Simon One, Technology Nil

I think I finally have my computer woes settled - for the moment, anyway.

The saga started when we bought a new combined printer/scanner (actually, it probably started when the old printer died, but anyway...). In celebration of freeing up some desk space I moved all the computer gear (there was quite a lot of it, including scanners, printer, external hard drives, etc etc etc) and cleared the desk, before putting it all back and plugging in. The PC took a while to start up, but after a few false starts it managed.

Until it didn't...

We took the tower to the Geek Garage, where Georges gave it the once over before declaring last rites on the motherboard. This meant a new computer, which I bought online the same evening from eBay - in this household the treasure trove of choice for technology.

A week later the computer arrived, well protected in a box full of bubblewrap. Unfortunately, at some point the box had been damaged, and with it the computer inside: so badly, in fact, that the whole chassis of the computer was bent, and the on/off switch was broken, along with the plastic surrounds on the case. I think we can guess who the culprits were....

This caused a certain amount of angst in the household, but then it occurred to me - I had a new PC in a broken case, and a good case with a broken motherboard. We returned to the Geek Garage and asked Georges to test all the new components, and then put all the best bits in the old case. Unfortunately the motherboard wouldn't go in the old case, but he managed to panelbeat the new chassis into shape, and build me a new computer.

Bent and broken

In the meantime the people I had bought the new computer from had refunded my money, but didn't want the computer back as it just wasn't economically viable to return a machine needing so much work.

Then the new challenge arose - fettling the new computer. For someone who worked in the technology field I don't cope well with change, so the first thing was to make the new computer (running Windows 7) look and feel like a Windows 98 Machine. The main reason for that is I don't like my computer spending all its processing power on looking "cool" (or what a 15 year old thought looked cool in 2004), but rather on doing what I want it to do. Then I had to reinstall various bits of software, photo indexes (all 76,814 photos are now tagged, labelled, and searchable), move all my files over from the old machine, reset all the network settings, and make the email program work.

For those interested, the really useful tools I have on the computer are:

• AMP Font Viewer, which allows me to search through all installed fonts (478 of them) and find the appropriate one.
• CCleaner, which is a really useful tool for keeping the computer running smoothly.
• Classic Shell, which is essential for stopping your computer looking like a kiddies toy.
• MP3 Tag, which allows me to tag all the music on the machine, organise it into albums and various other stuff.
• Myphotoindex, which allows me to tag and search all my photos so I can find the one I am after.
• Outlook Express. The reason I use this "outdated" software is so that I can receive all my emails from 7 accounts into one inbox and then sort them how I want, rather than in the way Microsoft think they should be organised. It also stores emails locally so in case of problems they are recoverable. Although not available for Windows 7, it has been made to work.
• Stellarium, which lets me discover what star/planet I am looking at.
• Windows Movie Maker 6.0, which is so much better than the "improved" versions.

In addition I have downloaded and installed the following security programs:

• Superantispyware, which does what it ways on the label.
• Malawarebytes, which sorts out the occasional nasty that lodges itself in the machine.

Both these I run in addition to the standard Microsoft Security Essentials.

There are still one or two issues: one of my external hard drives grinds to a start very slowly after a couple of false starts, and I think is on its last legs. All I have on it now is a backup copy of our photos, so it's not essential as I have the photos backed up on three drives, but it will need replacing. I can't make PhotoGadget Resizer work. The program, which allows you to resize photos with one click, won't open on the contextural menu, which is annoying but hardly dealbreaking.

So if you want to know what I have been doing lately....

New Holland Honeyeater

The New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae is common on the central New South Wales coastal heaths and found throughout southern Australia. It is black with a white eye, white flecks and yellow wing and tail margins. It was one of the very first Australian birds to be officially described and given a scientific name, in 1781. They are nectar feeders, and as such, important pollinators of Banksia, Hakea, Xanthorrhoea and Acacia.  They will also supplement their diet with insects.

New Holland is an old name for Australia. The continent was named New Holland by Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1644 and the name remained in use until the mid-19th century. The British navigator Matthew Flinders proposed the name Australia in 1804 but it took a while to catch on.

On Sundays our posts have an Australian theme. If you would like to read more, click here.

What does "PR" Mean?

Or more specifically, what does "PR" mean when you see it on a road sign?

I have wondered about this for ages, but never found an answer. Perhaps if I knew the slangy term in French for a milestone I could find out, but I have looked online without a result as well as asking everyone I can think of. They are definitely distances, as they signs are often 1km apart - but distances to what? The "PR" doesn't mean Preuilly - although ironically in this particular instance Preuilly is about 9 km away from this sign. Leaving Preuilly towards Tournan St Martin  the "PR" signs seem to indicate a distance to somewhere in le Blanc - but not the middle of town.

I think some of the signs give distances to road junctions, although what qualifies some junctions as worthy of being thus elevated I don't know. Some "PR" signs have an arrow, often pointing in what I think of as the reverse direction (PR 23 may have an arrow pointing in the direction of PR24).

So what's it all about? Can I use these PR signs for some purpose, or are they deliberately a riddle?

The Clockmakers on the Market Square

Yesterday I wrote about a clock that has come into the possession of our friends Jill and John. The clock is marked 'Fanon, Preuilly', indicating that it came from a clockmakers that was situated in the market square in the early 20th century. We thought it would be interesting to trace the development of the building in photographs, so Simon went digging on Delcampe for postcards.

They turned out to be few and far between. He only found four, and only one shows the building occupied by Fanon reasonably clearly (ie without a tree between it and the camera). With the eye of faith you can see that it says 'Horlogerie' across the front.

The premises to the right is the quincaillerie Doucet-Sibelleau (now the vet's surgery) and to the left, a travelling showman's (and today a dressmakers, run by Patricia Martin).

Above shows you what it looked like in 2008 -- an empty shop, although I think the house above might have been occupied. Below you see it as it is today, the home of general handyman Cyril Courteix and his family.

A Fanon Clock

Recently friends of ours, Jill and John, acquired an old clock. They had seen it at a brocante (flea market) but initially decided not to buy it. Then they discovered that other friends had bought it. The new owners of the clock kindly offered it to our friends, knowing their interest in Preuilly memorabilia.

The clock has the name Fanon on the face. Fanon was a clockmaker situated on the market square in Preuilly in the early 20th century. The clock isn't of any great quality, but it is a nice thing to have.

In attempting to find out more about the clock one of the websites that came up for our friends in a Google search was Days on the Claise. We'd blogged about the clockmaker's back in 2008 using information from Roger Lezeau's article in the local history association's magazine. The clock was presumably made in the building shown in the photo in our original blog post.

I will let Jill tell the story of what she has been able to find out about the clock:

[I]t was possible to tell a little more about the movement of the clock from the maker’s mark on the back of the movement.  When I googled ‘clockmakers' marks’  I came up with this site, showing very clearly that the movement was made by Japy Frères Cie in Beaucourt, Franche Comté.  The firm still existed until the 70s, though by then they had diversified into typewriters. 

There is quite an interesting account of a visit to the Japy museum, in the old factory buildings on another site and also a reference with sound(!) here. 

It was quite common for clockmakers (really often clock assemblers) to buy in parts or complete movements which they would put into their own case and have their name on the clock face.  This also happened with sewing machines, which were often sold with no makers' marks, then labelled by the sellers.  I have 2 German made machines, sold in France and clearly badged as Désiré Bacle, Rue du Bac, Paris!

That’s about as much as I know.  I shall keep asking older Preuilly inhabitants if they remember M. Fanon’s shop, but other than that . . .

We saw the clock at a brocante and didn’t buy it instantly, regretted it, but it was gone later in the day.  It was bought by friends Jim and Pam, enthusiastic and very skilled brocanteurs, who gave it to us as a very generous and valued gift. 

Jill

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Quiz Answer: The answer to Monday's quiz has now been posted. It is in the church in Mezières-en-Brenne.

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Clock Update: Quite by chance my friend Rosemary posted about clocks today too. Her post will teach you about clock terminology in French and sayings that reference clocks.

My Back Pages: Simon's T-Shirt Archive (5)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - the exploding head.

Australians of a certain age will instantly recognise this as a 2JJJ exploding head t-shirt. 2JJJ was the Australian Broadcasting Commission's "yoof network" and originally started as 2JJ on AM radio in 1974 - it moved to FM and stereo in 1980. Although it's a fairly conventional radio station these days (albeit with newer music than most), back then it was radical and played music you just wouldn't hear elsewhere. It eventually hit the airwaves in Canberra in 1976(?), but only after 10.00pm on the weekend evenings.

This T-shirt is an original issue 2JJJ exploding head designed by Graeme Davey in 1982 - it is such a classic it has subsequently been re-released. No photos of me wearing it, but instead a photo of another Australian icon - this is me looking ultra cool at the Black Stump* (wearing a George Thorogood t-shirt I no longer have).

*read about it here

Remembering the Ancestors

The cemeteries of France are at their most colourful at Toussaint (All Saints Day). The day is a public holiday and many people take potted chrysanthemums to the cemetery to place on their family's graves. Chrysanthemums are so much associated with cemeteries that they are not used much elsewhere now. Foreigners are always advised in the most serious of tones on the internet to never, never give chrysanthemums to a living French person as they may take offence (or at the very least think it's weird). Having once been given a chrysanthemum in a pot by a French person myself, I'm not sure how seriously to take the advice, but it's probably wise to avoid them just in case.

According to the French weather bureau, this Toussaint will be warmer than average. The forecast is for it to be mild and sunny (I'm writing this on Sunday). The previous two years the day and the eve have been exceptionally mild and sunny too.  In 2014 Arcachon, on the Atlantic coast, reached 30°C on 31 October, a record for that date on mainland France. The same year it was 23°C in London and had never been so mild for Halloween. The next day in France the temperatures didn't rise so high, but they were still record beaters (24°C in Clermont Ferrand and Agen, just beating the previous record set in 1970).

Last year numerous record temperatures were set for these two days in Brittany, Normandy and Dordogne. This year the prediction is that temperatures will be mild and close to last years, but not record breaking.

A Halloween Quiz

I'm assuming most of our readers can guess what this very gothic carved bat and its salamander prey is, but can you tell me where it is? 

Ten points to anyone who can correctly name the town and the building it is in.

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Answer: I thought this one might flummox everyone. Chm is quite right, it is a misericord. It is in the church in Mezières-en-Brenne. It is not easy to spot and I only found it because I checked each and every misericord carefully. If you visit the church, be prepared and take a torch. I was alerted to its presence because I noticed a very small illustration of it on the church notice board, so I then went hunting for it. I imagine lots of people visit this church and never notice it.

Milling About on the Heath

My family, milling about on the heath. No of course we are not lost! Just discussing alternative routes...

Our posts on Sundays have an Australian theme. To read more of them, click here.

Don't go losing your head...

Being somewhere is one thing, but sometimes looking at it on a map can tell you something about a place you would never otherwise know. (Of course, the inverse is also true - best do both, eh?)

We have driven the road from (kind of) Boussay to (kind of) Rouvray - the D515 -  a number of times. It's pretty, and in Autumn the colours can be really vibrant, but really it's just an average road through an average forest which has been fenced off to keep the deer and boar in.

The location isn't signposted, so the only way you would discover the name of this particular piece of forest is from the IGN map: this road holds what is possibly a dark secret - or a ghost.

I assume that rather than it meaning what one fears, someone found an incomplete statue of the Goddess Diana - not an impossible theory, because there are plenty of tales of Roman discoveries.

Fundraising for the Restoration of the Chapelle de Tous les Saints

Architect Jean-Philippe Barthel talks about the project.

As long term readers may remember we are involved in the efforts to save the Chapelle de Tous les Saints in Preuilly. It is in a parlous state, with a broken main roof beam and leaning stone walls. Inside is a precious remnant of the late Middle Ages or eary Renaissance. The chapel contains a very rare wall painting depicting a danse macabre. It is one of only nine danses macabres surviving in France, and most importantly, one of only two which depict women as well as men.

President of the local history association (SAP) Bernard de la Motte says a few words.

Since we first met with the Fondation du Patrimoine, the wall paintings conservator and tendered for architects, Bernard de la Motte has been beavering away to secure grants to fund the project. In May he finally received notification that DRAC (the Department of Culture and Communication) would give the maximum allowable grant of 40% of the total funds. Charitable grant giving organisations such as La Sauvegarde de l'Art Français are also lined up. SAP members Jill Elton-Wall, Gilberte Blaszczyk and Christine de la Motte have raised around a thousand euros with their efforts sewing and selling small textile pieces (spectacles cases, Christmas decorations, bags, cushions, etc). Dominique Robin has made a video about the chapel and Bernard has written a booklet about the history of the chapel and its importance; Antoinette and Niall translated it into English so the booklet is in both languages. Antoinette and Niall also went off to Troyes in May for the annual conference of the Association des Danses Macabres d'Europe where Antoinette delivered a brief talk about the chapel and brought it to the attention of many interested scholars. While there she was able to network a bit and get more of an idea of where our danse macabre sits in the genre. She also raised €60 with the sale of booklets.

Mayor Gilles Bertucelli and Fondation du Patrimoine representative Jacques Guionnot sign the fundraising agreement.

The final piece of the funding puzzle is to seal the agreement between the Fondation du Patrimoine and the local town council (commune). The Fondation du Patrimoine will promote the project and administer the fund raising. They will then hand the money over to the commune to fullfil the locals part of the bargain, but in order to remain eligible for the DRAC grant we must raise 5% of the total funds. That's about €15 000 we need to raise as our contribution to the €300 000 needed to complete the project.

Drinks and mingling at the end.

It is hoped that work will start sometime next year. Jean-Philippe Barthel is planning to hold occasional site visits for donors to see the progress. He feels it is essential to keep donors in the loop like this. I've briefly discussed doing the visits jointly with him so I can translate for anglophones. When I spoke to him about this he grinned ruefully and said, in heavily accented English, that his English is very bad. He then proceded to tell me a story, in French, about taking a group of American students on a visit to see the stained glass windows of Blois cathedral. It was an experience he doesn't want to have to repeat.

If you would like to contribute to the project you can make a donation via the Fondation du Patrimoine page for the Chapelle de Tous les Saints, Preuilly. Remember that if you submit a French tax return you can offset the donation against income, and the chapel fund benefits from an extra 66¢ from the State for every €1 donated.

Our previous posts about the chapel and its danse macabre are here.

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Can anyone remember how Halloween/All Saints Eve was celebrated in France pre-Disneyfication (if at all)? We have asked around, but all we get back is "it's all American these days".

Simon

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Computer News: We picked up the office computer from Georges at the Geek Garage yesterday. He was unable to put the new computer's innards into the old case because the motherboards were not compatible. However, he has done some 'panel beating', as he termed it, and straightened up the case and the power pack, as well as sort out the on/off button, which was stuck. Simon got it all up and running, except for our photo archive database. He very much fears he is going to have to re-index every photo.

Twisteria

This impressive wisteria is growing outside Au Boeuf Couronné restaurant in Mezières-en-Brenne. Even in mid-October it still has some flowers!

My Back Pages: Simon's T-Shirt Archive (4)

This t-shirt is special in a number of ways, but mainly because I think it is the first gift Susan ever bought me.

Back in the day, before internet, emails, text messaging and cheap international phone calls, buying something from overseas was a real palaver. It involved seeing adverts in specialist magazines of choice (in this case probably the UK magazine "Guitarist", which I used to collect at a Toowoomba newsagency 3 months afer publication date) and sending off a letter with an international money order (ask your parent's, kiddies), and then waiting the thick end of another 3 months to receive the goods.

This t-shirt is from "The Bass Centre" which still exists, although no longer as a bricks and mortar shop. Back then it was based in glamorous Wapping, in deepest east London, a location I visited on many occasions after we moved to London. (I may have used the word "glamorous" in a less than sincere way in the previous sentence, but I did once see Bootsy Collins - dressed very much like this but with the addition of a nearly full length cape - walking towards the Bass Centre one day. Glamour indeed!)

I wore the t-shirt on stage for many years, as can be proved by the below photo.

Also in the photo are Matt, Poss (Melinda) and Dr Rock's drumkit (Greg). If I was pushed to guess I would say it dates from 1995.

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Computer News: Simon had the bright idea that we could use the case from our old computer and the innards of the new, so we have taken them both to the Geek Garage in Mezières-en-Brenne. Georges, the resident geek, says he can put it all together in an hour or so and we can go back and pick it up on Thursday morning. When we got back from delivering the desktop towers to Georges yesterday we discovered that my laptop had finally decided to update Windows! Woohoo!! A double win (hopefully). 

Susan

Cyclamen High and Low

This year's cyclamen photos come from the grounds of the chateau in Preuilly, and from the garden of friends who live at the base of the chateau walls.

For our previous year's cyclamen posts click here.

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Computer News: The suppliers of the computer we ordered which arrived damaged have refunded our money. Meanwhile, my laptop has now been running continuously for more than 48 hours and is still 'checking for updates'.

Look at That S-Car Go!

Sammy the Snail wins the lottery. He goes out and buys a Lamborghini. But because he is so ridiculously rich now he wants the car to be even more eyecatching, and he has the letter 'S' painted as large as possible on the sides.

Driving down the street in his flash car he certainly makes people look. As he speeds down the street through a police radar trap, one policeman looks at his colleague and remarks, 'Look at that S-car go!'

Simon tells me that this is one of his favourite jokes!? It was he who came up with the title for this blog post. 

The snail on our bonnet was there one morning in September and we drove off without noticing it until on the road. I like to think he was enjoying having his little antennae eye stalks flapping in the wind, like a dog sticking its head out the car window.

It's just a pity we drive a Ford and not a Nissan.

Fairytale Forest

Swamp Paperbark Melaleuca ericafolia, their contorted trunks and dark canopies making them look like a forest from a fairytale. I can see my mother and sister (or is it my aunt?) in the middle, but can I reach them?

On Sundays our posts have an Australian theme. If you would like to read more of them click here.

Troglodyte House

We love the look of this troglodytic house in Souzay-Champigny. Virtually all of the house is troglo, with the front facade meeting the natural rock on the left hand corner. I've no idea how many rooms there are. It could go a long way underground into the limestone cliff. We love the way the rock is not hacked away to neaten it up. It is more that the building moulds itself around the contours of the rock. At the back, up the top out of view, is a sun terrace.

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A la cuisine hier: Pumpkin roasted, puréed, divided into two batches and put in the freezer. 

Cooked apples suspended in the jelly bag in preparation for making apple jelly. Simon has just opened the last jar of last year's. 

I've opened a jar of Carrot Honey. I bought it off our friend Jean-Luc, who is a cheese producer not an apiarist, but he sells other local producers' stuff in his boutique. I laughed when he pointed out the carrot honey to me. I'd never seen honey labelled as coming from carrot before, but he assured me the field the bees had been visiting was nearby. I think there is a farmer who grows vegetable seeds in the area so I am guessing that's where the honey came from. I don't think it's from wild carrot, but I could be wrong. The honey is quite dark, liquid, with a distinctive taste, quite strong and warm, with citrus notes.

Lunch was a huge plate of various salads -- celeri rémoulade, carottes rapée, roast beetroot in vinaigrette; 3 bean mix, sweet corn, butter lettuce, potato salad, tomatoes, kimchi, a boiled egg. All veggies organic from the market, all salads except beans and corn made from scratch including vinaigrette and creamy mayonnaise. Followed by a homegrown Red Delicious apple. Not my favourite variety of apple. They look magnificent with their shiny crimson skin, but even straight off the tree they lack flavour, the skin is tough and the flesh soft.

Dinner was Simon's beef, beer and barley stew, from the freezer.

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Au jardin hier: I've finished the autumn mow so the whole orchard and vegetable garden has been cut at least roughly for the season (except for some strips I've deliberately left for wildlife shelter).

Everybody is out madly completing outdoor maintenance tasks. We have at least another week of dry mild weather and no one can believe their luck. The first half of November is normally wet, so it all has to get done before then.

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Computer Woes: Our main office computer died about 10 days ago (mother board apparently). Simon ordered a replacement and it arrived yesterday. Unfortunately the package has been dropped somewhere en route and the computer damaged to the extent that it won't switch on. As yet no response from the suppliers regarding what they are prepared to do about it. Meanwhile we are sporadically trying to do Windows updates on my laptop. Unfortunately we don't have the spare three days it seems to require.

Goose on the Loose

This goose was wandering around the carpark of the new service station in Perusson/Loches the other day. It appeared to be perfectly relaxed and unbothered by its solitude and odd situation. I suspect it was most at risk from being dinner for the gypsy encampment across the road rather than being run over. I've no idea where it came from and who might be missing it.

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A la cuisine hier: Oven baked crumbed chicken breasts served with chopped salad of purple skinned peppers, a bit of onion, tomato, sweet corn, beans and chilli. The crumb was flavoured with cumin and garlic. The peppers, tomatoes and onion came from the BioBoys and the Aged One. The sweet corn and beans were canned (thank you Elizabeth and Colin for the can of mixed beans).

Vegetable and coconut curry from the freezer served with plain boiled rice (thank you Tim and Pauline for most of the vegetables).

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Wolf Spiders Pardosa spp, ground dwelling, fast moving sight hunters.

A new entry has been added for Eurasian Kingfisher Alcedo atthis, a gorgeous little bird.

Sunburn and Weaving in the Vines

In mid-September we had the opportunity to go out into the vines with Vouvray winemaker Alexandre Monmousseau. He took us up to his parcels at Montgouverne.

Vines that have had their long tendrils trimmed.

These two parcels are where he experiments with new techniques, so one of the things we talked about was his trials of plaiting the vine tendrils. Instead of clipping the long growing tendrils of the vines in summer as is the normal practice, he is experimenting with winding the tendrils around one another horizontally along the top support wire.

Alexandre demonstrating plaiting (or trimming -- difficult to tell which...).

The growing tendrils are trimmed because the plant diverts energy into them that the winemaker wants the plant to direct to the fruit, and the extra leaves cause a bit too much shade for the ripening grapes. However, Alexandre is intrigued by a new idea that the tendrils are the vines antennae, sensing environmental conditions that it should respond to. The theory is that if the tendrils are left to grow they will in fact stop of their own accord. However, they are a nuisance to the vineyard workers if they are left to wave about at head height, so they are gathered together in bundles and plaited around one another and the top wire. It's quite a lot of work but it is just swapping one task (summer trimming) for another, slightly later in the season (plaiting).

 Vines with plaited tendrils.

In French the technique is referred to as tressée, which translates as 'plaited', but Alexandre couldn't remember 'plaited' so we suggested 'woven', which he got on with better. This will be the second vintage from these plaited vines and so far he is very happy with them. 

 The brown grapes are sunburnt. The green grapes are in good condition.

The summer was hot and dry, unusually so, and one of the other things Alexandre showed us was the sunburnt grapes. They have been frizzled by the endless sun, long before they are ripe, and are ruined. But with any luck the rest of the grapes are better than average.

The rootstock these Chenin Blanc grapes are grafted to is called Vitis riparia 'Gloire de Montpellier'. V. riparia is one of the grape vine species native to America that was brought in to introduce resistance to phylloxera. 'Gloire de Montpellier' is a variety developed for French conditions from that species.

We also talked about other winemakers in the area. Alain le Capitaine, just down the hill from the Chapelle Saint-Georges in Rochecorbon, was very highly spoken of by Alexandre. Apparently he is a nice bloke and a very fine winemaker. Sometimes, admitted Alexandre, his wine is better than Chateau Gaudrelle's!

Another winemaker we mentioned didn't come out of the discussion so well. I won't name and shame, but when we said to Alexandre we thought this person's wine was really terrible he agreed. He said the guy just doesn't have the passion, but inherited the winery from his father and grew up with the expectation that he would be a winemaker. His father, who Alexandre says made superb wines, is still alive, but retired. It's a shame all round, a tale of a misdirected life and the power of family expectations.

It's always a treat to get out amongst the vines with Alexandre and I always learn a lot.

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French Expression: Two sentences which are jolly useful in discussions -- 'Je vois ce que tu veux dire' ('I see what you mean') and 'On ne voit pas l'intérêt' ('We don't see the point'). 

The first is literally 'I see this that you want to say'. To indicate you mean such and such or to ask what someone meant you use the form 'to want to say' in French. Where I might use the abbrieviated Latin 'ie' in written English, in French I would use 'c'est à dire' ('that is to say'), which can be used in writing or speech. 

The second sentence is literally 'One doesn't see the interest'. I would use 'on' in this case to distance myself slightly from the statement, so as to sound more polite or less blunt. 'On' translates literally as the English pronoun 'one', but in French is used much more frequently and much less formally, especially in spoken French. 'L'intérêt' is 'interest' in the sense of 'value', 'benefit', 'gain' or 'point'. To say that something is 'd'intérêt' is often to indicate that it is advantageous, especially financially, in French. 

The above is my understanding of these expressions, but as anyone who knows me is aware, my French is dodgy. Feel free to correct or clarify in the comments below.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Greater Mouse-eared Bat Myotis myotis. At 13cm this is the biggest bruiser in the Loire Valley bat bunch.

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A la cuisine hier: Penne pasta with homemade tomato sauce and sprinkled with proper parmesan cheese. Followed by a homegrown Golden Delicious. One of our Golden Delicious apples produces the most beautiful looking fruit with pale creamy yellow skin and a pink blush. A good crisp, juicy, sweet apple.

Flash fried steak (cut the French way, with the grain, and from the flank) with potato wedges, steamed cauliflower and blue cheese sauce. The potatoes from the Aged One, the cauliflower from the BioBoys. The sauce was a little box of Bridélice bechamel with the left over roquefort from yesterday. Dessert was canned pineapple chunks with the last of the whipped coconut cream.

The brined onions are now doused in a hot pickling liquor made from cider vinegar and sugar and flavoured with cinnamon, allspice, caraway and cardamom. The onions have gone rather soft which is a shame. I think it would be better done with banana shallots because they are bigger and wouldn't soften so quickly. I wouldn't want them any sourer, but Simon thinks they are a bit sweet. He isn't keen on the spice combo either.
 

My Back Pages: Simon's T-Shirt Archive (3)

This T-shirt dates from 1998, and was bought at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on Memorial Day.

AmJam was a celebration of American music lasting the whole week-end, but I was only there for the Sunday day. I still managed to see Los Lobos, Arlo Guthrie, Sweet Honey in the Rock (I had to miss the Staples Singers to do so :(  ), and Eddie Palmieri. The full line up for the three days is here. I was excited (almost beyond belief) that we parked in the Watergate Building, a place mythical in my childhood.

The dirty mark circled in red is Robert Cray's signature. Somewhere, I also have one of his guitar pics (plectrum...) but at the moment it is still in with stuff. I took the photo below on the same day.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry for Daubenton's Bat Myotis daubentonii has been added. Look out for their little pink noses if you want to identify them.

A photo has been added to the entry for Bat Surveying in Indre et Loire, in case you were wondering what the bats had for dinner.

Susan

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Au jardin hier: The fog didn't lift until after lunch so I waited until 4pm to go down to the orchard. We've obviously had another frost in the last few days as the paulownia and the Chasselas grape vines have been frosted. 

I picked the last of the Black Hamburg grapes and I think I've got most of the walnuts. They clearly have nuts inside as two of them have been opened on the tree by some creature. I've never had the walnuts eaten on the tree before as far as I know. I picked up about half a bucket of perfectly useable windfall apples, planted half a row of leeks and sowed some crimson clover. 

The first of next year's orchid leaf rosettes has appeared.

Susan

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A la cuisine hier: Supermarket potato and leek soup with some roquefort cheese crumbled on top in a quite successful attempt to customise and improve it, followed by a homegrown reine de reinette apple.

A grilled pork chop served with mashed potato and steamed carrots. Dessert was a slice of broyé aux framboises (a sort of shortbread and raspberry jam sandwich) with whipped coconut cream. I bought the broyé at the boulangerie and told Sophie behind the counter that I would be serving it with the coconut cream. She agreed that une note de coco would be perfect. She also had a bag of ten of yesterday's croissants for sale for €4.50 -- a total bargain. I said I would make croissants aux amandes with them. She suggested jambon fromage would be good too and made sure I knew they could be frozen. 

I laboriously peeled a kilo of little onions and put them in brine, the first step of pickling them. The onions are half my own homegrown, half from the Aged One. 

Susan