That’s what Antonia thinks. This seems like the most snow we’ve had for ages. It would be nice if it stays cold so it doesn’t thaw too quickly.
The igloo made by our friends:
The snow bear:
Monthly Archives: March 2008
New space
I took the TV out of the living room and arranged this table so that the kids could sit round it and eat or draw yesterday. I really love this arrangement, but even though we’ve given up daily junk TV, we still use the thing, and I don’ t know where to put it. For now, I tried sticking it on the table against the wall, covered with a patchwork cloth to protect it from knocks. It isn’t quite the same. I wonder, if someone did a study of people’s living rooms, how many would be basically arranged as TV-watching theatres? How many have separate TV-watching rooms? And how many have a TV in every room?
When my parents were young, people lived in the kitchen, the living room was known as the parlour, and you only used it when guests came round. I like domestic architecture and have visited old houses belonging to everyday people in much of France and the UK. It’s not rare for the home to consist of two almost identical rooms: one used for sleeping, eating and living on an everyday basis, the other for guests, births and deaths.
Ours is very much a working house, rather than a place where we come to rest and take care of our needs, but its a modern kind of work. There are places to read, write, draw and use computers scattered around everywhere.
Spring Party
I got a hen that lays amazing chocolates. Antonia got a bell and a Kinder egg. Little Rabbit is pretending she brought them, but really it was Mike. Antonia hid the eggs for the hunt out in the snow. A little while later our guests arrived bearing more eggs. Mysteriously, by the evening, there was hardly a crumb of chocolate left in the house.
We all embraced the late winter conditions in our own ways. I was busy cooking and hanging out. The kids were outside building igloos – all except Antonia, who preferred to snuggle down by the fire with an adult friend and draw flower pictures.
Train wrecks (cultural ones)
Mike just got back from the supermarket, where they have started a new campaign to push sushi to the more traditional French. ¨Don’t worry, contrary to what you’ve heard, it’s not raw fish¨. What the heck is it then? Cooked tuna, apparently, wrapped up with some rice, and, wait for it, … mayonnaise! Mike told them what he thought of it. Bleeech!
But lest the Americans should get smug, Antonia subjected us to the film Polar Express this evening. What is going on there? I shouldn’t be surprised that Hollywood took a short and harmless picture book and turned it into a long movie, with no significant plot additions. What does disturb me is that they seem to have drawn a lot of inspiration from Big Brother, and they’re still pushing it as a family movie. If I tended to have nightmares, there’s plenty of material here. The kids who give the impression of being drug-pushing, cyncial, gangster tweens; the adults, who are really not the kind of types you would want your kids hanging around with; and especially the whole cult-like indoctrination experience: terrifying journey under harsh conditions, setting up a sense of elitism, scenes of mass hysteria when they do get to the North Pole, conversion to true belief in Santa…! That one pushed my cultural buttons all right: scenes of Hitler raising his arm above the mindless, screaming crowd. What is this movie trying to say? Or do? And if it’s not trying to say anything, what can I say about a culture that produces stuff like this ‘innocently’?
We are pretty easy going parents, but we are unusually of one mind here. This movie is awful. I’m going to bring it out again when my daughter’s a bit older to show her what she should run from. Until then, I’m hiding it.
Spring Party
We’re having our annual Spring party tomorrow, and I’ve had to make a few changes to the initial plan.
I decided that we can put the Easter Eggs in white plastic cups and hide them outside, that way they won’t get soaked or buried in the snow while the kids look for them. With any luck they’ll stay outside and make snowmen, as the house is a bit small for so many people, and I had sort of hoped (ha, ha!) that we would be eating outside! I’ve had to make a few changes to the menu as well. We were going to be having wild primrose and dandelion leaf salad. Hmmm, I don’t think so:
These were the only primroses in sight, and they’re looking a bit folorn. Instead we are having:
- Asparagus leaves with dipping sauce
- Tapenade on toasts
- Roquette salad with walnuts and orange or quail’s eggs depending what Mike comes up with
- Salt-roasted chicken with cranberry sauce
- New potatoes, asparagus and candied carrots
- Specially amazing spring matzah brye with strawberries and whipped cream
- Chocolate cake
Our spring party is our own family’s combination Easter/Passover/Just Plain Spring celebration. And because it’s all ours, we get to invite whoever we like and do it all our own way (weather permitting). By coincidence, we’re having it on Easter Sunday this year. Passover is really ages away, but it feels near to us as Mike and Antonia are counting down time till they head off to the US, for a real Seder amongst other things.
As they get older…
… that territorial stuff starts to kick in!
Age 4: a pretty nameplate produced at preschool, and put up there by Mum.
Age 5: a polite notice that says ¨Private room, do not come in, Antonia¨, posted on own initiative.
Age 6: ¨Keep Out Worm¨, courtesy of the Horrid Henry annual, very much on own initiative!
Antonia has always been a very fair child. This is my little present this morning:
¨Keep out vacsinase (vaccination) prick¨ ! Three out of four words spelled correctly, I note. We are getting somewhere. Hmmm,… and just who am I supposed to be keeping out of my room?? Anyway, all this territorial stuff is just going through the motions at the moment. Little Miss is aware that personal space exists, but it isn’t really part of her psyche yet. We’ll see later on.
Homeschooling Dad
I left Mike in charge of homeschooling this afternoon, due to mushy brain syndrome. In fact I also did that yesterday afternoon, due to weekly shopping and fever on Antonia’s side. Mike’s less adaptable than I am about the activities he will undertake. So far, Antonia and he have mainly shared an interest in board games. Looks like they have a few new possibilities: playing in the snow, learning to write Japanese characters, building things out of the recycling trash, and BAKING. I’m rooting for the baking!
Nature study: roe deer and hunting
Here is one of our regular visitors, the roe deer. This one is looking very intently at his two companions in the trees. We have had a stable population of three or four roe deer who include our land in their territory for over a decade. I decided to do a bit of nature study on my own and find out more about them. Until this morning I didn’t know their name in English.
The things that interested me most are the interactions between humans and the roe deer. Like many ubiquitous animals in populated areas, it has proved good at adapting to a humanised environment. Although it prefers to eat leaves, it will graze on young crops for example. In the absence of predators other than humans, its population is rather dense. The worst thing about this is that it encourages the spread of lyme disease, and other parasites and diseases that may affect the deer primarily. It seems that the deer can also limit the rejuvenation of forests. I must say that they don’t seem to be doing such a good job of that on our land. It’s also shocking to learn that in the absence of predators, roadkill is one of the most common causes of death. Striking an animal of this size is obviously also dangerous to the humans in the car.
Nature study has many facets, and this morning made me remember the social and political aspects as well. As societies and individuals, we all have to make decisions related to nature. In France, the possible reintroduction or natural return of large predators is one vector of social debate. In practical terms, right now, the main predators are human hunters, and the roe deer is one of the more common prey.
I knew very little about hunting around here, and decided it was time to find out more. It turns out the situation is rather complicated. Hunting varies a lot legally and culturally within Europe, and presumably even more elsewhere. Before the French revolution, hunting was largely a privilege of the aristocracy. At the revolution, the right to hunt was granted to everybody. It became one of those liberties that many people are emotionally attached to, rather like the right to carry guns in the US. Of course, there is no such thing as unattributed land in France, and the universal right to hunt essentially meant that anyone could hunt on anyone else’s property at any time.
In modern times there have been some changes. As a society ‘we’ use hunting to regulate the numbers of some species, and ban or severely limit hunting of other species. Quotas apply to most species, and there may be selection procedures in place. Although anyone can hunt, in most places it’s obligatory to join a local association. And, after several massive fights in the European courts, French landowners can now declare their own property as a no-hunt zone. Information like the opening and closing of the hunting season, and the various quotas should be easily accessible to the public, and actually, I found it on the internet without too much trouble – not so common in France!
In practical reality, this is the face of hunting we see as spectators: autumn around here sees the country roads lined with men hanging around on their 4-wheel drive jeeps and toting rifles, clearly enjoying the macho, male-bonding experience. Meanwhile, their dogs are busy getting lost all over the mountains, sometimes showing up on people’s doorsteps weeks later. And a few of the more timorous residents complain that they hardly dare take a walk during the season. I must admit I’ve never heard of a real accident. But it’s hard to believe, looking at this lot, that they actually have a clue what they’re doing. And some part of me would really, really like to see a few women try to join their little hunting club. It’s just so darned obvious that that would spoil their fun.
For me and for my daughter in the future, there are lots of decisions to make, choices that are emerging in our society from a combination of individual and group action. Other societies are dealing with different situations and consequences even around a similar topic like hunting. Nature study is also valuable for hopefully allowing our decisions to be made based on real knowledge, rather than on knee-jerk reactions.
Second day of Spring
It’s technically spring, but I won’t be removing that little line from my banner just yet. Here’s the situation round here at nearly lunchtime. The chaffinches has been around to complain that their bird seed has been snowed over. I went out to give them some more and startled a whole bunch of feathered squatters who were hiding in the ivy.
Antonia is gainfully occupied drawing an epic narrative in pictures in her nature study book. It involves the adventures of a catwoman whose long, white hair makes her look a bit like me. I am following my golden rule of leaving her alone when she is busy. My own brain is feeling rather mushy at the moment, and I’m not really settling on anything – least of all on doing my chores.
Nature walk: our village
We’re busy exploring new paths in our area. Here is our village from perhaps its most traditional perspective: the church, the chateau and an old farm building. I had never seen this view before. Ours is a very spread out community which is traditional for this area, with many outlying hamlets and isolated farms several miles away from these focal points. The latest mayor seems to be into development at all costs, and has allowed an ugly smear of new sun-catching dormitory houses to spring up in the prairie between the chateau and the church. I haven’t really figured out why. Fortunately, a lot of the terrain around here is just too steep to build on.