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."
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.
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.
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!
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. 😃😃😃
The wine is a local sparkling rosé. And, while it looks like it would be sweet, it's actually quite dry. Yum!
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.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!
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.
Ken's heading out this morning to gather provisions for our Thanksgiving 2025 lunch. Tasha and I will guard the house.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
That's what I got. So I'm taking a Blogger's Break (is that a thing?) today. Enjoy!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
We just decided to make a baked lasagna for lunch. That should keep us warm for a coule of days!
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.
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.
That's our Hamlet! A little English Lit humor there.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, I can't believe it, either. Jeez.
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.
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.
Well, sort of. It's more of a Lone Poplar Tuesday. But what the heck. Tasha's in there.
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.
This is the tilleul (linden) in our back yard. It's a nice looking tree, but it stands a little too close to the house. So, this winter, our landscaping contractor will give it a serious pruning. Worry not, these trees don't mind agressive pruning. You see them all the time in town squares and city parks all across France. Paris is full of them. I'm looking forward to it.
Our morning lows got lower for a short time, but look to be climbing again. Highs remain in the comfortable range, for the time being. Tomorrow is Armistice Day, another holiday in France.
This is pretty much the same view as was in yesterday's post. That one was taken about three weeks ago. I took this one yesterday from the same spot (out the guest room window). Whole vineyard parcels have dropped their leaves; others are still holding on. Orange is quickly giving way to brown.
In general, out temperatures are pretty mild for mid-November. That's nice, except for the rain that often comes along with it. That said, the forecast for the next few days looks relatively dry. We're having a nice arrière saison, as they say. This morning is foggy and we're socked in. Still, we can't really complain.
This photo is from the 20th of October, a view from our guest room out over the vineyards to our west. Most of these leaves are gone now. Temperatures are still mild, but a couple of windy days was enough for the leaves to drop.
Ken's choucroute was delicious yesterday. So much so that we're going to eat the leftovers today. But that won't be the end of it because we froze several kilos of the stuff to eat all through fall and into winter. It's nothing like what comes in a can or a bottle. As you probably know from his blog, he buys raw 'kraut, rinces and blanches it, then, either cooks it or freezes it for cooking later on. Yum!
Here's another view of one of the two maple trees that grow over the driveway.
This will be a short post 'cause I'm heading out to get some Alsacien wine for Ken's choucroute (sauerkraut). It'll go into the chou as it cooks this morning and then into us as we enjoy the meal later.
And leaf! I think I learned that one in grade school. I did get a lot of the leaves, maybe half, blown to where I want them. The rest will have to wait because the rain is back.
Ken and I had a hard time getting the leaf blower going yesterday. There was a lot of swearing. @#!%#%!! The thing is brand new! (although we've had it for a year already) After a while it started working. Seems there's a bad connection in one of the electrical cords and you have to hold your mouth right to get it to work. We'll do some further investigations when the weather gets better.
If you're a sailor, take warning. We're having a couple of nice days. I think I'll try the leaf blower this afternoon. I have a few errands to run this morning, so we'll see.
Tuesday's election results across the USA seem to portend a healthy rebuke of You-Know-Who and a reset for the more liberally inclined moving toward the mid-term elections next year. I think that's a good thing.
Leaves stuck to a damp deck on a foggy morning are common in the fall. It could be worse; wind often blows the bigger maple leaves up onto the deck, but there weren't many, if any, on this morning. The driveway just below is another story.
It's a chilly 7ºC (about 45ºF) out there this morning. That's why it's called Novembrrr. It's time to start thinking about bringing plants in for the winter.
This branch on one of our maple trees lost its leaves before all the others. It's covered in lichens, but so is the rest of the tree. Mystery? Or just one of nature's little quirks?
I've reached the point in my life where I'm tired of cleaning up fallen leaves. The lawnmower mulches them, but I've finished with mowing for the season. The last few years, I've been leaving the leaves on the ground over winter. They mostly mulch themselves and what's left get pulverized when I start mowing again in the spring. I've learned the hard way not to leave the leaves (haha) in the driveway over winter. They're a mess to pick up after they've semi-mulched themselves into our gravel driveway. I'll pick some dry weather days to blow them onto the north forty. We got a leaf blower last year thanks to a nice store credit that came with a sale when we bought our riding mower.
This photo didn't turn out as I expected. It was before sunrise and there wasn't much light. But I only took two of this view. Here's the better one.
We had wind and rain a good part of the day on Saturday. A lot of leaves blew off the trees and now cover the ground. There are still a lot of leaves on the trees, but I can now see more and more bare branches out there. Ah, autumn.
Yesterday was a little breezy and the leaves on our maple trees were tumbling down. There are still a lot of leaves on the linden and other trees, but not for long. Soon the browns and greys of winter will take over. Meanwhile, we're enjoying the show.
Here we are, the first of November. The two-weeks-long All Saints holiday ends on Monday and the kids go back to school. The next school vacation is for Christmas, starting on the 20th of December, ending after the new year.
I'm enjoying watching the Paris Masters tournament on tv, the last of the Masters 1,000 series (nine tournaments through the season) at its new venue at La Défense. It's the last tournament in the Men's tennis season before the championship final in mid-November.
