SEPTEMBER

September is my favourite month of the year.

I spent a week of it in the UK where the weather was unusually kind.

Much as I enjoyed my week I was looking forward to getting to get back to France.  The Ryanair flight back was completely stress free.

I grumble about Ryanair but really shouldn't, without them we couldn't do what we do - live in two countries.

Yvonne was pleased to see me back home.

The double cushion trick is the way to a cat's heart.

Hugo has matured into a truly wonderful dog.

The September weather has been fabulous.

Warm days, cool nights and mornings, and plenty of sitting out.

The sunrises have been gorgeous.

The sunsets beautiful.

There has been plenty of deer activity - the brame is in full swing. 

We went to our favourite town, Chinon, for the afternoon.

Chinon never fails to enchant us.

We have passed an early evening or two enjoying life in the village square.

With the village pizzeria not yet re-opened after a change of ownership we went to Descartes to try the newish pizza restaurant there.

The pizzas were not great and we have read that the restaurant is about to close.

Making good pizzas is clearly harder than you might think.

Two gorgeous old cars were parked outside the salle des fêtes in our own village.

It was "Paella night", rescheduled from earlier in the summer.

It's usually an outdoor event with fireworks at the end of the evening but due to the successive heatwaves it was postponed to September.

Paella was served to a huge number of people.

It was an excellent evening, great food, lots of fun and fabulous fireworks.

With the cooler weather we fished the old Harleys out of the barn and went for a few rides.

I never thought I would still be riding my Harley at the age of 74.

Mine is 19 years old, his 22 years.  Almost vintage.

The band "Celtiqua" played their farewell concert at the Lavoir in Preuilly.

It was a bitter sweet event, great music from old friends but a sad goodbye.

The weather is looking good for the coming week and into October.

Long may it continue (although we really do need some rain).

When comfort food is more tempting I have earmarked this recipe for our courgettes:

https://www.ocado.com/recipes/one-pan-courgette-lasagne/3PNvJ4T7DIynBjWpm04ISQ

STALLED and biting the bullet(s)

Blogging has stalled for a while as I have been in the UK for one of our routine visits this week and before that we were very busy with entertaining, gardening and other stuff.

This visit I have done the usual stuff such as cutting the grass, tidying the garden, tidying the house following our earlier exit in July and, importantly, I have been on a mission to buy myself some new clothes and shoes.  I am desperate for new shoes, most of mine being years old and worn out (or no longer comfortable for my poor old abused feet).  I also need new sandals but they will have to wait until next year as by now there are none in the shops.

I dread going shopping for clothes and shoes but dread even more the hassle of buying them online.  The waiting in for the parcel or having to fetch it from the corner shop, the trying on to find the fabric is nothing like I expected and the shoes don't fit, followed by the packing up and returning using the various methods dictated by the supplier.  Then the checking of my account to make sure the refund arrives.

I had been to one of the retail parks a few miles away and bought a couple of dresses and a jumper in the Weird Fish sale, plus a raincoat from Cotton Traders.  The only shoe shop was Pavers but the only shoes that looked suitable were not available in my size.

So, I bit the bullet and went into town.  First stop M&S who have moved from the town centre into a new store in a retail park on the edge of town.  I queued to get into the inadequately small car park and slid into the only inadequately small parking space I could find, a long way from the shop.  At least the parking was free but limited, of course, to two hours otherwise you risk a hefty fine from the people who own the car park.  You can't visit all the shops on the site in two hours - unless you are very focussed and don't enjoy browsing.

I was lucky to find jeans and trousers in my size plus underwear in stock.  I bit the other bullet of trying them on in the shop, which always seems to be a faff but avoids the inevitable return to the shop if they don't fit when trying them on at home.

I also nipped into the food hall (always a joy) and picked up some small chocolate gifts to take back to France.  When we are invited out to lunch we take some chocs for the hosts and M&S chocs are always well received.

Next I went into the town centre and parked in a central car park.  By then I was hungry so I popped into the Post Office.  The building that used to be the Post Office is now a bar restaurant.  I hesitated but thought how bad can it be?  The décor was a cross between Frankie and Benny and an old railway station caff.  This surprised me as I thought that kind of thing had gone out of fashion now.  Having paid £8.60 for a very dismal bacon sandwich (just two small slices of unbuttered toast and two minute rashers of bacon) and a small bottle of mineral water I ventured out to the shops.  I am out of touch with how much eating out costs in the UK.

There used to be two Clarks shoe shops in town, plus others such as Lilley & Skinner and a huge shoe department in the Co-Op.  The Co-Op, our wonderful department store, closed several years ago and there is now just one Clarks shoe shop and two that seem to sell cheap trainers.  I was out of luck.  

However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed wandering around the town.  The weather was fine which always helps but somehow it didn't feel quite so down at heel as it has felt lately.  There are still plenty of empty shops and too many nail bars* and vape shops for my liking but on the whole I thought I could come to like the place again.

The indulgent wandering around town added time to my car parking fee which was £4.60.  So by now I was £13.20 out of pocket and only a very mean bacon sandwich to show for it.  (We rarely have to pay anything at all for car parking in our part of France.)

My plan was to head to yet another retail park way out of town where there was a Hotter shoe shop, a drive which took forty minues.  If I was unlucky there I would have to go to the dreaded Meadow Hall - the massive shopping centre on the outskirts of Sheffield - which would involve at least a forty minute drive up the M1(depending on the time I hit the motorway and if there had been any "incidents").  In Hotter I hit gold and came away with a selection of shoes, boots and trainers that will see me through several winters.  

Changing the subject, I have been trying to eat very healthily while chez nous uk as all that socialising and enjoying life over the summer chez nous fr has taken its toll on the waistline.  I have had huge success with poached eggs.

You may laugh but poaching eggs is, IMHO,  a black art and over the years I have tried a number of methods with mixed success.  I have tried microwaving them (Nancy Birtwhistle's method) often resulting in exploded egg, the silicone egg poaching pods (eggs stuck like glue to the pods), steaming them in a tea strainer over a pan of simmering water (stuck like Gorilla glue to that), and, most successful so far, sliding them into a large shallow pan of barely simmering water from a small cup (Nigella Lawson's method).  This would produce eggs that varied from perfect little balls of deliciousness to something that looked like a strangled jelly fish (but still tasted good).

More recently I have bit the bullet and done it the old fashioned way with HUGE SUCCESS.  Sliding the egg from a cup into a small but deep saucepan of just simmering water containing a splash of white wine vinegar has worked for me.  I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the freshness of the egg but when the white is just no longer transparent the egg seems to have that oh so perfect runny yolk we all aim for.  A thing of joy without a doubt.

Last but not least, I have just finished reading this book.  I started it on the aeroplane (or rather, while waiting for the one and a half hours delayed flight in the dreadfully uncomfortable and greenhouse-like waiting room at Limoges airport which they euphemistically call the "departure lounge").  Once chez nous uk I couldn't wait to carry on reading it.  Set in the era of coach and horses and parlour maids, it was a bit of a slow start but very worth sticking with it to the end.  If you like a tale with unexpected twists and turns you would enjoy it.

As a post script, Blogger seems to have thrown a wobbly yet again and no longer updates my reading list or the blog list on my sidebar.  Does anybody have any idea how to fix this?

* As a further post script I recently stumbled across an article which refers to the invasion of nail bars into towns all over the world.  The writer refers to the nails as "acrylic claws".  They definitely would not suit my lifestyle and I often wonder how people manage with them!

OLD STUFF AND LOGS

 All of the usual brocantes / vide greniers (flea markets) have taken place this year in spite of the tremendous heat.  Several of them are now very big events.  We have had five heatwaves, one after the other and haven't felt like going to all the brocantes that we usually do.  We have however, managed a few and acquired a few bits and pieces of old stuff.

In reality, very little of it is very old, just stuff that other people don't want.

We did very well at our own village brocante in Paulmy early this month.

I couldn't resist this chicken to add to my growing collection of chickens.

This one cost just 1€.

My little collection of French chickens.

No fresh eggs, just fun.

See also the little pile of serviettes.

Fourteen beautiful yellow serviettes in cotton, 4€.

Note also in the background some martini glasses.

A set of seven (!) from the brocante at Yzeures-sur-Creuse.

If ever we need to serve cocktails, we now have the right glasses.

Also from Paulmy, a rather pretty cake stand.

I need another cake stand like I need a hole in the head.

For 2€ I couldn't resist this one.

I found a space for it somewhere.

A friend had a stall at Paulmy and did rather well selling her old stuff.

I admired this classic cookbook by Arabella Boxer and she gave it to me for nothing.

She had family staying and her grandson made lots of objects using 3D printing.

I absolutely don't understand how that works but am prepared to accept that it does.

Rather like I don't know how a television works but am happy to watch it.

He did REALLY well with his 3D objects and I bought a key ring, 2€. 

The beads were, I think, meant to be two bracelets.  2€.

I shall restring them into a necklace.

The pretty green mug came from the brocante at Lesigny.

It's massive event, taking over the whole village but on a very hot day we gave up and left early.

The mug was the only thing I felt like hanging around to ask the price for.  1€.

The china cups and saucers came from the most recent brocante, a huge event, at Cussay.

You may wonder about the loaves of bread.....

At Cussay they fire up the old village bread oven.

They make and sell the most delicious bread.

We ate the white loaf, called a "boule" and froze the brown loaf, called a "complet" which means wholemeal.

There was a stall selling haberdashery and craft items which looked like they had all come from a shop that had closed down.

These gorgeous Gütermann beads were 1.20€ a tube.

I have it in mind to add some of them to the pretty bracelet beads to create a necklace.

We didn't stay long at the Cussay brocante.

There were acres of stalls but we needed to get back home to our logs.

On Friday we had had our delivery of logs.  It is, strictly speaking, a bit early in the year to be having logs but I heard where there were some for sale and decided to put in an order.  In previous years we have had trouble getting them and at one point were close to running out completely.  Hence last year we ended up paying well over the odds for the wood and a huge amount for delivery.

This time I turned up at the log man's house just before lunchtime in the hope that I would catch him in.  He never answers the phone.  We combined our order with that for a friend to make the delivery worthwhile.  The wood was a sensible price and he didn't charge at all to deliver.  It looks like excellent well seasoned wood.  The proof of the wood is in the burning.

Our friends collected their share on Saturday and we spent some of Saturday and all of Sunday afternoon sorting, splitting and stacking the logs in our woodshed.  I was on splitting using an electric log splitter, Nick was on barrowing and stacking.

It was blooming hard work but it's all done and we have wood that is ready to go all winter.

AUGUST - A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOCKDOWN

It has been incredibly hot here in the middle of France for most of July and August.

We have just had our fifth heatwave of the summer.

When the forecast says it's going to be 37°C it often turns out to be 39° or 40°.

That's very hard to live with.

We have learned to adjust.

Up early to get dog walking and other jobs done then stay indoors in the afternoon.

A friend described it as a different kind of lockdown.

Unlike 2020 we have been able to get out and about with a bit of careful planning.

The Paulmy brocante was early in the month.  It was buzzing.

I did buy a few things........more about them another time.

August is a time when a lot goes on and we have to find crafty ways of enjoying it in spite of the  baking hot weather.

At the beginning of the month we lashed out on a couple of extra outdoor tables so we could entertain a good number of our friends all at once, especially as we had been out of action for so long and me literally out of the country for over a month.  A lot of our friends are part timers - people who have second homes here and are only around for a few months of the year.  We didn't want to miss them.

It all began when a friend gave me a stack of matching plates that she no longer wanted.  There were twelve each of dinner plates, salad/dessert dishes and side plates.  I also spotted outdoor table cloths at less than half price (5€ each) in Centrakor.  Perfect for a large group.

We invited the crowd over one not so roastingly hot day.  Apéros were possible under the shade of our lime tree before moving over to the table for lunch.  The French for lime tree  or linden tree is tilleul.

Later that evening we went over to the next village, Barrou, for a very special concert.

Local singer/songwriter and musician Polo with his children and friends performed French and English songs under the shade of the linden trees at the restaurant called "Les Tilleuls".

It was a truly magical evening, rounding off a wonderful day.

Nick has managed to play golf a few times by going early in the morning.

That means I'm on dog walking that day, a joy in the cool of the morning at the lake at La Çelle-Guenand.

12th August was a very special day.

Never mind it being the "glorious twelfth", the start of the grouse shooting season, it was Eclipse Day.

We had invited a few friends round for dinner and a bit of an eclipse party.

It was so hot that we decided to eat indoors.

It was a cold menu, gazpacho soup, quiche, salads and raspberry trifle.

Armed with a few pairs of special eclipse glasses and a couple of colanders we braved the tremendous heat and stepped outside to enjoy the view.

We had set up an "observatory" for six people in the garden in the ideal spot to view the spectacle at the right moment.

To our complete amazement the colander trick worked.

To our disappointment at the critical moment the sun went behind not just the moon but a very inconvenient tree.

So we retired indoors to the cool of the house to continue with our dinner.

Two days later we were out again for a "moules et frites" evening.

We have been to a few of these over the years.

Trestle tables are set up outdoors to serves moules and chips to a large number of people.

On this occasion the music was provided by the rock band "Hot Doctors".

A very apt name considering the weather!

The moules were great, the music brilliant.

The dessert was delicious.  Apple tart.

And so the fun continues.

At the weekend we went to Montrésor for an art festival.

In theory the weather was cooling down a bit.

In reality, down by the river in all those little tents it was baking hot yet again.

Our pets are coping with the heat in their own way.

Yvonne has barely been into the house for weeks, preferring to find her own cool spots around the garden.

I gave Hugo a shower to fluff up his fur a bit and make him feel better.

He wasn't especially dirty but very gritty and full of seeds.

He's getting a haircut later today.

With Nick off to the golf course early yesterday morning I took Hugo to La Çelle-Guenand for his walk.

We were disappointed.  The gypsies had arrived en masse and taken up residence around the lake.

So we went a little further to the plan d'eau at Le Petit-Pressigny.

The hazy sunshine was much cooler and more comfortable, if a little weird.

It has been a difficult summer but, as my mum used to say,

"where there's a will, there's a way".

We have not missed out on much, in spite of the ridiculous heat.