From Ré to Oléron

It is about 90 miles from Central Ile de Ré to the furthest parts of the Ile d'Oléron; almost a full circle!  I was surprised at the distance and shall not be island hopping the two again!  Others expressed surprise as they too drove or cycled through the spinal towns of Ile d'Oléron.  When would commerce cease? It was great to reach the 'almost wilderness' around La Brée-les-Bains and the Atlantic Ocean.
One cycle day was to St Denis, onwards to the lighthouse where amazing écluses hug the tip of the isle, along the south coast through wooded areas and across a lagooned region to St Georges and back to camp! Meandering, exploring, gently cycling.
Another day was down the northern coast to Boyardville, returning along the same but slightly different route to St Georges and back to camp. This required more energy and concentration on the roadway as cycle paths were bumpy and slowed speed.
A third day to St Denis to the market, to sit and harbour gaze, to write, to ponder, to observe, to enjoy.
A fourth day driving to St Denis market and stocking up on fresh fish at good prices, then to motor down through Boyardville along the northern length of the isle to the Chateau for which I needed more time.  It was fascinating. The oyster culture region reminded me of Walberswick estuary, marshes, dykes and fishing paraphernalia.  It felt kind of homely, and although I haven't scratched the surface of the isle, it's not where I wish to be. The light was overwhelming as I drove through places not yet cycled, I prefer the blissfulness of cycling on the Ile de Ré. 

St Denis d'Oleron

 Then I think it was La Baudissiere

 I had tea and lunch at the boulangerie in Le Chateau

and in intense heat wandered on the edge of the citadelle, where all but the walls and the arsenal, the armoury, was destroyed in WWII.

and whilst the sea changes hue and blue, the bridge exists toll free now to carry us across and home to mainland France, for here is a home.  A home is where the heart is...hopefully Peace and not War!
It was lovely and yes, I would hope to return for there is much more to explore!

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!