at home this winter.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-13113333886232467112011-09-05T10:12:00.000+02:002011-09-05T10:12:52.795+02:00TIME TO CATCH UP ON THE GARDEN!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I haven't posted for months. I'm sorry. The whole point of a blog is to post regularly. The whole summer has gone by. Lots has happened. I'll catch up subject by subject.<br />
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First of all, I've started a <a href="http://www.crafthanded.wordpress.com/">new blog just for creative stuff</a>, please go and have a look, and sign up in the column on the right to receive it regularly. The more people sign up, the more visible I am, so please do it (that includes family and friends PLEASE!). Do the same for this blog. It's not the same as "stuff" in your mailbox, it's ME, you'll get a little bit of my life every morning!<br />
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Let start with the garden.<br />
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Have a look at this link. It's the most beautiful film of a rose blooming.<br />
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<a href="http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/timelapse_rose_bloom">http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/timelapse_rose_bloom</a><br />
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With the rain we had in July and August, the garden has taken on jungle-esque proportions. My neighbour's son came round in June to cut back my apple tree which had grown so large as to be shading a good half of the garden and cutting out all the morning sun. Not a good month for dealing with trees, but when you have someone on hand to help you, you don't ask them to come back in December! To begin with he was very careful where the branches fell, but it soon became impossible (it is a very large tree) and my lovely little flowerbed underneath was crushed to pieces. And the pile of branches in the middle of my garden enormous. He did offer to get rid of them, but I wanted to get as much firewood as I could from the pile. Two months of rain later, the pile has only just disappeared (well not disappeared really, I threw it down a level to be burned soon), but I do have a growing stack of little logs and kindling wood! (it is the gry green tree in the middle in the photo below)<br />
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Although it has been very pretty in Spring, it is at least 40 years old and produces loads of apples that fall off early in their career and rot on the ground. So maybe cutting it back will also do the tree some good.<br />
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My veg garden has benefitted from the rain of course and my water bill won't have grown as large this summer as it did in the spring, but the rain has also revived all the slugs and snails that I didn't see earlier on and they have wreaked havoc just about everywhere. They completely ate all the salads that were almost ready, baby courgettes, pumpkins, beans, strawberries, you name it...<br />
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But I have managed to harvest quite a lot of stuff. A few blueberries (the birds here don't seem to notice them, or maybe there were too few for them to bother!), lots of raspberries (which are now preparing a second crop), a steady trickle of strawberries. Cherry tomatoes galore, and a few large old variety tomatoes which ripened early. A few courgettes, lots of broad beans artichokes, rhubarb, and yesterday I harvested my garlic, not spectacular, but enough to keep me going for about 6 months... The rest was still to come: potimarrons, one spaghetti marrow, aubergines, peppers, beans and tons of tomatoes. And one very large apple from my new espalier apple trees!<br />
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But, then, mid August, with all the wet and mist (and, I have to say, I did plant things much too close together) all my tomatoes, literally tens of kilos of them, began to blacken and rot and I had to pull them all out. I was stricken, after all the work I had put into them, and the promise of tomatoes all summer and autumn. None left. My aubergines never got pollinated, there are few bees around here at the best of times, but what there were must have drowned in the deluge. The weeds overgrew my strawberries and it was too wet to go and pull them out. Of my row of french beans, only two plants produced, so I had about two succulent helpings. You wonder whether it was all worthwhile...<br />
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All my terrace plants suffered terribly from the heat in the spring, no amount of watering seemed to really satisfy them (I have a lot of little trees, a crab apple, buddleias, maples and bamboos), and although the rain has done them good, they are not looking on fine form and I shall have to plant some of them out in the garden, goodness knows where, in the autumn to resuscitate them.<br />
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So there we are, that is the "gardening" bit of my blog brought up to date. I'll catch up on another subject tomorrow!<br />
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</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-88250374421972801782011-05-21T17:50:00.000+02:002011-05-21T17:50:32.311+02:00FRESH VEGETABLES, SUNSHINE and STONE CARVING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The lovely weather continues, I got quite burnt last Thursday when I gave a stone carving lesson all day on the terrace. My shoulders and neck are still sore. I'm very pleased with the works of art produced, really surprising, as they always are, since one has no way of knowing what's inside the stone and what the effect will be. Here are pictures of the best piece, a fish jumping out of a piece of rock, the only one that was completely finished. Click on the picture to get a close up view. I am giving another class next Saturday.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The week before last I had the visit of an English couchsurfer for three days. We knew each other from chatting on a couchsurfing forum, and as we had foreseen, we got on really well. And he very kindly finished painting my sitting room ceiling (a major step in the right direction for those who know my house!).</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl76vBN4MydDgWlyGtk9MiwQEkJJ0Abm2gif96mAF5UXrtlZVX2lYgr9FaUhikRklXF2NqFbiHgXuz8SDr-IzcMV9kUWQZN391Y7oVlllY7CUJ9un9EndofGkv7Xsa4YrOjSF41bKzGDM/s1600/May+2011+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl76vBN4MydDgWlyGtk9MiwQEkJJ0Abm2gif96mAF5UXrtlZVX2lYgr9FaUhikRklXF2NqFbiHgXuz8SDr-IzcMV9kUWQZN391Y7oVlllY7CUJ9un9EndofGkv7Xsa4YrOjSF41bKzGDM/s320/May+2011+004.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
And here is a picture of the back of the sleeveless pullover I have knitted for Cécile (she requested it in winter, it's now summer as you will have realised... luckily, winter comes round again!). The front is plainer. It's a bit of a funny shape, and too short, but never mind, it'll keep the bit of her it covers nice and warm, it's cashmere (mostly). I'll send it to England, Cécile, since you are going soon, I'll save on postage!<br />
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My garden is growing, but needs a lot of water. I've planted melons, as I'm convinced the good weather is going to last until September. October, why not! I pick a handful of strawberries each day (but the blackbirds are having a feastday with them), and I have a few wild strawberries almost ready. Raspberries just have to ripen. My runner beans have not worked at all, but my French beans came up almost as soon as I planted them. Tomatoes, salads, artichokes, coriander, new potatoes, broad beans, I'm really enjoying the fruits of my labour, and just wandering around looking at it all grow. Here are a few photos.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First plum tomatoes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First baby potimarron</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVVNuP7Gna3JxfPjkv4HZgGC5F7hhbe7XFlFT6YEW6ETWES1C36S0P2ujPgXU9aEN_3t6vHXiLUw0EY_mcO62We4h1zLjG_6ESMDbx6WXXFMs6fMwD-V4qwIvPVwD4fTb4A23VJpvAZoc/s1600/May+2011+011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVVNuP7Gna3JxfPjkv4HZgGC5F7hhbe7XFlFT6YEW6ETWES1C36S0P2ujPgXU9aEN_3t6vHXiLUw0EY_mcO62We4h1zLjG_6ESMDbx6WXXFMs6fMwD-V4qwIvPVwD4fTb4A23VJpvAZoc/s320/May+2011+011.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very proud of this - first artichoke!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjur5pQkIJ4xNyfPRM7Z3CA09b6HbrmBgDnJi-xyJy54O480mbHaF3jISO7jC0ef7xVh7Eqkv97ad-zVPA8WlE5RbjxRLt95Ojo-EZaCLIVR34GJP0KfMlav3TmKdLmqkE8mhA79P9UXzM/s1600/May+2011+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjur5pQkIJ4xNyfPRM7Z3CA09b6HbrmBgDnJi-xyJy54O480mbHaF3jISO7jC0ef7xVh7Eqkv97ad-zVPA8WlE5RbjxRLt95Ojo-EZaCLIVR34GJP0KfMlav3TmKdLmqkE8mhA79P9UXzM/s320/May+2011+014.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First blueberries</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6Qo2kL3fUCM3F60H6CfC6OsjfNwKjpJV_Y-eUYdV4XSpAg_rz4EcCtGXn2p_6UZUDIISiTdQO48N1wOflUV7G1rWInLMHJlvNDEeWYq0TlQ7NfOcHuck4OG79jvyHey2OzCmEZHhiJw/s1600/May+2011+015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6Qo2kL3fUCM3F60H6CfC6OsjfNwKjpJV_Y-eUYdV4XSpAg_rz4EcCtGXn2p_6UZUDIISiTdQO48N1wOflUV7G1rWInLMHJlvNDEeWYq0TlQ7NfOcHuck4OG79jvyHey2OzCmEZHhiJw/s320/May+2011+015.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coriander and new potatoes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtizxJI25i_eMzWjtSS6FY-NrhEjG-vPgjahF90CQMZnvlQ5qzoFTH75GdsJhyphenhyphenL1tfXf44SabbooOTWwM25jZ0qxLtTUgKNR5F4n5HFOoT5KlgOmkLZt1hYPa_6GSVev_RUYmQA6cOTA0/s1600/Horses+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtizxJI25i_eMzWjtSS6FY-NrhEjG-vPgjahF90CQMZnvlQ5qzoFTH75GdsJhyphenhyphenL1tfXf44SabbooOTWwM25jZ0qxLtTUgKNR5F4n5HFOoT5KlgOmkLZt1hYPa_6GSVev_RUYmQA6cOTA0/s320/Horses+009.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First courgette</td></tr>
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Michael and Steve, we were talking last time I was in Dorset about how Daddy would have loved new technology, computers, digital cameras, etc. I was mowing the other day, I have a little tiny Flymo - do you remember how excited he was when he first bought a Flymo? And when he got a microwave? He microwaved everything in sight! Sad he didn't live to see Facebook and Skype!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I've just returned from visiting a few Trait Breton carthorses and their foals. What beautiful animals. But, boy was it hot again, out in the middle of a field mid afternoon.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJdo_W5wptKmLGJLT1MZu6ze2SGChVdJUMJXAQdVuQ_nSKxiSP70MyQWr2TCayAsumXYZM_rAYxokMDDtgHigXRDZW0i5gjfK6Yr2SjneKuU6HmkT-ZHcIH6Z5c869Gf0wqQmyTe-7eM/s1600/Horses+014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJdo_W5wptKmLGJLT1MZu6ze2SGChVdJUMJXAQdVuQ_nSKxiSP70MyQWr2TCayAsumXYZM_rAYxokMDDtgHigXRDZW0i5gjfK6Yr2SjneKuU6HmkT-ZHcIH6Z5c869Gf0wqQmyTe-7eM/s320/Horses+014.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-1111864568007072442011-05-05T10:29:00.000+02:002011-05-05T10:29:28.934+02:00UPDATE ON THE GARDEN, etc...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Apparently not everyone remembers the photos of my palm tree last year, so here is a reminder.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjHtCXFQOvSjxbNBKf4URwOUpnQgKEZFqfzVDEwEzRT-y4dOY-FB30cL7LNDc2_xHOgwOCyg-bjFma9AUflcpHCFqG5fLsXNAkwuC-tYbwXow8QTKJb6SVOoXMBpXByz81hCOVsHsMzc/s1600/24+Mai+10+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjHtCXFQOvSjxbNBKf4URwOUpnQgKEZFqfzVDEwEzRT-y4dOY-FB30cL7LNDc2_xHOgwOCyg-bjFma9AUflcpHCFqG5fLsXNAkwuC-tYbwXow8QTKJb6SVOoXMBpXByz81hCOVsHsMzc/s320/24+Mai+10+006.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I've been working so hard. I've transferred things from my terraces down into the garden. I've cut a flowerbed into the lawn on the opposite side of the path to the vegetable patch, and brought up a maple from the bottom of the garden and two azaleas. I planted two holly seedlings that were on my front terrace, a virburnum, a large camelia from the back terrace which has been in the same pot for 6 years, a small camelia from the front terrace, I planted out all the bulbs which flowered in pots this spring, all the dahlias I brought back from England. There are very tall ferns growing already in that flowerbed, and it looks as if it's been there for ages. <br />
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Last week I planted three lupin plants I bought, and brought up another maple from the bottom of the garden, a big one this time, I had a hell of a job getting it out of the ground. I've planted it behind my new apple trees, to the north of them, but it's looking very sad, I hope it will survive.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQzn8mpDj0BkgPoT1Iy3MqPbSwD0AKvpuFPGTWG7ZgOxIU-bbIqmYrDV23HfO3lUJYZ9v4eK29csneZNWc5_NS1B3JcldcipYwY4WTZhloatgdEPRJM-c-tfU4k1O1yjO2NcQWa_DgEc/s1600/May+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQQzn8mpDj0BkgPoT1Iy3MqPbSwD0AKvpuFPGTWG7ZgOxIU-bbIqmYrDV23HfO3lUJYZ9v4eK29csneZNWc5_NS1B3JcldcipYwY4WTZhloatgdEPRJM-c-tfU4k1O1yjO2NcQWa_DgEc/s320/May+002.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I've sown my runner beans (which don't seem to be coming up...), sweet peas and nasturtiums. I planted out a potimarron (a small sweet pumpkin) and a chili pepper which I have protected with glass cloches. Two aubergines, two bell peppers, lots of flower seeds. Eleven tomato plants. A dozen batavia salads.<br />
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The garlic I planted three weeks ago is up, and the radishes I sowed on top of the potatoes. The earlier radishes have been eaten. <br />
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I went to a session of thai massage a couple of weeks ago, I needed it after all this gardening, my back was hurting, which is rare for me. The massage was free, with ovs. And the same evening, I went to the art meeting (remember 6 weeks ago I did a painting for the theme "Air, Terre, Eau, Feu".). This time the theme was "Anatomie". I knitted a frog and felted its innards (following a model by found on internet, thank you <a href="mailto:craftyhedgehog@etsy.com">craftyhedgehog@etsy.com</a> ) and pinned to a corkboard, like we did in biology. It was far more original than drawings of naked ladies that other people did, and everybody found it funny! The next theme is "L'histoire", very uninspiring, too broad.<br />
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It continues to be very hot, but cold at night. I did a lamb and mint sauce, roast potatoes and peas lunch for Eastern Sunday for 4 other people from ovs and they loved it. I did loads of lamb and even more loads of gravy so I'd have lots for shepherd's pie afterwards, but they ate three quarters of the lamb and nine tenths of the gravy! We ate out on the terrace. <br />
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I'm afraid the RSPCA may come and check on the welfare of my animals, they are so terribly stressed...<br />
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I have just won the first match of the new chess tournament. Maybe I'll go a stage further this time!<br />
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</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-31697108375357023882011-04-26T20:55:00.000+02:002011-04-26T20:55:23.301+02:00DIRECTION IN LIFE....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xzowUOakpRXXsqbvHM5iCV9CI7lj0mB4InEFroPRCIvpFVkHYdIplXvocXulJfo6rxSup7TFji7aRixSPG2OCcPnW9VSJoYZrmPwnsxNO_C3bJU2NSAaK79OVw7jt1wE6IHwx_kvbag/s1600/cheshirecat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xzowUOakpRXXsqbvHM5iCV9CI7lj0mB4InEFroPRCIvpFVkHYdIplXvocXulJfo6rxSup7TFji7aRixSPG2OCcPnW9VSJoYZrmPwnsxNO_C3bJU2NSAaK79OVw7jt1wE6IHwx_kvbag/s320/cheshirecat.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter!" " (Lewis Carroll, <em>Alice...</em>). <br />
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</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-80093080464172397872011-04-13T21:02:00.000+02:002011-04-13T21:02:04.480+02:00MY PALM TREE IS FLOWERING AGAIN!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Big fat buds about to open! Unbelievable that it should flower two years running.<br />
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I"ve been doing a lot of gardening, digging up more of my lawn, moving plants from the bottom of the garden to the top, I even mowed the little bit of lawn that is left yesterday evening (wonders never cease, it's been two years since it saw a mower!). I've planted my potatoes, garlic, sown more radishes, salad, calendula. I've cut down a few dead bamboo poles and have made teepees around which to plant runner beans. My broad beans have come up, but thanks to all the cats that frequent my garden, that dig and roll in freshly dug soil, there are holes in the line, and some seeds which have been pushed out of alignment. Never mind. I'm so pleased to see it all growing. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crab apple in flower on the terrace</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rhododendron "Jack"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New trough for my pine tree on my front terrace</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apple tree in flower in the garden below the terrace</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Progress in the veg garden</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grama, 94th birthday</td></tr>
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</div> <div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I went to England for a long weekend at the beginning of April for my Mum's 94th birthday. Nicholas came down from London, which was lovely, we managed to have a couple of pub lunches and a good chat. He's in Thailand on holiday now. The weather wasn't very good, but Mum's garden looked lovely. We had a celebration seafood lunch for her birthday on Sunday.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grama's 94th birthday</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I've finished another couple of pieces of pottery, a little serving dish for hors d'oeuvres, or amuse-gueule, in the shape of a Breton triskell, and a lopsided (on purpose!) jug with a snake handle and glaze that I wanted to look like the waves of a certain famous Japanese artist. Not bad, I'm quite pleased with it.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6HUfAiHr_a09t_eUPX5nq3XAfZGdOghpqZ041e6jqGPe2L27m6ciqmbRb1dPM1DakMT2bSiNU7YNibusK-mZ3NmP69IhBGdW2jhPp1h-xSmT8Jgc7jGUwtVlORFbz1vlQu7gJ-t9q6TQ/s1600/Wave+jug3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6HUfAiHr_a09t_eUPX5nq3XAfZGdOghpqZ041e6jqGPe2L27m6ciqmbRb1dPM1DakMT2bSiNU7YNibusK-mZ3NmP69IhBGdW2jhPp1h-xSmT8Jgc7jGUwtVlORFbz1vlQu7gJ-t9q6TQ/s320/Wave+jug3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waves on the Wave jug</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSRsQbdBKT2rhW7OdTWwxbzQT1o0Vvk53fVO_vtcyLQM34JZdEqKnTQqjIlbEPv0jYFNMAoYmh2Z5DnfapMri6l55dtjVG3XR1JrlZRBUHSmg1eCOyD6rwHtCDGlXSjXOQVpXuEPbRbs/s1600/Snake+handle+of+Wave+jug.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSRsQbdBKT2rhW7OdTWwxbzQT1o0Vvk53fVO_vtcyLQM34JZdEqKnTQqjIlbEPv0jYFNMAoYmh2Z5DnfapMri6l55dtjVG3XR1JrlZRBUHSmg1eCOyD6rwHtCDGlXSjXOQVpXuEPbRbs/s320/Snake+handle+of+Wave+jug.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snake handle of Wave jug</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I organized a "sortie" for my Quimper ovs (on va sortir) group. Four people came to lunch last Sunday to learn to make Chinese chicken noodle soup. It was lovely weather, we ate on the terrace and they went away with the recipe. I've just organized for next Saturday an exchange of plants: each person brings from 1 to 5 plants, and can take away the same number of someone else's. I may have cut the timing a bit fine, I'm wondering whether people will have time to prepare plants in three days... we'll see. And I'm going to a wine tasting on Thursday. Very busy, you can see!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjdK7IfsVEppY1kkR33BWy9kaqwC8KYEIPZY1QLE-ws_Hy4QtUvwsHW2PFLD_bVBeA9TGqUSXP0_NYyFhyPhQEJBIjHwqUylendfibpWRItJWQE33LFQjrwK0BvQ0u7BYCr5-dqZDtXSQ/s1600/Bol+Triskell.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjdK7IfsVEppY1kkR33BWy9kaqwC8KYEIPZY1QLE-ws_Hy4QtUvwsHW2PFLD_bVBeA9TGqUSXP0_NYyFhyPhQEJBIjHwqUylendfibpWRItJWQE33LFQjrwK0BvQ0u7BYCr5-dqZDtXSQ/s320/Bol+Triskell.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Triskell bowl</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCK6-CzUT0H7UTDgRyMkxKo3iVbbOFZ1M4e38N1SzDVmy0cL_JavU_6ikF11fNP06o1auVMl6jSCyhS0oKdu_lOyC_v_qj52M-jVaK4UFbeuxgw0H-scgZORDDtXHQrykU4m4HHKkN_g/s1600/Bol+Triskell2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCK6-CzUT0H7UTDgRyMkxKo3iVbbOFZ1M4e38N1SzDVmy0cL_JavU_6ikF11fNP06o1auVMl6jSCyhS0oKdu_lOyC_v_qj52M-jVaK4UFbeuxgw0H-scgZORDDtXHQrykU4m4HHKkN_g/s320/Bol+Triskell2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Triskell bowl (close up)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYR0AsVrNrQao7_1UBXmZC3GyYMuZEw56kkYQ7M88ph5ElMMg-Pn6FXCIrRNTnwjXc1CvnKY49zZ7wK0xydz4GeqUawI2ykKBVlEjo8p3dv_IWaqAkV1ei2byDumhc5kidlvXpGhha2nw/s1600/Fruits+de+mer%252C+anniv+Grama+94+years.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYR0AsVrNrQao7_1UBXmZC3GyYMuZEw56kkYQ7M88ph5ElMMg-Pn6FXCIrRNTnwjXc1CvnKY49zZ7wK0xydz4GeqUawI2ykKBVlEjo8p3dv_IWaqAkV1ei2byDumhc5kidlvXpGhha2nw/s320/Fruits+de+mer%252C+anniv+Grama+94+years.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Seafood lunch for Grama's birthday</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Can't get the photos in the right order. Never mind, you get the gist?</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-10747223421281454332011-03-21T08:34:00.000+01:002011-03-21T08:34:49.836+01:00OLD FASHIONED HOT CHOCOLATE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It has been a beautiful Spring weekend, sunny but with a sometimes chilly north wind. I invited a small group of people to my house on Saturday to learn how to make scones. It's funny how much enthusiasm the French show for anything "teatimey" about English cuisine and reject all the rest! They were delighted, we ate lots of scones with Jersey cream (can't get clotted here) and raspberry jam and they went away with leftovers and the recipe.<br />
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Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I went to the second of the five theatre/concert events that the children gave me for my birthday. It was called "Concert au Chocolat n°5" and was a Chostakovitch and Tchaikowsky chamber concert (a trio of exteeeeemely talented young men, piano, violin and cello) and if one arrived half an hour early, it was preceded by a cup of chocolate made in the old fashioned way, by the most famous of Quimper's <em>chocolatiers</em>. It was absolutely delicious, I've never tasted anything like it. Well, it tasted like chocolate of course, but the texture was amazing, like drinking silk. Beautifully served in quite large, warmed cups, on a large oval saucer, with three beautiful little chocolates on the side. Quite a treat. And the concert was most excellent. <br />
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<a href="http://www.theatre-cornouaille.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=463&Itemid=59">http://www.theatre-cornouaille.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=463&Itemid=59</a><br />
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It was quite surprising to come out of the theatre into the broad daylight of a sunny Spring evening!<br />
</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-38431247555665234352011-03-16T19:38:00.000+01:002011-03-16T19:38:46.004+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I went to see <em>The King's Speech</em> the day before yesterday. I found a cinema in Quimper where it was playing in English. Wonderful film, fantastic actors, but quite stressful. One found oneself completely rigid with the effort of trying to help the poor man out. <br />
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I have photographed my two latest pieces of pottery. One is a simple shell shaped bowl, the other a large rather lopsided plant pot with the front and back sculpted in a sort of seaside rocks theme. Difficult to describe the inspiration, rocks at low tide, with seaweed, crevices, water, etc. (P.S. Lopsided with me is entirely intentional!)<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I have been putting the power hose over my back terrace. It was filthy with moss, grime, mud, and lots of bits of plant pots that fell apart during last winter's cold weather. It's such hard work, but at least the result is immediate. I have to do the front as well, but am not quite sure how, since it slopes down towards the house and front door and all the water will run down and maybe not drain away fast enough before inundating me! I think very small doses will do it, stopping and starting so that the water has time to disappear. I've got lots of pretty flowers on my front terrace, hyacinths (which are starting to fall over but which are a lovely colour), daffodils, and various shrubs with sweet smelling flowers. (The "boards" behind the daffodils are the old door of the vegetable cellar in Le Mée!).</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My back garden is also progressing, but more slowly now that the pressure of planting is off. I've sown a few seeds, cleared a bit more turf, and transplanted various things which were not in the right place.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-83713173147459070892011-03-07T16:19:00.000+01:002011-03-07T16:19:22.394+01:00I'M A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I haven't written in a long time, I've been doing so much, it's hard to know where to begin. <br />
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Just after the New Year, I joined a nation-wide (world wide in fact) group with a section in Quimper, called On Va Sortir, all sorts of outings and activities are organised by various members, and one can join in whatever takes ones fancy. So I've been to restaurants, knitting bees, bingo evenings, bowling, English conversation meetings, etc etc, which has kept me very busy and I've made a few friends. The chess tournament was part of that... by the way, I got eliminated in the second round!<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I have been reading John Steinbeck's <em>Travels with Charley</em>. I can recommend it, easy to read. He writes simply and with a lot of humour, and the book is an insight into America 50 years ago, before camping cars, mobile phones, internet, almost before television. Before political correctness, before black people held positions of importance and power, before ecology.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>I've also been listening to <em>The Millenium Trilogy</em> as an audio book, or rather three audio books, that go on for days and days. I really enjoyed it, anyone who enjoys audio books should listen to it, it's remarkable value and really well put together (get the version read by Saul Reichlin). But I wouldn't read the paper version or go and see the film.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The weather was mild in February and I did a lot of gardening. With Christmas money from Michael I bought various plants, including twenty <em>Eleagnus angustifola</em> to plant as a hedge between me and my neighbours. I planted two a day, just after lunch usually when the temperature outside was at its highest. But I had to clear before planting, so it was actually quite strenuous. I had to deturf and get rid of loads of couch grass, which will mean that much less to have to look at next summer when it grows and I haven't mown. I've finished planting and have put bark around them.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div>Next I planted two cordon apple trees as a backing to my future fruit plot with money Stephen gave me for my birthday! I did it very carefully with posts covered in coconut husk and wire and everything. Looks good. I've unplanted other things, a couple of brooms, an <em>osmanthus burkwoodii </em>which obviously was not happy since it hasn't grown in three years, a couple of grasses... All the turf I remove I chuck to a lower level of the garden which I shan't have time to do this year.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">And continuing deturfing, I planted three artichoke plants and three rhubarb, in front of the hedge. Then I made enough room for a strawberry bed, this involved moving an enormous pile of rubbish, wood, branches, clippings which I've been accumulating for three years. I've piled it all up between me and my neighbour in a lower part of the garden, it makes quite an acceptable barrier. And I cut down the willow tree right in the middle of the plot, but can't get rid of the stump or the roots. It'll grow again throughout the summer. But I had a brainwave, and instead of chucking out the bits I cut off, I have woven a willow barrier, hedge, whatnot, partly with willow cuttings, partly just long branches. Not a work of art (Tom Deacon would not be proud of me!), but I'm quite pleased with it nonetheless. It makes a backing to my apple trees and will shelter them from north winds next winter. It also sort of finishes off the patch. </div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRgmenhW8a300WQ3u8b3hOZX703BwSYo9CqcFvvCl2Z4sH4Nh6is9MJV68SiwnMdg9MzIKGiihOsoEU91ZvUGbmatLfhVubEYCqVcAQazguFKdAO3sOOuRccuJm0KSa1wpZTE5pMuva8s/s1600/March+11+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRgmenhW8a300WQ3u8b3hOZX703BwSYo9CqcFvvCl2Z4sH4Nh6is9MJV68SiwnMdg9MzIKGiihOsoEU91ZvUGbmatLfhVubEYCqVcAQazguFKdAO3sOOuRccuJm0KSa1wpZTE5pMuva8s/s320/March+11+009.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks more professional with cloches!</td></tr>
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNUxL9Y-qzU9Ma6B7wGhm8x0pHDTkAmor-ydpLlosfdjopFQWlrU-KrxLIpTF9I9_bNTPvPfOP_ijHjOB01pjjsAw75exXBo58Nl68OyBeJzHee2BR5qw6c0_jQ0kQFD0pgltSBj0v0rk/s1600/March+11+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNUxL9Y-qzU9Ma6B7wGhm8x0pHDTkAmor-ydpLlosfdjopFQWlrU-KrxLIpTF9I9_bNTPvPfOP_ijHjOB01pjjsAw75exXBo58Nl68OyBeJzHee2BR5qw6c0_jQ0kQFD0pgltSBj0v0rk/s320/March+11+005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Today I planted out the strawberries in the black plastic, a few herbs along the end of the patch, and yesterday I put in a row of broad beans. So I'm inordinately proud of myself and shall continue to deturf, and plant a mixture of vegetables and lilies and this and that that needs moving from elsewhere in the garden or terrace.<br />
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Ellie had her stitches out and has the neatest, tiniest little scar you ever saw. All a thing of the past.<br />
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I'm knitting myself an enormous jacket in grey wool. Lots of complicated stitches, endless counting, mistakes and undoing. But when I get it right, it looks good. I've also almost finished a sleeveless pullover for Cécile at her request. They had a series of snowstorms this winter, there are pictures on her blog <a href="http://mariusamazir.blogspot.com/">http://mariusamazir.blogspot.com/</a>. <br />
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Marius spent a week in Paris with Jacques and loved it. He's very independent at only four years old, didn't seem to miss his family and had a great time. Pictures of that also on his blog.<br />
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I'm taking part in an art club outing this evening. We had to create something on the theme "The Four Elements" (air, earth, water, fire). So I've done an acrylic and felt tip pencil rendering of Leonardo da Vinci's birth chart, rather quickly done I'm afraid, not brilliant, a bit messy, but at least I've got something to take with me this evening. <br />
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</div>There we are, quick round up of a month's activities. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-18359148719306905802011-01-20T13:31:00.000+01:002011-01-20T13:31:11.991+01:00CHECK, MATE!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I took part last night in the first round of the Quimper chess tournament! I never cease to amaze you, do I?!! I haven't played chess for at least fifteen years, so I've spent the last few days practising non-stop against my computer to try to look credible at least. In fear and trepidation I took myself down to the Café des Arts beside the river in Quimper, and was the first to arrive, of course, as usual. And anyway, to cut a long story short, best of three games, </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div>da-da-daaaa... (that's a trumpet blowing)<br />
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I won the first two and so am through to the next round. But destiny has it that I'm playing next against last year's champion, who will certainly not take long to make me look ridiculous. However, I rediscovered the pleasure of playing chess, and since the club meets regularly, I shall go and try to improve.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My English speaking pub meeting has been cancelled, or rather put forward to next week when I am not free to attend, so too bad, I'll speak English another time. That at least no one can do better than me. No one here that is.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It is lovely and sunny. But very cold again. Ellie has recovered completely and we have started taking walks again. She is having the bandage and her stitches removed tomorrow. The bandage has not bothered her in the least. She doesn't seem to notice it. But I think she will when they try to take it off her, it'll remove all the hair round her middle...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Basket day tomorrow. Last week we had a bag of split peas. I made some lovely soup, and had it... with a poached egg on top, really good!</div></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-83608131124243484822011-01-12T17:39:00.000+01:002011-01-12T17:39:40.936+01:00ELLIE DACHSHUND, ELIE KAKOU AND ENGLISH LESSONS...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, Ellie is 20grs lighter today and feeling very sorry for herself! I picked her up yesterday evening, all groggy, having been told by the vet that on no account was she to wet her bandage... well the grass in my garden is high and Ellie is low, and it's raining. So I had the brilliant idea of making a pile of leaves on my front terrace, where there are no steps for her to negotiate, since she won't pee on concrete or tile or anything hard. And it worked! She didn't realise that her back end was off the leaves even though her head and fore feet were over them. So for the time being we can keep that bandage dry, but she has to keep it for ten days and I wonder whether we shall manage it for long!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ7tufcUhM9WX55c0UWEZzupeR2oZHZIK1Ofp_60RM_AAge09jW_n9AtyqNMUECJvg92Sc8p_Fy6wZMxF56I8l48oVbkokOC6winDNtw_lcnQSNurZO07g3_yvDOG787WMGLnV92VHbY/s1600/ekkie+op+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQ7tufcUhM9WX55c0UWEZzupeR2oZHZIK1Ofp_60RM_AAge09jW_n9AtyqNMUECJvg92Sc8p_Fy6wZMxF56I8l48oVbkokOC6winDNtw_lcnQSNurZO07g3_yvDOG787WMGLnV92VHbY/s320/ekkie+op+003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">I have tentatively joined a group in Quimper who meet up in a pub from time to time and speak English. They are not English speakers, and they will probably be very surprised to find that I am. And speaking of English lessons, I found this YouTube video of a famous French comedian, Elie Kakou, now "passed on" as the Americans would say, which I find very funny - I hope you have the same sense of humour as me, but it is very French humour. I saw him once live in Châteaudun, and although he was already very ill, he really gave us our money's worth.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Funny that all the really good French comedians die... young. Coluche, Thierry Le Luron, Elie Kakou. The ones that are left are not in the same league at all.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/JL5VyAY3hgA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-73846925935218215032011-01-10T14:42:00.000+01:002011-01-10T14:42:34.969+01:00I'M ALMOST TOO LATE TO WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR !But together with Ellie and Youpee, I do wish you a very happy 2011. Ellie is starting the year with an operation - she's being spayed tomorrow, which will mean us staying in and taking things gently for a few days.<br />
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So we've been exercising a bit more this week. Not today, it's pouring with rain, but we went yesterday and the day before too, very wintery, not cold, but grey and foggy. The sea was very heavy, the heaviest I've ever seen it (which is not saying much, I usually don't go out in nasty weather), though there was little wind. Although it was low tide, a strange freak wave came a good 50 metres up the beach and surprised us.<br />
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I undid my Christmas tree yesterday afternoon. The place I bought it from gives a 7€50 voucher if I bring it back this week. There's something very sad and anticlimactic about taking all the decorations down. When you put them up, you are usually expecting family or friends, taking them down means it's all over and everyone has gone home. Back to normal. <br />
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Nicholas took quite a nice picture of me the other day on top of the Montagne St Michel in the snow, it's rare that I put pictures of myself on this blog, but here it is:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OKQ9YUZc-qbMzKQruFTE5-hYv56zm64uq8Jts5GR7t05dg42AuOJcevROV_luGsz1jiX2v_vczO-VGmSiGJFp2zOm-5YRKI1JHhknh5BXVs5Qe7Icup2PO55W4U0SijeZaqMrsAwEW4/s1600/P1090088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2OKQ9YUZc-qbMzKQruFTE5-hYv56zm64uq8Jts5GR7t05dg42AuOJcevROV_luGsz1jiX2v_vczO-VGmSiGJFp2zOm-5YRKI1JHhknh5BXVs5Qe7Icup2PO55W4U0SijeZaqMrsAwEW4/s320/P1090088.JPG" width="238" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">and a closer up version:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh8QkJ6scojq8lQjdkp__ER4fS0jlOeb3Dzi8B_6vMB5phLZ-GomZk4ViPVTfOUbOkbBQ_iRbLM7xQQuS7X7JDlNn6SZjm62Lyaz_6MdqRCGSU47ozYpVvjK04AicLEaTJ6cOnLMf2Qek/s1600/P1090088+-+Copie.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh8QkJ6scojq8lQjdkp__ER4fS0jlOeb3Dzi8B_6vMB5phLZ-GomZk4ViPVTfOUbOkbBQ_iRbLM7xQQuS7X7JDlNn6SZjm62Lyaz_6MdqRCGSU47ozYpVvjK04AicLEaTJ6cOnLMf2Qek/s320/P1090088+-+Copie.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV83BBALIJJUaIZ-GxS_0xQgLnjhxn_AN575PGekOsxyezne0XYuYutiFQOw1VlCJoUTn9w0DD-jhsEbsEXdRI06SVypVl0Mhyphenhyphen5CYULM_lvMCfNVFRwnLkVh5TAji1a5YufYKvgTAtF2E/s1600/Jan2011+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV83BBALIJJUaIZ-GxS_0xQgLnjhxn_AN575PGekOsxyezne0XYuYutiFQOw1VlCJoUTn9w0DD-jhsEbsEXdRI06SVypVl0Mhyphenhyphen5CYULM_lvMCfNVFRwnLkVh5TAji1a5YufYKvgTAtF2E/s320/Jan2011+005.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">I bought a couple of amaryllis before Christmas, one just opened the day Nicholas left, now they are both out and look lovely.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">And last but not least, because I wore holes in my slipper socks by wearing them over shoes so as not to slip on the ice when it was very cold, I had to knit myself a new indoor pair. Here they are.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3PE37bNozdmFWfyVUfI0FUJk3wZdzvrnuYZytUR7shseSXQLkGxnji8kNH_2GLbzQJ4OxxgJNWG-2oMQVb-LnAH43WDTMCqq2lP5EyRPRqH_THp8g0qGNSG7qvWNDjdCcOAEIL3cXBg/s1600/Jan2011+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3PE37bNozdmFWfyVUfI0FUJk3wZdzvrnuYZytUR7shseSXQLkGxnji8kNH_2GLbzQJ4OxxgJNWG-2oMQVb-LnAH43WDTMCqq2lP5EyRPRqH_THp8g0qGNSG7qvWNDjdCcOAEIL3cXBg/s320/Jan2011+001.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-52388900443098877442010-12-26T17:51:00.000+01:002010-12-26T17:51:26.930+01:00DID YOU HAVE A GOOD CHRISTMAS ?I missed saying "Happy Christmas" to you all. So, did you have a nice Christmas? With good meals and lots of presents? <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We did. I fetched Nicholas from Brest airport on Tuesday 21st, his birthday! He was one of the lucky ones to leave London and get to his destination, and on time if you please! We have been having a good, quiet time together, as we always do. With a series of excellent meals, no restaurants, we seem to be able to do better at home. What did you have for Christmas meals?</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The temperatures are going up down, up down, we have lovely sunny days (although as usual the weather forecast for the Finistère is awful) but rather cold nights. I have to put thick socks on over my shoes to get across the terrace to the north side of the house, the one that leads to the garden, so that I don't slip and kill myself while peeing the dog. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>My load of wood for the winter was delivered last week. All neatly cut into 40cm lengths, split and stacked on a pallet. Last year it cost me 225€, expensive enough, this year it's 275€. Can't do without unfortunately: a woodburder means wood. That being said, my little house is lovely and warm.<br />
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I've finally got photos of my two grandsons wearing the sleeveless pullovers I knitted for them just before going to the States in September. I forgot to take photos of the finished product and had to wait for Cécile to put photos she had taken on her blog. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMo86_TjRimrMnpdvI3g_y1elHbZROkgO3wrhkYSOsMHjgaieCo0B_ffjz16iFc0Cy0mNQVDEWBQ5NJ-RUJpOXGpdbcQ5i5R0uYQ8kJiPTMAu7VCQWdXPp8cnsY8VoD9Wni1qgMht_yQ/s1600/DSC_0007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdMo86_TjRimrMnpdvI3g_y1elHbZROkgO3wrhkYSOsMHjgaieCo0B_ffjz16iFc0Cy0mNQVDEWBQ5NJ-RUJpOXGpdbcQ5i5R0uYQ8kJiPTMAu7VCQWdXPp8cnsY8VoD9Wni1qgMht_yQ/s320/DSC_0007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYmIYhAIcy-DA1AtCLEOC-GgYcEnBbfiJdSC7RrcmPeAAr58xQ4GHSwemCKf4LdtvbV6nM206io4nX89h30ZAcIMs9AZ4yKkaIO2rbu06PME5FsX290EjGiCDHj1WaI8XtSvaeiN8F1A/s1600/DSC_0012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYmIYhAIcy-DA1AtCLEOC-GgYcEnBbfiJdSC7RrcmPeAAr58xQ4GHSwemCKf4LdtvbV6nM206io4nX89h30ZAcIMs9AZ4yKkaIO2rbu06PME5FsX290EjGiCDHj1WaI8XtSvaeiN8F1A/s320/DSC_0012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>This week I have made quick and not very expensive curtains to block out the draft that comes up from the veranda into the sitting room in the evenings in winter. There is a sort of archway about 1m70 wide, and a couple of metres high. I bought a steel curtain rod and some rings with clips on them. The things to hold the rod up with are placed too high for me to screw them in, so I stuck them with super glue. Then I bought 6 metres of fleece, really cheap, in a nice off white. I cut the edge and tore it into two pieces 3m long, turned over the top into a pelmet of about 25cm and clipped it to the curtain rings! It trails on the ground and makes sure that drafts don't get under it, and it needs no hemming, it doesn't fray. I'm really pleased with the result, which took me a couple of hours in all, not even. It looks good and is very efficient, in fact, with the woodburner going, the sitting room is almost too warm now!<br />
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I can show you my pre-Christmas knitting, now the presents have been given. I did a jacket for Marius, with toggles, a sleeveless pullover for Leif, a bit pink, but I really need to knit pink sometimes and it's not easy having two grandsons. And a sleeveless pullover for my brother Michael. They all seem to have liked their presents!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQivjFPhry3tqJdS0uXlkJcAtg8kl50VLHa4ffJC56hy7PZcH2AS0yjwGMSSThwG1u_zqymj-J0_XxImGL48dfXFEyw_fZL9n9N7S0Yrxiu66kd3BgPyJT_bBScn_sUcW_GfYj0Sk-_k/s1600/D%25C3%25A9bardeur+Leif+Noel+10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQivjFPhry3tqJdS0uXlkJcAtg8kl50VLHa4ffJC56hy7PZcH2AS0yjwGMSSThwG1u_zqymj-J0_XxImGL48dfXFEyw_fZL9n9N7S0Yrxiu66kd3BgPyJT_bBScn_sUcW_GfYj0Sk-_k/s320/D%25C3%25A9bardeur+Leif+Noel+10.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjofOU7HBPWgDJgvo94NNB7UwZUvY8bv_4L7MKNPxOyWK7GZi41aRE2t_lYVPIxfjHM15JiycT6IjPLbrgdJKB28aOybuop2DFibwbDMPvdVVcsi_3P6Vt59bDAwR9b2-_G17N-VuphVKI/s1600/Marius+Christmas+jacket+2010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjofOU7HBPWgDJgvo94NNB7UwZUvY8bv_4L7MKNPxOyWK7GZi41aRE2t_lYVPIxfjHM15JiycT6IjPLbrgdJKB28aOybuop2DFibwbDMPvdVVcsi_3P6Vt59bDAwR9b2-_G17N-VuphVKI/s320/Marius+Christmas+jacket+2010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMDhP1UAAO2Piij3x7ZmWejEpCfYzz_rgmknu0wLMNaMteTVkY5HA_Y-dg_1rlgYPkVKf8VQHkPzOWplmewAl6aPC4oUB9Y1TBIFy2sTlJ3BHnZKMWLWhg9A_SGxWQkMgYTa8koq0k0M/s1600/Pull+Mike+Noel+10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMDhP1UAAO2Piij3x7ZmWejEpCfYzz_rgmknu0wLMNaMteTVkY5HA_Y-dg_1rlgYPkVKf8VQHkPzOWplmewAl6aPC4oUB9Y1TBIFy2sTlJ3BHnZKMWLWhg9A_SGxWQkMgYTa8koq0k0M/s320/Pull+Mike+Noel+10.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
So, on to food: for Nicholas' birthday we had a bottle of nice champagne, the most enormous snails, then fish, then a sort of pavlova with a difference (meringue, fresh heavy cream and raspberries in a champagne glass. For Christmas Eve, we had a <em>plateau de fruits de mer</em>, which actually almost went wrong, because the fishmonger seemed to have forgotten my order, and gave me all the shellfish unopened, and the fairly large lobster I had ordered turned into two very small ones, but it was all good, and too much, so last night we had the rest of peeled shrimps, langoustines, a few praires topped with the meat from the tail of one of the lobsters in a cocktail sauce (fresh mayonnaise, a teeny bit of ketchup, tabasco and cognac) in a champagne glass, with a bit of salad at the bottom! For our Christmas lunch we had a glass of champagne with three frozen raspberries in it, a few nibbles, a shoulder of lamb with roast potatoes, roast parsnips and peas, and no dessert, not hungry enough. Before Christmas, Nicholas made me onion soup, lovely. And today he did me a lamb curry which was quite delicious, lovely not to have to cook! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLPzS1YzO6_SuI-7QzbV9uWS-JPs16Eesh3wZOHM4eptvrUSCVr5nbanvau4LzdL6Bg9oS6uFwYJXDAq4shQfLw1ZR9I72PiZXyAIilgj1mq6bOizpPiEt4xA9qoFkwar82vES3lyaMc/s1600/P1090123a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLPzS1YzO6_SuI-7QzbV9uWS-JPs16Eesh3wZOHM4eptvrUSCVr5nbanvau4LzdL6Bg9oS6uFwYJXDAq4shQfLw1ZR9I72PiZXyAIilgj1mq6bOizpPiEt4xA9qoFkwar82vES3lyaMc/s320/P1090123a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Plateau de fruits de mer </em>before I opened the oysters (there are all sorts of things hiding underneath...)</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg-PHOT_8DSVkCTEMJLu3jNpK-oOeZ560fH3aH4btlJCuip6uQVuW_FSMx1f6VvScvwLFyHNBabf84mZZKzZO785oG7Tv0qLydR0gYqpyIWMpThMQnEj7ZC6xR61zLplbampEbBZi2tU/s1600/P1090128a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg-PHOT_8DSVkCTEMJLu3jNpK-oOeZ560fH3aH4btlJCuip6uQVuW_FSMx1f6VvScvwLFyHNBabf84mZZKzZO785oG7Tv0qLydR0gYqpyIWMpThMQnEj7ZC6xR61zLplbampEbBZi2tU/s320/P1090128a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lamb curry</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVnhZsH6Hx6BiYNZD9vX4W5zTYKkGayTC53mxFo95T-_Gj18ZqTc9qe8U87v6edvdZ8FPWO8b7ZgWhFHOH1mvwxNQS68jI8uMqaDYMlOeFi9-_nxk_kPRNTx7njrhLpaZZxa0Be_TYGmg/s1600/Christmas+2010+020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVnhZsH6Hx6BiYNZD9vX4W5zTYKkGayTC53mxFo95T-_Gj18ZqTc9qe8U87v6edvdZ8FPWO8b7ZgWhFHOH1mvwxNQS68jI8uMqaDYMlOeFi9-_nxk_kPRNTx7njrhLpaZZxa0Be_TYGmg/s320/Christmas+2010+020.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> A bit of a blurry photo of onion soup</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheupMcKlOqSxi4Wp0DTmjdxRh0mL2RULyUozbyN94yfa_JUGvQHhAX78jVrdddXYLEhUO3EzA58bIgSuLDksRjD7BxLya5O_Ux1OvUJUf81OsuE6FwykgT4xEh_inWLUYqHVDwoljRbk8/s1600/Christmas+2010+023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheupMcKlOqSxi4Wp0DTmjdxRh0mL2RULyUozbyN94yfa_JUGvQHhAX78jVrdddXYLEhUO3EzA58bIgSuLDksRjD7BxLya5O_Ux1OvUJUf81OsuE6FwykgT4xEh_inWLUYqHVDwoljRbk8/s320/Christmas+2010+023.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Salade tière de coquilles St Jacques</em></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_v-zLbTj_gQWUAPdMak83dz0NwDB-k8_XGEiWStCnCsCYSXTjGiW839scne5ecm51zzeqiWDjLuiyrxvX7maw1oC1_t_9HMaWc-adv2uhScoK7Tvqoy2YeL4XabGR926VgyYF7MZCpI/s1600/P1090125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_v-zLbTj_gQWUAPdMak83dz0NwDB-k8_XGEiWStCnCsCYSXTjGiW839scne5ecm51zzeqiWDjLuiyrxvX7maw1oC1_t_9HMaWc-adv2uhScoK7Tvqoy2YeL4XabGR926VgyYF7MZCpI/s320/P1090125.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"> <em>Foie gras maison </em>and champagne (with a bit of <em>saucisson</em> lurking in the middle)...</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cf55iu2VHpukpdyNiWoJdgakIPhDO7YPVZVnbV088711SZ6fdT-f4Yb5J4e7swB6koFPXCqoVOibu8wSzG8nYYV3L21ajP5ve3K030a_QMwvCR9-iJJVyTWln3BjqD3XVqpj8MsDqMc/s1600/P1090127.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cf55iu2VHpukpdyNiWoJdgakIPhDO7YPVZVnbV088711SZ6fdT-f4Yb5J4e7swB6koFPXCqoVOibu8wSzG8nYYV3L21ajP5ve3K030a_QMwvCR9-iJJVyTWln3BjqD3XVqpj8MsDqMc/s320/P1090127.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lobster cocktail</div><br />
On Christmas Eve, just after lunch, we took the car and went up into central Finistère, the Monts d'Arrée, to visit the Montagne St Michel and the prehistoric burial chamber (<em>allée couverte</em>) at Mougau Bihan. Nicholas was looking for photo material. There was a bitter wind, but lots of sun, and the Montagne St Michel was still covered in snow. Quite different from the summer painting trips that Yves and I often make.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoodc4B3rR72p4_c_-PiTx166WYHqcaQkCbjBbhLjiNBJbbJ2wbmzNoCKBOv-bJ5zuFYFt22b_gJ_A_Zb2v2G_OtTWKmMoRmLJEgv6YRqtHj77sxHatBB1D_2_f869ocKEyxTPkof4pg/s1600/P1090108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAoodc4B3rR72p4_c_-PiTx166WYHqcaQkCbjBbhLjiNBJbbJ2wbmzNoCKBOv-bJ5zuFYFt22b_gJ_A_Zb2v2G_OtTWKmMoRmLJEgv6YRqtHj77sxHatBB1D_2_f869ocKEyxTPkof4pg/s320/P1090108.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Mougau Bihan, Finistère</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7V74kTYK9NOiNVQXMrraZEeNZHbOZureAAeD0u9qDWgkpFur3qN03RyyZ6tdkg6g3ZMGxGZAR22BmKz8UxMbLh_TaFCpufpaummB0JgWLiWzA8uOJN6BF5d_ouTKrEh7zlA9grkby7M/s1600/Christmas+2010+030.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7V74kTYK9NOiNVQXMrraZEeNZHbOZureAAeD0u9qDWgkpFur3qN03RyyZ6tdkg6g3ZMGxGZAR22BmKz8UxMbLh_TaFCpufpaummB0JgWLiWzA8uOJN6BF5d_ouTKrEh7zlA9grkby7M/s320/Christmas+2010+030.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Nicholas at the top of the Montagne St Michel</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheay05ml-wKmnngVBQtewWaaPesTSn19R8v9XaQfYy08WqtIM9ppeCNhGLU1NFOd1yepBJoGu6KYDkYa8G9PwFCWI6Hbgw06jpEefJ4ZQvOuAZiKG5Uw9Wigp6QTFyeO_Eh9pghS9eDZk/s1600/Christmas+2010+028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheay05ml-wKmnngVBQtewWaaPesTSn19R8v9XaQfYy08WqtIM9ppeCNhGLU1NFOd1yepBJoGu6KYDkYa8G9PwFCWI6Hbgw06jpEefJ4ZQvOuAZiKG5Uw9Wigp6QTFyeO_Eh9pghS9eDZk/s320/Christmas+2010+028.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Ellie at the top of the Montagne St Michel</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkIIt59pZxDknrozsWVXMv7h9SEj6YI7Z9pBTIe9Q8djSKiSJ7BpBUpM8Fj521Le9DeW0Z5PCVvXIlzmxHP79PJur57ef-R51GcFmTQl7Y4VaGrJPP1Q8EFDoyNWWRhEM415eqye7n-s/s1600/Christmas+2010+024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkIIt59pZxDknrozsWVXMv7h9SEj6YI7Z9pBTIe9Q8djSKiSJ7BpBUpM8Fj521Le9DeW0Z5PCVvXIlzmxHP79PJur57ef-R51GcFmTQl7Y4VaGrJPP1Q8EFDoyNWWRhEM415eqye7n-s/s320/Christmas+2010+024.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">The path to the top of the Montagne St Michel, Finistère</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">This afternoon we went for a walk along the banks of the river Odet just outside Quimper, but it was bitterly cold. Then we went to the <em>Anse St Laurent</em> near Concarneau so that Nicholas could photograph old fishing boats that are falling apart on the mud flats. And now it's time to sit in front of the fire as darkness falls and catch up with my blog.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Done.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">A very Happy New Year to all of you should I not manage to post again before then.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-43367236332175022292010-12-03T17:48:00.000+01:002010-12-03T17:48:31.746+01:00WINTER SOUPIt snowed during the night, but only two centimetres. Pretty this morning, and not too cold.<br />
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I made myself the most fantastic soup for supper last night, quite by chance really, adding bits and pieces of not much to not much... I started off with a free range chicken carcass that had quite a bit of meat left on it one way and another. I put it in a large saucepan with water, obviously, an onion, a clove of garlic, some leftover boiled rice and some salt. Boiled it very gently for a few hours. Took the meat off and shared it between Ellie and me. She thought that was a good idea! Put the meat back in, set it to boil, added the zest and juice of one (organic) lemon, and when it was boiling, I created a swirl in the saucepan and added a beaten egg (could have added more). Sort of my version of avgolemono. Then I put cubes of rather stale wholemeal bread into the bottom of a large (thai soup size) bowl, and ladled the soup over it and added freshly ground pepper. It made a very hearty, tasty, comforting supper on a cold winter's evening. Cost me nothing, and when I'd got the whole bowlful inside me, I didn't need anything else.<br />
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It always amazes me that people don't make more soup. There are all sorts of soups you can make for next to nothing that are really satisfying. You can even make soup out of vegetable peelings if you wash the vegetables before the peeling... A ham bone, or a couple of marrow bones, or a carcass, or the broth left after a <em>pot au feu, </em>a <em>queue de boeuf </em>or a <em>poule au pot</em> with a few noodles added to it... or a real country soup of split peas and cubes of smoked ham, or cream of lettuce just made with the outside leaves of a salad and a potato and a bit of cream, I could go on and on. The very best of course is my Mum's <em>poireau pomme de terre! </em>And these are just the simple ones. <br />
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I saw a report on the television yesterday about soup, and it showed various people buying cartons of soup at the supermarket. Some are no doubt quite acceptable. But the lady was saying, I don't have time to make soup. <em>Time</em> to make soup? Precisely, it doesn't take <em>time</em> to make soup, you bung everything into a saucepan and the soup makes itself. Especially now you can just whizz it through at the end with a soup mixer. If she'd spent the time she'd taken going to the supermarket and buying the carton actually making soup, she'd probably have <em>saved</em> time. <br />
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When I was a child, I didn't much like soup. Not because of the soup really, but because my mother wouldn't let us drink until we'd finished our bowl. It "went against the wind" according to her. One of her quaint beliefs... But to me it was pure torture not being allowed to help it down with water. My children didn't like soup when they were little either. To such an extent that I gave up making it. Now I have soup almost every day in winter, and even in summer, cold soups. So good, and makes my food budget go so much further!<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv9sOQLJJySNOqn3UzgWxZKywaTRhdQ1GRWOI6L4Xcy71stcQdhu8T1_RyK-NmTHtUWyyqG9siuBNllrMfz-y3JLAt9KUDSK9KeqcXWvnDmgcnHUXZcrYm9KRxqpVcHBsSHC-WUP7qM3k/s1600/Chicken+soup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv9sOQLJJySNOqn3UzgWxZKywaTRhdQ1GRWOI6L4Xcy71stcQdhu8T1_RyK-NmTHtUWyyqG9siuBNllrMfz-y3JLAt9KUDSK9KeqcXWvnDmgcnHUXZcrYm9KRxqpVcHBsSHC-WUP7qM3k/s200/Chicken+soup.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">By the way, I found out yesterday that I was actually making a minute amount of money from the adverts on my blog! So I'm going to post more often to increase the traffic if you see what I mean. And I also wanted to say that I don't actually choose the ads, so dont worry if you see sexy Philippino ladies etc., I haven't gone quite barmy! Don't hesitate to click, I may get rich...</div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-6595036338947159542010-12-02T16:56:00.000+01:002010-12-02T16:56:23.746+01:00IT's COLD...Yesterday, Châteaudun, where I used to live, was the coldest place in France with -19° actual temperature and about 50cm of snow. I'm congratulating myself on having moved to the Finistère where last night the temperature went down to -5° and we have had a centimetre or two of snow in the last couple of days. It's chilly but not that chilly. My woodstove works well, my house is small and easy to heat. <br />
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I've started feeding the birds. A blackbird has been helping itself to my pyracantha berries. Can you see it? It's orange beak gives it away.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">No walks for Ellie who suffers from the cold, you would too if you had to walk with your tummy four centimetres off the ground. So she tears up and down inside the house instead, chasing the cat, skidding on carpets and generally creating havoc. I do miss Oslo's staid behaviour. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I have been knitting like mad, but I can't put pictures yet because that would give the game away. (Now everyone will think they are getting one of my famous handknits for Christmas, which is not true, only two or three people are.) I've also been selling things on Ebay. All good winter-stay-at-home activities. Painting too, the house I mean. I've finished the bit of wall in the sitting room. I ran out of paint ages ago and finally got more. Looks good finished, can't think why I didn't do it before. The join doesn't show at all. And now the ceiling. It's been half done since the kitchen was installed (in other words, since just after I moved in!). Here the join does show, because either the paint has changed colour, or I didn't mix it up enough. The sitting room is a bit of a mess with moved furniture all over the place, but it's very satisfying getting it done eventually and moving everything back into its place. Find some interesting things when you move furniture...</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>I went to an exhibition last weekend of my friend Jean-Yves Marrec's pastels. My favourite is the one pictured below, but he does a lot of seascapes, and harbours and boats and is very clever. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzW5srS2NDvgBBz5Xr-gww_lqu4cogJEmTVeBajM_QTWWRa8Q7o3meug73FuVHAOwCByQkeoCt6-JD2PXMoKQ1c5baDA-W6JHrUxx176lpxk9QLojkq4cWGiVg0gRp4xo_wSf8nHJ3WM/s1600/0278794001288608376.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzW5srS2NDvgBBz5Xr-gww_lqu4cogJEmTVeBajM_QTWWRa8Q7o3meug73FuVHAOwCByQkeoCt6-JD2PXMoKQ1c5baDA-W6JHrUxx176lpxk9QLojkq4cWGiVg0gRp4xo_wSf8nHJ3WM/s320/0278794001288608376.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-575689068389229011.post-52445682189642705912010-11-21T11:02:00.000+01:002010-11-21T11:02:53.392+01:00A BIT MORE POTTERYGood Lord! I've managed to upload all the photos I wanted in one go. <br />
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This is an artichoke sculpture I have been working on for ages, couldn't get the colour right. But now it's finished, and looks good and I'm inordinately proud of it, as you can guess by the number of pictures!<br />
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It's about the size of... a large artichoke! What's it good for? Not much really. Just an object of beauty.<br />
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And here is Ellie showing off the size of our big beach...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPy_OrG8e98AABU2aeZZ192ug3HLh7HmMnWEs0vMUQR8Y06JzqRZuqrhAi4qxfY-ko6sGJmcMwYP2NP4Adp0fNKoOj8QiGPpboGuCDuH3s8va9S2NEUbD0ZcAKYZuXX66sAvovCQ2QxU/s1600/Beach+October+2010+021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPy_OrG8e98AABU2aeZZ192ug3HLh7HmMnWEs0vMUQR8Y06JzqRZuqrhAi4qxfY-ko6sGJmcMwYP2NP4Adp0fNKoOj8QiGPpboGuCDuH3s8va9S2NEUbD0ZcAKYZuXX66sAvovCQ2QxU/s320/Beach+October+2010+021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
She was one year old a couple of weeks ago. Oslo has been gone for a whole year. How time flies... And here is a sun-worshipping dachshund:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSgg8lfOU5_-_YmpelM_557yvfTGiBvOtmPxNzkgSEx7UDpr2sUmXKfDJkTlvDa1WDSaY8p1Wdz-HclFttEYmaRHpGZFZG0vXNB9nox_mxNuFGySBrmSAVmmh3VJKPzOJlC38yueL9_I/s1600/nov+10+012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSgg8lfOU5_-_YmpelM_557yvfTGiBvOtmPxNzkgSEx7UDpr2sUmXKfDJkTlvDa1WDSaY8p1Wdz-HclFttEYmaRHpGZFZG0vXNB9nox_mxNuFGySBrmSAVmmh3VJKPzOJlC38yueL9_I/s320/nov+10+012.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Well, we get little enough of it (sun) nowadays.<br />
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Nothing else to report really.Caroline Vidicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17850291228841300238noreply@blogger.com0