Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Juin 2017


Church Saint Lazere, Autun France
June 2017


This blog will start with the end of May. If you read last months Blog, you know I finished it early because I was going to the USA.

At the end of May the history assoc had an outing to Autun (in April I had some photos from the pre-trip). Autun was founded by the Romans, and was called "Augustodunum" after the ruler Augustus.

Here are just a couple photos that I did not include in the April blog (because I took them in May!!).
Panoramic view of Autun

Eve picking a pomegranate, from 1139.
Adam and Satan have been lost
Eve was over the side door of the church
The day after Autun, I left for my trip to see family.

First stop was Ann Arbor and Saline Michigan. I stayed with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in Ann Arbor, and visited with my father-in-law who lives in Saline (about 15 minutes between residences).

We went shopping, visited and played dominoes. Also we had dinner with a cousin and family, fun to see them too. It had been too many years since I had seen AJ when he was 13 yrs old. Now he has grown teenagers.
 My sister-in-law is a great cook and made a great dinner that night as she did every night.
 I was treated like royalty and had a fantastic visit. Between visiting and shopping, I was busy and did not take many photos! 
The downtown areas of both Ann Arbor and Saline are charming. Makes one almost want to live there.

I have one photo of the puppy Desmond. He is so cute!

After my visit in Michigan, I went to Missouri, south west corner. My sister and brother-in-law live in the countryside outside of Ava, Missouri. There property is on a creek (more like a small river), but the bank is high at their place. Walk down the dirt road, and one is at creek level. I took lots of photos on our walks.
Chicory 

Daisy fleabane


Luna moth

Rocky beach on the creek

A day at the rocky beach (panoramic a little warped!!)

the creek
Another creek view with the road next to it

The dirt road

an old barn
Some flora and fauna near the area
Black Swallowtail - male

Turkey Vulture

Deer - had to take this one fast -in the backyard
One night we had fireworks which are legal in Missouri.
ohhhh

ahhhhh
On Sunday we went for a ride on the Glade Top Trail in the Mark Twain park. It is only 23 miles long, but with stops for scenery and photos it took us 4 hours!! It would be spectacular in the fall.
Sky started out blue, but slowly change to grey

Old barn

Black Swallowtail

Building and tractor

Fire pink ( but it is red?)

Wild petunia

Panoramic view from one stop, imagine fall color

What else did we do? Had some "real" barbecue for dinner. Pork smoked to perfection with sauce on the side. Love that stuff and this is surely the place to buy it.
Hucklebuck's real BBQ meat in Ava Missouri
Soooo good

It was so good to see the family. Sister and brother-in-law, and then 3 nieces, 1 nephew and 1 grand nephew all came too. Walks, talks, fireworks, scenic ride and puzzles made a great time for me.

Then back home to Gevrey. I had problems getting back to this time zone!! Many droopy days before I turned my clock back to time here. 
Keith left for a couple of days to climb a mountain. Heat got to him, but he made it . He climbed Col de la Croix de Fer.
On his way to the train and heading to the mountains
It has been very hot here, extreme heat wave. And no rain either so the dead grass crackles as you want on it! The heat wave finally lifted to regular temperatures...ahh!!!
96° and humid is a little tough.
This past weekend Gevrey celebrated the Fête de Musique (typically the 21 june, but Gevrey picked the weekend to celebrate). Weather was back to normal summer and it was a beautiful weekend.
Young girls dance line

Local band getting organized

and ...
On Sunday the celebration continued with old cars, a picnic, and more music.

Grand picnic-many more tables not in the photo

We got some rain on the 27th of June. Huge storm and welcomed rain. It poured for about 15 minutes and then it rained for a few hours. So so needed.
On Friday night there is the picnic for the photo club. If it does not rain, I will add photos in the July Blog.

And I must note ...

Be sure to watch the Tour on July 7th 2017... about 2 hours before the end. There is a climb into Urcy, very small village, then a winding decent into Quemigny-Poisot, then a climb up to Chamboeuf,.and then
  A DECENT THROUGH THE COMBE LAVAUX INTO GEVREY.

All the villages mentioned above are part of the canton of Gevrey. It will give you an idea of the place I call the Haute Côte, and then into the vineyards of Gevrey. After Gevrey it goes down the main Hwy until it turns out onto the plain of the Valley of the Saone. It will pass Citeaux and then enter Nuits Saint Georges from the south.
Gevrey has started decorating, putting up old painted bicycles. Our large maillots made with paper flowers will not go up until the 6th.
Gevrey is a "Relais-étape"which means we host the sponsors of the Tour (about 100- 200). So we will have not only some decorations, but food stands, some bike demonstrations.... Big day. I will be working, so I will miss seeing it. You will have to tell me how pretty the countryside looks on TV.
Mark you're calendars now.  7th of July 2017
This will be my last Thursday making flowers. Next Thursday will be doing the decorations throughout the city.

One last note, the neighborhood cat that likes to sleep at our house, is now our cat. The other neighbor who sort of had jurisdiction over Tim is moving and gave us the papers. They thought he was an outdoor cat, and he is not, so that is why he came to our house to sleep. He more or less moved in last November when it got cold. What can I say, I was not going to leave him outside in the cold when he had those big begging eyes, meowing to come in!
TTC or Tim the Cat


Recipe of the Month
Spring Rolls
It is summer and it has been so hot. This month the recipe is not french, but Vietnamese. Not that hard to make, and a light dinner for those hot evenings.
The dunking sauces are varied. I made a hot sauce of Fish Sauce, vinegar, pepper flakes and a smidgen of sugar. Peanut sauce is good too. Easy too look up on the internet and find something to your taste.
Go creative with the rolls too. Leave out the shrimp and add other vegetables. Go for it.


INGREDIENTS(only for the rolls)
  • 1 package of round rice paper wrappers (mine had nine papers)
  • fresh mint leaves -2-3 per roll depending on size
  • 2 to 3 cooked shrimps, peeled, per roll
  •  lettuce leaves (either nice large leaves (one per roll) or chopped, because small pieces -scraps - are hard to handle when rolling)
  • 1 package cooked rice vermicelli, cooled down (mine was the smaller package)
  •  fresh bean sprouts (optional)
  • chopped basil (optional)
PREPARATION
  1. Prepare a large flat bowl with tepid water 
  2. Layout all the ingredients at an easy reach
  3. Put one rice paper in the water until it is pliable
  4. Pull it out of water and lay flat, then add;  some vermicelli (not too much), shrimp, mint leaves (and  optional items) and lettuce. 
  5. Fold side edges over ingredients. 
  6. Then fold in the top (over the ingredients)
  7. Pull tight and roll ( when done roll again to make it secure - little back and forth on table)
Link here for a 44 second demonstation ;Rolling a spring roll   (YouTube)