DLCI 2021 Magazines - August
August
2021
Summer Balcony in Sainte Foy
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT
Welcome to the first issue of the ‘DLCI Magazine’! Lin Green has expanded the original newsletter so that it is now even more enjoyable and a much anticipated arrival in our inboxes every month. Keep your contributions coming, however, especially for the forthcoming DLCI 35th anniversary recipe book. Those of you who attended the recent lunch at Auberge les Marronniers were greatly amused when Anne Scanlan read a contribution from the 10th anniversary cookbook.
The lunch at Marronniers was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended (review follows later in the magazine). However, we are aware that there were members who wished to attend but found that the event was fully booked. Teresa would like to point out that, if she knows well in advance that we will need more capacity, she will always go back to the restaurant and request more tables.
This is usually possible, but not with only a few days to go before the event. The magazine comes out on 1st of each month, and lunches tend to be in the second half of the month, so please check your diaries, make a note of dates, and reserve early.
For all Events enquiries and reservations, please contact Teresa Tildesley direct on eventsDLCI@gmail.com. The next lunch is on Thursday 26 August (details follow) when a representative from SPA will receive our charitable donation.
You are receiving this issue of the magazine because you have renewed your membership before the deadline on 31 July. Towards the middle of August you will receive details of the AGM which will be held on Tuesday 28 September in the Salle de l’Orangerie in Bergerac. Enclosed will be the AGM paperwork which, you will recall, we agreed to trial sending out online rather than by post, in order to save paper, time and postage. I am sure it will work very well.
Voting for committee members and charity donations will be online and anonymous, via a Survey Monkey link. Thanks to Pat for preparing this. You may remember last year’s membership survey and we were delighted with the response – clearly our DLCI members are perfectly happy to be keyboard wizards! The voting procedure will not take more than a moment to complete, and I reassure you that voting is totally confidential.
Whilst on the theme of confidentiality, you will be aware that the Committee has been working on the DLCI Privacy Policy and this will also be included in the AGM paperwork, for your reference. Data Protection is a very important issue and for our own safety, it is important that we all take it seriously. Therefore, I would remind you once again, not to forward, or copy, or in any other way share the DLCI Magazine with anyone who is not a current member, as this could constitute a breach of confidentiality.
I am very grateful to those members who volunteer to be part of the DLCI Committee – we are keen to help the DLCI prosper in terms of the friendships and support it offers to ladies who live in our area, whether newly arrived or long established. We always welcome contributions from anyone who would like to join the committee, or who have a restaurant they would like us to visit, or who would like to give a talk on a special interest or area of expertise they have. Please contact me if you would like to join us.
Our next big charity fundraising event – please note the date in your diary – is Saturday 13 November. We will need stallholders, as well as volunteers to help with teas and coffees, cake stall etc. If you think you can help us, look out for the details in the September issue of the Magazine.
Kathy
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
LUNCH Thursday 26th August at Château les Merles, Tuilières, 24520, Mouleydier
Teresa has been able to book the beautiful Château les Merles for a late summer lunch
3 course lunch including a glass of wine and coffee 29.50€. Château les Merles, Tuilières 24520, Mouleydier.
Guests/partners welcome. Pass sanitaire and masks required. Please can everyone arrive by midday and If anyone is vegetarian can they let us know at the time of booking - eventsDLCI@gmail.com
GARDENING IN FRANCE
BY CHRISTINE LEES
This is a great time of year to sit down and enjoy your garden and also to make note of any areas you might want to change. I have been meaning for years to start a garden journal, and this year I managed to buy one at the Phoenix Book Fair. It has sections for:
1) Project and designs
2) Decorative plants with space for when and where it was planted, and comments
3) Garden bounty (herbs, fruits and vegetables)
4) The seasons (what to do when)
5) Inspirations (gardens and plants that you've seen on visits, or on tv)
6) Resources eg nurseries and suppliers.
I have been keeping a small notebook for names of plants mentioned on tv programmes, and also names of nurseries and seed suppliers in France, which I have found particularly helpful since moving here. I have discovered many useful names through membership of Gardening in France Together and Gardeners in France on Facebook. There is also a useful UK based group on Wildlife Gardening.
It's useful and pretty in summer to have a small cutflower bed - this year I am growing Cosmos, Nicotiana (tobacco plants), Echinacea, Asters and Gazanias, as well as a few Dahlias which I hope will be a permanent feature. If you have a greenhouse or conservatory it is easy to grow annual flowers from seed. Last year I also grew Lavatera which is a hardy annual and it was very prolific. You can also collect the seed of the plants when the seedheads are brown and keep in paper envelopes for sowing next year.
When it is not too hot you can carry on deadheading roses, and if you have not already done so give them a second dose of rose fertiliser. Although it can be left until spring, you can cut away the old flowering spikes of lavender and the top 2-3 cm of leaves. Do not cut into the old wood. If you have poor soil you can give shrubs a midsummer boost of fertiliser.
Hopefully there will be plenty to pick on your vegetable garden, and you can also sow or plant some vegetables including chicories and endives, winter lettuces and Chinese vegetables. The early autumn is a good time for planting cauliflowers and broccoli plants as they like the increased rainfall in the autumn and winter. I am just planting a few Borlotti beans which I sowed from seed in pots a few weeks ago.
Having given away a wooden apple store last year which I had brought from the UK, for the first time in 7 years in France I now have lots of apples! I have also had a good grape crop and hope to have lots of figs in September, together with some quinces, but the rest of my fruit crop was curtailed by the late frosts in spring.
Gardening is always unpredictable but you often get pleasant surprises!
DORDOGNE LADIES BOOK CLUB
We have chosen the following extract from the current book recommendation:
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
As the Sunday Telegraph wrote.. It is a deeply satisfying, rich, full read.
(we agree!)
‘Welcome to the Cemetary of Forgotten Books, Daniel’.
Scattered among the library’s corridors and platforms I could make out about a dozen human figures. Some of them turned to greet me from afar and I
recognized the faces of various colleagues of my father’s, fellows of the secondhand-booksellers’ guild. To my ten year old eyes, they looked like a brotherhood of alchemists in furtive study. My father knelt next to me and, with his eyes fixed on mine, addressed me in the hushed voice he reserved for promises and secrets.
‘This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. This place was already ancient when my father brought me here for the first time, many years ago. Perhaps as old as the city itself. Nobody knows for certain how long it has existed or who created it. I will tell you what my father told me, though. When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody’s best friend. Now they only have us, Daniel.
To join the Book Club or for more information please email: Patricia.a.fielding@gmail.com
Once you join you will receive a copy of our book list and have access to our Facebook page
There are now three DLCI monthly Book Club Meetings – Bergerac, Monpazier and Sainte Foy – please see the website for details.
Please note there are also two DLCI weekly coffee mornings – one in Bergerac – contact Pat Machado : Patricia.a.fielding@gmail.com
The second in Sainte Foy – contact Chris Lees : Christinelees84@outlook.com
Best wishes and take care.
Patricia Machado
Sue Morrison
Just for fun
….and because this is so beautiful
POETRY CORNER
WHAT WOULD I LIKE TO GROW IN MY GARDEN
By Katherine Riegel
Peonies, heavy and pink as ’80s bridesmaid dresses
and scented just the same. Sweet pea,
because I like clashing smells and the car
I drove in college was named that: a pea-green
Datsun with a tendency to backfire.
Sugar snap peas, which I might as well
call memory bites for how they taste like
being fourteen and still mourning the horse farm
I had been uprooted from at ten.
Also: sage, mint, and thyme—the clocks
of summer—and watermelon and blue lobelia.
Lavender for the bees and because I hate
all fake lavender smells. Tomatoes to cut
and place on toasted bread for BLTs, with or without
the b and the l. I’d like, too, to plant
the sweet alyssum that smells like honey and peace,
and for it to bloom even when it’s hot,
and also lilies, so I have something left
to look at when the rabbits come.
They always come. They are
always hungry. And I think I am done
protecting one sweet thing from another.
Copyright © 2018 Katherine Riegel.
ST. ALVERE WALK
St. Alvere church
On Friday 16th July Kathryn Carr organised a great walk from her village of St Alvere. We met at the Stad at 10 o’clock on a short walk doing a 6kms loop. We were aware that it could be hot hence the shorter than usual distance. Kathryn took us along the valley of the Louyre River which included passing a lavoir for a timely drink and swim for the four dogs with us. There was quite a lot of shade through woods and we passed enormous maize crops which obviously are benefiting from the unusual amount of summer rain.
After our walk we gathered at La Petite Factory restaurant in the centre of the village, with shady outdoor seating and room for the dogs, where we enjoyed a light and tasty three course meal of courgette mousse, fish and a fruit meringue dessert. There were three new members attending this outing and as a first experience they found it very enjoyable.
LUNCH AT LES MARRONIERS
By Isla Cathcart
The monthly lunch was held at Les Marronniers in Lanquais on Tuesday, 20th July 2021. It was a huge success, with a total of 29 members with husbands/partners enjoying a lovely lunch on a beautiful (if baking hot!) summer’s afternoon. Happily, there was ample shade for everyone. The service was excellent, food was delicious and copious carafes of wine and water kept everyone hydrated.
There was another reminder from Kathy that nominations for charities are still being sought. This is now urgent. Please let Kathy know of your choice of charity as soon as possible and definitely before 31st July.
As this was Fee’s last lunch, Kathy thanked her again for her excellent service as Secretary of DLCI and wished her well on her return to the UK. She will be much missed. The replacement Secretary, Isla Cathcart, was warmly welcomed.
There was lots of interaction and swapping of stories at the tables as we all enjoyed the beautiful food. Lunch culminated in a super talk from Philippa Tillyer on how to research your family history. Lots of amusing anecdotes and interesting information was shared on how best to go about creating your own family tree and Philippa invited anyone who might be interested in exploring this subject to be in touch with her by email.
N.B.
Philippa Tillyer has been invaluable to me, spending many hours tracing an elusive Irish grandmother’s Birth Certificate (numerous spelling of surname) and her marriage certificate (equally problematic) and I can now apply for an Irish passport.
She is very willing to help anyone trace their ancestry and suggests a donation to a DLCI charity, she even found an uncle I didn’t know existed!
Lin Green
STAYCATION CHALLENGE
By Sue Morrison
Here is an illustration of life and princely entertainments in the month of August, during the early 15 th century, to serve as an example of the riches that can be found in non-fiction books. It is taken from ‘Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry’, by Jean Dufournet and depicts La Chase au Vol, with Falcons. You may wish to contrast it with photos taken when visiting Chateaux in France this year.
The challenge is to see how many of the following elements you can capture in one image:-
A chateau.
Lords and Ladies on horseback (double points for this difficult one).
A Falconer (the chap on foot in this illustration).
Running dogs, preferably Hunting Dogs.
Harvesting in progress
People swimming in a river (nude of not!).
I hope that this provides amusement for you and any accompanying family or visitors. The keen-eyed may spot all 5 falcons in the illustration.
AUGUST BIRTHDAYS
NB Due to the current data protection laws
we are no longer able to publish actual dates.
Florence Astarie
Hilary Dunford
MEMBERS PHOTOS
Fête d’été in St.Philippe - our small village coming back to life
Sent in by Lin Green
PET’S CORNER
Millie’s favourite place
Sent in by Isla Cathcart
PHOTO REQUEST
We would love to include more of your photos inluding those for Pets Corner in the next Newsletter. Simply email me at DLCIMagazine@gmail.com (no later than 27th of the month) with the photo and where it is. They will be published in the next months newsletter.
Gabrielle looking over the stable door and basically saying ‘Hurry up with my hay mum!’
The zebra mask is just a mask against the horrible flies – they come in fun patterns now.
Sent in by Julie Goatham
‘My Lifeguard’
Faithful Hector on duty
Sent in by Kathy
LASTLY
Information and communications on this newsletter are accepted by the Committee in good faith. The DLCI cannot be held responsible for complaints arising from them
All contributions to the newsletter should be sent to Lin Green at DLCIMagazine@gmail.com by the 27th of each month and we hope to have a new monthly issue to you at the beginning of every month to allow you time to plan your calendar.
A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS NEWSLETTER.
PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO CURRENT DATA PROTECTION LAWS THIS DOCUMENT MUST NOT BE SHARED WITH ANYONE
WHO IS NOT A CURRENT DLCI MEMBER