My friend Jedrzej, the Polish Corkonian, has just had an exhibition of his photographs in his home town, Przemysl, in Poland.
Look carefully at the shot and you will see that the ‘Eagull made it to the selected few.

I have long been a fan of the cookery writing of the late Alan Davidson.
He wrote the definitive books on both Atlantic and Mediterranean fish and then topped off his career by the greatest reference book for food of all time: The Oxford Companion to Food.

There used to be an excellent secondhand cook book seller in Brighton called Liz Seeber who retired from that game a few years ago. Just before she went, however she sold off great chunks of her stock in job lots. Among these was a lot of paperbacks dealing with the food of Southern France which I snapped up for a few paltry pounds.
I was delighted to find, when I opened these that several were from the liberary of Mr. Davidson and had his bookplate inside the front cover, the stuff I reckon that his heirs thought were not going to be worth putting into the auction of his library some years later.

Good moment.

Seeing as she is (now) the same years old as myself and we have been friends for probably close on fifty years (True!) it was time she got a posting all to her self.
Happy Birthday Old Friend, and many more of them.

Yes we’ll still Need You
(And sometimes we’ll feed you)
Now you’re
Sixty
Four.

Photo take in about 1972, only forty years ago.

Ruadhan on his (other) grandfather’s boat

Last evening Síle’s choir La Canterela gave an excellent recital of Dvorjak’s Mass in D in the church of St. Jacques in Beziers, they had a full house and got a great reception. Flavien Miannay, their conductor gave a little speech at the end and said I won’t keep you long as I know you are all looking forward to your coq.

I was probably the only one in the church startled, everyone else knew that the “coq ” Flavian referred to was a light, sugared brioche bun which is traditionally eaten yesterday on the feast of St. Aphrodise, the patron saint of Beziers. These were awaiting us at the reception after the concert in the Museé Biterroise.

This morning, celebrating the Saint and a day off, I took a picture of the weather cock on our church in Thezan (which we can see from the front door).
The church is reputed to be 12th century and the Coq has a nice primitive look to him. As you can see the only one who gets close enough to harm him are the pigeons who like to roost on his back and streak him with bird crap

Or “If music be the food of love play on”

We are having a little early heat wave here at thye moment which I am loving.
Temperatures up tp 30C on the terrace yesterday.
It became obvious that we were going to have our First Dinner of The Summer on the Terrace so I decided to celebrate this with something suitable and put together the recipe below.

It was just about perfect and now enters the Presbytere Repetoire.
Try it for a plate full of the warm south.

Terrace Chicken (for 4)

Heat oven to 175 C

1 Large free range chicken 4 Shallots Large Sprig Thyme 2 Aubergines 2 Red Peppers 1 Lemon Olive Oil Salt and Pepper

Halve the lemon, peel the shallots stuff these with the thyme in the chicken and seal the end with a skewer.
Brown the breast of the chicken breast side down in olive oil in a pan, season thoroughly with salt and black pepper then put this, still breast down in the oven for an hour.
Cut the Aubergines in about eight slices along their length and brown the cut sides quickly in olive oil, do the same with the peppers.
When the chicken has cooked for an hour turn it breast side up and tuck the pieces of aubergine and pepper around it in the roasting tin, season these also.
After another half hour take the chicken out and put it somewhere to keep warm with the aubergine and pepper.
Shake the shallot and lemon onto the roasting tin, squeeze the lemon and discard the skin, mash the shallot and discard the sprig of thyme. Throw a glass of water (or wine) onto the pan and let it bubble for a few minutes.
Carve the chicken up roughly and divide on to four plates, portion out the peppers and the aubergines. Spoon over the delicious shallot and lemon juices.
You can serve this with rice but I think it is even better with a bowl of green salad and some bread to mop up the juices.

Another beautiful day so I have decided to adopt my summer wardrobe of shorts and flip-flops (called thongs here but please ignore that)
Unless we have a weather relapse (always possible) I won’t see socks or long trousers again (except for funerals) until late November.
On small step…………

“Juste”.

This is an interesting word which , I think, says a lot about the French.

The dictionaries define it as meaning ,” accurate”, ” just right” but in practice the French use it as something which is just a little too small, tight or mean and therefore just not appropriate.
To say that something is “un peu juste ” in reality means that it must be discarded and the next size up substituted.

Síle with all of her brothers and one of her sisters in Dublin last weekend.
(And meself and two nieces)