B&B's aren't the only visitors who stay here at Maureville. Numerous swallows and black redstarts nest in the sheds and barns ...theyare both bossy breeds who object to humans getting into their space. This is unfortunate as the swallows like to nest in the shed where I keep my freezer, which leaves me ducking in & out of the door as they angrily squawk & dive-bomb me! The black redstarts chirrup and bob up & down..obviously telling you to go away!
Sparrows nest in the leylandii hedge and in the holes & cracks in the stones of the house in vast numbers...they are cheeky and cheerful, and totally infazed by human company.
2 years ago we had a kestrel that nested on the north side of the house. Not an area that we use much. At the same time we had little owls nesting in the chimney....I'm pretty sure I posted a photo of the fledgling as he sat in the cherry tree.
This year the kestrels have nested in the eaves at the front of the house. They are very visible and noisy..but not easy to photograph...and don't understand why humans should be allowed in the garden. They've had 2 families this year and are constantly swooping back & forth with tasty morsels for the offspring ( 1 per nest!)
Haven't seen the little owls for a while, so imagine my surprise yesterday! I was alone in the house & heard a bump. My first thought was that Mavis ( pussy-cat) was trapped somewhere, so went around opening doors & calling. Eventually found her outside my bedroom window & rather forgot about the strange noises.
7 hours later & I was watching TV. Geoff had already gone to bed and Battie was curled up in her basket..when I heard a clonk...similar to the afternoon's noise! Then I saw something move inside the wood-burning stove.
The chimney sweep had visited us over a month ago, and ...it's June, possibly not the greatest June , but we've not had a fire since long before the chimney sweep's visit. Many years ago I remember finding a bat in the woodburner. It was 3-4" long & appeared to be asleep ( I think it was late autumn). We took it to the barn & hung it up ( or do I mean down?!)on a perch. Never saw it again!
This time I wasn't sure what it was.....so I woke Geoff. He's the naturalist of the family! Peering into the fireplace, we saw, hiding behind bits of wood a small fluffy owl. Geoff found some heavy duty gloves and pulled him out. Poor little chap was quite bewildered.
Next problem was what to do with him.
It was dark outside..but wild life was aplenty. Nocturnal birds are are noisy & we didn't like the idea of 'wol' being eaten the minute we released him. I don't think the kestrels would have thought twice about the little fledgling.
We don't really know where his nest had been, but we see owls in the barn, so that is where we left him. As we went back to the barn I'm sure I saw a little owl on the fence post. I like to think it was his mum who went & found him.
No sign of any owls this morning!
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Monday 30 April 2012
A Tale of 3 puds!
Food and drink is about as important as it gets in France! Summertime is for al fresco eating, followed by a game of boules or just lounging around with a glass or two of wine....but summer is taking its time to get here this year!
A phonecall from friends on holiday in the south of France (it was raining there, too!) asked that we meet up and have lunch. No amount of persuasion that 'France is a huge country and the journey will take hours' would stop them from arranging that we all meet up at 'Chez Paul' in Angouleme! This meant a 11/4 hour drive for us, and nearly 3 hours for them!
Making the most of the outing we set off early in order to do some shopping. Angouleme has some beautiful stylish shops in the town centre...but we headed for that cheap & cheerful DIY extravaganza....Bricodepot! We had a list as long as your arm, and fully expected to have to move on to Castorama, Leroy Merlin or Mr. Bricolage, but we were in luck and managed to get it all at the first stop!
I hadn't given Kim particularly good instructions to get to the restaurant...'follow city centre' signs and keep driving uphill, past the Mairie and 'Palais de Justice' and park in the 'Place'..but keep texting to keep in touch!
The first message said...running late by about 30 minutes...and so we had plenty of time to peruse the area for ourselves. We did a lap of the city centre before looking for a parking space. At 1pm there was no spare space outside the restaurant...but plenty in the multi-story car park. We window-shopped (I love looking in 'chocolatierie') our way from the car to '8,Place Francis Louvel' and started to text the address to Kim so that she could put it in her sat-nav. It was a grey day..but no rain, and not too cold...and we sat outside for about 15 minutes, trying to work out which direction our friends would be coming from. We were looking for a green car, so were taken by surprised when we saw 3 ladies rushing up from the opposite corner of the square. Shouts & hugs and kisses and we went inside the restaurant.
1.40pm is quite late for people to arrive for lunch in France, but fortunately Chez Paul serves lunches until 2.15. Usually one orders from the 'Menu du jour', but we decided to go 'a la carte'...Geoff went for rump steak & chips, Kim for ox cheek in red wine with mash, and Sue, Helen & I chose the chicken escalopes with lemon risotto. On previous visits I've always drunk Perrier water and refused a dessert. The slimming diet is not going so well at the moment...and I had a glass of red wine and 'cafe liegeois'. This proved to be 2 balls of coffee ice-cream and 1 of vanilla, covered with squirty cream and coffee syrup, and served in a smart boat-shaped dish. The others had similar puds! In fact, a tad dissappointing!
Two nights later Geoff & I were invited to dinner with our English neighbours at Beauregard farm. Dinner parties are a popular form of winter entertainment amongst the English and the French. The wine, and other forms of alcohol, flows and the food...often plain, but frequently quite lavish is plentiful (..and always ruins my diet!) Friday was no exception....Jacki had done us proud!
There were 7 of us around the table.We started with a 'bubbly' aperitif...the starter was a seafood dish. 'Canard aux cerises', with roast winter veg and red cabbage was the yummy main course. This was served with a Bordeaux wine... a Pomerol from....Chateau Beauregard!!...which Keith, Jacki's Dad had picked up during a trip to Bordeaux vineyards and contributed to the night's meal! Classy or what?
A rather splendid cheeseboard followed. In France the cheese is served before the pud.
And then...la piece de la resistance!
Pud was a mixture of assorted pots of strawberry and/or chocolate. On top of a large square plate was a shot-glass containing strawberry sorbet, with a dash of pineau, a small dish of chocolate mousse, a vanilla tuille, a tiny chocolate gateau and a tiny fluted dish of creme anglais. In the middle of all this was a large strawberry lightly dusted with icing sugar!
It was a work of art... and a triumph of watching umpteen rounds of ' Masterchef'... and I'm pretty sure the afore-mentionned restaurant would have been proud to have served the dish themselves!
So, this got me thinking! I am a rustic cook...certainly not a Masterchef contestant! I watch cookery programmes with interest and browse through recipe books and, as the ingredients required were already in the cupboard, decided to attempt an apple & toffee pud.
We'd invited Alan & Sue for Sunday roast supper. They have just got back to their French holiday cottage, where they'll stay for the summer and were bringing us some English shopping. Just the 4 of us...and nothing too grand!
The only thing growing in the garden at the moment is the asparagus, so we started with a rose wine and smoked salmon & asparagus quiche. Roast lamb followed...with a fitou wine (under 3 euros from Lidl,or possibly Netto...but it had been awarded a goldmedal!).
We gave the cheese a miss...but then there was my 'masterpiece'!!!
2 days of research into apple and toffee recipes & the pud was thus:-
On a wide-rimmed round bowl I placed a warm mini apple sponge. This was a fairy cake with apple slices at the base...& turned out, upside-down on the plate. I poured a toffee sauce over it. To one side of this was a fan-shaped arrangement of translucent apple cooked in dark brown sugar syrup. On the other side was a mini cinnamon panatone. all was lightly dusted with icing sugar!
How did it compare with Jacki's pud? Not as posh! All the little pots & serving dishes really make the display. They control the portion size and dictate the number of components.
My cinnamon panattone was delicious...but making it in a small teacup & turning it out onto the serving dish....it was too big & took up too much space. The toffee apple gateaux was ok,but creme anglaise might have been preferable to toffee sauce. Perhaps then a toffee syrup 'cheffy' swirl across the plate would have tied the components together.
I might attempt to refine the pud...but first must acquire the relevant crockery!
Come & B&B with with us, dine 'table d'hote' with us.....and you may be able to see how I'm getting on with it!
Meanwhile I have to face the scales at 'Slimmercise' in 2 days time! Help!
A phonecall from friends on holiday in the south of France (it was raining there, too!) asked that we meet up and have lunch. No amount of persuasion that 'France is a huge country and the journey will take hours' would stop them from arranging that we all meet up at 'Chez Paul' in Angouleme! This meant a 11/4 hour drive for us, and nearly 3 hours for them!
Making the most of the outing we set off early in order to do some shopping. Angouleme has some beautiful stylish shops in the town centre...but we headed for that cheap & cheerful DIY extravaganza....Bricodepot! We had a list as long as your arm, and fully expected to have to move on to Castorama, Leroy Merlin or Mr. Bricolage, but we were in luck and managed to get it all at the first stop!
I hadn't given Kim particularly good instructions to get to the restaurant...'follow city centre' signs and keep driving uphill, past the Mairie and 'Palais de Justice' and park in the 'Place'..but keep texting to keep in touch!
The first message said...running late by about 30 minutes...and so we had plenty of time to peruse the area for ourselves. We did a lap of the city centre before looking for a parking space. At 1pm there was no spare space outside the restaurant...but plenty in the multi-story car park. We window-shopped (I love looking in 'chocolatierie') our way from the car to '8,Place Francis Louvel' and started to text the address to Kim so that she could put it in her sat-nav. It was a grey day..but no rain, and not too cold...and we sat outside for about 15 minutes, trying to work out which direction our friends would be coming from. We were looking for a green car, so were taken by surprised when we saw 3 ladies rushing up from the opposite corner of the square. Shouts & hugs and kisses and we went inside the restaurant.
1.40pm is quite late for people to arrive for lunch in France, but fortunately Chez Paul serves lunches until 2.15. Usually one orders from the 'Menu du jour', but we decided to go 'a la carte'...Geoff went for rump steak & chips, Kim for ox cheek in red wine with mash, and Sue, Helen & I chose the chicken escalopes with lemon risotto. On previous visits I've always drunk Perrier water and refused a dessert. The slimming diet is not going so well at the moment...and I had a glass of red wine and 'cafe liegeois'. This proved to be 2 balls of coffee ice-cream and 1 of vanilla, covered with squirty cream and coffee syrup, and served in a smart boat-shaped dish. The others had similar puds! In fact, a tad dissappointing!
Two nights later Geoff & I were invited to dinner with our English neighbours at Beauregard farm. Dinner parties are a popular form of winter entertainment amongst the English and the French. The wine, and other forms of alcohol, flows and the food...often plain, but frequently quite lavish is plentiful (..and always ruins my diet!) Friday was no exception....Jacki had done us proud!
There were 7 of us around the table.We started with a 'bubbly' aperitif...the starter was a seafood dish. 'Canard aux cerises', with roast winter veg and red cabbage was the yummy main course. This was served with a Bordeaux wine... a Pomerol from....Chateau Beauregard!!...which Keith, Jacki's Dad had picked up during a trip to Bordeaux vineyards and contributed to the night's meal! Classy or what?
A rather splendid cheeseboard followed. In France the cheese is served before the pud.
And then...la piece de la resistance!
Pud was a mixture of assorted pots of strawberry and/or chocolate. On top of a large square plate was a shot-glass containing strawberry sorbet, with a dash of pineau, a small dish of chocolate mousse, a vanilla tuille, a tiny chocolate gateau and a tiny fluted dish of creme anglais. In the middle of all this was a large strawberry lightly dusted with icing sugar!
It was a work of art... and a triumph of watching umpteen rounds of ' Masterchef'... and I'm pretty sure the afore-mentionned restaurant would have been proud to have served the dish themselves!
So, this got me thinking! I am a rustic cook...certainly not a Masterchef contestant! I watch cookery programmes with interest and browse through recipe books and, as the ingredients required were already in the cupboard, decided to attempt an apple & toffee pud.
We'd invited Alan & Sue for Sunday roast supper. They have just got back to their French holiday cottage, where they'll stay for the summer and were bringing us some English shopping. Just the 4 of us...and nothing too grand!
The only thing growing in the garden at the moment is the asparagus, so we started with a rose wine and smoked salmon & asparagus quiche. Roast lamb followed...with a fitou wine (under 3 euros from Lidl,or possibly Netto...but it had been awarded a goldmedal!).
We gave the cheese a miss...but then there was my 'masterpiece'!!!
2 days of research into apple and toffee recipes & the pud was thus:-
On a wide-rimmed round bowl I placed a warm mini apple sponge. This was a fairy cake with apple slices at the base...& turned out, upside-down on the plate. I poured a toffee sauce over it. To one side of this was a fan-shaped arrangement of translucent apple cooked in dark brown sugar syrup. On the other side was a mini cinnamon panatone. all was lightly dusted with icing sugar!
How did it compare with Jacki's pud? Not as posh! All the little pots & serving dishes really make the display. They control the portion size and dictate the number of components.
My cinnamon panattone was delicious...but making it in a small teacup & turning it out onto the serving dish....it was too big & took up too much space. The toffee apple gateaux was ok,but creme anglaise might have been preferable to toffee sauce. Perhaps then a toffee syrup 'cheffy' swirl across the plate would have tied the components together.
I might attempt to refine the pud...but first must acquire the relevant crockery!
Come & B&B with with us, dine 'table d'hote' with us.....and you may be able to see how I'm getting on with it!
Meanwhile I have to face the scales at 'Slimmercise' in 2 days time! Help!
Saturday 21 April 2012
April showers!
It is WONDERFUL to be back home! I flew into Poitiers yesterday afternoon...we then spent 2 hours in Leroy Merlin...yes, it's back to the renovations! No time for food shopping so it was back home to eggs and home-grown asparagus, with baguette and a glass of red wine! It can't be beaten!
This morning Geoff went off to do some lawn-mowing for friends with a holiday home, dropping me & Batty at the 'aire de loisir' in Asnois. We walked along the banks of the River Charente...it's very high at the moment. Although there have been constant showers and a horrible dip in the temperature, the 'Departement de Vienne' is on water shortage alert, so I can only assume that the sluices have been closed!
It made the river look good...flowing fast...( hopefully we may yet see the elusive kingfisher this year!)......with green grassy banks and wildflowers popping up everywhere.
I carried on along the pathway, past Mont Lorier and in the direction of Maureville where I passed a large clump of snakeshead fritillary. These were the star of the morning, but now celandines, lungwort, cowslips, lord's & ladies, and ladies smock, to name but a few of the flowers,can be seen in abundance! I only wish I could identify the birdsong as easily as the flowers. The cuckoo, who was calling a couple of weeks ago couldn't be heard today...perhaps he's sulking because of the poor weather, but everything else was singing away loudly! The hoopoes have been spotted...but not by me!...and the ever faithful swallows and black redstarts have made nests in the old pigpens in the front garden. Our noisiest 'lodger' is a young kestrel. His parents have nested in the stonework under the eaves of the farmhouse here at Maureville for the last 4 years. They regularly rear an offspring or two & complain noisily at our presence in the garden, whilst the youngster complains noisily for his next meal!
Saturday 17 March 2012
blogs and blanquette!
There are numerous blogs describing life in France! Many are quite innovative and entertaining. I am now going to poach an article from 'Living the life at Saint Aignan'...with many thanks & apologies to Ken Broadhurst. In all honesty it's not complete plagiarism, rather the fact that, in googling for a 'blanquette de dinde' recipe, not only was this the best,but also bought in very similar conditions!
Early yesterday morning I popped into Netto...probably the cheapest supermarket in Savigne (give or take Leader Price and Lidl) for a few bits & pieces & found a large pack on the well-stocked meat shelf ( I really should make a habit of this early morning shop!) that was labelled .........
'8 osso bucco & 3 blanquettes'
As stated in the Saint Aignan blog, the price was low ( 3.49 euros per kilo, compared with 2.50 euros...but this is 2012, n0t 2010!)...BARGAIN....I thought...and shoved it in the trolley!
I saw Michel Roux jr. cook 'blanquette de veau' on Saturday Kitchen a couple of years ago and have fancied it ever since, but done nothing about it....as you do! 'Now's my chance' I thought.
This afternoon is the last afternoon of the 6 nations rugby competition. After a week's wonderful spring weather, all has changed. It is dull and grey and very cool without all that lovely sunshine that had me out in the vegetable patch. We've been invited out for supper tonight (which has rather upset Geoff as England don't kick-off until 5.00 pm GMT......which is 6.00pm French time & when we've been asked to turn up for 'aperitifs'!) so I thought I'd check out some recipes as our favourite B&B's come next week & will want to join us 'table d'hote'!
Meg & Harry were our first ever customers for B&B in France. They stayed with us when house-hunting. Then they came back to sign the 'acte de vente'. They've a holiday home about 20 minutes drive away and they stayed with us during the initial renovations. Nowadays they come over to France every summer & stop with us on the first and last night of their visit!
Voila! I thought.... I can cook 'blanquette' or 'osso bucco'...either of which will make a super main course!
I google recipes & started reading them. Then I went & had a look at the tray of meat in the fridge.
Quelle horreur!
How did I miss that word 'DINDE' written in red capital letters at the top of the label! No wonder it was so cheap!
Oh well..'blanquette de veau' will have to wait for another day. I've now studied all the 'blanquette de dinde' and the 'osso bucco..dinde' recipes. I'm sure it will be delicious......and I've found a lovely blog about life in the Loire.
(ps...I didn't really poach Ken's ' blanquette de dinde' article.....but I AM going to use his recipe, and I might just write it out here after I've cooked it! Having written this blog though, with a TV background of Scotland getting the wooden spoon after losing to Italy, I've abandoned all thoughts of cooking & shall now watch Wales beat France & win The Grand Slam 2012.........I hope!)
Early yesterday morning I popped into Netto...probably the cheapest supermarket in Savigne (give or take Leader Price and Lidl) for a few bits & pieces & found a large pack on the well-stocked meat shelf ( I really should make a habit of this early morning shop!) that was labelled .........
'8 osso bucco & 3 blanquettes'
As stated in the Saint Aignan blog, the price was low ( 3.49 euros per kilo, compared with 2.50 euros...but this is 2012, n0t 2010!)...BARGAIN....I thought...and shoved it in the trolley!
I saw Michel Roux jr. cook 'blanquette de veau' on Saturday Kitchen a couple of years ago and have fancied it ever since, but done nothing about it....as you do! 'Now's my chance' I thought.
This afternoon is the last afternoon of the 6 nations rugby competition. After a week's wonderful spring weather, all has changed. It is dull and grey and very cool without all that lovely sunshine that had me out in the vegetable patch. We've been invited out for supper tonight (which has rather upset Geoff as England don't kick-off until 5.00 pm GMT......which is 6.00pm French time & when we've been asked to turn up for 'aperitifs'!) so I thought I'd check out some recipes as our favourite B&B's come next week & will want to join us 'table d'hote'!
Meg & Harry were our first ever customers for B&B in France. They stayed with us when house-hunting. Then they came back to sign the 'acte de vente'. They've a holiday home about 20 minutes drive away and they stayed with us during the initial renovations. Nowadays they come over to France every summer & stop with us on the first and last night of their visit!
Voila! I thought.... I can cook 'blanquette' or 'osso bucco'...either of which will make a super main course!
I google recipes & started reading them. Then I went & had a look at the tray of meat in the fridge.
Quelle horreur!
How did I miss that word 'DINDE' written in red capital letters at the top of the label! No wonder it was so cheap!
Oh well..'blanquette de veau' will have to wait for another day. I've now studied all the 'blanquette de dinde' and the 'osso bucco..dinde' recipes. I'm sure it will be delicious......and I've found a lovely blog about life in the Loire.
(ps...I didn't really poach Ken's ' blanquette de dinde' article.....but I AM going to use his recipe, and I might just write it out here after I've cooked it! Having written this blog though, with a TV background of Scotland getting the wooden spoon after losing to Italy, I've abandoned all thoughts of cooking & shall now watch Wales beat France & win The Grand Slam 2012.........I hope!)
Saturday 3 March 2012
The house-hunting/buying season has arrived with a vengeance!
I've just waved good-bye to Anne & Bob...... ex-B&B's and now they are our new neighbours! They have bought an old farmhouse along the chemin, en-route to Asnois where, for the next few months, Bob has a full-time renovating job!
They stayed with us for 4 days..which meant organising dinner every night. I haven't done a lot of cooking this year, and these days I find it very easy to get out of practise.
On the whole it all went quite well. We have a lot of fruit and veg from last year's garden produce, whilst fresh produce at the moment is only leeks and parsnips.
The 7-month old sheepdog pup(not ours!) who has been running around the farmyard across the road, chased one of my 2 surviving chickens, caught....and destroyed it, leaving the old red hen, who then survived all the cold weather on her own, only to be found dead beneath her perch a couple of weeks later. I don't know whether, at 4 years old, she died of old age, loneliness or boredom....but no more homegrown, free-range eggs until we get some more!
Anyhow, back to my suppers!
The first night I made a huge tagine of pork.... a sweet (dates & apricots) and mildly spicy dish, which I love. There was sufficient to freeze the leftovers for another supper ....always handy when people ask to stay for dinner at short notice. For pudding I used up some of last year's peaches in a crumble with creme anglaise. I'm not too impressed with frozen peaches. The are a bit insipid, so I added a small amount of crystallised ginger to pep up the flavour. Freezing is a simple way of preserving excess fruit, but I think I'll try bottling some of the peaches this summer.
The following night we started with home-made parsnip soup, garnished with grated apple..as instructed by Delia! Then we had confit de canard.... and I was chuffed to find a sauce recipe..50% mustard mixed with 50% grape jelly. I made grape jelly in 2009. It is too runny, never set properly, but ideal for a sauce. It also made a great substitute for orange sauce that one usually does with duck ( & Geoff dislikes!)
Roasties cooked in duck fat are also dead yummy!
Thursday's supper started with fishcakes. I adapted the leftover grape/mustard sauce with some mayonnaise as a dressing! This was followed by chicken pie with leeks and cauliflower and dessert was elderflower jelly with some of last year's cherries..these do freeze well!
The final supper started ok with deep-fried calamari, but, after that wasn't quite so inspired as the previous nights! The main course of shepherd's pie was followed by creme caramel on a bed of meringue! It sounds ok, but the creme caramel should be turned out onto a flat plate in order to hold its shape. With hindsight, I also realise that I was too faint-hearted when making the caramel. In being afraid of burning it, I took it away from the heat too soon. Some of the sugar hadn't completely caramelised and ended up sticking to the mold! This meant that, what with fighting with the caramel & then landing on broken pieces of meringue, it rather landed on the plate with a 'splat'...not a good look!
Oh well, I shall do better next time!
More house-hunters expected next week...it's not helping the 'regime'!
I've just waved good-bye to Anne & Bob...... ex-B&B's and now they are our new neighbours! They have bought an old farmhouse along the chemin, en-route to Asnois where, for the next few months, Bob has a full-time renovating job!
They stayed with us for 4 days..which meant organising dinner every night. I haven't done a lot of cooking this year, and these days I find it very easy to get out of practise.
On the whole it all went quite well. We have a lot of fruit and veg from last year's garden produce, whilst fresh produce at the moment is only leeks and parsnips.
The 7-month old sheepdog pup(not ours!) who has been running around the farmyard across the road, chased one of my 2 surviving chickens, caught....and destroyed it, leaving the old red hen, who then survived all the cold weather on her own, only to be found dead beneath her perch a couple of weeks later. I don't know whether, at 4 years old, she died of old age, loneliness or boredom....but no more homegrown, free-range eggs until we get some more!
Anyhow, back to my suppers!
The first night I made a huge tagine of pork.... a sweet (dates & apricots) and mildly spicy dish, which I love. There was sufficient to freeze the leftovers for another supper ....always handy when people ask to stay for dinner at short notice. For pudding I used up some of last year's peaches in a crumble with creme anglaise. I'm not too impressed with frozen peaches. The are a bit insipid, so I added a small amount of crystallised ginger to pep up the flavour. Freezing is a simple way of preserving excess fruit, but I think I'll try bottling some of the peaches this summer.
The following night we started with home-made parsnip soup, garnished with grated apple..as instructed by Delia! Then we had confit de canard.... and I was chuffed to find a sauce recipe..50% mustard mixed with 50% grape jelly. I made grape jelly in 2009. It is too runny, never set properly, but ideal for a sauce. It also made a great substitute for orange sauce that one usually does with duck ( & Geoff dislikes!)
Roasties cooked in duck fat are also dead yummy!
Thursday's supper started with fishcakes. I adapted the leftover grape/mustard sauce with some mayonnaise as a dressing! This was followed by chicken pie with leeks and cauliflower and dessert was elderflower jelly with some of last year's cherries..these do freeze well!
The final supper started ok with deep-fried calamari, but, after that wasn't quite so inspired as the previous nights! The main course of shepherd's pie was followed by creme caramel on a bed of meringue! It sounds ok, but the creme caramel should be turned out onto a flat plate in order to hold its shape. With hindsight, I also realise that I was too faint-hearted when making the caramel. In being afraid of burning it, I took it away from the heat too soon. Some of the sugar hadn't completely caramelised and ended up sticking to the mold! This meant that, what with fighting with the caramel & then landing on broken pieces of meringue, it rather landed on the plate with a 'splat'...not a good look!
Oh well, I shall do better next time!
More house-hunters expected next week...it's not helping the 'regime'!
Thursday 23 February 2012
Broadband by satellite!
Hooray!This is quick!
We've spent the last week fixing and installing a Tooway satellite system.
It was ordered online last week. Arrived within 3 days, constructed and erected at the week-end!
At that point things got tricky and we are.... oh so lucky... in having friends Mike ( & Jenni)...who enjoys tinkering with computers ( I'm trying...and failing...in describing him as a computer nerd!!...which sounds like an insult...but no, he's a hero!) Anyhow, Mike & Jenni came over, had a bite of lunch and sorted the parabola inline with the satellite.
I now have a phone line that is still free whilst I'm online....no more friends complaining that they can never get hold of us as somebody's always online!!
And, of course, it's so much faster!
Next step..'Skype'...and 'routers'!
Wednesday 15 February 2012
February 2012...& a belated Happy New Year!
Well, goodness gracious me! What a game I've had trying to re-connect with my blog! I'm not 100% sure how I've now managed to find the right page in order to compose new articles, but here I am with a quick update of events since Christmas. ( & apologies to everybody who thought I'd dissappeared off the face of the earth!)
The maire of Asnois gave his annual address in January. Nothing terribly exciting...except news that the white elephant of a doctor's surgery...built for a Romanian doctor to come & start up his medical practice 2 years ago...& which fell through after the gentleman in question did a runner, now has a new use! Our commune sponsored him (the doctor) and entertained him for 18 months whilst he upped his French language skills in hospitals in Poitiers. By the time the Vienne medical boards considered him satisfactory to start a GP unit here in Asnois, he & his wife decided to head for more exotic parts of France...leaving a lot of unhappy councillors here. Anyhow..the new surgery is now to be for a dentist!
The winter weather didn't arrive until last week. After 2 weeks of snow & ice the thaw has arrived. I can't really say we were badly affected, but many local folk still have frozen or burst pipes.
Geoff has been building all this winter in a bid to break the back of the gite renovations. We stopped for a couple of days partying over the Christmas break...and for a couple of days last week when it was just too cold. Otherwise he has worked steadily onwards. Progress seems slow..deadlines to finish this, that & the next job, come...&....go!...but I suppose we are getting there! When you are not a professional, some jobs take an agonisingly long time!
The latest digression is the arrival ( this morning!) of the 'Tooway' satellite dish. This will take a day or 3 to erect, but we have decided that we can no longer carry on without 'broadband'. Friends & clients complain because they can't get us on the phone...and we spend a long time online, which is VERY slow! So, all I can say, is...watch this space!
The maire of Asnois gave his annual address in January. Nothing terribly exciting...except news that the white elephant of a doctor's surgery...built for a Romanian doctor to come & start up his medical practice 2 years ago...& which fell through after the gentleman in question did a runner, now has a new use! Our commune sponsored him (the doctor) and entertained him for 18 months whilst he upped his French language skills in hospitals in Poitiers. By the time the Vienne medical boards considered him satisfactory to start a GP unit here in Asnois, he & his wife decided to head for more exotic parts of France...leaving a lot of unhappy councillors here. Anyhow..the new surgery is now to be for a dentist!
The winter weather didn't arrive until last week. After 2 weeks of snow & ice the thaw has arrived. I can't really say we were badly affected, but many local folk still have frozen or burst pipes.
Geoff has been building all this winter in a bid to break the back of the gite renovations. We stopped for a couple of days partying over the Christmas break...and for a couple of days last week when it was just too cold. Otherwise he has worked steadily onwards. Progress seems slow..deadlines to finish this, that & the next job, come...&....go!...but I suppose we are getting there! When you are not a professional, some jobs take an agonisingly long time!
The latest digression is the arrival ( this morning!) of the 'Tooway' satellite dish. This will take a day or 3 to erect, but we have decided that we can no longer carry on without 'broadband'. Friends & clients complain because they can't get us on the phone...and we spend a long time online, which is VERY slow! So, all I can say, is...watch this space!
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