Polidas fèstas – season’s greetings in Occitan

Lunch in the garden two days after the solstice –  paella cooked on a vine wood fire.

Season’s greetings

Cyfarchion y tymor

Bonnes fêtes

Polidas fèstas

Clermont shadows

The low sun, as we approach the solstice, and interesting shadows made by the plane trees added to the fun of a trip to Clermont-l’Hérault today – a town full of the kind of small shops that are a joy to visit, so unlike the modern-day shopping mall experience.

As the days begin to lengthen again….

Season’s greetings!

Cyfarchion y tymor!

Joyeuses fêtes!

Polidas festas!

The sea on the longest day of the year

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My first swim of the year at Le Grau d’Agde – the water was a bit chilly still so I didn’t stay in long but it’s good to feel that the summer has started – followed by lunch at one of our favourite cafés overlooking the beach.

On the way home we stopped at a fruit stall and bought a platter of apricots for 6 euros and 4 melons.  We’ve made jam and granita with most of the apricots, leaving plenty to eat as they are, and we ate one of the melons with tapas this evening.  I’ll post the granita recipe tomorrow – it’s very simple, but I just don’t want the apricot photos mixed in with my sea slideshow.

>Summer solstice

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It hardly seems like midsummer but it may be the beginning of summer. For the first time, this week, we’ve had bright sunshine all day, even though the north wind has been cold.

Yesterday, the day of the summer solstice, at midday I took this photo of the light in the narrow street near our house, called Carrièra Escura (Dark Street in Occitan), this is the lightest it gets all year:

What a difference from mid-December when the sunlight hardly reaches below the roofline:

And playing truant….

Today we played truant from work and gardening and went on a trip through the red desert to Lodève. This is an amazing area of red earth, rock and shale interspersed with strata of harder rock which lies at angles to the surface. Very little grows on the rocks, although there are productive vineyards and olive groves in the more fertile parts.

Tomorrow we’ll get back to work in the garden!

>The longest day of the year / La journée la plus longue de l’an

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Just as we did on the shortest day of 2008, we had lunch in the garden. This time the shadows were a bit shorter but the coffee was as good. / Comme la journée la plus courte de 2008 on a mangé au jardin. Cette fois les ombres étaient plus courtes mais le café est toujours bon.

21.12.08

21.06.09

Paella

One of our Spanish friends in the village says that paella should be cooked out of doors on a wood fire. So that’s what we did today. / Une de nos amies espagnoles au village dit que la paella doit être cuire dehors au feu de bois. Donc, c’est ça que nous avons fait aujourd’hui.

Paella with mussels and chorizo / Paella aux moules et au chorizo.

Locusts / acacia-criquets

There are some things I find in the garden that I don’t photograph for this blog. Yesterday when I saw a locust on one of our aubergine plants I didn’t rush for the camera. I called Lo Jardinièr to come and squash it. Last year one of these huge insects at most of the leaves of an aubergine plant in one afternoon. I don’t know how we can deter them. One suggestion on the Internet was a mixture of chilli and paraffin, so I ground a couple of red chillis and mixed them with alcool à bruler (a spirit you certainly wouldn’t want to drink). I then painted this mix onto some of the leaves.

I hope it works. I’m worried that it may damage the leaves.

** UPDATE: this burnt the leaves, so I won’t do it again. The best way to get rid of pests – locusts, beetles – is to squash them individually, we’ve found.

J’ai mis un mélange de piment rouge et alcool à bruler sur les feuilles d’aubergine dissueader les acacia-criquets de les manger.

And a butterfly / Et un papillon

Lo Jardinièr found this Red Admiral butterfly which stopped just long enough for him to take this photo.

Courgettes and cucumbers / Les courgettes et les concombres

It’s a nice problem to have – what can we do with all our courgettes? Yesterday we picked 1.7 kg. I’ve stuffed some with meat and some with olives and onions, I’ve stewed them with some of last year’s preserved tomatoes and we’ve had fried courgettes, courgette fritters and stuffed courgette flowers. Luckily, we really love courgettes! And the cucumbers seem to grow as you look at them.

Garlic grown from bulbs I bought in the market last autumn and planted around a terracotta pot watering system. / L’ail cultivé du ce que j’ai acheté sur le marché en automne.

And a sunflower in the sun / Et un tournesol au soleil.

>Sunday lunch in the garden on the shortest day of the year / Déjeuner au jardin au solstice d’hiver

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Today is the winter solstice with the sun at its lowest. And it was the warmest day we’ve had for weeks! At midday in the sun it was about 15 degrees C. A good day for lunch in the garden. A celebration!

Aujourd’hui c’est le solstice d’hiver avec le soleil le plus bas de l’année – et le meilleur temps du mois! A midi au soleil il a fait 15 degrées. Du bon temps pour déjeuner au jardin. Une fête!

bamboo against a cloudless sky …..

and beneath, next year’s tomato canes growing

But first we gave the lemon tree some light and some water.

Mais d’abord on a donné de la lumière et de l’eau au citronnier.

And then the barbeque / et puis la grillade

merguez (North African spicy lamb sausages) with onion skewers

we bought the merguez from the excellent butcher’s shop in nearby Roujan, run by Bernadette and Franck Perez, and while we were there we ordered some pigeons for lunch on Thursday.

green salad from the garden: lettuce, spinach, rocket and oregano

lunch in the sun and wine from nearby Domaine de Montesquieu

Gavach cheese from Lacaune with green tomato jam ….

and coffee, of course

Gavach is the Occitan word for ‘mountain-dweller’, which is why it’s the name given to this cheese which is made in the mountains around Lacaune.

Gavach est le mot occitan pour quelqu’un qui habite les montagnes, donc c’est le nom pour ce fromage fait dans les montagnes autour de Lacaune.

It’s good to know that from now on the days will get longer and the sun higher. The plants already sense it – the climbing rose has tiny new buds on it and the daffodils are coming up too.

C’est bon que les jours deviendront plus longs et le soleil montera plus haut pendant les semaines qui viennent. Les plantes déjà le devinent – la rose grimpante a des nouveaux petits bourgeons et les narcisses montent aussi.