Not a cat person…

I thought I was.

You only get to know the truth about you being a catperson when you’ve gave a try at catsitting… and the truth is: I’m not!

Ok, It was a brave try: three cats at once that have just moved to a new three storey house and are not familiar with their new neighbourhood… So far so good for the cuddling. At least, I’ve done some exercise: playing hide and seek through the house and garden, running after them up and down the three flights of stairs a dozen time, crawling on the floor trying to get them out from under the sofa/bed and back into their dedicated room on the top floor… and finally falling asleep exhausted on the sofa at midnight while desperatly hoping that the damned adventurous one will finally deign coming back from his moonlight exploration of the neighbourhood rooftops and gardens so that I can finally go back to my own house and dive in my bed where my dutchie has long fallen into the arms of morpheus…

My friends are not due back before monday evening but luckily, this morning, there’s Louisa Carter, her fluffy comforting pancakes, and juicy blueberries to help me gather a little energy and comfort for my afternoon catsitting session!

Farniente, pasta e rucola

Ah, those lazy summer days, when it’s so damn nice outside that you do not care for the desperate calls of the kitchen and the empty bellys around. You just want to stay there on the terasse, ‘les pieds en eventail’, reading the latest girly magazine, with Pink Martini gently  whispering to you via your ipod… “Que sera, sera…”.

And then, a soft evening breeze is submerging you with the spicy, aromatic fragrance of the lavendel, mint, parsley and basil lavishly dancing with the breeze a few steps away from you. Suddenly you’re hungry too. No way, you’ll leave the terasse for more than three to five minutes though… Well, just long enough to pick a good handful of these addictive fresh herbs, and maybe some of these young rucola leaves too. Some water to boil, a handful of sea salt, spaghetti and olive oil… A sip of chilled rose, a couple of plates on the table outside, diner is ready!

Buon apetito.

Le temps de quelques framboises…

A bite of summer, une gourmandise, a quickie, juste en passant.
Pour une gourmande en particulier… and all the sweet teeth around.

 

The almost grumpy, very sniffy, but lucky gourmande

After crying my eyes out for the last couple of weeks due to a newly declared hayfever (pfff… it seems that all they say it’s true: decline really starts after 30), I have caught my yearly spring cold, the one I catch every year after trying out the newest items of my summer garderobe on the first sunny days… Well, timing was far from ideal: with the swine flu spreading around the world and the newsreports , my colleagues started taking their distances, looking at me with a slightly suspicious look while innocently inquiring if I had by any chance been to Mexico lately…

Luckily, I’ve not! I won’t say that I didn’t kind of freaked out considering my red runny nose and feverish headache while watching the news… But well considering what hundreds of people are enduring around the world, I swallowed my grumpiness and spoiled kid complaints… I’m just a lucky bastard: It’s just my yearly spring cold, I’ve got a great new dress, and there’s plenty of spring greens full of vitamins around to pep me up. So, all feverish that I was, I got up from under the blankets and cooked myself a revigorating brunch: one “oeuf cocotte” with fresh herbs from my garden, my favourite eggs, and a silky peppery cress soup just like my mom used to do, with the leaves of the beautiful bunch of radish I got from the greengrocer. I feel better already!

Perfect monday…

Off early, coffee and a chat with a good girlfriend on the sunny terasse in the garden… followed with a couple of glasses of my favourite white cote du Rhone (a Mont Redon), a couple of calls and off we are for an impromptu dinner. A short trip to my local shopping street for a bunch of the best asperges around, a kilo of tiny new potatoes, a large cote de boeuf as tender as butter and the first strawberries of the season… More friends, a little bit of peeling, fresh herbs from the garden, a bit of salt and pepper, a drop of olive oil and a pinch of vanilla. No fuss, laughters and wine, satisfied smiles and full stomachs.

Today, I love mondays….