Lilac leaves

Our lilac dropped its flowers months ago. Now it's time for leaves to drop. But before they do, they put on a little show.

Like the grape vine leaves, these will soon turn brown and drop.

We find ourselves out of red wine. Oh, the horror! There's a winery across the river that I haven't been to in a long while, so I think I'll head up there this morning and see what's what. Today is Halloween and Friday is All Saint's Day. That means a three day weekend for many (la Toussaint is an official holiday), so traffic might be a little scary.

A café in Normandy

I believe this place is in the city of Rouen. We were there in the summer of 2006.

I think it's a restaurant inside.

I've got to take some new photos.

Fall

Our back yard is looking very fall-like this week. Soon the leaves will "fall" and the trees will be bare for winter.

One of our two apple trees on the left.

You can see the stump on the lower right. It's what's left of the 75-foot (about 23 meters) tall Himalayan cedar we had taken down last year. The tree was dying and needed to come out. Sad, but necessary.

Flowering cherry

The ornamental cherry tree that grows next to one corner of our carport has begun its autumn transformation from green to gold. We're seeing a lot of yellow and gold right now in the woods that border the vineyards. The vines themselves are moving from gold to brown. Early achievers.

The ornamental cherry.

We're supposed to have a decent weather week, so I'm hoping that we can get some of our outdoor chores done. I started clearing off the deck yesterday in preparation for winter. That means moving some plants indoors and putting away the furniture. Also, cleaning and covering the grill for the season, a job I don't look forward to, but one that must be done.

What's for lunch?

If you're at this spot in the Dordogne, it might be one of these sandwiches. Today, here at home, we're hoping to enjoy a gratin de chou-fleur made with the beautiful cauliflower that Ken got a few days ago.

All of these sound good to me!

Did you know that you can eat the greens of a cauliflower? As long as they're fresh looking and trimmed up a little, they're delicious. Ken cooked cauliflower greens in home-made chicken broth yesterday to have along side our lunch. Delicious, and nutritious!

When life gives you walnuts

A friend stopped by last weekend with a crate of walnuts from her trees. Naturally, my first impulse was to make a pie. The recipe is for pecan pie, but it works just as well with walnuts.

Tarte aux noix.

I made the pie on Thursday. It'll be gone by this afternoon. What's next? I'm thinking walnut pumpkin bread.

A pot of something on a wall

I think it's some variety of sedum. It looks very much like some of the sedum (also known as stonecrop) we have here at home.

This was on a wall at the gîte we rented in the Dordogne back in 2006.

This is the weekend we turn our clocks back to winter time. Tomorrow I'll adjust our clocks and timers so that it's done on Sunday morning. It won't be so dark at wake-up time for a while.