During the holidays, we usually drive to another part of the country and rent a holiday house or what’s called a gîte. If the holidays last more than a week, we prefer to stay in the mountains, either in the east in Vosges or the southeast in the Alpes. If the holiday is shorter, we …
Thanks to the former house owner, I am now enjoying the flowers of her labour. It’s our first spring in the house that we bought last July. Since we only moved into the house in July, we have never had the chance to get acquainted with the spring flowers that were planted in this 300m² …
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We are now one week into 2022. Hélas, the Covid-19 pandemic is still here. As for my personal life, the biggest change is that I have upgraded my humble abode—from an apartment to a house. To catch you are with what happened since my last podcast (October 2020!!!), I have decided to do a 2020 …
Holidays have almost begun! Today is the first day when I don’t have to teach at the university. The university classes restart on 3 Jan. Well, I say ‘almost’ because I am still technically teaching until early next week, but only the few private students that I have and through video conference. Moreover, I still …
I am declaring that the winter is officially here. It started snowing this morning, albeit for only a couple of hours. Through the double-glazed panes of the bedroom window, I could see that the snow was falling rapidly, but it looked more like wet snow which would not accumulate. True enough, most of the snow …
It was half way through autumn and I still had not found a jardinier or a gardener. For the past few months, I had been looking after the garden myself–weeding and pruning—I didn’t mind doing that. In the recent weeks, thanks to the frequent rains, I was actually spending more time uprooting dying plants and …
How naive we were. €500 for the initial overhaul of the garden. That was the initial budget, back in July 2021 when just moved into the house, we allocated to hiring a gardener to remettre ordre dans le jardin or do a bit of tidying in our little garden. Both Silviu and I were newbies (and …
I woke up to a wet, wet autumn Sunday. Through the window of my makeshift study cum bedroom window, I could see that it rained again in the night. Rain water droplets glistening on the leaves of the different types of flora in the garden, dressed in the finest autumn colours of red, orange, yellow, …
Being a city girl most of my life means that I am used to getting food supplies from modern, clean air-conditioned supermarkets. Fresh vegetables and fruits are duly washed with no traces of soil or any signs of defects on the surface. They are aesthetically arranged on the display racks; some supermarkets even spray a …
My first hazelnut season is here! In France, the hazelnut harvest takes place generally between August to November, depending on the varieties and the weather. My hazelnut bush has started to drop hazelnuts since mid-August. Daily Routine: Hazelnut Collection Rounds For the past few weeks, I have been doing my hazelnut collection rounds two to …