Catching up...

...with some unfinished business...

1. The name Bertie has definitely stuck to the cat. The better we get to know him, the more we realize that he does recognize the name and respond to it.

In fact, I asked our friend who named him, and she told me this about why she called him Bertie: “The name comes via a mascot/brand identity for a type of liquorice sweet in the UK, Bassett's liquorice allsorts. The character in question is Bertie Bassett, and given his colour and the association with liquorice it seemed appropriate.”

So Bertie it is, and I like it. Here's a link.

2. About carrots — we finally did a taste test yesterday. I went and bought some ordinary carrots. We cut one of those up, and we cut up one of the carottes des sables from Créances in Normandy. Walt and I agreed that, raw, the Créances carrot had a better texture and a noticeable sweeter taste.

Then I cooked pieces of each carrot. The result was the same. The Créances carrot had a cleaner, more pleasant, and sweeter taste. It was also more tender.

So that's that sorted, as they say in British English. Les carottes des sables are superior, and selling them coated with sand is not just somebody's clever marketing gimmick. That restores my faith in good agricultural methods and honest advertising.

3. Yesterday was another gorgeous day. We had lunch out on the terrace, and we enjoyed the green asparagus with a home-made mayonnaise. It was a busy day up in the attic. Most of the plaster board is now in place, and electrical outlets are going in.

We don't have the Vélux windows installed yet, however. At last report, the installer might come do the job tomorrow, Thursday. The rest of the electical work will be finished by then, and the plumbing for our new steam radiators will be finished too.

The progress is amazing. We have a good crew doing the work.

What the vineyards are producing in April

This morning, just as I was getting ready to tell you how there really isn't much going on the vineyard right now, Walt came back from his morning walk with Callie holding a huge bunch of green asparagus. He had picked them at various places around the vineyard.

Asparagus spears picked out in the vineyard

These are not spears of wild asparagus. They are escapees, I think, of the domesticated variety. I'm not sure how they got into the vineyard parcels, growing among the rows of grapevines. Maybe the land was used to grow asparagus at some point in the past, before it was replanted in vines. Or maybe birds or breezes spread asparagus seeds out there. Asparagus is a major crop in this part of the Loire Valley.

I immediately washed and trimmed the "found" asparagus spears...

We've been gradually finding and keeping track of more and more spots where asparagus comes up spontaeously in the spring. Nobody else seems to be interested in it. We probably visit the vineyard more frequently and regularly than anybody else, including the people who own the land, grow the grapes, and make and sell the wine.

...and steamed them. We'll have them for lunch
with some mayonnaise or vinaigrette.

We will start getting the locally grown white asparagus this weekend. So far, the few stalks available have been too expensive — as much as 10 € a kilogram — and we know the price will come down signficantly once the crop really starts to come in. I bet we'll find good white asparagus at the market in Saint-Aignan next Saturday for 5 to 6 € a kilo — $3.00 lb., approximately.

Vineyard scenes, 19 April 2010

But as I was saying, there's not an awful lot going on out in the vineyard right now, at least on a visible level. Nobody is working in the vines. We've seen just a few tractors over the past weeks, and Walt did run into our neighbors the Guerriers out there last week — they are a two-person operation, and they always seem to be late getting their work done, pruning and spraying days or weeks after everybody else has finished.

The leaves are starting to open up now.

But of course a lot is going on under the ground. It rained last night, so the vines are soaking up moisture. And if you look closely, you can see the first leaves forming. It won't be long before what is for the time being fairly barren-looking will become a wide sea of green.

The Renaudière vineyard, 19 April 2010

Everything is late this year. We had a long cold winter. Springtime has some catching up to do. I was glad it rained last night, because I tilled up a couple more garden plots yesterday. We might plant some chard and other greens this week.

Warm days

Maybe it's the volcano in Iceland that's heating up the atmosphere. The winds pushing that cloud of volcanic ash toward France seem also to be bringing us warm weather. It felt almost hot yesterday afternoon when we were sitting out back in the bright sunshine. I suppose it's just the season.

Work in the attic starts up again today. There's still some plaster board to be put up on the south-facing wall and in the dormer over the kitchen. I have to check to see if the flooring has been ordered, and make sure they ordered the style we wanted — chamfered planks 6 inches wide, tongue & groove. I'm pretty sure they won't be putting the finish flooring this week. But maybe the roof windows will go in today.

Looking down from the attic toward the entryway, two floors below

All the fruit trees around the hamlet are in flower now. Plums, cherries, apricots, peaches, quinces and more will be abundant unless the weather turns cold or too rainy. In the strips of land north of our property, where a couple of plum trees blew down in our late-February wind storm, some men with a tractor came on Saturday and set the trees upright again. They propped them up with big wooden posts. The question is, will they blow down again in the next big wind?

Springtime blossoms at la Renaudière

We don't have a tractor to use to set our fallen plum trees upright again, so we'll cut them up for firewood — after we see whether we can get one last crop of plums. Then we'll set a new tree or two out in their place. I planted some apricot pits in a pot a few months ago, and at least one of them has come up strong and healthy. It'll be a good candidate to replace a fallen plum tree.

Looking out a window into the vineyard

I also planted some plum pits a couple of years ago. As a result, I have two new plum trees that are looking strong and healthy. They have already flowered this spring, and in a month or two they might produce a crop of nice little red plums, which are good for pies and jams. So life goes on. Un clou chasse l'autre, as they say in French — a new nail pushes out the old one.

Stranded

Well, here we are — stranded. Poor us. There are no flights in or out of Paris (or anywhere else in northern Europe). The French trains, or a good number of them, are on strike. We can't go anywhere. I guess we'll just have to make the best of it.

Despite all the news about a cloud of volcanic ash and dust floating over all of Europe, we are having beautiful weather here in Saint-Aignan (and all over France, I think). Walt mowed the grass for the first time yesterday. Today I'll do some planting in the garden.

Red cowslips (coucous rouges) have come up again,
out on the edge of the vineyard.

We are enjoying a couple of days of peace and quiet, since the construction crew took the weekend off. There was talk of rain tomorrow, but Walt said the forecast has changed and now we can expect bright sunny conditions for the beginning of the week.

A nice walk with Callie yesterday morning early, in full sun

That means we can do some more work in the garden and yard, and it means the Vélux windows might very well get installed tomorrow or Tuesday. That will really transform the new upstairs room. It's going to be fun to move back in when the attic conversion is complete. We are getting a new three-story house.