If you're a mouse, I'd watch out.

Back in September, we were standing outside at about 10:00 pm.  I heard a faint cry and then it seemed to get louder and louder.  It was coming from across our yard down by the forest.  We live across from Le Forêt de Grésigne (which is the largest oak forest in Europe).  Anyway, we walked around the house and down across the road, Bruce had a flashlight and we could hear the cry, but couldn't see anything.  Then Bruce said "oh my god" and right at the edge of the forest, in a bunch of nettles we saw this little black "thing"....I picked it up and it was a little tiny kitten.  She was so tiny, she fit in the palm of my hand.

Still a bit scared...I don't think she got off the couch and ventured around for 2 weeks.

The man and his cat

After a month with us, she found our bed

We took her back to the house, because we couldn't just leave her outside as she probably would have been eaten by an owl or a fox.  She was shaking and scared when we brought her into the house. I didn't have any cat food and didn't think I should feed her dog food, so all I could give her was milk. She drank it right up.  We got a basket and put a blanket in it and put it in the bathroom with some water.  She cried for quite a while and then fell asleep.

The next morning we took her to the vet because we knew we were going to keep her.  We had talked about getting another cat (we did have Maillot and Mr. Fancypants) - who both found us when we first moved here for our sabbatical in 2009, but we had to find them new homes when we had to return to the states in 2010, as we didn't know if we would be coming back to France and we didn't think it was fair to take them back to Los Angeles.  They were wild cats, roaming around all day and being in Los Angeles would be very different.  Lately we've been hearing mice in the walls and seeing droppings in the pantry (luckily we keep the door closed).  I tried to trap with a "safe" trap, but they never fell for it.

The vet told us the little kitten was about 3-4 weeks old.  Taken way too soon from her Mother.  I'm sure someone just dumped her (very common here), as we never saw a Mama cat.  We named her Colette, because she's all black and our little hamlet of 3 houses were homes of the charbonniers, who made charcoal from wood in the Forest back in the 1800's.  So, if she would have been a boy her name would have been Cole, but since she's a girl, we named her Colette.

She's a lovely little girl - now almost 5 months old.  She's easy, loving (not too needy) and independent (but not too independent), loves her Momma AND, she a huntress.  She goes out first thing in the morning and within an hour she's either got a mouse or a little mole.  She usually tortures it right in front of our glass door, I have to look away as it seems so cruel.  But last night...oh last night.  She sleeps in the house at night, not in our bedroom, usually in her basket in the living room.  Last night I got up at 3:00 am to use the bathroom and there she was, right by my feet.  She scared me, as I didn't turn on the light and didn't know she was there.  Then she started darting around the toilet and I went and turned the light on.  Behind the toilet was a big fat mouse - who was about to have a very bad night.  I couldn't do anything about it, so I just went back to bed.  Bruce got up to go to the bathroom after me (I guess I woke him up), and I said "Colette has a mouse in the bathroom", but that was all I said and we didn't talk about it when he came back into bed.   So, this morning we went into the bathroom and didn't see a mouse, we looked around the house and no mouse, nothing (not a head or tail or liver or kidney).  Then about 1/2 hour later I went to take a shower. I looked in and what did I see - a liver or kidney and blood....in the shower!  Yuck.  But...yay. She got the mouse that had been in the pantry.  She's earning her keep for sure.

Tired girl after mouse hunting

See the little mole on the ground?????

Then I cleaned the shower.

2 of my favorite winter soups

Our Sunday market in St. Antonin Noble Val

We eat loads of vegetables at our house.  Most dinners consist of a lean protein and veggies.  That's it. One of my favorite soups to make is a winter potage.  I don't use potato or cream, just seasonal vegetables.  It's so simple, so healthy and very filling.

Winter Potage

ingredients:
coconut oil or olive oil
2 leeks (diced)
1 onion (diced)
3 carrots (diced)
1 head of broccoli (cut up)
1/2 head of cauliflower (cut up)
Kale, spinach or chard (cut up)
2 cloves garlic
herbs de Provence
salt/pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
water as needed

I head 2 TB oil in my le creuset and add the garlic, onion and leeks.  Cook for about 5-6 minutes.  Add the rest of the vegetables, 1 tsp herbs de provence, salt/petter and chicken broth.  If the broth doesn't cover the vegetables, add more or use water.  You just want the vegetables covered.  Bring to boil and reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.  I then purée it in my Blendtec.  That's it.  So easy and such a great way to get veggies in your diet.  I keep it pretty thick too, hence the name potage.

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup (from Supideasypaleo.com)

ingredients:
3 carrots
1 medium/large butternut squash
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
salt/pepper to taste
Melted coconut oil or other fat of choice

Preheat over to 400 degrees (200 C).  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Peel squash and cut it lengthwise down the middle.  Scoop out the seeds.  Chop the squash into a large dice.  Place on the baking sheet and drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Do the same with the carrots.
Bake squash and carrots for 20 minutes or until they are soft and lightly brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and put the veggies in a pot.  Add the rest of the ingredients:  chicken stock, coconut milk, cumin and cinnamon and stir.  Puree the soup until smooth.  I keep this thick as well.

I've got a new job this year.

I'm married to a painter. A very talented painter.  But as with most artists, he's horrible at marketing himself.  We finally have a place where he can focus on his art.  The past few years we've been in a small village house and one of our bedrooms was his studio.  It was very hard, since most of his work is large abstract pieces.  Since we've been in the farmhouse he's been using our gite as his studio, it's perfect!

My favorite piece - and the only one that isn't for sale.

Now back to the marketing problem.  My husband gives his work away!  Seriously....gives it away. As a business woman this makes me crazy.  He's sold many paintings, so it's not like he needs to give his work away, but he's just too nice and he has a hard time pricing his work and then asking for the price once it's set.  Me on the other hand, have no problem pricing his work and asking for the price.  So we have decided that my new job is to represent him.  I built a new website for his work,  I manage his twitter account, facebook account and all the other sites where his work is listed.  I will also be working with galleries and getting his work "out there" for others to see and buy.  I'm also going to document him working in the studio and I get to say "it's finished".  If he had his way, he'd work on a piece forever, probably producing 1 piece a year!

I'm proud to have such a talented husband, watching him draw and paint amazes me.  So, that's my new job.  It doesn't pay very well, well not at all, until he sells a piece.  But it's very rewarding and something we can do together, like everything else in our life.  You can check out his work here and if you are interested in anything, just let me know.  We can ship anywhere in the world.

New piece hanging in our living room.

In the studio.

Charcoal, conte on watercolor paper

oil on canvas