A neighbor has a fromagerie where they make cheese from goat and sheep’s milk. In the past few days, several sheep and goats were killed by wolves. They have a guardian dog, but he is very young. Our host asks if we would like to go stay with the goats and sheep in the pasture…
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TRAVEL JOURNAL 6: THE MAGIC HOUSE
We wake up the next morning and hear roosters crowing in the yard. I have missed animals. There are chickens, a friendly barn cat, a playful dog with beautiful ice-blue eyes, two cows, a donkey that trumpets loudly from time to time, and a draft horse. The farm here specializes in training draft animals. There…
Travel Journal 5: Escape
Morale is high when we are finally out of the clutches of the Medieval House, like being set free from a prison work camp, despite feeling simultaneously hungry and ill after the week-long bread and raw vegetables diet. Problems with railroad near Digne make it necessary to take a bus at St. Andre. The Teenager…
Travel Journal 4: The Medieval House
After a top-speed, swerving ride over a mountain, interupted by a flock of sheep, we stay somewhere in the Alps-Martimes. The house was once the home of a medieval knight and has been beautifully restored. The garden is full of raspberries and rose bushes, and there is a little white dog. At first glance it…
Travel Journal 3: The Monastary Garden
The monastery near the Roman-Gaulish ruins had a beautiful garden we explored. It was large and diverse, with large rose beds first, and tall trellises for climbing roses. There were so many lovely colors and shapes, including a violet rose. Beyond this were the most beautiful flower beds planted according to color in geometric patterns….
Travel Journal 2
The afternoon of the second day, the sun is low and after the heroic walk up to the ruins a soak in the ocean sounds appealing, so we go to the beach. It isn’t as good as the Florida beaches. There’s no sand, only rocks that slide and hurt your feet so you have to…
Travel Journal #1
Long flight in very small seats wedged between knees and elbows of the teenager and old lady who only spoke Danish. We coasted into Nice in time for the sunset. Teenager is staying separate in boys hostel dormitory for the first time. He says he hardly slept between the snoring and the stench of farts….
A Parting
A quick walk through the garden this morning…. This was my most beautiful summer garden, full to the brim with flowers and herbs, rambling vines, beautiful fruits, sweet corn and sorghum, sweet potatoes and cassava. It is at the turning point, when the sunflowers have started to shrivel up and it becomes jungly. In this…
Chocolate Chevre Cheesecake with a Chocolate Cookie Crust (grain-free)
The high days of summer have brought the rains at last, the grey and sandy days broken by the tropical sun. Nothing is gentle here in summer. The rolling thunder and pounding rain, the blinding sun and baking heat all work an alchemy and draw the green and the sweetness out of the earth for…
Six Cooling Herbal Drinks For Hot Weather
Summer has set in. The days are long and so hot the wind feels like the air from a baking oven on my face, and the grass looks like uncut hay, all shriveled and dried in the pasture. It has been days and days of dry, bright sunshine over 100 F. The ticks and yellow…
Chicken and Parsley Root with Pesto and Pink Peppercorns
For several weeks now i have been hearing the scream of a chicken in the night, whereupon i climb down the loft and rush outside, holding aloft a dim little lantern like the Statue of Liberty to where the dogs are already silently loping through the darkness. Nothing has been discovered until morning, and only…
May Roses
The roses are blooming, the queen of any garden. The goats had eaten all but one of my roses i started many years ago from cuttings, and just this spring i bought new bare root plants to replace them, and it is wonderful to see them bloom for the first time, all different beautiful pinks….
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 