COME JOIN THE HEAT!

A comment from Sally.

Phew it's hot. Temperatures well in to the hundreds. Thank goodness for shade, a slight breeze and a cooling swimming pool. In heat like this it's hard to find the energy to do things during the heat of the day, so we tend to rise early and get jobs done, relax with a book in the afternoon, and then stay up late and enjoy the cooler temperatures.

We're in to our second week of "Special Family Holidays" for this year, which tend to be July and August. These vary from our "Gourmet Holidays" in that families come to stay, entertain themselves, and we give them breakfast and evening meals. Meals are simpler, but still good, and of course we now have the magnificent BBQ (thanks to Richard and Gordon), so a lot of BBQ'd meals our devoured by all!!

Caline (our dog) is enjoying the heat as well. For some reason she likes to sunbathe!! She lies on the boulodrome in full sunshine for about 30 minutes, then creeps in to the shade for a rest, then returns for a few more rays. Incredible!! Can you imagine sunbathing in a fur coat? She lacks energy during the day, but last night, once the temperature started to drop, she became full of life and was running around the garden like a Wippet!! Once the stars had come out I took her on a walk up the hill. The stars were magnificent, and the Milky Way was so clear you could almost see the stars being born!! Caline and I stood at the top of the hill and saw three shooting stars. It was magnificent. Apparently there will be an array tonight as well. You can't beat that!

Visitors

6th May - Sally's comments for the day.

We had a visitor this week. A lovely Australian woman came to stay for 5 nights, for a gourmet break with excursions to the surrounding sites. We were lucky with the weather as it had been previewed to be wet most of the week. We went out on Monday morning to visit the beautiful village of Minerve armed with umbrellas, and as we got there the clouds parted, and we enjoyed wandering around the cobbled streets with the sun shining down. We returned to Domaine La Veronique and enjoyed a lovely lunch of fennel wrapped in Bayonne ham and Aubergines stuffed with Mozarella and Parsley, all washed down with a lovely cool Languedoc rosé. Yum!! The following day was brighter, so we visited Pezenas, and on Wednesday although the weather was dull in Narbonne, the sun came out in the afternoon and our guest enjoyed lazing on a lounger for a few hours. Carcassonne was windy, but bright, and again after another lunch on the terrace the sun came through strong in the afternoon as we walked up the road to Chateau Milhau-Lacugue for a wine tasting with owner Jean Lacugue. We managed to eat outside for three lunches out of the four!! Aperitifs were on the terrace as well, but the evenings were still a little too cool for alfresco dining! But heh!! We're only just in to May!! You can see what we had for dinner each evening on Peter's blog

We also had other visitors this week. Penny and Henry! We are surrounded by vineyards, and often hear the clucking of partridge, and this week, one of them decided to walk across our terrace to have a drink in the swimming pool! How brave when Peter had the oven on!! And earlier that morning we'd heard a tapping at the window and found a young Hoopoe on the window sill.  How wonderful life is!! And all are welcome at Domaine La Veronique! www.hereonthespot.com 

Henry the Hoopoe

Penny the Partridge

April 2012

18th April: Sally's comments for the day!!

It's the middle of April, and suddenly the weather has gone from really hot, to really cold again. I can see snow on the Montagne Noir (the Black Mountains) north of here. Domaine La Veronique faces south-west, and we're used to seeing the snow on the Pyrenees from our bedroom window at this time of year, but snow that low on the hills north of here is just weird!! But we've been working on the garden of Domaine La Veronique and everything's started to grow again after the harsh frosts of winter. Even my grass seed that I scattered three weeks ago has started to sprout through. It should look good in a months time, as long as this cold spell doesn't ruin it.

The house is looking good now, and we've just had the walls rendered in the courtyard, so the entrance is looking much better.

We've started the season already. We had three lovely Australian ladies for a Cooking School over Easter, and then a wonderful 'Gourmet Break' with an Irish couple. A great start to the season.

Yesterday was a disaster though, and I must call it 'Rabbit Day'!! Peter is away for a couple of weeks, cooking wonderful meals for guests on the deluxe hotel barge 'Enchanté'. He left me in charge of finishing off the rabbit stock that he'd started! I added a couple of sprigs of rosemary and thyme from the garden, along with a couple of bay leaves from the tree near the pool, and simmered for 20 minutes, just as he'd instructed. I then strained it all off, and put the stock back on the heat for reducing. I got distracted, and over an hour later was aware that the kitchen was full of smoke!! Luckily I hadn't burned the saucepan too badly!! It has scrubbed up OK. But sorry Peter, there's no rabbit stock anymore!! And to add to it all, I left all the doors open to air the house, and then Caline (our Labrador) sneaked in to the laundry where I'd thrown away the rabbit bones and she emptied the bin!! She (and I) are still suffering from the effects of that today!!

But so what!! Here we are, Languishing in the Languedoc, and life is pretty good!