New Year's Eve

Good-bye 2025! One more snow photo, maybe not the last.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Were expecting a delivery of home heating fuel this morning. Will the excitement never end? 

Our little hamlet

The hamlet where we live was quiet and peaceful after our Christmas Day snowfall last week. There are no businesses here, only houses. We have to drive into town for groceries, bread, haircuts, and such. Not much driving happened on this day, though.

La Renaudière enneigée.

I didn't take any photos of yesterday's pizza lunch. It was very good, if I do say so myself. Tomato sauce, seasoned sautéed mushrooms, and cheese. Simple and tasty. 

Almost done

Just a couple of snow photos left from last week's weather event. This one shows the end of our road or, at least, the end of the paved portion. From here the way becomes a dirt road through the vineyard and intersects with a couple more paved roads out west of us. The dirt road slows down most drivers, but we have to mindful of farm machinery and the fall/winter hunting season when we walk out there.

Christmas morning in our cul-de-sac. The snow didn't stick to the road surfaces.

Today we're going to make mushroom pizzas for lunch. They'll make a nice change from turkey-related meals which, I should say, have been delicious! 

At the back gate

Here's the back yard garden shed in the snow. It's seen better days, but the snow improves it a little.

All the snow is gone now. This photo's from Xmas Day.

According to the weather website I visit daily, today we gain one full minute of daylight. Yay! 

Neige !

The French word for snow. La neige. Our morning temperatures are hovering around or just below freezing, but there is no more neige in the forecast for now.

The back yard in snow.

Today is market day in Saint-Aignan, but I don't think I'm going. In past years, we've made linguini with  white clam sauce around new year's, and I got the clams from the fish vendors at the Saturday market. But having a bunch of clams hang out on the deck (or in the fridge) for almost a week just doesn't sound good to me. Another time.

Christmas snow

As I mentioned, we got about an inch of snow in the wee hours on Christmas Day. It had melted away by mid-day, but I took the camera out on our morning walk and got some photos. I'll post a few here in this week between the holidays.

The real fake well in snow. The footprints belong to Tasha.

Leftovers are on the menu! There aren't too many, but we'll enjoy what we've got. On New Year's Day we'll make something with black-eyed peas. Yum!

Happy Christmas Day! We got some snow over night, about an inch on the ground. It looks kind of like this photo from way back. I didn't get a "live" photo because it's still dark while I write this. Ken's preparing the turkey for the oven now.

Snow on the vineyard cabin, about an inch like this morning.

 Thanks to all for the warm holiday wishes!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Bon réveillon !

Walnut tree among the vines.

 

A birthday dessert

I think the pie I make the most often is the classic tarte aux pommes. It's relatively easy and I enjoy it. For this year's birthday dessert, however, I did something different: an almond and pear tart. Or maybe it's a cake. In French, it's an amandine aux poires. The batter is made with ground almonds, a little flour, eggs, sugar, a splash of pear brandy, and canned pear halves, all baked in a standard pie crust. A delight!

Tarte amandine au poires.

The weather people say our low temperatures will be dropping over the next few days with snow (!) possible on overnight on Christmas Eve. A white Christmas? We shall see!

Let there be lights

Or not. This year, I strung lights along the deck railing. You can't tell it by this photo, though, unless you look real hard. I find my confidence on ladders is waning, especially when it's raining and everything is wet. So the lights end up where I don't have to climb.

You can find the lights strung along the wrought iron rail in front of the sliding glass doors.

It was raining when I snapped this photo from our neighbors' yard.

We can see the lights from inside the house and it's festive, so we don't feel like we're missing anything. Christmas Eve is in two days! I'm looking forward to our traditional cheese fondue. 

Solstice

It's the winter solstice! In a few days we will start seeing more daylight. Yippee!

More daylight as the sun starts to climb higher in the sky.

 

Water tower in the fog

This is a water tower, one of many in the Cher River valley near where we live. I took the photo in the fall of 2013, I think.

Water tower reaching above the tree line.

Today is the last day of fall here in the northern hemisphere. The days have stopped getting shorter and after a brief pause, they'll start adding daylight, a minute or so each day for a while. Hardly perceptible at first, but if you look closely, you'll see it.

Busy as a bee

Shopping, cooking, running errands. And now it's raining.

What's the buzz?

 There's also no stress. We're not having any guests, not going out at all (except for said errands).

Drip, drip, drop

When it's foggy outside (like it's ever foggy inside), the fog condenses on the vineyard's guide wires and other surfaces. We've seen lots of fog in recent weeks. It often does the same thing on our wrought iron deck railing.

When it gets cold enough, the drops freeze into tiny icicles.

The coming weekend is a big one before the holidays. We have a few food traditions we enjoy this time of year, not the least of which is cheese fondue on Christmas Eve. Yum!

December sunrise

This is part of an allée of poplars that separates the property of two of our neighbors. When the neighbors are away, we sometimes walk though with Tasha. The neighbors know we do it. One of them, in fact, once asked us to keep and eye out if we could. Somebody once stole some planting stakes and things from her vegetable garden while she and her husband were away many years ago.

Morning fog creeping up from a nearby ravine as the sun rose on Monday.

I'll try to get some photos of the lights I strung on the deck. It's certainly not anything elaborate, but I enjoy having them. Ho, ho, ho! 

Tasha Tuesday

On our way out last Friday evening very near sunset. Thankfully, there was no wind.

Same spot, different weather

This is more or less the same view as yesterday's photo. The only difference is the snow. I'm reminded how pretty it can be. We haven't seen snow like this in a while. And none is forecast any time soon. Too bad; I'd kind of like to see some. That falls under the category called "Be careful what you wish for."

The dirt road in yesterday's photo is just behind the tree visible in this one.

I gave up on untangling the holiday lights yesterday. I let them beat me. I did pretty well, but after an hour or more, I just couldn't go on. Fortunately, I was able to get another string untangled (it was put away more carefully) and hung on the deck railing. Jingle bells. 

Cold morning

The mornings are getting cold again. They're not quite as cold as this morning was back in 2013 (you can see our Callie sniffing around on the frosty ground). The weather people are again predicting a warm-up (afternoon highs) for the coming week.

Our hamlet is at the other end of the dirt road on the left.

I got the holiday lights out yesterday. I somehow got them into a frustrating jumble. Fixing that will be one of my tasks for the day. 

A little river mist

Here's another of the photos (from many years ago) of the Cher River on a misty, foggy late autumn morning. I used to take Callie down to the river for walks now and then. There's a hiking trail along the river bank that makes it a more or less easy walk. I haven't been back down there in ages. Maybe it's time!

Misty morning on the Cher.

The holidays are right around the corner! That snuck up fast. OK grammar fans, sneaked or snuck?

Le Cher

The Cher river is a tributary of the Loire. It's source is south of us in the northwestern section of the Massif Central mountain range. The cher flows into the Loire near Villandry, famous for its château and ornate gardens.

Le Cher à Mareuil en fin d'automne.

That's it for this morning. Time to head out to the doctor's office.

Late autumn

The winter solstice occurs in ten days, marking the shortest "day" in the northern hemisphere and the arrival of astronomical winter along with increasing amounts of daylight. Yay!

The lone poplar in fall of 2013.

We're still in a mild spell as far as temperatures go. Sometimes it feels as if it's colder inside the house than outdoors. That will probably change soon. We'll see.

Jade flower

One of our jade plants is blooming. The flowers are tiny, less than a centimeters in diameter, with a touch of purple in the petals.

Jade flowers.

I woke up to rain again this morning. The forecast doesn't look good for the morning walk with Tasha. At least the wind has calmed down. 

Last gasps of fall

This photo is from back in 2013, if I'm not mistaken. And I likely could be. I didn't keep track of photos then like I do now. Not that what I do now is a better system, it's just different. At any rate, Autumn is pretty much over for this year. Just under two weeks left.

I don't think this brilliant parcel is in production any more. I wonder what kind of grapes they were.

I called the doctor's office yesterday for an appointment to refill some prescriptions. I don't think prescription refills can be done over the phone in France, much less by internet. It takes an in-person office visit. I'm early, but recently it's been hard to get an appointment when I want one, which is early in the day and preferably before lunch. Imagine my surprise when the secretary offered me 08h30 on this coming Friday morning! Perfect.

Did you know?

In the US, prescription drugs are dispensed in bottles. The pharmacist would type out a label (old person joke: how'd he get the bottles into the typewriter?), Here in France, prescriptions come in factory produced blister packages inside shiny cardboard boxes. At no time do pharmacy hands touch the medicine.

I still use daily pill boxes to keep myself organized. That involves taking the pills out of the blisters once a week. The yellow things on the bottom are non-prescription cough losanges, also packed in blisters.

I only think of this because I have to renew my prescriptions soon. I take two daily pills for blood pressure and cholesterol control. Other pills come and go depending on what's ailing me at the moment. All of our Rx's are covered by our health insurance program, so no cash is exchanged at the pharmacy. 

Bare vines

The grape vine pruning is now under way out back. Two guys worked on (and finished) the parcel just outside our back gate on Friday. That's not what's in today's photo, however. This is another parcel nearby. I didn't want to take pictures of the guys working.

All the grape leaves are gone from this parcel. The wind blew them away.

The house rocked with wind and rain again last night. It's relatively warm outdoors, but the house feels cold inside. We're still losing daylight. Sunrise waits until 8h27 this morning. Then at 9h00 the hunters show up out among the vines. Pheasants beware! 

Morning fog

The fog lay thick in all of the usual places and this was the view from our deck on Friday morning. Our house sits on a high point and frequently we can have sunny skies while the river valley below is socked in. In this view from our deck, we're about halfway between socked in and clear.

The view from our deck to the neighbors' property on Friday morning.

We're heading into a warm spell into next week. We had spells of high wind with rain squalls over night. Lovely.

By the way, the answer to yesterday's question is: Notre Dame Cathedral at Rouen, Normandy. :) 

Any guesses?

I know the answer.

No fair using software!

 Answer: Cathédrale de Notre Dame, Rouen, Normandie.

Exploring

We haven't been back to the piney woods since I took this photo a week ago. I'm not sure nothing's changed. I heard some sounds that could have been chainsaws over the past few days. Like I said, I don't want to be out there with Tasha if there's a crew working. She gets excited.

Tasha explores one of the places were trees were cut.

 

Keeping track

I'm just guessing here, but I think this might be some sort of system to estimate how much wood is piled up and/or a way to see if someone is taking logs without authorization. Whatever it is, it's colorful.

Piled and marked.

We're having single digit (Celsius) weather right now. Nothing below freezing, though. And light rain showers continue to move through. Ah, winter.

Tasha Tuesday

Tasha on Thanksgiving Day, 2025.

What's left

This is what's left of the piney woods. It's mostly the piney part. Most everything around the pines has been cut. That'll make it easy to walk into, when the time comes. I"ll be waiting until I know we won't be in the way of the lumberjacks.

This is the neater, and smaller, of the two wood piles. The heart of the piney woods is in the background.

I"m out to an early morning appointment up near Blois. The temperature is low, but it's not quite down to freezing. 

Danger!

The funny thing is that you have to get up close to read the notice. Which says, "Danger, Risque de chute. Ne pas monter sur les piles de bois," and translates to, "Danger. Risk of falling. Do not climb on the woodpiles."

The notice stapled to the big log pile I posted yesterday. I wasn't tempted to climb.

Yesterday was our third pair of meals from the Thanksgiving roast of lamb. Ken transformed it into an Asian style stir-fry. Yum! I think that's the end of it now.

Timber!

These are some of the trees that were taken down around the piney woods a couple of weeks ago. The crews use tractors that are equipped with what I'll call "gripping hands." They grab a "handful" of logs, lift and swing them around, then stack them more or less neatly as you can see here.

That's a lot of wood!

Lamb leftovers were delicious. We ate the lamb cold (well, room temperature) with Ken's home made mayonnaise, cooled steamed potatoes and green beans (flageolets). And I think we'll be able to make a small third meal for two with what's left. Yum!

Pumpkin pie

Thanks to all for the warm holiday wishes. I wish I could send everyone a piece of this pie through the internet. It's made with our home-grown squash and it turned out great. I'm looking forward to having more as we work our way through holiday leftovers. 😃😃😃

An annual treat: home-made pumpkin pie. Cheers!

The wine is a local sparkling rosé. And, while it looks like it would be sweet, it's actually quite dry. Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving, USA!

Regular readers might remember that Ken and I don't make the traditional turkey dinner to celebrate America's Thanksgiving holiday. In France, turkeys are not generally available until closer to the Christmas holiday. so we make lamb, usually a leg, sometimes with the bone in, other times boned, rolled, and tied into a roast. This year we went with a rolled shoulder roast from the butcher shop in central Saint-Aignan. And here it is, before we season it for the oven. Wish us luck! I'll be making a pumpkin pie for dessert.

Epaule d'agneau, desossé, roulé, et ficelé.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! 

A while ago

This is one of the grape growers out back pruning his vines as he did most winters for many years. He burned the cuttings in that steel drum contraption. Nobody that I know of burns cuttings any more. The growers line them up between the vine rows and mulch them. Much more ecologically friendly. We used to stop and chat with B. while out on our daily walk. The border collie is our Callie (who died in 2017) and the bigger dog is Max, who spent many a happy day romping around among the vines while her (I think Max was a "she") master worked. I took the photo on or around Thanksgiving 2011 out near the piney woods. Max is long departed and the grower has since retired.

Max and Callie got along very well. The piney woods are just outside the photo to the right. That's their shadow on the ground.

Ken's heading out this morning to gather provisions for our Thanksgiving 2025 lunch. Tasha and I will guard the house. 

Monday was pizza day

This is the first of two pizzas we enjoyed yesterday. I topped my regular pizza dough with tomato puree, thin slices of something called pavé au poivre vert (a cured pork sausage made with green peppercorns), raclette cheese (a Swiss cheese made for melting, popular this time of year in France), and a sprinkling of our home-grown dried oregano.

Not quite round, but delicious nonetheless.

I made the second pizza mostly the same way, but used slices of cured beef in place of the pork. And I added a few black olives.We drank a delicious local nouveau red, made just across the river. Ken's going out this morning to see if he can get some more.

Leftovers again?

Leftovers can be better than the original meal, or at least just as good. This was yesterday's lunch, leftover choucroute garnie. In the mix was smoked palette de porc, saucisses de Strasbourg, a saucisse de Francfort made with chicken, some potatoes, carrots, turnips, and, of course, sauerkraut all served with a hot Dijon mustard. We drank a pinot-gris from Alsace. It was delicious, again!

A home-made grated carrot salad added some freshness to the meal.

Today we're having pizza. I made dough for the crust early this morning and set it aside to rise. We're planning to top the first one with a salami-like sausage made with green peppercorns and the second with sliced cured beef.

Clémentine season

The holiday season is the time of year when clémentines show up in the produce section of our markets. They're small, juicy, tangy and sweet. In a word, delicious! And they're easy to peel. They're grown in southern France, Spain, North Africa, and other places in the Mediterranean basin. I look forward to enjoying them every year.

Our first clémentines of the season!

I think the coldest of our cold spell has passed. there's snow reported in Paris, but where we live we've only had that one snow shower so far. 

Le Beaujolais nouveau et arrivé

I'm back! It's that time of year again. The "new" Beaujolais wine was released on Thursday. Ken brought a few of them home yesterday and I'm looking forward to trying one today. These aren't fancy wines, and they're not meant to be kept. Drink them young!

Two Beaujolais, two Beaujolais-Villages, one Touraine Premier, and a Bordeaux (oops!).

We had a short snow flurry event Friday morning. For about ten minutes it snowed big fat flakes. Some of it stuck to cold surfaces for a few minutes before it all melted into memory. It was pretty. More snow showers are predicted through the weekend.

Plenty o' nuttin'

That's what I got. So I'm taking a Blogger's Break (is that a thing?) today. Enjoy!

The ghost of Thanksgiving past

It's that time of year again. One week from today is Thanksgiving in the USA. We're working on what ours will look like this year. Our tradition is to roast a leg of lamb. This year we might try shoulder. Ken's going to see a local butcher today and, hopefully, place an order for next week.

Last year's roasted gigot d'agneau (leg of lamb).

This photo is from last year's meal, a boneless rolled leg served with Brussels sprouts and flageolet beans. Yum! Just FYI, we really don't need to order a gigot a week in advance. Thanksgiving is not a holiday here and lamb is normally available whenever you want it. A boned and rolled roast could take a day or two, depending on the butcher.

Baby, it's cold outside

We're down to about 3ºC this morning. Forecasts are for 1º and below as we approach the weekend. That means a freeze is possible. But, you know how it goes. The news folks get all excited about possible wintry weather and blow it out of proportion. Then nothing happens. So, we shall see.

Are we tired of leaves, yet? The show's almost over.

I got my hair cut yesterday and now I feel much better. I haven't let my hair go that long in quite a while.

Making our way

Our daily walks with Tasha are much less adventurous than they used to be. The fact is that we're all getting older. Tasha will be nine years old this spring! We rarely venture off the dirt road that runs through the vineyard parcels. When we do, it's on paths that know well and we don't go far.

The dirt road through the vineyards.

I've got an appointment to get my hair cut this morning. Ken's taking the Peugeot in for an oil change and some other little fixes. A busy day! 

Here we go

The weather site that I look at each day is predicting a low of 1ºC on Tuesday morning. One degree above freezing. Shiver. We'll spend some time today making sure that any remaining vulnerable potted plants are moved indoors or up close to the house.

Some of the cut trees from the edges of the piney woods.

We just decided to make a baked lasagna for lunch. That should keep us warm for a coule of days! 

 

 

The once piney woods

I used to walk Callie, then Tasha, in these woods. I haven't for ages. We just haven't walked out to the end of the vineyard road very much recently. The last time was in the spring when those potatoes and tomatoes were planted out there in an unused vineyard parcel.

The trees and shrubs that formed the outside wall of the woods are now cut and piled neatly on the ground.

So, last week I headed out there just to see if that garden was harvested and was surprised by this. Half the woods have been cut down! The tree trunks are very neatly stacked on the ground waiting for some unknown (to me) fate. Before, it wasn't possible to see through the thick patch of conifers that I call the "piney woods." They were that dense. I could barely get to the inside through the thick, overgrown wall of shrubs and young tees that surrounded them. But once through the barrier, the woods became a magical place, its thick floor of pine needles muffled all sound from the outside world, a place where elves and fairies might have gathered. Now the woods have been laid bare, they themselves reduced to a thin veil, no longer able to keep secrets. I'm going to have to go out there again one of these days and walk through the remaining patch of trees.

I won't really miss them. They'll all grow back. For older views of the piney woods (and what's inside), type "piney woods" in the search box above and scroll through the photos.

To be or not to be

That's our Hamlet! A little English Lit humor there.

Sunrise soliloquy.

The weather is changing. Rain is upon us, according to the radar. And I must venture out into it, and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, with Tasha.

Naked vines

This vineyard parcel has lost all it's leaves already. I took this photo yesterday at sunrise. Pretty soon, all the parcels will look like this.

All the leaves are gone from this parcel. That's the sun peeking through the trees on the horizon.

It looks like our spell of mild weather is at its end. Another rain system is moving in and our temperatures are predicted to drop into the single digits. Celsius, of course. 

Who's that old guy?

Yeah, I can't believe it, either. Jeez.

I've got no new photos. This is from a few weeks ago. I'm getting my hair cut next week.

 

Leaves' last gasp

It's nearly over. The warm colors of autumn leaves in and around the vineyards, that is. And although the weather is mild now, we know that winter's chill is near.

In contrast to yesterday's somewhat bleak photo, this vineyard parcel continues to show off its brilliant color.

The key fobs to our Peugeot are acting up. I think they need new batteries. although we put new ones in, we can't seem to get them to work. Ken's planning to have the oil changed in that car pretty soon, so he'll add key fob batteries the job and let the pros do it.

Tasha Tuesday

Well, sort of. It's more of a Lone Poplar Tuesday. But what the heck. Tasha's in there.

All the leaves are off the Lone Poplar now. That's fog climbing up from the stream bed below.

Today's a holiday. That makes it a hunt day. We have to be careful out there. Speaking of which, a week or so ago Tasha, while inside the house, started barking to tell us there was somebody or something outside. I opened the door and heard a loud squawking and the sound of wings flapping unusually close. I went downstairs and outside and there was a male pheasant in the road. He was heading out to the vineyard, and he was not in a hurry. He was a beautiful bird, his colors shone brightly as he pranced down the road. I wonder if he's still out there.