I take a lot of my still-life photos from the corner of my table since it sits handily right in front of a north facing window and I like the light there. So today here are a few of my recent photos from that spot. I sometimes like and sometimes hate the natural framing effect of my table's "border".
Ma table à manger se situe à côté d'une fenêtre et donc tout naturellement je prends beaucoup de mes photos (mes natures mortes -j'aime tout documenter) de cet endroit. Aujourd'hui je vous montre quelques unes de mes plus récentes...
The last harvest - green tomatoes from the garden (now red).
La dernière récolte. Tomates vertes du jardin (rouge depuis).
My boyfriend's mother's annual return from Montenegro always feels like harvest festival! This year she was back two months later than usual and so instead of fresh figs, she bought dried (green and black from our trees oh yum!) together with walnuts, persimmons and clementines from the garden. Honey from a cousin's beehives. Grappa from our vines (smells so good and sweet but not my thing at all). A whole bunch of dried chili peppers too (ditto really). Wow. I like recalling that abundance!Lorsque ma belle mère rentre du Montenegro tous les ans elle ramène le contenu de la corne d'abondance avec elle. Sans la corne. Et je l'admire, car ça ne doit pas être si évident de faire passer des oeufs, figues, raisins, clémentines, olives, kakis etc sans les écraser et sans se faire "choper" par les douaniers (je ne suis pas sure qu'il est vraiment permis de transporter toutes ces-choses-là. Mais ce n'est pas comme si elle les cache sous ses vêtements non plus). Bref. On se régale à chaque fois.
I had such a nice time hollowing out and carving a pumpkin with the kids. My first ever pumpkin. Child or adult. Later found out I didn't hollow it out enough (i.e. lunch is still in there!!). Heheh. Don't quite have that You Tube tutorial thing down to a T yet.
Ahhh la citrouille obligatoire. Mais pour la première fois jamais (pas si obligée)! J'ai adoré concevoir, mettre en oeuvre et réaliser ce projet! Je donne l'impression d'être employable n'est-ce pas! Je ne vous dis pas que c'est une fausse impression, juste que je n'ai pas l'impression de donner souvent cette impression!!! Hihihi.
And we have a new and I hope useful houseguest. I think I will call him Peter. Peter the Pitcher Plant. Thanks Alicia for encouraging me to actually wonder just who Pete is, was. And thanks for making me want to cook so much. I bought, oops forgot to go back and pay my florist, I stole him to eat flies. In front of my daughter. Hmm (it is Halloween). And thanks Amiga for putting me on to this good thing.
Et je vous présent Peter. Peter la plante. Depuis que j'ai fait la version anglaise je me suis rendu compte que j'ai oublié de retourner payer ma floriste. Un mec hyper sympa qui apparamment me fait trop confiance (oops, mardi alors) et qui m'a filé cette plante carnivore sans se poser toutes les questions que je me pose: la déontologie d'être végétalienne et de poséder une plante carnivore ;-). Merci Amiga de m'avoir mise sur la piste.
Today is Blog Action Day when thousands of bloggers accross the world all agree to write about the same subject. This year the subjet is CLIMATE CHANGE.
It's funny because today in Paris the weather was very, very, unseasonally cold. Almost freezing. People working at the market were caught out and had to borrow sweaters from neighbouring stalls to keep warm and then, on the way to school at lunchtime, an African nanny told me how right now in Senegal (she comes from right near the Sahara - there's a conversation for another day!) it is 27°C in the morning and 40°C by mid-afternoon - temperatures that are much hotter than normal for this time of year. (BTW, she didn't know it was Blog Action Day!).
We are all affected by the weather and even if you believe climate change has not yet begun to happen (???!!!), you know you will be affected by climate change one day.
I personally adhere to the "do as you would be done by" school of thought and my favourite quote is "be the change you want to see in the world" by the dalai lama. Personally, I don't need any more convincing than that last one. Its logic stands up to my scrutiny and so, once I am informed I act and not acting becomes more difficult. I sometimes fail to act but I never feel good about it and we all like to feel good right?
And so here I am, today, with my good, dependable, predictable (!), ten o'clock in the evening, off the cuff, unprepared (oops), advice about how to DO YOUR BIT so that climate change can be slowed down and so that you can feel just a little bit less guilty about the whole thing...
1) Take showers not baths,
2) Take shorter, cooler showers,
3) Drive around in your car less,
4) Offer lifts to people who otherwise would have taken their car,
5) Wear a jumper, lower the thermostat on your radiators,
6) Turn off the lights, pull out the plugs,
and I want to go to bed so time for the big finale, the one that can make the most difference...
7) stop eating (so many) animal products!
Now this one decision is actually made up of lots and lots and lots of little daily decisions - I'm there right now, I know. If you have a choice, choose as often as you can the one with no animals in it.
Red fruit coulis or cream (I know, I'll go for the coulis)
Ice cream or Sorbet (yummy sorbet!)
Baked potato with baked beans or with tuna (oops, was not me, was my food)
Paté or hummous (no brainer)
Rice milk or milk milk (Little boy actually calls milk milk "rice milk" he loves rice milk so much)
Butter or margarine (Oh! no butter in the fridge just non-hydrogenated veggy marg - easy call)
Cheese sandwich or avocado, red pepper and smoked tofu sandwich (duh!!)
Lamb Jalfrezi or Tarka Dahl. (Er not the lamb one obviously).
Egg or ... (doesn't matter, no egg never!!)
The thing is, I am serious. Even if you eat meat sometimes it can be so tasty, healthy and better for you, for the planet and for (dare I say it) the animals concerned NOT to eat them. And the more often you don't eat them the better for all of the above.
Oh and did you know cholesterol only exists in animal products. There is absolutely no cholesterol in anything that is 100% vegetable.
Right, I'm off. Got that one off my chest!
Un jour plus tard, je françise...
Aujourd'hui est Blog Action Day, un jour où des milliers de bloggeurs se mettent d'accord pour écrire sur un même sujet. Cette année le sujet est le changment climatique.
C'est un sujet qui est bien tombé - aujourd'hui à Paris il a fait très, très froid - anormalement froid. Il gelait presque. Puis, en allant à l'école à midi, une nounou sénégalaise me racontait qu'en ce moment même au Sénégal, près du Saraha d'où elle vient, il fait 27°C le matin et 40°C l'après-midi - des températures bien plus élevées que normal pour le mois d'octobre.
Le changement climatique nous concerne tous et si l'on fait l'autruche aujourd'hui, demain l'on risque de sortir la tête dans un monde transformé à tout jamais - en pire.
Là je bloque en traduisant mon texte original - j'avoue que mes enfants joue à côté (à taper des ballons gonflables avec des spatules !!) et je n'arrive pas à me concentrer. Je vais donc passer toute de suite à ma liste de gestes que vous pouvez adopter pour aider à ralentir le changement climatique:
1) Prendre une douche au lieu d'un bain,
2) Prendre une douche plus courte et moins chaude,
3) Prendre moins la voiture, ou si vous êtes obligé de la prendre
4) Remplissez-la au maximum avec des passagers qui vont au même endroit et qui autrement aurait pris leur voiture,
5) Portez des pulls, baisser la température des radiateurs,
6) Eteindre les lumières, retirer les prises des chargeurs, des appareils qui ne s'éteignent pas,
et pour finir mon préféré car il peut avoir le plus d'impact sur votre santé, la santé de la planète et la santé d'autres êtres vivants:
7) manger moins (voire pas du tout) de produits animaliers. Si vous avez un choix, et ces choix-là arrivent par douzaines chaque jour, essayez le plus souvent possible de choisir celui sans animaux:
Glace ou sorbet
jambon beurre ou sandwich aux légumes grillées
crême fraiche ou coulis de fruits rouges
pâté ou hummous
lait ou lait de riz
chocolat au lait ou chocolat noir
brioche ou pain de mie
beurre ou margarine (non-hydrongené, 100% végétal)
maki de suamon + brochettes de poulet ou maki de radis mariné + tempura de légumes
curry de crevettes ou dahl de lentilles
Vous voyez, il y a toujours des choix! Partout.
Bon c'est tout. A+
Hey I just got my life back!!! Oops. Am I really selfish?
The party's over, I've tidied up and I just have to make the kids some sandwiches for tea (can't believe they are hungry after all that food). The pinking shears were for about 15m of bunting. Rainbow bunting that I love love love! That makes me feel happy and that I think I shall keep up for a few days - impossible to take a good photo of it up in the house. 15m! And even this photo has terrible light. Ne'er mind.
My little girl's seven year old friends came mostly in full costume (little boy freaked when we opened the door to a fully masked witch, broom and all) and with prepared texts! Prepared texts at seven!! Yes they put on a play and it was fantastic. They managed to find a use for every single spare blanket, chair and cushion as props, decor and costume. In truth the preparation was more lengthy and meticulous than the play itself but both were very fun to watch.
So, Hurrah! for plays and dressing up and homemade witches caverns and cake and seven year olds and bunting and bits of broom to remind us of the fun and hurrah that it all comes to an end and hurrah that we can make it happen again whenever we like. 
Si je n'écris pas maintenant, est-ce que j'écrirais plus tard? Peut-être... on verra!!
I make sure that my little boy is camoflaged whilst in bed - one never knows. Ha ha.
J'ai fait exprès de camoufler mon petit garçon au lit. On ne sait jamais! Hi hi.
I had a really nice little potter around my courtyard today and put my first lot of pansies in. I love pansies. I love their smell, their colours, the fact they last from October to May, that they don't freeze, that in French their name means "thoughts". I plan to go overboard on the whole pansy front this year. And I also plan to plant some bulbs on time. And to generally look after my outdoor space which has been a bit neglected since we got back from holidays. Plans, pansies, pensées...
Ca y est j'ai mis mes premières pensées. J'adore les pensées. Leur odeur, leurs couleurs, leur résistance, leur durée de vie, leur nom. J'ai envie de remplir mon petite espace extérieure avec. Petit à petit jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y a plus de place pour en mettre encore.
Just next to the celery...
This is a clue as to what's coming next.
Love it when a plan comes together. My wonderful Spanish friend lent me her pinking shears on Friday and then today I had a very successful shopping trip to the marché St Pierre in Paris and part of it was this. Bought fabric and completed project on the same day. The nicest thing though was that my daughter helped me by operating the foot pedal on my sewing machine and by passing me the bits I needed. So It went something like "stop...go...stop...colour, go..." for quite a while. She had very good reflexes.
Other highlights of my day: darjeeling tea, picked in the springtime - lovely; a ring from a friend, square on the outside round in the middle... gotta go my chapatti is burning!
Voici une indice pour ce qui va venir. J'ai passé la matinée au marché St Pierre à Paris et je suis très satisfaite des mes achats. En partie, ce projet. Ma copine espagnole (hola amiga!!) m'a prêtée ses ciseaux à cranter (et non sa cranteuse!!!) vendredi et aujourd'hui le reste s'est suivi. Le plus sympa dans tout cela - ma fille qui s'est chargée d'opérer la pédale de ma machine à coudre et de me passer les bouts de tissu dont j'avais besoin. J'ai adoré travailler comme ça avec elle. Aussi de la journée (très riche)... du thé darjeeling cueilli au printemps, une bague carréé... des chapattis (qui brulent faut que j'y aille...).
OK I am counting baskets in my sleep now and am totally fed up with them!
My daughter is having her birthday party next week and has invited four of her friends. I want her to feel proud of her party and I decided to make a little basket for all of the party guests. I feel like I have done nothing else for the past week but now they are finished and I just have to decide what to put in them! Tricky since I don't want to spend too much money and I don't really want to put sweets in them. I'll come up with something. I like the idea of giving a small gift that may not appear to be that great at first but that may stay with these seven-year olds forever. I can totally see these little baskets evolving from toy beds say into mobile phone beds, or from conker holders into nail varnish holders. When I think of them that way they are totally worth the time and effort I spent making them.
Ces petits paniers sont pour les copines de ma fille qu'elle a invitées à sa fête la semaine prochaine. Beaucoup de travail. Je n'ai rien fait d'autre cette semaine. Mais l'idée que ces petites choses pourraient rester avec les filles à vie me fait penser que ça valait la peine.
I have the feeling that I am swimming against the current and, of course, not getting anywhere. I hope it is only a feeling!!
This is one of my favourite dishes. I bought it from a pottery (probably the only pottery) in Corte in Corsica when I was pregnant with my daughter. I don't usually go for blue anything but I love the shade of this pale turquoise. I use this dish for making crumbles and upside-down red onion pie and for serving couscous and bulgour wheat salads. And I use it as a fruit bowl. Like today. And then I get all excited about the colours. Plums and turquoise. Yay!! Clementines look good in it too.
J'ai achété ce plat dans une potterie à Corte en Corse. J'aime peu le bleu mais ce plat est mon préféré à cause de sa couleur et ce paradoxe le rend encore plus cher à mes yeux, surtout lorsqu'il contient des prunes: leurs couleurs se mettent en valeur parfaitement.
I did this t-shirt for my friend's daughter who complained "Mummy you never buy me any T-shirts with numbers on the front". Go figure (boom boom). So my friend looked, couldn't find any and asked me to put a number on the front of a basic white T. Her birthday was the 26th and we're going to see her tomorrow. 
And of course, it being ages since I have used double-sided fusible sticky whatever-you-call-it, I goofed. Yup did me numbers the wrong way round. And I have just realised I could have had a nice negative effect on the back.... I'll go do some maths (time it takes to stick and sew two numbers - time we have left before going out for tea).La fille de ma copine vraisemblablement a un gros trou dans sa garde robe à l'endroit où, normalement, des t-shirt comportant des chiffres sur le devant devraient se trouver. On sait des choses à 7 ans. Elle est née le 26 du mois et demain on va fêter ça.
I have just finished making this little basket for my neighbours who have invited us over this evening. OK, it's for "her" not "him" but I think she'll like it. I like it and now want to make ten more of course - for me, for you, for everyone.
I used this great tutorial. I actually saw the basket made up and holding notions in my local haberdashers and they gave me the link. I want one for a desk tidier. For a tidier desk.
In other news... I have decided to get my butt into gear and become organised. A well-oiled, efficient, life machine. And this site is helping me. Along with this book (had for ages, it's great) and hopefully this book too (just arrived from Amazon yesterday. Not translated into English which is a crying shame, all of her books are fab).
Right must go and tick off my "write blog post" task and then get on with the rest of today's list of things to do...
Je viens de terminer ce petit panier. Je l'adore il est mignon et utile... et pour mes voisins, chez qui on dîne ce soir, et donc je vais devoir en faire un autre pour moi (ou quelques autres car je suis sûre que tout le monde aimerait en avoir un). J'ai utilisé cette "tuto" (?) pour le faire. Elle est en anglais mais il y a des images et la construction est assez simple à comprendre.
Sinon: Il faut absolument que je devienne quelqu'un d'organisée - efficace, occupée, canalisée... et je m'y prends avec un peu d'aide: ce livre (je découvre qu'il est traduit en français) ce site-web (en anglais mais hyper-simple) et ce livre (je ne l'ai pas encore lu mais j'aime beaucoup cet auteur et ses idées).
Bref... je n'ai pas le temps de traîner ici, faut que je continue avec ma liste... ciao
The last harvest - green tomatoes from the garden (now red).
My boyfriend's mother's annual return from Montenegro always feels like harvest festival! This year she was back two months later than usual and so instead of fresh figs, she bought dried (green and black from our trees oh yum!) together with walnuts, persimmons and clementines from the garden. Honey from a cousin's beehives. Grappa from our vines (smells so good and sweet but not my thing at all). A whole bunch of dried chili peppers too (ditto really). Wow. I like recalling that abundance!
I had such a nice time hollowing out and carving a pumpkin with the kids. My first ever pumpkin. Child or adult. Later found out I didn't hollow it out enough (i.e. lunch is still in there!!). Heheh. Don't quite have that You Tube tutorial thing down to a T yet.
And we have a new and I hope useful houseguest. I think I will call him Peter. Peter the Pitcher Plant. Thanks Alicia for encouraging me to actually wonder just who Pete is, was. And thanks for making me want to cook so much. I bought, oops forgot to go back and pay my florist, I stole him to eat flies. In front of my daughter. Hmm (it is Halloween). And thanks Amiga for putting me on to this good thing.
