{"id":1302,"date":"2007-06-05T11:16:14","date_gmt":"2007-06-05T10:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2011-09-06T11:16:42","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T10:16:42","slug":"562007-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/562007-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"5\/6\/2007 – Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Misty start to a pleasant day.\u00a0 Becoming much warmer by mid-afternoon.\u00a0 Thunderstorms in the evening.<\/p>\n

I wondered why my camera obscura\u00a0 wasn\u2019t working in my bedroom this morning.\u00a0 I mean I was getting live pictures of upside-down mist on my mosquito net, I just didn\u2019t know that until I threw back the shutters.<\/p>\n

Nothing much to report today.\u00a0 I spent an hour-and-a-half in the Internet shop to catch-up with emails and trying to find some local architectural salvage places (I\u2019m looking for a window).\u00a0\u00a0 Today he charged me 5 euros and 60 cents for the 90 minutes and that included some print-outs.\u00a0 I think he just makes-up a figure each time, because last week I was only in there 20 minutes and he charged me 4 euros, and another time when I had 50 mins he charged me 2 euros.\u00a0\u00a0 I am tempted to ask why, but I\u2019m afraid he might start charging me properly (whatever that is).<\/p>\n

Came home and, as it wasn\u2019t too hot, I thought I\u2019d tackle some gardening.\u00a0 The grass has got long again and I want to be able go and sit out there from time-to-time without worrying about what\u2019s under it.\u00a0\u00a0 So I raked-up all of the last lot of cuttings, and then one man went to mow.\u00a0 Went to mow the meadow.\u00a0 One man and his 2-stroke brushcutter.<\/p>\n

The garden looks so much better with shorter grass, and I was sufficiently enthused as to continue tidying-up other parts of it as well.\u00a0 I cut down the brambles that have grown-up since last August around the cartwheels, and reclaimed a bit of a view.\u00a0 And then I did some weeding.\u00a0 Not in the borders (I haven\u2019t got any of those really), but on the driveway where the weedkiller had seemed to have had some kind of effect.\u00a0\u00a0 The instructions on the weedkiller said not to put it down when the temperature is too high, or too low, or on a wet day, or on a dry day, or on a windy day.\u00a0 What other day\u2019s are left?\u00a0 So I risked putting it down on a slightly warm day with a slight wind and it had actually turned most of the grass and weeds brown.\u00a0 So I got down on my hands and knees to scrape-out all the roots as best I could.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t finish it all, but the drive looks a whole lot better without any errant greenery.<\/p>\n

So all in all a satisfying day in the garden.<\/p>\n

And now, by popular demand \u2013 animal news!\u00a0\u00a0 There are a lot of insects about this evening presumably because there are storms around.\u00a0 In the twilight earlier I saw this huge beetle flying around the garden \u2013 it must have been as big as my thumb!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So I took a picture of it resting on the little cherry tree, so I can identify it later.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Answers on a postcard please.<\/p>\n

6\/6\/2007 \u2013 Wednesday<\/p>\n

Warm start to day, with high light-grey clouds.\u00a0 Humid, with heavy storm showers mid- afternoon, turning to rain into evening.\u00a0 A real cherry-crumble sort of day.<\/p>\n

In the days before they had the International Supernetwork Highway, people had to rely on books like encyclopedia\u2019s to look things up (search under Google for \u201cbooks\u201d).\u00a0 That\u2019s where I find myself these days, and so after breakfast I looked through my extensive library to see what I could find out about yesterday\u2019s animal.<\/p>\n

It came as no surprise to find that it was a stag-horn beetle, except that in England these are usually only the size of a thumbnail and not the whole thumb.\u00a0 It also told me:<\/p>\n

Stag-horn beetle:\u00a0 (Lucannus cervus):\u00a0 Genre of insects of the coleopteres family. The male has large mandibles rather like that of a stag from which it gets its common name.\u00a0 Usually found fluttering around at twighlight during the month of June.\u00a0 The female stays hidden.\u00a0 Usually to be found in forests of oaks and chestnuts trees.\u00a0 Their larvae develop in dead wood.<\/p>\n

Fascinating eh?\u00a0\u00a0 And spot on \u2013 month of June, twighlight, fluttering.\u00a0 All correct and in order.<\/p>\n

Today I decided on another job that wasn\u2019t on my list, but it felt like the right time to do it anyway, and that was to clear-out the hay from barn.\u00a0 There were a number of good reasons do to this now \u2013 but principally it meant that I could actually start using the space in the hayloft and I could use the hay to mulch the ground around the brambles I cut down yesterday.\u00a0 Hopefully with 6 foot of hay on top of them, the brambles won\u2019t grow back as quickly as before, if at all.\u00a0\u00a0 To make doubly sure, I also laid down a couple of old mattresses and an eiderdown underneath as well.\u00a0 Let them try and get through that lot in a hurry!<\/p>\n

I was a bit worried venturing into the hayloft at first.\u00a0 The hay has been there for some years (at least 5), and knowing the amount of wildlife there is around here I was expecting something to scurry out at some point.\u00a0 Also, the floor is not in the best condition and bows and creak as you walk onto it, so I was a little concerned I might fall through it at any point.<\/p>\n

I needed have worried though as it happens, and in the end it was quite easy to move the hay out of the door and into a waiting wheelbarrow to be carted down the garden.\u00a0 I do find it amazing that I didn\u2019t find any evidence of any animal whatsoever in a tonne of hay in a dry comfy barn.\u00a0 I mean, why is it that pet shops have sold us hay to make nests for our mice and gerbils all these years?\u00a0 My rodents won\u2019t go near it \u2013 they prefer ceiling cavities it seems.<\/p>\n

At lunchtime I came over all nostalgic, and the heap of hay by the barn reminded me of a scene at the turn of the last century.\u00a0 So I got out my camera and put it on a setting of c1908.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what it took.\u00a0\u00a0 Entirely natural and un-staged of course.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Very shortly after moving all the hay the weather changed, and a large thunderstorm broke.\u00a0 It looked like it was set for the day so I retreated indoors and contemplated what to do next.<\/p>\n

Fortunately my fianc\u00e9 phoned at that moment and gave me some suggestions, one of which was to make something out of the cherries that I\u2019d picked the other day.\u00a0 Well that was another thing that wasn\u2019t on my list, but hey-ho it clearly wasn\u2019t going to be a day directed by lists.<\/p>\n

So I decided to make a cherry crumble and very delicious it turned out to be.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never made anything so adventurous before, and as I didn\u2019t have a recipe I decided to make it up as I went along.\u00a0 For the sake of completeness, I\u2019ll write out the instructions here.<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s Cherry & Walnut Crumble<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Filling: \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0144 cherries
\n24 walnuts
\nHandful of raisons
\nA bit of sugar (pure cane)
\nThe crumble:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0A guesstimate of 100g Waitrose Organic wholemeal flour
\nA guesstimate of about 75g of Tournolive margarine.
\n3-day old French bread made into breadcrumbs
\nA bit of sugar and a few walnuts<\/p>\n

First, put \u201cMake a cherry & walnut crumble\u201d on your To-Do list.\u00a0 Then put 144 cherries into boiling water and leave for a few minutes to get tender.\u00a0 While that\u2019s going on, find the walnuts that Madame Tronche kindly harvested for you.\u00a0 Pick out a reasonable number, but make sure it\u2019s divisible by 4 (I chose 24, but you could use e.g. 16, or even 44).\u00a0 Get a large hammer and smash the walnuts so that you\u2019ve got a nice mess to clear up later.\u00a0 Remember to use safety goggles. Put the nuts into a dish near to where you\u2019re cooking (because that\u2019s what they do on the telly).<\/p>\n

Put some music on.\u00a0 I chose Decibel FM because they were playing a Latin mix that goes well with cherries, but reggae should work equally well.<\/p>\n

Retrieve the cherries from the boil where they\u2019ve been on slightly too long, but drain them and spend a good half-an hour removing all the stones.\u00a0 Put the fruit into an oven-proof dish.<\/p>\n

Find a pestle & mortar.\u00a0 Never sure which one is which, but they always come as a pair so nobody will suspect your ignorance.\u00a0 Grind half the walnuts a little bit and add them to the fruit.\u00a0 Add 25g of the sugar.\u00a0 Find some other fruit lying around the house that you want to get rid of.\u00a0 I chose raisons because I can never find any other reason to have them (there\u2019s a French pun in there somewhere).\u00a0 Add a handful of those as well, and stir it around a bit.\u00a0 Then hide mixture under a fly-proof cover while you find a recipe book that\u2019s got something resembling \u2018crumble\u2019 in it.<\/p>\n

For the crumble \u2013 Mix the flour and marge together in a mixing bowl.\u00a0 This is hard work if you haven\u2019t got a mixer and you\u2019ll probably have to stop halfway through to \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026.open a bottle of wine.\u00a0 Leave the room and stand for a while.<\/p>\n

Come back revigorated and try to finish the damn mixing.\u00a0 Think about changing the music but realise this is only another distraction you\u2019re inventing to get away from the hard work.<\/p>\n

When the mixture resembles plasticine, add some sugar.\u00a0 Add some breadcrumbs that you\u2019ve made with the 3-day old French bread.\u00a0 Pestle the other half of walnuts in the mortar (or visa-versa) and add these to the mixture as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Mix well.<\/p>\n

Check the wine glass is not empty.<\/p>\n

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark \u201cvague\u201d.\u00a0 I mean it\u2019s never going to be 10 is it?\u00a0 It\u2019s always 5 or 6 unless you\u2019re cooking meteorites!<\/p>\n

Finally, try and cover the crumble mixture over the fruit.\u00a0 If you\u2019re lucky this will just about stretch, but you might have to make some more if you\u2019re oven dish is larger than average (like mine).\u00a0 Bake for 35 \u2013 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Cross off \u201cmake cherry & walnut crumble\u201d from ToDo list.<\/p>\n

Serve warm with custard.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have any custard because this is France, but I did have some Cr\u00e8me Fr\u00e2iche which did the trick.\u00a0 Very tasty.<\/p>\n

There, that\u2019s all there is to it.\u00a0 Aside from all the jocularity, I think my efforts were well rewarded.\u00a0 I think I could have taken the pudding out of the oven 5 minutes sooner, but I\u2019ve got a very enthusiastic oven and there is little difference between marks 2 and 9.\u00a0 The results should look something like this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So after two portions of cherry (and walnut) crumble I had to sit down for bit.\u00a0 After that I went outside as it had stopped raining and I noticed that \u2013 at last \u2013 the van battery had charged.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had it on constant charge for 2 days and I was beginning to suspect that it was a no-hoper.<\/p>\n

So to round off my day, I re-attached the battery to the van tool shed, turned the key and to my delight it started first time.\u00a0 Not even first time really \u2013 it started just as I twitched the key.\u00a0 So I left it running for a bit, then moved it off of the driveway at last, along with all my tools of course.<\/p>\n

What a perfect end to a cherry-crumble of a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Misty start to a pleasant day.\u00a0 Becoming much warmer by mid-afternoon.\u00a0 Thunderstorms in the evening. I wondered why my camera obscura\u00a0 wasn\u2019t working in my bedroom this morning.\u00a0 I mean I was getting live pictures of upside-down mist on my mosquito net, I just didn\u2019t know that until I threw back the shutters. Nothing much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-in-france-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}