Sheep!

On Wednesday 6 rams were rather unceremoniously delivered to Les Bassacs in the back of a battered old Renault 5.  The rest of the troupeau (all girls) are in the field below the road.  Every morning they congregate either side of the tarmac to lament their separation.

They lend a gentle,  bucolic air to the place and encourage people to stop, contemplate the scene and chat in the sunshine.  Robert, our neighbour tells us that the last troop of sheep kept in Les Bassacs was owned by his father in law in the 1970's.  The shepherd was castigated by some in-comers from Marseille for allowing the sheep to foul the road as he drove them out to pasture.  The offended second-homer followed the shepherd with a dustpan and brush! 

First Quarter Moon and Venus over Les Bassacs

French Conversation

This splendid manual of conversation was published in 1912 and was found by us on a local tip.  It harks back to a delightfully archaic form of conversation, polite but also frank.  I include a bizarre conversation about a horse which sets the tone!

A French traveler setting out on holiday to England was apparently expecting to paint and write.  There are two pages of vocabulary devoted to writing and painting and three pages of conversation about painting.  Its hard to imagine this being included in a modern phrase book.

Essential vocabulary for a painter

Amsterdam, plein hiver!

Just as the ice is finally starting to melt here, Terry Thompson sent me this beautiful photo of the frozen canal near his studio.  When the canals freeze over, the whole of Amsterdam gets out on the ice to skate.  In Terry's picture you can see two people doing just that. Terry tells me he wasn't tempted, but Bea was out there enjoying it while it lasted. 

The thaw has arrived in Les Bassacs, I am so glad to be able to go outside without being blasted by the icy mistral.  This morning the sun had some real warmth to it and I'm hoping that this is my last snowy blog.

Pistache by the fire

For cat lovers everywhere, Pistache enjoying our wood burning stove.

The Singing Ringing Tree

I am indebted to our friends Will and Bea Rae-Smith

for news and photos of this oak tree near Rustrel which was caught by a farmer's irrigation system as the cold air arrived in the valley.  Will tells us that if you shake the tree the icicles jangle together making a beautiful sound.

More Snow!

Brun de Vian-Tiran at L'Isle sur la Sorgue

It has suddenly gone cold at night here and is the first real indication that there really is a winter out there somewhere . . .  One of the things about old stone Provencal houses is that in this kind of weather the draughty fit to the windows makes its presence felt, particularly in a Mistral!  Looking for a way to keep warm, I came across the family run luxury blanket factory of Brun de Vian-Tiran at L'Isle sur la Sorgue.

 

The Sorgue coursing through the village has provided free energy for an assortment of industries, the earliest of which were water-powered flour mills and wool mills. 

The wool came from the flocks grazing on the nearby Crau in the Alpilles.  The fleeces were soaked in basins of pure Sorgue water,  where they were then pounded by water-driven hammers to degrease the wool.

Between 1750 and 1850 there were 35 wool processing plants in L'Isle, the only one that remains today is  Brun de Vian-Tiran.  

It is a family run business started in 1808, and the factory was water-driven until as recently as 1922.  They process over 50 varieties of wool from mohair to camel yak and lama. They also use wool from a heritage breed of Merinos from Arles, sheep reputed to have the finest wool in Europe. 

The Brun de Vian-Tiran still use locally grown teasles to card the wool,

 and the factory machinery, is a work of art in itself.

Pruning

 

 The farmers are busy pruning the cherry trees.   The trees are at their most architectural at this time of year, their branches a stark black against the blue sky.  As you travel round the valley, you can see how each farmer has his own distinctive preferred shape.

 

The vineyards are also being cared for too.  When young, the vines are pruned to produce a strong straight trunk with two lateral limbs called "cordon".  Last year's growth is being cut back now, so that the vine is left with a short cane with fruiting buds which will produce next year's grapes.  As not all buds will fruit, the length of the cane and the number of buds left on it will determine the success of the coming harvest. 

As most pruning is done during the cold days of January the pruners have these ingenious improvised carts with them in the vineyards.  They act as portable bonfires for simultaneously burning the cuttings and keeping the workers warm!

Happy New Year 2012

Still Life: Drawing Board, Pipe, Onions and Sealing Wax by Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh painted this still life at the New Year 1889.  He depicts familiar objects laid out on his drawing board -  his pipe, a letter from Theo, sealing wax and onions past their best.   The book, Manuel annuaire de la santé is a reference to his concern to maintain good physical health.  He has included a traditional green Provençal olive oil jar, which is identical to this one from the kitchen at Les Bassacs.  It is of exactly the same beautiful deep green glaze and terracotta.

Like many of us at the beginning of a new year Van Gogh was full of good resolve, "the desire comes over me to remake myself"  and convinced that he would find happiness and good health in the act of painting.   

He wrote to Theo his brother, "I am going to set to work again tomorrow.  I shall begin by doing one or two still life's so as to get back into the habit of painting".   

That January he completed 15 paintings all of them still life's or portraits including three versions of his 'Sunflowers'. 

This painting made in January 1889 'Still life with Oranges, Lemons and Blue Gloves', captures for me some of that post-Christmas ennui that slightly tired citrus fruit conjures up.