Winter sweeps ' la quotidienne'

How wonderful to see 'la neige'.

 The daffodils in bloom since New Year are now covered with bubble wrap!

The sky!

LANGUAGE:
la quotidienne = the routines of daily life.
I could have said "la vie" meaning life or "la vie de tous les jours = daily life
la neige   = (easy one) the snow

Gingerbread Parkin and Raku pottery

In the last few weeks I have indulged in making three batches of this winter cake: Gingerbread Parkin

I have a wonderful book called “Talking about Cakes” by Margaret Bates. It has an emphasis on Irish and Scottish tastes. This was published in 1964 and she died in 1968.  I bought it in 1973 and has been such a mainstay that the pages have come adrift from their sewn binding and the pages are brown.  It should go with me to my grave, but not before I have passed on several of my favourite recipes and this was another….. a prelude to flapjacks.  The recipes have to be converted to metric but that’s easily done.
Yesterday I went to a Raku course given by my pottery teacher. I’d already modelled several things which needed glazing but during the morning I made two more items. They’ll wait for the next Raku firing as they have to be dried, I think!   It is rather challenging to listen to French people for a two hour lunch and later to get into trouble because although I know I shouldn’t, I HAD managed to cover my fingers in oxide glaze! 

 Well, I digress, as usual!  Even though I am ‘off task’ from domestic cleaning tasks, I am attending to two admin tasks:

1.   Provide the recipe for the RAKU group. They think they can substitute the golden syrup for honey or maple syrup!  I know this will not be the same but actually I should try it and see.  

      I have to translate the recipe into French!

2.   Provide the posting for this blog site.

PARKIN  comes from the North of England especially in the Leeds region.  It is a form of gingerbread and is best kept for up to a week but fresh from the oven it is delicious with stewed apples and a clod of cream.

So here we go:  Mix together the following dried ingredients:

225g flour

225g oatmeal

100g sugar or 110g if you prefer it sweeter

2 tsps baking powder

2 tsps ginger or I use 1 of ginger and 1 of cinnamon

In a pan warm and melt together 55g butter, a very large dollop of golden syrup and the same of black treacle. The recipe says 165g of each but it’s messy weighing it out! Add some milk, beat well and remove before it starts to get hot. 

Mix with the dry ingredients, add more milk if necessary until it is a pouring consistency. Pour into a greased shallow tin and bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes or so. Keep an eye and remove when golden brown and firm or bouncy to the touch. 

A thankyou tribute to my lovely daughter

It was thirty four years ago today

I was struggling to make my way,

With sliced oranges in a preserving pan

Making marmalade for me and my man

So may I introduce to you

My daughter naturally true

Miss Happiness was her name

And for that I'm glad I am to blame

For calling her Felicity

'cos with speed and velocity

She arrived into this wonderful world

A beautiful pink baby pearl.
ohhhhhh
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
It's wonderful to be here
It gives me such a thrill
She's such a lovely audience
and makes me feel so good
I don't really want to stop the show

but I thought you might like to know

I am happy just today to say

a very very Happy birthday.

And so it was that I started at about 5h in the morning, stage 2 of my special motherly recipe for making marmalade which involved cutting finely by hand the seville oranges, sweet oranges and lemons on that second day of making the best marmalade in the world!  At about 7h or later in the evening it was jarred.  And so, I was free to give birth for I was elephantine and if I sat down could not get up again.  I too was jarred with stirring and jangled because I was having this baby.  I refused to go to the hospital earlier because of frightful experiences with what happened when I gave birth the first time with my dearest son,  and so I waited until I was sure that those waves of pain were the real thing.  When I arrived at the hospital at about 20h30 I told the nurses “I am having a baby”.  I remember the look on Matron’s face as she smilingly and kindly spoke “Of course you are”.   Why else would I be arriving at a maternity hospital like a beached whale?   However, I insisted urgently that I WAS HAVING the baby!  It was a small cottage hospital. Nonchalantly, they allowed me to go to the toilet unaided, whereupon the waters broke, I collapsed on the floor yet had the good sense to pull the alarm cord and so they came running in their uniforms. Within a few minutes at 8h53pm the darling Felicity was born!  Miss Happiness.  I felt that I was lucky to now have one son and one daughter. It was my wish come true.

She hasn’t always caused happiness to either herself or others, being a very challenging person, but the worry was well worth it because I now feel a great affinity with her, and the more we see each other, as we get older, the more we seem to get on well together.  But of course I cannot speak for her.  I praise her for her ability as a mother in coping with a parenting situation that is very different to my experience as a mother, as was my own experience different to the trials of my own mother.  I respect daughters.  I respect  mothers.  I respect what supportive father's do too.  Being a conscientious parent is not the easiest of jobs and it IS a job,  it is a career and as mothers we work hard for the heartache of pain AND joy that sons and daughters bring to us.
My daughter has a wealth of ideas and self confidence. She has many creative talents and abilities.   We come from a family where the women appear to be late developers.  I am hoping that in 2012, or whenever, she will find a way to use her skills, interests and talents in a way that brings more confidence, success and happiness.  May doors open for her.    Happy Birthday, my lovely one.

28 January 1978 Top of the Pops chart
Number 1 was "Stayin Alive" by the BeeGees
Number 20  was "What's your Name?" by Lynrd Skynrd

Census

Each year, the National Institute of Economic Statistics and Studies (INSEE) uses information provided from the census to calculate the country's current population and latest changes within society.   

Selected households across the nation are required to provide personal information which enables the government to come up with ideas for future policies concerning employment and housing.  This year's survey is from 19th January until Sunday 18^th  February for our village and I think that the dates may vary for other villages, or cities and towns.   Residents are notified and subsequently receive a visit from a member of staff in possession of an official identity card.  These professionals offer help and assistance in answering the questions related to the survey. 

The census is in two parts: the first includes 15 questions concerning housing,  and the second has 25 questions about age, place of birth, nationality, education, previous place of residence and current occupation.  We are told that the information in the survey remains confidential and anonymous. 

According to French law I am obliged to answer the census questionnaire for 2012.  I complete one about 4 or 5 years ago.  In our region of France the household is visited, the agent fills in the form and my signature is required.  The process with me took less than 15 minutes. As a retiree I presume I am now ‘unimportant ‘ as I did not have as many questions asked as those who are younger or who are in employment. 

Matters that were of interest:

·      Age of property

·      How many bedrooms? This provided a difficulty because I maintain that the smallest room is an office and that there is only one bedroom.  The rooms of my house are all on the ground floor but the house is not a bungalow.  Therefore, How many rooms? The number did not have to include the kitchen if it was less than 10m₂ and did not include the bathroom.  I did not include the pantry because that is also less than 10m₂. It seems surprising that there is no census of how many French houses have a bathroom? And why isn’t a kitchen important? For me it is the most important room of the house (apart from where I sleep). It is the social hub of the house.  I know that some French houses have a combined living room and kitchen and in some small houses these rooms are less than 10m₂.  Outcome: my property has been degraded to 4 rooms instead of 7.

·      Habitable surface of the whole house.   She wanted to know if it was between80 and 100m2.

·      Was I the owner?

·      How many people live in the house?

·      What was my nationality?

·      What was my status?  husband, wife, partner, pacsed, celibataire, etcetera, although she did not name all of these.

·      When did I move into the house? Even though I was the owner on one date it WAS the moving in date,14 months later that was important for her. 

·      Principal source of heating.  Logs. It mattered not that the house could have the facility for central heating fuel when I re-install the radiators or that sometimes I use an electrical heater.

·      Do I have a car? How many?

·      My date of birth and where I was born? The latter confused her as she was not sure whether to write England or the exact place of birth

·      Date of arrival as resident in France. She assumed this was the date I moved into the house so I had to correct her on that. So next question was Where did I lived before ?

·      Was I retired? and What did I do before I retired?

Anyone who is further interested could go to

http://www.insee.fr/en/bases-dedonnees/default.asp?page=recensements.htm

French Kettles in the Kitchen

I am using the 4th French kettle in less than a year and I've developed an aversion.  Kettles seem to have become astronomically expensive and I am reluctant to spend a lot of money when they keep being faulty.  Then there is the calcium which appears in the boiled water (it lurks horribly in the kettle and in tea).  I use a water filter, admittedly not all the time, and I know someone who passes the water through coffee filters which are re-usable.

A couple of years ago, I kept the kettle box and receipt and just a few weeks before the guarantee ran out, the kettle failed.  So bravely, I returned it to the French shop for a replacement.  However, because the guarantee period was almost over I was happy for the kettle to be tested for a fault and honesty pays, for indeed the inspector agreed it was not good, so they gave a chit for the value to be spent in the shop on another kettle or comme vous voulez.  It's only recently that French shops have agreed to no-hassle-refund.  Since then I've bought cheaper kettles, 9 euros, from a GIANT supermarket shop whose name is not dissimilar from the mighty ocean!  One of these I returned within a month.  I bought another...and the same thing happened after 3 months.  It turned itself on and burnt out! I don't feel I should return it but I will.  It is true that on occasions I have left the kettle to boil when there is no water in it but I'm better at not doing that these days.  Recently, I bought a Severin brand, half price in the sale, normally 60 euros.   Cautiously wary the creature that I am,  I'm keeping the kettle on a plate instead of on its electrical device when it is not boiling water.  However, I've noticed that the plastic lid which opens slowly when a button is pressed to fill it with water,  does not fit exactly so when I DO switch it on, it continues to boil for a long time before cutting out.  I've decided to take it back as the kitchen fills with steam if I leave the kettle to boil and wander to another room.

I thought I would look on Amazon and see what the options are as well as look in other shops that sell electrical household products.  But how does one return faulty goods to Amazon?  It will cost postage when it's not my fault!
However, not all is bleak,  I once bought a LIDL kettle which was excellent as it had a 3 year guarantee as opposed to a one year guarantee and that particular kettle lasted just over the 3 years.  Disappointingly, they are only in the LIDL shops at certain times of the year. And they do not always appeal to me in their design feature. Hey ho ... it's a kettle.

Years ago I had a wonderful Russell Hobbs .. very stylish.. maybe I shall investigate that.  Perhaps even look at John Lewis now that they sell online and deliver to France.  I can use a European converter plug because one is not supposed to change plugs these days! 

I could go back to boiling the water in a saucepan but it's not as nice as having an electric kettle. That reminds me I have a beautiful, expensive, camping kettle in my attic store....it's about 30 years old.... and as good as new.  Really, excellent design.  I could use that on the gas hob and listen for the whistle. 

Car repair

Apart from noises at the front of the vehicle to do with the offside wheel and steering, which necessitated two visits and of course a cost, the garagiste heard a noise from the rear wheel and on investigation discovered that the rear drum brake had broken into two parts!
The initial noise was 3 clacks - one as the car started to roll forward and two as I drove onto the road turning in a sharp right S shape. The car was oiled at suspension points and 12 screws tightened under the chassis, I think for the steering rack joints. When I started to leave the garage there was a different gravel crunching noise.  I called Monsieur J who listened, who called Monsieur E who listened, who suggested I take my car as it was not serious and when the French MOT is due in February and I still have the noise in perhaps warmer weather then to let them know!  Hm?  After I left the garage and within a very short distance I had two new noises that weren't there before:

1. a squeak as I turn the steering wheel to the left 

2. the brakes squealed as I journeyed to the petrol station. 

I found myself writing about the differences between the language of France and England in an email to a friend.
"The car repair bill made a large dint in the pocket but now the vehicle is safe.  It was unknowingly dangerous before the repair.  It was a blessing that there was no accident."
This set me thinking about the use of the word  bless .

LANGUAGE:
It was a blessing that there was no accident. 

C'était une bénédiction qu'il n'y avait aucun accident. 
A blessing in disguise = mal pour un bien

 blesser  verb transitif =  to injure, to wound 

Il a été blessé dans un accident de voiture.    He was injured in a car accident.  

blesser = to hurt physically as well as to cause offence

Il a fait exprès de le blesser.    He hurt him on purpose. 

 blessées = casualties
  
 to bless = bénir
 A blessing = une bénédiction (as from the Catholic religion)
Bless you! = a tes souhaits!
Bless you! when thanking someone = Merci mille fois tu es un ange = Thank you a thousand times you are an     
angel.    

If you are blessed with a gift  =être doué(e)  de  
 Elle est douée d'un immense talent.= She is blessed with immense talent.  

Update on the bathroom

 

                 A space becomes a room when the concrete floor is tiled and grouted. 

It even feels like a room as one treads carefully, feeling the splendour of potential, visualising the warmth of water! 

In the far left corner the frame for the toilet water cistern is now screwed firmly to the floor. 

Each step has to be thoroughly thought about... the diagrams for installation have to be studied, yet again, measurements must be made, drilling 6 holes for the long bolt fixation screws through the tiles into the concrete floor must be accurately executed as there is no millimetre allowance for error.  

The waste connection pipe was being a beast to connect and seemed impossible,  but then after both kneeling and manoeuvring it,  trying to understand the conundrum of why there was insufficient space to angle the white tube into the grey waste pipe, whilst listening to some choice words, I just did it!!!!!! Twist it away from the target then another twist and hey voila!  Maybe a plumber I could be!  As he said it takes a woman!  Then it was tea time treats!

River flooding is subsiding

The tracks support the wooden pedestrian bridge in summer. 

Forces of energy bend the tracks.

The leaves caught in the tree show how high the river flooded.

Sunday

I just had to complete my choice for the  "Days of the Week" songs! 

 Queen - Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - 1975

Who indeed has any answers? 
Neither you, nor me
nor the wind, nor the sea
nor the ocean, nor the sun
nor the birds, in the trees
  yet to walk outside in the wild
seems to quell the quest
for the search of a nest
where I belong,
with one to share,
to sing my song.

First Saturday

Lynrd Skynrd - Saturday Night Special - 1976

 

First Friday Epiphany Treats

I love the roughness of the voices.   There was a group called THEM who played regularly at our Friday night school social club.  When we rushed to buy the release of the first 45rpm only to discover that this was not OUR group we were all very disappointed. So our THEM, became THEMSELVES.

GROUTING was achieved today. Then after the day had gone wonky it turned around with beer and galette des rois as an evening apero or supper! 
This was an unexpectedly good drink to have with the sweet pastry.  I have since read that in medieval times, warmed ale with stewed apples in it (a posset), was enjoyed with the cake.

It is the Feast of the Epiphany today.  From English Christmas Pudding, move to French Galette des Rois and within each one win the ceramic model (feve=bean originally {a different narrative}  to have the chance to be King or Queen for the day.  Although you will wear the crown, the reward for your servants is that you have to supply the next galette!! There are many different types in France as there are in other Catholic countries.  I prefer the one with less flaky, flaky pastry, which I think heralds from Normandy but the best are stuffed with a real and goodly amount of almond paste, unless it is a brioche, and so it goes on until we reach Candlemas day on February 2nd when it is traditional to eat pancakes. The French do not wait until Shrove Tuesday!

Well... this is my favourite type of Epiphany cake..all the better as it is from my local baker.  I bought it on Monday 8th January and  it should last the work force at least 4 days. I had to hide it to prevent someone having second helpings. Waistlines must be thought about!

First Thursday thoughts

David Bowie - Thursday Child 1999

Thinking thoughts

Best not to think, GET ON AND DO  but today I am led to think that:

We are so busy in our lives sometimes making mistakes that we don't make time to correct them.

So, if I find myself thinking in a certain way because I think I've been hurt or upset by an event or person, or probably have hurt them, I attempt to follow the Byron Katie model of enquiry and ask the 4 questions to arrive at a nearer truth or the actual truth and turn around my thoughts. This works well and leads to other enquiry.

I was looking in my collection of thoughts from others
which have inspired me in the last 3 years
and
randomly
came upon thoughtfulness from
Jim Morrison - The Doors
NB He was also in THEM

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first. You can take away a man’s political freedom and you won’t hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can’t be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”

“Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.”  

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”

“People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it is a friend” 

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” 

First Wednesday Wonderful Eats for Tiling

This album is Emotional.  This track, based on a true story,  often makes me cry or feel sentimental. I suppose it's poignant; a girl who left home when I never had the courage until I transferred to college at 18 yrs of age, officially becoming an independent adult. 

 

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band alias The Beatles  - She's Leaving Home - 1967

Well, today is a wonderful Wednesday because grey floor tiles are laid in the bathroom but not without angst. The packs of 7 tiles are very slightly different in size and we are talking about millimetres, which sounds not a lot until they do not marry up with straight lines!  The last one has had to be adjusted and it's lucky not to be in pieces!

Lunch was a fine roast rolled shoulder of lamb from the local fields.  I have to say I rather excelled myself without much effort and reminisced about ditches and lunchtime dinners!
Yesterday I sautéed two leeks and threw in the frozen mâche, added the potato stock and seasoning and left to cool for a soup base. However, today, into the covered casserole dish went the soup with the seared lamb, studded with slivers of garlic, on top of it, surrounded by large chunks of butternut squash, 2 onions with their skins on, (laziness create deliciousness)  and around the top slightly pre-boiled potatoes (Cherie darling), and into a cold oven at the hottest of temperatures.  This is a kind of French roasting. the moisture permeates upwards, tenderising the meat. I roasted for about 1¼ hours and then took out the meat "to rest" before slicing into thick pieces.  The potatoes and squash were taken out of the dish and put onto the hot metal tray in the oven to crisp up for about 10 minutes.  I made a sauce from the liquid in the casserole dish adding a little flour to thicken and a touch of seasoning.  To serve I put a spoonful of the leeks and mâche onto the plate with the slice of lamb on top and around it the squash, potatoes, and one onion which I had removed the skin of.
For dessert... I'd accidentally cooked the Bramley apples for too long in water and no sugar until they were mushy. I'd made a thick batter mixture with flour, egg, milk, sugar (no weighing here!) and then espied a tangerine going 'home'   so I cit it in half and chopped up the eatable portion and threw that into the batter, then poured the lot over the apples and baked that in the oven I suppose for about 40 minutes ... but had turned the heat down a wee amount!  You can smell when it is ready! 

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Food

FRENCH LANGUAGE:

mâche  nf  =  lamb's lettuce

First Tuesday Salad Days

Two beautiful songs to celebrate the first Tuesday moving stone, sand, gravel, garden pots then clearing and sweeping the courtyard now that the drainage solutions are complete.  

Another load for the déchetterie.  

Another fine lunch: different salads with fresh smoked mackerel from the fishmonger - a whole fish which I skinned and deboned, flaked with aioli and served on toasted 'sweet chestnut and fig' bread from the local bakery.   

In French markets and supermarkets, cooked "betterave" is often a long variety. I love the way the crunchy, darkened, brown skin can be pulled off.  A favourite salad is to chop beetroots, garlic, leeks, cooking/eating apple, then mix with sultanas or raisins, mayonnaise or aioli, lemon juice/rind and season to taste.

The whistling wind arrived late afternoon and so it was to batten down the hatches,  keep warm by the fireside with less physical activity.

First of all, The Moody Blues and Tuesday Afternoon 1967

followed by 

The Rolling Stones and Ruby Tuesday 1967

 

 

She would never say where she came from

Yesterday don't matter if it's gone

While the sun is bright

Or in the darkest night

No one knows

She comes and goes

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

Don't question why she needs to be so free

She'll tell you it's the only way to be

She just can't be chained

To a life where nothing's gained

And nothing's lost

At such a cost

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

There's no time to lose, I heard her say

Catch your dreams before they slip away

Dying all the time

Lose your dreams

And you will lose your mind.

Ain't life unkind?

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

FRENCH LANGUAGE:

betterave /bɛtʀav/ feminine noun =  beet ~ rouge beetroot

aioli = garlic mayonnaise

ail  pluriel = l'ails or l'aulx /aj/o/ masculine noun = garlic 

poireau, pl ~x /pwaʀo/ masculine noun  = leek

First Monday Wrong Shoes

Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning 1975

Up relatively bright and early to witness the final skim of floor-levelling compound in the bathroom-to-be, then to help raise flagstones in the drive to reveal the guttering drainage pipes which have to be re-routed.  I keep finding myself saying, "Wrong shoes", as I try to keep outdoor and indoor shoes separate.  I have tiled floors and am constantly sweeping, vacuuming, mopping.  Clean sand, mucky sand, stones and rocks, have been dug out and heaped onto polythene sheets so we can drag and tip back in the dug channels after the new pipe has been laid.  Stone rocks are being carried to the growing rockery at the end of my rear garden and rubbled earth was scattered on the dips in the 'lawn', Broken slabs and rubbish from the ground was collected for the déchetterie. All mains drainage pipes had to be tested with the real thing!  Not nice but it had to be done as the drop, I think is 1mm or 1cm in every 100.  I never remember figures.  My friend is experienced in drainage difficulties! Then we had to lift and carry sand in the wheelbarrow from the rear garden to the front courtyard.  Kept after the beams were blasted, it was bound to be useful.  Back and forth helping the main man.

Meanwhile, I re-organised and cleaned the laundry/larder room.  And why on earth did I choose clinically white floor tiles?  Yes, I can see the dirt! I've now organised 'ballet shoes' by the door so that I don't wear 'wrong shoes' and make footmarks on the floor!  This is where the aerodynamic water boiler is situated and I'm sure one day it will take off! I also carried a lot of logs in..for the two woodburners as well as chopped kindling wood from the waste wood piled in a dry outdoors area.

Lunch was mainly pre-prepared: home made beef and mushroom casserole found in the freezer, which I served with wild rice and savoy type cabbage.  Yesterday the freezer section of the fridge which also acts like a freezer needed to be urgently de-iced... and hey, I have a guest invited for New Years day dinner!  For dessert it was more of the Tesco Christmas pudding that I cooked yesterday. Blackened, dried fruits had 'coagulated' into a rich and creamy consistency.  My daughter gave it to me... and being never too much worried about sell-by and eat-by dates decided to give it a try. It was dated 2007/2008 and was remarkably delicious with cream and brandy butter. By 16h we were wilting. Tea and the shared final slice of a New Year chocolate gooey French cake indicated we'd had it!  Here I am resting and reporting but the next task is to tackle the paperwork.

How unusual is this?
Daffodils in my garden are so small that I have had to carefully place the metal wine rack on the grass to protect them from being trodden on.  They were not dwarfed last year!
Yesterday, the blackbirds sang as if it were Springtime.

FRENCH  LANGUAGE:
déchetterie; noun feminine  = waste recycling site