36) Some random updates

Not everything in the garden is a creepy crawly, we have some rather sweet and cuddly inhabitants as well.

And there seem to be lots and lots of Bambi's cousins all around us (not so great once we start growing vegetables).

After a prolonged hot spell, though, it often seems to end in a spectacular storm - and once again everything is fresh and green.

We have been cooking on a barbecue (exclusively) now for several weeks.  We like barbecues but they do take quite a time (this can be helpful when you have no TV).  We were given this camping stove by some friends and decided to make pasta for a change - difficult, if not impossible on a barbecue.

It actually turned out to be quite difficult on the camping gaz stove.  It may have been the size of the saucepan in relation to the stove.  It MAY have been that it was not on quite straight (those this was hotly disputed by the person concerned).  Most probably the bubbling of the water set up a slight movement which gently, gradually, ever so slowly jiggled the whole bloody lot off all over the wall.  Subsequent experiments seemed to support this theory.

Given the snails pace we are making progress with the artisans, we felt it was time to invest in a hob (or we would be doing barbecues well into the winter).  We found this two ring electric hob for 32 euros and we wondered why you had to pay as much as 1,000 for a four ring electric induction hob.  I then made what I think is a rather handsome kitchen unit out of a couple of old doors we found in the attic.  We then started to wonder if you really need to spend thousands of euros on kitchen units when old doors can work very passably well.

Having, made the unit we decided to invest in an oven (which we will need eventually in any case).  Oven shops in France have a strange way of doing business.

We had looked things up on line and found that the list price of what we wanted was almost double what the equivalent would have been in England.  However, you could get them for a lot less direct from the internet.  We did not really want to do this with an oven as it would be a hassle if anything went wrong (it's bad enough arguing in English with someone at a call centre in India, let alone trying to do it in French).  Instead we went armed with a run off of the cheapest deal we had found on the internet.  The first shop initially quoted the recommended (outrageous) price.  We showed them the ad' from the internet and, after realising they might miss a sale, they came down 20 per cent.  This still made it quite expensive so we went to another shop.  The same thing again.  First the ridiculous recommended price, then we brought out our trump card of the internet ad'.  Cool as a cucumber, the girl got out her calculator, fiddled about on it and then announced they could reduce the price by 38 per cent.  We agreed the sale and are now able to cook almost anything.

They are over in our garden now, but we had the most delicious plums for a couple of weeks and they are still in the markets - and very cheap
.

In the garden there is just one walnut tree, but it is quite a big one, and it is covered in walnuts.  The nice thing about walnuts is you don't have to risk life and limb climbing the tree.  They fall off naturally and don't get bruised or attacked by wasps.  We do, however, have a little red squirrel who seems to have cottoned onto this.  Each morning (usually before we are up) he comes along to see what has fallen over night, and off he goes with them to pile them up in a store for winter.  We need to get up earlier, risk climbing the tree, or find his/her store.

Melons we don't have in the garden, but they are all around us in the fields.  This particular area is apparently quite famous for melons, and I have certainly never eaten melons like these in England.  We were told by our friendly French estate agent that the best melons to be had in Cahors market come from a stall with a man who has certain similarities to a melon.  It didn't take long to find it, and he is (as always) absolutely right.

Although French bread can be wonderful, often it doesn't last.  We have found this stall at Cahors market (which rather helpfully happens on a Wednesday and a Saturday) where you can buy a Querbi.  Not only is it delicious, but it will be fine for the next day.  They also have all sorts of other tempting breads made with olives, onions. cheese. tomatoes and practically anything you can think of.

The other home produce we have is an abundance of quinces - all from just the one lone tree above, growing on not much more than bare chalk.

When the fruits first started to appear, we weren't sure what they were.  They are furry, shaped a bit like a lemon (but bigger), and very hard.  Having discovered what they were we needed to know what to do with them.  We knew we liked that stuff you sometimes get served alongside cheese (in discerning sorts of places), but we have never had much of it as it's so fiendishly expensive.

G's worked out a recipe and now we are living like Kings (ummm....).  It's called Membrillo (after some place in Spain), and I must say G's version is the best |I have ever tasted.  It has a kind of mysterious perfume to it and is like a little piece of heaven.

Talking of mysteries, something strange has been happening in our Salon.  On the walls there are the marks where pictures obviously hung for many years.  We have noticed of late that faded images have started to appear, and our room is becoming peopled by figures from the distant past, perhaps associated with the house in days gone by.  We think they are friendly.