Moonday, Lunday, a day of no work.

Up, I made bisquits, not scones...no raisons, no dates no dried fruit, just flour, milk, butter (no lard vegetable or pork) and leavening...baking powder, a teaspoon of salt. This always works, 1.5 cups of flour sifted together with 1.5 rounded teaspoons of baking powder and the salt, then cut in with a cutter or fork the fat...the lard or butter til it has all made up to little lumps, add enough milk to combine the ingrediants, try a cup, add more if needed to form a coarse dough. Powder your hands and the wet dough with flour and form into 1/2" thick (15mm) thick patties about 2" (50 mm) in diameter, place into a baking sheet or skillet...makes about 5 to 7 bisquits. Mine went to hell this morning, laid flat and refused to rise almost at all...browning took almost an hour in the pathetic electric oven I have at my disposal...hard tack, yes hard tack. Crusty, hard outside, soft inside, way over baked brown and dry as desert sand. NOT a good bisquit! The fault? The bloody leavening powder has died! We sent a pound to ourselves before we left California almost two months ago now...alas it is still in transit along with three more boxes of stuff we'll have it some day. Baking powder as we know it has not been found in France, they do not have this tradition I guess and are used to rising bread with various yeasts, I need baking powder for this bisquit baking chore and have none that is fresh. I wait anxiously.
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Then after sufficient coffee espresso) to wake us thoroughly off to Chateauroux to seek our fortunes. Leroy Merlin must wait for the junk store...we have bought LOTS of stuff at this regional TROC de L'ile...like a thrift store/consignment shop in the US...lots of furniture, lamps, mirrors, chairs, tables etc. The one in Chateauroux is excellent in that we almost always find some near hidden, forgotten GEM therein to purchase and pack into our Toyota Avensis. How it always fits remains somewhat mysterious, but it does.
Today it was a set of 6 Henry II wood chairs, a nice oak table with one drawer for the Prep room, 2 small stools that look like kids woodshop projects but very well made of oak weighing about 10lbs (5kg) each and last but not least a nicely made tan leather couch, 6 ft long, not a sleeper really but quite comfortable and nice looking..I laid down on it to let Kelly see how it fit me, planning for the near future snoring session I guess.
We took the stools and two of the six chairs and agreed to have TROC de L'ile deliver the rest this Wednesday between 4:30 and 5 pm. Then off to Babou to find a few 1.49 Euro scissors, flashlights and batteries and who knows what else, all Chinese made but then cheap and worthy of use at the first look.
Then back across Chateauroux to Leroy Merlin for plywood to resubstanciate the wicker chairs seats before someone winds up on the ground! The chairs are wonderfully victorian but worn and fragile, they need paint and cushions and seat plywood to make them last a few years. Kelly moved thru the CASA (CAH-Zah) store finding 40% off bargains, wine glasses and flutes for champagne when that day happens. Then to Auchan for onions, potatoes, beer, coffee beans, oysters, crab and crab legs, vodka for the liqour cabinet, and a few other essentials like chocolate. As we exited the store it began to rain a cold drizzle and dark clouds summoned us homeward towards Lignieres to end our buying spree. It rained all the way home.

Paradise is for the birds

Up at 7am to noisy birdsong from the swallows that are nesting (or trying to) above the windows under the cornice where I can't get to them with a hose. If they weren't so messy I wouldn't care a bit but they do poop and it rains down on the street and sidewalk below making a mess of everything. Flashing CD's seem to be the preferred non-violent method of discouraging them, I have done that in California under our deck but not here...yet. Off we went at 8:30 to the brocante in ORVAL, the outskirts of St. Amand Montrond, a devil to find as we saw only two signs that refered to it and had arrows to tell you which direction. It was largely a chance of dumb luck that we found it at all. Lots of sellers but with little to sell that was of interest to us EXCEPT the plante madam, she had lovely small plants at the typical prices (2 Euros for a seeding) that we've come to expect. I spent 32 Bucks (Euros) buying this's and thats, she was grateful and I admired her careful touch with her charges as she packaged them carefully in small plastic sacks. That was our only purchase at that brocante though we spent a hour and a half there gawking. Then on to Mountlouis for a producer sale...plants, vegies and various cheesemakers and wine producers joined the fray. I bought more plants for my miniature formal garden, most of which I didn't even know the name of. Two Hortensias...for 12 dollars each that were HUGE and would have been 40 bucks back in California. Various sages, some mints, italian parsley and others were bought along with the hortensias. We ran into a few friends hanging out at the Menatou Salon winery booth sipping delicious red, I'm used to and respect the whites from that region but have never had the red, it was light, fruity and delicious, made to drink right away as we were doing. It was a 2005 vintage and worth a buy when I next see it in a grocery store. Home we came to plant the new plants and admire our labors. Kelly is putting on the 2nd and third coats of paint on the bathroom wainscotting that I have installed therein. It's beginning to look like a completed bathroom and WILL once I cover the walls with the fiberglass cloth, she paints it and then I paint and apply the crown mounding. What a job this bathroom has been. May be done by weeks end with luck and diligence.