Sunday, January 31, 2010

Work in the Vineyards I



The period of 'rest' for the vineyards is over. Work has started again. The harvest of next autumn has to be prepared.

What is done now is cutting down the vines : all 'dead' branches are cut except for two. Now they look very naked.


The winter situation :






The cut vines :







All this work is done manually with pneumatic scissors, walking step by step through the vineyards, vine after vine.
So you can imagine how long it takes to do some 20 hectares - in the region mostly done by only two workers per winemaker. It keeps them busy for several weeks.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Happy ending to a never-ending story ?



After two years of quarreling between neighbours and municipality it seems for the first time that a solution is nearby.
Since we live here there have been discussions about the exact direction of the road leading to the house.
We heard all sorts of arguments: never exactly measured, has changed over the years, the posts have been put arbitrarily, the direction does not reflect the limits drawn since generations, etc. etc.

But now in a common effort we got an agreement on the borders of the road, the width of the asphalt road and - very important - on who is gonna pay this.

So let's hope the agreement holds till the finish.








Sunday, January 17, 2010

The two faces of winter



After the snow that stayed until the beginning of the week the winter here is back to normal: fog in the morning and the evening and during the day sunshine and - this year - unfortunately also a lot of rain.






The pictures of the upcoming smog were taken at 4.30 pm.


Some small progress was made concerning the electricity: the electricity cabin and distribution box was installed. But we are still waiting for the connection with the house.




For the rest all quiet on the Prayssac front.




Sunday, January 10, 2010

Winter strikes again


This weekend the winter stroke again at Prayssac. Nothing comparable to many other places all around Europe but nevertheless it doesn't happen that often here that we have 10 cm of snow and that it is snowing from morning till dawn. Even the piscine is no longer seen and is snowed under.
But contrary to the city, here in the countryside you can really enjoy the purity of the snow carpet. No cars pass and no salt is put out.
Some impressions :







The birds are very happy we take care of them and come very close to the house.


As the feast of the Epiphany is over we undressed the Christmas tree and of course Trotti could not resist giving a bit of a helping paw. It is quite amusing to see una vecchia donna jumping in and out of boxes for a while.



Sunday, January 3, 2010

2010





For the first blog post of the New Year we would like to thank all the friends and guests who thought of us in a special way during this period of festivities:
Bronwen, Carine, Carl, Denise, Elke, Els, Emma, Filip, Franky, Gaia, Gerd, Hadewych, Hans-Jürgen, Hildegard, Jacqueline, Jan, Jean, Joachim, Kerstin, Koen, Liesbeth, Loth, Ludo, Lut, Maaiken, Maggy, Margarethe, Maria, Mariangela, Marijke, Martine, Mathilde, Michael, Michel, Michele, Myriam, Nicola, Phil, Pierangelo, Quinten, Rita, Ruben, Sandra, Stefaan, Sylvie, Thomas, Toni, Tony, Werner, ...

Moreover we would like to thank everybody for their support in the past year, their lovely attentions, their nice company. Be sure that we appreciated all you did.



In 2010 we will again do our utmost to be good hosts.

The holiday period was an excellent period to try out new recipes. Just to lift a little bit of the veil :

- tarte aux chicons with mozzarella and pomodori secchi,
- soupe champignons-cèpes aux lamelles de canard,
- quiche aux poireaux et au roquefort,
- feuilletés au chorizo,
- home made ice aux fruits exotiques,
- petits pains aux noix,
- ...


See you.