Anywhere between 6am and 8am, depending on my mood, the temperature, whether its raining, what I ate for lunch yesterday, I get up. Dash to the outdoor pit toilet that I'm actually quite fond of (don't laugh; it doesn't smell; and the toilet room walls kinda things are made out of raspberry canes) Maybe spend some time slughunting in the garden before breakfast. Spend another 20 minutes washing my hands to get rid of the ever present eau de la limasse (French for slug).
Around 8am Sophie, Johanna and i have breakfast (Leilani having left at 6 for school). Usually consists of fresh, homemade bread, homemade butter, a bol du chocolat (recipe. take a bowl of warmed fresh milk. Add cocoa and sugar. Mix. Drink.), yoghurt or fromage fraise, which is kinda like cottage cheese crossed with ricotta, with homemade raspberry or fig jam or the honey the neighbours gave us and maybe an apple. All is awesomely good - sounds poncy saying homemade with everything but they really do make a good deal of what they eat, and some of it (like mayonnaise) is almost easier than going to a store and buying it. Its a case of 'we're out of bread, are we? Ok, I'll just make some more' rather than a mad dash to the supermarket (which I haven't seen in Mirande yet, althoght there probably is one; we went to an organic shop in Miraic where everything is in bulk this morning to buy stuff, mainly because it was raining rather than anything was urgently needed). Anyway, continuing...
After breakfast Sophie and/or Johanna goes to get the cows and we bring them to the calves, then milk them. I'm getting pretty good at it, although I'm still not as good as Johanna, she's a machine! if there's more than a bucketful the cats and dogs get their share; nothing is wasted. Also let the chooks out and change their food.
In the morning we normally work in the garden, either weeding or slughunting (or both) or mulching. The first day after I arrived I spent until 5:30 after lunch pulling a particular plant thant's bad for the cows out of one of the fields; most of the time we do more work in the morning and its more relaxed in the afternoon.
We make lunch at around 12, and Johanna takes some in to Leilani in town and gives some music lessons at her studio there. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and it always involves stuff from the garden. its always different but today we had celeriac and carrot salad with olives, leftover couscous with chickpeas, raisins and celery leaves, a cooked grain Sophie could only explain as grain the chickens eat, but which takes a loooong time to cook (as in its been cooking for the past three days, on and off) and is very tasty, and a cheese crepe. Always with fresh bread and a constant supply of mint tea. Sophie and I stay at the house and have lunch there, then do a little more work, and laze around, go on the computer or read, or play with the dogs (Sophie's playing the piano now; they're all really good at the piano, and recorder, and guitar, and singing...).
When Johanna comes back she brings Leilani home from school, we might work in the garden again, or lounge around, cracking nuts and eating them (Leilani broke a window pane that way) or sometimes playing the guitar. Its very relaxed and a lot of playing with dogs occurs. At around 7.30 we go get the cows and milk the cows again, then go inside and have supper at like 9pm, which is basically the same as breakfast, although sometimes we have sugar crepes. I most go to bed after that, sometimes watching a video called Les Guignols on the internet with everybody squished in behind the compûter. Its like Team America met the Glasshouse; literal political puppets. I don't get a lot of it, because of the language and because i'm not familiar with French politics, but its still funny.
Then bed, to do it all again. Sometimes a neighbour comes over, or we go to the neighbour's place; foodstuffs are generally exchanged; there is a lot of talking are generally following too much French makes my head hurt. But its a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying it here immensely.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Other things in Paris, TGV, La Barraque
I promised...
So other stuff i did in Paris... I went to the Jardin des Plantes and the Menagerie (which is an infinitissimally cooler word than zoo, I think) and wandered around a bit ' the Jardin des Plantes has what i think is very undervalued in other countries such as Aus - a catalogue of the flora of a particular place, grown in each plant's respective climate. I like places like that, and I think they will become increasingly important as we lose more species to global warming...people run in there too. As a place to run it gives the bay run a run for its money...argh too many runs. Also lots of school groups being dragged around although I can't imagine they'd learn much botany in school anymore. Also the Menagerie, which is kinda small compared to the London Zoo and Taronga, but again focussed on cataloguing and conserving rather than just showing off (on a side note, something i forgot: the Aquarium at the London Zoo is the oldest of its kind, and they actually invented the word aquarium of it - a combination of the previous name for that kind of thing - aquatic vivarium. End of irrelevantness). There were awesome Orangutans at the Menagerie, and a flock of flamingois that all had their right wing half cut off. That was sad...
I spent a lot of time just walking in Paris; like many pre-car places its a very walkabke city. Their hawkers are a lot more refined than in either London or New York - thing original handpainted watercolours and handpainted snuff boxes rather than I heart NY baseball caps or British flags. Even still, they have the annoying 1euro guys - the guys in baseball caps who sell overheated water in bottles to unsuspecting tourists for '1 euro, 1 euro'. They weren't too hard to ignore after a while.
So, TGV. i went to Montparnasse train station the day before i left Paris to book my ticket, confused a very helpful train worker, and didn't get lost. Score. I caught a 8.10 train bound for Toulouse, arrived in Toulouse at around 1:30 with a stopover of about 4 hours, succeeding in both arriving on a Sunday (where there is REALLY nothing open) and about half an hour after the local markets finished. Found a Hungarian Fiorint on a chain; highlight. It looks like a relatively interesting city, though.
Anyway, continued on by bus and train to be met at Mirande by Johanna, my lovely WWOOF host (if you're wondering, she isn't reading this; she really is lovely) in her exceptional artwork of a car (think the offspring of an old 4 door sedan and a kombi the hippies painted on their day off) and taken to La Barraque. La Barraque is a very old farmhouse that is home to Johanna and her daughters Sophie, 19 and Leilani, 13. The farm is also home to Kai, a golden retriever who will nidge you until you pet her, Reglisse, a mutt with SEVERE stick issues and Ferdiez, the maltese whose left eye was taken our in a fight with another dog. Make no mistake, she's vicious. Also two cats, one of whom has an adorable balance problem, about 10 hens and a rooster, and a peacock who never gets as much attention as he wants, gets into squawking matches with the farm's human inhabitants and spents much of his time attempting to woo the chickens with his beautiful tail. Also two donkeys, two horses, about 4 cows, two calves and about 53 million slugs.
Slugs. Mmmm. They are the bane of my existence here at the farm, they are everywhere. There is a strawberry patch here; I like strawberries. Fair enough. But the slugs like them too. So every time it rains I go on slug patrol (and here in the Mid-Pyrenees, every time it rains is awfully often), nabbing buckets and buckets of the little buggers, which Johanna then kills with hot water. But they return, en masse. Anyway, will post again extremely soon (as in the next twenty minutes) with an average day at La Barraque.
So other stuff i did in Paris... I went to the Jardin des Plantes and the Menagerie (which is an infinitissimally cooler word than zoo, I think) and wandered around a bit ' the Jardin des Plantes has what i think is very undervalued in other countries such as Aus - a catalogue of the flora of a particular place, grown in each plant's respective climate. I like places like that, and I think they will become increasingly important as we lose more species to global warming...people run in there too. As a place to run it gives the bay run a run for its money...argh too many runs. Also lots of school groups being dragged around although I can't imagine they'd learn much botany in school anymore. Also the Menagerie, which is kinda small compared to the London Zoo and Taronga, but again focussed on cataloguing and conserving rather than just showing off (on a side note, something i forgot: the Aquarium at the London Zoo is the oldest of its kind, and they actually invented the word aquarium of it - a combination of the previous name for that kind of thing - aquatic vivarium. End of irrelevantness). There were awesome Orangutans at the Menagerie, and a flock of flamingois that all had their right wing half cut off. That was sad...
I spent a lot of time just walking in Paris; like many pre-car places its a very walkabke city. Their hawkers are a lot more refined than in either London or New York - thing original handpainted watercolours and handpainted snuff boxes rather than I heart NY baseball caps or British flags. Even still, they have the annoying 1euro guys - the guys in baseball caps who sell overheated water in bottles to unsuspecting tourists for '1 euro, 1 euro'. They weren't too hard to ignore after a while.
So, TGV. i went to Montparnasse train station the day before i left Paris to book my ticket, confused a very helpful train worker, and didn't get lost. Score. I caught a 8.10 train bound for Toulouse, arrived in Toulouse at around 1:30 with a stopover of about 4 hours, succeeding in both arriving on a Sunday (where there is REALLY nothing open) and about half an hour after the local markets finished. Found a Hungarian Fiorint on a chain; highlight. It looks like a relatively interesting city, though.
Anyway, continued on by bus and train to be met at Mirande by Johanna, my lovely WWOOF host (if you're wondering, she isn't reading this; she really is lovely) in her exceptional artwork of a car (think the offspring of an old 4 door sedan and a kombi the hippies painted on their day off) and taken to La Barraque. La Barraque is a very old farmhouse that is home to Johanna and her daughters Sophie, 19 and Leilani, 13. The farm is also home to Kai, a golden retriever who will nidge you until you pet her, Reglisse, a mutt with SEVERE stick issues and Ferdiez, the maltese whose left eye was taken our in a fight with another dog. Make no mistake, she's vicious. Also two cats, one of whom has an adorable balance problem, about 10 hens and a rooster, and a peacock who never gets as much attention as he wants, gets into squawking matches with the farm's human inhabitants and spents much of his time attempting to woo the chickens with his beautiful tail. Also two donkeys, two horses, about 4 cows, two calves and about 53 million slugs.
Slugs. Mmmm. They are the bane of my existence here at the farm, they are everywhere. There is a strawberry patch here; I like strawberries. Fair enough. But the slugs like them too. So every time it rains I go on slug patrol (and here in the Mid-Pyrenees, every time it rains is awfully often), nabbing buckets and buckets of the little buggers, which Johanna then kills with hot water. But they return, en masse. Anyway, will post again extremely soon (as in the next twenty minutes) with an average day at La Barraque.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
London, Paris
Loooong time since I've updated. Apologising. Ok, so I flew from NY to London via Zurich, and spent the whole way in awe of the Swiss air hostesses who not only spoke English, French and German, but remembered after pretty much one short conversation that i spoke English and my neighbour spoke French. Landed in London, fell asleep (well after getting to Brad's by AWESOME tube (damn I'm going to need to come up with more adjectives)). I didn't really see all that much of London, or at least the touristy side - it seemed weird to be a tourist in a country so similar to my own. I did see Westminster Abbey though, and Parliament House, and i walked up the South Bank which is pretty much the British, non Opera House version of Circular Quay. I love British buskers, though - it seems every country has their speciality, and while the United States was dancers (break and tap, to be precise), I discovered when the ancient Circular Quay art of painting yourself funny colours and standing perfectly still for money came from - the British.
I saw a lot of British parks (I have to say in this respect they own the Americans and even the French and put our measly Hyde Park to shame with their real one). What you have to understand about the British is they love their sun. People think Aussies love their sun - its not true. We are so inondated with sun, that we take it for granted. We enjoy doing things in the sun.
The British LOVE the sun. Because it happens so rarely. So Hyde Park and Regents Park and the other one attached to Hyde Park i've forgotten the name of (Kensington Gardens?) are absolutely packed to the brim when its sunny. I spent a lot of time in Regents Park, which is so beautiful, and very well balanced between flowers, lakes, and fottball fields. If only Australia was so balanced...
I saw Spring Awakening. If and when it comes to your nearest capital city, (i.e. Sydney for most of you) GO SEE IT. About teenagers but not for children. Very beautiful, and very painful.
Anyway, one thing i obsessed about when i was in both London and Paris was the Metro/Tube. (On another random note, there is a lot less tunnel involved in the Eurostar trip than I thought. Very beautiful, and soooo much more comfortable than a plane trip. You can bring your favourite sharp objects too.) These cities have spent a long time perfecting the single best way to get around a city (a well designed city. I have plans for Sydney though...they involve major cosmetic reconstruction), and they citizens reap the benefits every day. It is literally useless to own a car if you live in centralish Paris or London (especially Paris; when there is the awesome Velib bike system - www.velib.fr, although I think its in French). The roads are much more intimate than in cities designed for cars - although you probably have the same chance of getting run over in San Francisco and paris, it FEELS like you won't in Paris).
I arrived in Paris on a Monday, staying a week at the hippyish Woodstock Hostel. Very cool cat there, and cool people. I met a couple of South Americans with whom I have a long conversation in Portuguese, with only occasional detours into French or English (note; i don't speak Portuguese, although I would love to) I was in the trendy area of Montmartre; which is famous for the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur church, although i didn't see either while i was there because I'd seen them before.
I did see a few museums; the Louvre was one, although i found it as intimidating as I did the last time, and I think I had more fun painting the building while it was closed than going inside on the day it was open (who knew the French celebrate the 1st of May with flowers and closing everything?) I also saw the Kandinsky exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, which was awesome, it was like walking through the guy's life and it was a very colourful life (in a literal sense too - have you seen his paintings?) I bought watercolours after that too, so you may be seeing some interesting pictures when i come back. Again on the photo front, my memory card reader hates all of mankind, so I haven't been able to put up any photos. if and when i can, there'll be a deluge...
Anyway, i still haven't gotten up t present day at La Barraque, but I will post again in the next few days with other things i did in Paris, the wonders of the TGV (Train Grande Vitesse or high speed train, in case you were wondering) and wonderful farmlike things like milking cows, slug attacks and a very cute cat with no sense of balance...
See you all later!!!
I saw a lot of British parks (I have to say in this respect they own the Americans and even the French and put our measly Hyde Park to shame with their real one). What you have to understand about the British is they love their sun. People think Aussies love their sun - its not true. We are so inondated with sun, that we take it for granted. We enjoy doing things in the sun.
The British LOVE the sun. Because it happens so rarely. So Hyde Park and Regents Park and the other one attached to Hyde Park i've forgotten the name of (Kensington Gardens?) are absolutely packed to the brim when its sunny. I spent a lot of time in Regents Park, which is so beautiful, and very well balanced between flowers, lakes, and fottball fields. If only Australia was so balanced...
I saw Spring Awakening. If and when it comes to your nearest capital city, (i.e. Sydney for most of you) GO SEE IT. About teenagers but not for children. Very beautiful, and very painful.
Anyway, one thing i obsessed about when i was in both London and Paris was the Metro/Tube. (On another random note, there is a lot less tunnel involved in the Eurostar trip than I thought. Very beautiful, and soooo much more comfortable than a plane trip. You can bring your favourite sharp objects too.) These cities have spent a long time perfecting the single best way to get around a city (a well designed city. I have plans for Sydney though...they involve major cosmetic reconstruction), and they citizens reap the benefits every day. It is literally useless to own a car if you live in centralish Paris or London (especially Paris; when there is the awesome Velib bike system - www.velib.fr, although I think its in French). The roads are much more intimate than in cities designed for cars - although you probably have the same chance of getting run over in San Francisco and paris, it FEELS like you won't in Paris).
I arrived in Paris on a Monday, staying a week at the hippyish Woodstock Hostel. Very cool cat there, and cool people. I met a couple of South Americans with whom I have a long conversation in Portuguese, with only occasional detours into French or English (note; i don't speak Portuguese, although I would love to) I was in the trendy area of Montmartre; which is famous for the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Coeur church, although i didn't see either while i was there because I'd seen them before.
I did see a few museums; the Louvre was one, although i found it as intimidating as I did the last time, and I think I had more fun painting the building while it was closed than going inside on the day it was open (who knew the French celebrate the 1st of May with flowers and closing everything?) I also saw the Kandinsky exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, which was awesome, it was like walking through the guy's life and it was a very colourful life (in a literal sense too - have you seen his paintings?) I bought watercolours after that too, so you may be seeing some interesting pictures when i come back. Again on the photo front, my memory card reader hates all of mankind, so I haven't been able to put up any photos. if and when i can, there'll be a deluge...
Anyway, i still haven't gotten up t present day at La Barraque, but I will post again in the next few days with other things i did in Paris, the wonders of the TGV (Train Grande Vitesse or high speed train, in case you were wondering) and wonderful farmlike things like milking cows, slug attacks and a very cute cat with no sense of balance...
See you all later!!!
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