This long cold winter / Cet hiver long et froid

I know it's still only January, but this winter does seem to be going on for a long time. The cold weather started early, in November, and we haven't had nearly as many bright sunny days as we usually do in winter.

Je sais que ce n'est que janvier encore, mais cet hiver durent longtemps. Le temps froid a commencé tôt, en novembre, et nous n'avons pas eu moins de jours de soleil que d'habitude en hiver.

I can't wait to start sowing seeds ready for spring, but it's hard to imagine that anything will grow. Salad plants usually grow through the winter here but some celery seedlings, from seeds which Kate brought and which were sown in October, have been in a kind of suspended animation - still alive but not growing - for months. They are just beginning to respond to a bit of sunshine and the longer days.

J'attends avec impatience le temps pour semer les semences de printemps, mais c'est difficile d'imaginer que les plantes pousseront. Normalement ici les salades poussent pendant l'hiver, mais des petites plantes de célérie, des semences que Kate a apporté en Octobre, ont été dormant pendant des mois. Elles commencent enfin à réagir à un peu de soleil et les journées plus longues.

A trough of mizuna and lettuce seedlings are finding it hard to get enough light and some are collapsing weakly in spite of being brought indoors at night and having a home-made cloche to protect them when they are out during the day.

Des plants de mizuna et de salade n'ont pas assez de la lumière et quelques uns écroulent faiblement bien qu'ils passent la nuit à l'intérieur et qu'ils soient couverts le jour au balcon.

The vineyards are still winter brown, dotted with figures of growers who slowly work their way along the rows pruning the vines ready for the spring growth. The air in the distance looks slightly hazy because of the fires which burn the trimmings.

Les vignes sont toujours d'un couleur brun hivernal. Les viticulteurs tailles les vignes afin qu'elles soient prêtes à pousser en printemps. L'air est un peu brumeux de la fumée des feux qui brulent les brins taillés.

There's some hope, though. The mimosa flowers - the first sign of spring in the Midi - are beginning to appear. / Il y un peu d'éspoir - les fleurs du mimosa, le premier signe du printemps dans le Midi, commencent à apparaitre.

Winter haiku / haiku hivernal

cypresses sharpen

the skyline, their silhouettes

still after the storm

les cyprès affilent

l'horizon, silhouettes calmes

suite à la bourrasque

Winter sun and light / Le soleil et la lumière d'hiver

Today has been a perfect Languedoc winter day.  The light is so bright here when the sun shines and the air is so clear in winter that everything looks in focus.  Even though it may be only 12 degrees C, the sun feels hot on your face, so long as you're sheltered from the north wind.

Aujourd'hui il a fait du temps parfait de l'hiver languedocien.  La lumière ici est si éclatante quand le soleil brille et l'air est si clair en hiver qu'il semble que tout est au point.  Mème qu'il ne fasse que 12 dégrées, le soleil sent chaud sur ton visage, si tu es à l'abri du vent du nord.

Good weather for working in the garden, so we cleared some more ground. / Du bon temps pour le travail au jardin, donc on a nettoyé encore de terre.

It was market day, so for lunch we'd bought a croustillou (pork rib) for me and a dorade (sea bream) for Lo Jardinièr to eat with freshly picked spinach, rocket and sorrel leaves and a glass of red wine from Domaine de Montesquieu.

Docking the Bay

It seems strange now to remember how we used to try to persuade our little bay tree to grow in a pot on the terrace in Wales.  Here bay trees grow everywhere, like weeds, and we use the leaves in cooking every day.  One huge bay tree grows in our neighbours' garden and overhangs the fence just where we want to build a cold frame.  They were there today so we asked if they minded if we cut one of the branches.  'Coupez, coupez!' was the answer, so Lo Jardinièr sawed it down.  There's still a lovely big tree left, but it won't shade our cold frame now.

	On a coupé une branche du laurier sauce qui donnait de l'abri au coin où nous voulons construire une serre.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

A few hours early, here are some flowers for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day:

lemon flowers/ fleurs de citronnier	the Vinca has flowered all winter/  a fleurit tout l'hiver
Osteospermum on the front doorstep / au seuil	pansy on the balcony / pensée sur le balcon

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

PS Our order arrived from Seeds of Italy today, so we must get on with making the cold frame!

Season's greetings / Joyeuses fêtes

Season's greetings!

Joyeuses fêtes!

Cyfarchion y tymor!

Polidas fèstas!

(Arbutus at Roquessels, December 2008)

Sunday lunch in the garden on the shortest day of the year / Déjeuner au jardin au solstice d'hiver

Today is the winter solstice with the sun at its lowest. And it was the warmest day we've had for weeks! At midday in the sun it was about 15 degrees C. A good day for lunch in the garden. A celebration!

Aujourd'hui c'est le solstice d'hiver avec le soleil le plus bas de l'année - et le meilleur temps du mois! A midi au soleil il a fait 15 degrées. Du bon temps pour déjeuner au jardin. Une fête!

bamboo against a cloudless sky .....

and beneath, next year's tomato canes growing

But first we gave the lemon tree some light and some water.

Mais d'abord on a donné de la lumière et de l'eau au citronnier.

And then the barbeque / et puis la grillade

merguez (North African spicy lamb sausages) with onion skewers

we bought the merguez from the excellent butcher's shop in nearby Roujan, run by Bernadette and Franck Perez, and while we were there we ordered some pigeons for lunch on Thursday.

green salad from the garden: lettuce, spinach, rocket and oregano

lunch in the sun and wine from nearby Domaine de Montesquieu

Gavach cheese from Lacaune with green tomato jam ....

and coffee, of course

Gavach is the Occitan word for 'mountain-dweller', which is why it's the name given to this cheese which is made in the mountains around Lacaune.

Gavach est le mot occitan pour quelqu'un qui habite les montagnes, donc c'est le nom pour ce fromage fait dans les montagnes autour de Lacaune.

It's good to know that from now on the days will get longer and the sun higher. The plants already sense it - the climbing rose has tiny new buds on it and the daffodils are coming up too.

C'est bon que les jours deviendront plus longs et le soleil montera plus haut pendant les semaines qui viennent. Les plantes déjà le devinent - la rose grimpante a des nouveaux petits bourgeons et les narcisses montent aussi.

Winter salad / la salade d'hiver

I may have given the impression in my recent post on the changing shape of the garden - the garden changes shape - that there wasn't much growing in the vegetable garden at the moment. But it's just that winter crops grow lower than summer tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, they huddle near the ground for shelter, making the garden flatter. This morning it was cold, 3 degrees C, but we still managed to pick the ingredients for a salad from our garden:

Salad of lettuce, rocket, chicory, spinach, sorrel, mizuna and oregano, all fresh from the garden today.

Une salade de laitue, roquette, endive, epinards, oseille, mizuna et oreganum, ramassés du jardin aujourd'hui.

Even in winter, we eat something from the garden every day. In the last week we've eaten leeks, turnips, chard, spinach, red cabbage, green cabbage, lettuce and mizuna.

Même en hiver, on mange quelque légumes du jardin chaque jour. Pendant la semaine dernière on a mangé: des poireaux, des navets, des épinards, des choux rouge et vert, de la laitue et du mizuna.

cauliflower/chou-fleur	chard / blettes	rainbow chard
mangetout peas	spinach / épinards	broad beans / fèves

Some of the vegetables which are thriving in the garden in spite of the cold weather / quelques légumes qui poussent bien malgré le temps froid.

the peas are germinating / les petits pois germent

2nd crop of leeks doing well / 2ème récolte de poireaux poussent bien

the radishes taste good / les radis sont bons

and the red cabbage leaves are beautiful / et les feuilles du choux rouge sont belles

I love the summer vegetables best - tomatoes, aubergines, artichokes, courgettes - but even in December there are still plenty of good things in the garden!

J'aime les légumes de l'été - les tomates, les aubergines, les artichauts, les courgettes - mais même en décembre il y a plusiers de bonnes choses dans le jardin!

The garden changes shape / le changement de forme du jardin

At this time of the year the garden seems to change shape. It has lost the structures, the uprights, the tall tomato plants, peppers and aubergines, the spreading courgette plants of summer. There's a lot of flat space - looking uninteresting perhaps, but waiting for spring and a new cycle of crops.

À cette saison le jardin change sa forme, il me semble. Il a perdu ses structures, ses hauteurs, les plantes grandes de l'été, les tomates, les piments, les aubergines, et les courgettes qui grimpaient le long de la terre. Il y a beaucoup de l'espace plate - sans intérêt peut-être, mais la terre attend le printemps et un nouveau cycle de culture.

A few months ago these plots were full of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and courgettes. Now the ground has been cleared and the tomato plants have gone on the bonfire:

A good, still day for a bonfire, with a few feathery clouds.

I love the colours of red cabbage leaves / j'aime les couleurs des feuilles de choux rouges.

Red cabbage and pancetta / Choux rouge et pancetta

I picked 4 or 5 of the outer leaves of the red cabbage to cook with pancetta. I cut the pancetta into small pieces and fried them in a heavy cast iron pan with a little olive oil, then I added the sliced red cabbage, a chopped clove of garlic and a little water and steamed them for about 10 minutes, until the water had evaporated. Serve with crusty bread. This simple dish is delicious when made with green cabbage too, a recipe first suggested to us by our son.

Walking to the garden on Buy Nothing Day / Une promenade au jardin la Journée sans Achat

Today is Buy Nothing Day. The politicians want us to buy them out of the crisis by going shopping from now until Xmas, but it seems that we got into the crisis partly because people wanted to buy too much, so today we've bought only bread, nothing else at all. And to celebrate a day off from consumerism we left the car at home and walked to the garden. Inspired by Gintoino at Jardim com gatos in Portugal, I thought I'd take you with me past the old mill and up the hill [click on the photos to enlarge them]:

Ajourd'hui c'est la Journée sans Achat. Les politiciens veulent que nous achètions pour terminer la crise économique, mais il me semble que la crise est arrivée parce que les gens ont voulu acheter trop. Donc, aujourd'hui on n'a acheté que le pain. Pour fêter une journée sans consommation on a laissé la voiture chez nous et on est allé au jardin à pied. Inspirée par Gintoino du blog Jardim com gatos au Portugal, je vous invite de m'accompagner en passant le vieu moulin et en montant la colline [cliquer sur les photos pour les agrandir]:

At the top of the path ... / en haut ...

a winter view of the village / la vue de Gabian en hiver

and our garden in winter / et notre jardin en hiver

I like the different ways people use to secure their gardens / j'aime les façons differentes de clôturer et proteger les jardins:

and the plants growing by the old stone walls / et les plantes qui poussent près des murs en pierre anciens

and the lichen ....	and the plane leaves.