Mussels and Moules

I bought a kilo of fresh sea mussels on the Ile d'Oléron. They travelled in two cool bags within my cool box with ice which was still ice the following day in my fridge! 
Moules marinières recipe:
Chop a red onion or shallots and garlic. Gently sauté in butter. Add chopped parsley or if you have none, dried parsley and if pushed use rosemary and sage as I did.  Add a quantity of water, white wine, pepper, salt and bring to the boil. Add the washed mussels... mine didn't have any beards to remove. This must have been done in the harvesting process! All mine were closed.  Stir the mussels in the sauce. Put a lid on the pan! When they have cooked for ten minutes in the sauce, if there are any closed ones, they are discarded. Pour the mussels and juice into a large bowl and enjoy eating using an empty shell as pincers!!!!!
REMINDER: 
1. Discard all open mussels before cooking; discard all closed mussels after cooking! 
2. Don't eat mussels if you have been ill eating shellfish; probably you have an allergy to them! 
I couldn't eat all the sauce and mussels so they stayed in the fridge overnight. I washed the empty mussel shells with boiling water which extracted herbs and onions.  In that liquid I  slowly cooked risotto rice and some sliced carrots and at some point added the mussel sauce, again cooked slowly and this risotto was delicious for another day

The Common blue mussel (Mytilus edulis - Linneaus family: Mytildae, 1758)) is the most commonly farmed mussel species.  Bouchot means a 'shellfish bed'. It is a traditional aquaculture technique for harvesting mussels. The mussel is grown on ropes strung from wooden poles in the sea, which results in grit and barnacle-free mussels with a good flavour.  A rope-grown blue mussel is a bouchot mussel in France. According to legend, Patrick Walton, a Scotsman, ran aground in the bay d’Aiguillon, Normandy in 1235. He stayed and hunted seabirds as he had done in Scotland.  He drove wooden poles into the ground near the coast and stretched nets between.  Mussels began growing on the pole. He realized it was more profitable to raise shellfish. Normandy remains the leading producer of bouchot mussels.  In France, bouchot mussels are protected by Appelation Protection d'Origine status.

Sea changes

Full fathom five, thy father lies, Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes, Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change, into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell, Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.
William Shakespeare: The Tempest

I hadn't heard this expression for many a year. Then three times within the last week it occurred.
Odd, because I have recently started a E. J. Howard novel "The Sea Change".

Intermission in-between Island Reportage

Thursday:
Last night a storm with over 30cm rainfall! Logs arrived at 8h30 - six steres which is two cords. They weren't much wet... meaning they are good dry logs, three years old!
It is true that I had agreed with the man that the second week of September was better for me because I'd anticipated assistance from a friend, whose agenda then changed!  Instead, I was invited to 'les iles'  and as I hadn't got there by myself as intended,  it was all speed ahead to get Autumn garden, admin and household tasks sorted for an impending visitor to come and help me with some moderate tasks that need four hands!
Although I had thought about doing so, I didn't leave a note for the man to say my holiday week had changed unexpectedly from the first week to the second! Anyway, he was OK about it.
Last year, it was a nightmare when I had a female friend to help, AND I paid her son to help, AND the man had to chainsaw the 50cm logs into halves!  It took she and me eight hours each!
Yesterday, I prepped the areas for potential stockage, contacted two female friends to see if they were likely to be available. It's OK ... I get used to challenges!
Logs arrived at 8h30. Annoyingly the bulk was discharged onto the road just near the back entrance. I wanted the lesser amount there. Not to worry.  His vehicle cannot get into my courtyard. For an hour and three quarters I cleared the lesser pile of logs sprawled onto the roadside. Important to get the road clear!
Then coffee time! I ate that Ile d'Oleron croissant stuffed with apricot jam. But, as I put the pot onto the table it slipped and spilled onto my furniture and carpet! Coffee grounds everywhere! Fortunately, the chair fabric had been scotchguarded! Can I say that word with the referendum today? Also, the French say Scotch for sellotape! It was/is a brand name! Will they be able to say that word?
Then low, an Angel from heaven appeared, her name meaning Light, to help for an hour!  She brought another wheelbarrow.  Between us we moved the larger split logs and round ones, but as quite a few are weird shapes, they were set aside for the electric splitter at a later date!
My man has been good and not only has he delivered the logs in the requested 33cm lengths but also split quite a few. 
First of all, find the half moon shaped logs and start to build the end stacks. Gradually fill the space between with the other logs. Keep the lengths the same and marry up the front edges (which I did not do!) In today's case, I had two rows developing, the shorter thirds and the longer thirds. It has stacked quite well.  Small, thin round logs have gone to the back of the house as they are lighter to carry further to the indoors in the winter!
Half past noon and the risotto from yesterday was warmed.  Need to take on carbs!  I rested for less than an hour including 15 minutes with my back on the floor following the advice I received from the Alexander Technique man whom I saw in UK in April!
Worked for another couple of hours when I needed tea and cake. Thank you to those from the CCC whose cake slices are stashed in my freezer! Taken a second ibuprofen as my back reminds me it exists! It's a 45 minute break whilst I type and rest my back. Get back to it girl! 
At this point all the logs have been removed from the road and now there are those that have been brought to the courtyard. Split and stack. After the rain the sun! It's hot again! I'm fading fast! Well done me and Claire. Good day working.  It's satisfying to see logs stacked!
18h Will continue tomorrow.
UPDATE:
Monday 22 September
It did seem surprising to me that I managed to clear the pile of logs, mostly alone in effectively about 8 to 10 hours and it did seem surprising to me that the initial pile did not look as much as last year... need to compare photos... but I have measured and it seems that I have 3.65 cubic metres of logs and not 6.00 cubic metres.  It seems to me the man has charged 50e per square metre plus 40e perhaps to cut the 2 cords into thirds.  In which case I am about 100 euros out of pocket! 
In my other residence my former partner made a big song and dance one year of the measurements checking the space and the logs and verifying in a way not to embarrass the French supplier and neighbour ... and after that we were never supplied short measure.  
I think that I have been short measured!
TODAY  I have measured the existing logs bought in 2013 including those I bought from my friend when he sold his house and I have 10 steres.
Making a visual comparison of the section that measures 5.70 sq metres and the amount I have just stacked accounting for the smaller logs I have put elsewhere as there wasn't sufficient space, it is my opinion I have been definitely been short measured! 
I'm not sure what I can do. I think nothing, but next time, I need to make clear with big gestures and the tape measure that the space I wish to fill measures six square metres!!!  
THAT would indicate I know what I am talking about!!!!!!

Ré-island

An island for a morning stroll along sand, where two hours pass unbelievably quickly as a half hour. Tide goes out.  Mesmerised by morning colour, light, pattern, form, people, events, she wandered along the sands dreaming blissful thoughts.
An island for a fashion shoot, where a woman moves this way, that way, as her ego is stroked by others who ré-position her clothes,  ré-preen her hair for the man who shoots the shots! People paid to perform! Narcissism!
BUT, She ré-turns for breakfast! She ré-turns to her inner isle to cycle! It's all Her réverie!

Wistfully, reluctantly, she departs this île, this last image first viewed 27 months ago. It is a memory.

Ré-turn

When I ré-turned to this fabulous, luminous Île I was immediately in Heaven, in Paradise, with all the angels singing without a cloud in the sky, without anxiety, without a care in the world!  I know because I wore that 'certain smile' all day and each day whilst on and off my bike, irregardless of whom I met or what I did! Age did not matter! Nothing mattered!  It stayed until I moved to Île d'Oléron, which was equally, if not more luminous.  However, it is absolutely truthful that the continuous blissfulness witnessed for four full days on each of those three visits, faded as I left that isle.  Maybe, ancestral roots of Saint-Onge call me to that region.  Although sitting on beaches for long is difficult, here the sand is soft, the water warm, with space to move to or away from people, to walk, cycle, read, paint, or water sport if one fancies but that latter is not for me. Like the Cancerian Crab that I am, a shoreline needs to be available to scuttle hear and there! September sunrise and sunset make this the most marvelous of beaches. I kid myself to believe that I could stay for ever... but when the tempests come, ... , I like everyone will find a different haven for safety and security.
After pitching tent before five pm, the beach beckoned me insistently, to paddle and to picnic on peaches and a mirabelle tart. A bottle of water to quench the thirst.

To the south

To the east

To the west

To the north

To my taste buds

heArt in sand

Awe

If I could paint, this would be awesome!

11 august 11

On 11 August 2011 I purchased a brand new petrol lawnmower. There were no Acacia trees and no garden to speak of.. just land, just grass, just clover after chickens, dogs and a vegetable plot. I am told it had beautiful flowers in it but the previous occupants took them.
Two of the four directional views, to South East and East North:

This it has been wet and dry and much mowing has has been required:

 To the South it has looked 'comme ça':

 

This year I had to buy an electric lawnmower because it was not good for me to pull the cord of a petrol mower whilst suffering from biceps tendonitis.  So each mower serves each piece of land and I don't have to push one up and down the lanes. It is still too much hard work and I know that nature will overcome me if I cant keep hold of nature!

Book Review: Girls in their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien

Penguin Book 2649 first published 1964 reprinted 1967.
Given that I've acquired loads of Orange Penguin books to sell for someone, I took the opportunity to read an author I have enjoyed...this novel says a lot about life in the 50s 60s. Think "Up the Junction" (Nell Dunne) . In those days it really was a tragicomedy as described on the back cover - it is seedy, sad and an epitome of some women in those times; an irony.  The power of womanhood has improved. Would I recommend it?  For social history: it's a quick read!

Helping step by step!

Found this and thought it amusing!

Book Review: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith

My daughter looked offended when I answered that I hadn't read the book but was passing it on.  As I replied, I realised she'd given me this book and another of his titles! Therefore, I gave it a go! I was suitably surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd book of the Philosophy Series...so much so that I'd finished it within three days. I am a slow reader! That is, I haven't always got the TIME to read! I did some research and was again impressed with how many books this author has written. I think that is why I initially thought they would be 'not my style'!  But the philosophical content was interesting and made me more alert to perspectives of thinking!

The Swing - A poem

How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
   Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
   Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
   Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
   Up in the air and down!

By Robert Louis Stevenson

La Crepuscule

At Dusk and into Darkness a while ago, there was a Les Nuits Romanes presentation at Vicq-sur-Gartempe.  "La Compagnie Avis de Tempête" from La Rochelle, presented "Estrellita" : set in 1945, it incorporated music, theatre, comedy, acrobatics, trapeze. Aerial poetry against a church, lit to highlight exterior and interior architecture.  Difficult to take night photos.

The music supported an aerial display by a woman on a trapeze, hooked to a safety line, whilst kinetic energy worked the rope swing.  She wrapped it around her legs or feet or body,  then released herself to fall but of course the rope held her.  I was with her on the swing.  I felt that heart beat, that exhilaration when one pushes higher and higher to the bar! 
The theatrical setting was of a different bar... a bal guingette, where four musicians played an Italian styled musette accordion, a double bass, a silvery sparkly drum and percussion kit,  and a violin, the sound of which wasn't sufficiently acoustically balanced to hear melodies that followed those of the accordion.  The woman sat with her back to the chap as if in disagreement or dispute.  Maybe they were lovers, because after his balancing skills on four chairs and a table, which the waiter had prepared, dusted and cleaned, she suddenly threw herself through the air to wrap herself silently across his body like a tiny child who clings to its mother. Wow... Later, he received her feet on his hands with the weight of her body after she had ended her trapeze act.  It reminded me of how my grand daughter aged six has always and still does, stand on her father's hands and feet! I was impressed with the style of music... it is music I have sometimes played... Parisian style musette from 1940s. 
I ordered a CD because they had sold out!  It arrived, but now the laptop CD player has decided not to operate! 
The evening was extremely well attended... though the elderly, older than I, who were sat could not have seen much apart from all the heads in front of them.

Needle & Thread

A few days ago, I enjoyed attempting to stitch the long, loose thread into its pattern on the duvet cover which had been used for 20 sleeps. It was after 7 sleeps that the thread came loose.  Very annoying! Guests complimented the John Lewis product! On a whim, as I couldn't wait for A.N.Other for sewing repairs, I did it!  

Wheel hubs

Mindful that one of these had fallen off after it had been knocked off by someone hitting the corner of my vehicle, causing minor damage whilst parked on the road outside of my house, AND when I'd replaced it but it fell off again, (I know not where), I managed to pass the motor vehicle scrap yard whilst it was open.  Not knowing the French words even to begin to ask for what I needed,  I mentioned 'couverture' and 'roue' and the very polite young man with neat, dreadlock hair who was wearing welly boots came to look at the car.  Off he went in search of what I needed.  Then I  looked at my car which is not something I often do and noticed that a second and a third were also 'abimé'  ( (worn out! - damaged)  and ah, maybe I needed two or three, or, oh, FOUR wheel hub covers!  There I stood for an exceedingly long time, thinking how annoyed he might be if he arrives with one but I need more... and whilst I stood there, I considered how much one might cost and how much I might like to pay, bearing in mind it IS a scrap yard where everything has its value to those who need it!  Imagine my joy when this intelligent man arrived with four. They were a different pattern yet were for a Clio! I understood all of that but not heard a word that I could translate... This happens a lot more recently.  I don't know EXACTLY in words what the French person has said but I can reply!

So we agree to try them to see what they look like... and I noticed that as he passed the second wheel he too had seen that the second was broken and wouldn't last long.  He had made another comment which words escaped me but translation didn't.  Something to do with the driver scraping the car hubs on the pavement ... but he didn't say that of course!  He said he'd noticed that two were required! Well, I asked how much and he said 15e for the four. Without batting an eyelid, asked for 'baisser' svp.. but I struggled to remember that French word which he supplied!  Yes, that's it!  So, I got the four for 10e.  At the time, another language process happened. I interpreted that he meant each when I knew he meant for the four.   As he fitted them I said I had to keep the car on the road.  He commented 'comme tout le monde' ... I panicked, not wishing to cause offense and so, wasn't sure whether to tip him or not... there was no receipt, so I hoped he took a cut!  It's hard to make a moral decision without someone to discuss it with.  Afterwards I felt a bit mean because I then remembered my earlier thoughts and the minimum-maximum cost I was prepared to pay!  Scrooge! Ah.. humbug! 

Book Review: The Dead School: Patrick McCabe

Dust. 
Dead.
Days. (Larkin)
Living.
Loving.
Loss.
Death.
Dying.
Disintegration.
Destruction.
Depression.
Deviation.
Dearth.
Destiny.
Dreams broken.
Betrayal.
Madness.
Macabre.
Ancient.
Modern.
Ireland.
England.
Deeply Disturbing.
 "all the  precious moments... shared... down the years... well they weren't really anything at all now, were they? ... you certainly couldn't call them precious moments ... A better name for this might be something like: DUST!"
Two characters clash, contrast, come together.
Two or more levels of craziness.
Teachers and pupils.
Catholicism.
Ah.. I remember it all very well.

I confess.
My Days have certainly passed when I as a teacher became long-in-the-tooth and went from being outstanding to not. When I was head-hunted to when I was hunted-to-be-dismissed. Oh my, did they give me the best gift ever which was early retirement by at least five years of bliss and heaven... for if I was a year or two later it would not have been allowed! My bacon and sanity were saved .. although some may think the last ten years have been a hard time!   
Raphael Bell should have taken his freedom before teaching sent him to the brink.  
Like Raphael I thought I was important with my status and power...but now I am wiser, less arrogant.  I learned at the end of my career that I was irredeemable and not irreplaceable, even when the governor, on my final day before the blow, in front of a class of eleven year old children said "ah.. you are still surviving!" and I replied: "Yes I am a survivor!" 
Now I believe I am less self-centric, aware of my failings.  I am almost DUST and shall be when all my days have ended.
Who would be a teacher?
I would again, if I knew that what I was doing was making a positive difference to education, but if not, then I would get out quick, and do something more beneficial for my inner soul and for others.
Ironically, I have chosen to publish this on the day children return to school in UK and I didn't realise a new curriculum commences. 
It is A BRILLIANT BOOK. 
I read it before when I was numb because I don't remember any of it!
I haven't read THE BUTCHER BOY but was shocked out of the skin within seconds of watching the movie with a friend who couldn't stand it, who walked out! I made him return to the nightmare, even though I didn't wish to, and sit in the Hertfordshire cinema to brave it out! It didn't get easier to watch! Brilliant Movie! I would like to read more of his literature.