Summer is here

This summer was one of the coldest I've known since I've been living in France.  It is cold and rainy.  We had a few warm days, but I don't think I would be swimming in the sea this July. 

Appart from the cold weather, I'm enjoying some fresh products from farms in my area.  I have given up on the supermarket vegetables.  They are rather expensive and not fresh.  Besides, our neighbor is selling pork meat directly.  She is pretty much feeding all the village with fresh meat every week.  What she sells has nothing to do with industrial meat.  As for my vegetables and fruits, there's another farm that does seasonal greens and fruits.  You can also pick the vegetables and berries yourself on their farm.

At home, I don't even have a garden.  All the nearby parcels, farmers are growing potatoes and wheat.  When you see the pesticides they are spraying you do not want to plant vegetables nearby. 

I had some pak choy growing in the house.  So proud of it, and only one thai basil.  The other seeds didn't grow.

                                                                 pak choy and one thai basil plant

 

Bo Bun, vietnamese cold noodle salad, usually made with beef, 

but I made it with pork

Today's harvest pak choy

 Pak choy stir fry with turkey

Hope you are enjoying some fresh greens as well.  Have a nice summer.

Bilinguism and English TV

I have the chance to be able to watch English TV through my satelite.  It is my little escape from the French world.  It's not that I'm complaining about French, I am a francophone, I consider it to be my first language. But growing up in Canada, especially where I lived, we had English speaking people surrounding us.  I've lived accross the border of 2 provinces, Québec and Ontario.  I have mostly lived in la Belle province. 

All francophones teenagers of my generation went through a phase, where they've decided overnight  to only watch English programs on tv and listen mostly to American pop.  Well, that was in the '90s.  At that time, we thought that English was cooler and we basically learned English with Fresh Prince of Belair or Full House. lol  

This morning I came across a survey of the Globe and Mail : Tell us: Is bilingualism still relevant to Canadian identity?

My answer : yes of course!  how can this be an issue for my country? I can't hide my dislike of Harper, the Prime Minister....When we had Francophone as Prime Ministers, the French language wasn't an issue, and it is mandatory for this kind of of position to be bilingual.  I was shocked by  some commenters of the article : 

On 12/06/21

"  French is a  dying   language......The.. following is... fact.... In North America....... there are.......       more     deaf.... people       who......       know     how    to......     speak.....    sign..... language .....       than     people     who.....     speak French."

I hope he won't google his own words and read my post here.  This is just non sense.  Where I live now (in France, near the Belgium border), being bilingual, trilingual is not a big deal.  I admire Belgians or Dutch people who are able to switch so easily to Dutch, French, English or German.   All I can say is that I embrace bilinguism and I am glad I can speak both languages.

 
Ok, enough of my ramblings.

On to a lighter subject and back to English TV, it is a delight to watch English programs.  I admit, some are crappy but entertaining. 

I watched last night Secret eaters.  Basically, people in the show don't understand why they are overweight or aren't able to lose the weight.  So they were followed by "detectives" and filmed for 1 week and they were shocked by their habbits.  Their food diary of their daily intake doesn't quite match the reality.  So they have it on their face, the food they have eaten through the week was layed on a table.    It is an eye opener.  Well I don't snack but I've reached a plateau and I haven't lost weight for a while.  Frustrating! 

Anyway, if you can watch it on the web, here's the link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/secret-eaters

Cat crazes

Meet Cookie.  This evil cat made us worried last week.  Like most male cats he would do his rounds of 3 days and come back starved and dirty.  Last Thursday, he smelled horrible and was really dirty.  We even washed him.  He tried to eat and drink but just stayed in front of the bowl.  The next morning his condition deteriorated, so we had to take him to the Vet.  If we have waited he would be gone.  We lost a few cats on the Farm because some are half-domesticated, they would never let us catch them.  Last year, one half domesticated cat died in our house.  It was the first and last time he let us hold him.  

The Vet did some blood analysis on Cookie and he said he was dehydrated.  He stayed overnight in a crate and had glucose perfusions, by intravenous. (see the shaved paw). He had a a glucose pouch attached to his paw.  It was ridiculious funny, I couldn't help but laugh, but the Vet said he could have died just of dehydration. Too bad I didn't take a picture. He has accumulated too much urea in his blood, and this made him nauseous, hence the lost of appetite.  His condition improved rapidly after his overnight stay at the Vet. This cat will be 4 years old on July first.  He was born a week after we moved in the Farm. 

Damn Cookie you scared the hell out of us!

Rien de neuf

I haven't post since posted for 2 weeks.  The main reason for this blog is to keep a journal and practice my writing in English.  To be honest, nothing really exciting is happening here.  We had a few warm days and there were go autumnal weather again.  I can't believe summer is around the corner.  Last night it was 11pm, the sun was still up.  That made me think about Norway, and the light they might have during the evening.  Don't know if they have a hard time sleeping.  I remember when we went to Denmark more than 10 years ago, we went camping and woke up at 5am, because the sun was so up and bright.  We thought it was 7am.

We have the travel bug again.  We want to go back to Wales, in the UK for a few days, but we are not sure yet.  I'm actually planning a trip to Thailand and Cam.bodia, we will go at the end of the year.  We are excited but a little scared.  I've never went back to my homeland since I was born.  A lot of preparations awaits up.  Passeports renewals, vaccines, etc.  I might even ask for my birth certificate, as well as for my parents when I'll get there.  I don't know if I will succeed in getting them, but I will need them if I ever apply for French citizenship. Dun Dun Dunn!

Pure Bliss in Zeeland

Yesterday, we decided to go biking in Zeeland, in the Netherlands for our birthdays (yes I share a birthday with my husband, we were born 1 year and 2 days apart).  It's only a 2 hour drive from where I live.  We have rented bicycles for 12 euros and we spent 3 hours touring in Middelburg. We've been to the Zeeland numerous times, but cycling around was a great way to visit the town, we discovered some spots that we haven't seen before.  The weather was sunny and warm enough.  After that, we headed to Zoutland, at the beach for an afternoon nap in our beach tent.  We finished the day at our favorite chinese restaurant in Vlissingen.

It was market day in the city, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and a flea market, a brocante.