Local color

Here's a photo I took just outside Saint-Aignan ten years ago this spring. It was just before I got my first digital camera. I was using Ken's Canon Powershot Pro 90 and we were walking along an old Roman road out near where the zoo is just south of town.

A typical "longère" style house in our region.

I'm not actually sure that's where this photo was taken. I haven't been back to this spot since, but I know that the zoo has done a lot of expansion, and near this area they've built new parking lots to accommodate their increased attendance. I should go out there to see if I can find the spot again and if and how it has changed.

Holy mosses

Moss has covered the surface of the soil inside one of our small planter boxes out on the deck. And now the moss has "flowered" (they're not really flowers but pods of spores on stalks). I'm planning on digging it all up one day; the perennial geraniums in the planter box should go into the ground. There's not enough room for them to grow in the box.

Moss is "mousse" in French, just like the fluffy chocolate stuff.

If you look closely at the moss, you can see the spore stalks sticking up about a centimeter from the moss itself. I think it looks pretty up close, but from a regular distance it's just a box of moss.

January sun

It's always nice to see the sun and we've had a nice couple of days. It felt almost spring-like on Saturday. Looking back at photos, I remember that we had snow around this time last year. Not a lot, but enough to stick on the ground for a while.

Afternoon sun hitting the yard on the north side of the house.

Talking to the mayor yesterday, I learned that the hunting season ended already for game birds. I thought that today was the last day, but apparently the last day was last week. There will still be organized hunts around the area for roe deer and fox through February. We'll see how many take place in our neck of the woods (UPDATE: They're having one this morning right out back). She also mentioned that a group of about ten sangliers (wild boar) was recently spotted out in the vineyard behind our house. She didn't believe it until she saw photos that someone had taken. I have never seen boar around our house, but I have seen them a time or two out in more forested, less populated places.

Les champignons

I'm already thinking of one of next week's lunches. The second of February is the holiday called la Chandeleur (Candlemas). The traditional food to eat that day in France is crêpes. I make both savory and sweet crêpes for the day. The savory variety is made with buckwheat flour and they are stuffed with ham, cheese, and in our house, mushrooms.

These sautéed mushrooms were part of last year's savory crêpe lunch.

The sweet crêpes can be filled with anything from butter and sugar to fruit compote to chocolate. As usual, I'll probably take pictures of the meal, so stay tuned!

View from the deck

This is the typical winter view around here, seen from our front deck. Bare trees and green grass. We enjoyed a sunny day on Thursday and that helped with the temperature. The wind has pivoted to the south and this morning is the first in many that is above zero.

Our neighbors' property seen from our deck. The vast green lawn dips down into a wooded ravine to the south.

But with the south wind and warm air will come, they predict, clouds and rain. Oh well, you can't have everything.

The daily fire

This time of year I build a fire in the wood stove every day. For the past week I was making an early fire. Our fuel oil tank was low and we were waiting for a scheduled delivery, so I wanted to conserve the remaining oil. Building the fire early meant we didn't have to use the central heating as much.

Tuesday's fire in the wood stove, which is inside the fireplace.

But now we're back on the normal schedule. That means that I make the fire for the afternoon. I go out before lunch and split some logs and bring them in. After lunch I light the fire and keep it going until the evening. Then we let the house cool down over night (neither one of us likes to sleep in a warm room).

Le monde entier est un cactus

The whole world is a cactus. It's impossible to sit down! Yesterday, we got a little reminder that it's winter. As if we needed one. The day broke with freezing fog and little frost crystals covered tree branches and shrubs as far as the eye could see. The needle-like crystals in the photo sprouted on the weeping birch tree in front of our house.

Ice crystals like cactus needles.

Later in the afternoon Callie and I were snowed upon during our walk. It started as sleet but quickly changed to snow. The road was white by the time we got home and I had to brush snow off the dog's back before taking her into the house. The air flow is shifting today to the south; by Friday we should be having a mini heat wave. Well, maybe a mini not-as-cold wave.