AVRIL 2015-Trip USA

Wild flower Missouri, Spring Beauty

April
Spring is really here. Now we are having warm days and cool nights. I am anxiously waiting to plant my tomatoes. Just need the nights to be a little warmer!

This month I went to the USA. So most of my post will be photos from my visit.

I started in Nebraska to visit my in-laws. Chardon is in the west part of Nebraska called the pan handle and is just below the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota. The famous Lakota Indian Crazy Horse lived some of his life in the area.
I flew into Rapid City SD and then drove south to Chadron.

My father in-law took me out on the dirt roads for some photos. The first day was grey and the second day the sky was a beautiful blue. Another day we played some golf, unfortunately I did not record this moment. But you should have seen the amazing drives that we had that morning...WOW!

One of the first days I took a walk in Chadron State Park, just south of Chardon. It is in the pine ridge area, and is hilly and covered with ponderosa pines. A really beautiful spot to spend some time. A little hard to take photos in the middle of the tall pines, but I took one at the top of the road just to show I was there!!

The pan handle of Nebraska is mostly grassland prairie. But here there is also a section called the Pine Ridge that is covered in Ponderosa pines.
PHOTOS from the cloudy day (and although the sky was dark at times, there was no rain).

Not many trees here

Way in the back upper left, pondarosa pines

one lonely tree

Closed one room school and Flag butte on the left

Another butte

A yak

Perspective

An area with these rock formations

Now for the photos on a sunny dry day.

Pine ridge in the background...ridge covered in pondarosa pines

Closer view of the pines

and more pines...I found the sky was so pretty I kept taking photos

Windmill

Tractor on the left side horizon.

House and BIG sky country

The sky was very blue...a road off to ?

The point of many of these photos is to illustrate the openness of the grassland prairie. Other than the pines, there are very few trees. If you like the big sky open country side, this is the place to visit. Its' stark beauty is awesome.

One last photo of Nebraska, downtown Chadron.

Chadron Nebraska

After my visit in Nebraska, I headed south to Missouri. My sister lives in Ava Missouri, it is southeast of Springfield. It is down in the southwest corner of Missouri, in the Ozark mountains. I had thought to drive from Chadron to Ava at one point, forgetting the size of the US and the states. The little drive would have been over 12 hours! Instead, I found an airline that flew to Springfield (via Dallas!!). What a contrast in nature. Here spring was in full bloom and everything was a lush green.

My niece was there too for a visit. We had a wonderful family Easter dinner at a gorgeous table.

Easter Sunday The table was all decorated when I
arrived. 

During the week we worked on the garden, tasted wine, took walks, went to the Ava market, did a puzzle, compared recipes, worked on genealogy, admired the country side, watched the wild animals and just enjoyed talking.

Ava market day on the city square

Birdhouses for sale at the market

Missouri is known for its dogwood trees and redbud trees. Both trees were covered in flowers.

Redbud tree and Dogwood tree

A little color along the road

Dogwood flower ( about 3 inches in diameter?)

Then there is the wildlife around the house in the country (my sister is 15 miles from Ava).

Deer come around near sunset

grey squirrel found a walnut to eat

Female cardinal

Male cardinal

Lapin (rabbit)

We did try some wine that is grown in the Ozarks. I live in Burgundy and  I guess I have become a bit of a wine snob!!...didn't mean to, it just happened.
I found the wine OK, liked the sweet wine the most.

Just a small photo to show we were there

Now for photos taken on our walks on the road that passes in front of their house. The property has a river (called Byrant Creek), at the house there is a drop to the river, but further down the road, the river and road are at the same level. Then the road goes up again.

walk down the road

 river view

sun was coming through -what light through the leaves

Little green cabin by the river

a wet road after the rain

above the river

River through the redbud tree blossoms

Some flowers along the road

Red flower is called "Fire Pink"

Wild jonquil or Daffodil

Wild Phlox

A few barn photos too...

Red barn on the way to Ava

The old barn

A little playing with sienna color and vignette effects

A root cellar door in the side of the hill

Panoramic of road to the left and the hill and the barn

I took a walk as the sun was setting. Wanted to capture the golden light.

Evening sun on the barn

My sister's house (river to the right)

And the sunset on the trees across the road (note carport
of the house on the right)

The hill side as the sun sets

Sun was setting..this is the house deck. I did push the
color just a little, but most of it was the actual color.
 It was a pretty sunset. Since I had to be quick
to capture any color...the photo includes the deck, BBQ and wires!

This is the back yard without wires and deck. The apple tree
blooming and the riverbank just beyond the apple tree

Last but not least, in an interesting twist of fate... I had lunch with friends from Minnesota. I had not seen Connie or Steve in 10 years. But posted on Facebook was a note from Steve about the Ozarks. So I wrote back and said I was in the Ozarks!!! We met half way in  Branson Mo for lunch. What a wonderful surprise. Steve took a photo ( I had 2 cameras with me to take pictures and forgot totally to take even one photo!!!).

Steve's photo of Connie et me
(sister on left) as we entered
Bass Pro

Other notes for the month, Keith did some riding while I was gone. He went south to the Mediterranean.

That is about all for this month.

Recipe of the Month
Pasta Primavera

This is an easy recipe, and you can add or subtract as you wish. Go with the flow.

Spring is here and there is asparagus at the store, or maybe you prefer spinach. And fresh peas will be in the market soon. 

Just combine some good vegetables for taste and color, and VOILA, Pasta

Primavera.

INGREDIENTS

• 16 oz of pasta (penne is a good choice)
• 4 oz cream cheese ( or ricotta)
• 1/2 sour cream
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• Red bell pepper sliced
• 1 large garlic clove chopped fine
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 lb asparagus...washed, ends broken off, and cut into 2
  inch pieces (leave tips intact) and pre-cooked
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1/2 cup parmensan cheese (grated)
• Salt and pepper to taste

note: if you prefer spinach, use it. Spinach does not need to be cook. Just toss into the hot sauce as you add the pasta, and the heat from the pasta will cook it. 

If you like peas, add peas (pre-cooked)

PREPARATION

1. Boil water for the pasta and
   cook as instructed on the package. Reserve about 1 cup of water when you
   drain the pasta
2. Add the oil and butter into a large pan. When hot, turn the heat down and add the onion and stir until onions are transparent.
3. Add the cream cheese and sour cream and stir well
4. Add the red pepper and the garlic and remove the pan from  the heat ( peppers should slightly cook, but still have some crunch, so just let them rest on top of the warm sauce)
5. When pasta is done, move sauce back to low heat
6. Add all of the remaining vegetables into the sauce
7. Add cheese and stir ( this is just to rewarm a little- low heat only)
8. Salt and pepper to taste
9. Add the pasta and stir well. If it needs a little of the pasta water, add a little at a time until the dish is creamy
10. Remove from heat and serve immediately

You can serve as is with some good bread, or maybe with some chicken. Main dish or side dish

mars 2015

Crocus blooming early March in Gevrey

March 2015      SPRING 

Ahh spring. One of my favorite seasons.Things bloom, birds sing and there are glorious sunny days.

We had some wonderful sunny and warm days this month. It is cooler now with rain, but we needed rain. France had a bit of a pollution crisis. With the warm air and little wind, there was a lot of pollution in the air. Paris was closed to traffic (except public transportation) for a couple of days. Even here in Gevrey! We could not see the Côte (hillside) and I thought it was haze. But no, we had a air warning, 8 on a scale of 10 (10 being the worst), it was pollen, dust, some haze and probably some pollution too. But now with  some strong winds and rain, all is clear. I remember a few years back that Paris had a air crisis.

I have been out and about walking since we had such gorgeous weather. It is spring, and the vines are being prepared for the growing season. Here are a few vines photos around Gevrey.

Vines on the west side of Gevrey. End of the day and hazy light.
As I have said before, there are lots of vines around Gevrey!
It is what we are

More vines , all the vines are clipped and ready

Here I took a photo of one vine. One long shoot is left and
will be attached to the wire. The second short one is an extra,
just in case the long branch breaks or some other problem. I did
adjust this photo, so the vine (cep) would stand out.

and more vines, with a work shelter and tool storage

very hazy day, this is closer to Messanges. Note the contoured
vines rows in the background- hope you can see them

An old building in Gevrey. Note the roof. I have heard that
the building is "historical", and that someone offered to
renovate, but not to the exact historic standards. So it goes to
ruins instead. That is a rumor, do not know if it is true.
Too bad to loose this old house

There were other walks in the woods too. This is one of my favorite walks. The place is called the "Boussiere" and then as it goes up to the plateau, you enter the Combe de Chaudron. Lots and lots of moss everywhere gives it a wonderful atmosphere

As always, a photo of Flipper. He enjoys our walks too.

Under or over
Maybe Flipper could go over, I went under

And as we arrived at the top, the sun low in the sky and gave
a wonderful light to the woods

Another walk I enjoy is the "Tacot" path. But I have to share this
path. Because it has a few routes that climb to the plateau,
there are the ever fit "VTT" bikers  ( all terrain bikes)

and through the haze, a château appears (chateau "Entre-deux-Monts").

And since spring is finally here, flowers have started to bloom. Still working on the macro lens, and having lots of fun.

Violets

Helleborus foetidus, or stinking hellebore

This is a willow bloom. I thought it had a certain charm

pulmonaire officinale (Pulmonaria officinalis)
--not so good--

Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasque flower)

Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasque flower)

First butterfly of the season

a little white violet, I decided to try sepia

I am working on a piece in pottery for the house. If it turns out I will have photos, but it may not be done by the end of April. 

The history Assoc has a few outings this year, those should be interesting. No huge expo's this year. 

And PhotoClub; every so often we have a night to bring in a photos around a theme and the photo is discussed for strong points and possible improvements. I did not like the theme "architecture industrial" that we had a few weeks ago. 

What is it, I asked? Give me the definition.....

There were lots of opinions, some thinking it applied only to a factory building. 

So I went off the path. I took a picture of this company (which was rather boring) and then played with the color for a vibrant effect. 

I was certainly surprised when the others actually liked it. So it appears that at times, we can step out of the box!

Keith is well and has put in some kilometers on his bike this month. He plans on lots more the next few weeks.

Speaking of the next few weeks, I am going to the USA. I will be visiting my in-laws in Chadron Nebraska and my sister who now lives in Ava Missouri (not too far from Branson). I had tried different combinations for this trip, and even tried a layover in Minneapolis. First I found the best price with KLM, and I was hoping for Air France. It was not to be!! But the KLM guy I was working with found that if I went through Minneapolis and then directly to Rapid City, I had a pretty good price on the ticket. Thought of a layover in Minneapolis, but that really added to the price. Sorry Minneapolis! 

Travel is cheaper in Feb and early March, but with snow storms possible (especially Minneapolis, Rapid City SD and Chadron NE), so I planned to hopefully miss the the white stuff. And let me tell you, trying to get from Chadron NE to Springfield MO was not easy either!! But it is all planned and I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Recipe of the Month

Chocolate delights -        ( just made up the name)

Because of the travel plans, I have not thought about my Blog this month. Here is a very easy dessert. They take only minutes to make.

INGREDIENTS

• Puff pastry ( see note below)
• Chocolate, dark is my favorite (Lindt chocolate bar)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Raspberry sauce (nice jar of sauce with no seeds)

PREPARATION

1. Lay out the pastry
2. Put a square or 1 1/2 square on each
3. Fold into a triangle
4. Seal edges completely , use your finger to push, then follow with a fork
5. Sprinkle  little sugar on each
6. Bake according to directions given for the pastry ( 15 minutes about)
7. Drizzle raspberry sauce on plate, in circles or other appealing design
8. Place warm pastry on top and serve

Maybe a scoop of ice cream too?

NOTE: I can buy 4 puff pastry squares at the store.  Pillsbury crescent rolls should work nicely if you can not find prepared pastry. My squares are about 6 by 6 inches. So great for so many recipes.