Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Ok, we are still waiting for the mists (although low cloud we have had aplenty), but the mellow fruitfulness seems to be going in the right direction. We raided the apple trees around Pissou this afternoon and this resulted in a basketful of fruit for which we now need to come up with some ideas! A rabbit with apple and calvados dinner this evening is the first step and I think I may wander into chutney territory before the end of the week too. We can always par cook and freeze whatever is left....

Just before lunch, we ventured back into the woodland across from the house (the guns have been quite for a few days, so we reckoned it would be safe!) in search of the elusive shroom and found a few paltry specimens which made us seriously wonder about the credibility of some of our neighbours who insist that there are girolles and ceps aplenty to be had in them there woods. This afternoon, we followed the advice of I can't remember who, who insisted that there were plenty of ceps to be had up in the woodland above the Col de Port. So, reenergised by lunch, we headed the 10 minutes up the road to the Col and from there off into the woodland. The pooch thought all his Christmasses had come at once.... TWO outings in one day! We found plenty of specimens, particularly as we got higher up into the woodland, away from the well worn path but still no ceps. Doh! But at least we had had some exercise and we saw some really pretty crocus like flowers which seem to have sprung up all over the place, but which I thought were usually a spring flower....?Our other discovery of the day has been some sloes around Pissou which we will be collecting tomorrow and which we hope to transform into sloe gin before Christmas

Other news of the day;
Had a call from Claudine following my text asking whether she had indeed received my email about the wood, to which she answered yes and indeed she had replied! Time to check the spam folder :-( Anyway, no problem for us to 'recuperate' (a bastardised, overused anglicisation of the well used French word 'récupérer' meaning to recover and use) the wood on her land which is great news! I am so pleased we have asked permission and can quite categorically say to Josette or anybody else who may question us 'yes, we have for permission from the landowner to take it'! Looks like our winter log pile fears have been allayed.

Claudine also told us we could take some of the big stones which had been piled in a heap where her builders had opened up a new doorway to the rear of her barn conversion. These big stones/rocks will be invaluable when we come to reinforcing the wall of the barn which is currently just standing in parts on the hillside with no foundations! Nothing unusual in this part of the world! She will be back at Pissou on the 13th so we are looking forward to having a good chat with her then.