Seeing black

Some weeks ago I posted that I was only seeing red in my garden.

Now I also see black:

and pink :-)

That time of year

Again, the red time of the year. 

Redcurrant. 

 

Red cherries.

Red sour cherries.

And several red cakes :-)

Away :-)

And I was away again.

To my favourite corner of the world.

 

Waking up to the smell of oranges

Taking it slow and relaxing my mind

 

And saying hello to an old friend of mine 

Spring is here

Yes, spring is here.

Christmas decoration

This year I also made some Christmas decoration: dried oranges in epoxy resin.

Oranges were grown in this garden:

and dried under the Provençal sun.

Actually it was Côte d'Azurian sun but this is doesn't sound as poetic as Provençal :-)

Anyway, working with the resin was quite messy, especially as i didn't have a rapidly dying one - this one took about 2-3 day so solidify.

And of course multiple layers were needed as the oranges floated...

We also made some glow-in-the-dark glittery letters for a Secret Santa.

The decoration is quite heavy, but pretty :-)

It brings a bit of Côte d'Azurian sun into your life :-)

Weather 1

This summer is defined by the extreme weather. Extreme heat, extreme humidity, extreme rain...

So let's first talk about the positives. One can cook outdoors, for example this paella (by Mr. Mojček and a friend).

One can have wonderful garden parties and eat delicious food, for example these cakes (by my cousins).

And I managed to do seven rounds of laundry in one day, as they were drying super quickly in the hot weather.

Meanwhile ... outside

While we're busy within the house, the garden is doing just fine. 

Red and red and more red...

No, I'm not complaining. 

We've got about 15 kg of red currant from our garden.

And this year we ended up having a lot of cherries as well...

So red currant jam, red currant-strawberry jam, frozen red currant, frozen cherries, cherry strudel, cherry cake, cherry clafoutis, cherry-red currant jam... 

And we haven't even started harvesting the sour cherries! They need one to two more weeks to ripen.

Dear Winter!

Dear Winter,

you know I love you dearly. I truly do. 

But there comes the time to let go and move on.

And now is the time.

So, go.

Preferably before all my trees break and flowers freeze.

And yes, this is 10 cm of snow in the last 3 hours. Still falling ...

Virtual cycling

Since we are still not allowed to leave the municipality due to Covid restrictions, we continue to cycle virtually.

After climbing Col d'Eze from Nice a couple of times, today I climbed Mt. Ventoux from Bedoin.

My time? Well... 2:19:32. 

 

This is a picture from Eze. Taken last year, when the world was such a different place...

The first batch

The first batch of jam was redcurrant only, the second was a mix of strawberries and redcurrant.Very delicious :-)

My breakfast

Ah, the advantage of having your own garden...

Freshly picked cherries and strawberries for breakfast.

More beauty

Since more or less the only journey I can take is the journey to my garden - this is what I am doing.

PS. Day 70, btw.

Fact.

I am my father's daughter.

I am just not quite sure whether this is a good or a bad thing...

But I was buying nautical plywood and epoxy resin today :-D

PS. Another beauty growing in our garden.

Something pretty

This year, we've got something new in our garden: peonies!

These were actually my (lovely) neighbour's, growing in his fairy garden. Before the whole house was demolished and garden ruined, a co-worker and I went on a rescue mission and took as many plants as possible.

I see this as their way of expressing gratitude.

A month!

Today is exactly a month since I last left the house...

That is a long time.

It's only the big garden, the balconies and the terrace that keep me sane.

Sort of.

More little joys

It is the middle of November and

- this year's Christmas cards are already finished. All of them!

Here a little teaser for the impatient >:-)

- there are still strawberries (and raspberries!) growing in our garden!

- and we finally made an under sink cabinet for the ground floor toilet. Although it is oiled beechwood, it goes well with the oiled oak wood doors and the mirror. I think.

And it goes well with the fern photo I took several years ago. 

One "room" in the house finished. The others are yet to come.

Seeing red

Normally at this time of year (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), our kitchen is full of sour cherries.

This year, the sour cherry harvest is pretty poor.

However.

This year redcurrant bushes gave us over 10 kg of fruit!

So, yeah, seeing red again.

And cooking a lot of redcurrant or redcurrant-strawberry jam.

Two sides

Apparently there are two sides to every story.

There are also two sides of one's house.

This is on one side - my garden.

And this is on the other side - neighbours demolishing the old house.

It was such a lovely wooden house, now they will be building something ... well ... different.

30 kg

Unless you've pitted about 30 kg of sour cherries - each one individually, of course - you don't know how I feel.