Languedoc light / La lumière du Languedoc

Since I've been back from our trip to Wales I've noticed more than I usually do how wonderful the light is here.  Even though the sun shone while we were in Wales, the light seems so much brighter and clearer here - a Mediterranean light.  One that has been appreciated by artists.  We're not far from Collioure where Matisse and Derain painted in the early years of the 20th century and began a new movement called Fauvism (from the French fauves, wild beasts).  We've noticed too how the quality of the light changes around Carcassonne if you're travelling from west to east - suddenly the haze lifts and everything looks sharp and clear.

Depuis mon retour du Pays de Galles j'ai remarqué plus que d'habitude la lumière languedocienne.  La lumière ici est beaucoup plus clair que celle du Pay de Galles - une lumière mediterranéenne.  Nous ne sommes loin de Collioure où les artistes Matisse et Derain ont peint au debut du 20ème siècle et où ils ont fondé le mouvement qui s'appèle le Fauvisme.  Nous aussi, on a remarqué que la qualité de la lumière change vers Carcassonne quand on voyage de l'ouest à l'est - tout à coup la brume se lève et tout semble clair.

I love the contrast of light and shade and the sharp shadows of plants against a sunny wall / J'aime le contraste de la lumière et l'ombre et les ombres prononcées des plantes sur un mur ensoleillé.

Mussels for lunch / Les moules pour le déjeuner

We bought mussels from the van from Bouzigues and cooked them over a wood fire at the garden with lardons (bacon pieces) and thyme, then garnished them with chopped savory and garlic and a squeeze of lemon.  A delicious lunch!

On a acheté des moules du producteur de Bouzigues et on les a cuites au lardons et au thym sur un feu de bois au jardin.  Garnies de l'ail haché et de sariette et un peu de jus de citron, elles on fait un déjeuner delicieux!

We worked too.  We planted some of our tomato plants - the Yellow Pear which we bought.  We'll plant the others tomorrow.  And we made sure that the courgette plants will get watered by making a channel through the bed.

La première fleur du ciste au jardin

Our first cistus flower came out.  They are already flowering in the garrigue and this is later than last year in the garden.  Each flower lasts only one day and this one fell quickly because it was windy.  There'll be more tomorrow.

Lo Jardinièr found this butterfly on the thyme.  We think it is Brenthis daphne Marbled Fritillary

May Day / Le Premier Mai

On our first morning back from our trip to Wales it seems as though we've woken up to the first day of summer. We had a very good holiday and ate excellent food - Japanese, Turkish and our own family Mediterranean mix of delicious things, but it's wonderful to be back home again. There was rain while we were away so the garden looks very green and bright. One of our neighbours had kept an eye on it for us and thrown out the snails who'd found their way into the cold frame.

Ce matin, le premier après notre retour du Pays de Galles, est comme le premier jour de l'été. Il a plu pendant la dernière semaine et le jardin est vert et clair.

We found a huge crop of mangetout peas and broad beans / on a trouvé beaucoup de pois mangetout et fèves . . .

the apricots and artichokes growing well / les abricots et les artichauts poussent bien . . .

the garden full of the sound of birds and insects / le jardin plein du chant d'oiseau et d'insectes . . .

I thought that this one was a moth at first. Now I think it's a butterfly but I still can't identify it. Please leave a comment if you have any idea what it might be.

The pepper plants are still growing very slowly and I think we may have to buy plants but the tomato plants are ready to be planted out so we have a busy weekend ahead!

Les poivrons poussent très lentement encore et je pense qu'il faut en acheter des plantes, mais les tomates sont prêtes à planter donc le weekend sera chargé!

Roses and an artichoke / Les roses et un artichaut

Our Rose Banksieae has really become well established after four years and it has covered our sun shelter with beautiful, delicate yellow flowers.  / La Rose Banksieae s'est bien enracinée après quatre ans et elle a couvert l'abri des belles fleurs delicates et jaune.

We've picked the first mangetout peas / on a ramassé les premiers petit pois mangetout.

The irises are out and you can see why they're called 'flags' when they're blown about by the wind like this.  /  Les iris fleurissent et on peut voir pourquoi on les appele 'drapeaux' en anglais quand ils volent au vent comme ça.

The first artichoke / le premier artichaut

We cut the first artichoke of the year and ate it thinly sliced and fried in olive oil - it was wonderful!  /  On a coupé le premier artichaut et on l'a mangé coupé en tranches fines et puis sauté à l'huile d'olive - il est superbe!

It's really difficult to leave the garden at this time of the year, but I'll be away for the next few days.  There should be some more artichokes to come back to, though, the three little ones growing around the one we ate today and more on the other plants.

Planting courgettes and eating the first broad beans / Les courgettes et les fèves

We are in a strange cycle of weather at the moment - fine, warm and sunny in the mornings until midday when the cloud starts building up to a thunderstorm in the afternoon. It's good growing weather because the plants and the soil are getting watered and warmed, but it means we have to get what we can done in the mornings before we're driven home by the threat of rain. Maybe I'm not very brave, but I don't like being out of doors in a thunderstorm.

Cette semaine il a fait beau les matins - chaud avec le ciel clair et le soleil - et puis à midi les nuages viennent et l'orage arrive. C'est bon pour le jardin parce que les plantes sont arrosées et chauffées, mais on doit faire ce qu'on peut le matin avant la pluie.

As we left the garden this afternoon the view was clear towards the village, but behind us the dark clouds were gathering.

The courgette plants were ready to be planted out. We've put some of them between two rows of lettuces which we'll eat before the courgette plants grow much bigger. We've protected the plants from snails by putting cut-off plastic bottles around the stems. Too often in the past snails or slugs have eaten through the young stems, destroying the plant.

Les courgettes sont prêtes à planter dans le jardin. Nous en avons planté quelques plantes entre deux lignes de salade parce que on mangera les plantes de salade avant que les courgettes pousseront. Nous les avons protégés contre les escargots avec des bouteilles en plastique coupées.

Eating our first broad beans / manger les premières fèves

Today we picked our first broad beans of the year, small ones which we cooked whole, and ate with a little olive oil, chopped garlic and savory. They were delicious!

Aujourd'hui nous avons ramasser les premières petites fèves de l'an. Nous les avons cuites entières, et nous les avons mangées avec un peu de huile d'olive, de l'ail haché et de sariette. Elles sont delicieuses!

Victory gardening

The new White House vegetable garden seems to have become part of an encouraging increase in interest in food-growing. Perhaps this is because of the economic crisis, but for whatever reason it is good news that the idea of growing one's own food is becoming more popular and even fashionable. In today's Observer, online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/19/community-vegetable-patches, there is an article by William Shaw about the community garden movement in the US and a link to Fallen Fruit. This is an organisation in California which maps the fruit trees in public spaces so that people can go and pick their own. A great idea! Now it is moving on to planting fruit trees as well. As the organisers say on their web site:

We believe fruit is a resource that should be commonly shared, like shells from the beach or mushrooms from the forest.

More wildflowers and a hint of summer / Encore de fleurs sauvages et un soupçon d'été

At the top of the hill above the gardens there is a capitelle, where the shepherds and and goatherds would have sheltered from the sun or rain, depending on the season.  Tumbling stone now, but still a shelter with a view!

Au sommet de la colline au-dessus des jardins il y a une capitelle, où les bergers et chevriers prennaient l'abri du soleil ou de la pluie, selon la saison.  Les murs tombent maintenant, mais ça reste un abri avec une belle vue.

Between the capitelle and the garden we found these flowers.  Please let me know in a comment if our identification of them is wrong, as we're not sure of all of them.

Entre la capitelle et le jardin on a trouvé cettes fleurs.

Pistacia lentiscus - lentisc	Lathyrus cicera - chickling vetch
Linum bienne - pale flax	Tragopogon porrifolius - salsify

Ginesta hirsuta - broom

We think the branches in the background are young lentisc.  In the foreground are spikes of Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) about to flower.

 

 

 

In the garden, for me it's the start of summer when the tomato canes go up.  / Et dans le jardin il me semble que l'été commence quand les cannes sont là pour les tomates.

Some flowers in the garrigue / Quelques fleurs en garrigue

It was a lovely clear sunny morning and from Montesquieu we could see Mont Canigou and the Pyrenees, the peaks still covered with snow.  / Il a fait beau et clair ce matin et de Montesquieu on a pu voir le Mont Canigou et les Pyrénées, leurs sommets couverts de neige.

Olive trees live for centuries and often the original tree has died while new young trees have grown up around the beautiful shapes of the hollow centre.  / Les oliviers vivent pour plusiers siècles et souvent l'arbre original est mort et des arbres nouveaux ont poussé autour les formes belles du centre creux.

In the garrigue, the scrubby vegetation that grows on uncultivated hills, this is the time of year when the plants flower before dying back during the dry summer.  /  Dans le garrigue, la végétation broussailleuse qui pousse sur les collines, les plantes fleurissent à cette saison avant de perdre leurs feuilles et leurs tiges pendant la sécheresse d'été.

I find the website http://www.maltawildplants.com/ very helpful when I'm trying to identify Mediterranean plants.  It is an incredible work by one man, Stephen Mifsud, who is cataloguing and describing the flowering plants which grow in Malta.  Many of these are common to the area all around the Mediterranean, so it is an extremely useful data base.

Today we saw / aujourd'hui on a vu:

Cistus albidus

Clustered sulla, Hedysarum glomeratum

Crimson pea, Lathyrus clymenum

Thyme and wild asparagus growing together. Le thym et les asperges sauvages ensemble.

Asphodelus albus

Aphyllanthes monspeliensis

Back at the garden, Lo Jardinièr finished making a new raised bed and planted out lettuce plants our nighbour had given us.  He made a wooden frame with some cast-off planks, put it on a patch of rough ground we haven't used before and filled it with a mixture of half compost and half soil.

Lo Jardinièr a construit une parterre pour les salades.