That’s a Dinky car

It’s been almost five years, but Brian finally got round to putting his cabinet up with the little cars he inherited from his dad inside. He wanted them upstairs, in our roof apartment, but we don’t have a lot of wall space, what with all the wardrobes and paintings, but he found a spot in the corner of the stairwell.

They’re a mixture of original, old toys, and a few newer, French models, which he bought at a vide grenier (car boot sale).

Finally they have a home. I’m thinking he needs one of a 2CV though, as that’s my favourite. We will need to keep our eye out for one.

Time for Coffee

Since we bought our La Pavoni coffee maker, which is coming up to 6 years now, we’ve had the most wonderful coffees almost every day.

Espressos, macchiatos, lattes, cappuccinos; it’s been a learning curve at times for Brian, but he’s enjoyed the journey, and I get great coffee at breakfast. Our guests also get to enjoy a good coffee when they come to visit, which goes down very well. One of the key things he’s worked out is what milk works best for frothing—it’s not as straightforward as you’d think. And recently we bought him a new jug, as the shape of the spout makes a difference when pouring out the froth, my favourite bit.

Cheese board!

At the market last Friday I bought some cheese from my favourite cheese stall man. He’s an amiable, smiling chap, who always says ‘Bonjour’ if he sees us at the café. Although Brian had kept him updated on how I was doing, as he missed seeing me, I guess he wondered how I really was. He was so glad to see me out and about again, and told me I looked well, which is always a nice thing to hear. We had a little chat while I was picking cheese.

I bought a nice chunk of Morbier, a sensible slice of Brie de Mieux, and a good piece of Tomme de Savoie. Enjoying them with fresh baguette and some dried figs is just delicious. Oh, and we also indulged in a glass of Rully, a round, and fruity white wine from Burgundy. Served not too cold.

Checkmate

During the period when I was not well, Brian often had a lot of time to himself. To keep his mind active, and to occupy his thoughts, he decided to try and improve his Chess. We had occasionally played against each other over the years, and I generally beat him, however I think more by luck than skill. I think it frustrated him that he didn’t know how to improve his game. He’d read a book or two, but they were not always the best way for him to learn, they were not very visual. A friend bought him a chess book for Christmas that really encouraged him, as it was a lot more visual and more interactive. Although his game improved a little, he still wanted more.

The breakthrough was, of all things, Duolingo. We had been using it to help us with our French, but they also introduced Chess learning on the App. He started following the simple tutorials, and quickly realised this dynamic approach was how he should be improving. Duolingo wasn’t the answer though, and after some research he found Chess.com.

The structured learning, and ability to play against other people around the world, was exactly what he needed. He started with an ELO (which is a Chess rating system) of 400, but quickly dropped down. After some effort, he worked his way up to 1200, which is apparently considered okay for club Chess. But his latest game cheered him the most. Although his overall rating was still only 1276, the computer rated his play at 1850, which is considered strong club level.

I confess I don’t know why he calls himself Jack Burton, I think it has something to do with a film, but I don’t ask. I haven’t played him since he’s improved, so it will be interesting when I’m up to it again.

If anyone would like to give him a game you can find him on chess.com under the name ‘JackBurtonAlwaysSays’.

Flooding

When we nipped out yesterday we were both quite surprised to see the volume of water that was laying across the fields.

The small river outside of our house is probably twice as deep as it usually is, and all the local rivers are bursting their banks at some point along their course.

As we drove over the bridge in Bar-sur-Seine we could hear the roar of the water gushing over the top of the weir.

We know there are flood warnings in Paris which will not be helped by all the water heading its way from the surrounding areas near us in the Aube. The Seine has a long way to go to reach Paris, but there will be lots more tributaries feeding into it.

Fingers crossed not too many more flooded forests, like this one not far from us.

Pampered

Yesterday I took myself off for a little bit of pampering. There is a really pleasant little beauty salon in Bar-sur-Seine where I went to have a manicure, pedicure and gels on my toes. Sarah, the lady who owns it, not only does nails but also offers facials, massage, and waxing.

It’s a great moment for me to just relax, practice my French, and enjoy some me time.

I just love the red colour I chose.

Soup-erlicious

We do both love a homemade soup, and when I make them Brian often says, “I loved that one.” But they are never really repeatable, as I’m often just using up what’s in the fridge. This one was no different.

The base was mainly celeriac and tomato, with a bit of leftover cauliflower, broccoli, and pepper. I added half a jar of sunblushed tomatoes in oil, which I had in the fridge, and they gave it a really good tomato flavour, and a fantastic red colour.

I served it with a little coriander, and olive oil drizzled on the top. It was very delicious, and we have enough for another bowl in the week to enjoy with some crusty french baguette. Yum.

Slow cooked red peppers & tomatoes

Brian spotted this recipe in one of my cookbooks he’d bought me a while back, and happened to mention it sounded very tasty, and quite versatile. I was keen to give it a try.

We were having some friends over for lunch on Sunday, and I wanted to cook something light. So, as red peppers are lovely and sweet at the moment, I thought I’d make it. I could also get ahead and make it the day before, which is really helpful.

It’s super simple, just sweat off a couple of onions and two cloves of garlic, then add two red peppers—sliced or chopped, depends how big you want them to be. Then add about four large plum tomatoes, deseeded and chopped up, with a few stalks of thyme, and a bay leaf. Cook these uncovered on the stove for about an hour in about one tablespoon of olive oil.

Add your seasoning at the end of the cooking time before you serve, and dish up at room temperature.

I served it with fresh bread, cold meats, and freshly made coleslaw. You can also use it as a pizza topping, or serve as a bruschetta, or with roast meats.

It really was very tasty. I think some of our visitors will get to try this one during the summer.

I’ve got the key

I’ve had a little wooden cupboard for a number of years, that we bought in an antique shop in Holt, Norfolk. I’d had it in the kitchen in Kent, to keep my spices in. It’s such a pretty little cabinet; I’m not sure what sort of wood it is, but it’s a lovely warm golden colour, it could be a satinwood. I hadn’t asked Brian to put it up for me as I thought I’d lost the key when we moved, but when I happened to mention it to him the other day, and asked if he could maybe change the lock, he said ‘Why? I’ve got the key.’ And miraculously he found it straight away.

You can imagine my joy when I realised we could once again use it. I knew exactly where I wanted it to go, so it wasn’t long before he had fetched his tools and we were putting it up on the wall.

I’ve had my little collection of Italian and Greek statues for over 30 years, and I still love them.

Run out

We had our large pellet boiler serviced recently, and during the work the fill level of the silo got reset. It hasn’t happened before, and it caught Brian a little by surprise, as he hadn’t checked where we were at prior to the service. So he had to make an educated guess.

He did pretty well, but yesterday evening we finally ran out of wood pellets, and the hot water and heating tank went cold.

It could have been a bit of a disaster, except we had booked a pellet delivery for this morning. Phew!

Finding a thermal

I love seeing the cranes flying overhead. We normally hear them first, chattering away to each other. And today was not any different, as we walked along the path in the forest, Brian said he could hear them, but just couldn’t see them.

We looked up and there they were, trying to find a thermal to help them gain some height. Such beautiful creatures.

As we wandered back down along the road, we stopped to say hello to the horses. They do like to be noticed, and always look up to see us when we walk by.

Banana pancakes

I have always enjoyed pancakes. When I was little, Mum would make them for us on pancake day, and we would sit and eat them as quick as she could cook them. It was very special. Now, having them for breakfast seems to be a real treat, especially as Brian made them. He has his with lashings of maple syrup.

What’s your favourite pancake topping? Mine is lemon and sugar, especially on banana pancakes.

Walking on up

We had another beautiful walk up to the point de vue today, the weather was gorgeous, if still a little chilly. It’s good exercise for me, but it doesn’t feel like exercise, I enjoy being up there so much.

The view down to the valley was certainly inviting me to take a different walk this week. Although we know some of the tracks are quite muddy underfoot, so we may just leave it to dry out a bit more before we venture out further. I’m thinking that the hill walk up to the Landreville vue point might be a good one when it dries out a little.

Hats off

Over the years, between us, we have acquired a number of hats. I have also been searching for hat hooks to hang them on, which has not been as easy as I thought when I originally started looking for them. The plan I had was to use the wall space just by the front door as a feature hat rack, so they are easy for us to grab on the way out.

I love what Brian did, randomly fixing them to the wall to create a random, but curated look. I have also placed a couple of table top hat stands on the shelf.

We did need to get a bit creative on the types of hat hooks, as I couldn’t find enough of the kind I wanted, so we repurposed some wall light fittings; which we paid a few euros for in a brocante. They work perfectly.

Feed the birds

I so love encouraging the birds in the garden, and providing them with safe places to feed, it really puts a smile on my face. Today Brian bought me a new bird feeder to hang out. It’s looking good, not too far from the front door so we see them occasionally, although I think I may move it to the walled garden, to give them a quieter spot.

They are also enjoying the nuts I put out. They emptied this one in about 3 days.

Normally we have blue tits, chaffinches and sparrows coming to feed, but recently we have also had a little robin come and visit.

Champagne tasting

Last week some friends invited us to a Champagne tasting at a producer local to them, Arnoult Ruelle. Their son and future daughter-in-law were visiting, and they wanted to choose some Champagne for their wedding later this year, and their friend, Olivier, was hosting the tasting.

After Olivier had shown us his cellar, and talked about the production of Champagne, he invited us through to his very colourful tasting room. Over the years he had collected some amazing enamel signs, including a London bus stop sign, of which he was very proud.

His Champagne’s were full of character, and it was great fun tasting them and discussing which would work best for their big day. Of course we came away with a few as well: his 100% Meunier, and his 2018 vintage.

Top of the wall

After our friends had left Brian decided he wanted to tidy up the tiles on the top of the wall. He started off by carefully removing all of them and cleaning down the debris and dust left, ready to refit them. The plan was to cement them back into place.

He then cleaned the old tiles up, removing any old cement and moss. He discarded any badly broken ones, leaving them for me to use in pots. Luckily we had some extra tiles that a friend had offered to us as he no longer needed them.

The temperatures had already started to drop, so unfortunately he was not able to re-cement them back into place before winter set in. That’s a job that will wait for the spring. So he covered the top with a tarpaulin and rocks, just to provide some protection over the winter to stop the water getting in.

Garden wall

Early last year our Workaways that came to help us ready the garden for the upcoming season had worked hard to clean the cement from one side of our garden wall. It was a mammoth task, and it left another mammoth task in re-grouting the entire wall.

Brian knew I was very concerned about leaving the wall ungrouted over winter. He’d shared this concern with Chris, a good friend, along with the fact that he knew some jobs needed doing in the garden, but he had not had the chance to do any of them whilst caring for me. So he was also a little worried about the situation.

Within days Chris had organised a group of fabulous friends to visit and help us prepare the garden for winter. Sara contacted me with some dates, and asked if they could come to visit us. I was probably at one of my lowest points health-wise, but she assured me they would not need any looking after. It was all under control and not to worry about anything.

Chris, Sara and Trevor arrived a couple of weeks later, around midday, and were immediately all up on the slope getting the grass cut and strimmed. The next day each of them took on tasks: Sara became head gardener, attacking the courtyard and formal garden that had quickly got out of control, Chris and Brian adopted the wall, and Trevor became our odd job man, making sure they had grout when they needed it, taking on the task of cleaning out the weed in the river and trimming some shrubs (actually I’m not sure where my honeysuckle went, but I keep telling myself it will grow back).

The wall was a huge job to take on, and as I kept looking out the window I wasn’t convinced Chris, with a little of Brian’s help could do it, but after three days of very committed effort through rain and sunshine the last of the gaps was filled with chaud.

What a magnificent job. The garden and wall looked amazing, and I was so pleased and relieved the jobs had been completed.

What wonderful friends we have.

La poste

If you’ve spent any time in France you would be forgiven for thinking this is the ‘hôtel de ville’, or the mayor’s offices, and you would be right. What you would find harder to guess is that this is also the main post office of the quaint little village of Mussy-sur-Seine, which is steeped in history and well worth a visit.

On the whole, for non French people, the hôtel de ville can be a rather imposing building, and one that you really need good purpose to approach and enter. So strolling up the front stairs and going through the metal doors in the hope of finding a post office can be a little daunting, but that’s what we had to do, as Apple Maps was certain it was here. Fortunately, it was right. Behind the grey metal doors is a glass fronted, modern post office counter, with a smiling receptionist behind it.

But why did we drive the 15 km to Mussy to post our mail? Well, recently our local post office hours have changed, and I’d forgotten that the main post office in Bar-sur-Seine is now closed on a Monday! In fact all our satellite offices also seem to be closed on a Monday, they seem to do a half day on Saturday, and then have Sunday and Monday off. Thankfully for us though, Mussy was open, and our important post was sent on its way.

Watercolour

A friend arrived this afternoon with a basket full of watercolour paints and inks. She had an idea to have some fun painting very abstract art. For me that’s a good approach, as I’m no artist. I love the idea of being able to paint, but it’s not something I’ve ever really put my mind to, although I have said to Brian on occasions I’d like to give it a go, so this was a great opportunity.

Brian made us some tea, and brought out a few sweet treats to help our artistic flair and we sat down to enjoy our afternoon, happily chatting about what we were discovering as, we each started to lay the paint down and develop techniques. I was loving how using the water on the paper could change the colour and textures of the paint. Although the plan was to create abstract shapes, we could see landscapes and natural shapes appearing in our paintings.

This is the first one I completed, the one I definitely preferred. I loved the colours, and I felt that although not intentional at all the picture looked like a lake surrounded by woods, with a stormy sky building overhead.

With the second painting, I was bolder with the colours, and placed more water down to see how that changed the blending.

It was such a pleasure learning new things, creating and relaxing with friends. I certainly want to do more.