Le Meteo, The Weather

On the Home Front

D'Orsay

Inside the clock at the Musee D'Orsay - the bronze version. 

Just a little random sunset.  Know that you are getting close to home!  xoxoLPC

Somebodies you might recognise...

It was a fabulous parade this year!  Look who I saw in a great big fire engine!  I was so excited that I only took close-ups!

Love you!
xoxoLPC

Vendredi à Castres

Coming this Friday to Castres:  a band playing Turbo Klezmer Balkan Ska !!!

I think I have to be there even if I can't find anyone to go with me.
But what should I wear?  A gypsy skirt, peut-être...

Street Theater in the Parc

Street theater by Triade Nomade in the parc at the Abbaye Ecole tonight.  

It was a little windy but wonderful.  They danced the tango and jumped a fire rope.
On stilts.
In a word: Spectacle!

Hailey Beavis - Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Hailey Beavis is a singer/songwriter from Edinburgh, Scotland, who began writing her own songs when she was 14.  I saw her perform in a salon setting at Chateau Padies on Friday night.  By the end of her second set she had galvanized the room full of people, and at least half of those people only speak English as a second language.  Unique singing and writing voice.  You can listen to her song "Patience" here. 

For a back corner of France, we sure do get an amazing variety of culture here in the Tarn region.

Les Chouettes (The Owls)

A local artist was selling these at the spring Marché de Fleurs in Revel on May Day. 

 Too heavy to carry home, but I sure was was tempted.

Osprey Breakfast

Sorry to have been gone so long!  I have enjoyed catching up with your photos.  This is from last week, one morning out at the Lake.  I saw this guy zoom into the trees and was fortunate to see where he landed.  He did keep an eye on me, so I didn't get in too close.  Soon he/she will be feeding the hatchlings!  I feel an urge to get the kayaks out!

La Violette

This one is for the Corn Tiger. We were video chatting the other day and I talked about the great olives here in France (he loves all pickles and has been known to drink the "juice" out of the caper bottle). Then I went on to talk about other things he will like when he comes to visit me here and he said "More olives, Nana."  I mean, who wouldn't be transfixed by the idea of purple olives?

Électrique Jaune (Electric Yellow)

Les champs de colza électrifier le paysage.

Fields of rape electrify the countryside.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) was bred by scientists in Canada to produce a variation, canola, from which we now get canola oil (or huile de colza in French).  The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid".  (adapted from Wikipedia entry on Canola).

Interesting fact, non?  A close cousin to the field mustard (Brassica campestris L. or Brassica Rapa var.) which grows all over the vineyards in northern California, only here it is a cultivated crop. Mais bien sûr, il est «cultivé» c'est la France, n'est-ce pas? (But of course it is "cultivated" this is France, is it not?)

Vide Grenier

A slice of the vide grenier life on Sunday, April 22 -- also voting day for France.  

It was a good vide grenier day.  The gentlemen of a certain age were likin' me.

One dropped his price 3€ without me having to get tough, another gave me three booklets on historical sites as a gift, another threw in a free poster picture that I've been lusting after for the Corn Tiger.

Bisous all around!

N2

Seedlings

Lettuce starts, 15 Euro cents a plug, that would be 90 cents/~$1.17 a six pack in American terms. These were in Germany. Can't wait to go to the market in Revel tomorrow and get some to plug into my mini-potager on the alley here on rue Ferlus.

Fusion Cuisine

German bread and French butter, a match made in heaven.

And this little bed...

...feels just right, says Baby Joon.

Mud Bugs

When I went to the Temple Club for dinner with my brother and his Vietnamese girlfriend last week, we saw people climbing the stairs to the floor above and heard happy, loud talking pouring down the stairs. The bartender at the Temple Club told us there was a BBQ restaurant up there and I resolved to go back before I left and check it out.


The hostess graciously found a table for one at the center of the packed restaurant. I ordered the chili lime shrimp, being careful to ask the price first, as I'd heard about bad experiences some people have had ordering "market rate" items on the menu. The price was reasonable, 96,000 Dong for 200 grams, or ~$5 US. I also ordered the banana flower salad and a so da chanh (soda water with fresh lime juice and sugar).

The young waiter brought out the ten giant prawns, lit the gas grill at the center of the table and oiled it with a bamboo brush. As I was watching him, I caught unexpected movement on the table top out the corner of my eye, you know, the sort that gives you the heebee jeebees, like when a roach crawls out from between the salt and pepper shakers waving its antennae. And this was antennae waving and legs wiggling, too.

**Warning: Turn down the audio before viewing. It was a very noisy restaurant.**

It's a little dark, but look close. Though they are already skewered on bamboo sticks, the prawns are still alive and kicking.

There's a reason they call crawfish mud bugs. And these are kissing cousins.

Not for the faint of heart. I did make the waiter put them on the grill while I closed my eyes and mouthed "Please stop moving! Please stop moving!" When they did, I bowed from the waist and, hands clasped together over my heart, I addressed my food. "Thank you for your lives."

They were delicious, dipped in a simple salt, pepper, lime juice sauce. Best shrimp I've had since...well, maybe ever.

Good Morning Vietnam

Saturday breakfast at the Palace Hotel in Vung Tau. That's cà phê sữa đá on the right--strong coffee, sweetened condensed milk, ice--a cool way to get your morning jolt.

Morning Sun

Coming in for a Good Morning chat in the

Tree of Gathering!

xoxo

LPC

Mystery Fruits

Both of these are new to me.

One I met at the market

The other in the wild

Spikey on the outside, soft on the inside...

Have you ever seen anything like these before?

Breakfast Companion

I am usually the last to breakfast at the Ngoc Phan Guest House. Buddha is my only companion. Pomelo my usual breakfast fruit.

Airport Food, Japan Style

Snack Rack, Narita Airport.

Do you see those little silver dried fishes among the peanuts on the front of the Kasugai Peanut & You bag on the left? =o)) And Chee-za! That seems to be a phonetic spelling to me. I love that they put the percentage of cheese on the front.


Took this picture of the menu on the table for two reasons: the left, center bowl of udon with "edible wild plant" and the lower right item, which looks sort of like a Japanese version of corn dogs fashioned from sticky rice and bacon!

No, I did not try any of the above. I had a coffee latte and stroop waffle (Dutch cookie with carmel syrup holding together the thin waffle sides, which I know from my time in Amsterdam).

Well, it was the international terminal, evidenced also by the presence of Ritz peanut butter bits.