Bowls Lunch, Maize Harvest and Autumn Colours

Firstly, I apologise for the changing text through this post.  I can't seem to do anything to make it right.

Yesterday was the Bowls Club Presentation Lunch at La Vallée in St Gilles Vieux Marché.  To drive there I have to pass, but this time stopped to take photos of, the lake at Corlay.  It is so lovely there in the Autumn with the changing leaf colours and the reflections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived at La Vallée we congregated in the bar before going through to our reserved room for a Kir - cassis and champagne, Breton drink - while we waited for our soup. There were about thirty of us I guess and these are a few of the people to my right toasting with the Kir.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The buffet was good and varied, followed by cheeses, apple tart and coffee.  We finished with the prize presentations and speeches.  It was a good event and well organised.

On the way home I took photos of maize being harvested.  It struck me that the ends of the fields look very similar to a cathedral vaulted roof.

 

I called in to see friends who had their horses on their lawn to avoid using the lawnmower.  Inside their woodburner was doing a grand job.  I left with a bag of beetroot which are cooking as I write this.

I did my usual Saturday early Supermarket trip this morning.  I go early for two reasons. Firstly, to ensure I get a €3 bag of the bread I use for the animals and, secondly, to get some of the €1 bags of veggies.  Today, the bread bag had a huge loaf round loaf in it (more than 30cm/12” across) with slashes in the top which I rescued for me to eat.  It cut beautifully when I sliced a piece to have with my fried bacon, tomato and egg breakfast and was in no way stale.  I just bought two €1 bag of veggies – mushrooms – and when I weighed them on getting home, there were 1005g of the little beauties.  They weren’t soggy or brown or damaged in any way.  I can never quite understand the criteria for selling the €1 polybagfuls.  I do though, transfer the mushrooms to brown paper bags before putting them in the fridge salad drawer to stop them sweating.  I bought a thousand of these brown paper bags on eBay and use them for all sorts of things, taking veggies and eggs round to neighbours and especially collecting and storing seeds.  The other bag contained two heads of Romanesci broccoli which I have never cooked or eaten before.  I shall have some with my supper this evening.
 

I also bought a net of oranges at full price as I was doing yet another beef casserole and rather liked the juice and flesh of an orange in the last one I made.  The beef I used this morning was basse cote de boeuf which the butcher cut for me from a very large chunk and it was surprisingly lean.  I browned it thoroughly deglazing the frying pan with the remains of a bottle of Merlot, added carrots, onions, garlic, swede, from the garden bay leaves and thyme, salt and pepper, a beef Oxo cube and nearly enough water to cover the contents of the pan.  The delicious cooking smells emanated from the kitchen for at least four and a half hours.  The book - 1000 Years of Annoying the French came in the post from a friend on the Survive France Network.

The sun came out about  midday; I was beginning to think it was going to be a grey day.  I took both kittens into the garden and introduced them to the areas away from the terrace.  So far they haven’t ventured further than the boring, flat, random paving and I thought they needed a bit of an adventure.  I took them half way down the garden and left them on top of a table so they had a good view of everything before venturing down to ground level.  By the time I had got back inside, removed my Crocs and put the kettle on they were back chasing round the settees.

Three things I like:

1.   Finding eggs in the house in the area where the Coucou de Rennes hens live - I thought they'd given up laying permanently.

2.   Watching the kittens sleeping together.

3.   Making and eating my first pumpkin soup of the year.