Weekend weather

Since Christmas we've had more bad weather days like the ones were having this weekend than not. Cold rain is getting me down again. And we still have February and March to get through. The little red dot on the map above is approximately where Saint-Aignan is, and the black dot just to the left is the city of Tours. Paris is pretty much due north, in the rain belt.

This is the coldest, wettest winter we've had in years. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the U.S. is experiencing frozen precipitation of all sorts, and Arctic-like temperatures. Florida is having its coldest winter in decades. Coastal North Carolina, which gets snow about once a decade that melts away in less than 24 hours, is expecting icy weather for the next three or four days. The capital of Russia, Moscow, has had more snow this winter than in any year out of the last 200.

What has happened to global warming?

Vegetables, precipitation, and an arachnid

We made another batch of roasted vegetables yesterday, using a parsnip — un panais [pah-NAY] — and a big turnip un navet [nah-VAY] — left over from the first roasted vegetables we made a few days ago. This time I used the air fryer to cook the vegetables and I think they were better than the batch I made in the oven. Those were delicious, though, and the leftovers from them went into a delicious soup a couple of days ago.

This morning when I got up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, look what I saw on the wall over the stove (below).

Légumes rôtis au four [2]

Before roasting them in the oven, we cut the winter vegetables into approximate one-inch cubes, tossed them in a small amount of olive oil, and seasoned them with black pepper, allspice, and herbs (thyme, bay leaves, and oregano).Toward the end of the cooking time (45 minutes, we added a few chicken tenderloins and drizzled some honey over everything.

C'est quoi qu'on mange à midi ?

Des légumes. Je parle de légumes d'hiver — des navets, des panais,  des oignons, de l'ail,
 des pommes de terre, une patate douce, et une carotte. On va les faire rôtir au four
avec de l'huile d'olive et des fines herbes, et peut-être un peu de miel et de poulet.

Bon appétit...

Now, and in 1989

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I don't often post pictures of myself. This blog isn't so much about me as it is about France. Anyway, on the left above is me today. On the right is me in a photo that was taken in 1989. I was 40 years old.

Walt and I had left Paris (where we met) in 1982 to go live and find jobs in Washington DC. For a variety of reasons, we ended up leaving DC for San Francisco in 1986. In 1989, I was working as managing editor of a computer magazine in San Francisco, and Walt was in graduate school at Berkeley.

In 2003, after 18 years there, we left California for Saint-Aignan, in the Loire Valley in France. We're still here.

Everything is coming up...

...no, not roses, but cyclamens. In our back yard, I mean. I think the woman who sold us the house we've been living in since 2003 used to buy little pots of cyclamens to set out on her window sills and when they stopped flowering in late spring, she would just pull them out of their pots and throw them outdoors. We've never done that, but her cyclamens still come up here every year in wintertime.

I'm headed out to get a haircut at nine this morning. I quit going in for regular haircuts last summer, when I started feeling arthritic and got tired of my short hair. It's really long now, and I'm tired of that. Back in the 1970s, when I lived in Rouen for a year and then in Paris for two or three years, I always had long hair. I didn't want to spend my money chez le coiffeur because my pay was low. And long hair on men was in style.

Yesterday at the doctors

When I got to the maison médicale yesterday I learned that our médicin traitant (GP, ot primary-care physician) has simply changed his work hours. I don't know why. He no longer sees patients on Wednesdays. The doctor who saw me yesterday is a young woman who is described as a médecin remplaçant.

All went smoothly. She reviewed my file on her computer screen and I helped clarify some of the entries therein. Why I had one treatment or another, and when, for example. We talked about the arthritis I developed (or fell victim to) last summer. She examined me and said my heart is strong and my lungs too. That was good news.

However, she found my blood pressure to be slightly higher than it should be and advised me to buy a tensiomètre and test my blood pressure monthly or even weekly at first. There's a very complicated-looking form to fill out and return to the doctor. I can do that. In fact, we have a tensiomètre and we'll see how well it works Walt bought it in the U.S. on a trip last year. A new one costs as little as 20 euros here in France.

She also wrote me a prescription for Prednizone to treat my current arthritis flare-up along with a renewal of a prescription for an ointment that contains Ibuprofen. I told her I have some Ibuprofen tablets on hand but I'm not taking any right now and haven't felt the need to for several months.

My wrist joint inflammation seems to be less painful this morning. I don't know which doctor I'll see when I go back for other consultations this winter and spring. It might just depend on the appointments that are available and on which days. I'll definitely need to go back in about six months, as always. Or before, as need be. That's my status report.

Sunrise peaking... or is that "peeking"?

I'm going to move on now. Recently I've posted a lot of sunrise photos — mostly from January 2018. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment at 9 a.m., so I won't post. Then I'll try to figure out what to do next. My right wrist feels tired this morning. Maybe I've overdone it.

Another January morning in the vineyard

I'll be going to see the (or a) doctor in two days. When I called to make the appointment, I was told that I would be seeing a different doctor this time. I don't know what that's all about. I'm left wondering whether the doctor we've been seeing for many years now has retired, resigned, or (I hope not) died. He was or is a man who might be as young as 50, or maybe just looks or looked younger than he really is or was. Trying to stay optimistic, let me say that maybe he's just on vacation or something. I'll ask some questions Wednesday morning.

Le hameau sous le soleil qui se lève

Our house is the one at the end of the dirt road. Photo taken on January 19, 2018. Have I mentioned that my right wrist is much better since I started using an ergonomic vertical computer mouse?

Young 'Tasha out in the vineyard

She was not yet one year old.

She will be turning nine next month.

 

Picture taken on January 19, 2018

Quebeckers come to France

For the last week or so, we've been watching YouTube videos posted by two guys from Québec who have bought and started renovating a château less than 20 miles from our house, near Valençay. I had heard about them earlier, but hadn't realized they were living so close to us. Here's a link that will take you to their numerous posts about the job they have undertaken:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO4t3yzimdg 

 I hope the link works. If not, you can open YouTube and search for château poseidon — they do posts in English and in French.

Renaudière sunrise (2)

January 11, 2026

Renaudière sunrise

, January 11, 2026

Memories of CHM and new developments in Paris

I got an e-mail yesterday from one of Charles-Henry's nieces who sent new year's wishes and shared some news. It seems she and her sister went to Paris in November and spent most of a day in their uncle CHM's apartment doing an inventory of the contents to see what was to be kept, and by whom. Also to see what could be disposed of. They didn't finish the job. She said it was weird being there with so many strangers (including un notaire, un administrateur judiciaire, un commissaire priseur (an auctioneer), and several real estate agents...) going through her uncle's things . CHM was a very private person, but I guess privacy is no longer an issue when a person has left this world.

I miss going to see CHM in Paris frequently as I did between 2001 and 2017 to spend nights and to go touring around in Paris with him during the day. For example, a few years ago he asked me if I could come to Paris and accompany him to the Arc de Triomphe. There were things there that he remembered and wanted to see again.He was afraid to try to go there by himself, which would involve taking buses or the métro. For me, it was a privilege to spend time with him and to be able to help him. On another trip, we went to Notre Dame catheral. He said it had been years since he had seen the cathedral up close. RIP, CHM.