It's true! A whole bloody week with some sun everyday and not a drop of H2O to go with it! Yippee! We had grown quite tired of the constant grey skies and rain routine that seemed to go on and on weeks at a time. Suddenly it's Real Springtime! Birds, swallows, pigeons, tits, nightingales in and out of our backyard feeding station all day long, wonderful!
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The Waiting Room project continues with Kelly painting the elaborate iron window frame with several coats of her own home-brewed color choice, looks nice. The small wall and the door still need the cloth covering and curtains are yet to be put up, but it is close, maybe this week. I opened up the wall at the entrance to the Dining Room, it was a constant wet source and the lower portion was soft, damaged and falling off of it's own accord. It was, as expected, waddle and daub (rock and mud) covered by individual tiles of a light fired brick color, interesting as an artifact of much earlier times but not the wonderful STONE edifice we desired. I'll do some wood mouldings around the doorway and cover it all up with a moisture barrier of some sort and a more modern equivalent of the horsehair plaster that someone used a century or two ago.
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Today and tomorrow are (today) Pentacost (Everything you EVER wanted to know about this celebration is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacost ) and the Monday after, so what do you say you heathen, ok, ok, it's The Donkey Faire in Lignieres! Two days of Merguez and frits, red wine, crowds, agricultural sights and sounds and donkey shit by the bagful! Terrific as long as the weather holds out. Last year it was not a nice day. Wet and sloppy, cold too boot. I have a short video of it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qNxC0srBJo . Today Sunday is the Opening Day and Tomorrow is The Big Day. Difference? Dunno, but there's LOTS of Donkeys arriving today, tomorrow they will already BE here and there's more shit on the ground. It's a wondrous thing to behold, donkeys and their keepers from all over France and a few from other European countries. They come to show them, buy them and sell them and all the gear that goes with. It's a great rural France scene. Not to be missed.
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I built a Library Table this last week, used the Sapin pine panels for the lumber as I had downfall from the Waiting Room bookcase project of last week. The table was simple to build and came out quite well if I must say so myself. Not to be used in the library though, more as a utility table, another flat surface to fill with papers and tools and reading materials AND mostly as an adjunct to our outside table so we can accommodate more persons for summer lunches and dinners outside.
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We had dinner with our Scottish friends Danny and Wanda last night, she is a wonderful cook and I appreciate and invite to their table anytime. We sat outside amidst there sizeable garden which we toured before dinner. Row after neat row of every vegetable important to cooking, it is very impressive, Alice Waters would be proud. We drank more wine and nibbled then went inside to have one very fine meal of Roast Leg of Lamb, Scalloped Potatoes, Green Beans. a fine rich gravy from the pan drippings, a very fresh green salad with her special dressing (I MUST get that recipe) followed by a cheese course (It IS France after all!), and a lovely gelatine, mandarin orange with cream trifle as dessert. Wonderful all. We finished the night with scotches outside under a clear and dark, dark sky. A very easy and wonderful way to end the week. I'd be happy to pay for it!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Sunday, May 04, 2008
A Beautiful Warm Sunday In The Berry
Blog Entry Sunday May 4th, 2008
Sun in the morning, warm soothing sun, even the cats notice. Two days in a row now, a record. We had scheduled to go to a neighboring villages brocante with Raj and Nannette. They came over at 9:30, we shared coffee and happy chatter and off we went to see what gems we could find among the piles and piles of rusted junk and plastic crap that a few hundred souls are attempting to foist off to the public. The ride was without incident, we parked outside the town center in a huge feild with a topping of very wet grass and wildflowers, very soppy this. We walked each aisle, gawking at the offerings, old keys, rusted tools, baby rattles, plates, kitchen implements etc. The warmth of the sun made the day festive and kept everyone moving along.
Along with all the vendors there was a rather expansive display of old and classic cars, SIMCA, Pougeot, a Pontiac Firebird for god's sakes, an 80's Cadillac, a bright red and PERFECT Ferrari Testarossa 512 and many others. It was great fun looking at them all lined up adjacent to the village church as it rang it's bells every hour. I spent some time taking pictures as I do and bent over staring at the interiors. What this said to me was that the French LOVE their cars as much as we do. A gathering of ancient tractors lined one street, 20 of them I counted, Old Massey Furgusons, Fords, Fiats, Pougeots and others I've never heard of before. All running, chug-a-chug-chug, wonderful sounds of deisels and gas engines of very old designs still running after all these years. While walking along we ran into first one then many of our friends enjoying the sun and the bussling atmosphere of the brocante. Later we gathered at the bar tent for a few beers and laughs. Another hour later off we went to head home satisfied that we had filtered the place of any object worth our time and fast evaporating money. To the field we walked to see yet another acquantance with his front tires buried in the sloppy soft mud, uh oh. In the distance we heard one of the ancient tractors fire up and slip into gear. Soon one rounded the bend and drove into the field, an old hit-and-miss two cylinder gas beast belching black smoke and eager for the challenge. HA! Hooked up in a few minutes it readily pulled the offended modern auto out of it's hole and soon it was on it's way home. The driver of the tractor refused payment offered by the cars owner and just smiled and waved as he chugged along returning to the line up back in the village, a job well done!
Sun in the morning, warm soothing sun, even the cats notice. Two days in a row now, a record. We had scheduled to go to a neighboring villages brocante with Raj and Nannette. They came over at 9:30, we shared coffee and happy chatter and off we went to see what gems we could find among the piles and piles of rusted junk and plastic crap that a few hundred souls are attempting to foist off to the public. The ride was without incident, we parked outside the town center in a huge feild with a topping of very wet grass and wildflowers, very soppy this. We walked each aisle, gawking at the offerings, old keys, rusted tools, baby rattles, plates, kitchen implements etc. The warmth of the sun made the day festive and kept everyone moving along.
Along with all the vendors there was a rather expansive display of old and classic cars, SIMCA, Pougeot, a Pontiac Firebird for god's sakes, an 80's Cadillac, a bright red and PERFECT Ferrari Testarossa 512 and many others. It was great fun looking at them all lined up adjacent to the village church as it rang it's bells every hour. I spent some time taking pictures as I do and bent over staring at the interiors. What this said to me was that the French LOVE their cars as much as we do. A gathering of ancient tractors lined one street, 20 of them I counted, Old Massey Furgusons, Fords, Fiats, Pougeots and others I've never heard of before. All running, chug-a-chug-chug, wonderful sounds of deisels and gas engines of very old designs still running after all these years. While walking along we ran into first one then many of our friends enjoying the sun and the bussling atmosphere of the brocante. Later we gathered at the bar tent for a few beers and laughs. Another hour later off we went to head home satisfied that we had filtered the place of any object worth our time and fast evaporating money. To the field we walked to see yet another acquantance with his front tires buried in the sloppy soft mud, uh oh. In the distance we heard one of the ancient tractors fire up and slip into gear. Soon one rounded the bend and drove into the field, an old hit-and-miss two cylinder gas beast belching black smoke and eager for the challenge. HA! Hooked up in a few minutes it readily pulled the offended modern auto out of it's hole and soon it was on it's way home. The driver of the tractor refused payment offered by the cars owner and just smiled and waved as he chugged along returning to the line up back in the village, a job well done!
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