Saturday, November 24, 2012

OSCAR and ME







Alanea and Dave finally took me to see my best friend Oscar in England.  Oscar and I were close friends in Toronto, we played together every day while Dave and Brad drank beer and James and Alanea worked.  Oscar moved to Guildford, England 6 years ago and I did not see him until Nov. 8, 2012, I thought about him every day and he thought about me too.  A lot of things have happened in 6 years including Oscar's hang gliding without a glider over the rocky 20 metre cliff in Cornwall a few years ago (he is perfect now but swims to keep his legs strong see photo).  Oscar spoils Brad and James but they like it.  We drove from Oscars house to Rock, a village in Cornwall (west England), and had a great time in a beautiful big house that Oscar rented for us for a week.  The nice Tesco grocery delivery man was impressed with the ratio of beverage to food in our order but how great it was to have a week's worth of groceries delivered within a hour of our arrival, so civilized.  We ran around like crazy on the beach when the daily tide was out and Dave found a pub with Coors Light in Padstow, he took a water ferry to get there but he was happy with the result.  I sat on Dave's lap until he was finished and then ate fish and chips while Alanea shopped in Padstow or did other more intellectual things.  We traveled around Cornwall to little villages, saw the remains of King Arthur's castle, went to St. Ives and did touristy stuff in Brad's new car which I found very comfy.  The roads are really narrow and windy with big hedges on each side and sometimes big black and white cows walking in the middle.  I have never driven on the left before.  Alanea and Dave finished off the trip with a trip to Canterbury Cathedral and Dover where JL was during WW2.  Enjoy a few photos, Dave has more if you want to see them just email him at fitt50ish@gmail.com.  Alanea may do another post but this is a good start I think don't you???  I love Oscar and we promised to get together again so Dave and Alanea had better start saving up money for my next air plane ride.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Champignons a sign of autumn in the Var

Dave and Alanea took me for a big walk through
Domaine des Planes winery next to our house....
it's a 1.5km walk straight uphill...luckily it's downhill
coming home....we saw amazing mushrooms...here are some pictures Alanea took....the French know which ones to pick but we just look...I think it's in their genes.
The lovely olive tree reminds us that we have NO olive crop this year so we will be picking all the olives of our neighbours who are not here....then we will have a big pot of olives in salt brine for about 6 weeks before they are ready to eat.
All this talk of agriculture is making me hungry...must
be time for a snack....they hide my biscuits for me so I can have the fun of the hunt.....I'm pretty good at finding them in record time.....but no champignons for me...unless I can learn to find Truffles and then I can pay for my own treats.