Sunday, June 26, 2011

summer start



This week the summer started alright with estival temperatures : lovely nice swimming pool weather - just as it should be.

The most remarkable fact of the week however was the saving of the injured young of a little owl ( chouette chevêche, steenuil, civetta, Steinkauz or Athena noctua) that had fallen down from a tree in a first attempt to fly and would have been otherwise - as we say in Dutch - literally "a bird for the cat".




War is over between our two cats, Chiara and Marcello : since some days they sleep peacefully one besides the other and play at times beautifully together - two little gangsters even if you wouldn't tell it from the picture.





To end with : two panoramic pictures from two exceptional points of view in the Lot: the panorama of Bélaye just in front of the mas and the panorama of Mont St-Cyr (Cahors). Just enjoy the beautiful views.
Thanks to Lieven & Barbara for the photos.







Sunday, June 19, 2011

Marcello is its name



Last week-end we decided finally to adopt another cat to get a "play"mate for Chiara.

Marcello is its name. It is a little male tabby cat (French: "tigré") of about eight weeks.

Here is his first public appearance.




I must admit that it is a whole lot of a changement - having one or two cats, especially when the second one is a kitten, a baby cat.

You have to protect everything and at the same time give enough space and toys to amuse themselves and let loose their energy.
Much more so because Marcello is a wonderful acrobat and - when awake - also a little quick devil: afraid of nothing.

For this purpose I created a "Dadizele" amusement park in the salon and on the sofas. Sorry no pictures here: it is not photographable.





Marcello is so curious that he even wants to know everything about a good Belgian trappist beer and then falls asleep like a log.




One of the funny things is to see how Chiara and Marcello gradually get used to one another after a first phase of "growling and clawing" (French: cracher) at each other.

                      

Clicking on the thumbnails enhances the pleasure.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

New French words and expressions



Very unexpectedly this week - after living now for five years in France - I learned a lot of new French words and expressions from our normandic ch'ti guests Jean and Patricia.

I don't know why it took so long somebody used and taught me these words - perhaps they are too local or too personal.

Here comes a small selection :

gouleyant : eng : gluggable (said of good fresh easy drinking lovely wine)

bedaine, often called coussin d'amour : eng: soft beer belly (as the synonym indicates : when not "too much belly" usually "cherished" by women)

l'occasion fait le larron : eng: opportunity makes a thief

dormir comme un caillou : eng : sleep like a log (very appropriate here as the mas address is "Caillou des Roches")

chercher midi à 14 heures : eng : the expression shows the stupidity of looking for something where it cannot be although in fact it is rather near

se jeter un verre / un coup derrière la cravatte : eng : have a few drinks (even too many)

c'est de la roupie de sansonnet : eng : something insignificant

on ne boit pas, on se désaltère : eng : no translation possible.

Honi soit qui mal y pense.


On special and general request a picture of me in recent days for my friends all over the world who after five years of not seeing me do not longer know how I look like and are curious.

As you can see I'm rather reluctant to show it.





Sunday, June 5, 2011

cherries and ...



I don't know how it is with the cherries elsewhere in France or Europe but here in the Lot it is a fantastic year.
The production is so big that the birds who normally eat every cherry before we can even think of it, well the birds can't cope with it so there's lots of them left for us.




In the plain of Prayssac there is even a cherry phenomenon the aged locals have never seen before: cherries growing directly on the trunc. Just an impression :




                       


Although almost every day the weather forecast talks about rain and local showers rain continues to forget Prayssac.
Instead of "I can't stand the rain" (typical Belgian) the tendency moves towards dryness.





Who knows a good recipe for a rain song or a rain dance ?