2010-10-24 cleaning the Hen of the woods

This was a log task, about 5 hours !! but 2kgs of finished and frozen mushroom......got to be good!




I also dried some to see if that was good.......it seemed to work, we haven't rehydrated and tasted it yet....

2010-10-23 Tree Fellers Happy Birthday!

It was Daves birthday and as he really likes chopping trees.....here is a white oak across the track between Dausse and Karls place.





Karls tractor......



cutting with a chainsaw was not as practical when the tree is right over your head, so Karl and Dave used the lopping saw. (well mainly Karl as Dave still has a bad shoulder)







Using Karls Toyota to tow the tree down from the bank, to a safe position to cut it........coming up on 5 hours work !! (i threw a few branches over into the wood)



Finally attempting to cut the 'real' wood.....but alas neither Karl or Daves chainsaws were man enough for the job, and the trunk is still there to this day!!

2010-10-22 felling cherry tree/Annicks

This tree has been dead since before we arrived here 5 years ago.....so it was about time it was felled......it was in the field to the side of us, for those who know.














Annicks ...............to think 2 years ago it was just another stone barn !!

2010-10-20 Collecting Chestnuts at Dausse

It's that time of year again, here we are after a few hours returning through the woods for lunch.








Lunch a la Dausse style......















this is the first time i have found this mushroom, its called Hen of the wood (not Chicken thats different) this one is highly prized by the Japanese who call it a name which means to dance around wildly!! Well the taste was good and these two mushrooms yielded 2 1/2 kgs of flesh, but an awful lot of cleaning required.....







Cheryl, sorting the chestnuts !








Roger and Doris get the task of transporting the chestnuts down to the house.







sorry its so dark, but it was such a good picture of the view, and of course the two sorters!








This was the meal after, which is a tradition, white sausage with marmalade......

2010-10-12 Garden and grotto

Here are some pics from our garden,



cauliflower or coral fungus



wood for winter



a cep ! (the ONLY one we found this year)



a puffball or Fesse du Loup! (backside of wolf!)



Dave went with the local Cebenna centre to explore the new caves at Bonnefont.

2010-10-06 Morning & Night sky

A shaft of light from right to left, made a dramatic picture one morning,

not caught terribly well on camera !!

Another dramatic sunset in Beziers, as we dont see any sunset in Cailho, it looked good to us!

Some people have a lot to do.......!!!!

2010-10-05 Eggs, Mushrooms & Sweet Potato

These are the eggs, or egg cases of the Praying Mantis, we find them under rocks or on wood, as in this case

they feel like paper, and are hundreds of small segment's which if you run your finger over the top, fan out.

Strange, but true !

More mushies, these were growing in our garden......just an ordinary field mushroom.

Very tasty..

Here is one, just emerging, under the tomatoes !

and by the new compost bins.........

Our very first (and not very big) Sweet Potato........also tasty....

after lunch the same day, we went up the mountain and collected
27
of these, st Michaels..

a type of Parasol Mushroom, also Delicious !!!

2010-09-27 Charlotte, Amber & Liam

Charlotte (my niece ) Amber & Liam her friends, came to visit us in September/ October.

This was after their Dausse experience, and they are tasting the chestnuts they picked up the day before.

Yes they were VERY hot !

2010-10-10 Some pictures of us!

We must have new glasses soon!

so we took some pictures to upload to the specsavers site.....

Here they are : )

2010-09-20 Kiwi, Flamingoes & moth

This is the cat, who HATES going in the car............but its a good sun trap when your really pushed !!

On the way back from buying my new bike in Grau-de-Roi we spotted these flamingoes, yes the small white dots in the water, are flamingoes !!

Can you spot the moth ?

2010-09-15 Vinegar and Garden in Sept.

We had so many grapes this year, it was a shame to waste them all....so as it is pointless turning it into alcohol or jam,

I decided to make red wine vinegar !

Here in the garden, we planted some beans and peas in August, with a little help from our friends.

The idea was to increase the nitrogen in the soil, not grow the best peas and beans we have had all year,

but within 3 weeks we had good plants and now we have had several meals off them !

The garden in September, note the new water tank, it was deseratly needed

at the time, as the stream was running so slowly........