jonab

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,953

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

 Content Type 

Posts posted by jonab

  2. 'How does your garden grow?'

    in Kat's Gardening Forum

    Posted

    As far as I remember, all cucurbits (cucumbers, marrows & melons) are monoecious that is, has both male and female sexual organs on the same plant. The flowers can be identified as male or female by examining the flower. Female flowers have a tiny undeveloped fruit behind the flower, male flowers just have the stem.

    Cucumbers are best unfertilised (fruit develops but not the seed) so it is wise to remove any male flowers as they appear.

    Melons and marrows, conversely, need to be fertilised in order to develop. This can be done by hand with a tiny paintbrush if the male flowers are in short supply.

    Fleurs de courgette can be bought on the markets in Southern France for making beignets de fleurs de courgette - which I served for dinner the other night to my Rochdale acquaintances.

    • Like 3

  3. 'How does your garden grow?'

    in Kat's Gardening Forum

    Posted

    Round, yellow cucumbers are grown here. They are yellow when ripe and called citron concombre - lemon cucumbers. There is little resemblance to a lemon, apart from the colour and the shape - which is round, not lemon shaped. They are nice to eat in a salad but can be a bit "pippy" if you're not careful to remove the middle.

  6. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    The real question about this Thai situation is why were they down there in the first place? The monsoon season was (is) imminent and I understand there had already been some bad weather in the area.

    The people who organised this near tragedy should be held fully responsible.

  7. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    Phil, my reaction would have been just the same. If you are in a restaurant you are paying them for service, not a lesson in linguistics.

     

    I'm somewhat surprised, actually. Perhaps that is more the norm in northern France - it wouldn't be tolerated down here.

  8. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    As the only English speaker in the household, I have to give way, out of politeness, if nothing else. Even the dogs have problems understanding English.

    One reason I joined Nottsalgia was to revive my knowledge of my native tongue and, particularly, my dialect. This has been done magnificently, so thanks, everyone!

    Like nonnaB, I do have problems with certain words - quite a few, actually. I haven't a clue what the French for an upright post is, either. I know I can look it up but it ain't that urgent in the great scheme of things

    • Like 3

  13. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    In case anyone’s interested, my entertaining of the Brits last night was a bit odd.

    They seemed overwhelmed by it all. Firstly being picked up in a chauffeur-driven Merc – it wasn’t a chauffeur, it was my carer (minder), Thierry, who’d borrowed a chauffeur’s cap for the occasion. Second was my house. I’ve said, I think, that I live in an old Provençal villa, well, they seemed to think it was a château – it really isn’t – it’s a fairly large place (yes) but it was relatively very cheap to buy just because it was so big that onbody else wanted it at the time. Also that I had “servants”. Well, I don’t. I have a full-time carer and a husband and wife partnership to look after the property as I am unable to do that myself. I would never class them as servants, they are staff to help maintain the “estate”.

     

    Anyway, that over with and after being given a quick tour of the property and garden we sat down to eat. It was a beautiful, balmy evening so we sat outside (under the cherry trees – the cherries aren’t ready yet, btw*). I had already ascertained their garlic tolerance:- “as much as you like to offer” so we started with aïoli and crudités which seemed to go down well. To follow was beignets de fleurs de courgettes. This caused a bit of confusion but they seemed to enjoy after some persuasion to try it out. Next was rouget grillé – this was another one that caused some panic. The main course was magret de canard aux figues fraîches. This is normally prepared with dried figs but I prefer fresh ones. This was a hit, once they were told what it was but I’m not sure how acceptable the figs were. I did offer some spuds and two veg but they were polite enough to refuse, opting for bread instead. We finished with cheese and fruit.

     

    As it got darker we were treated to a magnificent display of fireflies – quite the best I’ve seen for years so that’s a memory for them to cherish.

     

    I don’t think there will be a lasting friendship with my new acquaintances. The old man (figuratively, he’s about twenty years younger than me) is something of an obsessive and was continually banging on about brexit and how it would affect me (in particular). He wouldn’t (or couldn’t) accept that it wouldn’t bother me and that I was able to take out French citizenship at any time if needed. There were a number of other things that caused disagreement as well.

     

    The deciding factor was, however, the dogs didn’t like them. They ran into their own room and kept away all evening.

     

    *See a previous post

    • Like 3

  16. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    Thank you, Ian. It was the least I could do.

    phil, your tale about the travelling fishmonger reminds me of, when I lived in Sussex, there was a travelling fishmonger who was discovered one day with his van wrapped around a tree, said fishmonger reeling around in a daze as though drunk and his stock of fish all around him on the ground.

    What had happened was that for some reason or somehow, unbeknown, the ventilation system of the cooling system in the van had failed so it gradually filled with CO2 from the evaporating dry ice. This made him gradually lose consciousness, hence van around the tree.

  17. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    Last night with the English tourists ^^^^ was uneventful. At least they know now how to eat shellfish in an acceptable way (not using a knife and fork as I've seen some people try to do with a lobster).

    My new found friends are a family from Rochdale - a couple in their late 50’s or so, their son and daughter in law. It's their first visit to the Riviera. Their previous overseas experiences seem to have been package holidays to places like Benidorm (which I’m sure is fine if you like that sort of thing) but they wanted somewhere more classy so they decided to be independent and book everything themselves.

    I think I explained enough to them to prevent the speaking English with a French accent and with increasing loudness when communicating with the natives and we parted very amicably. I did feel somewhat guilty about being entertained like that (the seafront seafood restaurants on la Croisette are far from being cheap. Even it you know the owner as I do) so, I asked them to visit my home and we could have a real home-cooked Provence meal away from the touristy restaurants. They are coming this evening. I hope I haven’t made a mistake.

    I’ll have to send a car out to pick them up as they probably won’t be able to find me and will almost certainly get lost on their return journey in the dark (not many street lights near here!) although its an almost full moon.

    • Like 3

  19. How's your day?

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    I went down to Grasse yesterday to do a bit of shopping and came across a small group of English tourists. I said "Good morning", as you do, and was greeted in return by "Thank God, someone who speaks English".

    This may seem a bit incongruous to them but, what do they expect in a foreign country?

    I've met this sort of thing before but, what made this particularly notable, well two things actually, first was that being in a wheelchair with my "minder" there was an assumption that I was some sort of half-wit. The second assumption was that I was French and had to be spoken to very slowly and, for some very strange reason, spoken to in English with a French accent with a few "Frenchisms" like oui and d'accord scattered around – mostly inappropriately.

    This speaking English with a French accent seems to have taken over the habit of the Englishman abroad of speaking more and more loudly to foreigners in their own country assuming that Johnnie foreigner will eventually understand.

    These people had it doubly bad, not only English with a French accent but with the loudness factor in addition.

    At this stage, they had no idea I was English as I continued to speak to Thierry (my “minder”) in his native tongue (I find it easier and his English is not all that good). After some time and some very stilted conversation, I revealed that I was English and told them something of my history.

    We parted as friends and with an invitation to dine with them tonight in Cannes as they want to try un assiette de fruites de mer but are too scared/shy to attempt it on their own. As I know the owner of a restaurant on Le Croisette, I have managed to wangle a table for us tonight.

    There may be more of this!

    • Like 8

  20. Things you don't see anymore

    in Owt' Abaaht Nowt !

    Posted

    That white boots and denim shorts/skirt and skimpy top thing is a new one on me!

     

    I can't imagine myself wearing white boots or a skirt or a skimpy top although, some years later I did have a pair of maroon coloured platform sole boots which matched my carpetbagger trousers.

    • Like 1