Red Kite, the beer

I discovered this beer a few months ago, they started selling it at the local Marks & Spencer. It is a real ale from Vale Brewery. I bought it aprtially because red kites are very common in this part of England and I thought it thus fitted the setting to drink such a beer here, I mean it's an inspired name if everything else about it fails. They chose the name because the beer has the real ale has the same kind of colour as red kites. I don't judge a beer merely for its label or its name though: I love ruby ales and this one has chestnut flavour, which is a big winner for me (nutty flavoured ales are always nice). And it is a bitter, also something I love about a beer. And? And I was not disappointed: it really tastes as good as it looks. So the red Kite from Vale Brewery is my new poison of predilection.

Almost an equinox

Today is the 21st of September, but I have learned on the calendar that it is not the autumnal equinox just yet: it will only happen on the 23rd of September, two days from now. All the same, I consider all of September to be autumn and I certainly cannot wait for two thirds of it, let alone two more days, to consider that autumn is here. And today was very autumnal: the wind was blowing nicely, the sun seemed to bring little warmth and less light and coloured leaves were scattered on the ground. I went to the nearby park I went to yesterday, again to pick up conkers. I stayed for ages, just enjoying this autumnal day, maybe the first true autumn day we had since the beginning of the month. Almost an equinox.

Spider repellent

As an answer to the recent home invasion of arachnids, which I have blogged about here, I went to the nearest park this afternoon to get conkers. It has, among other virtues, the capacity to repel spiders. I was skeptical about it at first, but when I went a while ago to the DIY shop to buy spider repellent, I discovered that it was made of, and smelled of, conkers. So I thought this year, I'd go for the natural thing. It is cheaper, it does not smell nearly as strong and it is a good excuse as any to have a walk in a park on a day when it is finally starting to look and feel like autumn. There was a father and his daughter doing the same thing as me. I am not sure it was for the same reason, but anyway. There was this huge chestnut tree in the park and plenty of conkers to share. So I took a pocket full of them. Now I will have to scatter them around the flat.

Bogue d'Or

Un billet brassicole pour commencer la journée et un retour sur la Bretagne par ricochet. Je vous ai déjà parlé de la Telenn Du lors d'un précédent billet. Mes beaux-parents m'ont envoyé une carte postale avec en prime l'étiquette d'une bière que j'avais bue là-bas. La Bogue d'Or est une bière à la châtaigne et elle est absolument délicieuse. Je crois que c'est une bière qui se boirait mieux l'automne (c'est d'ailleurs ce qu'on mentionne sur l'étiquette), mais comme il faisait frais et qu'on n'a pas vraiment eu d eprintemps, c'était tout comme. C'est un produit de la Brasserie Lancelot. Alors voilà pour la plogue.