Wednesday, March 30, 2016

mars 2016

My Easter flowers in a vase
that I made this year -it is raku
MARCH 2016

Happy Belated Easter to all
(such a surpise when I noticed it was the end of March, about 9 days before Easter!)

The month of march is almost over as I sit here this morning to write this blog. The repair man just left and needs to order a new pump for the washing machine, it may take a week.
It broke last Thursday, today is Tuesday. Monday after Easter is a holiday, so this was the earliest he could come! Oh well, guess I will go use the machines that they installed this last year at the grocery store -Super U. The machine are outside, but it is a nice day today.

First of the month, March came in like the LION!! We had winter for the first two weeks. Cold, some snow, hail, rain, wind...mother nature threw it at us.

I should have mowed the lawn in February, but it just was not right to mow in February, I still have Minnesota blood in me. I finally gave up and mowed the lawn in mid-March! And it needs it again. Well at least it is spring now, it males a little more sense.

And it is spring. All the fruit trees have bloomed, our forsythia bush is bright yellow, and the merles are singing ( the primavera and jonquils have been in flower for weeks, so not a great sign of spring this year)..

With the drought last summer, some of grass died. I bought grass seed, but the man helping me at the garden center said to wait for April 1st. So on Friday I will get to work on the dead grass or maybe I will do it on the 31st!!).

I like doing genealogy research, and have found that some of the family ancestors came from around here. There is one couple in particular, Pierre Comeau and his wife Marie Rose Bayols, who are supposedly from here. Marie Rose born in Dijon and Pierre born in Pouilly-en-Auxois. I do not have the birth certificates to prove this, but I have started to dig. It may be hard because he was born about 1604 and she was born about 1630. They immigrated to Canada, and had children to pass on the family name there as well.

The interesting part however is that the Comeau family of Pouilly were a noble family (around 1400-1700). I presume with all the children (7 in all), and Pierre the 4th child, he would not inherit much, so he went off to search other fortunes.

Anyway, mid month Keith and I went over to Pouilly to check out what was there. His brother Antoine, built a Château in Creancey (just a couple km from Pouilly) just after Pierre left for Canada. There are six gravestones from the old family, but we did not find them on our visit. The church of Pouilly in the 17 centruy, Saint Pierre, was on top of the butte and burned down in 1790. The church that is now in Pouilly, Saint Pierre was built about 1850,  The tombstones were not there. Further research on returning home, I found that the stones were moved to the church in Creancey.

I am not really interested in the fact that the family might be noble. Most of my research is to find why these ancestors left their homeland. But in this case, these possible ancestors are from here, where I am now living, and that is exciting. And the tombstones from the 15th century are very exciting.
I have checked the Dijon records, but have not researched them yet. There were many churches in Dijon at that time (and still are), and there is no index, so I will need to go through each church, page by page. But the positive note, there are some records from that time. As for Pouilly, I started, but the hand writing is so bad!!!, patience is needed.

More research needed and another trip over to Creancey (it is about 30 minutes from here). Of course I need to find that definitive connection too. Like the story, but want the proof.
The large dove-cove on the grounds

My family home  ;-)   [it is a private owner now]

Comeau coat of arms above the door of the petite chateau
While we were driving through the countryside, on our way home from Pouilly( we took the scenic route), we saw a wild cat. He was far away, but the photo is not too bad...thanks to my telephoto lens. They are large, even though there is nothing here to show the size,
Le chat sauvage

Of course as spring arrived, I was out on walks. I spent one afternoon around the vignes west of Gevrey . The place is called the Boussiere, and then the Combe de Chadron leads up to the plateau.
Did not find flowers that day, but enjoyed the walk as always.
Actually this was early march up on the plateau. I was looking for
 Anemone Pulsatilla (pasqueflower)

Flowers on a bush- cornouiller mâle (Cornelian cherry)

photo of the Bossiere that I changed to Black and White

Combe Lavaux from the vines

the vineyard Varoilles

Boussiere or Combe de Chadron

Dry stone walls are all around here. I think they are elegant
Still make them too, such a art
Went on a walk with MT in the woods near Chambolle. There were flowers everywhere. It was a fun walk through the woods on a beautiful spring day.

Scille

Cornelian Cherry again with blue sky

Fragon faux houx - very small flower on the backside of the
leaves

Scille

La Combe d'Orveau near Chambolle -big drop!!!
careful Flipperv( I get nervous seeing this dog so close to the edge)

Anemone Sylvie (wood anemonewindflowerthimbleweed)

White violet

Corydalis Solida

For Easter we went out to eat at a little restaurant in Curtil.  We met MT, her father and sister at the restaurant (her husband was ill -but better now). We finished our lunch around 4 in the afternoon. A nice lunch and relaxing day. Did not hunt for eggs, although chocolate rabbits are big here. A bell (cloche) is also very symbolic of Easter.

Been very busy, so many things to do. I have ideas a plenty for pottery right now, working at finishing the book on Gevrey, and of course where would spring be without spring cleaning and yard work!
I have started having fun with graphics in pottery. I am easily amused!

shallow bowl

trivet

trivet

plate

This coming Sunday I have arranged for the Nature group a walk up the Bossière to the top of the plateau and then back down. Hope to find some spring flowers, but that would be photos for the April blog.

I always have a million things to write about, but forget by the time I sit down to write. Why is it always like that?

That is all from Gevrey for this month ( it is Wednesday now, so I am finishing this blog up).

Recipe of the Month 
Eggplant Italian style ( or Eggplant lasagna)

 A little bit of Itlay this month. I made this up the other day after I remembered a dish we had in Italy that was similar. Takes a little while, but really an easy dish


INGREDIENTS
  • one small eggplant
  • carton of Ricotta cheese
  • Parmesan cheese grated
  • herbs
  • tomato sauce ( I used Brarilla provencal sauce)
  • oil
  • salt, pepper
( notice how precise this recipe is)!

PREPARATION
1. Wash egglant ( or peel if you prefer)
2. slice eggplant into round circles about 3/8 inch thick ( I had about 12 slices)
3. brush with olive oil and broil until soft (15 minutes...depends on your broiler)
4. While in the broiler, it is time to flavor to the ricotta cheese. I used "herbs de Provence" and some garlic, salt and pepper- taste it and add to you have a pleasant flavor.
5. Put a little sauce in the bottom of the pan (my pan is about 10 by 10 inches)
6. then a layer of eggplant slices
7 1/2 of the ricotta mixture
8. Sprinkle of parmesan cheese
9. Not more than 1/3 of sauce
10 repeat layers
11 pour the rest of tomato sauce all over the top, sprinkle again with parmesan
12 bake at about 300 for 20 minutes...just want to heat and melde tha flavors