No Daily Blog

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I didn’t do it, although I intended to: leave a print of the day on my blog. I didn’t leave that print.
Not because there was no time. Or because I didn’t know what to write about. There were plenty of thoughts that passed through my brain. About the discrepancy between the weather and its forecast. About local greeting customs. About news that filtered through. And about the foods we ate, the friends who visited.
Oh yes, I could have written a blog a day, at times enlightened by a photograph of dog or man or cat. Easily. There had been enough to tell.
But I didn’t tell it.
I weeded, and pruned the roses, and went for walks with the dog, and took my time cooking meals. I played games with P and with A, and immersed myself in a book.
And thus a day-to-day report of a summer in France will have to wait another year. Again!

Kibo in zijn Eendje

Cold Cucumber Soup

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- Fry an onion;
- Add chunks of cucumber;
- Boil in vegetable stock or salty water until soft;
- Puré;
- Cool down;
- Add crème fraîche and yoghurt;
- Serve with chopped chives.

Delicious on a hot summer day.

Thought for Food

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I thought I already knew Americans were fed mainly cardboard, but a book I just read confirmed it more than I, in my naiveté, deemed possible: America is fed on what the food industry feeds the government in lobbying. Proper produce is refined to a state of empty foam rubber and then nutrients are added to make it healthier. And, surprise, surprise, the sum of all the additives is never the original thing.
Science has taken over from nature. Heavily supported by the food industry, which earns from those poor obese people whose bodies crave for nutrients. Which makes them eat more. Which makes them ill. Which makes the doctors and the pharmacies rich.
Here the cream and the butter are fresh, and made from raw milk. They may curdle and turn sour, but they are fragrant and delicious. Meat tastes like meat and the vegetables are full of flavour, and crunchy.
We have been conned by talk about cholesterol, and beta-thingies, and anti-occidants, and what not. That is not food! Food is a juicy pear and the crust of freshly baked bread with a slice of creamy Camembert.
Enjoy the real thing and leave the fake to the people who value science over nature.