Uncategorized

Happy Birthday Mum!

It was my mum’s 95th birthday yesterday. I was very remiss with my birthday card for her – I forgot to factor in the two bank holidays last week in France, so the post would have been atrocious. I didn’t send it early enough to take that into account.

She is still in reasonably good health, thank God, although has recently been diagnosed with “heart failure”. In that, at 95, her heart is getting a tad worn out. It means that she gets out of breath, and tired, much quicker than in the past. She still walks a little – having gone to the Lake District with my brother last week, and then visiting Rufford Old Hall with my sister yesterday. I’m visiting in a couple of weeks, and hiring a car, so I can drive her to somewhere nice for another birthday treat!

Mike & Michelle took her out for dinner, and as always, she chose her favourite – duck! It looks enormous!!

They also visited lots of other places during the week – here’s Mike (6’3″) escorting mum (5’8″) into Sizergh castle

and here they are sitting in the gardens there. I’m so grateful for my lovely mum, who has been alone since my father died some thirty odd years ago. She’s a mother, grandmother and great grandmother, and is always on the go, loving her gardening, and still going to church, to her cribbage club and chair yoga whenever she can – although I think she may admit that she will need to give up driving soon!

Here’s a photo of mum and dad when they were courting, at the top of one of the peaks in the Lake District, a place & activity close to both their hearts.

and one of she and I about 10 years ago, when we were both walking a bit further than we can now!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

Uncategorized

Like the swifts…

We often joke that Friend Cathy is like the swifts, arriving as the summer starts to show its face. We love having them screaming their way round the square for a couple of months, before they fly off again. They still sometimes nest under our eaves, but a fairly large group of squabbling sparrows took up residence there last year, so I’m not sure if the swifts have been ousted.

Well, today we had our first coffee-and-croissant sitting on the terrace of the Hotel next door, on Market Day, and sure enough, Mr FD said “Look! There are some swifts!” – our first sighting of them. I believe it’s due to be cold again, so I hope the early arrivals will be okay.

I bought some vegetable plants from The Plant Man – 2 butternut squash, two strawberries, 3 tomato plants and two courgette plants. He didn’t have many flowers yet, so I’ll buy those when his choice is bigger. He said that bad weather has delayed the growing seasons. It’s due to be good weather this afternoon, so I will get out into the courtyard to tidy up a bit – rip out some ivy, clean the “water feature”, and sort out the planters. Then we’ll make a decision about where to plant the veggies. Probably all on the balcony, to protect them from slugs, if not from cats!!

Uncategorized

M.I.A.

Sorry I’ve not posted. Nothing much has been happening…

  • I had a couple of weeks without Mr FD – he was in the UK with his mum who was having a stent fitted in her heart. He was looking after her and helping her around the house. I enjoyed being alone (with the cats, of course) but it was nice when he came home. Jim kept me company every night, cuddling up in bed.
  • Friend Cathy has arrived for 6 months here. It’s always nice to see her. Maybe I’ll get out of the house more, and go for a few walks. Mind you, the weather here has been horrid – cold and wet. We even had snow a week ago. Brr.
  • I’ve been sorting out my craft cupboard – little by little. My collection of “bits” (I don’t know what else to call them!) – stickers, cut outs, pictures, die cuts… – has lived in a box for a long time, and it had become a real mess where I couldn’t find what I wanted, or even see what I had! So I went through it all, and put it into plastic pockets which I have pinned to the inside of the cupboard door. It’s still a bit disorganised, but it’s certainly easier to find things. I’ve also sorted my papers & paper scraps into colours, in the hope I may use them all, rather than just the papers at the top of the pile.
  • We’ve booked a couple of weekends away, to see Big Big Train – once in Lorelei, in Germany, at a music festival, and once in Willheim also in Germany. I’m also planning on going to the UK at the end of May to see my mum, just after her 95th birthday. So, no “big” holiday for us this year (except for the Cruise, of course! 😊 I should have said “this summer”), but certainly a few adventures!
  • Still teaching a bit – I’ve got about 10 hours a week. That’s certainly enough, although I could be quite happy without that! I think I’ll stop soon.
Uncategorized

Sometimes…

…good intentions turn out wrongly. But in a funny way.

Yesterday in church, we had a lady slip into the service late. She sat quietly, received communion, and then during the last hymn, slipped out again.

I thought I should check she was okay, so I followed her out. She explained she was in Royat for “a cure” (to take the waters) and that she had been going for a walk, seen the chapel and pushed the door to see if it was open. We had a little chat and then she turned to go.

“Dieu te —-” I started, wanting to say “God bless you”, but realised I couldn’t think of the French for “bless”. So, in desperation, I thought “Use the English word but with a French accent ” (it does sometimes work) and said “Dieu te blessé”

God send a thunderbolt

As soon as it was out of my mouth I knew it was wrong. Because “blesser” means “to injure/ to do harm” I’d just asked God to do her harm. No, I yelped. She looked confused, but then smiled and said in French “It’s difficult, isn’t it?”

Oh, I did feel a fool. “God give you good things…” I managed to say, but I’m not convinced she understood. Hey ho.

Uncategorized

Slightly un-nerving

Another thing I noticed in the US….

It was strange seeing adverts for insurance lawyers everywhere – on huge billboards next to the freeway, on the back of benches, in residential areas.

“Accident?” they screamed at us “Phone Joe Bloggs on —–”

“We got 3 million $ with Ronnie Biggs” yell a smiling couple on a billboard. (with “individual payouts depend on your situation” in tiny letters at the bottom.)

“Flood Damage? “shouts another “Fred Smith will win your case!”

These things just don’t exist in France, or in the UK and I found it really strange. But what was the most unnerving was the way these changed as we went from one district to another.

As we were driving through one district,because we didn’t have the tag for the toll roads, and the sat-nav took us the zig-zaggy route across the city I noticed something rather disturbing. I was in the passenger seat, watching everything going by (because, let’s face it, it was all so different!) when I noticed that we had gone from “Car accident?” or “Accident at work?” notices in a more high-end district to (and I kid you not!) “Injured in a drive-by shooting? Phone —-” in a much more run-down area of the city.

Drive-by shooting? Good grief! I thought. How likely is that to happen?!

Please, don’t take this as a criticism. This is just one of my “Things I noticed” posts , but I think that was one of the moments when I was very much aware of the difference in gun laws in the US and in France. I was a tad concerned – not that anyone was walking around toting a gun, you understand, but it was just the fact that it was common enough for insurance lawyers to find lucrative to advertise about it.

And my readers in the US, how do you find this situation with guns? Is it something you don’t really think about, because you’ve always lived with it? Do you find the gun laws too lax (or too rigid?) I don’t want to cause any conflict; I am genuinely interested in people’s view points.

Uncategorized

Healthy?

Here’s one of the things I noticed when we were in the States.

When we went to buy things for our breakfast we chose this cereal:

It looked tasty, and had strawberries and blueberries in it, as well as yoghurt. Although I’m not sure what the tagline “Naturally flavored with other natural flavors” is telling us. But with crunchy rice and wheat flakes, and oat and fruit clusters, it must be healthy, right?

When we tasted it, the first thing we noticed was how sweet it was. Oh boy, it was sweet. Which made me start to wonder how healthy it actually was, so I carefully inspected the ingredients list… Third ingredient: sugar! Sixth: sugar syrup! Seventh corn syrup! Plus unknown quantities (but less than 2%) of honey, dextrose and molasses. No wonder it tasted sweet! In fact 33% of this cereal is sugar!

And where’s the fruit in this? The strawberries and blueberries pictured on the front? Look carefully. Under “Contains 2% or less of” we have apples (just above salt!) and further down, we have “red radish juice” – presumably for colouring the apple so it resembles blueberries and strawberries!

I’m not saying that breakfast cereals in France are any healthier than this – in fact over half the cereal aisle in Carrefour has chocolate, or caramel, flavoured cereals. But this seems to be deliberately trying to fool us into thinking that this cereal, 33% sugar, is healthy, with its fruit pictures, and yoghurt-y chunks illustration! Of course it looked nothing like this.

Is this normal in the US? Can you easily buy healthy cereals? I’ll admit we were only in a mini-mart so the choice was limited, but this was the only healthy (so we thought) one there. Can you buy better cereals in supermarkets?

Uncategorized

School Meals

This is a post I wrote back in February and somehow lost. It was only yesterday that I re-discovered it, posted as an extra “page” on the top of the blog. Not at all where I wanted it. So here it is for your delectation – it came out of my post about our cooking class at a primary school in Clermont Ferrand.

I remember a few things from my school dinners – in primary school,(in the late 60s) I distinctly remember grey, shoe leather liver in gravy (which I think put me off liver for life) and a very glutinous shepherds pie (which I loved, by the way!). And of course, a tray sponge with pink icing and pink custard. I’m not sure that there was much concern about nutritional values, but certainly there was no choice, and no foods like burgers or pizzas. There may have been “beefburgers” but certainly no buns. And probably no chips either. There was also an eat-everything-on-your-plate policy – which for the liver must have been a nightmare!

In secondary school (1972-1978) the choice was better. I think there was a choice of two main courses, but I might be wrong. Again, we were expected to eat everything we were given, but we could ask for a small portion. I somehow ingratiated myself wioth the dinner ladies and so would often get extra big helpings of chips or something else, if I asked!

From time to time, the Headteacher would sit at a table with some of the fifth formers or sixth formers and so we were expected to be on our best behaviour, and make polite conversation. Everything was served from serving dishes, instead of queuing up for it. I remember when it was my turn, I had taken a rather large helping of sweetcorn (which I had never tasted) and discovered that I really, really didn’t like it. However, there was no choice but to choke my way through it, as leaving it would have been frowned on.

When I was in sixth form, there was a nod towards the fact that some people didn’t want a large hot meal at lunch time, and the sixth formers were allowed to choose soup and a filled roll if they wished to.

On my post about the Cooking Class I went to, someone remarked on the choices at the Restaurant Scolaire, run by Fabrice, our instructor. The school is a private one, so perhaps their menus are a little more elaborate than the public schools, but even so, here is a menu from the state school system. This is a primary school menu:

That first day – smoked salmon, hamburger with foie gras, chips!! However, I highly suspect that the two “Surprise menus” at the end of the half term would be made up from whatever was left in the fridge/ freezer! The state says that every week there must be a vegetarian day, and there is pressure for all produce to be local, seasonal and organic.

This is a menu from a Lycée (secondary school), with each day providing a starter, a protein, a vegetable, a dairy choice and a desert.

I do have to say, I have no idea what school meals are like in the UK. They may have improved enormously, but I doubt if they are this good. Certainly when I was teaching (1982-2000) school kitchens were being phased out, and everyone bringing packed lunches was the norm. For those poor souls who were entitled to free school meals, they got floppy sandwiches with processed ham, or cheese, a bag of plain crisps, a biscuit and a piece of fruit (usually a brown banana or a soft apple) all put in a plastic bag and allowed to sweat until lunchtime.

This is a recent primary school menu from the UK, which shows a big improvement from what I remember, and which, to be fair, has a vegetarian option every day, but all the same it doesn’t strike me as being quite as “adult” as the French menu

and one from the US

Certainly, it’s good to see no liver on the menu, even if they are both serving pizza and baked beans at least once!!

Fabrice explained that they are trying to guide the students to consider their food as a pleasure, something to be savoured, so that they want to learn how to make it themselves. He said that they even make their own in-house tomato “ketchup” instead of buying sachets of ready made stuff. I noticed at the French school, is that the crockery is proper crockery, the glasses are glass, the cutlery is proper, paper napkins are provided. It is much more “grown up” than the plastic trays found in UK primary schools, which, I’m afraid, make me think of prison!

En France…
En Angleterre… And what on earth is in the lower left hand compartment?!
Uncategorized

Getting out in the Sunshine

I think my body is totally confused – when we went on the cruise, we left France in snow to arrive in Miami with temperatures around 27°C; the heat in Mexico was even higher. We returned to rain and grey weather; today it’s due to reach the high 20s, but then cold and rain are forecast again for next week. I keep forgetting it’s only mid-April.

My clothes are all in a mess too – usually I have my autumn/winter collection which I change (usually at mid-April) for the spring/summer collection. But I had to raid the spring/summer for the cruise, it didn’t get put away (let’s be honest, it didn’t get ironed!) and now I have a real jumble of clothes to hunt through. You’d think that by the age of 64-and-a-half I would be more domesticated.

NOT our balcony – but a picture of the trellis.

Yesterday was cooler, but equally as sunny, so I got onto the balcony to tidy it up, ready for the growing season. I’ve moved the veggie pots to the other end, to try to give more room to put the washing out when it’s good weather. The flowers will be at the end nearest the door, where the table & chairs now is. I also bought from Lidl a trellis with artificial ivy on it – this completes the barrier on the balcony railings to stop cats squeezing through the bars. They can still jump onto it and balance along the top, but we do what we can to discourage this.

I’ve also bought something similar, but not quite as realistic to put on the fence between us and the college next door. It’s only a lowish fence, so people can still look over, but it gives us a feeling of privacy. This is our courtyard last year – you can see the leafy stuff, but also a gap to the left. This is what I want to fill with the new stuff. There needs to be a lot of clearing up in the courtyard, and replanting, but Mr FD started this morning by cutting back the buddleia so our Bleeding Heart plant can breathe, and cutting back the elderberry tree before the birds start nesting.

I haven’t done any planting yet, either on the balcony or in the courtyard as the “plant man” hasn’t been in the market yet. The Plant Man comes for about two months, selling plants from the back of his van, and is very popular. I usually buy three tomato plants, two butternut squash and two courgette plants from him, as well as various annuals to fill hanging baskets and other pots. We plant the veggies on the balcony because the courtyard is plagued by snails and slugs who decimate most things. We’ll see what happens this year!

I also re-potted our tree. This started off as a small plant which was self seeded. We left it to see what would happen, and it grew. And grew. We now have a 2.5m tall tree (possibly a rowan?) which we think is dead every winter but which somehow struggles back to life. It has been in its pot for several years and not looking happy, so on Friday I shelled out 25€ and bought another pot for it, which is about two times the size of its old pot. I hope the tree is grateful! (I noticed it had some leaf buds on so it has at least partially survived the winter!)

I even had my lunch on the balcony today – and needed to put up my parasol to shade me from the sun!

Uncategorized

And finally…

I’m sorry. I haven’t told you about our last day in the US. Last week I felt terrible over the Easter weekend, and my cough is still dragging on. I feel generally OK, except for being fed up of the cough. But it took quite a long time to recover. We did both test ourselves for Covid, and were negative, so we’re guessing it was a nasty bug caught on the flight home. Better on the flight home than the flight going.

Wednesday 20/03: So on our last day, we went out for breakfast. We’d done some research and there was the traditional Denny’s diner nearby, or the Cuban restaurant we’d been to. They had an avocado, egg and bacon sandwich which I thought sounded good, so we went there. Mr FD had pancakes & blueberries, I had the aforementioned sandwich.

Sculpture of a chameleon at the Flamingo Park

Then we headed up to Fort Lauderdale, and went to the Flamingo Park animal conservation centre. This was interesting, and we saw lots of birds and wildlife. It wasn’t too busy, and there was a “petit train” ride around the grounds, which was good as we both had tired legs!

We took the car back to the airport and checked in for our 17.15 flight – to be told that it wasn’t going to be leaving until 21.15. We had a 5 hour wait in a not very interesting airport. Happily we both had books with us, so we settled down to wait. I suppose we could have maybe gone back to the city, but I’d’ve been worried about making it back at the right time, so having a good long read seemed better. We were given a 9$ voucher each for food, which we spent on tea/coffee and a bun, but we also had a pizza from Pizza Hut to keep us going (we’d not had lunch because of the big breakfast, but by about 17.00 we were getting peckish!)

The flight finally left and after an aircraft meal (chicken?) I watched a couple of episodes of a comedy series and then drifted off. I slept reasonably well, and must have got about 5 hours sleep.Of course, the delay leaving Miami meant a delay at Heathrow – another 4 hours! We read (I was onto my second book by now!) had a sandwich from Pret, wandered around Duty Free and I bought a couple of books from WHSmith. The Heathrow-Lyon flight was fine, and we were home by 20.00. It had been a longer-than-anticipated journey – almost 24 hours. We fed the cats, had some toast and went to bed ourselves! Home again!!

We really had a great time, and I couldn’t really pick out a highlight. Of course, seeing BBT in concert was great, and the cruise was a novelty. Seeing Cozumel, and Florida was great – I liked Florida/Miami much more than I expected to from people’s comments. I rarely felt unsafe, which surprised me, and found the city interesting and attractive. I’ve got lots of posts planned about things that surprised me, or particular places we went to, etc. They’ll be popping up as we go through the year.

I hope you’ve not been bored by my more-detailed-than-I’d planned account of our holiday.

Uncategorized

Floating on air

Oof! It’s Easter Monday today (scheduled post being written!), and I can’t settle to anything. I have been ill with a nasty head cold – hopefully not Covid! – over the weekend, and I’m now in the buckets-of-snot stage. Apologies if that’s TMI! I’ve tried reading, zentangling, updating my zentangle patterns book, reading blogs…I can’t stick at anything. Maybe another blog post will be a success.

So, we’re reaching the end of our holiday. The decision was to be made: Key Biscayne or the Everglades for an airboat ride?

Tuesday 19/03: As Key Biscayne requires a Toll reader and we didn’t have one in the car, the decision was made for us! We headed out for the northern part of the Everglades for an airboat tour. The map from the National Park that we had named three companies, so we guessed these were supported by the National Park as being the most ecological. We drove to Everglades Safari Park which was about 1.5 hours’ drive from where we were.

The ticket guy was very friendly, and we chatted about the weather and how we were going to have a more enjoyable day than yesterday’s visitors, as it was cooler and much less humid. He was certainly correct regarding the weather. For the first time, I was glad to have my cardigan with me. The ride was great – we didn’t see a lot of wildlife, but there were some alligators to be seen (if you had sharp eyesight) and some birds. I enjoyed the ride anyway, and there was also a short “nature show” with some reared-in-captivity alligators, and a photo opportunity with Snappy, the baby alligator. I declined, as Snappy had his jaws forcibly closed with a band of some sort, which seemed unfair. The nature trail was interesting though, with the opportunity to see both alligators and crocodiles, as well as turtles and birds.

It was getting past lunchtime, but we could see nowhere marked on the map where we could eat. Google maps showed us a Subway further along the road so we headed there. However, on the way, we passed Joanie’s Blue Crab Café. It was only after we’d passed it that I realised it looked good, so Mr FD swung the car round and we headed back to it. I’m very glad we did! It was a delight. The owner and the servers were charming, and couldn’t have been more helpful; we had a delicious meal of crab cakes, with hush puppies (I’d never had them, and had no idea what they were. They were OK, but I’m not sure I’d have them again, as these seemed a bit too sweet to go with a savoury dish), fries and coleslaw. We had a Key Lime Pie for dessert – a different style to the one yesterday, heavier and less “gourmet” but just as tasty.

We drove on, taking the “Loop Road” which was a scenic route, taking in many, many alligators in their natural habitat. We also saw ibis and egrets. And some slightly stupid drivers who just stopped their car in the middle of the (admittedly not very busy) road, to pile out to take photos of said alligators. We also saw one stupid bloke chucking stones at an alligator to make it move. We drove on, so we’re not sure quite what happened to him!!

When we finally arrived back at the apartment, we packed our bags, as we needed to be out of the place reasonably early. We decided to have breakfast out, so we could tidy up the kitchen too. As we’d eaten well, and late, we ate some of the leftovers that we had – bagels, cream cheese, frozen onion rings, and yoghurt (not very healthy!) – and then watched an episode of House. Bed at about 10.30