Three Weeks To Go

Not sure why I am obsessed with the weather but yesterday was beautiful...cold but again one of those perfect blue sky days. I drove in to Bridgewater to work on my wireless skills.... I am accomplishing the most rudimentary....am sending and receiving thru Gmail and can access this blog all quite easily. Tried to listen to CBC. Could easily do CBC2 but was unable to get onto CBC1 so I will keep trying with that. On the drive in from home to Bridgewater a large red -tailed hawk flew out from a tree stand in front of me...wings spread..all the colour patterns evident. Got me thinking about what I would be missing this year ...Spring in Nova Scotia.... I will miss the Loons and their call in the Spring as they mate.I might even miss seeing the ice come out of the lake...something we make bets on every year for fun.I will miss seeing my daffodils spring forth and certainly my tulips...however, my landlord in France tells me the roses will be out there soon.I will be very late planting my garden...vegetable and annuals but actually I am sometimes late doing that anyway and I am not sure how significant a lead one gets by planting in May anyway. I will also miss seeing the sun setting further and further toward the west as we get closer to the summer. It's fun to see it break free of a block of trees and start setting over the lake in complete view. I will also miss the start of the blackflies and if it is warm maybe the bulk of the season for those little pesks...am I sad about that? NO...just that I will miss a fair portion of it.
However, by missing all that I will gain some things..like the small strawberries that start in mid April in France. I will send a picture as I love the way they pack them...so orderly compared to how we do berries... but then they are a completely different shape. I am not going to start on a list of my anticipations....but it will be warmer and flowers will be blooming far earlier than here.
I had a major set back in my preperation this week. We returned home on Sunday evening from a basketball weekend in Halifax to a basement full of water ..about 3 inches...and it was 9 o'clock at night. If you go back to a past website you will see that I talked about cleaning out the basement! How serendipitous...most of what was sitting in water was stuff I was getting rid of...except for boxes of pictures I was going to sort and they were pretty wet...well, and years of Income tax data...who can be sad about that...oh yes and sheets I had packed in cardboard boxes and had stored on the floor in the cedar closet...wow does all that stuff wick. So I have been busy washing sheets, drying out picturs and there were lots, and literally mopping up the basement. What happened? Well our plumber diagnosed the problem right away that night...a blocked drain pipe from the perimeter drain around the foundation...blocked with ice and silt There had been a huge rain on Saturday and the blocked pipe would not let the water drain away so it backed up into the basement drain..The next morning a fellow arrived with this fantastic home made ,basically, piece of equipment that sprayed hot water and moved up the pipe breaking up the ice and cleaning out the silt. As soon as it was unplugged the water in the basement started to flow and within an hour was basically gone except for a few bucketsfull caught in basement vallies. This is where my mopping came in.
Anyway beautiful days let me put the sheets on the line and except for drying pictures and income tax stuff we are on our way to recovery and a,better knowledge of things that can go wrong in the country and who is there to fix it.
One last note before I sign off for this post...an author by the name of Colette has been on my radar for a number of years as someone I would like to know more about and read....just have not got around to it. However, last week in taking a look at the latest Frances Mayes book on travel...she had a chapter on visiting Burgundy and the birthplace of Colette....Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye. So off to John Doulls second hand bookstore I went and found a somewhat biography of Colette by Allan Massie plus the Claudine books by Colette herself about her childhood. Mayes told me there is a museum in Saint-Sauveur...a Colette Museum...s0 I have another destination. Those of you not sure of who Colette was will have heard of GiGi, that wonderful American movie with Maurice Chevalier. Well Colette wrote the book that the movie was based on. She wrote many many books lots about her childhood and with very little education dominated the writing circle in France in the early 1920's plus. So I have more books to take...must leave room for clothes etc.
That is the end except to say that the first night in Beaune I am being treated to dinner by friends now, former guests of the B&B, who will be in the area having just picked up their new Mercedes in Stutgaart..not sure of the spelling there but I know you know what I mean. Enjoy the DAY!

The Final Month

What a beautiful day here in Nova Scotia..temperature about 6 degrees C and the sky a clear clear blue, not a cloud.... I am down to the last 30 days before the plane takes off for France.... Last week I sent in my final payment and have already heard that it has arrived. Friends have been asking how I am doing and if I am getting excited. I sat down on Sunday and checked out the Michelin guide ...started to look at restaurants in Lyon and Dijon...Paul Bocuse's famous restaurant named after himself outside Lyon...and then the famous "Pyramide" ( once a 3 star but now only a 2 star)that he trained at in Vienne in the Cote do Rhone....we might drive there and I could see the roads and the markets and actually started to get excited! I am too practical to keep that up as I have my days planned and things I must get done before I leave. Every winter I promise myself that I will get rid of everything in the basement... well as much as I can part with , so I have been doing that...and doing very well I must say. I have boxes ready to take places. I begin by thinking I will sell some of the things and then that task seems too much and I start putting it all at the end of the driveway...someone else can make use of it.
I am also now thinking what books I will take..... My friend Mary on her visit in the Fall brought all the books that were on the Giller Prize list as a present..... The Perfect Circle, The Sea,De Niro's Game and Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. I think I will take those plus Stephen Clarke's ...A Year in the Merde and Merde Actually.... but then I have a book about the pinot noir grape called The Heartbreak Grape by Marq de Villiers... the major grape of Burgundy is the pinot noir so it might be useful. All suggestions would be appreciated.
I do intend to read as I also intend to cook but I can get recipes from the internet or send home for them. Then there is what CD's to take... that I have not worked on at all. That will be next after I have organized my wardrobe. I still need to learn to put pictures on the blog with the digital camera.... Last weekend we were in to Halifax to a basketball game and sat with a retired lawyer who spends 3 weeks , twice a year in Paris. He loves going back year after year as he feels like he is not a tourist and this justifies not running around during the time there visiting touristy things. To quote him "it has been 10 years since I have been down near the Champs- Elysees.That is actually how I am feeling. Without a car I will need to stay within walking distance most of the time...maybe taking a bus here and there sometimes.....sitting in outdoor cafe's reading and watching..working on the blog. Other times I will visit the market and cook in my apartment. I plan to take long walks and /or rent a bike to get out in to the wine area. But I know there are numerous walking trails outside my village/town. I want to go to church. I have visited so many churches on my travels but I always feel they are empty...this way I can be there when they are being used as they should be...to hear the acoustics and smell the incense.... and then there is the history of the place... this village is ancient has not always been part of France... I should be well versed when I return in June. Last but not least there is the wine..... this is where my sommelier course will keep me in good stead as I go to tastings and try out the various wine cellars... I need to be well versed when Bruce arrives for his visit. And the beat goes on...each day I am doing a new thing toward getting ready.... I have lots of things to photocopy to take with me...walking trails,vineyard routes,the great Burgundy estates and where to find them, Burgundian food specailties, etc etc... so keep in touch!