Repère

One day, many years ago, I saw one of the people that worked in the vineyard out back tying red and white flags similar to this one pictured here and there at the end of certain vine rows. I asked what they meant and she told me, "Ça sert comme repère pour Bruno (They're markers for Bruno)."  Bruno is the guy who owns the vineyards and who, back in the day, regularly drove the huge sprayers and harvesters up and down the vine rows. The flags mark which rows he should drive the machines into. The sprayers can cover six to eight rows with each pass. It's helpful not to miss or repeat a row. And every year or two the flags need to be replaced.

The big machines straddle the marked row and spray three or four others on each side.

It's still cold, but we should be in for a warm-up as the week goes on. How much of a warm-up and for how long it will last remain to be seen.

Grape flowers

The grape flower buds are on the edge, ready to bloom any day now. Especially if we get a little warm weather. The forecasters say it'll be warmer and more seasonable as the week goes on. That would be nice.

Each one of those tiny round buds is a flower.

Meantime, we're still dealing with unseasonably cool days. If it does get warm by the weekend, I'm certain that lawn mowers (including mine) will be out in force.

A little quickie.

Errr... make that quiche. It was yesterday's lunch, made with spinach, cheese, and little chicken nuggets. Yum!

I made the crust, Ken made the filling and took the photo.

 

It's winter again

The central heating is coming on nearly every morning now. Morning lows are in the single digits (celcius). This morning I built a fire in the wood stove. Wacky!

Sunrise over our hamlet this morning.

 To add insult to injury, I'm wearing a knit cap, scarf, and gloves on our morning walks.

No photo Friday

Maybe just this once. It's 6ºC (about 43ºF) out there this morning. We had a light hail storm yesterday. I don't think there was any damage, at least there was none I could see.

Have a nice day! 

The spring vineyard

We're half-way through spring and the vineyards are in fine form. So far, no frosts or hail storms to worry about. It has been cold, though, especially when the wind blows.

Overcast sky and bright green grape vines.

And it's wet. While there's no frost, there is dew. This morning my jeans were soaked well above the ankle. A little bit of water make it through my waterproof hiking boots. Cold water. 

Trimming the verge

This is not the piney woods, but it's not far. This, unless I'm mistaken, is part of the Artsy Organized Neighbor's land. He's cut down trees and stacked them farther back in the woods (a few posts ago). He's also thinned out the undergrowth at the edge (and burned it). The edge is where vineyard parcels meet the woods. In true French style, he's tidied up the landscape.

Woods' edge, neat and tidy. By the way, this is that vineyard parcel that was dug up about a month ago. Now it will lie fallow for a year or two.

We are now in the middle of what's called Les Saints de Glace (the Ice Saints). This is when the last killing frosts of spring can form. True to form, it's been cold for the past few days. But, thankfully, not cold enough for frost. I'm sure the grape growers are happy about that. Maybe now it'll start getting warmer. By the way, the asparagus vendor at the Saint-Aignan Saturday market has beautiful (and tasty) strawberries available, as he does each year. I got some last Saturday and am planning to get some more this coming weekend.