A summery fall weekend

We're getting one more day out of this warm spell. The forecasters have moved the cool-down and rain out about twelve hours, so most of today should be nice with temperatures approaching 25ºC again, about 77ºF. As I mentioned, I took advantage of the weather to get some outdoor work done.

Saturday evening looking over the freshly mowed west 40 as the sun began to set.

Of course, my food plans didn't quite go with the weather, but that's ok. I could have been grilling, but I have a lot of leftovers in the fridge.

On Sunday evening's walk, Tasha and I got caught in a rather heavy, but brief, unexpected shower. The rain came down as if Noah himself were building an ark out back. I eventually took shelter under the roof of the vineyard cabin. Tasha wouldn't, but was beside herself rather annoyed at getting pelted with fat raindrops. As suddenly as it started, the rain stopped. We were treated to a nearly perfect rainbow on the way back to the house, both of us soaked to the bone.

Poule au pot

Saturday morning was a little overcast and damp, so I decided to make my Sunday lunch a day early. I made a classic French dish called poule au pot (chicken in a pot). The recipe is traditionally made with an old laying hen, a tough bird that requires at least a couple of hours in the pot to become tender. Nowadays, many people just use regular chickens (poulet) that can poach in a fraction of that time.

A free-range farm-raised chicken. I used yellow turnips because they looked so pretty. The bay leaves and thyme come from our garden.

I took the picture before I remembered the onion, but it went in.

I got a nice chicken from the supermarket and all the standard vegetables. Leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, parsnips, onion, along with salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, and some allspice (instead of cloves). I put the chicken in a pot, covered it with water, and brought it to a boil. I skimmed the broth, then added the vegetables and herbs. It all simmered for a little less than an hour before I turned it off and let it sit for ten minutes or so.

Poached chicken with tender vegetables. A chicken in every pot!

The chicken was perfectly poached and the vegetables were all tender. And it was delicious! Of course, now I have a ton of leftovers. I froze most of the broth for later, but I saved some out for today's lunch. I plan to cut up some of the remaining chicken and vegetables, add noodles, and make a chicken noodle soup. I have some Japanese soba (buckwheat) noodles to use, so I'll look for some recipes online for an Asian-style soup.

Yard work

Friday turned out to be a beautiful day. Sunny, warm, and dry. I took advantage of the weather to get some things done outdoors. First, I trimmed the spent flower stalks off the clary sage around the real fake well. At the base of each plant, new growth is abundant. With the flower stalks gone, the well looks much neater.

I don't have photos of my handiwork yet, so here are some grape vine leaves.

Next, I tackled a project that Ken has been talking a lot about recently: clearing an overgrown patch of brambles from against our fence. The spot is where our friend, Sue, transplanted a bunch of iris bulbs back in 2006. Since then, the wild blackberries have taken over. I got the hedge trimmer out and cut it all down as close to the ground as I could. Then I got the lawnmower out and mulched the heck out of it all. Much neater looking.

Finally, after lunch I cut the grass in the south 40 and outside our hedges along the road. I still have the north and west 40s to cut. I could do that today, depending on the weather (some light showers are predicted) or Sunday morning, which is supposed to be our warmest and driest day before a new rain system moves in.

There is still much to be done, but fall is young. The vegetable garden is finishing up and that will need to get cleaned up for winter. The greenhouse needs a little reorganizing before we bring plants in for the season. I could go on, but you get the idea.

The grove

This is the little grove on the Artsy Organized Neighbor's property. I don't know if he cuts the grass or if it's naturally this way. You can see his "paved" road that circles the grove. On the right are some piles of dirt and the black gravel he used for paving. On the left you can see an old roulotte, a covered wagon, like a camper, made entirely of wood. This one's wheels have been removed so it sits on the ground.

The little grove adjacent to the vineyard. It almost looks like a city park.

Our weather is warming up again. We're expecting temperatures in the low to mid twenties (low 70sF) over the weekend. I'm planning to get the mower out and cut the grass this afternoon while the sun shines and there are no showers predicted.

For art's sake

This is part of the Artsy Organized Neighbor's collection. Apparently he's a retired public works employee whose career had something to do with road building and maintenance. He lives in town, but has this property out here where he collects old roadside marker posts and other things. Last year he "paved" the road through his property with fine black gravel (he's got it in better shape than the road through the vineyard).

Big rocks (old cobblestones?), bits of metal, tarps, a railing, and a wheel. I think the tubes are old roadside marker posts.

My guess is that he misses his work, so he putters around out in the woods from time to time. Memories of better days, I suppose. None of his stuff is an eyesore. It's all neatly organized and is mostly hidden behind his log pile, which itself is kind of hidden behind a row of hazelnut trees that he keeps nicely trimmed. I wonder what will happen to it all when he eventually passes away.

The woodpile

This wood pile is not ours (too bad!). It belongs to the Artsy Organized Neighbor and sits out on an isolated property between vineyard parcels and a ravine in the adjacent woods. We walk by it most days, although usually on the vineyard side.

Standard one-meter lengths of oak and other hardwoods are neatly stacked on the AON's property.

The trailer and other odd pieces of old and rusting machinery are parked next to the woodpile. I don't think I've ever seen them moved, but the woodpile shrinks and grows from year to year.

Tasha Tuesday

Tasha really likes to go off-road, as it were, and through the woods on her walks. This particular route leads us by a big woodpile and the collection of the Artsy Organized Neighbor and then through the woods on what is probably a deer path. Callie used to like the same path, and now it's Tasha's.

Just beyond Tasha, where you can see grass, is the western entrance to the path through the woods.

Where the path exits the woods next to a vineyard parcel, thorny brambles grow and block the way. Even Tasha struggles to get through unscathed. Once a year, Ken or I take a pair of pruning shears on the walk to clear it out, making the path accessible again. I did that last week so we no longer have to fight with thorns. Until next year.