Don't underestimate the housewife

So. This morning, we had a visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses. I do enjoy a good theological debate (yes, really), so I invited them in. Guess what? They said no. They wanted to talk to my husband. 

I don't think their refusal was entirely motivated by misogyny (one of them was a woman...), but it may well have had something to do with the fact that, in their eyes, I was "just a little housewife".

Now. A word to the wise: Don't underestimate the housewife.

She: 

• looks after children, and is the one to introduce them to the world. In religious terms, faith is often passed on through the mother - just look at the traditions in Judaism.
• from a political/economic perspective, she is generally responsible for most of the household outgoings - who's writing the shopping lists round here? Oh yes. ME.
• is also a cook-driver-cleaner-teacher-nurse-nanny-painter-interior designer-planner... the list goes on.

I used to think, from time to time, that I was "chickening out" by staying at home and not getting a job outside, pursuing a career, etc etc. I was wrong. It takes a lot to stay at home. There's none of the relief of adult company at work or of being away from the to-do list. You don't get holidays and you don't get sick leave. (What you do get more than outweighs that, but I'm arguing with imaginary Jehovah's Witnesses here, ok?)

So, to get to the point, any housewife is more than worth talking to. Maybe the man is the head of the household - but to paraphrase the mother in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, "the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head aaaaany way she wants".

Also, this particular housewife has two masters' degrees and runs her own company. Just sayin', missionaries. Just sayin'.

Strawberries!

This time last year, we had a bit of a problem with cherries - our cherry tree was massively productive, we didn't have a freezer and we couldn't even give them away because everyone else in the village had the same problem.

This year, we had a very hard winter and it froze too late for the cherry trees to be happy. Our tree has literally (and I use the word in the full knowledge of its meaning) no cherries on it (well, there were two, but something ate them before they had time to ripen). The neighbours are having the same problem.

The strawberries, however... now that's a different story! We inherited a fairly large strawberry patch when we bought the house, and, despite the slugs' best efforts, we've had 4.7 kilos (just over 10 pounds) of strawberries in five days.

So, what are we doing with all these strawberries?

This should give you an idea... :-)

Slug Wars

So. As I mentioned yesterday, we've been having a bit of an issue with slugs of late. This being the case, we decided to strike back (mwahaha! People/things thinking of stealing our food, BE WARNED).

Obviously, our first choice of weapon would be a hedgehog. We've been doing our best to encourage them - we even have a very hedgehog-friendly heap of old branches under the pine tree at the bottom of the garden - but we don't seem to have had much luck so far. We don't really want to resort to chemicals (we have a small, nearly-crawling person round here who sticks EVERYTHING in her mouth at the moment), so we've adopted another tactic.

The solution? BEER.

We'd heard that slugs liked beer, and there were a couple of half-bottles left over after a barbecue we had on Sunday, so we set a couple of traps - just a couple of inches of beer in the bottom of two jam jars. One went next to the strawberry patch, the other in the herb beds. 

On Tuesday morning, we went out to check the traps before breakfast, and there were seventeen (yes, I counted them) slugs in the herb bed trap. The other trap was rather less successful, but the fact that Ze Husband had carried out a MSM (Massive Slug Massacre) operation in that area the night before probably had something to do with it.

We shall emerge victorious! We SHALL!

A Tale of Two Salads

It's Summer, and it's hot, meaning it's salad time again around here. 

We thought we'd try being organised this year, so a few weeks ago, we bought a dozen lettuce and rocket seedlings. Well, not exactly a dozen - it was a gardener's dozen, twelve for us and "some for the slugs". Our slugs, however, are particularly greedy creatures. Within a week of planting the seedlings out, there were only three rocket plants left and no lettuces AT ALL. Then, they moved on to the radishes. They don't seem to be interested in the roots, but the poor plants have had to put all of their energy into regrowing their leaves and not into the part we're actually interested in. 

On Saturday afternoon, I planted a pepper plant in my herb beds. Note that these herb beds are in window boxes at some distance from the main garden, next to the front door, on a hard path. On Sunday morning, there was NO PEPPER PLANT. The slugs had struck yet again.

That was the first of the two salads- a great big gigantinormous hypothetical salad which we WILL NOT GET TO EAT because of the EVIL SLUGS.

The second of the two salads was last night's salade composée, which was a particularly good one, so I thought I'd pass on the recipe. Its name? Norman. Norman the Salad. 

I should explain...

Salads in France often have names. Salade Niçoise is one of the best known versions. Last night's sald was a Salade Normande, including traditional ingredients from Normandy, or, in other words, a Norman Salad. See? Norman the Salad.


Without further ado, here are the ingredients...


Half a red lettuce, shredded
1 apple, diced
5 inches cucumber, diced
A few sprigs of parsley (the slugs haven't eaten all of that yet...)
1/4 Camembert, chopped into small pieces (note: use a Camembert that's not too close to its use-by date for this one, otherwise it's impossible to cut up, it just oozes)
Croutons/ torn-up stale bread, fried in a little olive oil



Stick ingredients in bowl. Add dressing to taste (I recommend vinaigrette made with walnut mustard- it's AMAZING). Mix. Eat. Om nom nom. Serves 2 as a main meal with bread, more as a side dish/starter.


Sorry for the lack of phototage... next time I'll remember. Promise.

Fun with Vegetables

When, sometime last year, my sisters and I saw a Youtube video with a man playing the Zelda theme tune on a musical instrument made entirely of broccoli, we couldn't resist...

(Please note that the vegetables in question had been deigned no longer fit for human consumption and were on their way to be fed to the chickens).


We didn't quite manage to make the vegetables entirely playable on their own, but with the addition of a clarinet mouthpiece, we were able to produce recognisable tunes. The clarinet bell on the carrot was there to improve the tuning.. and for aesthetic effect!

Thoughts on Nappies

Gooooood moooorning the Internets!

About two months ago, I wrote this post and a few of you left comments on the subject of nappies/diapers, so I thought you might be interested in our findings. (If not, feel free to stop reading now. I'll send the gnomes after you forgive you eventually. Maybe).


Before we go any further, I should clarify a few points:

• We have a washing machine. I would never consider washable nappies without one...
• ...but we don't have a drier, and have no intention of getting one. We do have a washing line, so everything will be great in summer, but for now, getting things dry is a significant issue.
• I'm not sure the idea of a nappy/diaper service has even reached France, let alone our tiny village.
• We had our reservations about disposables mainly because of the environmental impact (the quantity of landfill they produce, more than anything else - the energy involved in manufacturing appears to be comparable to that involved in washing cloth nappies). They do make good biodegradable disposables these days- we had some when Ze Baby was tiny and they were great - but they are a more expensive option.
• I work from home (when I do work) and it's very much a part-time thing, so getting loads of laundry done isn't a problem.
• I'm fairly organised as a general rule, but I did worry about running out of nappies (Ze Husband is often away for work and in these cases I'd struggle to get to the shops). With washable nappies, this is not an issue. 

We started out with disposables - the whole baby thing was new, after all, and we needed to make our lives as easy as possible. The two washable nappies we'd bought to try were too big for Ze Baby's little newborn bottom, anyway. Everything was fine, except for the odd leakage issue- once a day or so, but I thought that must be normal. 


With encouragement from my mother, I also bought a pack of 12 terry nappies (cloth squares) - I had my doubts as to the practicality of the thing, but I told myself that squares of flannel would always come in useful, if only as spare burp cloths. That said, my parents used the flannel square - nappy liner- pins - nappy protector system on five of us, so I thought I'd give it a try.


Results?


We're completely convinced by terry nappies. Firstly, they're washable, which was what we were going for, after all. Secondly, we have had NO LEAKAGE. Thirdly, they dry, on a clothes horse, inside, in winter, in under 24 hours. The other two washable nappies were fine, but they take just as long to put on and take much longer to dry (we do use them, but only when we've run out of squares). Admittedly, we do still use disposables when we're out so we don't have to cart dirty nappies around with us, but we're talking five or six nappies a week, no more. Even Ze Husband, who has more reservations than I did to start with, has been completely won over and is getting rather good at nappy folding.


So, there you have it - obviously this is just what works for us, and I understand just how lucky we are to have the leisure to do this. If I didn't work from home it would be very difficult to use anything other than disposables, and with little ones, anything that helps parents to maintain some semblance of sanity can only be a good thing! :-)


Off to put the washer on now - I wonder why?


 

It's cold outside...

...no, I'm not just stating the obvious (although it is REALLY REALLY COLD at home. Well, we do live in the terres froides, so it's probably to be expected...)

I suspect, for most people, the musical associations attached to these words have something to do with a certain hairy Welshman (erm...Tom Jones, that is).

For me, though, the conjunction of growing up in Britain in the mid-to-late 80s with my parents' tastes in television mean that "It's cold outside..." leads to THIS:

 

(the words kick in at about 0:45).

As far as I know, this was the only song my dad ever sang to me as a child. (N.B.: Not a sob story. My dad just doesn't sing).

How on EARTH was I supposed to grow up to be anything other than a geek?

In which the penguins return

I really did think, for a minute, we'd escaped them for good.

And then, there was The Beast (see this post, he's lurking in the background of the bump picture). He arrived in the UK in August and came back to France with us in the back seat of the car. Thankfully Customs didn't stop us, because we didn't have a passport for him.

And then... they started coming for Ze Baby. First, a friend sent us some adorable penguin bootees (thanks Caroline!). Lovely, practical penguins making themselves useful.

Then there was this from my brother, and my sister gave her a penguin glove puppet for Christmas.

They also appear to be working in more subtle ways. The Original Penguin (who even had his own Facebook account at one point...) goes by the name of Carrot. Anyone who was at our wedding (or has seen pictures) will be aware that we have a certain prediliction for cuddly vegetables round here... and the carrot tally, at the last count, was up to FOUR, plus a pair of orange socks with rather suspicious green frills around the top.

You know what? I GIVE IN. Penguins, you've WON.