A Tale of Two Gardens

Well, there’s not too much news from my little garden – except that I have picked my entire crop of kumquats! I had really only ever intended for it be decorative. And it certainly is that.

But there were so many of them I felt I should try to do something with them. So I’ve preserved them but have yet to taste them. If nothing else, they look delicious!

_________________________________

However, there’s much more to say about Nic and Duff’s garden!

They’ve been very fortunate in that they’ve kindly been offered the use of some space by a fellow-gardener in the village - in a large garden plot (potager) down near the river.

They did most of the hard work of getting the garden planted up and running while I was in Australia – my only involvement to date has been helping put up the trellises for the tomatoes, the odd bit of watering, and of course admiring and sampling the fruits (vegetables?) of their labour.

Early days

A few weeks later - looking the other way.

The bamboo stakes come from down at the edge of the river – it does the trick and doesn’t cost a cent.

They’ve been busy putting in loads of vegetables – potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, aubergine, green peppers, onions, garlic, basil, chillies, peas (a little late but they’re doing ok), beans, broad beans, strawberries, corn, courgettes, lettuces, gooseberries, radishes (instant veg – hot as hell – too many!), kale.

And then there’s the pumpkins – none other than Queensland Blues – I brought back a couple of packets of seeds with me from Australia. Yum.

And the bottle on the metal stick? Well, it’s supposed to rattle in the wind and scare away the MOLES! There were little raised mounds of earth meandering over a good part of the garden last week – they’d been busy overnight.

There’s now no sign of them - they don’t appear to have dug any more tunnels, so perhaps the bottle-on-a-stick is working?

The courgettes are growing like mad, and the inevitable glut is nearly upon us. And the funny thing is that none of us actually like them very much, having tried various ways to deal with them in the past.

However, I have one recipe that I often use – it’s very quick and simple, delicious, and looks great served on the plate. In fact, it’s SO delicious that I’m going to copy it here.

Cod in Prosciutto with Courgettes

2 fresh cod fillets (or other white fish), around 180g each

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 wide or 4 thin slices Prosciutto

1 tbsp olive oil

A few fresh flat parsley leaves

For the courgettes:

2 courgettes, washed

1 tsp butter

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

Half tsp fennel or caraway seeds

Method

1. Trim the fillets of cod into neat squares or rectangles, and season well.

2. Wrap them neatly in the Prosciutto.

3. Heat the olive oil in a non stick frying pan, and cook the fish presentation-side down first, until the Prosciutto is crisp. Turn once and cook until the fish is cooked through - about 3 or 4 minutes depending on the thickness of your fillet.

4. Coarsely grate the unpeeled courgettes. Heat the olive oil and butter in a second non stick frying pan, and toss the grated courgettes very quickly in the hot pan, adding lemon juice, fennel seeds, sea salt and pepper.

5. Arrange the courgettes on two warmed dinner plates, and top with the pan-fried cod and the parsley leaves.

______________________________________________

Down near the vegetable gardens, there are a few empty fields. A few weeks ago there was a new-born donkey – I didn’t get a photo, and now it’s no longer there.

However, there’s now a new-born foal – cute as a button and so tiny. Its mother doesn’t look like a Shetland pony but she sure is small – and so is the little filly – and they’re both very comfortable with people.

And as can be seen from these videos I’ve put up today – I’ve finally decided to fiddle with a video editing programme to try to get rid of the dreadful background noise on some of my previous efforts – mainly the noise of the wind on some of the outdoor clips.

I think perhaps I should have stopped at the ‘muting’ stage – but oh no, I pressed on and have put some background music to them.

Still a way to go, methinks.

Visitors and Walks

Recently our cousin Rhett (second cousin actually – there are plenty of us!) and his partner Michelle stayed for a few days. They’d done a big trip of the UK, Paris and Marseille and had few days of relaxing here before heading back to Australia.

They were lucky that their short stay managed to coincide with one of the Tuesday walks – and this particular one was to one of my favourite places – the hills around St Chinian up towards the Black Mountains.

Rhett ....... made it!

This walk's final destination was Chapelle Notre-Dame de Nazareth, and then to the rocky outcrop above the chapel.

There are many limestone formations and cliffs in this area – it’s spectacular – and at the end of the walk we climbed the summit above the chapel which gave 360 degree views of the whole region.
And while it had all the appearances of a pilgrimage, it wasn’t – as I was allowed to go!!

And of course at the end of it, the picnic lunch. And featured in this photo is Oscar – a friend’s dog from the village.

Now, it’s well known that I’m not really a dog person, but there are exceptions - he’s a cutie and best of all, he’s been trained and does as he’s told (mostly….). He loves coming for these walks, so he’s had a couple of good days out with the walking group.

And he’s well behaved in the car. I wonder if he's aware of just how privileged he is...?
And with the weather being so nice now, most of the eating is now done outdoors.

Our visitors had to try the local fare – so there was of course the confit de canard, Robert’s famous sausages on the barbie (Robert is the butcher in the village), fresh giant asparagus with Parmesan, and a first for me – escargots drenched in garlic butter.

 
I ate my first one ever, though Indigo out-did me with a grand total of three.

Rhett had found a bottle of wine of the region that we tried – not half bad either. Translated roughly as Lord of the Arse Estate.

_______________________

The school year is coming to an end here, and the other day Indigo’s school had a concert in the village hall. They made their way with their very own Pied Piper from the school, past my house and to the hall, playing their respective instruments – triangles, tin cans and wooden sticks….!

Spring: red and white

The Red

Absolutely stunning countryside, the poppies and wildflowers are the best I've ever seen them - because of the aforementioned amount of rain that's fallen in the region in recent months.

And here - well, a lovely gift for us from one of the ladies from the language class - from her own garden. How lucky are we!

The White

The other day, we had a companion for part of a walk up the Pech behind Bize - it was so funny, it seemed to just want to stay with us for a while and checked a few times to see if we were still following behind it. Sheep are a rarity in this region so it was a bit of a surprise to come across it.

Back in France

It seems an age that I was away - but I got everything done that I set out to do. It was a very busy but productive time. I had hoped the weather would have been mild Perth autumn weather but no, all sorts of records were broken for that time of year, and cool it was not. 

Anyway, my 8 weeks away was not all work - I managed to catch up with friends and family again which was great. This time I didn't take many photos or do any posting - but I did take a couple of video clips.

One day, unexpectly found a street festival happening in Fremantle - and got to see Lucky Diamond Rich - the world's most tattooed man who it seems now lives in Perth - doing a street performance ....... bizarre but entertaining!

.......... and then staying in Mandurah for a night with friends, found a Karaoke Championship happening in the pub next to the restaurant we had dinner in. So of course after dinner, we had to wander in for a look - and need I say how much fun this was!

I came back via Brisbane, to catch up with two very dear friends Marshall and Cameron, and managed to play the part of a tourist for a couple of days. I've only ever passed through Brisbane very briefly, a long time ago, and I must say it's a beautiful city. We had lunch at a lovely cafe up in the mountains behind Brisbane, on the aptly named Mount Glorious.

And here, I must admit, I did prompt them to introduce themselves (Marshall in his best French!)...

One of several out-takes ........

However I have to say how nice it was to arrive back here in France. My garden has come on a treat, the goldfish are doing well - though the warmer weather has caused an algal bloom, so things in that department are a little 'pea-soupy' at the moment. 
 

The two tadpoles from the river are developing little legs. The idea (wishful thinking as it has turned out) was that I would have a colony of nice frogs in the garden.

Sadly, they're the ugliest and lumpiest tadpoles I've seen and I strongly suspect that they're soon going to turn into the rather unattractive toads that live in the vineyards! 

So I'm thinking that they're probably going to find themselves back down at the river before they make a break for it out of the pond..... 

Sage and Indigo are really enjoying life in the village lately - things are definitely looking up. 

They have a freedom here that they've never really had before - they're safe playing out in the village and down by the river at all hours of the day - they ride their bikes everywhere and have made some nice friends here.

And speaking of kids on bikes - they've discovered a 'fun thing' to do - to make their bikes sound exactly like motorbikes. Nothing scientific here - but extremely effective.

Sage accidentally discovered this when she ran over an empty drink can and it got stuck on her wheel. And now they're all doing it......!

Aligot

And yes, another 'foodie' article - but this one was a little different. Nic, Duff and I went with friends Bonnie and Terry to an aligot evening in Agel.

Agel is a pretty village about 6 kilometres from here, and this is where Terry and Bonnie live - and they kindly arranged tickets for us for the evening. It's held every year in this village and tickets are sought after!

Aligot is basically a mixture of mashed potatoes and cheese, mixed until it's very elastic. On the evening, it was definitely made in bulk, by a specialist who took great pride in his work and was rewarded by lots of applause as he demonstrated its 'stretchability' - the sign of a successful aligot!

Now, we did not eat aligot alone. Oh no, this was a feast of local fare indeed. It was accompanied by Confit de Canard - and served by the man who raised and prepared the ducks himself.

Served at the table from rather large containers!

Need I say ' delicious' - also I must say - mercy! they forewent the cheese course.

An instance where it's perfectly

acceptable to play with your food....

It makes me laugh looking back on these photos - I cannot imagine anything like this in Australia - the food police (Health & Safety) would have a field day. Here it's par for the course to have food served like this at village functions.

Between courses there was dancing - a pause between courses is definitely required. And towards the end of the evening, something that I've seen at several other events - is where people sit on the floor and 'row' and then pass a willing participant (in this case an elegant - and perhaps not so willing - woman) backwards over their heads.

However, both Duff and Terry were most definitely willing!

There was [groan.....] yet another function in Bize a few weeks ago. And this one was for a very worthy cause indeed.

On Christmas eve, the village bakery suffered a bad fire. The bread ovens were destroyed and most of the building and upstairs living accommodation of the building was uninhabitable.

So not only was it a disaster for the baker and his young family, but also for the village, having to have bread brought in from another village (quelle horreur!). The repairs are only now being carried out.

So, there was a fundraising lunch, together with raffles - to help the family. Nearly 6000 Euros was raised and the turnout on the day was phenomenal. I've never seen the village hall packed so tight with tables. And all for only 15 euros a head - I think people would happily have paid more.

However it was a great result for the baker - who was so overcome he couldn't speak and his wife had to say a few words. What a lovely village this is - I'm sure the other villages have much the same community spirit - but this is the one I live in and I love it.

And to get away from the food theme - the recent strikes in France.

Thurday 19th was a national strike day here. Sarkozy's popularity seems to be on a definite slide downwards.

And the strike ...? To quote an article on the internet:

• "What were they demonstrating about? Everything, as goes the cliche? Not quite. The French weren't protesting at the recession, they know very well that it is already and will soon be affecting almost everybody, everywhere. They were instead focusing their anger at the way Nicolas Sarkozy is dealing with the recession, pressing ahead with ill-advised, rushed and often ultra-liberal reforms that go against the course of history (less regulation, more privatisation), while favouring the richest with a fiscal bonus that has so far showed no sign of helping the economy as a whole and has increased an already abyssal public deficit. As for his most un-presidential style, it crowns their discontent. Yesterday showed in substance another massive anti-Sarkozy protest, and the latest poll suggests that the feeling is shared by 75% of the French."

And inadvertently, I found myself in the midst of it. I had an appointment in Carcassonne at 4pm on Thursday, and had forgotten completely that it was the day of the strikes. I ended up in downtown Carcassonne well and truly caught up in the parade. I nearly made it through before a gendarme put his hand up to stop traffic. 

Hence, I was the first car in a very long line of traffic - and had the front view of the entire parade.

And there were thousands. It took over half an hour for it to pass by, and I ended up being 45 minutes late for my appointment.

This will be my last post in France for a couple of months. I am heading back to Australia in a few days as I have a few things to attend to there. Well, one thing really - I'm selling my house there, for various reasons. And it's had tenants in it for some time, it's become rather run down and the garden is in bad shape.

The truth is that I'd much rather be here right now - the weather is warming up and things are starting to green up and look beautiful around the countryside - my garden here is happening too. And I'm happy here at the moment. I loved being back in Australia in the new year and catching up with family and friends but right now, it's here that I want to be. And of course it's not to say that it won't be nice to be back in Oz again - I have a wedding to attend on my arrival that I'm looking forward to.

But basically, while I'm there I will move back into the house, paint all the interior walls and ceilings and do whatever DIY I can and get the garden back into some sort of shape. I suspect it will be mainly pruning and tidying as it's autumn there now and not the best time to be putting in new plants. Thank goodness it's not the height of summer!

And finally, the English lessons are still going well - in my absence, Nic is taking over. The 'students' are really keen and it's good to keep the momentum going. I'm still thoroughly enjoying it too - and so are they. Last week I was presented with a lovely bunch of mimosa - gorgeous.

Carnival Bize Minervois 2009

Yes, it's that time of year again – many villages, many festivals. And our very own annual cavalcade here in Bize. And for the second year, I was involved in the Troisieme Age float.

The theme this year was 'All the World' – easy for costumes! I returned from Australia to find out I was to be 'un homme Mexicain' – and so out came the needle and threads to put together a poncho of sorts............

et …. VOILA!

(avec mono-brow.....)

And lots of other floats and costumes - identities of some obvious - some not so.

Oh, and last week, the annual Maire's lunch and afternoon entertainment for the over-50s of the village ….. always a good show. I was a little lax on the day in the photo/video department (obviously giving my full attention to the five courses). But I did manage to get a few clips:

However, Margaret's given the event a good coverage in her blog, and more can be read and seen here!

Oh, and for the three days of the carnival, the boules ground was turned into a fairground. For the first time, the kids tried the dodgem cars – after that, it was hard to get them off.

- - - - - - -

I have another little project under way. Late last year, I was having French / English conversations with someone in the village, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

I happened to mention this to some friends in the troisieme age walking group before Christmas, and immediately interest was shown by a few people in having conversation classes with me.

Which was great. But …….. it threatened to become bigger than Ben Hur!

In no time at all, I had people saying they would like to participate, and Claude was offering me a choice of rooms in the clubhouse to run English lessons!

I panicked a little and said I need to start off slowly, and in my own house.

And that's exactly what I've been doing.

Just a small group, and with the help of a CD, we're going great guns. And it's certainly mutually beneficial – I'm getting a lot out of it.

I try to explain things in French (can you imagine!) - and that in itself leads to me being constantly corrected by native speakers. Fantastic. And it's such fun that although I thought we'd start out with half hour lessons, each time we've gone on for an hour and a half.

Here's hoping they continue …

Down Under II

A belated post, having been back in France for a few weeks now …. but better late than never….

One of the days in Perth, there was a bush fire in Kings Park, right at the edge of down-town Perth. Obviously nothing in comparison to the dreadful fires in Victoria that have occurred since, but it did burn a considerable amount of the park, and ironically – also thought to be the work of an arsonist. And from the balcony of the apartment, a bird’s eye view.

And these two photos show of a complete change of wind direction in a fairly short period of time.

I was also there for the first time in about ten years for Australia Day (26th January). Before it got dark, there were fly-overs from groups of planes and also a huge flag being flown all over the metro area by a helicopter.

A good day – followed by a BBQ on the balcony, watching the fireworks down at the river.

And I also did a (slower) trip down south – catching up with people – and also making a day trip to Cheyne Beach (56 kilometres east of Albany).

This is where we grew up as kids and where spent a lot of our holidays and weekends later – Dad was a professional fisherman all his life.

The house where we grew up

And although there was seaweed in the water and quite a bit washed up on the beach on the day we visited, it’s still as beautiful as ever.

And back in Albany – down to Emu Point to watch the pelicans getting a free feed:

Paul sometimes takes one of his bikes out to the Barbagello Race Track north of Perth to do laps. He doesn’t do the competitive racing (yet) – just joins other groups in doing timed laps. Basically, they get to go around the track very fast! – in a controlled environment.

I was nervous just watching – but at least they have all the protective gear and other safeguards in place. So I guess they’re as safe as they can be. And at least there’s not vehicle traffic to contend with here.

Having come from the winter vineyards of the Languedoc, it was interesting seeing all the vineyards in full leaf, and laden with grapes.

As good as it was to be back in Australia, I was looking forward to getting back ‘home’ to my own place. I arrived back to really cold weather but some beautiful clear blue skies. Bliss.

The goldfish in the pond are doing fine – although they’re definitely sluggish. They seem to have shut down somewhat for the winter. And while the water didn’t freeze because of the filter keeping the water moving, it’s frigid.

My garden did really well during the snow and freezing weather around Christmas – I haven’t lost a thing. However, back in November, I thought I should perhaps bring my hibiscus indoors.

Before, it looked like this:

After a week or so of being IN-doors, it looked like this:

And then a French friend told me it should be outdoors and would survive the winter. So that’s where I put it. And now it looks like this!

However, it’s not dead – and I have great hopes for a good revival, especially now that the weather seems to be becoming a bit milder. Some of the trees are even budding and there are already blossoms on some of the fruit trees.

Roll on spring!