Saturday 31 October 2015

Halloween H-Van

Our friend Tim B carved these Halloween pumpkin lanterns a couple of years ago for a party at his place in le Petit Pressigny. We were most impressed by the Citroen H-Van pumpkin.
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Au jardin hier: While I was weeding in the potager the squirrel appeared. He was most put out to see me there. Oooo he was cross! There was a lot of tail twitching and foot stomping and agitated running along the top of the grape trellis to make sure I got the message that my presence was unwelcome in his orchard.
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A la cuisine hier: Roast rolled loin of pork stuffed with apple and onion fried in butter with ground cumin, coriander seed, cinnamon, ras al hanout, ginger, salt and pepper. I added Vouvray wine to the roasting pan and basted occasionally. Served with steamed organic broccoli. 

I was amused by an exchange between the butcher and the customer before me when I bought the pork yesterday morning. The butcher neatly wrapped her purchase of veal escalopes up in paper and handed it to her. 'Do you have a bag (une poche)?' she asked. 'No, I don't use them any more.' 'But it's not convenient to carry this loose.' 'Well you should have brought a bag. You'll have to get used to it.' The message was delivered with a suitably Gallic shrug.

6 comments:

Le Pré de la Forge said...

"Oooo he was cross! There was a lot of tail twitching and foot stomping and agitated running along the top of the grape trellis to make sure I got the message that my presence was unwelcome in his orchard.....

Wonderful... and I'll bet there was NO work done on your part whilst he was telling you to buzz off!

And those self-same pumpkins graced the cover of the 2CVGB magazine last October....
so TimB's hard work has got around a bit!
As they should, they were good!!


(But, please explain, why on earth is the post labelled "The Car and Driving"?)

Susan said...

H-vans are cars. What category would you suggest?

GaynorB said...

Perhaps next year he can be persuaded to do a likeness of your Ladies.

A few weeks ago, when supermarkets stopped giving away free bags in the UK, there was much consternation ( and theft of the wire baskets!!). However, goods like fresh meats, fish etc are still entitled to bags.

Susan said...

I'm not sure Tractions are so suited to pumpkin art, but if he feels up to the challenge we would be delighted to see his efforts :-)

The UK shoppers are 'just going to have to get used to it' too. I was interested that the butcher was totally in agreement with the upcoming French ban on single use plastic bags and knew all about the environmental problem they are.

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Carved pumpkins ain't! Unless, of course, you are Cinderella....
try...
Halloween, Seasonal Events, Ephemeral Art, Wildlife, Overheard Exchanges, Environment....

And staying with the squirrel...
I have this strange, but clear vision of you standing there....
hands fisted on hips, looking at the squirrel and saying....
"SO!"

Autolycus said...

I've always done the weekly shop in cloth and string bags (I have to stop the man in the corner shop from automatically reaching for a bag when I buy my milk - the bottle's already got a handle on it, for heavens' sake), and I just don't understand the people who get all aerated about the idea that they might have to organise themselves a bit. Time was, everyone had a string bag. Perhaps someone should do a Youtube video on how to make your own.

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