Well it looks like spring is finally poking its nose round the corner after what must be one of the wettest months of May in recent history. Not only wet, but pretty darn cold for the time of year. Not that that bothers me too much, but it's quite something that I've only just turned the heating off today and it's 26 May!!! We've had tons of rain and I reckon that must have translated into snow at the higher altitudes (along with avalanche warnings). I mean just look at the picture I took out my bedroom window this morning. Yep, that's snow on them thar hills!
Still, as I say, it looks like we might be turning a corner here now. I heard a very loud cuckoo in the back garden this morning and had a lovely woodpecker chipping away at the plum tree this evening. So now that the good weather is on the way, André offered to take my car into town and wash it for me! Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way a slob. I wash it regularly, I actually vacuumed it last week and I never throw stuff on the floor! It's just that it would seem my rims have been bugging him for ages so he took it into town and did a pretty good job cleaning it up. What with that and the neighbour's daughter offering to do the inside for me it is positively gleaming! Anaëlle (the daughter) does a really meticulous job cleaning cars and since she wants to earn a little pocket money why not! I had to stifle a giggle though because André had cleaned his car (his pride and joy) first before taking my car into town, and when he got back a bird had left a massive "gift" on his windscreen! Man was he pissed! And then again tonight, more bird poop on the hood of his car - which was when I realized that he parks closest to the house and just under the eaves I have a bird's nest, so I guess he'll need to keep a rag and bucket handy for a while!
He went in to Geneva to stay at a friend's on Friday night and then Saturday had a birthday lunch with another friend. He hadn't planned to stay over but ended up calling me just before 9 p.m. to say he wouldn't make it home before curfew so was going to sleep over on Alexi's couch. When he got home the next day he looked rough, saying they'd stayed up half the night chatting and when he'd finally laid down to go to sleep Alexi's cat spent half the night playing with his toes like he was some kind of new toy, so he got no sleep. Not that he was too bothered though as he loves cats and wants to get at least one when he moves into his own place. He and Lily had two cats but, of course, he had to leave them behind when they divorced, so he's looking forward to getting one of his own!
My friend and I had planned to "play it by ear" (i.e. wait for the good weather) before we go out walking again, and I had asked if he would be up for trying to hike up to La Bourgeoise near Samoëns, or if he fancied catching the cable car up to the Plâteau de Beauregard near la Clusaz in order to do the three-four hour walk back down. Well I think we'd decided on la Clusaz and the cable car - and then the dreadful cable car accident happened in northern Italy, killing (I think) 14 people, with one young boy being the only survivor! I had a brief "flicker" of maybe giving the cable car a miss but I know, in reality, I would still take one tomorrow! Same as flying. I hate flying but if not flying means I can't travel to the places I want to visit, well then I'm just going to fly and deal with it - usually by imbibing the in-flight white wine and trying to sleep through it!
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| The cable car accident this week in Piedmont, northern Italy! |
Off on a totally different tangent, a few months ago my neighbour mentioned the Yuka app to me, which is an app that you can use to scan the bar code on an item of food or beauty products, for instance, and it will tell you what's in it and give the item a "safety" rating. Well last week I finally cracked and went to the hairdresser's to get this mushroom cloud on the top of my head brought into submission. When I mentioned that I'd been finding my hair to be a bit oily lately she suggested a particular shampoo and it seems to be a good fit, for the moment. It's a really attractive looking shampoo, but just out of curiosity I scanned it with the Yuka app. Well, it may be pretty but it wouldn't appear to be highly rated due to its high phenoxyethanol content (you can look the "benefits" of that up on google if you're interested). So on a whim I scanned a few more items and the results were interesting, to say the least. Now I know you can't live in a sterile bubble (nor would you want to I suspect) because it would be fundamentally impossible and every time you did come into contact with something "unsuitable" you would probably have a violent reaction to it but, as I say, the results were interesting!
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| The Yuka app! |
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Now that all shops are open again I went out the other day looking for a travel bed for when the Munchkin is here. In the end I bought a larger playpen which will serve as a bed for when I'm babysitting him in July. It's now set up in prime location near the stairs in the living room and my house is starting to look like a day care centre - not that I mind, of course. Heck we had Jordan's first drum set in that exact same location for goodness knows how many years, plus the high chair, plus the toy box, plus ....! Jen has a physio appointment tomorrow afternoon and asked me to go over to babysit Charlie for a few hours, so that will be nice (for me at least - I'm not sure he could care less at this point)!
And finally, I've taken a few more bags of clothes to the charity bin and started going through some very old issues of the BBC's Good Food Guide. I've been tearing out interesting recipes to try and throwing the rest of the magazine out, and the other day I found a recipe for aubergine, garlic and feta salad which was delicious (I was maybe a bit heavy-handed with the raw garlic but what the heck, it keeps the vampires away)! Then today I tried out fatoosh, which is a recipe I picked up from a Palestinian blogger and boy was it a big success with both of us. Mind you, all those fresh herbs and sumac (luckily I had some in the cupboard) are bound to be a recipe for success, right? So I've now been officially invited by André to come over and "cook in his new place any time I want"! Ah thanks babe, can't wait to take you up on that!
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| Fatoosh salad - it's delicious! |
I love garlic! In just about everything I cook. You should try scanning a bottle of wine, see what's in it besides alcohol. Oh, and unfortunately, I rarely clean my car.
ReplyDeleteHa, I've always kept my car pretty clean but André is fanatical. Whatever floats your boat I guess! And we like garlic too, although this was raw and grated in so maybe a tad too much! My very favourite wine is called Tariquet and I read once it was pretty much "purely chemical" so I will definitely scan a bottle when I get one! I think a lot of wine is "adulterated" anyway but it will be interesting to see!
DeleteOh! Weather. SAME!! Unbelievable. Wet, cold, windy, heat still on - holy cow. FINALLY some lovely weather, just in time for the bank holiday weekend. Fatoosh looks delicious although I can already see I'll have to be making some recipe adjustments as I don't like tomatoes. Also, I, too, am terrible with cleaning my car. It's filthy, but yet, I do nothing... :P
ReplyDeleteI'm not a great fan of shop-bought tomatoes either because they just have no taste. Home grown are so much better. You will definitely need the sumac though. Give it a try, it's delicious!
DeleteI was just realizing the other day that I have books and toys that my GRANDCHILDREN have outgrown.
ReplyDeleteHow in the world did that happen?
My husband is the one in this family who is a fanatic about the car. I wouldn't clean it from one year to the next. It just doesn't occur to me. He took mine to town yesterday and got it washed and cleaned the inside to where it looks like new.
My mother-in-law kept a few of her kids toys for the grandchildren to play with - and they most certainly did play with them. It was quality stuff, and they especially loved the little wooden mama duck with her ducklings trailing behind her. Happy days eh!
DeleteI used to have a clean car, my exhusband kept it clean. The big guy doesn't worry too much about a clean car and now we have two dogs so there is a fair bit of hair in the car which sticks to everything. I wish I had a young lady nearby that loved to clean cars on the inside. It would be well worth it.
ReplyDeleteThe view you have out your bedroom window is heavenly. I miss the mountains.
We've only just warmed up as well and the leaves are finally out on all the trees, although the oak trees are only just sending forth their tiny leaves.
I'm not fanatical about my car but I definitely don't drop rubbish in it. When the kids were little I always had a plastic bag hanging off a door handle so it was always kept tidy, although the inside could often do with a good clean. And I saw your snow the other week. While it's great when the good weather eventually gets here it also annoys me that summer is short and before we know it we're heading back into winter! Grr!!!
DeleteI just had breakfast, saw that salad and now I'm hungry! I'm off to search the recipe!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I may look for that app though I am scared of what it may tell me!
I think what really made the recipe was that she put good quality dried mint in it as well as fresh mint, thyme and parsley. Then add in the sumac and you can't go wrong. It was delicious! As for the app, I'm driving myself slightly mad picking things up and scanning them. There've been a few surprises but it's not all doom and gloom!
DeleteThe weather here has been so wet too. It’s been awful. Thankfully we’re going to have some improvement over the weekend which will be more welcome as it’s Bank Holiday on Monday. The Yuka app looks interesting. I’ll look it up. I’m sure it will show some surprises. And the fatoosh looks delicious! I’ll look up the recipe for that as well. Enjoy the better weather !
ReplyDeleteI've taken to randomly scanning stuff now and there have been a few surprises that will make me change my buying habits, but nothing too radical (so far). And do try the fatoosh. I fried pita bread for the croutons and André said that was what made it!
DeleteLily has a new name for her blog.
ReplyDeleteOh thanks for letting me know. I do hope she will keep in touch, but I can understand that she might want more privacy also!
DeleteGood catchup on cars and walks and baby spacing your house. The salad sounds delicious. My phone has no memory for new aps, but that sounds useful.
ReplyDeleteThat salad was delicious. I will definitely be trying a few more of her recipes. And that app has been an interesting exercise, to say the least!
DeleteIt's amazing how the smallest person in a house can take up the most room! We still had toys in our spare room for our grand daughter but just recently I realised at 12 years old she's never going to go and play with them now! I've left a few games and some colouring stuff around but I think I can reclaim that spot now!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to find a new recipe that you really like. I was the same when I watched Jamie Oliver (who I normally don't like!) on Instagram showing how to make a recipe with linguine, asparagus and peas with a lemon dressing over it. Its so easy to make and so tasty. We've had it several times now and we love it! So often you try a new recipe and its ok but you never make it again. Sounds like you'll be making yours again and again! x
Yeah babies and their gear take up a lot of room don't they. I was just saying to André that I absolutely loved the toybox on wheels with all their cars in that I used to drag out into the garden for them to play with. I got a bit fed up putting it all away again though (same as wiping up the crud under the high chair), but I'd rather have that than a show home (ha, fat chance)! And thanks for the Jamie Oliver tip. I'll look him up. I'm going to try another of this Palestinian blogger's recipes tonight so I'll let you know!
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