Could This Be Spring?

Winter has seemed endless this year and I know it's still two weeks till Spring becomes official but the sight of flowers in the garden and the sun on my back did raise my spirits.

La Processionaire du Pin

This is the nest of the chenille processionnaire, the caterpillar that emerges from its cotton wool nests in the pine trees and forms with its fellows a long procession of caterpillars which process nose to tail until they find a suitably sunny spot to transform into moths.
As you can see from the Wikipaedia article these little guys look comic as they inch their way across the ground. However, looks are deceptive as the tiny hairs on their bodies can prove lethal to other animals and I've been told could induce a heart attack in humans. At the least they can provoke an asthma attack or urticaria. Their other undesirable habits include stripping the pines of needles so this is one to leave alone...
We have a nest high up in one of our trees that I can't reach so once the weather warms up I shall be looking for them in our drive way as they come down. I can't risk either the dogs or the cat getting to them first.

Weather

It's Monday morning and it's raining and windy now with a severe weather warning in force for this afternoon. I thought I'd share a photo of my dog enjoying his daily walk yesterday. It made me smile...even though I'm the one who cleaned out the car afterwards.

Statistics

Towards the end of last year the results of two separate studies were published:

1. The Swiss are the happiest people on the planet.

2. The Swiss are the biggest consumers of chocolate on the planet.

I must emphasise that these two studies were not in any way related but you can't tell me there's not a connection between those results.

La Galette des Rois

As yesterday was the feast of the Epiphany, the Feast of Kings, I bought a Galette des Rois for us to eat.
So what is it? A tart made from 2 discs of flaky pastry filled with a mixture of ground almonds, butter and sugar. Trust me, it's really good. If you're not a great lover of the richness of the Galette you can buy a Gateau des Rois which is a brioche mix with candied fruit, pretty and less fattening.
Inside both of them is hidden what used to be a feve, a bean, now it's usually a pottery or china figurine of some sort. The tradition is that the youngest person present hides under the table and as the cake is cut calls out the name of the person to whom that piece should be given. He who finds the feve gets to wear the crown and be king.
The feast itself dates back to Roman days and includes the same traditions. Just goes to show nothing much changes...

13 Desserts

A second photo from our aperitif evening. One of the group brought a pumpkin pie, one of the 13 desserts, a tradition in Provence at Christmas..

The "gros souper" the Christmas meal is eaten in the evening of the 24th before going to midnight mass which is a long service. The meal starts with fish or seafood with vegetables. Then the table is cleared and relaid for the 13 desserts.; 13 to represent Christ and his apostles at the Last Supper. Of course the composition of the desserts varies from village to village but there should be:
Dried fruits and nuts to represent the 4 orders of Friars
Black and white nougat
Stuffed dates
Calissons d'Aix en Provence
Quince paste or jam
Winter fruits including: White grapes,
Winter melon
Oranges
Winter apples and pears
Plums
And to finish La Pompe de Noel a l'huile d'olive, a sweet, flat bread flavoured with orange flower water which should be broken apart not cut.

As a family we cling to the Christmas pudding but the Provencal version is much the healthier option..

Christmas Party

When I was teaching in the UK every so often I'd come across a class in which the chemistry between the individuals was such that they were a joy to teach. A class like that is every teacher's dream. Here's an example of such a class that I take now, the group of thirteen adults I teach in the village every Monday evening. I cannot tell you how much pleasure it gives me to work with them or how much fun we have. This was a photo I took during our Christmas aperitif party last night (as you can see I took along Christmas crackers)

Fall...

...the Cote d'Azur version of Fall, that is, Fall lite maybe.
I look with envy at every one's Fall photos, those golden broad leaved trees gleaming in the sun but here leaves tend to be small to conserve moisture so pines are common as are Mediterranean oaks which keep their leaves 'till December. With the recent windy days ours are starting to come down now so that by Christmas we'll have plenty to keep ourselves occupied sweeping up the leaves (as if there weren't enough to do!).
At least it's a way of burning off the extra calories..

The Olive Mill: The Oil

I use olive oil a lot but a lot. For me it's a happy marriage between something I like to eat that is actually beneficial to my health which isn't always the case, believe me.
Here it is, a thin stream of liquid gold flowing into a blue plastic bucket; I would have liked something a little more reverential but in this part of the world this is just an everyday product. One of the ladies who comes to my English class told me that she'd spent the last few weeks picking more than a thousand kilos of olives from her 75 trees....imagine!

Moulin de la Brague: Making Olive Oil

Now here's the inside of the olive mill which I had hoped would be more romantic looking but that's progress for you. The mill is now semi automated and though each piece of machinery was carefully labelled visitors weren't allowed in to read them so all I can tell you is that the olives are fed in somewhere out of the picture on the left and move round the machinery till the oil comes out somewhere on the right. I can tell you though that it was sparkling clean, extremely noisy and smelt strongly of crushed olives.
Being a resourceful type I've copied and pasted this account of the actual process from an excellent website which advises on setting up your own olive farm. Here's the link if you're interested in taking it up..

1. The Mill grinds or hammers the olives and pits into paste which is extruded onto the plates which go onto the press. Don't let heat build up during the milling or pressing or the flavor will be affected.
2. Malaxation is a slow mixing of the paste which allows the oil - water emulsion to coalesce. Small microscopic oil droplets join together into large drops which will come out during centrifugation or separation.
   
3. The Press is usually centrifugal in larger machines. The press separates out the olive juice and oil and leaves behind a fibrous "pomace". Toss the pomace or sell it to someone who wants to chemically remove more of the oil for industrial uses such as soapmaking. From each ton of fruit anywhere from 12 to 50 gallons of oil can be produced.
   
4. Separate the oil from the water using a decanter or centrifugal separator.
5. Bottle the oil, keeping it away from heat and light. .
6. Invite your friends to taste your oil.
   
7. Sell some of your oil at the local farmer's market or grocery store to pay for the land, trees, consulting, mill, etc.
8. The public finds you, clamoring for more -
   
9. Let us know when you're in business so we can put you on the internet.
10. See; now wasn't that easy?

And here's the account in French:
La fabrication de l'huile s'effectue de la mi-novembre à la fin mars au fur et à mesure de la récolte. Le principe de fabrication étant le suivant: - Lavage des olives; - Broyage des olives par meules en pierre ou par broyeur mécanique; - Malaxage de la pâte obtenue; - Pressage ou centrifugation de la pâte pour obtenir le jus de l'olive, ce jus étant composé d'huile et d'eau végétale; - Centrifugation du jus pour séparer l'huile de l'eau végétale; l'huile ainsi obtenue aura l'appellation d'huile d'olive vierge première pression. My thanks to Frederic for that..

Tomorrow we'll have a look at the oil..

Moulin de la Brague: the Olive Harvest.

The next few posts I'm going to dedicate to the open day at our local olive mill last Saturday so an interest in olives is going to be obligatory till Thursday at least!

This is the Moulin A Huile Michel also known as the Moulin de la Brague and is one of the very few working olive mills in the area which means that any one can harvest their olives from even one tree and take them down to the mill where they'll be turned into olive oil almost under your eyes. "Almost" because the production has been semi automated so the machinery is closed in.
A mill has existed on this site since the fifteenth century but passed into the hands of the Michel family in 1848. It was Roger Michel who dynamised the business in the 1960s and it continues to thrive especially in a time which recognises the benefits of olive oil.
The mill operates during the olive harvest which takes place from November to March. This year has been exceptional and the olives are flooding in. The mill also has a pleasant boutique selling local products and their own olive oil and olives. You can also buy products made elsewhere. The shop is on most tour operaters' itineraries where tourists can stock up on local gifts to take home with them..I buy my olives from them and really good olive oil to give away as presents.

It was such a dreadful day weather wise that I decided to put the photo in black and white, it was almost monochrome anyway.

Skywatch Friday

As we live on a hill facing mainly west we do get good sunsets. This one wasn't as dramatic as some but the neighbour's garden fire gave it a nice romantic look..if you don't mind the dioxins!

Go check out some great Sky Watch Friday photos here.

Sky Watch Friday

It's pretty well Autumn and the weather is changing; dramatic clouds build up in the mountains but usually disperse harmlessly towards evening. Looking north west, you can see the village of Chateauneuf de Grasse huddling under a menacing cloud; the prealps of Grasse are in the background.
To see more Sky Watch photos go here

La Chasse..

The hunt started last weekend. The woods are now full of middle aged men swigging beer and shooting wildly at any pigeon that happens across their path.
(That square bush is a hide!)

Busy...

No time to write today as I have to supervise the builder, or maybe demolition squad would be more accurate.

First Sky Watch Photo

This is my first Sky watch post so I've got my fingers crossed that I've done everything right..
This is the view north from home. I've taken a few sky photos from here as we do get quite a lot of "weather" from that direction. Storms sweep down from the mountains then follow the valley which is just beyond those buildings and eventually go out to sea so we have all the pleasure of watching the drama of a storm with no inconvenience to ourselves. This one promised more than it delivered in the end.
For more Sky Watch photos go here

Momo..

Momo gives percussion lessons on Saturdays. He's the sort of person who's always smiling, who never keeps still. He was giving his demonstration when the compere suggested that one of the oriental dancers joined him for an impromptu performance.
Overheard when passing the Danse Orientale stand: " Join the group and we'll make a real woman of you"

La Tete et Les Jambes

Another look at the Forum des Associations and some of the activities. What amazes me is the number and diversity of the courses available to satisfy mind and body and most of them are very affordable. I give English conversation lessons for free, for example, though there's a small subscription fee for joining the Sports and Cultural association and you could study Italian for practically nothing too.
Me? I'm tempted by the Qi Gong class. I'd like to do Tai Chi but the hours don't suit. I'm no good at art but yoga is a possibility and I'd like to take up Bridge again...
What will you be taking up this year?

Sundays in Opio!

Every year all the local sports and cultural associations band together to hold the Forum des Associations. This year it was held in Opio and was combined with the inauguration of our new Parc de Sports et Loisirs of which we are immensely proud. It was all such a pleasure I wish you could have been there...all the clubs had stands selling their wares and around the park were dotted activities for all the family: mini golf, basketball, 5 a side football, chess et al.
These are the teachers of the Salsa club in Opio giving a demonstration. The whole club danced later on stage but it drew such a crowd that it was impossible to take a photo....

MG

A little further on than the Coluche memorial is the garage belonging to The English Car Mechanics none other than Simon and sons. They've been around this part of the world for a while now but only moved to Opio recently where they have room to spread out and show all their wonderful classic cars. I took the photo of this 1955 MG over the fence; I wouldn't mind finding that in my Christmas stocking!