Folie of Life

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2012-01-15T10:50:00.001+01:00

Winter has arrived! Thankfully, no snow yet, but the frost is making everything look very pretty. I took the camera with me during the afternoon walk with Athos a couple of days ago - yes, there are bits of the forest where the frost stays all day!

Ice and frost on a landscape you see close up every day makes the familiar unfamiliar, so you notice new things at every step.

Where there are rivulets of water that run down from higher up the mountain, you usually hear them trickling, but don't see exactly where they go. Until they freeze, that is.

Even ivy (of which I'm not normally fond) becomes pretty when it's part of an impromptu ice sculpture.

Apparently, the only really effective way to cope with the arrival of cold weather...

...is to drink hot chocolate and wedge your feet under a large, hairy dog!

Bye-bye 2011

2012-01-12T15:32:00.001+01:00

Sorry, dear reader. I got so embroiled in the preparations and then the celebrations for Christmas and New Year, that I somehow never got round to updating the blog. So, to bring you up to date, here is a photo summary of the festivities...

I made my very first "Buche de Noel" - from scratch.

As ever, thanks to Saint Nigella!

It was decided that the "Reveillon" party chez Guy and Mylene would at least in part be in "fancy dress". We just decided to spend the whole evening dressed up to the nines.

The dinner jacket seemed to have the desired effect. Here's Kevin trying (and failing) to fight off the beautiful Chloe.

Chloe's Mum, Mylene, went for the full-on Avengers look.

Move over, Emma Peel!!

Not quite sure what look Stephane was going for,

but I don't think it was working!

Lest you think we overdid the alcohol last year, here are ALL our wine corks,

from 1st January to 31st December 2011.

Sweets to the sweet

2011-11-29T16:58:00.002+01:00

Weirdly, as I started to type this post, the Mika song "Lollipop" has just started playing on my iPod. "Sucking too hard on your lollipop, oh, love's gonna get you down"!!!

Anyway on to the sweets.....

A couple of weeks ago I made an essential purchase, a silicone chocolate mould. Then we were invited out for dinner, so I thought I'd make some homemade post-dessert goodies for our hosts - a good excuse to try out the choccie mould.

Of course, being something of a sweet monster, I wasn't prepared to stop at the chocolate mould.....oh, no!

Ta-dah........dark chocolate and stem ginger truffles.

Not bad for a first attempt with the new toy!

As Kevin is to fudge what Imelda Marcos is to shoes, there had to be some fudge.

Walnut fudge, featuring walnuts from our own tree - how fab is that?

Coconut Ice apparently doesn't exist in France.......

except at La Folie!

The first time I made Coconut Ice for some French neighbours, in the pauses between squares, they asked why it was pink and white. Kevin and I both replied, "Because it is." If anyone knows the real reason why Coconut Ice is always pink and white, I'd love to know!!

And because happiness is homemade,

so was the packaging!

CSI Sanglier!

2011-11-24T12:38:00.004+01:00

One of our neighbours arrived a couple of days ago with some pieces of freshly-shot wild boar (sanglier). Fortunately for me, the kind neighbour had already skinned it and removed the recognizable parts, so I was left with a bag of "bits". I decided to cut the meat into cubes and make a kind of "daube" - a stew involving a red wine marinade.

Being a veggie married to an omnivore, I am quite used to cooking meat. I'm not quite as well-versed in cooking freshly-shot meat! Having peeped into the carrier bag containing the bits, I felt in need of a bit of extra preparation to tackle the contents....

I think I'm ready now!

Having got my plate of "wild pig lumps", I then spent an absolute age cleaning my meat chopping board (definitely not be confused with my veg chopping board!), all the worktops involved, and anything else in the vicinity!

The aforementioned lumps in their "cook marinade" of red wine, onions, carrots, celery, fresh thyme from the garden, with a bay leaf for good measure.

Having languished in their marinade for a suitable period, the lumps then spent 3 hours in a low oven turning themselves into a daube that I was informed was delicious (and which I forgot to photograph!).

Dirty Boy!

2011-11-20T21:00:00.003+01:00

One member of this family likes to play in rivers, streams, and waterfalls. He likes to scrabble under the water with his paws until he finds a suitably sized stone, then stick his head under the water to pick it up between his teeth. He then runs off into the forest to hide the prized pebble in a place where we won't find it. Usually a place involving mud......

He's hardly pleased with himself at all, is he?

I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts...

2011-11-18T11:57:00.001+01:00

See them all a-standing in a row.

Big ones, small ones, some as big as your 'ead...

If you're English, you will now be singing in a fake Cockney accent.

If you're "rest of the world", you will be utterly confused!

Never mind, as I haven't got a "loverly bunch" of coconuts. Bernard (Corinne next-door's dad) appeared a couple of weeks ago brandishing a car boot full of pumpkins, at least one of which was not only bigger than my head, but was nearly as big as the dog!

Athos, suspecting that the pumpkin was about to get more attention than him, was deeply unimpressed!

He became rather more interested when

a) I attacked the attention-grabbing vegetable with a large blade, and

b) he realized it might be edible!

Having dismembered (or pumpkin-equivalent) the massive object, it was time to transform it into things we could eat...

First up was a pumpkin curry (from a downloaded recipe). This turned out only to be "medium" on the success scale, so we ate the first half of the batch with rice. I liquidized the second half of the batch into a soup, which was much nicer!

Rather more successful was a loaf of pumpkin bread, from a Linda Collister recipe.

Until it emerged from the oven, a glossily brown triumphant "boule" of bread, I was completely unconvinced about this one. I followed the recipe to the letter but the dough flatly refused to rise (flatly refused - chortle!) during the hour and a half that I left it, draped in a damp tea towel, in the warmest place in the kitchen. I thought it was going to fall victim to our lack of an airing cupboard in which to persuade the yeast to do whatever yeast does. Fully expecting one of those things you slide along the ice in a game of curling, I nonetheless put the flat lump of dough into the oven. Half an hour later - magic!

Breaddio Pumpkinio Fabuloso (as Harry Potter would say).

After the trauma of working with recipes written by cooks other than Saint Nigella, I returned to the Goddess for Spiced Pumpkin Chutney. Couldn't have been easier. Chop stuff up, put it in a big pan with some spices and vinegar, cook it, put it in jars, feel utterly brilliant for the rest of the day! I now have seven jars of it quietly maturing in the pantry. This forms part of my "Festive Preparations" Collection (how pretentious is that?) and will feature in a future post, so stay tuned!

Our guilty secret...

2011-11-09T10:01:00.000+01:00

We gave one hundred people one hundred seconds to guess what this post is about......

Regular readers of this blog (thanks, Neat!) will know that I have a faiblesse for costume drama on television. I don't often confess to liking "popular" programmes, but Kevin and I are hooked on the BBC's "Pointless"!

It's fun, there's no Anne Robinson-style bullying, I don't have to spend the whole show screaming in frustration at the screen "Just choose a ****ing box!", and knowing the most obscure answer to a question is rewarded.

In fact, we love "Pointless" so much that I decided to devote a page of my journal to it...

The Colours of Autumn

2011-11-02T10:23:00.000+01:00

Whilst taking The Paw Monster for a walk up the hill towards Salvezines the other day, I began to understand why autumn is Kevin's favourite season. The colours all around are glorious....

These improbably bright pink berries are the fruit of the European Spindle Tree (gotta love internet research for making yourself sound like a bona fide botanist!). Frankly, that name is rubbish. In honour of the colour of its berries, it should be called the Barbie Tree!

1st November is "Toussaint" - All Saints' Day. In France it's traditional to put flowers (usually chrysanthemums) on the graves of relatives. The flame coloured tree adds even more colour to the scene.

Even the ivies are joining in!

And the mellow fruitfulness continues with a Nigella apple and walnut cake.

Apples courtesy of Ray and Brenda. Walnuts courtesy of Gauvin, the big brown stallion. (Gauvin really is a horse, not just a bloke in the village with a walnut tree who fancies himself a bit!)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness....

2011-10-28T11:55:00.000+02:00

For anyone wondering, no, that's not a song title.

My knowledge of song titles being limited and my patience with lyrics search sites being even more limited, I'm afraid my loyal readers will have to put up with whatever title my brain cell can invent from here on. (Except for today, obviously, as I've nicked this title from John Keats. As he's dead, I thought he probably wouldn't mind...)

Autumn is here, and for some reason that wakes up my baking mojo. Probably because sticking your head in the oven to see if a cake is cooked is not something you do when the sun is shining. Also because there's nothing like a mug of hot chocolate and a homemade biscuit on a chilly day. Yummers!

So, to bring you up to date with my baking endeavours....

A couple of weeks ago, our friend Myriam celebrated her birthday. Any excuse to launch myself at a Nigella "Devil's Food Cake", which is a chocolatey mountain of extreme joy.

My icing technique is a little rusty, but the cake was delicious!

Who would have thought that you could make Ginger Nuts at home? Not me, until a Linda Collister book gave me the idea. The recipe called for golden syrup, of which I currently have very little, so I substituted black treacle, of which I have rather more. Turned out to be a good move. These were fantastic!

I always knew that I would one day discover the benefit of having inherited my Dad's enormous hands gene. They're GREAT for making cookies! This was a recipe sent to me by penpal Elizabeth on the lid of a Quaker oats tub. It took me ages to translate the measurements from American into grams, but it was well worth it.

These "Vanishing Oat Cookies" were something between a cookie and a flapjack and were absolutely wonderful. Thanks Elizabeth!

Walking on Sunshine

2011-10-02T22:15:00.000+02:00

Quite a lot of Europe is basking in unusually high late-summer temperatures. Languedoc-Roussillon is no exception. We're enjoying blue skies, beautiful sunshine, and warm, warm afternoons. So much so that we decided to make the most of it and take The Hairy Boy to the beach....

Athos is a very fast swimmer - he beat me to the ball every time!

Not sure who's chasing whom here!

No Mr. Bean-style shenanigans with a beach towel for this dog.

A massive, full-body shake is followed by....

...a roll in the sand and a demure expression.

Where did you get that hat?

2011-09-24T17:49:00.000+02:00

As an Englishwoman living in France, I think on the whole it's wiser not to say too much about the relative performances of England and France in the rugby World Cup this morning.

Despite showing his support for his national team by sporting the famous "cock hat", there were times when even a dog couldn't bear to watch France playing New Zealand.

At times the frustration led to a beak biting for the cock!

And after the match, he just wanted me to take the thing off.

I'm just relieved I didn't tell him I was wearing my England knickers!!

There's No Place Like Home

2011-09-16T18:55:00.000+02:00

Myriam and Yvan (previous owners of Athos) insisted that they wanted to build a "niche" (kennel, but niche sounds much nicer!) for the Hairy Boy. As Myriam is very round awaiting the arrival of a baby, the actual building fell to Yvan. He built the kennel, assembled it to make sure it all fit together properly, took it all to bits again so that it would go in the back of his 4x4, and brought it to La Folie to rebuild it. What a hero!

The niche has landed!

(Watched by the father and son team of Athos (l) and Bitxu (r).

Always ready with helpful advice, Kev's skills really lie more in P.R.!!

I believe in construction parlance, this is known as "topping out".

The site foreman!

Having marvelled at the construction of such a magnificent dog-dwelling,

it was all we could do to stop Yvan moving into it himself!

Happy Birthday to you!

2011-09-07T20:33:00.000+02:00

It was Kevin's birthday today, so we went to the beach, dipped our paws in the sea, and bought a BIG ice cream.

For any "first time readers" who may happen upon this, Kevin is my husband. Athos is the dog. And yes, it was Kevin's birthday......so we bought the dog an ice cream. All clear?

Puppy Love

2011-09-05T17:47:00.000+02:00

On Saturday, Myriam and Yvan asked us if we would like to adopt Athos.

I think you can guess the answer!

I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby

2011-09-03T15:41:00.001+02:00

Yeah....right! I'm not aware of a song with the title "I'm just an idle trollop, baby", which is what I am because I haven't updated the blog properly during the height of summer.

I'm claiming as contributory factors: the lack of a proper summer in France (we've gone from baking hot to heavy rain and back again for the past few weeks); all the neighbours at La Folie arriving for the summer, thus necessitating lunch parties that start at noon and end at midnight!; some lovely guests at the B&B, many of whom stayed for several days and required feeding, which required the cooking of such delicacies as deep-fried courgette flowers stuffed with soft cheese, sundried tomatoes and capers and, my own invention, individual blackberry pavlovas (yum!); and the fact that I'm an idle trollop!!

As a little catch-up, here are a few highlights of high summer at La Folie.....

The breakfast table at La Folie, all ready for the guests to appear.

The spread boasts several varieties of homemade jam, Lemon Curd La Folie (very popular!), and lurking on the sideboard is a big jar of homemade granola.

The evidence that it was hot some of the time.

34 degrees Celsius at quarter past three in the afternoon.

Even that kind of heat doesn't explain why people think boules is a good idea!

(The fact that the adults had partaken of liberal quantities of "Soupe Champenoise" before, and possibly during, lunch may offer an excuse!)

Stephane is usually a responsible adult.

Usually....

The ear that was stung by a wasp!

Athos, who was so hot that he got into the drinking fountain and slurped around himself!

Athos and Lady swimming after a stick in the pool below the little waterfall.

Our friend, Dominique, introduces Kevin to the delights of the quad bike.

As I type this, there's an almighty thunderstorm going on outside, and Kevin is in the sitting room listening to Tony Blackburn's "Pick of the Pops" with Athos.

Time for a cup of tea, I think.....

Zing! Went the Strings of my Harp

2011-07-16T17:55:00.002+02:00

Any second now, you'll realize why I adjusted the song title...

Yesterday afternoon we scaled the dizzy heights of Puilaurens Castle to listen to a (free!) concert of Celtic harp music. Somehow the harp looked right at home surrounded by the ruins of the ancient castle (including the "broken teeth").

Even just standing on its table, the harp was an object of some beauty.

The beauty of the instrument was magnified once it was being played.

At one point during the concert a dozen or more swallows were wheeling about in the air high above the castle - nature's perfect illustration of the music.

I imagine bards or minstrels played at the castle in centuries past.

It was an absolute delight to sit in the middle of "our" castle and listen to music that may well have been played there way back in the mists of time.

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside.

2011-07-06T21:00:00.000+02:00

Even more glorious weather today, so we pointed Emily's nose towards the coast.

About an hour after we set off, we reached Canet Plage.

Miles of beautiful beach and the Mediterranean all ready for a paddle....

...plenty of photo opportunities...

...and a guest appearance from The Man from Del Monte!

It doesn't get better than this!

I Can See for Miles

2011-07-04T15:32:00.000+02:00

A day off from the extreme sports!

Today we decided to take advantage of the glorious weather and to visit

Puilaurens Castle.

Being a Cathar castle, it is, of course, on top of a hill. That said, I think it's one of the easier castles to reach. You just walk up "les chicanes".

I'm only lagging behind the boys to take the photo!

I love the raggedy crenellations. They look like a mouthful of broken teeth!

Even against the backdrop of such glorious scenery, the castle is magnificent.

As La Folie has a view of the castle, it's only fair that the castle has a view of La Folie.

We're down there somewhere!

By the rivers of....

2011-07-02T22:32:00.000+02:00

...Aude.

I know it doesn't have enough syllables to scan,

but you wouldn't believe me if I said Babylon, now would you?

Today's adventurous activity for The Young Master was canyoning.

Until today, I had no idea what canyoning was.

I now know it involves putting on a crash helmet...

...and a wetsuit....

...and following the course of a river along the bottom of a canyon.

In this case it was the River Aude flowing through the Gorges of Galamus.

Even viewed from the safety of the road above the river,

the scenery is stunning.

Following the river involves some swimming, some climbing, and some plunging into pools along with the waterfalls. The eagle-eyed among you may spot Athos joining in. Anyone who has ever tried to prevent an Australian sheepdog doing something he's determined to do, however daft, will understand that we tried to stop him!

David seems to be enjoying the whole adventure!

Summer Fun

2011-07-01T22:05:00.000+02:00

Being honoured by a visit from Kevin's son, David, gives us the opportunity to encounter some of the more energetic activities available in the neighbourhood.

Today's adventure was the Via Ferrata at St. Paul de Fenouillet. It's a kind of "mountaineering for beginners" course, which allows those less terrified of heights than me to climb a real mountain with the help of hand-holds fastened to the rock and a lifeline to which your harness is attached at all times. David was very lucky to be accompanied on the adventure by our friend Yvan

The adventurers, all harnessed up and ready to go.

David making climbing a mountain look easy!

Yvan on the "pont tibetain". If this is what they call a bridge in Tibet, I'm not going!

It's not normal to look happy when you're standing on a wire miles up in the air!

Happy adventurers back on terra firma.

The peak slightly to the right of David's head is the end of their climb.

Phew!

Anyone for Tennis?

2011-06-21T15:30:00.000+02:00

There are some afternoons, even in summery Languedoc Roussillon,

when all you want to do is make a nice cup of tea, sit on the sofa...

and watch Wimbledon on the telly....

'Nuff said!

Chain Gang

2011-06-11T11:15:00.000+02:00

Now that the weather has improved, the residents of La Folie can get on with some of the outdoor jobs that have been waiting for the rain to stop.

For Stephane, this meant hiring a machine to split the logs so that they can be stacked up and await some really wintry weather.

Together, Hard-Hat and Ear-Defenders made a great team.

Kevin, throwing himself enthusiastically into his new job!

For those of a girlier persuasion, the fine weather brought an opportunity to scrump some of the wild cherries in the neighbourhood (technically not scrumping, because the trees don't actually belong to anybody).

My basket of cherries yielded three pots of jam, the basis for a yummy sorbet, and, that most traditional of French cherry dishes, a clafoutis.

White Wedding

2011-06-05T14:06:00.000+02:00

Our friends, Myriam and Yvan, got married yesterday. A small village wedding that was much enjoyed by all present. I'm not posting any photos of the happy couple, because they haven't seen the photos yet themselves......

.....so they're probably unaware of the stealth tactics employed by The Eclair Monster to ensure that there weren't any of these delicious little objects left at the end of the party.

I'll just wander nonchalantly over to the table....

Is this an eclair I see before me?

Ung!

I love weddings, me!

Here Comes Summer

2011-06-01T17:57:00.000+02:00

Or possibly not!

June has arrived at La Folie bringing some "interesting" weather.

The castle is still beautiful,

but my morning walk with His Houndnificence necessitated two fleeces, a woolly hat to keep the wind off my ears (and, yes, I know it looks stupid!), and the manic expression of a woman wondering why it was so cold at 8 o'clock this morning!

Not daunted by some rain later in the day, the transhumance goes ahead, moving the moo-moos up the mountain to their summer pasture. (I think this particular moo-moo is thinking it might be more fun to borrow a mootorbike than to have to walk all that way.....)

Somewhere Down the Crazy River

2011-05-28T21:13:00.000+02:00

Once upon a time there was a handsome hound called Athos.

On warm days, he liked to cross the field to La Folie and go down to the river,

where he would jump into the water with a big splash!

Athos loved to swim around in circles in the river like a big hairy fish.

Sometimes a human would decide to join him, even though the water was cold!

(That's Brenda the Brave in the wetsuit!)

Castles in the Air

2011-05-21T18:52:00.001+02:00

I love it when interweb things "improve" stuff to make life easier - and then your photos won't upload. Here's another catch up!

Visiting friends from Sainte Marie-sur-Mer (44) took the opportunity to meet some of the stunning Cathar castles that are close to La Folie....

Peyrepertuse is a BIG castle on a BIG hill. (BTW, French pronunciation of its name being impossible, we pronounce it "Perpietroosie"). After clambering through the first part...

you can pause on the way up to the second part to catch your breath and forget that you're scared of heights...

...and enjoy the odd sensation of looking down on a mesmerisingly beautiful section of castle below you!

Queribus is similarly daftly perched

(and similarly daftly pronounced - "Queerybus" to these Anglais!)

Annick, Alain, and Kevin - relieved at having reached the front door!

The stunning views of the Aude countryside are well worth the climb.

Annick - thanks for the photos!

The Rock Island Line

2011-05-14T13:10:00.001+02:00

Languedoc Roussillon style!

This is the Train du Pays Cathare et des Fenouilledes

affectionately know locally as "Le Petit Train".

It is, indeed, a Little Train!

It runs all summer between Rivesaltes (near Perpignan) and Axat (near La Folie!),

through the stunning landscape of Languedoc Roussillon - forests, vineyards, and the foothills of the Pyrenees.

We were recently invited to a special trip on the Petit Train by the tourism department of the Mairie at Axat. Kevin is clearly overjoyed by this and is doing his best to live up to his "special" status!

One great thing about a "special" trip is that you can visit the cab of the train and pretend you're driving it. It may not be the Flying Scotsman, but my Dad would have been proud!

This is the view from the driver's seat!

And just one of the wonderful views along the way.

This is the River Aude as it runs through Axat.

Spring is bustin' out all over

2011-05-08T10:00:00.000+02:00

It's spring in Languedoc Roussillon!

Not only in Languedoc Roussillon, but everywhere else in France, too, I suppose...

For us, this means the chance to borrow someone else's dogs and go for nice walks in the beautiful countryside around Puilaurens and La Folie. The trees are all wearing their brightest green leaves, the meadows are full of lush grass, and there are stunning wild flowers peeping out of the foliage.

And today's Pack Leader is......Kevin!

Not sure how impressed Athos and Bitxu are with this situation.

There are lots of stunning wild orchids popping up....

...I think this one may be a Bee Orchid.

This is the bit where I wish I had paid more attention to botany.

I've no idea what this is - other than "very pretty"!!

In your Easter Bonnet....

2011-05-01T10:46:00.002+02:00

The Easter holidays have come and gone. During school holidays we're lucky enough to have both of our nearest sets of neighbours in residence for at least a couple of weeks, and that means lots of apero parties and lunches that turn into all-afternoon games of boules which trail into supper - as is the way in this little corner of laid-back Languedoc Roussillon.

For some reason, Easter at La Folie required the donning of "interesting" headwear.

Here are some of the highlights of our Easter fun and games.

The beautiful Chloe considers a future career as a "gendarmette"...

...while her little sister Zoe goes for the "London Look" - bowler hat and rolled umbrella.

The girls' mum, Mylene, makes the bunny ears look even more glamorous than usual...

...while their dad goes for a whole new look. Nice try, Guy!

Kevin participating fully in French outdoor games,

while Aurelie looks unimpressed from her wheelie-bin vantage point.

After boules and after supper, Jean-Pierre tries valiantly to count the bottles.

While Aurelie and her dad, Stephane, bring the evening to an operatic close!

Oops!

2011-04-03T14:37:00.001+02:00

I clicked on something I shouldn't have clicked on and the blog went a bit haywire.

I think I've figured it out now, so, to bring you up to date...

We finally found a bottle of Cuervo Gold in a supermarket, so our first "real" (i.e. made to my own private - and extensively researched - recipe) Margaritas have been consumed. I can't believe I went more than two years without a real Margarita............

I did my brain training on the DS every single day in March. It clearly works, as my brain age has gone from 25 at the beginning of the month to 33 now. Pah!

Kevin is afraid. He's very afraid.

And all because, while hanging out the washing in beautiful warm sunshine one afternoon, I went ever so slightly OCD with the clothes pegs!!

Pleasant Valley Sunday

2011-03-21T20:10:00.000+01:00

Today we were invited next door to join Steve and Coco for Sunday lunch, along with Steve's brother, Christian, and his family. We were a party of twelve and, after a hearty meal, we went for a walk in the spring sunshine to aid digestion.

Heading off into the countryside....

Crossing the (now calm) Boulzane at Puilaurens.

On the right of the photo is the road that leads to La Folie!

Spring must be here - the wild pansies and violets are peeping through the undergrowth.

Brother

2011-03-17T18:29:00.001+01:00

Michael Ashley Waker

6th April 1952 - 16th March 2011

Here comes the rain again

2011-03-16T14:03:00.000+01:00

Meteo France put us on "Vigilance Orange" yesterday and today as large quantities of rain were expected.

They weren't wrong!

The River Boulzane is usually more of a babbling brook at the bottom of our garden. If you want white water rafting, you normally have to go down the hill to the much bigger River Aude. But not today...

Splosh!

Hey, Good Lookin'

2011-03-07T10:42:00.000+01:00

Blimey, Kev's cookin'!

We were invited by our lovely neighbour Corinne (affectionately referred to by us, though probably nobody else, as Coco!) to join an oreillette making party! Oreillettes (I think, literally, this translates as little ears!) are a local delicacy eaten with coffee. The dough takes ages to make and requires large quantities of kneading, so we pitched up for the easy bit - rolling small pieces of the dough out as thinly as possible. Masterchef Kevin seemed to enjoy this bit - making weird and random shapes...

...much to the irritation of Aurelie, who wanted to join in the shape-making!

The thin pieces of dough were passed to the frying team - Coco's parents, Mado and Bernard. The dough is put into hot oil for a few moments until it turns golden and crispy, then it is fished out of the pan, drained on kitchen paper, and dredged with sugar.

Once cool, the oreillettes make a lovely accompaniment to a cup of coffee.

Yummers!

Whisky in the Jar

2011-02-28T18:48:00.005+01:00

Confession time.

I have a ridiculous passion for Kilner jars. I don't know why, because I have no idea what to put in them most of the time, but they just look so wonderful! Until today I owned one solitary 250ml Kilner jar that was given to me full of Quality Street one Christmas a decade or more ago and I've kept it ever since because I was convinced that one day I would learn to make something worthy of such a magnificent receptacle.

The difficulty of what to make has just been multiplied by quite a serious quantity!

This morning Stephane from next-door was in the middle of some attic clearance and asked me if I would like a load of jars that he was about to take to the recycling centre, as Corinne already had more preserving jars than she could use. Little did he know....

I jumped at the chance and spent all afternoon washing and drying the little darlings.

Then I stacked them all up for a group photo. Aaah!

Whilst I browse the pages of the Goddess, trying to decide whether I want to make Rhubarb Schnapps or Quince Brandy (I've got until September to decide about the Quince Brandy!), I filled a couple of the jars with some almonds that our friends Annick and Dominique from Nimes gave us - almonds from their own trees!

Yummy Yummy Yummy

2011-02-27T10:28:00.001+01:00

I've got LOADS of food in my tummy

because I've been cooking with Saint Nigella!

Can you tell what it is yet?

Well, I love hummus, Kevin likes hummus, but we don't do well with the shop-bought variety (even if shops here stocked it) because of the raw garlic content (cue a chorus of The Burp Song!). Whilst browsing through one of Her Kitchnificence's volumes, I found a recipe for hummus that looked easy.

It was easy, it contained the "secret ingredient" peanut butter, I made it without the garlic and we're totally hooked! It's the best hummus EVER! Bring on some more carrot sticks......

You know how sometimes you buy a MASSIVE cauliflower because it looks so fab and then it sits in the veg box looking accusingly at you because you've no idea what you're going to make with it. Nigella to the rescue - yet again. I made the Cauliflower Cheese from "Feast". Cauli that still had lots of bite in a sauce of such unctuosity (is that a word?) that I could hardly believe I made it.

The recipe says this serves 8 as a side vegetable for a roast beef lunch.

Although that meant it was stupidly too much for lunch for two, it was "use it or lose it" time for the cauliflower, so I made it anyway.

Stupidly too much for a lunch for two.

Yeah, right!

Hound Dog

2011-02-25T10:51:00.000+01:00

Or, in this case, two hound dogs.

In harness and pulling a bicycle!

Athos and Bitxu pretending they're huskies, while Myriam finds the whole thing hilarious. If you look carefully at the first three photos, you will see that Myriam's legs don't change position - she's not pedalling, the dogs are pulling the bike along the road.

After they got back to La Folie and were taken out of their harness, they spent the next half hour chasing each other round the paddock at top speed, rolling about in the mud, and generally using up the energy they had left after their bike-pulling duties were over.

Bless!

Killer Queen

2011-02-22T10:31:00.000+01:00

"Let them eat cake," she said,

Just like Marie Antoinette!

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but I was too busy eating cake!!

You know how it is sometimes. You've been leafing through the Nigellas over a cup of tea and there are SO many yummy-looking cake recipes that you just can't decide which one to try.....

So I tried two!

The Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

which came out exactly like the picture in the book, even unto the sunken middle!

It was nice, but I don't think it's Nigella's finest chocolate cake recipe. It also wasn't as nice as the chocolate cake I made from the recipe link on Carrie's blog, so I won't be adding this one to my favourites list.

The Rosemary Remembrance Cake

was a different matter. Quite plain with a very subtle rosemary flavour, it was beautifully moist and looked wonderful - just like the one in the book in fact. (Can you tell I still can't quite believe I can cook anything that will turn out looking like the one in the book?!). It was just what I imagine middle class ladies living in charming Cotswold villages in the 1930s would have eaten with their afternoon tea!

Shelf Life

2011-02-20T09:46:00.001+01:00

I know I promised to post pictures of the new shelves that resulted from this week's DIY day.

And I know, despite the fact that no-one has said anything about it, that you're all quivering with anticipation to see the aforementioned shelves,

so here they are!

The room we have always called The Library begins to be worthy of its name.

The pantry now has dedicated shelving for booze!

And I have an extra "half-shelf" for my spices in the kitchen.

The eagle-eyed among you may also have spotted my genuine Conxita Costart still life painting and my jar of Pickled People.

Yup, they really are Pickled People!!

You're Beautiful!

2011-02-16T16:34:00.000+01:00

For two people who grew up in London, we have somehow managed to end up living in the most glorious place!

One of the great joys of living at La Folie (for us, at least) is being able to walk the hundred metres or so along the road to visit Myriam's menagerie - specially if she's there exercising the horses.

The lovely Myriam has Kater, the Arab stallion, on one lead and Athos, the Aussie sheepdog, on another lead. The idea is to put Kater through his paces without Athos trying to "help"!

Athos is beautiful, it's true!

Kater is also very beautiful.

And the most beautiful of them all (certainly as far as Kevin is concerned) is Hollande.

I think Kevin's smitten!

(It must be said that, once the apples had all gone, Hollande was rather less smitten, but there'll be other days and other apples...)

It must be love (love, love)

2011-02-14T11:26:00.002+01:00

In keeping with the day, I wanted to write about love.

Kevin loves hi-fi.

He loves listening to all kinds of music on it, changing components to see how it alters the sound of various pieces of music, and changing speakers for the same reason. For any of you who are rolling your eyes heavenwards in the time-honoured indication of boredom, you should try it! I've listened to my favourite Elvis track about seven times this week on various combinations of CD players, amplifiers, and speakers, and believe me, it's amazing how different the same song can sound!

Today, my beloved Quad speakers (you may have seen me stroking them in a previous post!) were removed from the sitting room

to be replaced by the Kef speakers.

It's funny, the Kef speakers always looked large in our sitting room in Woking.

At La Folie, they look tiny!

But Elvis sounds great (even if Kevin just has to sing "Kentucky rain goes down the drain" during the chorus of my favourite track. It's a good thing I love him as much as he loves his hi-fi, or he'd be asking for a punch up the throat!!)

Screwdriver

2011-02-12T14:10:00.001+01:00

Welcome to DIY at La Folie.

We needed a few more shelves in the library so that I could finish unpacking our books, a couple of extra shelves in the pantry to house "bottles" (hic!), and an extra shelf in the kitchen to take the spices that wouldn't fit on the shelf that was already there.

Time for the man to break out the power tools.......

Actually, I must confess that even I quite like making holes in stuff with the hammer drill!

Still smiling after all the shelves were finished and I wanted "just a couple more holes drilled" so that I could hang some of my needlework in the hall. Bless!

Photos of the new shelves will be posted..... stay tuned.

(Can I hear the sound of barely contained excitement.....?)

The Power of Positive Drinking

2011-02-10T14:50:00.002+01:00

Today we went to Limoux to do some shopping. The trip usually involves re-fuelling the car.

I think everything I have to say about Emily's drinking habits is summed up by my "journal" page for today

41 litres in one go?

That's worse than me when I hit the margaritas!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

2011-02-08T18:29:00.000+01:00

Today brought beautiful blue skies and early spring sunshine to Puilaurens, so we decided to make the most of it and go for a walk. Having borrowed Athos (!), we set off down the hill towards the village, where we decided to take the Route Aigues-Bonnes

which meant that we found ourselves going uphill.

Up a very steep hill!

Fortunately, I had Athos to help me along!

It was worth the climb for the fantastic views of the castle,

and stunning views of the mountains stretching into the distance,

lent added atmosphere by the hazy sunshine.

Happy Birthday

2011-02-06T10:14:00.001+01:00

Without wishing to inform the world of how chronologically gifted I now am, I will just report that, to celebrate being totally past it, I made myself a cake

no candles - too much of a fire risk!

It's Saint Nigella's (of course) Birthday Custard Cake.

Or possibly Custard Birthday Cake.

Either way, it was delicious!

I also made some Baby Bundts

just because I could!

And the lovely Brenda made the most beautiful birthday flower pot for me, which I found lurking outside the front door when I went out at 8 a.m. to give Athos his morning run about.

Thanks, Brenda!

Hallelujah, I'm Ready

2011-02-04T09:52:00.000+01:00

For those who may not have noticed, the Six Nations Rugby Championship kicks off tonight.

For my devoted American readers who are wondering what rugby is, it's a game a bit like American football but without the suits of armour and crash helmets! The Six Nations is an annual tournament played by the national teams of (in alphabetical order so as not to upset anybody) England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales.

Being English and living in France means that we feel fully entitled to support both the English and French teams.

The symbol of French sporting prowess is the cockerel.

And I'll be wearing mine when France play Scotland on Saturday evening!

We've only got one "Cock Hat", so Kevin will be spared the indignity of sitting on the sofa with a fluffy blue chicken on his head!

For the opening match tonight between Wales and England, I'll be showing support for my team in a rather more subtle way - the knickers will be under my trousers for the match! Fortunately, we've only got one pair of England knickers.....

....because Kevin's way of wearing them lacks a certain subtlety -

not to mention spoiling his view of the telly!

Come on Baby, Light my Fire

2011-02-01T18:34:00.000+01:00

Before moving to La Folie, Kevin and I had both always lived in distinctly urban surroundings. Places where mains gas and electricity were taken for granted and firing up the central heating involved nothing more complicated than pressing a button.

One of the things that amuses us most about living at La Folie are deliveries of the "fioul" that fires our lovely new central heating system.

We 'phone SARL Lopez at Quillan and tell them that we need fuel, and they send the mini-tanker round!

We tell the nice man how much we want to spend, and he works out how many litres of fuel we'll get.

Let the tank filling commence!

Yes, that really does say 942 litres. And the tank wasn't even full!

So next time you fill up the car, you won't feel so bad, will you?

Goodness Gracious Me!

2011-02-01T16:28:00.004+01:00

Boom boody-boom boody-boom boody-boom

boody-boom, boody-boom boody-boom-boom-boom!

That's how my heart goes at the thought of a yummy curry!

Lest, dear readers, you think that all I ever make is cakes,

here is some evidence to the contrary.

Today's offering was a potato and banana curry from Rose Elliott's Vegetarian Supercook, with one or two amendments made by me (I don't like green peppers, so used red instead - looks prettier anyway; didn't have creamed coconut so used coconut milk - worked just as well!). Yes, Neat, that is me trying and failing to fit everything onto the chopping board!

I know potato and banana sounds a weird combination, but once covered in a coconut milk sauce flavoured with garlic, ginger, and turmeric, it's brilliant. Its bright colours look beautiful and the flavours make a change from the normal madras/masala/whatever.

Yes, this photo is slightly wobbly.

That was me quivering with excitement at the prospect of lunch!

Riding Along in my Automobile

2011-02-01T13:15:00.001+01:00

Cruisin' and playin' the radio

With no particular place to go.

The saga is finally over.

Emily is officially French and it's time for a change of identity.

Bye, bye GB number plate....

...bonjour plaque d'immatriculation francaise!

I suppose we'll have to start calling her Emilie!

Sealed with a Kiss

2011-01-31T16:47:00.000+01:00

Or possibly some sellotape!

I have, at long last, been attending to my correspondence. I've had a great pile of letters awaiting reply looking accusingly at me from my letter rack for a few weeks (oops, months), so I have been wielding a mean biro and catching up. I've also been wielding a mean pair of scissors and making all the envelopes!

There's my homemade template in the middle of my incredibly untidy craft table!

It's worth a little effort to produce such pretty post!

And I have a whole pile of it waiting to go tomorrow!

Ch-ch-changes

2011-01-27T11:37:00.001+01:00

One of the fun things about living in the mountains is how quickly things can change.

Obviously, the mountains don't change.

But the way you see them does, from one day to the next and sometimes even from one moment to the next.

When the wind blows from the east in these here parts, it's called a "marin" (because it's coming from the sea - the Mediterranean to be precise). The "marin" often brings mist along the valley and gives us the impression that someone has nicked our castle.....

....but if you wait a couple of minutes, it comes back again, looking more beautiful and mysterious than ever.

Jump!

2011-01-24T12:09:00.000+01:00

Not Van Halen this time, but Athos the Wonder Dog!

Myriam had set up a few little fences for the horses to hop over and couldn't resist the temptation to get his houndnificence to leap over them as well -

which he does with the graceful athleticism of a ballet dancer!

Up and over!

Happy landings!

Car Trouble

2011-01-21T14:53:00.000+01:00

When we bought La Folie, we also acquired an ancient Volvo that "came with the house". It's an "interesting" vehicle, which currently languishes beneath our walnut tree and requires some quirky starting techniques.

Still, it provided a good opportunity for some "male bonding" for the two boys as Kevin taught David about starting reluctant cars....

The arse bone's connected to the......elbow bone!

David thought his dad was joking when he told him to pull out the choke with a pair of pliers.....

....sadly, it was no joke!

Dedicated Follower of Fashion

2011-01-20T11:39:00.000+01:00

We had warned David that it might be cold during his visit, so he should bring some warm clothes. He did - including the daftest hat we non-teenagers have seen in a goodly while!

Irritatingly, he still looked like something off the cover of Vogue.....

Even in close up!

The father/son similarity can survive most things. But not trying to look like a fashion model in that hat!!

Never mind, Kevin, there's always someone who'll look dafter than you....

...in this instance, me!

I just don't think earflaps are my thing!!

French Girl

2011-01-19T18:14:00.000+01:00

At long last, the saga is over. Emily (the car, for those who haven't yet met her!) has been officially registered in France. If you don't know the story, believe me, you don't want to hear it. Let's just say that we were travelling at "Arse Factor Nine" captain!

The two numbered tickets mean that we've got past the first hurdle at the Prefecture in Carcassonne and were only waiting to pay. If any of the staff are looking at the blog, we'd like to thank you for your endless patience and cheery helpfulness during our many attempts to turn Emily into a French Girl.

After our triumph at the Prefecture, we collected David (Kevin's son, my step-son) from the airport for his first visit to La Folie.

Before heading back to Puilaurens, we took advantage of clear blue skies and some winter sunshine to show David the mediaeval city in Carcassonne.

(The sky was blue, it just whited out on the photos because I was pointing the camera at the sun!)

Carcassonne is huge, fabulous, and, in January, pretty nearly empty. The perfect time to visit a UNESCO world heritage site and major tourist attraction without anyone getting in your way.

Cut the Cake

2011-01-17T16:58:00.000+01:00

In case you're wondering, Average White Band, 1975!!

Shirley "Superwoman" Conran once made a remark about life being too short to stuff a mushroom. Until yesterday, I would have said that life was too short to blanche an almond. It probably still is, but sometimes circumstances conspire against us.

Our lovely friends from Nimes, Annick and Dominique, had given us a bag of almonds picked from their very own trees. They were coming to tea today and I wanted to make a cake using their almonds. I also wanted to try a previously unattempted Saint Nigella recipe - Sticky Semolina Cake. The cake called for blanched almonds, and our almonds from Nimes were not only still in their skins, but in their shells!

Once you've decided to blanche your own almonds, it's ridiculously easy. You put the required number of nuts in a bowl, pour boiling water over them, and wander off to do something else until the water cools enough for you to fish the almonds out and slip them out of their skins.

They looked very pretty on the cake as it came out of the oven and before it had the wonderfully flavoursome syrup poured over it.

And they looked even better once the cake had been cut and displayed on my dear, late grandmother's cake stand.

BTW, the cake is lovely! It has a very light texture for something made out of semolina and the hyper-sweetness of the syrup would make it perfect as a dessert after a curry or a tagine. Just a suggestion - it's also great with a cup of strong black coffee!

Baby I'm a walnut

2011-01-14T14:14:00.001+01:00

Apparently, somebody has written a parody of the Bread song "Baby I'm a want you". Thank heaven they did, or I'd have been at a loss for a title for this post!

Regular readers (!) may have noticed that I've been diving with enthusiasm into my latest Saint Nigella cookbook, "Kitchen". Yesterday I had a bash at the utterly wonderful looking Coffee and Walnut Cake. I'm always ridiculously pleased with myself when something I make comes out looking as yummy as the one in the book...

...and Coffee and Walnut is one of my "Olde Tea Shoppe" favourites

(as you can probably tell).

Although I'm not alone in my appreciation of a good cake -

as demonstrated by Rozzi!

Banana Boat Song

2011-01-12T13:53:00.000+01:00

or, in this case, Banana Bread Song!

I discovered an almost untouched bag of carrots in the bottom of the veg box that had to be used NOW or given to the horses. Sorry, horses! I made a big saucepan of Sarah Brown's Carrot and Orange Soup (which I forgot to photograph - too busy ladling it into my face!) for lunch and in the afternoon returned to my ancient copy of Ms. Brown's "Vegetarian Kitchen" to rustle up a Carrot and Cinnamon Cake.

I don't like to put the big oven on for just one cake, and three madly over-ripe bananas have been looking accusingly at me from the banana hanger for days now - well, we drank all the Cointreau and I only really like my bananas flambeed in Cointreau, so there they sat - or, rather, hung - waiting for inspiration to strike.

Trusting in The Power of Saint Nigella to rescue me, I found a previously untried recipe for Banana Bread in the pages of Domestic Goddess and that was that.

Cakes aplenty!

Tapestry

2011-01-10T12:37:00.000+01:00

I know that was an album rather than a song title, but needs must...

Having finally located my favourite tapestry frame amongst the "yet to be unpacked" boxes (of which there are still, alas, many), I assembled it and got Kevin to mend the wobbly leg (the frame's leg, not mine!). Today, on the unpainted side of an old piece of canvas bought a long while ago on ebay, I have started my first needlepoint project of 2011.

Wanting to use up some of the hundreds of odd skeins of tapestry wool now lurking in the attic, I found a book titled "Needlepoint Designs from Oriental Rugs" by Grethe Sorensen on my needlework shelf, browsed through it, and found what I considered to be a suitable design, based on the traditional designs used in Bakhtiari rugs.

I have grand ambitions to make at least one lovely tapestry cushion cover for each of our guest rooms.....

Watching Flowers in the Rain

2011-01-08T11:35:00.000+01:00

I don't believe I've mentioned it on the blog before, but, since we arrived in France, I've been keeping a journal. It's not really an art journal (I wouldn't dignify any of my efforts with the name of art!) and it's not really a diary (sometimes I don't write very much) - it's a hybrid photo album, diary, scrapbook in which I stick photos, labels from things, odd bits of "stuff", and I write little things to remind me of what we've been up to.

I tend to forget things quite quickly, so it's nice to be reminded of stuff that made us laugh or what the packaging on a favourite product looked like before it was "re-branded", or whatever.

Obviously, for the past couple of days I've been planting bulbs and being disappointed by the BBC remake of "Upstairs, Downstairs"!

If you've ever thought of keeping any kind of diary/journal/scrapbook, don't delay. Even after only a year, they're fun to look back on! For example, on 8th January 2010, we yomped up the hill towards the castle through a foot or so of freshly-fallen snow...

...and I took a pretty photo of our fairytale castle to make a pretty journal page.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

2011-01-06T10:58:00.000+01:00

Say hello to a new year - wave goodbye to an old one!

For several years I had a habit of keeping the cork (or screwtop) from every bottle of wine we drank at home from 1st January to 31st December. Sometime after the arrival of the new year, I would count them up and enter the figures (one number for "normal" wine and one number for sparkling) in the front of our wine book. I also arranged the corks into the number of the year and took their photo before consigning them to the recycling bin.

In 2009 we left England, came to France, and were moving about a lot, so the tradition lapsed.

As you can see, I revived it in 2010.

The collection of corks has escaped the indignity of the recycling bin and is now awaiting the tender ministrations of our friend Brenda, who is planning to "up-cycle" them into a cork board.

Black is Black

2011-01-03T12:34:00.000+01:00

And, believe me, there's no better colour for a cocktail!

Several years ago whilst holidaying in Villefranche-sur-Mer, we "discovered" the truly magical Black Caipirovska. It's like a Caipirinha, only made with Eristoff Black Vodka liqueur. We never managed to find Eristoff Black in the UK and used to have to beg boot-space from friends going on wine-buying trips...

Thankfully, the black stuff is not hard to find in France. This is a bottle which has survived a whole year lurking at the back of the shelf in its Christmas 2009 Special Edition white fur coat hoping we would drink all the other bottles first. We did, but eventually even the fur-coated one had to be sacrificed!

I think the medallion gives the bottle a weird air of "The Mayor of St. Pancras", but perhaps that's why I'm not in advertising!

To make a Black Caipirovska, muddle a few skinny lime slices in the bottom of your glass and top up with crushed ice (hence the culinary hammer thing). I also protect my worktop with some kitchen roll in case of spillage caused by over-excited anticipatory trembling of my pouring hand!

Pour in enough of the Eristoff to make it interesting and add a stupidly flourescent straw.

Na zdrowie!

I will survive

2011-01-01T14:53:00.001+01:00

And I did survive.

We were invited to our first full-on French-style "reveillon" by lovely neighbours Guy and Mylene - Kevin manfully did his bit with oysters and boudin blanc, while I was let off and given some vegetables!! We rolled across the road from G&M's to La Folie a little after one o'clock on Christmas morning - in a light dusting of perfectly-timed snow - and at 8.30 I donned two pairs of trousers, a polo neck, two fleeces, a daft woolly hat and my flowery Asda wellies to go and let Athos and Bitxu out for a wee! Myriam and Yvan had gone to Barcelona to spend Christmas with Yvan's family and I had volunteered to look after the dogs - for irregular readers of the blog, I realize this is all starting to sound like someone explaining the past year and a half's happenings on The Archers and for that I apologize!

As we emerge from the post-Christmas lull, here are a few highlights.

Chloe looks less than convinced by Kevin's Santa act...

...I'm not even asking what was going on here!

She eventually decided on the classic "dealing with a nutter" technique -

smile and nod, Chloe, smile and nod!

I eventually got my husband back.

And yes, we did match our colours on purpose!!

Happy New Year!

So this is Christmas....

2010-12-11T15:45:00.000+01:00

...it must be, we've got trees!

The ridiculously pretty minimalist tree (I think of it as "Twinkly Twigs") adorning the sideboard in the dining room (that's Kevin's advent calendar beside it).

Kevin loves "grown up"-looking tree decorations, and having put the golf ball lights on the artificial tree in the sitting room, I can't say he's wrong!

On the "jamais deux sans trois" principle., we have a third tree! A real tree beside the front door of La Folie, decorated with silver baubles and icy blue lights. It looks wonderful in the dark, but is very difficult to photograph!

Handbags and Gladrags

2010-12-09T11:24:00.002+01:00

I'm starting to regard the unpacking of our "stuff" as an ongoing dialogue between me and an endless stream of boxes. Today it was the turn of the suitcase containing Kevin's suits and my posh skirts and long frocks.

Clothes from Another Life

I've worn a skirt precisely once in the past year, and as everything we wear has to be easily washable in case a big hairy dog decides to jump up and anoint us with whatever is carpeting the stable yard, I can't currently imagine when Kevin will have occasion to wear one of his three-piece suits. (The silver frock coat was for fancy dress...honest!)

Where there are clothes, there are shoes. A whole packing case full of shoes.

I got married wearing this pair!

I do have serious handbags.

This just isn't one of them!

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

2010-12-07T15:48:00.002+01:00

Not!

Although that was one of the tracks on the previously mentioned festive CD that was playing while we assembled our new CD shelf unit thingies.Assembling furniture appears to be one of life's necessary evils, leading to such comments as

"Stabtastic, great mate!"

as Kevin impales himself on yet another sharp implement.

"My knees canna take it, Captain!"

as I grovel on the floor making Anne Widdecombe look graceful.

It was worth it in the end, as some of Kevin's collection finds its new home.

We've done Rock & Pop, Compilations, Easy Listening, and Jazz.

Classical, Country, and Spoken Word will have to go elsewhere.

For the eagle-eyed among you, yes, you can see....

...my Spud Trooper on top of the shelf unit.

Darth Tater is on top of the matching unit on the other side of the arch!

Please, please, don't leave me any comments related to Star Wars.

I hate Star Wars. I just like cute, stupidly dressed potatoes.

The Games People Play

2010-12-05T21:56:00.001+01:00

When the weather outside is frightful

A Wii is so delightful...

that Rozzi and her mum, Sharon, made the arduous journey from Puilaurens village to La Folie (okay, they walked up the hill for five minutes) to play a few games on our newly unpacked toy.

Kevin demonstrates his slalom stance,

watched by the ever adorable Betty Boop!

Oh, yes, and the radio controlled dalek. (Don't ask!)

Let it snow!

2010-12-03T16:05:00.000+01:00

It's December,

and it's snowing.

Just a bit.

Time for a pot of tea and some pre-Christmas choccie nibbles.

No, I haven't gone totally Hyacinth Bucket.

The reason the Roses have been decanted into the Betty Boop "Kiss Me" bowl is because Kevin and I will eat however many chocs are on the table in front of us. If I put the whole kilo tin on the table, we would eat them all. Seriously. We wouldn't mean to, but after a couple of mugs of tea, the tin would be empty. Hence the handful of chocs in the bowl.

As it's December and snowing, Kevin is allowed to play his Christmas CDs.

We sat on the sofa among the newly unpacked needlework cushions and Bubbas (hilarious talking bears from America - "do I have hat head? - if you haven't got one, get online and order one now!!) and listened to Kirsty McColl and The Pogues....

and, as if by magic, I remembered where I had packed all the needlepoint Christmas ornaments I had made last year - or was it the year before last?

You spin me round

2010-12-01T16:37:00.000+01:00

Fortunately, the sitting room at La Folie is LARGE!

Large enough to have the television at one end and the hi-fi gear at the other.

The sofa in the middle can be turned round to maximize the hi-fi expert's listening pleasure, positioning his head at just the right place between the speakers!

Oh, yes - he was playing vinyl.

(As a non-hi-fi expert, I have to admit that the Queen track on this album sounded fantastic - and the Rick Wakeman track even better.)

We are planning to unpack all the boxes of records and CDs, we just have to buy some shelving to put them on when they're unpacked. You've probably guessed that there are rather a lot of them!

Hit me baby, one more time!

2010-11-29T19:43:00.000+01:00

Remember the box labelled Britney Spears, Austin Powers, tapestry wool?

The contents in reverse order......

(okay, there were several boxes containing tapestry wool....)

The well-travelled Austin Powers - who came from Florida to Woking in a suitcase, Woking to Newton Abbot in a box with Britney, and Newton Abbot to Puilaurens in the same box (still with Britney).

Carrie - this photo is for you.

The virgin Britney doll - who has never been out of the box!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2010-11-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

Every room is full of boxes, we can't find anything, and we're exhausted from all the unpacking. And today it snowed!

Yesterday, before the weather went bad, Paul and Luke from Hunt's arrived with our "stuff" on their truck. They had to take half our gate off to get the truck into the garden!

They very kindly refrained from commenting on some of the more bizarre labelling.

(Kevin wanted me to photoshop out Asda and replace it with Harrods on this photo, but I couldn't be bothered!)

The attic - filling up nicely!

Until several more shelves are put up, our books have to stay in their boxes. Wah!

Definitely out of their boxes are the sexiest hi-fi speakers in the world. They have a black piano laquer finish and just cry out to be stroked every time you wander past them! (I admit, I was losing it a bit by the time this photo was taken!)

I knew we had Kevin's old vinyl. I just didn't remember how much. It turned out there were four boxes of LPs!

We celebrated by playing the first randomly selected LP from the box.

The Pet Shop Boys.

'Nuff said!

Before we left my Mum's newly emptied garage last week, Mum said to me, "I bet you've forgotten what's in most of those boxes." I replied that I remembered all of it.

Not quite true.

I had forgotten about the bunny ears!

I'm still waiting.....

2010-11-24T17:03:00.000+01:00

...but the van with all our "stuff" is due tomorrow.

For the past couple of days we've been making room for all the boxes and their contents.

We have a lovely room on the first floor which we call The Library. It leads out onto the sun terrace and is set up as a lounge for the use of our guests. It has a sofa, a television, games, and lots of books. After tomorrow, it'll have even more books...

...although not all of those on the van are suitable for the "public" areas of the house!

BTW, I think the singles in this box must be Kevin's, as I only recall keeping two singles when I changed all my vinyl for CDs - Bobby Pickett and the Crypt Kickers doing "Monster Mash" (don't ask!) and The Spider Murphy Gang's "Mir San A Bayrischer Band" (a sentimental souvenir of a college term in Salzburg - Sarah and Loraine, if you're reading this, I kept it!)

I've made space in the cupboard under the stairs for all the DIY gear,

and we've left half our sitting room empty for the proper arrangement of Kevin's hi-fi. I'm fully expecting the next few days to involve the positioning, testing, re-positioning, re-testing, etc. of various pairs of speakers. Speaker placement is very important!

A la recherche du temps perdu

2010-11-22T15:21:00.000+01:00

My devoted followers (who are few, but a very superior bunch!) may have noticed a lack of posts for a couple of weeks. This is partly because Kevin and I have both fallen victim to the first persistent cold of the winter and partly because we went back to the UK for a short visit to supervise the loading of our personal bits and bobs onto a lorry which will bring them all to La Folie. Yay! Having packed our "stuff" into boxes nearly two years ago, we'll be very happy to have it with us again. And my Mum will be very happy to have her garage back!

Pictorial highlights of the visit include...

The departure lounge at Carcassonne Airport. Kevin described waiting for our flight here as being a bit like queueing up at the DHSS!!

Kevin about to tackle a proper Cornish pasty - made by my Mum!

Some of the boxes may have slightly odd contents...

...but they're all on the van!

The approach to the Dartford Tunnel reminded us what traffic was!

And, as if to underline the belief of all our French neighbours that England is permanently shrouded in fog, Stansted was auditioning for a Sherlock Holmes film as we left!

We enjoyed our visit to Blighty and are glad to be back home.

Now all we need is the truck to arrive with Britney and Austin!

Woolly Bully!

2010-11-07T20:35:00.000+01:00

One day back in June we suddenly heard the sound of cowbells on the road outside and rushed out to witness our first transhumance. This is when the local cattle farmers move the cattle from their winter quarters down in the valley to the high pastures up on the mountains at the beginning of summer.

Summer must now officially be over, as today saw part two of the transhumance - the cattle being moved back down the mountain for the winter. Whilst making a cup of tea this afternoon I heard the tell-tale bells, grabbed the camera and rushed outside in time to capture a few shots of the beasties as they wandered down the Route de la Boulzane.

The transhumance, as seen from the sitting room windows at La Folie.

The non-cow in the picture is Hollande, the cutest mare you've ever seen, who belongs to our friend Brenda. Hollande is Audrey Hepburn in horse form and in my mind's eye I always put long, girlie false eyelashes on her to complete the image!

Autumn Leaves

2010-11-04T18:11:00.001+01:00

Ignoring the germ warfare still going on in my head, this afternoon I joined Kevin as he drove Emily up the hill through Salvezines, Gincla, and Montfort, heading towards Sournia.

It was a glorious day and we wanted to take full advantage of the sunshine and blue skies to see the forest changing into its autumn clothes.

I've realized my photos are rubbish compared with the real colours!

Gorgeous!

Coughs and sneezes...

2010-11-02T10:58:00.001+01:00

...spread diseases!

And make rubbish song titles, apparently. So forgive the lack of something to hum to yourself whilst reading this post and blame it on the germ warfare going on in my head.

I've got a cold and a cough. I'm usually content to wait for these things to depart in their own time, but have given in to Kevin's blandishments to let him bring me some cough mixture from the pharmacy. The reason I gave in was that if I didn't, he threatened me with a visit to the doctor. Earlier this year Kevin had a cough (as a symptom of a chest infection, I admit) and went to see the doctor. The result was a prescription for enough drugs to keep the village high for a couple of months....

I'm not joking - these are the drugs. The pile of matching boxes are antibiotics - prescribed in about triple the dose I was given for the chest infection that caused an asthma attack and had me ambulanced to hospital a few years ago in the UK. Never let it be said that a French G.P. doesn't make it worth the 22 Euros consultancy fee!!

Meantime, I'll stick with my 3.60 Euros worth of cough mixture!

Happy Hallowe'en!

2010-10-31T17:16:00.001+01:00

When there's something strange

in the neighbourhood

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

Jam for the Ladies

2010-10-28T09:11:00.012+02:00

Whoop! I've made my first ever jam!

Weirdly, it's a sweet jam made out of green tomatoes. I know..... but our lovely neighbour Corinne told me how to make it so I did as I was told (for once). And it worked! And it tastes lovely! Merci, Corinne!

Whilst in Domestic Goddess mode, I was overwhelmed by the need for a Lemon Drizzle Cake (as one sometimes is). I searched for a recipe on the interweb and found one via a lovely blog The Goddess's Kitchen. Even after having to guess a bit at how much "levure chimique" to add to the flour (no self-raising in France!!), the cake was moist, wonderful, and perfect. Thanks Maria!

Cake porn!

Cars

2010-10-26T09:53:00.021+02:00

The saga of our attempts to have Emily registered in France continues.

Today it involved a trip to the Prefecture in Carcassonne.

I'll spare you the mind-numbingly dull details of what went on. I would like to record that all the French civil servants we dealt with were cheerful, polite, and very helpful indeed, and that Toyota are being utterly useless in helping to resolve a relatively minor problem. The upside of the fiasco was a journey along the very scenic route between Puilaurens and Carcassonne.

Bright autumn sunshine on the archetypal French road - lined with trees!

More trees and blue skies on a glorious day.

And a hint that autumn really is on its way.

'Ullo John, Got a New Motor?

2010-10-20T09:40:00.018+02:00

Yesterday we were treated to an exclusive viewing of the new hybrid vehicle -

it can be powered by man or mule!

Yvan manfully volunteered to play the part of the engine.....

while Myriam marshalled the troops!

Once the courtiers, Athos and Bitxu, were comfortably seated alongside Her Majesty,

Queen Myriam gave the order to depart!

She's a Lady!

2010-10-17T14:15:00.002+02:00

Having had a couple of unaccustomed late nights, this evening we intend to batten the hatches (well, close the shutters) and settle in front of the telly for our weekly rendezvous with delicious "Downton Abbey".

I always say, "Show me a programme with frocks, and I'll show you a happy bunny!"

Kevin always says, "Show me a programme with frocks, and I'll show you a bloke asleep on the sofa."

We are clearly not as one in our approach to period drama!

I grew up on "Upstairs, Downstairs" and have never quite recovered from the idea that having household staff was "A Good Thing".

My beloved did his best the other day by offering to assist.

When he had finished, he announced,

"I've ironed your tee shirt, milady. Any chance of a shag?"

They do say that good staff are hard to find.

I'm starting to think it's true!

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

2010-10-14T15:15:00.002+02:00

Emphasis on the thieves....

Since our massive walnut tree burst into glorious green life in spring, I've been waiting for our very first walnut harvest and dreaming of homemade baklava using home-grown walnuts - yum!

I've watched the walnuts appear and get bigger and bigger, just waiting for the perfect moment to harvest them. I had been advised by someone who knows much more about this than me (which is just about anybody, to be honest!) that you have to wait for the walnuts to fall off the tree and then pick them up off the ground. As the tree is ENORMOUS, this sounded like a good plan, but I thought I might pick the few that I could reach as soon as they would come off the branch easily.

A few days ago I was looking longingly at the tree and decided to give it three more days of patient waiting before I went a-harvesting.

Bad decision.

Two days later I went for another sneak peek at the tree and guess what?

Naked!

Not one single walnut anywhere to be seen.

The squirrels have had the lot - thieving little ba****ds!

It's Raining Again

2010-10-12T13:29:00.001+02:00

Actually, it has finally stopped raining.

Finally!

After three days and three nights of non-stop pouring rain, the normally little River Boulzane at the bottom of the garden has become a raging torrent!

This is how the river looked when I posted photos of it in July...

And this is how it looks today!

We've even got a pretty little waterfall.

Splosh!

Salamander

2010-10-10T12:18:00.001+02:00

With thanks to Jethro Tull for the perfect song title for this post...

Whilst visiting Myriam, Yvan, the dogs, and the horses during a major downpour, we met our first salamander. Yvan found him (or her, comme d'hab) under a sodden piece of wood and put him in a plastic bag so that I could bring him home and photograph him.

Out of the plastic bag and into the washing up bowl!

Once you've got over the cartoon-y weirdness of the critter, he's really quite cute.

Like a fat lizard in a funky wetsuit!

Having posed patiently for the photos, Jethro the Salamander was released into the wild - and promptly disappeared under a leaf of the recently trimmed fig tree.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

2010-10-08T10:00:00.002+02:00

Arf! Arf! Arf!

No reason for this post other than the fact that Athos (the big one) and Bitxu (the little one) are, quite simply, GORGEOUS!

Athos, as I have probably mentioned on another post, is a pedigree Australian Sheepdog.

Bitxu is half Aussie Sheepdog, half Border Collie - and all cute!

Tired dogs needing fuss.....

"Who Let the Dogs Out?" -

it was Myriam!

Another little girl from Little Rock

2010-10-06T13:31:00.000+02:00

I know that's not a song title

but

today I received another delightful postcard from a participant in the John Gould Fletcher Library "Postcard Swaparoo".

This one is from Katy, who not only managed to make her card in the colours of the French national flag, but also made me laugh out loud and nod in agreement when she listed one of her favourite subjects as "lunch".

I'm with you, Katy!!

For all three little girls from Little Rock - Alicia, Katy, and Latisha - I thought you'd like to see where your postcards went after you sent them.

This is our letter box, on a post at the front gate.

You can see the green letter box in the bottom right corner of the photo.

And that's our house - La Folie!

I love all your postcards.

Thanks again, girls!

The Name of the Game

2010-10-04T21:29:00.001+02:00

Sometimes the brand names dreamt up by marketing gurus make you wonder what on earth they're on about. And sometimes they can be just a bit too literal!

Here in France there is a brand of moist toilet tissue called "Fess Nett".

Fess, from the noun "fesses", meaning buttocks, or (vulgarly) arse.

Nett, from the verb "nettoyer", meaning to clean or wipe.

So, rather than giving their product a name like "Softie Bott", something that might not make you visualize its purpose in graphic detail every time you hear the name, the moist toilet tissue branding gurus of France instead opted for

"Arse Wipe".

Worth paying the extra for a guru, I always think!

French Kissing in the USA

2010-10-01T21:34:00.001+02:00

Okay, we're not in the USA,

but Kevin does appear to have found a new girlfriend

and she's French

and - be warned - there is a glimpse of tongue in one of these photos!

The "mademoiselle" in question is a brunette, very cute, with LONG ears

and is known to us (though probably nobody else) as

Moolie-Woolie.

Because she's a mule!

I did warn you about the tongue!

Bit of a moustache problem as well!

Mr. Tambourine Man

2010-09-30T16:33:00.000+02:00

Okay, I confess, the song title doesn't have much to do with this post.

I just couldn't find a song with the word "tagine" in the title!

Today's food-based experiment was Sweet Potato Tagine.

The recipe came from the BBC Food website under the title "Sweet Potato Tagine with Lemon Couscous" by James Martin. My loathing of couscous is second only to my utter hatred of flat-leaf parsley, and Kevin's comment "I wouldn't insult any food by serving couscous with it", will explain why I didn't bother with the latter half of the recipe!

It takes a lot of ingredients, but the cooking part isn't complicated, so don't be put off!

(Anita, please note that I nearly managed to fit everything onto the chopping board!)

I don't own one of those conical pottery tagine thingies, so I cooked it all in what the French call a "fait tout" (literally - does everything) - a big pan with handles and a lid.

As is often the case when food is on the table, I forgot to take any photos of the finished dish. Only the plates after we'd finished eating it! You may conclude it was very nice!

Hey, Mr. Spud Tagine man, fill a plate for me.........

Two Little Girls from Little Rock

2010-09-29T15:54:00.002+02:00

Not Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, but Latisha and Alicia!

Let me explain.

I like to make postcards and I like to swap them via swap-bot. At the beginning of August, a swap appeared that involved a project by the John Gould Fletcher Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The library hosted a "Postcard Swaparoo" for local children and was asking people to send in a postcard of where they live with a little message on it to a "fifth grade" child. On Swaparoo day, the cards would be distributed among the children taking part, and they would then make a postcard to send to the sender of their card.

I thought this was a great idea, so I made a couple of cards using a photo I had taken of Puilaurens Chateau and including a bit of bling to make it pretty. I sent the cards off and thought no more about it - until today, when my postbox contained two sweet postcards from little girls from Little Rock who had participated in the Swaparoo.

This one was made by Latisha, who loved the castle so much, she decided to draw one on her card.

This card was from Alicia, who squeezes a lot of information onto a 15x10cm (6x4 inch) postcard!

I was absolutely thrilled that the girls had received their cards and was touched that they had made such lovely ones to send to me.

Thanks Alicia and Latisha - you're now on the internet!!

The Boys are Back in Town!

2010-09-28T10:14:00.003+02:00

Having spent all summer higher up the hill munching lush grass and forming part of Myriam's team of horses for pony rides in the Pyrenees ("Equi Cathar" website under construction!), the two stallions are now back in their winter quarters.

The big brown boy on the left is Gauvin and the grey on the right is Kater.

This is what happens when I wander up the road with apples - the boys hear me coming and know that there are treats in store, heads pop out of stables and whinnying is heard!

Gauvin is HUGE and yoffs his apple in a oner!

Kater is a more refined eater and makes you stand and wait while he takes three bites to eat his apple. (BTW, that's La Folie in the background!)

Kater is a joy to watch when he's out in the paddock. He's an Arab stallion and doesn't so much run as dance over the ground. He moves like Darcey Bussell fuelled by champagne!

Rocky Mountain High

2010-09-27T10:13:00.000+02:00

A couple of days ago I was out pulling up weeds in the garden when I heard a strange noise. (By the way, if anyone can find a fantasically lucrative marketing strategy for the roots of stinging nettles grown in the Pyrenees - perhaps as a kind of herbal Viagra - please let me know, as I appear to farming the damn things!) Anyway, back to the strange noise, at first I thought it might be the panting of a dog who had strayed into the garden, but when I stood up, I realized the noise was coming from somewhere high up. A scan of the hilltops around the house revealed the source of the noise....

You can just see the corner of La Folie in the bottom right of the photo. The fat arrow points to the source of the noise. The thinner arrow points to the reason for the noise.

The noise was being made by an izard (a type of mountain goat found in the Pyrenees). He (or she - my usual inability to assess the gender of far-off wildlife applies) had climbed up onto the peak and was warning the other izards of the presence of a predator.

The predator was Eddie (or possibly Edwina - see above!), the Golden Eagle who lives on top of the mountain on the other side of the house.

(For grammatical pedants, I know Golden Eagle isn't a proper noun, but they're SO big and SO beautiful that somehow they just deserve capitals!)

It's a man's, man's, man's......

2010-09-26T15:51:00.001+02:00

...boiler!

Autumn is arriving in Languedoc Roussillon, so my beloved gets to do "man things". Like working out the correct settings for our new central heating boiler. I call it "The Potemkin", as it's slightly larger than a battleship and considerably more sturdily constructed - as you can see!

Apparently, we've got three circuits, one for hot water, one for heating the ground floor, and one for heating the first floor, all of which can operate independently of each other. Sounds entirely normal to a mere woman, but every man who is told about it immediately demands to be taken to the boiler room for a private viewing. When our master handyman neighbour, Guy, arrived for his summer holidays in July, he almost had to be forcibly restrained from switching it all on to see how it worked. It really must be "a guy thing"!!

That said, I'm not entirely immune to the attractions of the boiler. I've seen art installations that were less beautiful than all the lovely copper pipework emanating from the Potemkin. For obvious environmental reasons, all these pipes are now insulated - but aren't they lovely?