Boring January

In a way, it's a good thing. "Nothing much happening" applies to the bad as well as the good. Still, the weather is boring. Not freezing, not warm, very wet and somewhat windy. Walks with Tasha are shorter on the coldest, darkest, and wettest days. The holidays are done -- except for la Chandeleur (Candlemas) in February, an excuse for a whole country to eat crêpes. We're both dealing with health issues that are not very serious, but are annoying nonetheless. Not much can be done about outdoor work right now. We're waiting for the landscape guy and his crew to trim the hedges and do the other pruning and trimming we asked for. The television news is bizarre or boring and, more often than not, both. Wet January is not a wonderful time for local sight seeing.and travel farther afield is just not in the cards right now.

Waiting for Spring. Up, up, and away!

So, with not much going on, there's not much to blog about. I am enjoying watching the Australian Open on tv (tennis season is back!). The days are getting longer, our clocks will "spring ahead" in two months time.

A day off

Nothing much going on here. See you soon!

Sing Polly Wolly Doodle

I don't know why that old song popped into my head this morning. So I looked it up. The song has it origins in American slave culture. It transitioned into the very politically incorrect and, what were rightly described as racist, minstrel shows of the early nineteenth century. The shows fell out of favor after the Civil War and, by the turn of the century, all but disappeared from American theater.

A hot-air balloon floating over the vineyard.

I only bring this up because of the actor/comedian/singer Bette Midler who, back in the 1970s, spoke this line in one of her shows on HBO, recorded in Cleveland, no less, and viewed one late night during a sleep-over at my cousin's house. I quote: "Life is real, life is earnest, sing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day." The "real" and "earnest" part was, I found out much later, penned by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in "A Psalm of Life." Since seeing Midler's show on tv, that line has been seared into my memory. It pops out every now and then, like today. As I said, I don't know why.

Oh clam up!

I did go to the market on Saturday. The fish monger was there. They had no coques (cockles). But, if I wanted some for next week, they could be ordered. So I placed an order for a kilo. Next weekend we shall feast!

Little clams called "cockles." Photo from fall of 2020.

The crowned heads of Europe

Old Christmas. The Epiphany. Twelfth Night. Call it what you will. Here in France you're likely to hear it called La Fête des Rois (Festival of the Kings). All of them refer to the day in the Christian calendar when the three kings of orient supposedly arrived in Bethlehem with gifts after the birth of Jesus. Ceramic tokens are baked into cakes called galettes des rois. Whoever finds the token hidden in his slice is crowned King for the day and gets to wear a stylish (not) paper crown that comes with the cake.

The giraffe comes from Africa, the souvenir of a work trip Ken took in the '80s.

Our ceramic token this year is the face of a wild boar. I didn't take a photo. I did pack the token away with all the others we've collected over the years. The paper crown adorns a Moroccan tajine on the buffet. It (the crown) will be gone soon. 

Ready to take a chance again

I'm going to the market in Saint-Aignan again today, hoping that the fish monger is back and that she has cockles. It may be that she and her crew are still on January vacation and I'll be out of luck. Still, we need some bread and I want to get some egg rolls. I hope that I don't have to come home empty-handed.

Dried grape vine tendrils wrapped around a guide wire.

Some of you might recognize the title of today's post as the theme song from the 1978 American film "Foul Play," starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase. Barry Manilow sang the theme and it was a huge hit that year.1978! Barry Manilow! Lordy Moses. Old fogey alert: I remember Hawn from "Laugh In" and Chase from "Saturday Night Live." 

Thinking of spring

It may be a tad early, but I'm thinking of spring. One of the signs of the season is the flurry of tax reporting forms that show up in the mail (e-mail mostly these days). Then there's the annual reporting of kilométrage (mileage) for the two cars that makes us eligible for a small reduction in the cost of our car insurance.

A roe deer caught munching on spring growth.

Then I saw this photo of a deer out in the vineyard from back in 2013 (I think). We see many deer in and around the vineyards and in our neighbors' yards through the year. Our property is fenced, so we don't get many deer in the yard. When they do get inside, they panic trying to get out and can hurt themselves. It's difficult to maneuver them to the exits so we can close the gates behind them. Tasha's herding instincts kick in, but she's never been trained to herd. She has to be kept indoors when we have a deer in the yard so she doesn't get hurt herself.