Not much

There isn't much happening. The weather has not been good for photos, and the days are still pretty dark. At least, they're dark when we're out with the dog. I'm sure you're tired of seeing pictures of sticks and leaves. Here's a restaurant that we went to in December. The food was pretty good and beautifully presented, but we were the only customers, which was a little weird. I think, based on its name, that it used to be a mill. The building sits next to an artificial lake out in the middle of the countryside. It's a beautiful location. I'm sure there is plenty of business in the summer season (especially on the outdoor terrace overlooking the water), and maybe on weekend nights in winter, but we were there for lunch mid-week.

Restaurant le Moulin de Chaudé.

As the days lengthen, I hope to get out and about a little more with the camera. Sounds easy, but I'm a serious homebody and, from where we live, going anywhere other than for a walk involves the car. And Callie doesn't like the car, so that doesn't motivate me to go places with her.

Mid week chill

The temperatures are falling and we should be near or at freezing by Friday. I think it's going to be a kind of a shock to feel real cold after this unusually warm fall and winter season. Our new boiler will be put to the test. So far it's working fine and we're very happy with it.

Our recent winds have probably blown these dried-up leaves off their tree by now.

We've got some winter meals planned now. Today Ken is making (has made, in the slow cooker) a bœuf aux carottes (beef stew with white wine and carrots) and we're planning a blanquette de veau (veal stew in a cream sauce) for later in the week. We got the beef and the veal on sale last month and they've been hanging out in the freezer. Those two dishes should feed us for a while. And I have pizza planned for over the weekend.

Today I'm making a wine run; I've run out of rosé (gasp!) and we'll need some more red before long. There's a winery whose rosé I like a couple of towns over, so I'll head over there later this morning.

A different view

I find that I usually see the rooms in our house from the same vantage points: my chair at the table, where I sit to watch television, where I stand to see out the windows. Every once in a while, if I sit somewhere else, the room or rooms look different from what I'm used to. This view of the living/dining room, for example, is not what I usually see. The television is behind me and I'm looking back into the house rather than out through the doors to the deck. It struck me as funny looking (funny strange, not funny ha-ha), so I took a picture.

I turned the lights on for the photo because the sun had set. Don't mind the mess on the coffee table.

The weather people are telling us that winter is coming. Finally. Single-digit temperatures are predicted for the coming week (in Celsius, all above freezing), then some freezing weather after that. We'll see if the forecast holds.

Monday macros

The shards of this broken vineyard post made me think of crystals. My mind works in mysterious ways. When it works.

Splintered wood, 100mm (macro), f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO 800.

The rain squalls and wind gusts continue and are expected to do so for another twenty-four hours or so. The wind is still not as strong as they've been predicting, and that's a good thing. But it's quite wet outside.

Hedging my bets

I've had to face facts: I can't do the hedge trimming any more. Certainly not the high hedges, and until my elbow heals, not even the low hedges. So I asked the landscape contractor to do them all this year. I also asked him to reduce the height of another section of the hedge out back. It's the western edge that looks over the vineyard and now it's all the same height. I'm pretty pleased with the result. Another advantage of having the contractors do all the work is that they also do all of the cleanup and take away the trimmings. Here are some photos. I didn't get any true "before" shots, but i did get some "during" and "after."

The section on the left is done, the section on the right will be reduced to the same height.

The finished hedges, reduced in height and trimmed all around, seen from out back beyond the pond.

View from inside the back gate before the height reduction.

View from inside the back gate (different angle) after the height reduction.

Inside the cake

This isn't a very satisfactory shot. The cake got mushed down when cut, so you don't see all the layers of pastry. But trust me, they're there. When we had our first slices, neither one of us found the prize inside. Same thing on the second day: no prize. Finally, yesterday, we had the last two slices and I got the prize, a little ceramic salt pot (I saved the fèves, or prizes, from galettes we bought commercially years ago and now use them in my own cakes).

You can see where the layer of blueberries colored the almond cream inside the galette.

We are getting warnings from the weather people that a storm will be moving through on Sunday night with high winds. Yuck. I hate wind. I'll have to batten down the hatches and check the yard for anything that might blow around and put it indoors. I'll also gather up a couple of days' worth of dry kindling and put it in the garage.

Friday fifties

Here is a winter scene from this past week. Doesn't look very wintry, does it? But it's what winter looks like around here most of the time. We've had snow in years past, but it never really amounts to much and it doesn't last long. In one exceptional year we got close to a foot of snow and it stayed on the the ground for more than a week. Otherwise, when we get snow, it's between a dusting and maybe an inch or two, and it melts away quickly.

Vineyards in winter, 50mm, f/8.0, 1/125s, ISO 500.

For today's lunch Ken's making chicken Kiev. I don't think I've ever had it and I know Ken hasn't eaten it in decades. We saw Jamie Oliver make it on television and thought it looked good. It's one of those dishes that was in fashion back in the seventies but has pretty much gone away. If it works out, there might be photos. Even if it doesn't work out, there might be photos.

A reminder: Friday fifties refers to photos taken with my 50mm prime (fixed) lens. It's an exercise to get myself to use it more and to rely less on the zoom lens.