Warming trend

This weekend is predicted to get warm, especially for the beginning of February. They say that by Monday the high temperature will reach 18ºC (nearly 65ºF). Jeez.

A light frost in the vineyard last week. These vines are pruned, but the cut canes haven't been ground up yet.

If the days are dry, I have a few outdoor chores I'd like the get done, like pruning back the hydrangeas and the lilac tree. I don't know what I'll do if it rains. I know it won't be snowing.

Throwback Thursday

Ken recently posted some photos of our French house when we first saw it, and in his comments he added a link to photos of our former house in San Francisco, just before we moved to France, with an additional link to some real estate photos of the place. Before we showed that house, I took some photos that have a more "lived in" look. That's because we were living in it at the time.

The living room and dining area. We had the old aluminum windows replaced. From these windows we had a view of San Francisco Bay and the Oakland Coliseum on the other side.

Soon after I took these shots of what I call the "great room," that is, the living room, dining room, and kitchen, we engaged the real estate agents who advised us how to get the place ready for showing. Their advice was simple: get most of the stuff out and empty the corners. Empty corners make a room look bigger, apparently. We obliged, of course.

The living room with the fireplace just outside the photo on the left. No flat-screen tv back then!

I don't have photos of the rest of the place, or maybe I do, but I don't know where they are. We lived in this house for almost eight years. We transformed it, and the investment was well worth it. We made a tidy profit from the sale and that allowed us to move to France.

The dining area and the kitchen, which we had remodeled. The kitchen was originally enclosed. We had it gutted and the walls removed to open it up to the rest of the room.

I really liked this house, even though it had its problems. I suppose all houses have problems and that's just the nature of home ownership. Looking back, I'm glad we did what we did to improve the place. We did it mostly for us and our comfort, but it paid off when we sold the place.

The new kitchen seen from the living room. I'm convinced that the kitchen remodel really sold the house.

The one thing I don't miss is the house's location up a very steep hill from the local subway station. I was younger then and the exercise was good, but I can't fathom having to climb that hill every day now. Thank goodness for retirement! And just for fun, here I am in the kitchen at Christmas in 2002.

My hair is a lot greyer now.

Nids-de-poule

Hens' nests. That's what potholes are called in French. The dirt road through the vineyards out back is rife with them. Every year they form and every year the town fills them in. Then they form again. I suppose that's no surprise given that it's a dirt road and is used by heavy equipment (tractors, harvesters, etc.). When it rains, the potholes become puddles. In winter they can freeze solid and I have to be careful not to slip on them.

How many hens made these nests?

Interestingly, most streets and roads in France (with the possible exception of some mountainous areas) are pothole-free. French winters are just not as harsh as, say, Chicago or Montréal winters with the constant freeze-thaw cycles that wreck paved streets. The French also have a reputation for maintaining their street and road network very well. That's not to say that there aren't "hens' nests" here and there, just that they're not all that common. Except in dirt roads.

Of course, I had to verify what the plural of nid-de-poule [nee-duh-pool] is. Compound expressions can be tricky, at least for me. Wikipedia says the plural is nids-de-poule, the literal translation being "nests of hen" or "hen's nests" which looks to me like many nests of one hen. Why not nids-de-poules or "hens' nests?" I don't know. There's no difference in pronunciation between the singular and the plural.

That got me thinking about the hen's (hens'?) eggs. Are the yolks called jaunes d'œuf (plural yolks but singular egg) or jaunes d'œufs (plural yolks, plural eggs)? I think officially it's the latter in French (unlike nids-de-poule), although I do hear both said. The "f" in the singular œuf is pronounced whereas the "f" and "s" in the plural œufs are not. I've never heard anyone say "eggs' yolks" in English. Comprend qui peut (understand if you can). Ain't language fun?

Tasha Tuesday

I enjoyed our walks during our recent cold spell, especially the morning walks. Not only is the cold air invigorating, but the mud in the road freezes and Tasha doesn't get dirty. No clean-up needed after the walk.

This is the western end of the dirt road through the vineyards where we walk. It's where we normally turn around to head back home.

As always, Tasha needs a good brushing.

We're back to muddy paws again now. We've had rain and wind through the night. The wind is still blowing out there and, when I woke up this morning, rain was pelting the loft windows. We probably won't be going far this morning.

Thin ice

Late last week, the little pond outside our back gate froze over. Granted, the ice layer was paper thin, but it was there nonetheless. Since we've been here, the pond has frozen many times, but I don't think it's ever been frozen enough to walk on.

Even if this ice were thick enough, skating would be impossible because of the all the plants sticking through.

Now our weather has warmed back up. Today is rainy and that means more mud. And shorter walks with Tasha.

Tarte amandine aux pommes

Here's a variation on the tarte I learned to make with pears. If I remember correctly, the first time I made it was in 2009 for Ken's birthday. Since then, I've made the same recipe with figs, peaches, and even blueberries. This time it was apples.

Peeled and quartered apples are pushed down into the almond filling before baking, then glazed with apple jelly once the finished tarte cools.

It came out fine, but I would say that pears, figs, peaches, and blueberries are better in this kind of tarte. But you never know until you try, right?

It's not so bad

Here's a photo I took on Friday morning of the area behind our hedge where the construction equipment was parked for three months and the big trucks and backhoes pulled in and out. It doesn't look too bad in the picture and, in fact, it's not so bad. I do think winter and spring weather will help it to settle and smooth out.

Looking north on Friday. Our back hedge is on the right side. What was left of the pile of gravel has been smoothed out.

Compare that image with the one below, taken in late October. It's not the same view, but it shows the depth of the bigger ruts that were made. All things considered, they did a pretty good job cleaning it up.

Looking south last October. Our back hedge is on the left side.

This coming spring, when the grass starts growing back, I'll smooth out any remaining high spots and try to fill in some of the low spots. I'm sure the neighborhood moles will make plenty of hills; that's where I get the fill dirt.