Bon Voisinage

These are the flowers that my neighbor Claude gave me for helping out a bit in her potager (kitchen garden, though in Claude's case it is a big yard down the lane just outside the village). Belle, non? I have to try again to get dahlias to grow in my CA garden. They are such beautiful blooms to have at the end of the season when it seems all else has given up. I must have planted them four times already there along the driveway in Healdsburg, and they never come up. As Mauro would say, pequeños animales, meaning the gophers musta' got 'em. But then I'm mixing my cultural metaphors.

Nachty nacht!

N2

Juste Assez (Just Enough)

This is 1€ worth of shitake mushrooms from the Revel market. A sweet shy young man works with his mother at the market stall where I buy them and he knows just what I am after when I ask for "un morceau de les petits" (literally: a morsel of the small ones). The long fingers on his right hand picks les petits out of the tray until the palm of his left hand is filled. He puts them in a small paper bag and takes my silver coin.

And this is enough. Enough to make a sauce for pasta -- sautee shitakes in un morceau of good butter with Guérande salt and fresh ground pepper until their juice flows, add ~1 cup of creme fraiche at the end. Enough to give a subtle twist to a spinach and mushroom quiche.

Baisers Crémeuse!

N2

Samedi Matin

This is where morning pages take place on Saturday.

Hugs from Here!

N2

Geez. Busy.

My cousin has explained to my how to bake pine cones.  Look!  No flour or sugar!

While outside on the power pole, a sentinel.  Watch those ingredients.

:-)

xoxoLC

Saint-Félix-Lauragais

Over in St Félix, as it is known to its familiars, last night for a delicious and entertaining

dinner a' chez Bing & Ken. Speaking mostly in French. Oui, c'est vrai!

This is not their house, but is just down the street on the square.

Bisous,

N2

à la Tombée de la Nuit (At the Fall of Night)

I took a walk around the center of the old town in Castres at twilight the other evening.

(Hey! This could be another entry in the "moving water" series =o)

This fountain is in the Place de Jean Jaurès. Jaurès (born in Castres in 1859 – assasinated 1914) was a French Socialist leader who's "eloquent speeches made him a force in politics as an intellectual champion of Socialism." Wikipedia

Bisous, N2

Le Brunch Chez Moi

Had a simple brunch with spinach/shitake mushroom quiche, pears& rasberries, local yogurt, some orange crepes that Claude brought and tart plum jam from Bing. It was a Sunday sweet spot. Hope your Sunday was sunny and fine. xx00 N2

Shining up his little friend

After a long day in town, Wayne is washing and preparing his bike "For Sale."

La Bohème

Mural at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse where we went to see La Bohème this week. Young singers in the roles of students! Clear strong voices! Beautiful theater!

Good orchestra!

Love to you. xx00 N2

Evening at the River

The sun just dipped behind the hills, the water still shimmers, strangely full.  Incidently, I dove right into this brush in my kayak earlier this summer.

Chemin du Parc

On a walk along the outside of the Abbaye Park in the fading sun.

Graphiques Amusants

This bookmark was the handout advertising the performance by local choral groups at the Abbaye this coming weekend. I picked it up because I thought it was cute, then read about the performances after the fact. Keeses! N2

Châtaignes (Chestnuts)

Chestnut trees are very common in the forest here. You just have to roll their prickly shells with your shoe and out they pop. I am looking for new recipes that include fresh chestnuts.

x0x0 N2

Water let out from the dam, the river's up!

A little strange to see the river swollen, brown like its been raining.  Supposedly this is good for the salmon.  I wonder if the dunes are opening to let this all flow to the ocean?  This is from the Summer Bridge this morning.

Nuit Pluvieus (Rainy Night)

Sunday night under the platanes in front of the Cafe du Promenade.

Big Smile!

A whole wheelbarrow full, curing in the sun.

Mmmm, happy.

xoxoLC

l'Évolution de la Saison

Head bowed yet regal. Bracing for what is to come.

Changement de Temps

View over the Lauragais from Puylaurens (Occitan: Puèglaurenç) at 1300 today.

Fall Flowers

Fall bouquet of Helianthus (Jerusalem artichoke flowers)

and Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi) in the back room.

Fall weather is beeeeutiful today

Reminding me to get out the orange bicycle

xoxo

LC

La Gloire du Matin

The morning glory in the courtyard does not feel the harsh autumn wind.

It's star shines as if indian summer will never disappear.

La gloire du matin dans la cour ne se sent pas le vent d'automne difficiles.

C'est étoiles brille comme si l'été indien ne disparaîtra jamais.

The Mountain Thief

Another image of life lived next to and on a mountain of trash, from the film The Mountain Thief.

Tournesol

Though most of the sunflowers have been chopped or are brown and bowed down, you sometimes drive past fields that have a random sprinkling of late bloomers. Gabi had Klaus stop by one of those fields where she cut these three to bring home for me from their day trip to Castelnaudary.

A smattering of rain today

Down the Lane.

Festival du Film

The second annual Intercultural Film Festival began in Soreze tonight up at the new theater in the abbatiale at the abbey.