Watching Little Things Grow

Just back from the horse farm, we're thinking about so many things. Aude and Seb have finally found a place in the Auvergne where they'll be moving at the end of this summer, and Isabelle is doing well after her ankle operation. One of the horses was orphaned at birth a couple of weeks ago and takes 8 bibis (bottles) a day! Loic and I come home happy and refreshed after a weekend with the babies. Hopes and dreams of a little fixer-upper in the Alps, these ideas are taking up much of our energy.



Oh the daydreams that a little stone house and garden in the mountains can bring. Even if it does need a new roof. Ideas of a potager and what we'll plant row by row are laid out in my mind until I realize that first we must find some solution to the neighboring herd of cows that spend their afternoons lounging under the fruit trees where our future garden will be. Is there some kind of law that's going to keep us from fencing it off? Imagining we do get it cloistered off. Maybe just some nice landscaping will do. Meandering slate paths and cedar wood furniture under a natural vine and climbing rose covered natural wood awning unfurl in my mind, step by step. A smokehouse! This is the best time, when we can follow where our ideas go, think them through, and then rub out little details like charcoal from newsprint, to work them out some more. It's very nice to play with these ideas, dream about what they might become.



Summer's coming up and we've been eating tons of courgettes. A lamb shank simmered slowly with thick cut wedges brings out the best of early summer. We've also been tossing diced courgettes with cod, and rolling it with eggplant and oven roasting it with olive oil until it forms plump delicious steamy pillows. I'll be sharing some cooking this week, so tune in!