An evening and a morning

Archimède is a rock/pop chanson duo that celebrated its tenth anniversary last evening, with a concert in the grounds of the château at Ste Suzanne.  They started out in Laval, a short drive from us.  I have enjoyed their music since being introduced to it by our French teacher, who played one of their songs for us to discuss.  That song is entitled "Fear Facteur" and comments on the disquiet one can feel when unpleasant news arrives in the post.  She had to explain what a "lettre de corbeau" is, but we all knew what a "rappel des impots" is about.

Sorry about the crap photo.

This morning I'm tending the veg patch.  The cherry tomatoes are a bit of a problem; there's so many of them.  Louis up the road tells me that he plants one stem of cherry toms to feed him and his wife (and occasionally visiting grandchildren) for the Summer.  Not being the beneficiary of his advice until later in the year, I planted 5 such plants.  A bit of a deluge.

But they make up for the poor performance of the more conventional tomato plants.  I planted some of the same variety that I planted last year, when they gave an enormous crop.  This year their fruits are small and not plentiful.   I also tried a cour de boeuf variety, and that seems to be quite fragile, with various forms of rot (flower end rot in particular) ruining many fruits.

I harvested some seed from African Marigold plants that I grew last year, and this year I put some in the veg patch.  I believe it's supposed to keep green fly at bay (seems to have worked) and besides, they look pretty.  I didn't take any pains to nurture them: I had so many seeds that I just put hundreds of them in little rows, and covered them with soil.  They have flourished.  Except for the ones I accidentally hoed up.  I will harvest seed again this year, for next year's planting.

Here they are alongside the Aubergine plants.

I also planted a few Zinnias.  I've not had much success with Zinnias in the past, so I had low expectations.  I believe they don't like their roots to be disturbed, or something, so transplanting can be fraught.  However quite a few of these have been successful.

Given that they are quite expensive, it seems a shame to make a sauce out of cherry tomatoes.  But I have more than I can eat, and it's a shame to waste them.

Anita got the skins and pips out by careful use of a sieve.  I'd have just used a liquidiser, but I'm impatient.  The sauce will freeze nicely.