photography – Page 6 – Myfrenchkitchen

We have harvested some delicious nectarines from our newly planted nectarine tree. Our first apricots and cherries were stolen by someone..I will have to take stronger measurements against the feathered folk next year…

This rustic tart is prepared in a jiff, bakes 40 minutes, just enough time to get the coffee ready, clean up and call everybody to the table under the old oak tree.

La recette;

Pincée de fleur de sel:

Use other fruits like apricots, or apples, pears, peaches, plums…
Use pine nuts or pistachios instead of almonds.
Be careful not to use too strong a honey like lavender honey which will completely overpower the tart.
Serve warm with a dollop of créme fraiche, or a dollop of ice cream on hot days.
When the flesh of the nectarines stick to the seed, place the nectarine on its stem side and cut a cheek on each wide side of the nectarine from top to bottom, close to the seed. Cut each cheek in half to get neat quarters. Cut off the rest of the flesh on each narrow side of the seed which already resembles en quarter.

Yesterday it was time for the new mother hens and their chicks to be upgraded to the chicken coop. When the chicks are born, I always take them and mamans from the chicken coop and keep them aside in a basket with me where I know they are safe and I get to enjoy the chicks more as well. Every moring they are taken outside and the flap lifted and they scurry out, happy to see light(and me, I hope) and every evening they move into their beds themselves, I close the flap and bring them inside. After a three weeks or so, when the chicks are strong enough and they start walking with the rest of the flock, I walk them to the chicken coop late afternoons, have them investigate and integrate en find their spot among the others. This takes a few evenings, because the rankings have now been disturbed in the poulailler and new ones have to be established. Never a dull moment.

..les deux mamans et leurs petits poussins..

..la poulailler “secondaire” ou elles partent en “vacances” (the holiday home where they spend their vacation)…

..le gardien devant la poulailler (guarding the chicken coop)..

In “le jardin de Ronelle” everything is a bit wild in July. The weeds win me over a bit, the lawns need constant mowing and trimming and deadheading drag behind. The chicks appear and begs for attention, the rabbits multiply and eat my salads… the tomatoes are growing like Jack’s beanstalk and we can keep up with the abundance of courgettes! Not to forget my constant desire to plant more and change again and again.

..les lapins n’attendent pas une invitation, elles sont trop à l’aise déja(the rabbits don’t await an invitation , thye just make themselves at home)..

At times like these, I just sit back and start focusing on the corners and little details that work together to make a garden. Some small corners and moments that give me pleasure. They tell a story in their own way.

..mais mignons quand même (but so cute)…

.Quelques morceaux de porcelaine voisinent un pelargonium odorant dans la mini serre ( old pieces of porcelain next to a scented géranium in a mini greenhouse)..

..les chaises et les lanternes (chairs and lanterns)…

..mon chéri picking some nectarines..

..J’adore mes pelargoniums odorants sur la table ( I love my scented geraniums on our outdorro table)..

Ice cream is a big favorite in our home. Usually I have my one or two scoops in a little bowl and mon chéri takes over the rest of the contaziner. As you see here, Carte d’or being very popular here. Apparently Carte d’Or saw the light in 1978 in France with only 5 flavors and their latest flavors arr absolutely just to die for..I am close to not handing over the container to mon chéri! See Carte d’Or here.

..et surtout la glace!..

..mes agapanthes bleue..

..dipladania blanc et les lavandes à l’arriére plan ( dipladenia agains a backdrop of lavenders)..

..L’heure de siésta!

..un verre de vin, une magazine et la tranquilité (a glass of wine a magazine and calm)..

à la prochaine fois

Ronelle

When your potager starts exploding with courgettes, it is time to come up with all sorts of ways to eat those courgettes without getting bored. But even so, by the end of summer, I feel like a courgette and can’t even look at one, let alone eat it. Courgettes are more flavorful when they are young and nothing needs to be added to give them moire flavor. These tartines can be served s a starter, a lunch with a salad, or as an apéro before dinner..and come to think of it, why not pack it for a pique-nique?

La recette:

Pincée de fleur de sel:

Add some goat’s cheese or feta cheese to the tartines.
Leave the toasts and serve as a tagliatelle pasta, topped with a fillet of fish of your choice and a salad.
Make croutons instead of toasts and add along with the grilled courgettes to a salad. Top with dry roasted pine nuts, grated Parmesan cheese and a mustard vinaigrette.

Les jardins de Colette is a large botanical garden at the foot of the chateau Castel-novel, where the French writer Colette lived with her 2nd husband Henry de Jouvenel and her daughter Bel-Gazou. The gardens were created in 2008 and depict her tumultuous life which centered around her insatiable desire for creating. You will surely know her for her novels Chéri in 1920 and of course Gigi from 1944, upon which the musical film was based and in which Leslie Caron played Gigi. Colette’s real name was actually Sidonie-Gabrielle , her last name/surname being Colette. But I’m her to show you the garden dedicated to her…so, to read about Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, you can pick and choose a site on Google.

Some trinkets in the store…and I found their little truck quite cute…and a rose named after Colette in 1995…

…Veronique flowers in abundance in the garden of her childhood in Bourgogne…and bees in abundance….

..le jardin de Rozven in Bretagne was bought by her friend, Missy, in 1910 and for 10 years afterwards Colette and her family still spent their summers at Rozven.

…a potager, part of remembering her childhood..

..a labyrinth in the shape of a papillon, where kiddies are told stories while finding their way to the end..

..some annuals planted in the jardin de Saint- Sauveur-en -Puisaye in Bourgogne...

..an english garden..”aussi libre qu’elle”..as free in spirit as she was…

…a little refuge for insects..

Colette with her brother in childhood…

…her love for animals clearly comes across in her books..

..la coccinelle and le papillon..les amis du jardin!

In the Correze gardin at Castel-Novel a little cabane/gloriettes was constructed from willow branches..

..The olive trees and lavenders from the Provence garden..

..a bit of freshness with a canal of water and fountain..

In the rose garden her favorite rose can be found…Cuisse de Nymphe

..as well as one of my favorites...Honore de Balzac…

And lastly, a lane of tilleuls trees to remind of her last years spent in Paris, where her windows opened onto the gardens of the palais Royal…

With something cool to drink, we finished this tour through the gardens of Colette and it was time to return to reality. I felt a vibrant kinship with her and her creativity, her desire to live to the full, her love for nature and animals and maybe one day I can retrace her steps to really experience what her life was like…

à la prochaine fois!

Ronelle