Less Coffee, More Tea

I took this picture a few days ago from the Facebook page of David's Tea. I understand they have been struggling for a while now and been a bit discreet on social media, but I do like their products and love how they made tea cool again. Be that as it may, I love this table, although I don't know how accurate it is. From my personal experience, it is very accurate, especially about the smooth sailing energy. I don't drink coffee anymore, I'm a total tea drinker, but I am sharing it today hoping to evangelise. Drinking tea is just better.

Gâteau

 Des fois, je fais un gâteau pour petit loup. Pour le reste de la famille aussi, mais surtout pour petit loup, parce qu'il a été sage ou parce que je veux qu'il le soit et que c'est toujours utile d'avoir du gâteau à portée de la main (pour ainsi dire) afin de l'encourager. Mais j'en fais surtout parce que je préfère les desserts faits maison à ceux achetés et des fois l'envie me prend. Enfin bref, j'ai fait un gâteau récemment, tout simple, à la vanille, deux étages avec de la confiture au milieu, sans glaçage cette fois-ci. Il est en train de partir dans le temps de le dire.

The Train Money Box

 I received a few Amazon vouchers from my employers as a thank you gift for being a high performing employee. It happens sometimes. So I bought some Amazon stuff to make my life nicer. Apparently, it works like this. Things I did not necessarily need. As I have a lot of spare change and I never know what to do with it, I bought myself a money box. I mean, I could just give it to Wolfie, who would put it in his own piggy bank, but I thought he gets enough money as it is, just for the sake of dropping it in his piggy bank. So, I got this one for me. Hand mande and all in wood, it of course has a train on it. It looks elegant on a desk and there's a train on it, which was a very good reason to buy it. It is not the most practical piggy bank: I cannot take its content unless I take it apart. And I'm not so sure how to do it. So the highest value coin I dropped in it was 20p. It won't make me rich, but I like looking at it.

Pivoines Rocky

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de ses pivoines, comme je le mentionnais hier. Parce que c'est l'été et que Vraie Fiction prend les couleurs de la saison (même celle que j'aime le moins), voici une autre photo de ses pivoines. Celles-ci sont des pivoines "Rocky" et je n'ai aucune idée de pourquoi elles ont ce nom.

The Werewolves' New Moon

 I blogged back in 2017 about The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, a card game/board game and borderline role-playing game about, well, werewolves. So it is a horror game of sorts. I bought one formy  brother Andrew in its original French version,then years later I bought the localised version for Blonde Tickler. But never for myself. Then, to my great surprise, I stumbled upon its first expansion, called New Moon, in a toy shop in Wallingford. Now how cool is that? I am very tempted to buy it next time, and get my hands on the original, so I can play it during my countdown to Halloween. This seems to be the perfect game when the season of the witch comes.

Pivoines Shima Nishiki

Mon père m'a envoyé des photos de ses pivoines. Pivoines "Shima Nishiki", allez savoir pourquoi. Mais bon, je voulais mettre de la couleur dans le blogue et illustrer le changement de saisons. Même si je n'aime pas beaucoup l'été.

Where to find Komodo Dragons

 You may remember from this post that I have a certain interest for Komodo dragons.I find these big, venomous lizards fascinating. Well, I learned to my surprise that you can find them in capativity here in England and not too far from where we live. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook pictures he took from his visit to Crocodiles Of The World, a zoo specialised in, well, big lizards. And lo and behold, among them was a picture of a Komodo dragon. In fact, they have a whole Komodo Dragon Experience. I just can't believe it. Not on our doorstep, but pretty close. Real Komodo dragons. We might not plan our visit very soon, our next weekends will be pretty busy, but it is good to know that we have another zoo to go and thatit would be a completely new experience. With Komodo dragons. I still cannot believe it.

"L'échec du rail"

J'ai lu avec intérêt un article dans L'Actualité intitulé L'échec du rail, d'une certaine Taras Grescoe. À propos du piètre état des transports ferroviaires en Amérique du Nord, tant aux États-Unis qu'au Canada. Ca m'attriste toujours et ça m'enrage au moins autant, parce que ça n'a pas toujours été le cas et que ça aurait pu être évité. En fait, on pourrait changer les choses. Je vous invite donc à lire l'article. Il fait un bon résumé de la situation et un excellent plaidoyer pour changer les choses. Je rêve de pouvoir voyager de Montréal à Québec, voire à Chicoutimi, en train, dans des délais raisonnables.

Ascot Racecourse (in Wallingford)

We saw a lot of nice things during our last trip to Wallingford. This is what I love about this town: so many nice little palces and nice sights. There was one shop, a hat shop, which I never set foot in yet, that always has a really nice and inventive window dressing. It isalways topical. Last time, it featured a representation of Ascot Racecourse. My wife has been to Ascot at least once, I never went. I am not really into horseracing, but I can understand the appeal. It looks kind of glamorous. I think I prefer it like this with figures. It is still, but it looks all neat and fancy.

Cymbidium

Je partage une photo d'un des cymbidiums de mon père. Rien que pour mettre un peu de couleurdans le blogue.

Return to the Wallingford Bookshop

We went to Wallingford recently, one of my favourite towns in England. Of course I made time to return to the Wallingford Bookshop. This had been long overdue: I think my last visit dated back to September. I behaved, I only bought one book. It is my wife who found it. She just said: "I have seen one you might like." I asked her to show it to me to save time, as it was late in the day. And yes, I did like the look of it and bought it. It's not the first time it happened, and in this very bookshop. I said I only bought one book, but this is not quite true: I also ordered one through them. I will tell you which one in another post, but let's just say now that I find it nice that I will buy a novel that is now hard to find thanks to a bookshop and not Amazon. I feel kind of proud of my initiative.

Du blanc-manger?

Nous sommes allés à un mariage la fin de semaine dernière, comme vous le savez (si vous suivez ce blogue). Ce qu'il y a de bien dans les noces, c'est souvent le repas. Le dessert était assez original: c'était je crois du blanc-manger. Je ne suis pas certain, mais ça en avait l'air en tout cas. Une sorte de dessert au riz avec une confiture. Je crois vraiment que c'était du blanc-manger. Il y avait aussi une tarte au chocolat, que petit loup a mangée. Ma femme était un peu déçue d'avoir du blanc-manger, moi aussi au début j'avoue, mais j'ai trouvé ça très original. Et après les excès du repas principal, c'était léger et de circonstances.

Sangria

My parents told me that they recently bought a bottle of already made sangria, but that it was not good. That trivial bit of conversation reminded me that a few years ago, I was a fairly regular drinker of sangria. It was back when I was a uni student: at our kitchen parties, or simply at our gatherings, we often made sangria. Ironically, my friends then were mostly Italian. We bought some cheap wine, some fizzy soft drink, fresh fruits, fruit juice and a bottle of spirit, either tequila, gin or vodka. And we mixed it in the biggest bowl we could find. That's how our evenings started, usually. My Spaniard friend would say: "All right guys, we're gonna make sangria." And we did. I don't remember it tasting nice, but we drank plenty of it. I don't remember getting drunk from it, but one of my Italian friends got sick on sangria at the end of the infamous Saint Paddy's kitchen party of 2,000. Infamous in our circle of friends at the time anyway. Shehad decided to finish the bowl when everybody but three people were gone, after my other friend and I were downing beers. I still tease her about it. But yeah, after my uni years, I don't think I ever drank sangria again.

La lampe hippopotame

Nous sommes allés à un marage la semaine dernière et nous avons passé la nuit à l'hôtel. C'était un très beau site, même si le service était parfois déficient. Au déjeuner, nous avons mangé dans une très belle salle, avec, surprise surprise, une lampe en forme d'hippopotame. Ou "popotame", comme on dit dans mon côté de la famille. Avec l'ampoule dans la gueule. La lampe a fait une forte impression sur Wolfie, allez savoir pourquoi. Il a insisté pour que je la prenne en photo.

4,000 Year Old Board Game

 Who said that time and history has no sense of humour? I found this meme online a couple of years ago. I don't know how accurate it is, but I thought it was really funny. I think I have seen this board game somewhere else, probably on the Facebook page of the British Museum. In any case, I wished I knew the rules. It looks like a primitive backgammon. What do you think? How would you play?

Les fraises

Juin, c'est le mois des fraises, du moins au Québec. Par conséquent, mon père a acheté des fraises il y a quelques jours, un casseau ou peut-être plus. Je crois qu'elles sont de l'Île, mais je n'en suis pas certain. Il m'a envoyé des photos dans tous les cas. Je sais, je montre encore de la food porn. Mais enfin bref, puisque les fraises sont l'un des aspects de l'été que j'aime encore, je partage la photo. Vous les mangeriez comment, ces fraises-là?

June and Juno

The things you learn thanks to the Facebook page of the British Museum. They shared this picture recently, a 15th century enamelled mirror. It represents the Goddess Juno and Queen Dido, in a scene from the Aeneid. June is named after Juno, as you probably know. I knew it, but it is nice to be reminded of it and of an epic poem which I have read, but don't remember much. In any case, if you did not know the connection, now you do.

Michel Côté et le Québec

Excellente nouvelle: lors du spectacle de la Fête Nationale, on rendra un hommage à Michel Côté. je crois que ça tombe sous le sens et pas seulement parce qu'il est mort récemment. Michel Côté était peut-être le plus québécois des acteurs québécois. L'un des plus aimés, certainement, mais il a tellement incarné le Québec dans ce qu'il avait de mieux et aussi dans ce qu'il avait de plus typique. Enfin bref, je suis encore en deuil.

A red panda on the run

Do you love red pandas? I sure do. They look like cute little plush toy made of flesh and bones. They just look sooo adorable. I'm a bit of a sucker for red pandas. But maybe I am just saying commonplaces here. Who doesn't love red pandas? A heartless monster, that's who. So a bit of news recently caught my attention: a red panda escaped from a zoo in Cornwall last Friday and was seen walking about in the street. She was later on captured and returned to the zoo. Although the escape was short, it is far more epic to have a red panda on the run than a bunch of cows. Anyway, I'm glad Sundara (that's her name) is safe and sound and I hope she enjoyed her time out.

Un juin tolérable?

C'est le premier juin, le début officieux de l'été et quant à moi le vrai début de la saison. Je n'aime pas beaucoup juin, je vous le dis tout de suite, justement parce que c'est un mois d'été. Cela dit, je me permets une pointe d'espoir pour cette année. Jusqu'ici, nous n'avons pas eu beaucoup de journées aux températures estivales, tout d'abord. Selon la météo, il va faire un temps assez frais, un peu en deça des normales saisonnières. Ce que d'autres vont appeler un été pourri. Quant à moi, c'est un été tolérable. Enfin, ça pourrait en être un, touchons du bois.