Monday 19 October 2009

Interior Design and Architectural Plans, Norwich

Visit website and blog at www.tallulahward.com



Tallulah offers a free one hour no obligation initial meeting to discuss interior design or architectural requirements.  Her passion for Design and Architecture is supported by Residential and Commercial experience in the provision of computer generated images, architectural renderings, site plans, planning applications, liaison with local government authorities as well as project management.

Sunday 18 October 2009

Autumn Vegetables


We're still eating the beetroot but as they don't like frost and we have had the first frost already,we must harvest and store. We will screw off the leaves to be washed, steamed, chopped and frozen for later spinachy tarts. The beets will be stored in a dark, dry place. They are excellent for constipation!!! Trying to eat several per week. The French variety is so much better than an English beetroot.
The Romanesco cauliflowers are almost at an end. We had such luck with these, and developed a technique of removing the lower leaves so that the energy went into creating the edible flower head. The rest of the plant was substantial for compost. Excellent with cheese sauce or steamed florets with butter.
Hiding in the bowl are the last of the tomatoes. This year bought plants produced abundant fruits despite the subjugation to the southerly or westerly winds. I get the plants from local growers at the vide greniers. This year 10 euros of investment ( that is 10 plants) gave us tomatoes for about 4 months. AND a neighbour has just given us monster green tomatoes, ostensibly for us to make chutney, but I am trying to ripen them using the brown-paper-bag technique.

Autumn Walk


What a glorious day .. a chilly foggy morning heralded warm sunshine for the afternoon visit to the Foire de Vendange where more brocanteurs than vintners occupied La Halle and the petit chemins.

Saturday 17 October 2009

Donkey Delights

Manure for October diggings was collected for the potager a few days ago. Well-rotted and odour-free it should help the pots to grow next year.
Merci à Violette et les ânes.





Friday 9 October 2009

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Tuesday 6 October 2009

October 6th 2009
It's 22°C on the porch and 20°C on the gravelled area in front of the house, no wind, a clear sky to the north and east, with wispy sheets of cloud above the setting sun in the east, the sky shades of bright orange, black silhouetted trees and crows, grasshoppers still singing, reinette frogs calling to each other, sheep coughing, dogs settling down for the night.
The time is 20h in France.
We have just enjoyed an evening meal of a freshly cut Romanesco cauliflower from our garden served in a colommiers cheese sauce with tiny cube chippies made from our very own potatoes. The last of the lettuce chopped finely and both scattered on top. An alcohol free meal. We've taken to drinking cherry cordial but it's fruity taste cannot trick us!
As a reward we can have a small portion of dark chocolate a gift from a Swiss friend and a glass of Port! Why not I say!
Lunch was green spaghetti with a sauce made from the leftovers of a can of tuna, 2 shallots bought at the Garlic Fair, 8 wild cherry tomatoes from the garden with coriander and garlic seasoning. MMmm..

Sunday 4 October 2009

Walking Lesigny

en route
casse-croute
bread, cheeses, meat with a glass of bordeaux
healthy dried fruits and chocolate dessert avec café
conviviality
beauty
pamplemousse rosé
delight after a 10k randonnée

Saturday 3 October 2009

October comes around

The rotted straw manure that has been piled in long strips on the field labelled on the map as 'a paradise for goats' (now strewn with sheep), has been collected and spread onto other fields in the vicinity. Huge tractors with muck spreading credentials and gigantic ploughs have sped along our lane for several days. One night Captain Sensible wished to know where they were and what they were doing!!! It seemed like the fields had been cleared of all the dried brown sunflower heads and also the arid maize had been stripped from the now bare earth. Autumnal horizons were vast once again.

Big Feet came on the moonlit walk. I was very protective of her because of an experience many moons ago in wildest Suffolk. I was cat and house sitting and enjoying an evening walk on narrow lanes admiring the loyalty of a cat to follow it's temporary mistress when I picked up the aforesaid follower to protect it from a passing vehicle but the feline creature leapt out of my hands ... and that was that! I felt like Lady Macbeth. I sobbed for weeks ... and of course the worst was that I had to inform the owner. I have learned how to hold a cat and prevent it from leaping. The driver of today had seen our silhouettes and realised that we were being careful not to get too near the large machines.

The roaring tractor stopped in the lane, at the end of it's working hours, and a tall young man whom we did not know jumped down from his cage and shook our hands. After a few pleasantries CS was invited for a ride around a field. You should have seen the smile on his face when he emerged from his sturdy steed, exclaiming that the last time he had ridden on a tractor was 45 years ago, as a young man in Israel working on the border of Gaza, with armed Danish soldiers supposedly guarding the volatile hotspot.