Splish Splash I was Takin' a Bath

So the next evening the tablecloth is still fairly clean and they decided it was time to check it out again (see yesterday's post). This event does happen to coincide with our sitting down for dinner. No doubt Miss Calypso decided Dante wasn't up to her standard of cleanliness and that he needed some grooming. I caught the very end of the bath event in a video.

Butt á Butt

Our guys are inseparable. Last evening a clean tablecloth went on the table. Within 5 minutes they were butts together. Of course instead of getting them off the table, I got the camera. Dante soon moved around to face me, the ham!

Happy Alowine (Halloween)

The first French-English language group meeting of the year was chez nous this morning. Because how Americans celebrate Halloween is legenday among the French, we put on a Halloween do. There were pumpkin flavored cupcakes with cream cheese icing, coffin or tombstone shaped chocolate madelaines, caramel apples, and caramel popcorn. There was also mulled cider which was a bit hit. The morning discussion centered on the traditions, lore, and foods of Halloween. We even found a small pumpkin to carve in the market in Montpon. We are having our Indian Summer so it was a perfect morning for those who live in town to take a drive in the vines to our home. A good time was had by all.

Vinegar Tasting

Sunday we went off to a nearby village where an artisanal vinegar producer was offering a "porte ouverte". I have mentioned these before but in the context of wine. This was the same sort of thing in which we toured the small plant where the vinegar is made while the owner explained how he bought grape concentrate from Spain to flavor the merlot, cabernet sauvignon, semillion, cabernet franc, sauvignon blanc vinegars he produced. We tasted tiny amounts of the vinegars sprayed on to a spoon and they were wonderful. The owner had hired a caterer to prepare scallops with a sauce created from his vinegar which were delicious too. I am a big fan of these "porte ouvertes" and will be on the look-out for more.

Our Fall Colors

We have had frost every morning for almost a week now. This is unusual. One neighbor was taken off guard and ended up harvesting frozen grapes because the weather turned cold so early and so quickly. But the results are that we have beautiful colors in the vines and it is still sunny and warm enough by midday to go out and enjoy them. Of course it is hunting season now so one must be aware and dress in day-glow orange or yellow to play it safe.

Ewe Made My Day

No one but KEG could/would come up with the best birthday present ever! My new scarf is sheepishly stylish, soft, and warm. She hand knit it from alpaca with the cutest sheep buttons for eyes. It's first outing was at lunch where the meal was fish. Tomorrow it goes to market.

I promised I would not post this until the complete tail was posted on www.thespinningmonkey.blogspot.com. Go check out close-up images and how it all began.

Merci mille fois!

They Come at Dawn

We are back in construction mode. Tiling the terraces and walkway was the last part of the work on the house that we contracted for. This work began on Monday. As with all of the other work we had done, the workers arrived early in the morning, worked hard, cleaned up at the end of each day, and returned the next morning.

Between 6 and 9 people worked each day.They have been arriving at 7:45 am when it is just getting light enough to see to lay tile. At this point much of the tile is down and it should be finished with one more day of work. Unfortunately, we must have gotten a bad batch of tiles because there was more breakage than normal, so they are out of tiles and cannot finish facing the steps until a new batch arrives.

Their work is excellent and the light color and clean lines and surface of the tiles really makes a difference.

Back from the USA

We are back from an 11 day trip to see friends and sail with them on the Bay and then on to see family and more friends in PA. We left in the middle of the harvest here in France and returned just at it's end.

We sailed from Rock Hall to St. Michaels the long way round on a day with good winds, up around 18-20 knots. The evening was spent in a nice restaurant celebrating our friends' birthday. The next day had some wind but from the wrong direction, so we had to motor. It was great to visit with P & J and be on the Bay again. It had been 4 years since we last visited St. Michaels.

There are few food items that I miss from the US but steamed Chesapeake blue crabs and sweet corn are at the top of the list. We had both this trip. The crabs at Waterman's in Rock Hall were perfect. Better than I remembered: large, steaming hot, and with nice spices. We drove through Lancaster county and there were Amish farms still selling sweet corn. Scored again.

Back home, the countryside is golden as the vines turn color and get ready to drop their leaves. It is a bit chilly in the morning and we lit our first fire in the fireplace last night.

The cats missed us terribly. We are down to 2 as Zabelle got another tumor in the head/eye and there was no solution for that. She had a good life of 19 years and 1 1/2 months and she was a wonderful companion. There is a void here now.

I have the bluelines for THE BOOK, and am reading through it yet again. It is supposed to go to print on the 18th of November. I am at the "Book Be Gone" stage.