DLCI 2022 Magazines - February
February
2022
Magical midwinter
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT
Despite the freezing cold nights, we have had some glorious sunny days during the last few weeks and already there are signs of brave shoots trying to make their presence felt. Spring is on the way! I’m sure I’m not alone in finding it easier to feel positive and optimistic when the sun is shining – and after all, the sun is one of the reasons many of us have come to live in France.
France is lifting some restrictions in association with the vaccine pass and, after Omicron, we must hope that life may return to something we recognise as more ‘normal’; if we can remember what that feels like! It was lovely to see so many of you at our annual Chinese New Year lunch on Friday when we welcomed the Year of the Tiger.
We have decided to designate 2022 as the DLCI Year of the Environment and so our next event will be a vegetarian Indian lunch at the highly recommended Jardin de Kashmir in Bergerac. The date is Tuesday 22nd February and booking details appear later in the magazine. Member Kathryn Carr will talk to us about ‘les petits gestes’ that we can all make daily towards reducing our individual carbon footprint. Today’s environmental concerns can sometimes seem insurmountable but to quote a famous advertising slogan: ‘every little helps’!
Further dates for your diary:
I am very much looking forward to the lunch on the Thursday 24th March at Buckets when member Liz Davies, former UK Director of Marie Stopes International, will describe her interesting and valuable work. If you have a particular field of interest or experience, please do not hesitate to offer, as Liz did, to give a talk – we know that there is a great variety of expertise amongst our members and we love to be informed.
Following consultation with the Maison des Vins and with Martin Walker, we have decided to delay our (already postponed) ‘Evening with Martin Walker’ on the 9th June. I apologise for the disappointment but we really want this to be the successful event that it deserves to be and we risk being rather restricted, especially for the apéritif element of the evening, if we keep the early April date. It will be worth waiting for! I will send out booking information and confirmation of the date to all members shortly.
On Wednesday 20th April, Philippa Tillyer will give us a tour of the ancient bastide town of Eymet, which will be followed by afternoon tea in a local tearoom. Philippa is an experienced and knowledgeable guide and the afternoon promises to be extremely interesting and enjoyable.
I’m keeping very busy at the moment (some of you may know that our daughter is getting married in France this summer) but still finding time to attend the DLCI Book Club meetings. I can highly recommend them! For details of how to join us, don’t miss Sue Morrison’s article later in this magazine.
Sending a warm welcome to our new members and hope to see you all soon!
Kathy
Hector
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Jardin de Kashmir, Bergerac. Tuesday 22nd February, Vegetarian lunch in this highly recommended restaurant. Member Kathryn Carr will talk to us about ‘les petits gestes’ that we can all make daily towards reducing our individual carbon footprint.
The cost is 25 euros per person and this includes a drink and a coffee. The menu is vegetarian and there are choices available.
Partner or 1 guest per member most welcome.
Please can members arrive no later than 12 noon.
NB - ‘No shows’ will be charged the full price in their absence
Buckets restaurant, Thursday 24th March.
When member Liz Davies, former UK Director of Marie Stopes International, will describe her interesting and valuable work.
Tour of the Historical town of Eymet Wednesday 20th April, Eymet
When member Philippa Tillyer will give us a tour of the ancient bastide town of Eymet, which will be followed by afternoon tea in a local tearoom.
‘Evening with Martin Walker’ at the Maison des Vins, Bergerac. 9th June
CHINESE NEW YEAR LUNCH REVIEW AT THE ASIA ROYAL
BY KATHY JOHN
Xin nian kuai le – Happy New Year (in Mandarin Chinese)
On Friday 28 January around 36 members celebrated the start of the Chinese New Year at the Asia Royal Restaurant in Creysse. The Year of the Tiger begins on 1 February and people born under this Chinese sign are said to be powerful, rebellious, dynamic and brave. Former President Susan Durst was amused to discover that she is a Tiger!
The lunch was a great success, with a spacious venue and scrupulous attention to hygiene and protocol sanitaire. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the ‘all you can eat buffet’ concept, the food was fresh, beautifully presented and delicious. We especially enjoyed the fresh fish and meat counter where you could watch the chef cook your choice on a griddle or wok and serve it with tasty sauces and vegetables. Everyone who attended was extremely impressed and many are planning return visits – it is thoroughly recommended. Thank you to Isla for organising the event.
FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS
Susie Anfield
Pascale Bizet
Ruth Brand
Jacqueline Colgate
Julie Cooper
Liz Davies
Kathy John
Dana Manier
Carolyn Nagel
Michelle Roberts
Barbara Shepherd
Yveline Ulrich
GARDENING IN FRANCE
BY CHRISTINE LEES
Winter colour and scents
At this time of year it is easy to think that there can be no colour in the garden until the spring bulbs start to flower. However, there are many winter flowering shrubs which can also provide wafts of scent in the garden as you walk down the path or around the garden. I have many winter flowering shrubs in the woodland border at the bottom of my garden in front of the oak wood, which I can see from my kitchen window. It's surprising how vivid even tiny flowers can appear at a distance in winter. Many winter flowering shrubs also have a strong scent to attract the few pollinating insects around at this time of year.
Viburnum x bodnantese 'Dawn' has clusters of heavily scented dark pink flowers on bare stems which are in place for several weeks, and Viburnum tinus 'Eve Price' is evergreen and has flat heads of pink flower buds opening to tiny white flowers.
The many varieties of Mahonia have attractive spiny evergreen leaves and heavily scented spikes of yellow flowers - Mahonia x media 'Buckland' and 'Charity' are good varieties, and can often be seen with early bumble bees on them.
In the past couple of years, I have also planted Chimonanthus praecox 'Grandiflora' or wintersweet, with scented yellow flowers with maroon stripes inside, Hamamelis x intermedia cultivars (witch hazels) with scented yellow, red or orange flowers, and Lonicera x purpusii ' Winter Beauty' (winter honeysuckle) with highly fragrant, small white flowers. I have also planted 2 Edgeworthias, one with white and one with red/yellow flowers.
You can also get stunning winter colour from the bare stems of Cornus, especially effective by water, and I have Cornus alba 'Sibirica' with red stems, Cornus stolonifera 'Flaviramea' with yellow stems and 'Midwinter Fire' with orange stems which catch the rays of the setting sun.
Cornus stolonifera 'Flaviramea'
Cornus alba 'Sibirica'
You can also finish planting any new shrubs or trees, cut back dead growth on herbaceous plants, and get your seed orders in. The French company Baumaux is the largest seed company in Europe, and has a massive catalogue of flowers, vegetables, garden tools and accessories.
Happy Gardening
Chris
CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
BY KATHERINE CARR
How our shopping habits can reduce our impact on our environment
'Reduce, reuse and recycle'
These words are very familiar to us now but are we really doing all we can to do this? The idea of reduce, reuse and recycle is one that forms part of the waste hierarchy and has helped people to think about the environmental impact that they have. By following these principals we can reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill and incineration.
The image below shows that preventing waste in the first place is the most favourable option. Where this is not possible, then re-using products or recycling is better for the environment than disposal in a landfill.
Reduce
This is when we purchase less ‘stuff’ so that it reduces the amount of energy required to manufacture and transport goods.
Initiatives are introduced to encourage people to turn lights off, share lifts and take shorter showers in order to reduce energy.
Some campaigns have also focused on ensuring that people reduce the amount of waste that they put into different bins e.g. not putting food waste into general waste bins but into organic waste bins.
Reuse
This is where we use different materials again but do not convert them into different products, we might reuse food containers and bottles instead of throwing them out or use travel coffee mugs instead of single-use cups.
In recent years one major success in this area has been the
‘Bags for Life’ initiative where more robust plastic shopping bags have largely replaced single-use supermarket shopping bags.
Recycle
When waste materials are collected and separated out into their different component ingredients, these can then be remade into different products.
Energy is required to recycle the product and to change it's physical properties into something totally different.
For example, the plastic from bottles might be made into public benches or fleece jackets.
We all make decisions about what we buy and what we throw away every day and using this waste hierarchy can help us to make better decisions which will help our environment.
DORDOGNE LADIES BOOK CLUB
The following extract from "The Silence of the Girls", is from the perspective of Briseis, the young noblewoman who was captured during the Trojan war and awarded to Achilles as his prize slave.
"As he played the Lyre, the torchlight fell full on his face and I could see the strange markings on his skin. The areas covered by the forehead and cheek irons of his helmet were several shades lighter than the exposed skin around his eyes and mouth, almost as if the helmet had become part of him, had somehow embedded itself in his skin. Somebody once said to me: You never mention his looks. And it’s true, I don’t, I find it difficult. At that time, he was probably the most beautiful man alive, as he was certainly the most violent, but that’s the problem. How do you separate a tiger’s beauty from its ferocity? Or a cheetah’s elegance from the speed of its attack? Achilles was like that – the beauty and the terror were two sides of a single coin."
(From the Booker prize-winning author of Regeneration" by Pat Barker)
Just For Fun
POETRY CORNER
This is so delightfully simple and apt I had to include it this month (Lin)
Smile
By Jez Alborough
(This poem is often, incorrectly, attributed to Spike Milligan)
Smiling is infectious
You catch it like the flu
When someone smiled at me today I started smiling too
I walked around the corner
And someone saw me grin
When he smiled I realised
I had passed it on to him
I thought about the smile
And then realised its worth
A single smile like mine
Could travel round the earth
So if you feel a smile begin
Don’t leave it undetected
Start an epidemic
And get the world infected
‘THE BOY STOOD ON THE BURNING DECK’
NO.1056
This is the well-known first line of a poem that many of us will have learned at school: ‘Casablanca’, by Felicia Hemans. Sue Heyes has written to tell us that Henri Lacheze, a local amateur historian, had a special interest in the naval confrontations between France and Britain. He wrote a small illustrated book about the poem and the 1798 Battle of the Nile, which his widow, Marie, has just had published.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy, they are available at 7,50 euros with the
proceeds going to the Fondation Abbé Pierre, a Bordeaux charity. Marie lives in Les Eyzies and her email address is mlacheze24@gmail.com. We are hoping that Marie will come and give us a talk later in the year about the background of the poem and the boy who ‘stood on the burning deck’, as in this photograph:
CONGRATULATIONS TO MEMBER EVELYN BERNARDI ON BEING ASKED TO EXHIBIT HER PAINTING ‘BLUEBELLS WOOD, AMERSHAM’ AT THE SBAP BIENNAL 2021
Evelyn Bernardi
Evelyn’s ‘Bluebells wood, Amersham’ Oil on canvas
Main Exhibition room featuring Evelyn’s work at the far end
Schoolchildren discussing Evelyn’s work
The Guest of Honour Artist Emmanuel MICHEL signing his book for Evelyn
MEMBERS PHOTOS
My grandsons out for a winter walk
Sent in by Rosemary Copley
Kathy and Rosemary out in -2c
Delivered on Monday – for the retirees of the village – une valisette de spécialités du terroir. Delivered on behalf of le maire, les membres du CCAS et du Conseil Municipal.
Such a kind gesture
Sent in by Lin Green
PETS CORNER
Very Special cats!
Squeak my champagne coloured 7 year old Tom cat and Mrs Squeak (aka Plume) who lives with her lodger Eric across the road
Sent by Helen Glover
Kathy out walking with Hector and Rosemary’s dog Tamar
PHOTO REQUEST
We would love to include more of your photos including those for Pets Corner in the next Newsletter. Simply email me at DLCIMagazine@gmail.com (no later than 23rd of February) with the photo and where it is. They will be published in the next months newsletter
LASTLY
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