The Kitchen: Where was I? Where am I? 1 of 5

Looking back:

It was a year ago that 35 year old kitchen cabinets, inherited in 2010, began to be removed! There were already gaps in the kitchen where various parts had perished!  Now, some of the better carcasses were upcycled into the laundry room

This was my kitchen... look back to here.

Some became destined for the dechetterie.
Some are still under the open shed roof waiting to be reused or passed on. The copper on the extraction hood  invites me to lift it off for selling or using the copper plate!  BUT I don't have skills!
Some doors without their carcasses are perfectly good when painted if someone can make a cabinet to fit.

When the oven stopped at the end of August 2015 I was bereft, but I knew that I would find a way to cook as I love cooking, especially when others are here to eat!
Out came the 40 year old two ring gas hob. Excellent.  Though it had to be housed in the atelier almost open to the elements! Jolly cold out there and it was and still is a mad dash to watch the pans from burning whilst backwards and forwards to the sink and to prep food.
In February friends sold me a gas hob with electric oven; an overwhelmingly saviour!
NO, I do not like slow cooking in a special electric pot.
NO, I do not like electric steam cooking.
YES, a microwave /combi has its uses. 
I tried all of the above.

Living alone, I cook very simply and maybe this has not always been good for the digestive issues I have! I tend to pan sauté fish, meat and veg in olive oil.  But I like it so am not going to change!
I lost confidence in cake making and meal making during the course of the year. Gradually, the passion is returning when visitors descend!
I like to find new recipes as well as re-discover favourite ones so I am looking forward to a display of my cookbooks. .

The saga of finding an electrician who I felt I could trust to do all the work and not to leave me in a mess was based  on the year long experience (between October 2014 and December 2015) of having Collet mess me about over the Chauffeau Thermodynamique. Basically he ignored my continual plea for help.  I had the choice of the most enormous noise in the house, sucking up warm air,  blowing out cold, or no hot water at all.... which was not good for my mind nor my physical ailments.  I became extremely depressed even though I rallied to  follow my grandmother's footsteps. "I can do it" was my motto.
Eventually, the compressor died completely. Whatever the electrician did in May 2015 (his only visit before I called in Protection Juridique, who took almost 3 months to solve the problem, the result of which was not to my satisfaction) to enable hot water, eventually blew all the electricity in the house forcing me to have no hot water for months between July and mid October, when then he arrived under instructions from the legal team with a manufacturer rep and an independent "expert".  He reconnected it, having contacted someone else to know how to do it!  This was the same as in May 2015 but it blew again the whole house electricity again in mid November. 
Patiebce had worn rather thin. Stress levels were high.
Finally, as reported in this blog I scrapped everything and paid for a new Chauffeau electrique with a different company.

The kitchen
Eventually after three estimates and a friend's offer of his friend, a jobbing electrician who was between professional contracts, I continued to feel uncomfortable until eventually I decided for various sound reasons to ask BERTUCELLI to do the work even though the cost!
I am so glad I did!
I am waiting for the sink delivery so that I can recall them for the second fix of plumbing.
I am waiting for them to connect radiators for central heating but that is because I've asked them to wait so I can stage payments.
All seems good.
Another large company were helpful but a small drip on the chauffeau electrique waited three months before it was repaired, making my decision easier!  They didn't get the work which was a shame as I liked the patron.

Continued tomorrow.

Lazy cake posting!

To save time as time has passed... and I hope the organiser does not object - easy to delete if so - I report her report on the CCC that I managed to get to in April when I had missed February and November.  All the cakes contained alcohol but it was difficult to detect!   Various portions of cakes came home for the freezer and are almost gone!  They were delicious. Yum Yum but not good for my tum. Increasingly, I am avoiding wheat and some grains that make diverticulosis unhappy!  One colonoscopy experience is more than enough.  After 40 + years, when I have on about six occasions found myself in hospital, unable to function, I am increasingly aware of my food intake!

It never ceases to amaze me about not only the quality OF the taste of the cake but moreover the shape, design, flavourings, ingredients, decoration and more.   EVEN more fun is the STORY that comes with the cake from its baker.  I really would have liked our club to have collated recipes for the cakes. I think it would have made a very good publishable book...

NOT TOO LATE Jean!

Confluence: La Gartempe et La Creuse rivers: two rivers and their hamlet

I like being at these kind of junctions!

On Saturday my friend accompanied me on this walk I had been intending for some time.  The track wasn't always where I wanted one,  and in one place woodland had been ploughed by the farmer!
The confluence was difficult to see through the river bank shrubs and trees. The soil was alluvial. Lovely word...the land probably isn't geographically speaking such,  but... I like the sound of words...

Uxorious is another word I like the sound of ... and the meaning!

The ground was strewn with interesting stones;  a large 'potato stone' I carried home!  Some of the rounded stones were far too huge to move but a river could dislodge and move them over the years!

We came across a millenium garden out in the middle of nowhere.  Now that isn't true. The somewhere was Confluent - an agricultural hameau and when I saw it a few years ago, on a Patrimoine day,  it seemed untouched.
BUT NOW, if you look on Google map you can see where builders and farmers have carved out the soil to renovate a house, expanding land like a gravel pit but it isn't one.   AND also, several buildings have been re-roofed with red brick colour metal.  OH DEAR! What of conservation? 

We went because I wished my friend to see the wind powered turbine invented, constructed by Ernest Bollée and one of his sons Auguste, who, I think also have something to do with the invention of bicycles and I was led to believe that the auto-moto-velo museum at Chatellerault has information about them.   I have a leaflet somewhere!

PHOTOWALK
The Millenium Garden is rather nice and I can imagine sitting on one of the available benches in the sunshine of peaceful solitude reading a book.... 

 Walking at the edge of planted crops to reach the river...

 Along a pea field the tracks of deer or small chevreuil?

 Oh...how did the crow get into the cage... we watched and thought... then saw a dead one in a second cage. Were they bait?  Or had they entered the cage set to catch partridges?  We each wanted to release it but cautious?  Then he opened a door whilst crow or rook sat still until his freedom fighter had returned to a distance.   The black bird cried 'phwew' as he got free!  Hop Hop ... something wrong with a wing or hungry bird needs to gather strength.  We continued looking back seeing him still on the ground.. But then, when we got to the fox or badger holes we saw a rook or crow soaring as if to say 'Thank you".

On the way back two man made lakes seemed much bigger than when I was last there. WE came across a dolmen which was once considered the best in the region but last century it was destroyed. 

PEOPLE!!!

The stones around once marked the limit of the tumulus ... it was once a burial hill...

 As we came to the road it all looked so different.  But there was the wind turbine in the distance.

 And now the uniform holes for plastic doors and windows... and the razing of the countryside...

 Old French stone house

 How to create a wall in a barn...

 Gates of importance...

 all at the crossroads                           at                                                    on the site of

 

 red metal roofs!

 beautiful old shutters and their nailed crossbars...

 how many people ever stayed here?

 ans the gate is secreted from view

 Times of old...

Yummy fish dish

Despite the diagnosed and continuing diverticulitis which I have had for maybe 40 years or so...I needed to eat something like this!

In a large frying pan with lid heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. 
Add one or two crushed / chopped garlic cloves and a teaspoon of Aleppo pepper (chilli flakes). Cook, stirring often, until fragrant for about three minutes or less.
Add smashed canned whole peeled tomatoes or chopped fresh ones with tomato puree, a splosh of white wine, bay leaves, a pinch of saffron previously soaked in boiled water.
Bring to boil and reduce heat.
Simmer for about 5–7 minutes.
Stir to blend during this time to prevent stickiness.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add two or four skinned cod fillets or steaks on top ... depends how much sauce you have made.. Cover with lid and steam for another 5 -7 minutes... basting fish as you go! 
Use fish slice to serve sieved tomatoes onto centre of plate, then cod, then sauce, then sprinkle with rocket, served with one or two tiny new potatoes cooked in the microwave and a few broccoli trees.
DIVINE!  but I needed to have reduced my sauce more!

Chateauroux: 3 of 3

He got onto the 'ter' bus but the driver would not accept the smartphone payment/ ticket which was part of the onward journey of bus and train to Bourges, then Nevers, so had to pay again.
I am glad I waited because I declined to leave him to wait alone.  Fortunately, I was there to establish that the driver said he has to ask SNCF for a remboursement!
I wasn't quick enough yesterday with my thinking when about 6 people were waiting behind us to board the bus, that if he had to ask for a reimbursement,  then that clearly he meant he HAD paid!!!!!!
So why did the 'sncf / ter bus / coach ask him to buy another / a new ticket!

I know how long it took him to find the budget transport and indeed it was my decision to take him to Chateauroux  double the distnace and time of what I would have had to do if he'd gone to St Savin... but where was the bus stop?  ... 'twas NOT marked on Google maps because it is named after a hotel that doesn't exist anymore... DER!!!!  We had to ask the tourist office to find out where it was and it was still unclear! It seemed safer to go to Chateauroux!

I have since learned that the train would not accept the ticket and again a second ticket had to be bought.

Moral: don't book a ticket ahead of time!  YOU might not even get there in time! 

Why can't these companies see how hard it is for the budget traveller who does not have a vehicle and who is a traveller!
It must be so frustrating and is one of the things that puts me off traveling without a vehicle.
I can see the advantages of bus travel because it is cheap... and I have travelled National Express, but one needs TIME to do it and assurance of cheap or free accommodation at the end of the journey or a lift! 

On my way home I stopped at La Maison du Parc in La Brenne for a lime ice-cream and wandered to the pond where frogs were beginning to leave their hibernation mud to practise their croaking skills!

HOME to a banana sandwich with new bread I'd bought containing wheat (I think I should avoid it!)
but stuffed with sultanas, pistachios and hazelnuts... it was a meal in itself with a glass of red whilst my cousin phoned and I was told about the ill health of an ageing family! I fell into bed to read.

Almost 3e half a kg but worth it!

Chateauroux: 2 of 3

After lunch we did a recommended route to look at 19th buildings.
This one needs a good clean and care by the Notaires who work there or by the Region as it is so beautiful. Needs a bit of TLC to honour it!  However, walk to the back and it is so ugly!  Note the architect and sculptor plus the decorative panel camouflaging the hole to the basement.

sunfllowers?

Then we lurch from one epoch to another as across the road is a 'lean-towards-the-road' structure.. part of the cinema, library, parking and who knows what else complex

Also opposite is this:

and this...

and this...

Having walked through all that... there was an impressive 20th century frontage incorporating the individual elements but walking along I was not in a position to capture the curving, glass frontispiece, which I did not like!  We came to the 'Chapel of the Redemptorists' .. disused but at one time an Unemployment office... three steel chimneys were acting as an aeolian pipe, humming away! I wonder if the architect who created the heating system was aware that this would happen?

This building was not mentioned on the leaflet of the route.  Most of the coloured decorative work had fallen off.

Then another lovely doorway!  Again not mentioned on the inadequate leaflet.

Look at the former wealth of the Post Office building!  But later, I didn't think to take a pic of the now disused sorting office by the railway and bus station.

This building was a former fencing house!  I rather like the sculptures. BUT we only knew what it was from the promenade leaflet.  No plaque to celebrate its heritage or to explain history and art to passers-by.  AND it is being used by wealthy notaires, lawyers or architects!

HOWEVER marvel at these:
and look at this link about the construction of GUITARDES:
http://www.historicalcarpentry.com/guitarde---beautiful-french-dormers.html
where it describes these buildings.
This one is beautiful:

but just along the road was a carousel / manège with windows!!!!! Never seen one like that before! It seemed a pity to have that at the end of a clean, attractive modern "residential public courtyard".  Bit like the awful chichi wagon at la Place near the eating establishments. I tripped over his cable.. no health and safety concerns at all!

More guitardes, french dormer windows showing the skills of carpentry trade.

they must have had a head for height!...this one on the tipple.. whoops ... topple!

In between those buildings I found some other interesting, more elegant dormers... more my style!

More guitardes on the house you could buy!

I like the star  .. I could have had one or two of those on my lucarnes instead of my little birds!

and a balcony would be a treat!

Now that I have used three hours of my time in creating these two posts and the next, giving my body time to recover from the aches and pains of driving, walking and several weeks of work PLUS medical intervention,  I ought to move about, get my mind working on what needs to be achieved in the next couple of weeks.

It is cold again after a few days of warmer daytime weather.
In the afternoon it was hot enough to wear shorts and tee shirt whilst I dug the green manure into the soil,planted potatoes, carrot seeds, Italian chicory, radish and peas.
Seeds are various stages of age and so they may or may not grow!