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