September is a busy month. There are the national and international style events that we can go along to, such as European Heritage Days - that is next weekend in France. There are first sessions of various groups and sports to be attended if you sign up for that sort of thing. Mercifully for you, there are no photos of Gym for Health or Gentle Gym, both designed for retired ladies. We are all enthusiastic, but that much lycra and wobble bouncing around and furiously counting to 8 along with the music is not a spectator sport!
There is always the rather magnificent Mechoui, or outdoor pig roast, run by John's boule de forte society in a nearby field. It is our favourite thing of the year - a chance to meet neighbours, make new friends, eat and drink through an entire afternoon (you arrive a bit before 1pm and don't go home until after 5:30pm), and the key item is a spit roast pig, something you don't do for an average Sunday roast.
Normally the weather is kind, but September this year is being kinder to the soil and the plants than to humans, and it was cool, breezy and occasionally a bit moist (the more serious rain held off until well after 6pm). None of that dampened the enthusiasm for good food and the quality of the cheer, and it was a lovely introduction to true autumn.
September is the month when one of my favourite flowers goes completely nuts, and true to form, the cyclamen are just getting better and better with every day that passes. The clumps in the One Acre Wood are more frequent and bigger, the ones in the lawn are resisting the chickens' obsession with finding bugs, while the ones in the Orchard are amazing.
September sees the Rentree and therefore a pick up in political activity, as there are no more holidays to enjoy until November, so why not strike or have a demonstration to make up for that? I am ambivalent about this, as while I enjoy the fact that the French won't take things lying down and will take out a placard to make their views known, sometimes the things they rant about are a bit foolish. The French have squirreled away in their savings accounts three times the amont of money than is represented by the national debt. Many of the French savings products are government backed and limited risk, and from media reports into the impoverished pensioners, many of those put away money for their grandchildren; although whether the grandchildren see that cash when needed is a moot point. Whatever.
September is demonstration time, but the demo in la Fleche on Wednesday discouraged market shopping even more than the lack of convenient parking spaces. Hard working family businesses and farmers brought products to market, but there weren't many buying. There were a couple of hundred in the demonstration, which was very well behaved.
One of the things that the French have got very right, in my view anyway, is their horror of waste of good things, although that might be declining as a new generation is focussed on information technology and fiscal security. One way that bumper harvests of fruit can be conserved, once you have made all the puddings, jams and jellies that you can fit in cupboards and freezers, is by making eau de vie. There are approved distillers around the place in rural areas, who will turn the contents of your rather icky barrel into clear firewater, and will charge you not too much, and sort out the Customs and Excise paperwork and money collection too.
But first you have to make your gloop. We have a barrel with mirabelles fermented down in the cellar - that is now sealed until the distillery has opened for the winter season. We have another barrel with plums in which is still doing its thing in a somewhat sinister manner - the burping and hissing noises it makes as you stir it up each day are not for the faint hearted! Soon it too will settle down and be sealed and wait for its moment of glory at the still!
The weather promises to be rather kinder next week, so I hope to visit something for Heritage Weekend, and also to do some strimming, in between making quince jelly and attending gym classes - it's all go for the retired!
Have a good week!
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