Lilac leaves

Our lilac dropped its flowers months ago. Now it's time for leaves to drop. But before they do, they put on a little show.

Like the grape vine leaves, these will soon turn brown and drop.

We find ourselves out of red wine. Oh, the horror! There's a winery across the river that I haven't been to in a long while, so I think I'll head up there this morning and see what's what. Today is Halloween and Friday is All Saint's Day. That means a three day weekend for many (la Toussaint is an official holiday), so traffic might be a little scary.

A café in Normandy

I believe this place is in the city of Rouen. We were there in the summer of 2006.

I think it's a restaurant inside.

I've got to take some new photos.

Fall

Our back yard is looking very fall-like this week. Soon the leaves will "fall" and the trees will be bare for winter.

One of our two apple trees on the left.

You can see the stump on the lower right. It's what's left of the 75-foot (about 23 meters) tall Himalayan cedar we had taken down last year. The tree was dying and needed to come out. Sad, but necessary.

Flowering cherry

The ornamental cherry tree that grows next to one corner of our carport has begun its autumn transformation from green to gold. We're seeing a lot of yellow and gold right now in the woods that border the vineyards. The vines themselves are moving from gold to brown. Early achievers.

The ornamental cherry.

We're supposed to have a decent weather week, so I'm hoping that we can get some of our outdoor chores done. I started clearing off the deck yesterday in preparation for winter. That means moving some plants indoors and putting away the furniture. Also, cleaning and covering the grill for the season, a job I don't look forward to, but one that must be done.

What's for lunch?

If you're at this spot in the Dordogne, it might be one of these sandwiches. Today, here at home, we're hoping to enjoy a gratin de chou-fleur made with the beautiful cauliflower that Ken got a few days ago.

All of these sound good to me!

Did you know that you can eat the greens of a cauliflower? As long as they're fresh looking and trimmed up a little, they're delicious. Ken cooked cauliflower greens in home-made chicken broth yesterday to have along side our lunch. Delicious, and nutritious!

When life gives you walnuts

A friend stopped by last weekend with a crate of walnuts from her trees. Naturally, my first impulse was to make a pie. The recipe is for pecan pie, but it works just as well with walnuts.

Tarte aux noix.

I made the pie on Thursday. It'll be gone by this afternoon. What's next? I'm thinking walnut pumpkin bread.

A pot of something on a wall

I think it's some variety of sedum. It looks very much like some of the sedum (also known as stonecrop) we have here at home.

This was on a wall at the gîte we rented in the Dordogne back in 2006.

This is the weekend we turn our clocks back to winter time. Tomorrow I'll adjust our clocks and timers so that it's done on Sunday morning. It won't be so dark at wake-up time for a while.

Another view

Here's another look at the autumn vineyard. These are all sauvignon blanc vines (as far as I can tell).

Yellow! Before long these leaves will turn brown and drop.

The air is getting chilly again. This morning's low is about 8ºC (about 46ºF). I ordered firewood yesterday. The delivery will be scheduled sometime during the first two weeks of November. We have some (not much) left over from last season should we want to build a fire before then.

Autumn in the vineyard

I took this shot (and others) a week ago, just a few days after my return from the US. I think I may have missed the peak, but not by much. I would have done better to take these photos on an overcast day; the bright sunshine washes out the richness of the colors. But that's alright.

The vineyards looking westerly from our hamlet.

The vineyards out back are planted mostly with sauvignon blanc. A good portion of the red grapes have been taken out or replaced over the last few years. Sauvignon is the official grape of our local white wine under the AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée) of Touraine Chenonceaux. When the leaves turn color in the fall, the sauvignon tends to be more yellow while the red grapes (cabernet and côt) are more orange and/or red.

One more travel pic

I had just arrived back in France. It was a Sunday, just after mid-day. I had gone through passport control and baggage claim (I checked my bag through for the return trip and am glad I did) and was killing time before my train home. The check-in hall at Terminal 2E (Charles de Gaulle Airport) was relatively quiet and I snapped this photo.

This terminal was much more frenetic the day I left for the US.

We just had a couple of very mild days, weather wise. A week or two of that would be great. I could get a few more outdoor chores done before the weather gets in the way.

Vegas, baby

As we left the casino (after playing bingo), we got a view of the whole of the Las Vegas strip from the roof of the parking garage. The southern end of the strip is on the left, the northern end, and downtown, are on the right.

Ooh, Las Vegas, ain't no place for a poor boy like me.

That's about it for the photos I took during the trip. Not having the DSLR camera was freeing in a way. I felt no need to look at everything as a photo op. I didn't have to cart the camera around everywhere I went.

Deadly

I found this California Zinfandel in a CVS drug store during my Las Vegas trip. It was pretty much the only zin they had among the cabs and merlots and other reds. I thought it was weird to buy wine in a drug store. But then, alcohol is a drug, n'est-ce pas?

And it was tasty, too!

Today we're recuperating after a late night out and a wonderful dinner with blogger friends from down under and their local host. We're not accustomed to staying out past midnight.

Havin' a good time

My cousins in the Mob Museum. They've been multiple times since it opened in 2012. Nevada residents get a deal on the admission price. And they ask for ID. A mobster can't be too trusting, I suppose.

If you want to catch a crook, follow the money!

We had a cold night. Extra blankets on the bed. Sleeping (or trying to) with socks on. The outdoor temperature reads 12ºC this morning, about 54ºF. The jet lag is better, but it's still messing with me.

An offer I couldn't refuse

My cousins took me to the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. It's a museum dedicated to the history of organized crime in the US. All manner of exhibits, from clothing to the electric chair, populate the beautifully renovated and historic Las Vegas Post Office building. They even have a section of the brick wall against which seven mobsters in Chicago were executed on St. Valentine's Day, 1929, blood stains and all.

The photo is of Gaetano Badalamenti, a member of the Sicilian mafia who used pizza stores as a front for distributing heroin in the United States.

We had steady rain for most of the day yesterday. It ended around midnight. I know because I was awake. Jet lag works in mysterious ways.

Take a chance on me

It was Las Vegas, after all. Well... Henderson. It's right next door. This is the only casino I visited on this trip. We decided to play bingo (I had never played) and this casino had a big bingo parlor. As my cousin warned me: this is not your regular church bingo. Everything is electronic/digital these days. The game plays itself while you sip your complimentary cocktails.

A small section of the larger casino, filled with slot machines. The bingo parlor was in a separate room.

I noticed that most of the casino patrons were seniors. Poor saps. Then I saw myself in a rest-room mirror. Oops. We played. I won squat. But one of my cousins hit a game and the winnings covered her entry and the hour-long session. My other cousin wasn't any luckier than I was. Another woman a few chairs away from us won at least three times. Some people have all the luck!

Flight fright

The international flights I was on last week were very good. On time, mostly comfortable, uneventful. It was the two domestic connections that were problematic. I mentioned yesterday the return flight (Las Vegas to Los Angeles) was delayed for a few hours. My arrival a week earlier (Los Angeles to Las Vegas) was a little scary.

This was not our plane. This is terminal 2E, Paris CDG, at sunrise on October 5.

That black spot visible in the upper right is a plane that had just taken off.

The flight (Delta Airlines) was on time as we boarded and headed out to the runway. Then the plane stopped. Our pilot told us there was a "ground stop" at the Las Vegas airport. No flights allowed to land, no flights allowed to take off. We were stuck on the ground and probably headed back to the gate. After a few minutes, the pilot let us know that we were granted an exception and would be allowed to take off. And so we did, for our thirty minute flight to Las Vegas.

The pilot came on again to tell us that the primary runway at LAS was closed and that we'd be using a shorter runway. The landing might be a little rough. We had descended into our landing approach and were just about to touch down when the plane pulled up suddenly into a very steep climb. The engines roared to gain speed. It felt almost as if we were in a rocket ship blasting off. We continued to climb, almost vertically, for what seemed an eternity. This is it, I thought, we're done for. After a while the plane leveled off and we banked around for a second attempt at landing. The plane hit the runway hard and the reverse thrusters came on full. We were all pitched forward in our seats (this is why seat backs need to be up for take off and landing). Then suddenly all went quiet and we were safely landed and taxiing to the terminal as if nothing had happened.

That was my first ever experience with a "go around," as it's called in aviation parlance. The pilot was not satisfied with his approach to the shorter runway and decided to try again.

It turned out that the ground stop was initiated because a Frontier Airlines jet caught fire landing at Las Vegas. The fire was quickly extinguished and nobody was hurt, but traffic in and out of Las Vegas was interrupted for a time. Except for us.

Be it ever so humble

I made it home on Sunday. The return trip started out well, but it took a bad turn when my Delta flight from Las Vegas was delayed not once, but twice. We were three hours late taking off, one hour of that spent sitting on the plane at the gate while luggage was loaded. Fortunately for me, I had a five hour layover at Los Angeles and I had no problem getting to my Air France flight home.

After a couple glasses of chardonnay, the sign on the bar started looking pretty.

I didn't take my camera on this trip as I wasn't planning any major sightseeing. Instead, my goal was to hang out with my cousins and that we did. I did have the camera on the mobile phone, so I do have some photos to share. I spent the first night of my trip at an airport hotel prior to departure. I ventured down to the hotel lounge that evening for a drink or two and some people watching. The hotel (Ibis) had music playing. I assumed it was a selection of music put together especially for the hotel chain. It was called "Ibis Music" and this was the sign on the bar.

Where did he go?

By the time this posts, I will be on my way to adventure. I'll be visiting cousins in the Las Vegas NV area, one of whom I haven't seen in over twenty years. Today I'm training up to the airport in Paris, will spend the night there, then, if all goes according to plan, I'll fly out on Saturday morning.

Where did he go? When's he coming back?

I'll be there for a week, arriving back home on Sunday, the 13th. Ken and Tasha will be at home while I'm gone. I had originally planned to take this trip last spring, but that didn't work out, so we rescheduled for now.

I've been to Las Vegas a few times, so this trip will be for hanging out with the cousins, taking it easy, and maybe venturing out for a short hike or two in the desert. I won't be blogging during the trip, so this space will be quiet until I get back. See you then!

Rocamadour [10]

This will be the last Rocamadour post for a while as we move on to something completely different. It's a view looking back on the town as we left. Or was it as we arrived? No matter.

Not surprisingly, Rocamadour reminds many people of the fictional city of Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings.

It looks like harvesting is pretty much done in the vineyard parcels out back. It won't be long before we see bernache in the stores. That's the very young wine as it begins to ferment. It's sold with a hole in the cap so that the fermentation gases can escape. Bernache has a fizzy character and tastes more like grape juice than wine. I like having a bottle or two each season.

Rocamadour [9]

Here's a charming shop at one end of Rocamadour's main street. I don't remember what it was like inside, but I'm sure we had a look.

The stone work amazes me.

It looks like our current rainy spell might be over for now. If the skies clear, that will mean we're in store for chilly weather again. The good news: the tarps I put out over the kindling pile and the yard waste pile have not blown away. One is anchored down with bricks, the other with battens, boards, and roof tiles.

Rocamadour [8]

This is another photo from that restaurant (yesterday's post) in Rocamadour. Ken did some searching on his blog and found out what we ate that day. It was indeed this restaurant. He had a steak with fries and and a green salad. Our friend Sue had spaghettis à la carbonara, and I, of course, had a pizza, as evidenced by the bottle of spicy pizza oil. I'm so predictable.

Oh, what an interesting bottle! I'll take a picture of it!

I'm not very good at taking photos of people. Especially strangers. I lack the nerve to ask people if I can photograph them, and I'm afraid of being "caught" taking stealthy photos. Like this one. I thought the mother/daughter sunglasses were cool. I pretended to be taking a picture of the pizza oil (that's Ken's camera in the photo). Not a great photo, but it's a good memory.