Saints at Chartres

I'm trying to configure a new modem/router this morning, and it hasn't been going well. Wish me luck. Meanwhile, here's another view of statuary at the Cathédrale de Chartres. I'm thinking of going to Chartres again in a couple of weeks. It's been a while.

I guess I could use some help from these guys, who are, I assume, saints of the church. Maybe they don't do tech support.

Growing grapes

All we need around here is more grapes, right? Well, I guess you can never have too many. I've decided to see if I can grow some.

We already have some grapevines in our yard. They are some kind of white table grapes, and they aren't all that sweet or juicy. They are planted in shade, which isn't ideal. Grapes love sun and heat. We pick the leaves in the spring to make dolmas, but we don't even bother with the grapes.

What I've decided to see if I can grow is wine grapes. I read that it is easy to propagate the vines. All you have to do is cut a long cane off a vine and stick it in the ground. I didn't even have to cut a cane — the people who work in the vines do that job every winter. Mostly they just throw the canes on the ground, and later somebody comes through with a grinding machine and mulches them.

I gathered a few over the winter, after the vineyard pruning was done, and just let them lie on the ground outdoors for several weeks before I planted them. In March, as I read was the time to do it, I potted them up. I was actually a little surprised when they sprouted leaves. I think I have to keep them in pots for a couple of years. Then I'll have to figure out where to plant them. Some are red grapes, and some are white.

2,400 walks

That's the number of times I've gone out for walks in the vineyard with Callie the collie. Approximately, of course. I've been taking daily walks for seven years now, rain or shine.

I go for a walk with the dog every day, either morning or late afternoon. There are exceptions to that rule. I take a vacation or even two every year. For example, I go the the U.S. for two weeks in the spring. Once in a while I go to Paris for a few days. Then Walt has to take all the walks I'm missing.

In other words, Walt has taken more walks in the vineyard than I have. I'm sure of it. He doesn't go to the U.S. every year, and he doesn't go to Paris as often as I do. Callie gets two walks a day, so she has gone for walks in the vineyard more than 5,000 times in her short life.

It's hard to say exactly how many kilometers or miles those 2,400 or 5,000 walks represent. My total kilométrage is probably 6,000 or 7,000, because I walk an average of 2.5 to 3 km per day. That comes to about 4,000 miles — the distance from Saint-Aignan to my home town in North Carolina. Callie has walked at least twice that far.

Les Saints de glace, c’est ça

These three days toward the middle of May — today is the last one — are called “the ice saints’ days” in the Loire Valley and other parts of northern and central France. You can expect the 11th, 12th, and 13th of May to turn chilly and damp, according to popular wisdom. This morning, it feels downright cold outside.

Ice and wind-blown crud on the Velux skylight windows up in the loft yesterday afternoon

In other words, this year the popular wisdom, Farmer's-Almanac-style, has turned out to be spot on. On Sunday afternoon, we had a heavy ice shower that lasted a little less than 10 minutes. And yesterday, Monday 12 May, we had the same kind of ice shower, just a little earlier in the day. More showers are predicted for this afternoon. We'll see if we get rain, sleet, or even hail this time.

I stuck my head out the dormer window up in the loft during the rain shower and
snapped shots left and right of the ice that had collected in the rain gutter.

As the squall started yesterday afternoon, the rain gradually turned into ice pellets. The pellets kept getting bigger and bigger, and I started to worry about the car, which was parked outside. But the ice chunks never got bigger than garden peas, and then they suddenly stopped. This is why we are told it's prudent not to plant tender seedlings out in the garden until after May 15.