Day 8 of the Picture Dialogues

Bath Day! (I've limited myself to every other morning.) The tub is full of hot water spiced with Bain de gingembre (ginger bath soak), the room having been warmed by the gas fire while I wrote my morning pages. Aaahh!

Day 7 of the Picture Dialogues + Musings

It rained last night and the downspouts are running with snow melt this morning. On the patio, survivors of the snow.

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✍ Musings on Writing

Today I have been reading Will Cather's "Paul's Case" and John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" in the Norton Anthology (see sidebar). I brought this book over as a writing study tool. It is required reading for the fiction track at the Whidbey Writers Workshop and is a veritable bible of good writing, wonderful to have on hand to dip into and learn from.

Cheever is an old favorite of mine from the 70's when I read the compilation of his short stories The Stories of John Cheever, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1979. From that reading, I remembered him as a skillful story teller who had flashes of dazzling description that made me stop reading and catch my breath.

On looking him up today, in Wikipedia and this good article in the British Guardian newspaper online, I realized that he was born in Quincy, Massachussetts, like my father, though in the better neighborhood of Wollaston. He probably spent time at Wollaston Beach, where I learned to swim on outings with my grandmother Norton, who lived in a house at 7 Ocean Street until she died.

Interesting to read of Cheever's early difficulties in writing and getting published, he who is now considered to have written "some of the most brilliant short stories ever published". It seems that this is ever the case. So, take that to heart all you writers out there.

Sending love.

Keep writing!

N2

Day 6 of the Picture Dialogues

Getting out the hand hewn farmer's table to use for cutting out the quilt squares.

Day 5 of the Picture Dialogues

Breakfast by the fire this morning, reading Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (see sidebar) before starting work in the study.

Day 4 of the Picture Dialogues

Sunday Brunch at home on Rue Ferlus, pain perdu extraordinaire (literally: extraordinary lost bread) with France Musique on the radio playing Aw-lee-vair (Oliver! the musical =o). 𝄫Who will buy this wonderful morning...𝄫

Day 3 of the Picture Dialogues

Left was yesterday morning and right is today. And the snow is still sifting down.

Day 2 of the Picture Dialogue

It is snowing this morning, sticking to the patio table and chairs.

Day 1 of the Picture Dialogue

Day 1, Jan 7, 2010

The first transactions have taken place with the village bakery and the ladies of the Utile.

Bonne Année!

I was happy to get to see the sweet decorations for Christmas which are still up in the village.

Made even prettier by a light dusting of snow that fell later in the day.

On Epiphany, or Three Kings day, the French eat gâteau des Rois (a type of pastry made with orange blossom water and butter, and decorated with candied fruit) with friends and family. This breaking of sweet bread together acts as a sort of blessing on those in the household, an extension of the old western christian custom of blessing churches and homes by writing the initials CMB in chalk over their doors. The letters stand for the initials of the Three Kings, or Magi, traditionally named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar . Yesterday, Jan 6, was Epiphany, but the cakes are available through the weekend. I bought two small ones and took them to tea with D & M this afternoon.

Large gâteau des Rois in the lower left of the bakery case

It is traditional to greet friends and acquaintances with Bonne Année! when you first see them after New Year's Day.

Bonne Année! to you and Bisous, too. New year, new decade. May 2010 bring those in your household health, happiness and enough money to go around.

x0x0

N2

Troubadors, le Sidobre and the River of Rocks

Last Wednesday, M, D and I drove up to le Sidobre, an area east of Castres (22 miles/ 35 km from Soreze). On the way up, we stopped off in Burlats, the site of the court of the fair Adelaide of Béziers from ~1170-1199, a significant center for trobadors (troubadors) -- composers and performers of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350).

Burlats

In the area of le Sidobre 300 million years ago, molten magma was trapped several kilometers under the Hercynian Range of mountains. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, this range once "extended through western Europe for more than 1,860 miles (3,000 km), from Portugal, Ireland, and England in the west through Spain, France (Brittany, Massif Central, Vosges, and Corsica), and Germany (Black Forest, Harz) to the Czech Republic in the Bohemian Massif."

Over the intervening millennia, the mountains eroded to the point that, today, in this area of France, only the Massif Central, the Montagne Noire, and the Sidobre remain. During the period of the erosion, the magma was brought to the surface and cooled to form crystalline rock composed of mica, quartz, and feldspar -- granite.

Simply put, you could say that le Sidobre is a block of granite measuring 6.2 miles (10 km) in length, width and depth. The visible surface was cracked, while below the rock remains a solid mass. Runoff from rainfall, drainage and infiltration created a constant flow of water through the surface cracks and carved the boulders into remarkable shapes.

We walked up to Saut de la Truit (Trout's Leap), had lunch at Lac de Merle (Blackbird's Lake),

Lac de Merle

were dwarfed by the Peyro Clabado (Nailed Rock) and le Roc de l'Oi (Goose Rock)

and, my particular favorite, walked through le Chaos de la Roquette(the River of Rocks).

What a way to put things in perspective!

Thanks to Derek for sharing his camera when my battery died and for the use of some of his pictures in this post.

Bisous,

N2