Vineyard view [2]

We're still having clear, starry nights and that means chilly mornings. It also means nice sunrises. The wind seems to have died down, but the air is still blowing from the north-northeast, adding to the chill. I had a fire in the wood stove most of the day on Sunday and Monday.

Saturday's sunrise over the vineyard.

We're going to have to place another drive order this week. We're running low on Tasha's wet food and Bert's kibble. Bert's got plenty of wet food for now, and Tasha's kibble supply is not too low at the moment. Of course, if I were feeling brave, I would just go to the supermarket as I normally would, taking certain precautions, of course. We'll see.

Vineyard view

Work has steadily continued in the vineyards through our confinement. Most, if not all, of the parcels around us are pruned. And, since I snapped this photo on Saturday, the cut canes have been ground into mulch. What's left to do now is what's called le pliage (the folding). Vineyard workers will bend each remaining cane to the horizontal and fasten them to the support wires. Then Mother Nature will take over and the vines will grow.

The vine canes are covered in buds. Soon leaves will appear, then the grape flowers. Spring is here.

The weather has taken a turn back toward winter. We're having wind again. This time it's a cold wind from the northeast. But no rain. I was able to get my burn pile burned before the wind started up. Soon I'll till up the part of the garden where I plant climbing beans and snow peas. It's also time to start seedlings in the greenhouse.

Corny pizza

Saturday was pizza day chez nous. One of my favorite pizzas to make is leek and bacon. There's no tomato sauce or cheese in it, just crispy bacon and sautéed leeks. This time, we had a surplus of onions in the pantry, so we used those in place of leeks. And, because this is France, smoked lardons take the place of American bacon. Lardons are actually the same cut as bacon, just shaped differently.

Ken gently cooked the sliced onions with some white wine, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes. Yum!

My twist with this pizza is that I like to add corn. I sautéed the corn in the rendered bacon fat to crisp it up and give it a toasted/roasted flavor. It works really well with the leeks/onions and bacon. And I added a few black olives, too. We drank a cabernet sauvignon from southern France (Pays d'Oc) along side. Bon appétit !

Le drive

In France, what we Americans call a "drive-through" at retail establishments is known as un drive. Whether it's fast food, a pharmacy, or a supermarket, the signs for le drive are everywhere. Except at banks. I don't think there are drive-up tellers at French banks. Not sure about drive-up ATMs, but I can't think of one. On Friday, I did the supermarket drive for the first time.

This is not our Super-U and it's not my photo. I got the image from the internet.

"Location" means "rental," most supermarkets offer cars and vans for rent. "Courses" means "shopping."

Ken put together our order on line. Both our local supermarkets, Intermarché and Super-U, offer the service. Since normally we each enjoy going food shopping, we've never used le drive. But, like a whole lot of other folks, we decided to try it to minimize public contact in this time of confinement. That first week, the web sites were inundated and things didn't seem to work right. But that all calmed down after a while. Ken placed the order and selected Friday morning between 09h30 and 10h00 for pickup.

When I drove to the drive, I noticed a few things. First, there were many fewer cars on the road than normal. Second, the recycling stations along the way were closed, taped off with red and white police tape. And while I was expecting the local gendarmes to be checking people for their attestation forms, I saw none. I got to the supermarket and they buzzed me in through the gate to the drive station in back of the store. They were ready for me.

First, however, there were a couple of substitutions. Ken ordered a pain de mie (a loaf of unsliced sandwich bread), but they didn't have one, so they gave me a sliced boule (a round loaf) instead. No problem. He had also ordered a cleaning product which they were out of, so they substituted another brand. Again, no problem. I noticed that there were no baguettes in the box when there should have been a bag of four (for the price of three!). The staff double checked the order and, sure enough, they missed that, so they went back in to get it.

When I got home and unpacked, Ken noticed that instead of the ten bottles of red wine he ordered, we only got five. But the receipt showed we were charged for ten. He called the market and they happily, and without question, gave us a store credit for that. I'm sure the supermarket staff are pretty stressed with the sudden increase in drive orders, the fact that they have to wear masks and gloves, along with the worry of being infected. Given all that, I think our experience was relatively painless and positive. We're planning to try out the other supermarket drive near us next time.

After the supermarket, I went to the pharmacy. No problems there. They filled my expired prescriptions as I read they were authorized to do. The only difference in the store were the tape markings on the floor to keep people a meter apart in line. But there was no line, I was one of two customers while I was there.

UPDATE: I just heard on the morning news that they've opened the first drive-through testing site for the coronavirus in Paris. They call it le drive-test.

Hellebore

I think this is a variety of hellebore, but I'm not sure. I didn't plant them, they come up in our neighbor's garden across the road. When they're not at their vacation house, Ken and I will often walk through their grassy property with Tasha, partly to keep an eye on things and partly to vary our route, especially when the vineyard road is a muddy mess.

Hellebores are "hellébores" in French. That makes it easy to remember.

But there's no mud to speak of right now. A week of dry weather, with more to come, has let the water run off and seep in. I'm going to have to cut the grass soon, but first I'll need to venture out for some gasoline. I'm going to the supermarket and the pharmacy this morning, but I'm not sure I want to add the gas station to that trip. I'm going to see if the pharmacy has any disinfectant wipes that we can use, among other things, to wipe the handles of the gas pumps before using them. That's probably a good practice anyway, but I never thought to do it before this coronavirus thing.

Tulips

These red tulips pop up on the south-facing end of our house every year. They were already here when we moved in almost seventeen years ago. We didn't see them until spring of 2004, though. So here they are this year, looking pretty healthy. I have a special affinity for tulips. My home town was a Dutch colony, founded way back in 1609 when Henry Hudson sailed up the river. Before that it was part of Mohican (as in "Last of the...") territory. Since 1948, the city has held an annual Tulip Festival in May to celebrate its colonial heritage. This year's festival, as you might expect, has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Bright red tulips in the early spring sun.

Tulips that I planted two years ago in another part of the yard were, you might remember, eaten by rodents. Out of about a dozen bulbs, there remain two. Each plant has one flower, a purple and a yellow. I was really discouraged, but I just need to put something else in place of the tulips. Daffodils, for example, seem not to attract the bulb-munching rodents, so maybe that's the best bet.

More primroses

Our morning low temperatures are flirting with zero (freezing) right now. So far, we've stayed above freezing. I've seen no evidence of the grape growers putting out smudge pots or burning hay bales to fight against a freeze. Yesterday, I heard the helicopter-like sound of big fans blowing in the distance, but not many vineyards around us are so equipped.

Purple primevères in a neighbor's yard.

Meanwhile, we're still enjoying the spring bloom. Trees, shrubs, and bulbs are putting on their annual show. These primroses are in a neighbor's garden across the road from us. Those neighbors, like many others here, don't live here year round, so we haven't seen them in a while. Their grass has grown quite tall and they'll have a big chore waiting for them when they're able to get here.