This just arrived to me from Spain where lifelong buddy Michael scours the airwaves daily for suitable pieces for the blog.

Here’s a nice Lost in Translation for you.

Un saludo,

Et Voila ;

Now someone please help me out.
While looking up recipes for Fig Jam this morning I kept coming across an Australian acronym of seeming profound smugness ;
Fuck I’m Good, Just Ask Me.

When exactly would be a useful time to make this statement ?

On our way to Roquebrun for a swim yesterday (it is about 35C here at the moment) we glanced at the fig tree on the backroad to Murviel and saw that it is laden with fruit this year.

Not ones to be greedy we picked two kilos which I will turn into jam today.

I just love Le Bassin, it is the twice yearly journal of the town of Thezan Les Beziers and, as well as being a very professional, and glossy production it is full of excellent articles and pictures of the happenings in the town for the past six months.

Here’s some stuff from the one which was dropped in the door today.

An article and photo about the great Thezan Clean Up in April- note the two Irish heads in there.

A piece about an excellent clarinet concert in the church in May.
The two Irish heads can also be spotted (by the extremely dilligent) in the audience.

This regular piece I love, the “Where Are They Now” shot, this one from the primary school in the early thirties. Making all the classmates well into their eighties.
I am quite sure there are still a load of them alive and well and living in Thezan.

There we are again, this time our commercial presence being acknowledged for the first time.

And this regular on the back page always manages to produce and old picture of the town which is new to me.
That building on the right, which has fascinated me for ages, was I now know the original Poste.

When I went into the garden yesterday morning I discovered to my dismay that two of my little embryonic lemons had fallen from the tree on to the ground beneath.
Did they fall -I asked myself-Or were they pushed.

Anyway in the interestests of science I took them onto the terrace and did an autopsy on one, and found it perfectly viable inside and ready to grace a gin and tonic- even the smell was present- if a little faint.

The books do tell me that I should cull some of the fruit on the first fruiting and I haven’t had the heart, so maybe this is just nature doing this for me.

And, The tree is growing blossoms as I speak so there will be more fruit soon.

The delicious, slightly tart, red cheeked,Roussillon Apricots are in the shops and markets now and they make the most perfect jam.
Use jam sugar, weight for weight with the quartered, stoned fruit and (like me) throw in few left over strawberries to make it even redder.
Boil for five minutes and eat with croissants or brioche- who needs a fry?

Are, from top left clockwise

Seville Orange Marmalade, oranges bought in Waterford and brought to France frozen to be made here (I still havn’t found a source of Sevilles in France).

Roussillon Apricot Jam, these apricots are almost red and quite tart and make the best apricot jam.

Quince and Pomegranate Jelly, food for free from the hedges around the village last autumn.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam, a surprising and very successful jam, the colour and the flavour quite intense.

I need hardly say these are all home made.

This one just shows off our new table cover, an early breakfast, in the cool of the morning, before the sun came round to the south.