Little things

So Walt is on the ground in Montréal, and the plan was for him to go out to dinner with our friends N. and Y., who live there. I hope all went as planned and they had a good time at the restaurant. I'm kind of jealous but I'm also enjoying the fantastic weather here in Saint-Aignan.

The tasks I have to do here are mundane, but there are always nice little surprises when you start puttering around and cleaning things out. My first job was to clear out the little sun porch downstairs, which is the main entrance to our house. We had it glassed in 10 or 12 years ago. It was a mess, with too many potted plants that over-wintered in there and were looking basically scraggly. Now I have to sort through the plants, compost some of them, and re-pot others. Above you can see how the sun porch looks now. I should have taken a "before" shot.

As I was moving plants out and setting them down in the shade on the north side of the house, I happened to notice some movement in the gravel out back. It was a small bird (above) — a gold finch or, in French, un chardonneret — lying on its back, legs twitching. It apparently had crashed into the closed window upstairs and knocked itself nearly unconscious. I went and got a gardening glove and my camera, thinking I would pick the bird up and put it where it wouldn't get stepped on, or seen by the dog or cat. I found it upright and alert when I got back, and a few minutes later it flew away.

Another little surprise was a couple of amaryllis bulbs that I found in a zip-top bag on one of the shelves I was cleaning off. I had brought them back from North Carolina in March, stashed them on the shelf, and then forgotten about them. The bulbs had already sprouted inside the bag. I took them out and planted them in pots for the time being. I hope they'll flower soon. I have to figure out where I can plant them in the yard.

Overwhelmed

That's how I'm feeling this morning. I drove Walt up to Blois yesterday so he could catch the noon train to Paris, where he spent the afternoon and evening. He'll be flying out to Montréal today, and then driving from there down to Albany on Thursday. Here I am with the dog and cat and garden and houseplants.

A wild purple « pentecôte » orchid growing out on the edge of the vineyard — I took the photo yesterday morning.

And I have a lot of housework — spring cleaning — to do. Having to take two walks a day with the dog is also kind of overwhelming, but it'll do me good. The garden work, at this point, means mainly watering the plants in the greenhouse tent regularly, and maybe planting some kale in the garden. The housework means getting out the vacuum cleaner and then washing some big windows.

Anyway, here I am. I bought myself a smoked chicken at the supermarket on the way back from Blois yesterday, and I have plenty of vegetables in the pantry and freezer. I won't be doing much cooking this week. Next week, we'll see. The image just above shows what I call the dog's-eye view of the vineyard. Out I go.

Bad news for grape growers in western Touraine

There was a significant freeze in Touraine in the latter part of April, just at the time when the Loire Valley vines were starting to produce vulnerable new leaf buds. Reports are that as many as 100% of the vines have suffered frostbite in some areas around Tours. Losses in the Montlouis, Bourgueil, and Saint-Nicolas appellations may amount to two-thirds of the crop, and in Chinon it's feared that half the 2016 crop has been wiped out. Frost damage in the Vouvray vineyards is spotty but significant. The extent of the damage takes some time to assess.

This is a photo I took in the Renaudière vineyard outside Saint-Aignan on the morning of April 18.

This time of year, the valleys are colder than the higher terrain in the Touraine region. Where we are, just outside Saint-Aignan, we've seen little evidence of damage to new growth on the vines from the recent cold weather. We haven't recorded temperatures as low as freezing on our own thermometer, while temperatures dropped to the hard freeze level — minus 4ºC (25ºF) or lower — in many nearby areas.

This one is from today's morning walk with Callie.

On my walks through the Renaudière vineyard with Callie I've been looking at leaf buds and they seem to have been spared. So much so that I didn't even realize there had been a heavy frost and freeze in the region until I heard it on the France 2 TV national news a few days ago.

April 18, 2016, in the Renaudière vineyard

For once, the wind was our friend. We live up on a pretty high hill, above the Cher River Valley, and one disadvantage for us is that our house is buffeted by the prevailing westerly winds most of the year. In weather conditions like last week's, however, wind prevents frost damage because it evens out temperatures at ground level. The cold air doesn't settle on the ground but is blown away. Even in winter, it is often colder down in the river valley than it is up here on high ground (les coteaux in French). It seems counter-intuitive, but it's the reality.

Morning fog down in the river valley at Mareuil-sur-Cher

Meanwhile, Walt leaves today for his American trip. He'll have an afternoon in Paris, an Air Canada flight to Montréal tomorrow, and then a 4-hour drive down to his home town of Albany, NY, on Thursday. He'll be meeting up with friends in Montréal and then spending time with family and friends in the Albany area for about two weeks. I'll be staying here to take care of the dog, the cat, and all the plants, inside and out.

La mayonnaise à la fourchette

Yesterday I decided to make another batch of mayonnaise — we still had some white asparagus to cook and eat. And I did something I have maybe never done before: I set up my camera on its tripod, put it on the table focused on the bowl, and put in in video mode. The running time of the video is about three minutes. I didn't erase the sound track, but there's really nothing interesting to hear.

I decided to make the mayonnaise using just a fork to mix it with, instead of a whisk, to show you how easy it is to do. Here's a recap of the ingredients.

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 splash vinegar (about ½ tsp.)
• salt and black pepper
• 175 ml (¾ cup U.S.) vegetable oil

For the mayonnaise in my video, I used red wine vinegar and a 50/50 mixture of olive oil and canola (colza) oil. The video goes a little blurry just before then end, but I didn't try to redo it. It still makes the point. You can see how slowly at first, but faster toward the end, you can pour the oil into the egg mixture. The trick is to keep beating the mixture steadily as the mayonnaise comes together.

This is a fresh mayonnaise that is really good served with cold foods like hard-boiled eggs, poached asparagus, a steamed artichoke, cooked chicken, fish, shellfish, or ham, etc. It's also good with steak, or turned into a thousand island dressing or tartar sauce.