News Archive

The man whose family sold La Salle in 1939

Yesterday I was upstairs in the sewing atelier, tidying up before this weekends sewing retreat, and over my music, I heard someone shouting up. I looked out and saw a gentleman in a panama hat, the latter side of 80. He asked if Jonathan was in.  I said not, but that I would come down.

Flea markets and old photographs.

Summers are the time for flea markets, and anyone who knows me, knows that I have been scouring jumble sales and the like since I was 15 and was allowed out of boarding school to wander up to the village on my own.

A fine wine in the Charente

Last week we visited the Pic Russe vineyard.  We had ‘discovered’ them at the organic wine fair. No, actually it was Jerome and Naomi ( remember the amazing upholsterer from La Rochelle ?) who had told us about a fine wine from the Charente.

Stepping back in time

When we first got here, we did a fair bit of driving around, discovering all the little villages whilst we collected furniture for La Salle.  One little village we drove through, called Saint Sornin, was rather sweet, and had a cafe that was just so ‘french in the old days’.

Tomatoes : A search for recipes

From the sublime to the ridiculous, last year gave us mildew and rain; this year is giving us drought and tomatoes. Tons of them. The picture above is just one picking of many. I have tired of making the italian tomato sauce which Jono always makes.

Garbage night

Last night we got back late, and realised we had to take out the recycling bins.  Jono took two and I took one.  We had a torch as it was no longer the nearly full moon that the picture shows. ( That by the way was taken on the nearly full moon night about a week ago ).

The farmer is always right

At last, it has cooled down dramatically, and we can breathe, move and go outside without feeling faint !  We had rain last night - 3 mm of it. Very very welcome, but of course not nearly enough, and we look forward to more later this week. I hope everyone else has had some rain.

A couple at a dance

Yes its still boiling hot, and I think it is for most people in Europe. Just quickly, before going on to matters of the market and missing ducks, I have finally finished Aubert and Capucine hare.

The shady potager

Well I am mightily grateful for having a half shady potager. Its true that I may not be able to grow aubergines and peppers but we have planted lots of berries, and beans.

No rain in sight

So the rain dances have not worked. The weather forecast shows no rain for the forseeable future.

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