Men at work

Here's a good-bye shot from the Château de Chenonceau, at least for now. The renovation project that required this scaffolding in the river was completed over a decade ago. I'm not aware of any projects going on now, but with these monuments there's always something that needs doing.

Hory-Chauvelin is a local masonry company that specializes in the renovation/restoration of historic monuments. September 2011.

The wind howled through the night. Again. Apparently there's a named storm crossing the British Isles and its southern edge is passing over us. According to the forecast, the wind is expected to continue through the day today.

Our landscape contractor is coming by next week to till up our vegetable garden plot. When we told him we had a heck of a time last year because the ground was as hard as concrete, he said, "Well, I can do that. We do it for many of our customers toward the end of March." The first tilling of the season is the most difficult, so getting that done by a pro will be a big help, not to mention a relief. I'll try to get some before and after photos, weather permitting.

Cherry blossom festival

Our flowering, but fruitless, cherry is finishing up its spring bloom. I though I'd get a shot before the blossoms start falling to the ground.

The cherry tree towers over our little carport. View from the deck.

Good news on the contractor front. A little background: last spring, we got an estimate for some plumbing work we've wanted done for a while, accepted it, and made a 30% down payment, which is customary. The contractor promptly cashed the check, but then we didn't hear from him. For months. Over the winter, I sent him an email but it went unanswered.

So, yesterday afternoon his truck showed up at the house of one of our neighbors. Ken and I walked right over. He was all smiles and said that he scheduled us for the end of April, and that he needed to take our central heating off-line for two days to do the job. Which, we presume, is why he didn't do anything over the fall and winter. I just wish he had let us know that we were in the queue.

Have you ever seen "A Year in Provence?"

Lights, camera...

These are some of the lights that light up the Château de Chenonceau at night. Or at least they were. I wonder if they're still there or if they've been replaced by something more modern.

Lights. September 2011.

Something curious is going on with Blogger comments. I noticed that my spam folder is suddenly filled with "spam" comments. Eighty-one of them at last count. And they are all from current and former regular commenters, so they're legit, not actual spam. And they go back to 2008. When I check the original post that one of these comments was made on, it's missing. I restored one, and it showed up once again on the original post. I know these comments have not been sitting in the spam folder all this time -- I regularly check that folder. They just moved from certain posts to the spam folder all of a sudden, seemingly on their own and with no rhyme or reason. I guess I'll restore them all, but I fear that this might be some web pirate's nefarious plot and my blog might blow up. Well, stand back, here goes nothing...

Sticky coconut chicken and rice

This one-pot meal recipe from the New York Times food section was not difficult to make, although the cooking time needed to be extended by about fifteen minutes to get the rice done. It might have been because I used round rice, but that's just a guess. I also should have browned the chicken a little more. My version came out much paler than the one in the NYT photo.

La mise en place. I used chives instead of scallions (we can't find them here) and frozen peppers instead of fresh.

First, the chicken (I used boneless, skinless breast), seasoned with salt and pepper, gets cut into good-sized pieces and browned in oil. When the chicken pieces are evenly browned, they come out and the minced garlic and ginger go in to sweat. The rice goes in next with a little more oil if necessary and gets stirred so it's evenly coated. Then the chives, bell pepper, and cashews go in, followed by the chicken broth and coconut milk. Once that's stirred around well, the browned chicken pieces get placed on top.

"Browned" chicken pieces, round rice, and home-made chicken broth (which is a bit cloudy but that didn't change the flavor).

The next step is to cover the pot and put it in a moderate oven for 25 minutes until the rice is done. I covered the wok and let it simmer on top of the stove. That could be another reason why it took longer for the rice to cook.

Lunch is served. If this had been for guests, I would have transferred it to an impeccably clean serving dish.

We added the sriracha (Thai hot sauce) at the table.

Other than looking whiter than a country club in Westchester, the end result, garnished with cilantro and a splash of sriracha, tasted delicious. We ate most of it; there's another serving left over. I would definitely try this again with an eye toward a more appetizing color.

Window pain

As in: it must be a pain to clean those windows.

And they're spotless! Château de Chenonceau, September 2011.

We're back to chilly weather for a few days. It's colder this morning than yesterday and we're not expecting it to get very warm through the day. I'll certainly get a fire going before too long.

But first I'm going to the store to pick up a couple of ingredients for lunch. I want to try a recipe that I saw in the New York Times recently called "Sticky coconut chicken and rice." I need some cilantro and some cashews. The rest of the ingredients are on hand. It's billed as a one-pot meal. I'll let you know how it goes.

Somewhere over there

This was a morning rainbow, formed as giboulées (rain showers) passed over us from the west while the sun rose, as it does, in the east on Saturday. Ken posted a photo of an afternoon rainbow a few days ago.

If happy little bluebirds fly... Looking westerly on Saturday morning.

Our current weather is kind of typical for March. We're getting a series of rain showers alternating with blue sky. And lots of wind, which makes the house feel chilly. We haven't seen sleet or hail, but they're always a possibility this time of year. We had a nice fire yesterday and I will probably build another today and likely on Monday, too.

The transition to Summer Time (or Daylight Saving Time) went smoothly. The majority of clocks and timers in the house have to be set manually and I typically make the rounds on Saturday afternoon. I still have the kitchen appliance clocks to adjust, and the cars need to be done. One clock that never got changed last fall is showing the correct time now.

Fancy stone work

And we're back at Chenonceau! I've forgotten where on the château this is, but I was under it looking up. It seems like some level of restoration was done and the workers moved on.

An example of fancy corbelling. September 2011.

We had a thunderstorm last night. It wasn't close, but we saw some very bright lightning flashes and heard the thunder rumbling off in the distance. Tasha jumped up onto the bed. She doesn't like thunder and lightning.