The shoe cupboard

Cliona asked me to make her a cupboard to hold some of her shoes.

While I was assembling pieces of timber I had in my shed, I paid a visit to the local dump.

Here I discovered and salvaged this carcass.

I was glad to have the basic structure.

It needed cleaning and a bit of re-joining. I removed the warped floor and shelf.

I made the drawers and panelled doors from recycled boards and three-ply.

I bought a lovely piece of Douglas Fir for the top; cut, joined and routed it..

I salvaged a carved head board from the Nicole tip and cut it to size.

I made shelf supports and slat shelves out of scrap ... and presented the finished cupboard to my darling wife for Christmas.

A Galapian Christmas

It was to our friends Richard and David that we went for Christmas lunch.

They are an English couple, both retired professionals, who, for many years, ran a restaurant in Stamford in Lincolnshire.

They've lived in the tiny village of Galapian for 17 years.  It is a five minute drive from here.

Richard is an artist and wine connoisseur.

David is widely read and a linguist. His French is the envy of the French.

Two other couples also attended ... like us, without children or grandchildren for Christmas.

David (standing) with his partner Richard

So, to the lunch, served in their warmly furnished and decorated living room.

Before taking our seats at the table, there was champagne and amuse bouches (little eats).

A consommé of mushroom, Madere and foie gras kicked things off. It was accompanied by a Spanish sherry, an alfons Cloroso Sec Gonzalez Byass.

The first entrée, sauteed scallops in truffle sauce, was accompanied by a 2018 Pouilly Fumé, Patrick Noel.

The second entrée was pan-friend, cured salmon with beetroot relish and chive cream. It was matched with a Gerurwztraminer Authentique 2016, Bernard Brecht.

A pear and eau de vie sorbet freshened our palates before the main course came out, a roast capon (neutered rooster) served with red wine sauce and a chestnut and truffle farce, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, haricots verts and carrots.

main course was served with an erectile carrot between two sprouts

The wine was a truly stupendous Pomerol 2010 Thibeaud-Maillet.

fuzzy but not fizzy

The cheese consisted of a little log of chevre cendre, Camembert AOP, West County Farmhouse Cheddar (AOP), Munster au lait cru, caves d'affinage Schuster.

Le cheese board

The most delicious wine was served with cheese, a wine of great age and pedigree.

Buzet 1981

We had traditional Christmas pudding with a very strong brandy sauce, accompanied by a velvety Vouvray.

Our hosts are gourmands.

Their invited guests for Christmas lunch were privileged indeed.

Dali's house

Vowing to re-visit Collioure when the days lengthen and vitality returns, we took the spectacular coast road to Spain.

It was a thrill to see the Mediterranean again.

We passed graffitied buildings that were once the frontier,  abandoned and derelict high above the azure sea.

We drove to Cadaques and then Port Lligat on the Cap de Creus.

We spent a good couple of hours walking around Salvador Dali's house and grounds.

Anyone with the remotest interest in beauty, design or form, who feels inspired by the manifestation of genius or the power of imagination, will be awestruck by the works of Dali.

Collioure from our apartment

The bay in front of Dali's house

Dali's house

view out to the bay from inside the house

Dali's wife Gala

Their bedroom

the egg

Dali's contemporary

Collioure

Despite our best efforts we ended up driving through the heart of Toulouse on our journey south.

We negotiated the tangle of roads around Perpignan poorly. Instead of arriving in Collioure in the daylight, to enjoy the town, we got there after dark.

Our Airbnb hosts had told us about some nice restaurants.

But after dark in late November, Collioure is a ghost-town. Exhausted restaurant owners and staff had all left town.

I tried to engage a taxi-driver in conversation but as soon as he realised I wasn't a fare he became uncommunicative. He didn't know if any restaurants were open.

He couldn't even give me directions to Les Templiers, the town's most famous hotel/restaurant.

"But you're a local taxi-driver!" I said.

"Yea, but I'm not with the tourist office, "he grumbled and went back to his smart-phone.

We walked on and eventually ate at the only place open in town ... not a restaurant, more of a glorified bar.

Customers in the dining area included a raucous Spanish family, a pair of octogenarian Englishmen and a German couple.

The food was passable.

A bunch of dishevelled young men came in at 9 o'clock to watch the Champions League game between Barcelona and a German side.

We walked back to our accommodation in the mild, late-evening air, to the sound of water lapping  against the ramparts.

It's autumn, there's saffron

Exactly a year to the day since I noticed our first crop of saffron poking their little heads out of the raised beds down the hill, the first flowers are again starting to appear.

At the same time, white topped mushrooms have appeared in the lawn.

There has been lots of rain and a drop in temperature ... triggering this new seasonal growth.

We harvested heaps of mushrooms, cooked them in the oven and froze them to use in the future.

Ones we harvest in coming days we'll use immediately.

Meanwhile, the olives are starting to colour ... changing from green to deep purple.

The last of the big tomatoes are preparing to ripen.

I love to see how the potager (vegetable garden) changes with the seasons.

Lamb and quince tajine

Today it got up to 30 degrees, for what might be the last throw of summer.

I spent the afternoon by the pool. The water temperature was 17 degrees.

It was refreshing to dive in.

After each dip, the warm sun felt good on my watery skin.

Yesterday I cooked dinner ... something I rarely do these days. Cliona is queen of the kitchen.

I made a Moroccan lamb and quince tajine, accompanied by Yotam Ottolenghi's version of tabbouleh.

I was thrilled to be able to use some of my home-grown ingredients (mainly herbs) for this dinner.

The tajine recipe comes from Waitrose. It differs a little bit from the traditional recipe I first tasted in a lamp-lit room in a remote farmhouse, east of Fes, on the road to Algeria, in July, 1976.

I fell in love with that dish and have tried to recreate it on many occasions since.

On Thursday, I went to the Moroccan butcher shop near St Livrade sur Lot to buy some lamb to go with the quinces we'd got from a friend.

I printed off an internet recipe and assembled all my ingredients on the bunker.

In this photo you can see lamb chops, quinces, onion, fresh ginger, garlic, ground coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, saffron (home grown), salt and pepper.

I browned the lamb in butter.

I removed the meat and added spices, onion and stock to the casserole and cooked for a few minutes, then returned the meat to the dish.

I peeled the sliced the quince, then boiled them for a while in water/lemon juice to which I'd added some honey. Then, I sauteed the quince in butter, with more honey, to sort of caramelise the fruit and attenuate the quince's innate, bitter flavour.

After slow-cooking for 90 minutes, I added the cooked quince and fresh coriander (home-grown).

We'd bought a rich loaf from the local bakery.

It was ready to serve.

A 2012 blend of Grenache and Syrah from the Cotes du Rhone accompanied the meal.

I used heaps of my own parsley, mint and tomato for the tabbouleh.

It was a pretty good dinner .... even if I say so myself.

seeing beauty all around

As the summer comes to an end, there is much that is beautiful and much that is good ... a sunset, a bunch of ripened grapes, a gorgeous dessert in a local restaurant.

And visits from good friends remembered ...

home cooking

I am constantly amazed at what Cliona can rustle up for dinner, especially using herbs, fruit and veggies from the garden.

Last night was a case in point.

On the bbq we had leg lamb steaks brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper.

This was accompanied by two delicious salads.

The first comprised roasted peppers and aubergines. Cliona removed their charred skins and sliced their soft flesh. She added feta cheese, mint and parsley, then dressed the salad with cherry vinegar and olive oil.

The second was based around haloumi cheese fried in a mixture of olive oil and za'atar (a Middle East seasoning). To this was added cherry tomatoes and a pomegranate molasses dressing.

Boiled new potatoes had been steam-dried and mixed with steamed haricots blancs (white string beans), dressed with a lemon, honey, mustard and oil mixture and finished with finely chopped spring onion.

The steaks were augmented by lambs' kidneys in a creamy, rich, dijonnaise sauce.

We opened a bottle of Pomeral Merlot/Cabernet Franc but it was too young and a disappointment.

Dessert was a home-made tart tartin aux poires (pear tart) with caramelised sugar, served with vanilla ice cream.

The produce I harvested from the garden ...

pears
tomatoes
potatoes
mint and
parlsey.

I am growing aubergines, peppers and chillis but they are not yet ready to pick.

Reflecting on last night's alfresco dinner, by the garden, lamp-lit and cooled by a breeze that brushed the leafy canopy of the mulberry trees, I pose the question .... Who needs to go out and spend money in a restaurant when eating at home is this good?

A mid-August day at Ellesmere

It started with a half-hour on the cross trainer.

This was hard, as I'd done virtually no exercise for three weeks.

That done, I watered the potted plants and the veggies in the raised beds, a task I perform early in the morning before the heat of the day.

Breakfast was two croissants with home-made marmalade ... and two mugs of coffee.

Cliona went off to pick plums at our friends Herb and Carols' place. She came home two hours later with 20 kilos of Damsons. She'll use them to make plum membrillo and chutney, lots of chutney.

When she got home, we noticed more tell-tale dust on the floor under the antique sideboard. I applied copious quantities of wood-worm poison and opened all the doors and windows.

Back in the barn, I cleaned the grass from the underside of the ride-on mower as layers had built up over many weeks.

Then, it was off to the recycling bins down at Bazens ... with a big load of stuff that included a ton of bottles from a debauched family visit.

Grass grows quickly with this weather so it was time to mow the lawn around the pool.

After hitching the trailer to the car I drove over to Prayssas, just eight minutes down the D118, to see Laurent at his horse stables.

He helped me load the trailer with aged hay from a large pile in his paddock ... a perfect mulch rich in organic fertiliser.

This is pitch-fork work and it raised a sweat. Back home, I off-loaded the hay into one of my compost bays, made out of pallets. More sweat.

The Sir Charles Litton Memorial Pool is what I call the reward. Its surface shone brilliantly like teal-coloured glass. Water was cold, but sun was warm. Clouds were like whisps of smoke across a cerulean sky.

Swimming, sunbaking and reading under the parasol whiled away the time. Then it was back to the garden.

I had buried coriander seeds in two planter boxes filled with manure-rich soil. It was now time to gently remove the new seedlings and transfer them, with equal care, into compost-filled pots.

I had collected 50 or so seeds from a failed attempt to grow this fragrant herb in the stone garden. The plants had bolted almost immediately ... due to the early summer heat. Unlike the hardier parsley, which continues to flourish in tough conditions.

By now the angled rays of the sun were streaming in from the west.

This is the best part of the day, sitting with an ice-cold beer and a bowl of home-grown, home-cured olives, on my favourite garden bench, in the shade of the massive lime tree.

A breeze had sprung up and was sending helicopter seeds rotating earthward around me. The sound of the rustling branches reminded me of the beach, with the whoosh of retreating waves over sand.

It is satisfying work in the garden of Ellesmere, but the quiet contemplation of what has been achieved is even more enjoyable.

Fources

We drove an hour south into the Gers department to visit the medieval town of Fources.

It is an enchanting, circular village, wrapping itself around a cool, green square of plane trees.

There were intriguing little side-streets of columbage (half-timbered) houses and pretty flower boxes.

A 13th century clock-tower dominates.