Gardener's Delight

Voici the garden behind the wonderful florist and our dear friend, Lisa.
Her entire property is full of grids, each one overflowing with beautiful flowers.

The grids are perfectly arranged so that when the flowers grow,
the grid can be moved up to keep the flower stems from flopping over.

The lush green with dots of vibrant colors is an absolute paradise.

And what an amazing place for a tree house. The view from the
tiny porch faces west for a wonderful taste of the sunset over endless farmland.

No garden is complete without the drooping Love Lies Bleeding, or amaranthus.
We could all use a lesson in flowers from Lisa.
Cheers

Where "Wheaties" Come From

So, if anyone was ever curious as to the origins of the beloved cereal Wheaties...
it's right here. In France. Among these lovely swaying fields of... WHEAT!

Ok, well maybe that's a stretch, but isn't it wonderful?
Delicate, breezy, summery, flowing.

Wheat stretches on forever in all directions...

...in fields of all sizes.

And then, right when you begin to notice the fields and admire them
for their simplicity and calmness...SOMEONE comes to mow them down.

Up and down, up and down, up and down he goes.
I was going to say up and down he ZOOMS, but it's more like a
slow trot, building up dust and debris along the way.

Yay, one row down....734,000 to go!

This farmer is in his own little confined world, where
he is hopefully untouched by the wheat clouds swirling about him.

Goodnight wheat fields, and goodbye until next season.

Plums Galore

'Tis the season for fruit.
Camont's yard is chalk full of fruit-bearing trees,
not least of them a tall, dark-leafed tree with bright yellow fruit.

Voici a very heavy basket of Mirabelle plums.
Dig in.

One happy picker.

While we wait for the peaches and apples and pears and figs, we'll
just munch on some yellowy goodness, ripe and warm from the sun.

Garlic Craze

Garlic season is upon us, and the white fluffy flowers can be seen along the
roadside, bobbing and swaying their heads in the warm breeze.

We turned a corner on our search for the canoeing park, when we were
pleasantly surprised by a roadside barn full of heavenly, hanging garlic.

The sight of these 3 farmers was irresistible.
We had to pull over.

The garlic is heaped onto a long truck-bed, and then gently laid into
bunches along the long, skinny table.

I have never seen someone care for garlic in such a way
that the whole process becomes meditative and beautiful.

After the bunches are lined up, they are strung up about every foot or so
and hoisted with a pulley system up into the rafters of the barn to dry.

And then back to fields we drove.
Merci

Extra Large Dollhouse Please

Many exciting things have been happening here at Camont,
and one of those great, great things is the building of a small, beautiful cabin.
This building has acquired many names since the time of its conception-
the summerhouse, the castle, and the love shack to name a few...

The beginning is always the daunting part.

...but at the end of the day it is rewarding to see the progress.

Angus, the pro, does a great job instructing the rest of the team...
and by the rest of the team I mean Chris.

Oh, Chris and the chicken of course.

And the floor is complete, with room for a 3 ft veranda in the front,
overlooking the yard, chickens, and potager.

Now to start on the uprights.

Suddenly we were struck with horrible weather that made everyone, especially Angus,
grumpy as hell. It rained and rained and rained with no sign of clear skies in sight.

And so the over-sized dollhouse sat, lonely and wet, while we waited.

Back to work days later, things were looking up.

Two pairs of shoes lined up.

Hello.
Happy with a job well done on the roofing thus far.

Working side by side, the Englishman and the Cowboy(as Chris has
now been named) seem to be old comrades, laughing and poking fun at cultural differences.

Working a long day full of sweat and sawdust, some smiles are
necessary to lighten the atmosphere.

So, I thought I'd help out for 5 minutes of putting up the siding...
just to say I'd helped for 5 minutes putting up the siding.

As the days get hotter, the Englishman and the Cowboy
have become increasingly lax with their work attire.
Good thing for the rest of us.

So, after a few weeks of building and waiting and building and sweating
and watching the house go up and up and up, we finally have
something we can call home for the next few months. Phew!

And what a wonderful, quaint little dollhouse it is.
Thank you Kate and thank you Angus and thank you Christopher.
Ah, perfection.

Foie Gras Farm

Le Ferme du Boué is a small-scale business specializing in duck products.
There is a restaurant with a fixed menu, a garden that raises 100% of the food for the restaurant,
and an endless supply of ducks to make rillettes, foie gras, confit and more.

The first building you come to is the restaurant.

Jehanne Rignault explains a little about ducks and the products she makes.

Instead of selling entire ducks at a Marché au Gras, Jehanne
turns each duck into something scrumptious.

Back patio of the restaurant.

Along with the lovely main house on the property, there are many gites that
are rented out for the summer holidays. Heading to the countryside
is quite the popular thing to do in France...gimme somma that fresh air!

Guests on the farm can relax by the beautiful blue pool,
or head out to the big pond to fish in the afternoon sunshine.

There are not only ducks, but cows, sheep, chickens and pigs here on the farm.

Oink, oink.

Small, but immaculately tended garden.

Since this is a fois gras farm, force feeding IS practiced, but it
is only for the last 14 days of the duck's life. They start with this cup, the actual
amount a duck would eat in a day, and then increase the amount over the course of
the 14 days. The ducks are hand-fed slightly cooked corn and oil, so the corn is
relatively soft and goes down easily.

The process of making foie gras isn't as evil as you may have thought!
If you are still wary, read up on our beloved factory farm system....
chances are you'll end up preferring the farm-raised foie.

It just so happened that the day of our visit a large shipment of ducklings
was set to be delivered. Lucky, lucky us.
They arrived in a huge truck filled only with these few small,
cardboard boxes..hmmm......

Et Voila! Apparently 24-hour-old ducklings are more durable than we think and
can simply be dumped right out of the boxes onto clean hay.

350 ducklings to be exact, and MAN were they adorable.
They stay inside for about 2-3 weeks so as not to catch a cold outside,
and then out they go to play in the fields. Free range babies.

Lovely visit to a wonderful, well-run operation.