Hail noble fruit

Photo from Flickr/handjes. Creative Commons licence.

I find myself in rural parts of the Languedoc, south of France, with a slow internet connection and no means of uploading any of my photos.  The compensation is that the weather is wonderful, and we have landed here right in the midst of the grape harvest.

The Languedoc is the largest wine growing region in the world, and seeing field after field of vines being harvested, with the leaves now turning beautiful colours, I can well believe it. We argued gently with the Frenchman who explained this to us, but he was insistent that although other regions such as California may have vast fields, the Languedoc with its many, many small fields was larger - 700,000 acres or 2,800 square km.  The small fields are maintained because the growing conditions can vary over quite a short distance. Keeping the separate fields allows different wines to be produced with distinctive flavours.

Most of the harvest is done by machine, but many of the older vines are planted too close together for the machines and so are harvested by hand. You can see groups of men, mostly older men it seems, setting out in the morning with large containers to be filled. Later in the day harvesting machines move to other fields, while small lorries, and little vans pulling trailers loaded with grapes hurtle along the winding roads to the nearest cave co-operative to be off-loaded.

The result of all this activity is a wonderful scent in the air from all the grapes that wafts towards you at unexpected moments. The village where we are staying has its own cave co-operative with a constant stream of farmers from around about, delivering their individual loads, so we are living, breathing, thinking and dreaming grapes. I can think of worse things.

What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Photohunter: view

By the time you read this, I will be well on my way south, in search of some warm weather.  Two of these views were taken recently in bright, but not warm sunshine. I'd like a little warmth before winter sets in.

A view of the Creuse river in the Vienne, near La Roche Posay.

A view of the white cliffs of Dover as we left harbour December 2007. My parents used to live on the far side of the outermost cliff.

A view of the Mediterranean Sea from the top of Eze Village, near Monaco. You can see Beaulieu-sur-Mer below, and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the peninsula in the distance.

This view, taken just a few days ago from a bridge crossing the river, has a story behind it. Almost exactly seven years ago we we were in the area by chance.  We stood on the same bridge and saw the same view. We said how lovely it would be to have a house with a view overlooking the river, but I was sure they would be so desirable that they would most likely be sold by word of mouth. We continued over the bridge, turned left and saw a house up for sale. The rest, as they say, is history.

I won't be able to return visits until tomorrow at the earliest, but I will, I promise.

Technorati tags: PhotoHunt, view

Le Pont Chrétien

On the way to almost everywhere, I pass through a pretty village with an interesting name: Pont Chrétien, Christian Bridge. I stopped one day last week to find out more and explore, and took the following pictures.

This is the main road crossing the river. I don't know if this could be the bridge that named the village.

A short walk into the countryside and you come across the Château de Chabenet in the neighbouring commune. It is now a holiday resort.

My efforts to approach the château were thwarted. This is not a milk cow, nor even a dairy cow. It is a Charolais bull in training.

The church doesn't appear to be closely associated with the bridge.

This is the river - the Bouzanne. It seems to flood quite readily. There is an incredibly bad translation of the French Wikipedia entry for the Bouzanne on Speedylook (whatever that is).

"The river is born with the borders from the department from the Creuse, close to Aigurande, and moves consequently towards the north-north-east, in direction of Chateauroux. It bathes Cluis and Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre. Arrived at the accesses of the forest of Chateauroux, it starts a broad loop, towards the west initially, then towards south-west, sprinkles the locality of Velles and joined a little the Nickle silver-on-Hollow Creuse downstream from . "

Up river from the bridge is another château. This one is the Château du Broutet, the mairie - the town hall - a very splendid town hall for a small community.

The mystery of the name remains: Pont Chrétien, Christian Bridge - why? I can't find out.

Darfur again, and again

WHAT: Demonstration on Darfur: “No More Delays: Peacekeepers and Justice for Darfur NOW.”

WHEN: Thursday, September 25, 2008, from 5:00-6:30pm

WHERE: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (across from the UN), 1st Avenue and 47th Street

More information from Yummy Biscuits, and while you're there, read the most recent post, a heart-rending story.

Weird characters

Specially for Elaine of Old Age is a Bitch.

I can't remember who it was who told me about this, but thank you anyway.

I find I need to use odd characters from time to time, but it's difficult to recall the ALT-key shortcuts for anything other than regularly used ones. Up until now I've used the  Character Map provided in Windows, tedious to get to it and to use. But this is a much better way.

Go to CopyPasteCharacter.

Screen shot

This is so much easier to use, providing of course you bookmark the site. All you need to do is click on a character and it will copy it, or hold down ALT to click and copy several. They don't have the full range of characters but they have anything I'm likely to use, not to mention others that I'd love to use, if only I knew why ‽ ※

Sunflowers

I've been searching for sunflower fields for ages. They were too young before we left to go back to England. On our return I thought it would be too late, but while I was out this weekend I came across these.

Older now, and turning their heads away from the sun.

But still beautiful. A message for us all perhaps.

Photohunter: road

A quiz.

Five different photos of roads from five different countries. Two are easy to guess I believe so I want the city as well as the country, two will be easy if you know me, and one may be rather more difficult, but even that has an enormous clue. See how you get on.

Road 1

Road 2

Road 3

Road 4

Road 5

The photos are of varying ages, and taken with three different cameras, but they will all open into larger views if you click on them.

Technorati tags: PhotoHunt, roads

Travelling toilets

Picture from WaterAid/Caroline Irby

Convenient conveniences

Portable privies

Sileshi Demissie, a successful singer in the USA, wanted to do three things for his native Ethiopia

• improve the environment
• create jobs
• mobilise the community

It soon became obvious that one major source of pollution was caused by lack of sanitation. So the team involved approached WaterAid, and came up with mobile toilet. A small charge is made for use, the environment is improved and the previously unemployed attendants have a means of earning some money Most are kept in one place but they can be moved by lorry to places where they are needed and these often have a small kiosk attached, giving an additional source of income.

"My main income is from the kiosk," says Fasika a mobile toilet attendant who sells women's accessories at her kiosk, "I also keep this area clean - I feel it is my responsibility. Before I had this job I was a homeless street kid begging for money from passers by. "Thanks to God, I now have a child who is able to go to school, I can rent my own house and I have a savings account too and so I am living comfortably. I have bigger visions now. My first priority is that I never want my children to see the things that I saw on the street, or to have to go out begging. They will have money instead."

"When I came to Addis Ababa I had no work and as living on the street" explains Eskender Tadesse, pictured above. "Then I got involved with helping to clean and green the area. Then, when this part was finished I started with the mobile toilet. "There is a big difference between the life I was living before and the life I have now. Before I was homeless and I didn't have an income to support myself. Now, with the toilet I have an income and am saving 50birr (£3.25) a month."

Harvest

 

 The crop

 

The guard

The harvester

It's worth it though, for the entertainment value as they try to fly in, grab a grape, and fly off again without a pause. They miss as often as they succeed.

Black box

My black box is here

The Great Hall

My attempt to visit and photograph the Great Hall in Winchester eventually succeeded. This not particularly impressive building dating from 1222 is all that remains of Winchester Castle which was demolished in 1651 after the Civil War on the orders of Oliver Cromwell.

Inside the hall is largely empty. It is often used for exhibitions. It was first restored in 1875, and again in 1976 and 1998-9.

At one end is a mural I suppose you'd call it with all the names of British monarchs from Edward I to Victoria. In the photo above you can see William and Mary, James II along with sundry other names. Lord Harry Powlett seems to be popular, and the name Thomas seems to turn up all over the place. I can find no information on the the mural, nor any explanation of the names and dates.

At the other end is the Round Table, now known to have been constructed in the 14th Century, and repainted in its present form for King Henry VIII.

This massive lumpen statue of Queen Victoria is more or less the only other thing of note inside the Hall. It was presented to High Sheriff of Hampshire in 1887 to celebrate the queen's golden jubilee. It is enormous, and not very pretty.

Outside is Queen Eleanor's Garden, a medieval garden recreated in 1986.It is named after Queen Eleanor of Provence wife of Henry III and her daughter-in-law, Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I.  The web of alleyways between buildings of the castle would have left odd shaped plots with high walls which were made into gardens "Let three herbaria be made". This garden has been pieced together from fragmentary descriptions.

The modern building at the end is part of Winchester Crown Court which is in the position of and much the same height as the old castle wall.

The fountain based on a description written in 1272.

The bronze falcon on top of the fountain created from medieval drawings with details from the wooden falcon (1305) in the Winchester Cathedral choir stalls.

An arbour made from coppiced poles of willow. Vines and roses were grown to provide shade to protect the ladies' pale complexions.  The wall to the left was part of King's House built for Charles II with 120 rooms. It was used to house 600 refugee French priests during the French Revolution. Quite cosy then. The building burnt down in 1894 and lines of melted pitch can be seen on parts of the wall.

A turf seat with trellis roses behind and a floor of wild flowers. All plants in the garden would have been grown in thirteenth century gardens.  Herbs were loved for their scented leaves which were more valued than visual beauty, and also had domestic uses.

The wooden bench is adapted from a much larger bench in Winchester Cathedral. On the left is the Pentice roofed with oak shingles.

Although it's really a very small garden, it is very pretty and full of interest. And it changes from season to season.

The midwife's tale

Rachel is a British nurse/midwife working in a specialist maternity hospital in Malawi. Sounds impressive, a specialist hospital. But in January they went days without water, in the midst of the rainy season. No water for drinking, no water for washing. No water for washing floors. No water for washing beds between patients. No water for washing linen. Because the operating theatres had to close, any emergencies had to be transferred to another hospital 4 km / 2 miles away, by ambulance if it was working.

Women and babies died.

Photo from Flickr/gbaku. Creative Commons licence.

Rachel worked in Spain before Malawi. She helped one couple through a heartbreaking stillbirth. "Loss of a child, loss of a dream, loss of a future with that little one. How to explain with no explanation." Yet this happens every day in that hospital in Malawi, there are explanations, and yet we read it as statistics. Just to be born in Malawi means you have a chance only if things go well and if you're in the right place.

They deserve better.

Rachel's blog Birthing a Dream

She didn't exist

Photo from Flickr/lastavatar. Commercial Commons Licence.

Rasha lives in a small rural village in Egypt. Girls in villages like hers don't normally have birth certificates. It's as if they didn't exist. With the birth certificates come their identities and all their rights as citizens. Girls in villages like hers don't normally go to school, but she desperately wanted to, and persuaded her father to let her. But the school wouldn't let her enrol because she didn't have a birth certificate. So she stayed at home.

Fortunately for Rasha, a teacher came to the village asking girls to enrol at school. She allowed Rasha to start school without her birth certificate, and helped her apply for one. Now Rasha is 15, she has finished her primary education in three years (normally six) and has gone on to preparatory school. And her father is working with families, encouraging them to send their daughters to school and helping them obtain birth certificates.

The girl effect by CARE.

Photohunter: wild

At this time of year in our area there is a super-abundance of wild food available for wild life.

A butterfly still finding there are plenty of wild flowers. Who could have named this the Common Blue? It's far too beautiful to be called common.

Wild figs, not yet ripe. Passers by try them but I know from experience they have little flavour. The wild birds appreciate them though.

Hips on a wild rose bush. Once these used to be collected by the sack load in country areas. Now they are left for wildlife.

Haws on the hawthorn bushes are plentiful too this year. They won't last long.

O, hips and haws are scarlet,
And all my time's my own,
So I will go to Yarlet
Or maybe into Stone;
For Autumn is the season
And golden is the morn,
And clearly shows the reason
That ever I was born. (Updated to add: from "Staffordshire" by Oliver Davies)

These luscious looking blackberries were well out of reach so unlikely to be grabbed by locals for bramble jelly or apple and bramble crumble/pie. In fact I'm not at all sure that apple and bramble anything ever figures in the French culinary vocabulary. J, do you know? Crumble has been becoming increasingly popular but it never resembles a real crumble as I know it.

Technorati tags: PhotoHunt, autumn, fruit, wildlife, hips and haws

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