It hasn't been a lovely winter. Overcast, rainy, and cold most of the time. And both of us were sick for about two months. Nearly everyone we talk to says they had this virus, whatever it was. Our doctor told us it was "something going around." I'll be happy to see March go.
At the risk of jinxing spring, we are enjoying more sunny days. It's still not very warm, but the sunshine helps it not to feel too cold. I'm hopeful that we have more and more sunny days as April arrives.
The vineyards around us are looking very spring-like. No leaves, yet, but there are buds forming on the vines. Pruning continues and the vines are looking quite neat and tidy. Some parcels that are normally pruned by now are not, making me wonder if they're scheduled to be ripped out. Time will tell.
I'm getting a few more things done in the yard while the weather is decent. I ripped out an overgrown sage plant on Friday. It was way past its prime and we hardly ever harvested its leaves. I wonder if it's like our oregano that doesn't have much flavor unless it's dried? Oh well, it's too late now.
We enjoyed a mostly sunny day on Friday, with another expected today. Of course, cloudless days are often chilly. I ended up putting a fire in the wood burner in the afternoon to take the chill off and to give the central heating a rest.
When the sun does shine in this time of year, it casts shadows around the rooms. This is a corner of the dining area with the Eiffel Tower and its shadow. Our friend Cheryl gave us the tower. It came from Pottery Barn, if memory serves, back in San Francisco. Back in the olden days. The little wiry figure (sold separately) has magnetic feet.
This image is from our 2018 trip to the Vendée on the west coast of France. It's the city of Niort and one of its churches, Saint André de Niort. We had Tasha for just over a year at that point.
I've got to get out with the camera one of these days and take some new photos.
We had some left over radish leaf pesto sauce and thought it would make a good base for pizza. I made the usual crust dough. I make it in the stand mixer then let it rise for about three hours, so putting it together first thing in the morning makes it ready for lunch. The recipe makes enough dough for two individual pizzas.
Before topping it, I shaped half the dough with my hands (I've learned that using a rolling pin presses too much air out of the dough), then covered it with a towel and let it rise for about twenty minutes. I spread the pesto on, using a brush to bring the sauce almost to the edge. Then I added cooked and cubed chicken breast, bell pepper cut into strips, and garnished with black olives. I also sprinkled some grated parmesan on top at the table (remembering that there's already some parmesan in the pesto itself). Yum!
The best way to preserve primroses? Photography! But don't fret. The real thing will be around for a while. Mowing won't happen right away. Usually, by the time I cut the grass, the primroses are past their prime.
Sunrise is at 6h44 this morning. Each day, for the time being, we gain about three minutes of daylight. We're still on Winter Time until the weekend. Then Sunday we'll turn our clocks ahead and enter Summer Time. It won't be light so early in the morning, but it will stay lighter later in the day. I think I've got that right...
Primroses, as I've certainly mentioned before, are called primevères in French. That's derived from the latin primus, meaning "first." They're among the first flowers to appear in spring. I got all that from Wikipedia; I'm no flower expert.
One day, should the weather cooperate, I will cut them all down with the first mowing of the season. With the weather we've been having, that won't be anytime soon. The ground is still very soggy.
There are a few blues, a lot of whites, no reds. This year's crop seems to be mostly purple and white.
Yesterday brought cloudy skies, rain showers, and some wind. The house felt chilly so I built a fire in the wood stove to keep us warm through the day. We also at a yummy gratin of endives wrapped in ham slices with a cheesy béchamel. I guess that would be more properly called a mornay sauce.
I posted a photo of this fruitless cherry last week, but I think now it looks even more spectacular. Our plum tree's blossoms are all gone now. Look toward the bottom of the photo and you will catch a glimpse of the primroses blooming in our lawn. I'd like to get a few shots of those, maybe later today.
My trip to the Saturday market in Saint-Aignan was mostly a bust. No asparagus, yet. No strawberries, yet. The Asian guys weren't there, so no nems. I'll try again next week. I did get a bunch of radishes and they are delicious.
This building is probably, over all, in better shape than our garden shed. But the door looks like it's seen better days. Still, there's something about that old weathered look...
I'm planning a trip to the market this morning, as long as there's a break in the rain. We've been hearing reports on TV that asparagus crops are early this year, at least those near the coast and in the south west. I don't know about our local crops, but that's what I'll see at the market. I'll also check out the local strawberry vendors (it may be too early for those), and look for some radishes and nems (Vietnamese egg rolls).
The contractor showed up on time yesterday morning to replace the motor on our overhead garage door, fix a little glitch in one of the new roll-down shutters, and to take measurements for a a new set of standard shutters on the garden shed. He spent about three hours working on the new motor. The shutter glitch took a minor adjustment and now it seems to be fixed.
As for the garden shed, we decided that he'd repair the existing door rather than replace it. It looks like new, even though we had it installed in 2003. All it needs is to have the sheared bolts drilled out and new bolts put in. He seemed to think it would be fastoche (easy). Then he'll put in new all-white PVC shutter doors on the window.
His company is called CLP Fermetures. A fermeture is a closure and, as you can imagine, they do gates, shutters, windows, doors, and anything else that closes (and opens!). To date, he's installed eight shutters on our house, one garden gate, and one garage door. He didn't install the garden shed door.
We're expecting the guys who did our window shutters and our garage door to show up first thing this morning. They have a new motor for the garage door that they installed back in 2018. I also need to show them a small problem that we're having with one of the shutters they installed last month (we're very happy with them otherwise). Finally, I want to ask them for an estimate for a new door and shutter on the garden shed. The door we had installed in 2003 is literally coming off its hinges and the old wooden shutter has seen better days.
I made a little more progress in the yard yesterday afternoon. The hortensias (hydrangeas) are pruned back and I got a start on pruning back the out-of-control glycine (wisteria). I hope to finish that today.
Happy equinox to all! It's the first day of spring!
I have no new photos for today, so here's another of Monday's fog. This is our road, looking the other way from yesterday's photo. That is, to the east, and downhill, toward the river. The house belongs to our neighbors who live full time in Blois (about 45km north) and spend some weekends, holidays, and vacations here.
I was sort of productive yesterday. It's a slow start after a winter of hunkering down indoors. First, I trimmed down the dried stems of last year's oregano and daisy patches. I used the electric hedge trimmer for that, then used the walk-behind mower to finish them up. I moved a tarp, a bunch of wood strips, and a dozen or so roof tiles, that I had used to cover last year's pile of yard waste, into the garden shed for the summer. The yard waste was taken away by our landscape guy when his crew trimmed the hedges in January. I'm making a list of yard chores. And I'm checking it twice.
One of our neighbors across the road had his hedges trimmed last week. His is a mixed "wild" hedge, or at least that's what I call it. it's made up of different kinds of trees and vines and other varieties of plants. Our hedge, in contrast, is mostly one hedge species called laurier cerise (cherry laurel). There are also bay laurel, honeysuckle, ivy, and blackberry brambles mixed in to our hedge, but it's mostly cherry laurel plants.
I noticed this view of both our hedges yesterday morning when I took out the garbage. Ours is on the right, the neighbor's is on the left.
Where you see trees in this image is where une rouère (a stream bed or ravine) runs down to the river collecting water from the surrounding vineyard parcels. If it has a name, I don't know it. Another ravine nearby does have a name: la rouère de l'aulne (Alder Ravine). The vineyard parcel in the photo's foreground was replanted two seasons ago. The vines are hardly visible, partly because they've recently been pruned down to a single cane and partly because they`re still quite young. The next step in this parcel should be the pliage; the canes will be bent to the horizontal and fastened to guide wires as they begin to leaf out.
Our snow episode yesterday ended shortly after my morning walk with Tahsa. This morning we're socked in by fog. The forecast is for increasing temperatures through the week. I'll take it.
We woke up this morning to some snow. Not much. Big, heavy flakes are falling, along with light rain. It's a wintry mix! I'm sure it won't last, though. The temperature is above freezing and, as I type this, we're probably at it's lowest for the day. The sun will be up soon. In the meantime, there's a little bit of white on the ground.
Here's a view of our back hedge and garden shed from the vineyard road. You can see there's another parcel that was dug up last year. It was tiny. It's gone. What's left (on the left) looks pretty old.
It could also be called la cabane du vigneron (the grape grower's cabin). You see them here and there around us. This one is on the vineyard road behind our house. In the old days, these cabins were used for tool storage, as shelter from a hard rain, or as place to eat lunch, eliminating the need to go home and back at mid-day. This one's not used for much these days, but the grower keeps the vines that grow up its sides well pruned.
The weather is more of the same. I think the weather people believe that if they predict snow every day, we might actually get some. Ha.
Our fruitless cherry is blooming now as are certain plum trees around the neighborhood.
We woke up to 2ºC this morning. That's near the house; I'm sure it's colder out in the vineyard. All that talk of snow yesterday sounded urgent, but the sun came out here and it's been clear all night (as evidenced by a very visible full moon). It's my turn to walk Tasha this morning. I'll bundle up once more. She's lucky to have a fur coat.
This is the dirt road that connects our hamlet to paved roads west of us. It runs through the vineyard and provides access for agricultural equipment and serves as an alternative to the paved road that runs east and down to the river. We don't drive on the "dirt" road much these days as it has become rutted and uneven. Mostly, we use it as a place to walk Tasha. The problem is that there are now these large limestone rocks* strewn about. They can be treacherous if you trip or step on one, so we need to take care when walking. I suppose that's good advice in any case.
The banking problem I mentioned yesterday was self-inflicted and it has since been resolved. The stressful part of the process is communication. Because of the time difference between here and the bank in the US, contact has to be timed right and waiting for replies can be frustrating. My mind imagines all sorts of bad things happening while I wait. But, again, what I broke seems to be fixed now. Fingers crossed!
* Each year, the town spreads gravel and limestone on the dirt roads to fill potholes and ruts. Last year, the limestone mix included these large rocks. I don't know why.
I'm having some adventures with international online banking, so I'll just post this sunrise from last Saturday while I deal with that.
Here's one of the clumps of daffodils that come up every year in this spot near the greenhouse. I only think of them being there when they're blooming. We have other patches that come and go. This spring looks like a good year for some, a not so good year for others.
As predicted, temperatures have dropped again, but only down to the mid-single digits. I split some logs yesterday and will likely build a fire this morning. Now the weather people are forecasting what the US weather gurus call a "wintry mix" for Wednesday. Snow in March is not unusual; some of our biggest snowfalls since we've been here have happened in March. If we actually get some this week, it likely won't amount to much. Famous last words...
On the left is a vineyard parcel near our house whose vines were dug up and burned last summer. The adjacent parcel, in the center of the photo, remains intact. If I remember correctly, the grapes on the left were white, while the intact parcel produces red grapes. I don't know why certain parcels are being dug up while others are spared. My working theory is that older, dying parcels are going, to eventually be replaced (and in some cases, not) by young vines and, possibly, by grapes that qualify for the "AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée) Touraine Chenonceaux" label.
The Touraine Chenonceax label is reserved for sauvignon (blanc) grapes. Other varieties grown in the same area such as chardonnay, cabernet, and gamay can be labelled simply "AOP Touraine." We'll see later this spring which parcels get replanted and which will remain fallow for another year.
There are just under two weeks of winter remaining. Yay! The vernal equinox heralds the arrival of astronomic spring on March 20 here in the northern hemisphere. Then, three weeks from today, we move our clocks ahead to Summer Time. Let's hope the weather we get reflects the season.
These past few days have been relatively warm and bright. The early blooming fruit trees are doing their thing, as is the forsythia around the neighborhood. Daffodils are also up and blooming. I didn't get out to do any serious yard work yesterday. Oh well. Now rain is predicted for this afternoon, so I missed out. Next time.
For lack of any new and interesting photos, here's another of Tasha, post-grooming. She looks rather ferocious, doesn't she? This is not her normal expression at all, and she was in motion when I snapped the shutter.
We're expecting a relatively warm day today. As the sun comes up it's over 7ºC (about 45ºF) outdoors. The afternoon high will approach 20ºC (high 60sF). Wow!
It's not a great photo to show off her newly groomed coat, but it's so cute I couldn't not share it. You'll have to trust me. She's much less furry that she was a few days ago. This one is from the second batch of post-grooming photos I tried to get.
We had a very nice day yesterday, weather-wise. After a very chilly dawn, the sun warmed things up enough for me to get outside and start work on cleaning up the yard. I cleared winter's mess from the garden path between the house and the back gate. I gathered tree branches and twigs, pine cones, and dead leaves. Some went into the debris piles in the woods and the rest went into the compost pile out back. It felt good to be outside and not bundled up. For my next trick, I think I'll work on getting the tree branches off the grassy areas, and there's a wisteria to trim back. Lets hope the nice weather continues for a while, and beyond!
This will have to suffice as Tasha's "before" shot. She looks a little shaggy. I'll post an "after" shot tomorrow. I took a few yesterday, but I'm not happy with them. Tasha would not sit still enough. I put her in a "sit/stay" to take the picture. She's very good at sitting, not so good at staying.
We're enjoying dry, sunny, and relatively warm weather! I don't want you to think that I only mention the weather when it's bad. Yard work isn't happening yet, but we'll get there. I hope.
What's that old saying about a red sky at morning? I hope all the sailors in our neighborhood took warning. I wish the saying was "red sky at morning, temperatures warming." And they actually are!
Tasha's grooming went well yesterday. Remember, back in November (Tasha's previous grooming session), I was attacked by a rogue goat. No such problems yesterday. Tasha's clean and trimmed. I should take a photo.
Tasha's groomer arrives at nine this morning, and I have to walk her before that, so I don't have much time for posting. Of couse, Smart WCS would have prepared the post yesterday, but he was nowhere to be found.
This is SUNY Plaza, the administrative headquarters of the State University of New York since 1978. It was completed in 1918 as the HQ for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Company. To me, it will always be the D&H building.
Or not. There's no "Livingston Avenue Bridge" song. The bridge carries no cars. Just trains. It connects the north end of Albany (The Warehouse District) with the Amtrak station across the river.* Trains run daily from that station south to NYC (Penn Station), north to Montréal, east to Boston, and west to Chicago (the Lake Shore Limited). The bridge is in bad shape and, from what I've read, is going to be replaced in the near future. The new bridge will accommodate cyclists and pedestrians, connecting to riverfront parks on the Albany side, but no cars.
* A subject for another day. Albany's beautiful Union Station was abandoned in 1968 for a new station across the river (plenty of parking!), but was thankfully not demolished. It still stands and has been repurposed as an office building.
This building, with its forty-four floors, is the Corning Tower in downtown Albany, NY. When completed in 1973, it was the tallest building in New York State outside of New York City. According to Wikipedia, it still holds that title. To get this shot, I stood in what is unceremoniously called The Parking Lot District. Cars park on the vacant land left when the neighborhood's commercial and residential buildings were demolished to make way for a sprawling freeway interchange. I read somewhere that there is a project in the works to redevelop parts of the district, but that the landowners who operate the parking lots are, naturally, opposed. I'm not sure where in the planning process that project is these days.
It's still cold outside, but there's hope for a warm up in the coming week. Let's cross our fingers.
Is that the sun, or have the aliens arrived? This view is westerly out over the vineyards, last Thursday afternoon, during my walk with Tasha.
Glad March is finally here. Still, it's 2.2ºC (about 36ºF) out there this morning.
