As the year moves relentlessly forward, signs of the ineluctable change of season make themselves known. The leaves begin to fall, and I begin to chop and saw wood. It would be untrue to say that I look forward to this chore; chores, by their very nature, are not events to which we look forward with desire, unless overcome with boredom and ennui. Not being in that unhappy state, I passed a pleasant couple of hours getting back into the swing of an axe and the din of the chain saw. In the winter months to come, my hands will be so cold when performing these tasks that the pleasures of yesterday may well be absent. Being a balmy, sunny day, yesterday was not a harbinger of what is to come.
Sitting on the stack of cut wood in the shady interior of the dépendance, I enjoyed a tea time snack of fresh bread topped with slivers of Parmesan, lubricated with good olive oil, whilst looking out at the warm autumn colours of the garden. January will not offer the same delights.
Food, Photography & France 
You always make the simplest food look gourmet. And it is.
So right:)
I’ll eat the Parmesan and sing Monty Python’s Lumberjack song whilst you get back to chopping that wood.
One sight of me with a chain saw would make it clear that I’m NOT a lumberjack:)
That bread looks so delectable and I’m wondering are those seeds IN it, or are those seeds from the crust?
Lovely shot.
They are indeed seeds in the bread…it’s an artisan pain cereale 🙂
There are many things about your current situation that I find appealing, Roger, but your access to good quality olive oil and fine cheese rank right up there among the list toppers. Food, like Life, needn’t be complicated to be good. Your photo says it all.
Cucina povera has a lot going for it….it just crap being povera:)
Waving from Paris, Roger, with my hips expanded by bread, Parmesan and good olive oil. It is some of the best comfort food, even in January, when you come in from chopping in the cold.
Have a great time in Paris. Don’t forget to visit Poilane in the rue du Cherche Mide ( off Blvd St Germain) if you want to eat the most expensive ( and very good) bread in the world. Poilane, who died in a helicopter crash a few years ago, used to make picture frames for Salvador Dali out of bread. There is also a bread chandelier in the shop.http://www.poilane.com/pages/en/company_boutiques.php
You have definitely deserved that delicious looking bread, cheese and olive oil. And you will enjoy the wood on those chilly nights. 🙂
I’m looking forward to having a fire in the hearth again….by March, I’ll be longing to stop it:)
Even with my homemade bread rolls (kneaded till my hands ache, and delicious), parmesan and best virgin olive oil from the UK’s top supermarket – it just doesn’t taste the same as in France or Italy. Why?? Is it all in the head?
It could well be. It’s a good reason to emulate Worzel Gummidge and have an Italian or French head to put on when eating particular dishes.It would entail a very large wardrobe of heads if you have cosmopolitan tastes:)
I always feel I’m changing heads each time I change language – must extend the concept to food! Thanks for the suggestion!
🙂
…What we call the Mediterranean Style… The greatness of the simplicity… Thank you Roger for reminding this…
Thank you, Roberto, for checking it out 🙂
Simplicity at it’s best. Beautiful.
..and delicious:)
So very beautiful!
Thanks for that, Tessa:)
That could be my supper tonight, the National Grid just disconnected my gas meter because it’s leaking. I’m waiting for British Gas to bring me out a new one…
Oh, nice one MD. So good to living in the metropolis:)
That combination had not occured to me. Brilliant.
You’d like it:)
We daren’t have a chain saw. Way too scary. But we can do decent bread, ok parmesan, and good oil. Which is fine by me. And apropos the comments higher up, Why doesn’t marmalade taste right in France? I can’t do without it in the UK, but even though I make it here, and I know it tastes the same, it doesn’t taste …. right.
Marmalade and me parted company some 60 years ago. I never got the idea of breakfast, and any idea that I might have had about it was removed by the breakfasts that we “enjoyed”at boarding school:)
Oh, no breakfast. Now THAT shows you’re really integrated 😉
I’m afraid so:)
Perfectly simple and simp;y perfect….do hope you had a glass of wine with that though!
Wine, an axe and a chainsaw are the best bed fellows. Hospital bed fellows maybe:)
What! No breakfast!!! Tea toast and homemade jam. The best way to start the day…
I’m sorry, Thomas, I’ve let the side down:)
Stop it already – I can’t deal with this!!! 🙂 I have the bread and the oil but no Parmesan and can’t get any for another week or so!
The mail will get through 🙂
I usually grate the Parmesan, but I like this idea very much.
We have a gas fireplace, which is nice, but I do miss the smell of wood smoke.
The wood burner does become the heart of the house in winter.
yes, please — on this whole post. evocative words, scrumptious image.
Many thanks, Marina. Glad it hit the spot:)
Ain’t that the truth. We, for the first time, are collecting wood for out new log burner. We do a great comedy turn by picking up veritable trees and bringing them across the A road near our house, to saw them up in the back garden. We have not done this in the cold yet….
Simple and delicious.
🙂
Roger, That photos made me want to suffer a stomach ache just to eat it.
It’s worth it, you know it is:)
Oh, your photos show the beauty of the ingredients… I can taste the gorgeous food.
Many thanks indeed, Shanna.
🙂