The Narrow Road to La Clementine

La Clementine sits high on the cliff, way over there in the middle of the cliff, behind the trees.

Driving Les Cotes road takes skill. It is seems longer than 2:14 minutes!  No sound track to protect innocent ears!  It was a rocky ride as you can see from the iPad video (even after Youtube stablized it). This was one of the few times I got to ride up front.  Most of the three weeks I was the filling of a twin sandwich.

 

The drive is worth it.  We'll go inside next week.

Pushing Spring

It was warmish and then cold again last week.  This was in bloom at an open house I visited about three weeks ago.  Sorry, iPhone pictures.

 On the school grounds.

 In the yard.

Luckily I had cut some branches for forcing.

 Spring is officially here.

But it's hard to believe.  This was yesterday's weather.

How's spring looking for you?

Sunday Lunch

A week ago Sunday we hosted a friend from Indonesia who was back for a visit. Enjoyable conversation all around as our friend Jim Kutz is the curriculum developer of the model curriculum PK - 12th grade for a model school in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  He is also involved with the Geology World Park to be located in Bogor, Indonesia.

I still have my living and dining rooms switched around, good for a table of eleven.

 Simple red tulips on the table.

Stock and carnations in the other room.

Food waiting to be put out.

Lemonade and wine in the kitchen.

Cheese boards.

Roasted asparagus with balsamic vinegar, mixed cherry tomatoes on the side.

 Chicken salad.

My sister's excellent pound cake and fresh strawberries for dessert.  A really easy party to prepare since poached chicken breasts take less than 30 minutes to cook. I used red grapes, dried cranberries, celery and walnuts with a minimal amount of mayo/yogurt/mustard/curry dressing.

Erin Go Braugh

 Shamrocks on the counter

 My Irish ancestors 

Happy St Patrick's Day

Visit Today's Flowers # 238 to see what's in bloom.

La Clementine: Exterior

La Clementine

Our wonderful friend's restored home in La Roque.

The Western side, tucked under the cliff.  The back wall is the cliff.

 The Eastern side

 The join of the two original buildings.  Trees were growing in it in 1992.

Then (kitchen door)

Now

View from inside the bibiliotheque.

 Original shutters.  Then.

Now

The ""Ruin" across the road marks the parking space.  Driving up this road takes skill and pulling in the side mirrors.

 Then

 Now

The path down to the village.

The road to the parking space..

Front doors (left and right) at night.  The house glows.

 Western side.  Bedroom window and cliff.

Terrace below.

Aglow.

Sunset view.

The rock face is lighted at night.

The top of the Ruin.

Dusk.

 

It's a magical place. 

(See here for a B&B in the same town, wish I'd known about this course!)  More to come:  Interiors.