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I actually made it to Ceret on Saturday, but I was otherwise occupied - I'm working out a trip to Carcassonne. Anyhow, Ceret - it's a town in the Roussiland region, notable for a very wide arch bridge and a Picasso museum.
I'm really liking this part of France. Paris is not the city I thought it would be - I was there for a day and people were rude to me - but here, people help me with my french, you say bonjour... it's a very relaxed and friendly culture. So not like paris.
While this was supposed to be my day off, Namua needed help with her book stall (her main source of income is an english language book stall) and I drew the short stall. Still, I got to wander around - it's a nice place.
The picasso museum is definately worth a visit. His matador ceramics are there - very iconic images of a bullfight, about 15 in all (of various sizes.) They are very simple, with only four colours in the most complex: white, black, yellow, and blue - I liked them a lot.
The rest of the museum is pretty cool; I'm no art critic but I liked what I saw there. It's contemporary, and I make no claims to like everything- the second exhibit was devoted to some very abstract images that were.... not so interesting. Whatever; it was a good morning.
The farm has been a bit of a challenge; there's only two woofers here right now so getting everything done has not been easy. The weather is also not that great. I should be clearing underbrush right now, to avoid a fire hazard later in the year (Laroque is in a zone rouge) and if it rains I simply can't.
Amoung the crops Namua is raising is a little grain called Amaranth, a high protein grain. There's quite a bit planted in rows, with each plant being (ideally) about a finger width apart. There was quite a lot of weeding to be done, however, as it seems that the last woofers were just not getting stuff done.
I learned how to make buckwheat soy pudding - it's real simple. Take about half a litre of unsweetened soy milk and heat it over the stove; add what flavours you like (cocoa, dates, raisins, coconut, vanilla, whatever) and stir until mixed. Add about half a cup of buckwheat flour and continue to stir - it's best to be gentle with the buckwheat, because if you add too much the mixture thickens into a mousse.
I also just learned how to make date nut balls, which are as simple as they sound. I'm not learning as much as I'd like about organic farming (mostly because I missed the planting season, I think) but this is still a pretty good way to balance out the carbon emissions of flying.
By the way, I'm keeping a photoblog as well; most of my vacation pictures are there rather than here - it's a question of who owns the photos, in the end. Check it out at www.photoblog.com/gleslie - I think that that's a little better than just slapping everything on facebook.
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