On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:15:11 +0100, David Rance wrote:

In message , Martin
writes

I had to look up canicule.

Canicule - as in dog days.

Don't hear that expression much these days.


Hi David,

I expect Judith is a fluent franglais speaker, which would make the word
more common!

Are you down in France now? The nights are getting cold, and fall colours
are starting early in some of the maples. It will be mushroom season
soon...



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

In message , Emery Davis
writes

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:15:11 +0100, David Rance wrote:

In message , Martin
writes

I had to look up canicule.

Canicule - as in dog days.

Don't hear that expression much these days.


Hi David,

I expect Judith is a fluent franglais speaker, which would make the word
more common!

Are you down in France now? The nights are getting cold, and fall colours
are starting early in some of the maples. It will be mushroom season
soon...

Yes, we're in Normandy. We have a glut of plums (hasn't everyone?) and
I'm making plum relish every other evening. I forgot to bring my recipe
for plum chutney over which is a bit annoying! My wife can't face the
thought of more plum jam so what else can I do with them?

Going to have a good cider apple harvest this year, too.

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

No, we don't have a glut of plums. If you remember my postings last year, we
had a glut which took ages to ripen then they went bad on the tree before
getting to the picking stage.

Mike



"David Rance" wrote in message
...

In message , Emery Davis
writes

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:15:11 +0100, David Rance wrote:

In message , Martin
writes

I had to look up canicule.

Canicule - as in dog days.

Don't hear that expression much these days.


Hi David,

I expect Judith is a fluent franglais speaker, which would make the word
more common!

Are you down in France now? The nights are getting cold, and fall colours
are starting early in some of the maples. It will be mushroom season
soon...

Yes, we're in Normandy. We have a glut of plums (hasn't everyone?) and
I'm making plum relish every other evening. I forgot to bring my recipe
for plum chutney over which is a bit annoying! My wife can't face the
thought of more plum jam so what else can I do with them?

Going to have a good cider apple harvest this year, too.

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:57:51 +0100, David Rance wrote:

Are you down in France now? The nights are getting cold, and fall
colours are starting early in some of the maples. It will be mushroom
season soon...

Yes, we're in Normandy. We have a glut of plums (hasn't everyone?) and
I'm making plum relish every other evening. I forgot to bring my recipe
for plum chutney over which is a bit annoying! My wife can't face the
thought of more plum jam so what else can I do with them?


Actually we are without plums. Not really sure why, and others around us
have them. A friend in the village has given us carte blanche to
collect, they weren't quite ripe last time I was there to water.

I'll be grubbing up the mirabelle this winter, all the bark on one side
has died. Feh.

Going to have a good cider apple harvest this year, too.



Yes it looks like a good year for apples, needed after last year when
there were none at all. Not many pears though. A few peaches will be
ready in a week or so, but again a very small crop.

cheers,




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

In message , Emery Davis
writes

On Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:57:51 +0100, David Rance wrote:

Are you down in France now? The nights are getting cold, and fall
colours are starting early in some of the maples. It will be mushroom
season soon...

Yes, we're in Normandy. We have a glut of plums (hasn't everyone?) and
I'm making plum relish every other evening. I forgot to bring my recipe
for plum chutney over which is a bit annoying! My wife can't face the
thought of more plum jam so what else can I do with them?

Actually we are without plums. Not really sure why, and others around us
have them. A friend in the village has given us carte blanche to
collect, they weren't quite ripe last time I was there to water.

This is our first good plum harvest for four years. Last year they were
early, ripening in mid-July, and the birds had them. The year before
that the frost got the blossom. I think, though, that we're near the end
of the plums - just a day or two more - but the Reine Claude are just
beginning to ripen now so they'll be in full swing in a week or so.
We're planning a trip to Soligny-la-Trappe next Sunday and, if they
fulfil their promise and you would like some, we could drop some off on
our way through.

We always try to fit in a visit to the Abbaye de la Trappe during the
summer to attend their plainsong services and visit their wonderful
bookshop. Another reason for us "adopting" them is that their founder
was a certain Abbé de Rancé whom we fondly imagine was my ancestor
dating from his libertine period before he took holy orders! Complete
rubbish, of course, but my father liked to think that we originated from
Normandy.

I'll be grubbing up the mirabelle this winter, all the bark on one side
has died. Feh.

That's a shame. We have a greengage back in Reading that seemed to be
going the same way but my wife cut out all the rotten bits in the main
trunk and put Arbrex on it and it seems to have recovered and is growing
again strongly.

Going to have a good cider apple harvest this year, too.

Yes it looks like a good year for apples, needed after last year when
there were none at all. Not many pears though. A few peaches will be
ready in a week or so, but again a very small crop.

We've never had success with peaches or apricots. The trees just die on
us! We had a reasonable apple harvest last year and made sixty bottles
of cider, but it'll be in excess of that this year.

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

In article ,
David Rance wrote:
In message , Emery Davis
writes

I'll be grubbing up the mirabelle this winter, all the bark on one side
has died. Feh.

That's a shame. We have a greengage back in Reading that seemed to be
going the same way but my wife cut out all the rotten bits in the main
trunk and put Arbrex on it and it seems to have recovered and is growing
again strongly.

That makes a lot of sense.

Plums regrow from their base and even rootstock all too readily - they
are very difficult to remove! Cutting it down to ground level and
letting one or a few shoots regrow might well work.

We've never had success with peaches or apricots. The trees just die on
us! We had a reasonable apple harvest last year and made sixty bottles
of cider, but it'll be in excess of that this year.

I am doing reasonably well with a peche de vigne - not great for
eating, but excellent for cooking! I shall discover how resistant
it is to peach leaf curl, as it is now 15' high and it isn't
feasible for me to remove all of the infected leaves.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sun, 25 Aug 2013 09:57:40 +0100, David Rance wrote:

[]
This is our first good plum harvest for four years. Last year they were
early, ripening in mid-July, and the birds had them. The year before
that the frost got the blossom. I think, though, that we're near the end
of the plums - just a day or two more - but the Reine Claude are just
beginning to ripen now so they'll be in full swing in a week or so.
We're planning a trip to Soligny-la-Trappe next Sunday and, if they
fulfil their promise and you would like some, we could drop some off on
our way through.


Thanks for the thought! That's very kind. We're fine on fruit for this
year though, I think Adele would murder me if I arranged more for her to
process. (Sadly we tend to fall into gender specific roles when it comes
to putting up fruit and power tools). I'm not sure we'll be here anyway,
the "rentre" is coming, our daughter is entering 1ere. Big stuff; thank
goodness for bilingual schools!

We always try to fit in a visit to the Abbaye de la Trappe during the
summer to attend their plainsong services and visit their wonderful
bookshop. Another reason for us "adopting" them is that their founder
was a certain Abbé de Rancé whom we fondly imagine was my ancestor
dating from his libertine period before he took holy orders! Complete
rubbish, of course, but my father liked to think that we originated from
Normandy.


Nice! I always like going to the Tapestry at Bayeux, you see lots of
local names. Probably no relation either.

I'll be grubbing up the mirabelle this winter, all the bark on one side
has died. Feh.

That's a shame. We have a greengage back in Reading that seemed to be
going the same way but my wife cut out all the rotten bits in the main
trunk and put Arbrex on it and it seems to have recovered and is growing
again strongly.


Glad to here it's doing well. This is a FS graft, and it was never a
very healthy tree. It partially blew over 2 winters ago, then refused to
stand up again. Now with the understock half dead, it's done.

[]
We've never had success with peaches or apricots. The trees just die on
us! We had a reasonable apple harvest last year and made sixty bottles
of cider, but it'll be in excess of that this year.


I tried apricots but the tree died. The nursery swore it would do OK
here, but I think it was just too wet. The peach tree does pretty well
against a south wall, although leaf curl is a constant battle. It
flowers pretty early, so that sometimes the fruit sets before a late
frost and survives. Very hit and miss though. I looked at it this
afternoon and what peaches are there don't look terrific.




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

In message , Emery Davis
writes

On Sun, 25 Aug 2013 09:57:40 +0100, David Rance wrote:

We're planning a trip to Soligny-la-Trappe next Sunday and, if they
fulfil their promise and you would like some, we could drop some off on
our way through.

Thanks for the thought! That's very kind. We're fine on fruit for this
year though, I think Adele would murder me if I arranged more for her to
process. (Sadly we tend to fall into gender specific roles when it comes
to putting up fruit and power tools). I'm not sure we'll be here anyway,
the "rentre" is coming, our daughter is entering 1ere. Big stuff; thank
goodness for bilingual schools!

Not to worry! And I wish your daughter all the best for her new academic
year. Just had the GCSE results for my eldest granddaughter. Two A*,
seven A and one B. Gets a bit expensive when granddads pay for results!
But I don't begrudge it. She's a clever kid. We've promised her a meal
in Oxford when we get back - we're trying to get her to set her sights
on Oxford in a couple of years instead of a Dutch university (she's
thinking of Maastricht at the moment).

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:31:29 +0100, David Rance wrote:

In message , Emery Davis
writes


stuff; thank goodness for bilingual schools!

Not to worry! And I wish your daughter all the best for her new academic
year. Just had the GCSE results for my eldest granddaughter. Two A*,
seven A and one B. Gets a bit expensive when granddads pay for results!
But I don't begrudge it. She's a clever kid. We've promised her a meal
in Oxford when we get back - we're trying to get her to set her sights
on Oxford in a couple of years instead of a Dutch university (she's
thinking of Maastricht at the moment).

David

Well done her! Fantastic results. I believe Maastricht is a very good
school, FWIW. (You probably know lots about it). Oxford is a different
kettle of fish... We have English GCSEs scores coming back too, I
think they get sent to the school here. And American SATs plus the
French and Latin BACs in the spring. Really all a bit much, I don't
think I would have survived it. Mine really wants to go to the US for
Uni, I keep telling her it will have to be a fully funded grant!



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy