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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 16:33:02 GMT
Your outstanding photo is of the clock on Quai de Horloge. I have stood gazing at it many times but never seen if so lovely as in your photo Whatagain.
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 16:25:46 GMT
clock
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 16:24:04 GMT
Tonight a delightful dry white named "White Mischief".
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 16:22:24 GMT
Lesbos from Falisolle....Please show me. I'm stuck.
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 16:17:58 GMT
You make me feel sad Bixa....my Kudu lily died from too much water.
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 7:10:35 GMT
mare
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 7:08:15 GMT
CHINTSA: is a village in the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.
The village is in Xhosa country. It has a laid-back atmosphere with low-cost accommodation and unspoilt white sand beaches in Chintsa East, backed by forested dunes, lagoons and rivers.
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Post by tod2 on May 10, 2022 7:01:23 GMT
I spoilt myself with two bottles of Riesling at a price I would not normally pay. Two different suppliers but not much difference in the taste. Both equal in deliciousness!
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Post by tod2 on May 9, 2022 11:08:47 GMT
Ysterfontein, Is a small harbour town with about 1200 inhabitants on the west coast of South Africa about 90 km north of Cape Town. The name in Afrikaans means "Iron Fountain"
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Post by tod2 on May 9, 2022 10:51:37 GMT
Kerouac we definitely have a variety of dinner dishes and two people can be choosy what they eat, but there is nothing else I'm really interested in doing except cooking. Mr.Tod does the garden vegetable patch, and I cook. We both supervise the cleaning and running of our AirBnB, but apart from that not much to do really. Covid certainly put the kibosh on our travel so I cant even plan a trip.
There is no food wasted in this house. Every scrap of leftovers on the plate is dog food, all old bread is bird food, and little bits and pieces will be incorporated into another meal. Like tonight - Mr.Tod will eat the rest of two chops on the lamb rack, and I will have the last portion of the duck confit. To make a meal out of these bits and pieces I made a small macaroni cheese and we will see if a lettuce in he garden is ready for a salad.
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Post by tod2 on May 9, 2022 10:40:12 GMT
What is absolutely awful is the school taxi buses passing along our road at 7am or before, It would be worse if the children were not going to school. Don't mind the twice a day taxis - It is that they have no regard for the ears of the students or the other road users and houses along the road. I don't think any motorist or taxi cab in Paris would allow this incredible vibrating music! I have been standing on the sidewalk in Paris when that Music Festival came slowly driving past but that was just loud. The taxi music has a strange thumping vibration to it that enters ones whole body. Let alone ears!
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Post by tod2 on May 9, 2022 10:34:11 GMT
plant
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 14:23:37 GMT
I can feel what you go through at concert time Bixa. We have the Agricultural Show Grounds just a km down the hill from us. As you know sound travels upwards so all the loudspeaker announcing and loud music is very audible. With doors shut and curtains drawn its not too bad. What is absolutely awful is the school taxi buses passing along our road at 7am or before, playing their music full volume on the base so that the vibration comes right into the house and reverberates the windows and doors. I can actually feel it on my body. Does this happen anywhere where you live?
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 14:15:29 GMT
I think its what you identified as the owners house at the end of a long red roof.
Mick, I am sure you will find a tree or two of Cecropa in Kew? They also had something on Google.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:41:31 GMT
living
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:40:50 GMT
Rainy, wet Mother's Day!
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:39:54 GMT
Plooysburg - is a small town about 70 km west of Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. It is situated close to the Riet River. With a church, school, police station and shop it serves a local farming and farm-worker community.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:34:53 GMT
htmb - I find your neighbors guilty of bad manners! It is normal for close neighbors to drop a note or phone to tell you of their late night intentions and apologise for the noise in advance. Secondly, if this is not done we have a law which does not allow loud music beyond 10pm unless previously arranged, and the police can be summoned to quiet things down. Obviously nobody wants to be a party-pooper but there could be a sickly person that does not need excessive music thumping. Our latest new neighbors dropped pamphlets in all surrounding letter boxes a week before they intended slaughtering a cow for a religious ceremony/party of dearly departed. We dreaded the agonising yelling of the cow as its throat was cut but were pleasantly surprised that we heard nothing like that, but what was a bit worrying, was people drinking liquor from their car boots and sitting on chairs in the road. This is also breaking the law in a public place, but these days seems quite normal.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:13:47 GMT
cooked a biriani curry with minced beef and mushrooms. It was really tasty if I say it myself, That sounds interesting Mick - I love savoury or curry mince on rice so I guess this would fit right in. Give us a hint how you went about creating the Biryani effect. Last night I grilled very young ( I hate to say "baby" lamb) rack in my airfyer. It does the outside really brown and the inside pale pink and juicy. Earlier on in the day I curried some white cabbage with carrots in a tomato, red pepper and harissa sauce, so that was on the plate together with some of my white bean samp. Today I'm doing duck confit with savoury rice and sweet potato mash and fresh green beans.
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Post by tod2 on May 8, 2022 10:05:23 GMT
Mick - those trees are: Cecropa Telenitida or in Spanish...Arbol Yaruma Blanco - I thought they look very interesting and certainly stick out among the other green foliage. Here is the link: tinyurl.com/3np7a6xuMark, lovely interesting pic again! At the farm house I wondered why they had a long covered walkway to what could be stables ( red roof).
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Post by tod2 on May 7, 2022 13:17:14 GMT
day
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Post by tod2 on May 7, 2022 13:15:36 GMT
I’m sure you don’t really want to know this but I’d washed a pair of underwear the day before and due to the climate, hadn’t yet dried properly - Mark you woes! What do you think hairdryers were made for.....Yes to dry damp clothing. Now you know. BUT, did you know this..Hairdryers can iron clothes.? Put on a rumpled shirt that has a bit of Polyester in the fabric. get someone or yourself to pull the fabric taught whilst blowing the hot air onto it. Works extremely well with Viscose ( a fabric made from wood pulp).
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Post by tod2 on May 7, 2022 7:43:53 GMT
HAMMANSKRAAL - A region in Gauteng Province South Africa. Owing to the booming agricultural industry, a farmer by the name Hamman had a large agricultural venture where he owned a famous cattle barn. This barn was referred to in Afrikaans as Hammanskraal, named after the famous farmer.
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Post by tod2 on May 7, 2022 7:36:41 GMT
Lovely autumn day with sun appearing from behind some clouds.
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 16:27:23 GMT
Not really, If your pots are heavy bottomed. So much is made of heavy copper-bottom pots but they are hellish expensive and now know why. I find each pot has a merit, and then a certain element where is lets the chef down. Take the small pot in my pic. I used it tonight to fry up some chunks of cooked potato in peanut oil. In no time there was spattering and each time I went to flip the pieces they had stuck to the bottom. This was a previous BnB pot slightly scorched. I now know it was because the bottom is too thin and they had the flame of the gas too high.. I will mark it now for boiling eggs at breakfast in my kitchen!!
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 9:53:39 GMT
I love old ruins and yesterday was watching the documentary on how castles first came into fashion/construction . So when I saw your ruined castle Montaigle, I Googled it. There is a re-construction image of it on Google.
"Montaigle Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Falaën in the municipality of Onhaye, province of Namur, Wallonia. It was built in the 14th century, and destroyed by Henry II of France in 1554. It stands on a rocky spur overlooking the valleys of the Molignée and of the Flavion."
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 9:38:36 GMT
Gosh its ages since I started this thread and thought my latest pic could show Bixa how I did the last lot of Samp & Beans. First thing you notice is that the whole dish is white. Which means no Sugar Beans/Speckled beans which are brown. I bought a packet of small white beans for some recipe I was doing and had 3/4 of the packet left. So I soaked them together with the samp(hominy) over night and after a good rinse put them in my slow cooker with lots of bay leaves, and filled it up with a vegetable stock I had in powder form from Germany. The white bean packet was sent from Greece BUT when I read the very small print it was revealed "Product of Canada". A truly international African dish!
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 9:21:01 GMT
Every now and then I have to do a major cutback of sword ferns who almost completely take over my little garden at the entrance to he house from the garages. There are also some spiky plants with thickish wooden stems which need serios cutting back and at one time I noticed the tiles lifting but they seems to have settled and moved no further. I don't know the name of the groundcover that has just come into bloom with small pink flowers.
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 9:04:13 GMT
wig
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Post by tod2 on May 6, 2022 9:02:44 GMT
Some superb botanical specimens Mark! Those bright colours are sensational! Those cute yellow birds maybe Cuckoo Finches. They do resemble the Yellow Weaver but their beaks are shorter and stouter in the Finches.
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