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!