We had a shared lunch at the allotment today – lots of courgettes in evidence! My muffins (recipe to come as soon as I can) were joined by Courgette Fritters and more muffins and some delicious Cinnamon rolls. I took some photos of a couple of flowers around the plot.
Chatting together we talked about travelling and learning languages and I remembered learning some IsiZulu for our volunteering in Mapoch, near Pretoria when we first retired. I made flash cards to learn with and afterwards wrote a diary of our experiences. Here is the opening paragraph of my diary and some of my flash cards.
Tags: IsiZulu, volunteering
The goldenness and the swirliness of the creamed butter and sugar pleased me.
Like a sunflower
I made musical biscuits this afternoon.
Lemony notes and guitars, awaiting icing
My penultimate book in the Book Challenge is Le Petit Prince. In the Spring before my A Levels, I spent a month (or was it three weeks?) in Toulouse, France living with a family and bought this copy of The Little Prince while there. Just in case anyone should know her, my pen-friend was called Josianne Fromage. I learned so much with the family about French life as well as improving my spoken French. I first saw The Magic Roundabout on tv while there and attended the Christening of a little relative. Josianne later came to Truro to spend time with my family but afterwards we lost contact.
Le Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Recently I found a beautiful small English edition to which I treated myself. It has a lovely pale blue ribbon to mark one’s place.
The Little Prince
WordPress sent me a message today.
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! I have been blogging for seven years!
Tags: Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince, Le Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
1. Walking into Granollers this morning with our beautiful new Grandbaby between us holding our hands must be one of my special joys this year.I felt so proud and just a bit tearful with happiness!
2. The bookshop was a delight as we started N’s little library of simple books in Catalan to help her as she starts learning Catalan. Her mother tongue is Wolof but she has been learning in French at school in Senegal and is beginning to speak English at home. She already understands a lot of what we say. It will be very sad to leave her tomorrow, so soon. If only the Visa had been granted as expected a month ago we would have had this whole week with her. As it is, our one day has been a beautiful day. One of the books is ‘The Three Little Pigs’ or in Catalan, ‘Els Tres Porquets’. Funnily enough, I have been finding that my French has been useful in communicating here.
3. We have placed three tributes to children killed in Gaza as part of the I Remember the Children campaign, here in Granollers. Photos to follow as per all of the last week as WordPress on iPad does not allow me to post photos.
Tags: Catalan, child deaths in Gaza, Els Tres Porquets, I remember the children, joy, The three little pigs, Wolof
1 Our September garden has a delicate pinkness about it which has taken me by surprise as pink is not my favourite colour. However, each flower is just beautiful.
Japanese Anemone
Wall Daisies
Kaffir Lily
2 I love owls and was delighted to be sent this photograph. How I would love a bench like this! I think there are 15 owls…….
Owl bench
3 Commenting on El Guapo’s blog recently, I was reminded of an exchange visit I made to Toulouse when I was seventeen. I spoke a few weeks ago of first meeting The Little Prince on that trip. I was also lucky enough to be introduced to the poetry of Jacques Prévert and loved this one though the falling of the horse always concerns me. I love the alliteration of the L sound and am very fond of the sound of soleil and feuilles. Just a beautiful poem.
L’Automne
Un cheval s’écroule au milieu d’une allée
Les feuilles tombent sur lui
Notre amour frissone
Et le soleil aussi.
Jacques Prévert
Autumn
A horse collapses in the middle of an alley
Leaves fall on him
Our love trembles
And the sun too.
Translation by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
PS As I’ve looked at the preview there seems to be space for an advert. It seems I have to pay more to have these removed………
Tags: French exchange, French poetry, Jacques Prévert, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
1. We are in Barcelona to help celebrate our daughter-in-law’s birthday and brought with us presents and cards from family in England. We bought some beautiful French tarts from a cake shop yesterday and had those for breakfast after our croissants! We cooked a birthday dinner last night as D and A have to go to Madrid tonight re A’s visa to visit us at Christmas.
2 This week we have eaten Spanish food, D&A’s Moroccan neighbour has brought in beautiful breads and cakes for us each day (see the photos below), last night’s dinner had one English course, (Prawns in a Marie Rose sauce), one French (Confit duck with saute potatoes and peas)and one Italian ( Tiramisu) and this evening we are having a Senegalese dish,Thieb bu djen( chebugen) which I have had a hand in preparing! For D&A’s arrival back tomorrow evening, the lovely neighbour is cooking us a Moroccan couscous dish.
Birthday breakfast.
Beautiful biscuits, all home made
3. Our Senegalese supper was super delicious and reminded us of our trip there for the Wedding last April.
Thieb Bu Djen
Tags: birthday, Senegalese food, Thieb bu djan, Wolof
1. A took us shopping today to a Chinese bazaar and a Moroccan food store. Much later in the afternoon we also went to a Spanish supermarket. I love shops from other cultures with their beautiful, vibrant displays. The lovely lady in the Chinese shop gave us each a fan as it has been a very, very hot day of about 30*She could see that I was melting in the heat!
2. A short train ride took us to La Carriga, a very pretty little town with some very interesting features: a ‘telescope’ with a picture show inside of photos of the old town, just in front of the building itself, a beautiful Biloba tree in a small green with a delightful sign nearby asking us not to tread on the flowers, small markers in the ground that showed where bombs fell in the Spanish Civil War,a lovely tile bread shop sign and two piggies on the door handles of the all-things-pork shop.
When we arrived back in Granollers, the lovely train guard held the train up for several minutes as he could see a family rushing to catch it!
My photos are not all in the right order as I am learning how to do these posts on my iPad and it’s not as editable as the usual way! I’m sure you’ll find your way around!
3. Today I have learned to cook with A. First we made Potato Beignets which A learned to make from her brother’s Mother in Law, last week when she visited her brother in Italy and tonight we have made a scrumptious Senegalese marinated tuna dish.
Tags: La Carriga, Postaday, postaday2012
1. A beautiful breakfast of croissants with Spanish ham and Cafe Touba, the smell and taste of which took me straight back to Senegal and our breakfasts in the outdoors dining area. This morning was also full of conversations using English, French and Wolof!
2. D had to work this morning so A took us for a stroll around Granollers, meeting him after his teaching session. We waited outside the school and watched the world go by, families, a man with a tree, a woman hurrying by with a cake, and round the corner, a wedding with explosive confetti and an amazingly long Limousine.
3. A cooked us a beautiful Senegalese chicken dish called Yassa which was utterly delicious and which again took us back to Senegal and our fabulous time there in April for the wedding.
Tags: Cafe Touba, Cambridge School, Granollers, Postaday, postaday2012, Senegalese supper
Another day stomping around London, riding the underground and being glad we are just visitors and don’t have to travel like this every day!
1 At low tide there are occasional beaches on the Thames! We spotted this Frenchman creating a sand sculpture which would be gone in a few hours as the tide came back in.
Sand sculpture
2 I love The Globe! The matinee this afternoon, part of Globe to Globe: 37 Plays in 37 Languages at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, was ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ in Shona! The production was amazing, so funny and so clever! Just two remarkable actors played all eleven characters including the dog. We laughed so much our faces ached! Incredibly, it’s still only a fiver to be a Groundling as it was when it opened in 1997. We met two beautiful Zimbabwean women who were enjoying hearing a play they knew well in English in their mother tongue.
Skakespeare’s Globe
Waiting in the rain for the second half
- Valerie and Chipo, Zimbabwean women in the audience
3 We walked to the tube via Southwark Cathedral with Guy’s Hospital in the background. Very mixed memories from 30+ years ago when Daniel was in Guy’s for two of his three heart operations – one at 13 days in Leeds followed by two at Guy’s, one at 6 months and one at 30 months. The beautiful thing about this is that he survived against all the odds and is the beautiful young man who just got married in Senegal.
Southwark Cathedral and Guy’s Hospital
Tags: Globe to Globe: 37 Plays in 37 Languages at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, groundling, Guy's Hospital, heart operation, River Thames, sand sculpture, Shakespeare's Globe, Shona, Southwark Cathedral, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean women
1 In honour of The Bard’s Birthday, The Globe yesterday held a poetry reading of Sonnet 18 in many different languages,(from Norwegian through Latin to Catalan!) which The Guardian has published today. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/22/in-praise-of-shakespeares-sonnet-18 If you follow the link, there is a fascinating discussion which many of my poetry-lover readers may enjoy. The Globe Theatre is putting on all 37 plays in 37 different languages which is brilliant. (What’s not so brilliant is that the event is being sponsored by BP)
2 Yesterday at the Lelant Garden Centre, I saw this delightful wooden sculpture of St George and the Dragon.That poor Dragon and the rotten triumphal George!
St George has Slain the Dragon
3 This beautiful little sculpture by Bruce Hardwick always makes me smile.
Bird Sculpture by Bruce Hardwick
Tags: Bruce Hardwick, Ceramic Sculpture, dragon, Garden centre, Lelant, poetry-lover, Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Birthday, St George's Day, The bard, The Globe, The Guardian
1 Breakfast in the salon outside with Daniel, Ami and Lucy, speaking French and learning Wolof! We gave Daniel and Ami the North American Wedding Jug, a small token of their marriage. If you want to know about the jug, look here: http://www.kachinahouse.com/c-61-wedding-vases.aspx
Learning French and Wolof in the salon
2 Shopping for wedding shoes!
The Shoe Shop
Success!
and a bag ........
Street view
3 Met the lovely Pap, Ami’s older brother who lives in Italy and who has come home for the Wedding. Delightful character, full of fun and humour and love for Daniel. They’ve been friends for 15 years!
Pap
4 and a full moon
Full Moon and Flowers
Tags: Daniel and Ami, French, full moon, Italy, North American Wedding Vessel, Pap, shoe shopping, wedding shoes, Wolof
