DLCI 2022 Magazines - March
March
2022
OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE UKRAINE
NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT
It was good to see so many of you at Le Jardin de Kashmir (photos of which are on our website), earlier in the month to hear Kathryn talk about the small decisions we can all make to help safeguard our planet – there was certainly a buzz of conversation with many constructive ideas flying around! To this end, can I remind you that the coloured dot on your name badge corresponds to the area in which you live, so if you see another member with the same colour on her badge, you might like to think of car sharing for travel to events? We all ate a delicious vegetarian meal and personally I did not miss the meat element at all, so have been inspired to search for some vegetarian recipes. Another plus for the planet!
There are some exciting events coming up which I would like to tell you about:
18 March – we resume our programme of country walks, this time at Saint Sauveur. Please see the entry in the magazine for further details.
24 March – Buckets Auberge, with Liz Davies from Marie Stopes International
Booking is now open for this event and we expect demand to be high – please find booking details later in the magazine, including menu and directions.
6 April – visit of Leeds Jazz Band to Villeréal
This very popular concert, which last took place in 2019, is now solely the responsibility of DLCI and we hope it will be both very enjoyable and also raise lots of money for our 2022 charities. IT IS SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION AT PRESENT, based on the University Jazz Band being able to travel from Leeds without restrictions, but is looking more and more likely that it will be able to take place. We will be in a position to confirm arrangements to you w/c 14 March, including start time and how to reserve tickets. Lin will email you all as soon as we know. We need lots of support and publicity, please!
20 April at 2pm – guided tour of Eymet followed by afternoon tea
Philippa Tillyer will give us a tour of the bastide town of Eymet and its history finishing with afternoon tea. Price 10 euros.
9 June ‘An Evening with Martin Walker’
Please see the separate item on this very special event.
I’m sure you will agree that the committee has been very busy on your behalf, and we are now planning a varied programme for the rest of the year which includes a quiz, visits to new restaurants and an interesting range of speakers. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for events.
Welfare
I am pleased to let you know that Isla Cathcart, our Secretary, has agreed to take on the role of Welfare Coordinator. Although all members of the committee step in to help out in their area, it is helpful for members to have one name to contact initially. Please contact Isla (in total confidence) at DLCIWelfare@gmail.com
The DLCI Book Club continues to be very active and we are looking forward to the relaunch of the Bergerac group with Dawn Kidd in early April. Please see the Book Club entry on the website, or the DLCI Book Club Facebook page, for Dawn’s contact details if you are interested in attending the Bergerac group.
Finally a warm welcome to new member Freya Williams.
Phew! I’m sorry this is so long this month, but there is so much to tell you!
I hope to see you soon at one of our events.
Kathy
Hector in majestic pose
This month I was in Bergerac, where I presented the last of our 2021 charity cheques to the Association France
Alzheimer Dordogne. It was very gratefully received! With me are Mme Geneviève Demoures (President FA 24) and Alex Hewitt-Jones, representing the English speaking group of AFAD. We hope that Alex will be able to come to a future lunch to talk about the work of the Association. Thank you to all for your continued support of our charity fundraising.
AN EVENING WITH MARTIN WALKER
Thursday 9 June at Quai Cyrano, Bergerac - 6pm prompt to 7.45pm
Dordogne Ladies Club International is delighted to welcome Martin Walker, who has kindly agreed to talk to us at the Quai Cyrano in Bergerac, and join us for a reception afterwards.
Martin Walker is a renowned author and historian, based in the Dordogne and Washington DC. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained a first class honours degree in history, he was a journalist for 25 years on the Guardian newspaper, and has also written for many international publications.
An expert on international relations, he has appeared on television in the UK and USA and written books on the Cold War, Bill Clinton, the Iraq War and Russia under Gorbachev; ‘Martin Walker’s Russia’ was made into a BBC series.
Martin is well known to many as the author of the ‘Bruno’ detective novels set in countryside familiar to those of us who live in this beautiful area. His love of the food and wine of our region is evident in his writing and many of us are fans of Bruno’s culinary skills as well as admirers of his talent as a detective! He is an excellent and entertaining speaker so it promises to be an exceptional evening, in beautiful surroundings.
Tickets are 18 euros each to include a glass of wine and canapés. Martin has very kindly agreed to donate his time with no charge, and the Maison des Vins has waived its usual hire charge, so we are able to donate all proceeds to local charities voted by DLCI members.
NB: If you were on the list from 2019 and have already had your place(s) confirmed, there is no need to reapply or send payment yet.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Walk around Saint Saveur Friday 18th March
We are pleased to announce that we are resuming our monthly walks. The first one of the new season will take place on Friday 11 March - please meet at 10.00 in the car park behind the Mairie at Saint-Sauveur 24520. The walk is classified as 'easy' by Visorando, and makes its way through the pine forests around the village over a distance of 5.95km.
Dogs are welcome. Please wear appropriate footwear. In case of bad weather, I will post an update on the DLCI Facebook page or you can contact me by phone on 06.56.83.31.41.
There is no charge, and you are welcome to bring visitors and guests. We ask for a suggested donation of 5 euros towards DLCI charities.
If you wish to have lunch afterwards there is a restaurant in the village and the Creysse shopping centre is not far away, although nothing formal is arranged
BUCKETS AUBERGE INN, Le Bourg, 24230, Montazeau, Thursday 24th March
Member Liz Davies, former UK Director of Marie Stopes International, will describe her interesting and valuable work.
Menu
26€ / personne. Vins en carafe compris
Tartine briochée de crevettes flambées et saumon fumé à la crème ciboulette et concombre
*****
Rôti de veau aux petits légumes et gingembre, crème de champignons des bois
*****
Pavlova façon tarte au citron, romarin et crème mascarpone
Please let us know dietary requirements /allergies
Partner/1 guest per member most welcome.
Tour of the Historical town of Eymet guided by Philippa Tillyer, Wednesday 20th April
The tour is limited to 20 places. We will assemble outside the Tourist Office which in the Bastide Square in Eymet. Parking is possible ,or at the Church a very short walk away. The Tour will start at 2pm so please assemble around 1.45 .
Tea will be taken at the end of the Tour ,at around 3pm, at Roses Tea Room, where we will be served tea, scone with fresh cream and jam, and a cupcake. The tea room will close after their lunch service and open especially for us . The charge is a modest 10 euros assuming we have 20 places taken. It would be very helpful if you could have the correct amount in cash then Philippa can collect it up and hand it over to the owners in one go.
MARCH BIRTHDAYS
Susie Anfield
Pascale Bizet
Ruth Brand
Jackie Colgate
Julie Cooper
Liz Davies
Kathy John
Dana Manier
Carolyn Nagel
Michelle Roberts
Barbara Shepherd
Yveline Ulrich
GARDENING IN FRANCE
By CHRISTINE LEES
Helping wildlife and biodiversity in your garden
Following on from Kathryn's excellent presentation at the lunch on Tuesday, I am going to write today about how you can help wildlife in your garden. My garden is probably fairly typical in that I have about an acre of garden surrounded by traditionally farmed vineyards and some small areas of woodland. Some of the local vineyard owners leave margins of wildflowers around their fields and between the rows of vines, but many do not, and in this village, unlike neighbouring Saussignac, there are no organic vineyards.
It becomes even more important therefore to provide a haven for birds, bees, butterflies and other insects and wildlife in the garden. One of the most important things you can do is provide a new or maintain an existing hedge - I have 2 long boundaries with hedges, a pyracantha hedge which provides berries for birds in the winter and dense evergreen shelter, a conifer hedge which provides shelter, and a traditional mixed country hedge with hawthorn, blackthorn, oak, ivy, brambles and many other plants which provide food and shelter for birds and insects and small mammals.
A careful choice of shrubs, herbaceous plants, annuals and bulbs can provide food for insects at all times of the year. Simple open flowers are preferable to double flowers, although even with old roses, as the flowers open, the stamens with pollen are exposed.
Leave your lawn to grow slightly longer before cutting to allow meadow flowers such as buttercups, daisies and dandelions to grow. If you leave a particular area to grow longer you may well find that you have wild orchids in the spring, and DLCI member LIz Berks will help you to identify them from a photograph. Alternatively you can buy one of the excellent books about local orchids. There are many other wild flowers which will appear with slightly longer grass. It is also possible to leave a swathe of grass to grow longer and cut a shorter pathway through, this can look very effective.
One of the most important things you can do in the garden to help wildlife is to dig a pond, it does not need to be very big and you can buy pond lining material from local garden centres. Provide some marginal plants, oxygenating plants and waterlilies and you will soon have an attractive pond with frogs, newts, water insects, dragonflies and visiting birds and small mammals.
It is also a good idea to provide dishes of water in different parts of the garden, especially in summer, and bird feeders with sunflower seeds, peanuts and fatballs in a place where you can watch the birds from the house. I currently have 40-50 bramblings, a greater spotted woodpecker, hawfinch, goldfinches, greenfinches, blue tits and great tits visiting my garden every day. In the spring you can provide nestboxes in different parts of your garden.
Avoid the use of chemicals in the garden - there are organic alternatives in the garden centre for most garden problems, and if you want to protect small vegetable plants in the spring organic ferric slug pellets are very effective and will only kill slugs and snails. You can also provide copper or gritty barriers around plants. Barriers such as fleece will protect vegetable plants from pigeons and rabbits.
Next month I will be writing more about how you can help the wildlife in your garden and also reduce your carbon footprint in the garden by other techniques.
Happy Gardening
Chris
CARING FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT
By KATHRYN CARR
Changing our shopping habits
We all love to shop, it has that feel good factor of buying stuff even though we probably don’t really need those shoes or handbags or new sports car.
So how do we change these habits so that we can reduce our personal impact on our environment?
It is really helpful if you could consider the five points below before you go out shopping :-
1. Do I really need it? Am I just buying for the feel good factor?
2. Can I buy the same/similar item second hand?
3. What is its carbon footprint? (has it travelled a long way to get on to the shelf)?
4. Can I buy something similar sourced locally?
5. What is the impact on the environment or on people from the products or labour used to make the product? ( Palm oil is a well known cause of deforestation in South America).
These are just some of the things we should consider when we go out shopping, whether its on our weekly food shop or buying household items or gardening equipment.
Unfortunately our economies in the western hemisphere rely on us as consumers to spend our money and we are continually put under pressure from advertising to continue this habit. We need to recognise that money is power and where and what we spend our money on is important. This excessive economic drive for more consumerism has led to the earth’s resources becoming seriously depleted and our environment is suffering as a consequence, particularly in poorer parts of our world. If we could start to make better decisions about what we spend our money on and consider whether we actually need these things, we wouldn’t be suffering from all the stuff cluttering up our homes. The recycling centres which we use to dispose of these items when we decide we no longer want or need them are having to deal with increasing volumes of waste. So lets start changing our habits to just buy what we really need.
INDIAN LUNCH AT KASHMIR DE JARDIN
Review by Ann Bond
A vegetarian Indian lunch was enjoyed at the Jardin de Kashmir in Bergerac, on Tuesday 22nd February, by members and their guests. The menu was varied and tasty with an extra spicy dish served separately for those who like their curries HOT.
The staff were accommodating and friendly. One waiter spoke English, which he was keen to practise. Conversation between him and our Magazine Editor:
- Bonjour. Je voudrais deux verres de Chardonnay S.V.P
- I speak English madam
- Can I have two glasses of Chardonnay please?
- Of course. Would that be red, white or rosé?
This amusing exchange gave a light hearted atmosphere from the start. The meal concluded with coffee and an interesting talk from Kathryn Carr on what we can do to prevent waste and therefore protect the planet. Answers to questions raised gave us some useful tips and sound advice on things we should consider inour daily lives
Thanks to Teresa for organising a very enjoyable lunch.
DORDOGNE LADIES BOOK CLUB
I was sorting through some books last week when I went down the rabbit hole of ‘ooh this looks interesting!’ The book was The Worst Jobs in History by Tony Robinson. Snippets of information that I found so interesting led me to find out more about Charles Dickens’ very early life, the work of Henry Mayhew and, of course, Jacob’s Island!
‘The Journalist Henry Mayhew set himself the project of investigating the poor, collecting stories of the Londonlabourers he met and describing the conditions they worked in. Here he describes the infamous Jacob’s Island in Bermondsey, London.’
‘As we passed along the reeking banks of the sewer the sun shone upon a narrow slip of water. In the bright light it apperaed the colour of strong green tea, and positively looked as solid as black marble in the shadow – indeed, it was more like watery mud than muddy water, and yet we were assured this was the only water which the wretched inhabitants had to drink. As we gazed in horror at it, we saw drains and sewers emptying their filthy contents into it: we saw a whole tier of doorless privies in the open road, open to men and women, built over it; we heard bucket after bucket of filth splash into it….we asked if they did drink the water? The answer was, They were obliged to drink the ditch, without it, they could beg a pailful or thieve a pailful of water’
NB you’ll be pleased to know this area was cleared between 1850/1860. The regeneration was later called the Dickens estate and houses were named after Dickens characters – with the exception of Bill Sykes!
Lin x
Last month we described the Book Club Meetings. Thanks go to those DLCI members who expressed an interest, following that. This month we want to describe another aspect of the club for those of you who, for whatever reason, cannot take part in any of the meetings.
If you are already a Facebook user, you can join-in discussions on the 'Dordogne Ladies Book Club' private group. On there you will find notices, reviews of personal reading, plus any monthly choice of book & the subsequent joint reviews etc.
Just follow this link to the group and put in a request to join.
DL Book Club Private Group
There is also an ongoing list of books recommended by members, which can be emailed to you periodically on request.
Lastly we will encourage and give all possible help to anyone wishing to start-up a new meeting group, with a few friends, in their area.
JUST FOR FUN
POETRY CORNER
Spring is here and the grues have arrived!
DEAR MARCH – COME IN
By Emily Dickinson
Dear March—Come in—
How glad I am—
I hoped for you before—
Put down your Hat—
You must have walked—
How out of Breath you are—
Dear March, how are you, and the Rest—
Did you leave Nature well—
Oh March, Come right upstairs with me—
I have so much to tell—
I got your Letter, and the Birds—
The Maples never knew that you were coming—
I declare - how Red their Faces grew—
But March, forgive me—
And all those Hills you left for me to Hue—
There was no Purple suitable—
You took it all with you—
Who knocks? That April—
Lock the Door—
I will not be pursued—
He stayed away a Year to call
When I am occupied—
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come
That blame is just as dear as Praise
And Praise as mere as Blame—
MEMBERS PHOTO’S
G&T anyone?
Sent in by Lin Green
PETS CORNER
Onyx showing off her colours
Sent in by Ann Bond
Helens’ husband informed her that his name is not Squeak but Squeeeek!
Sent in by Helen Glover
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 25th of the month) with the photo and where it is. They will be published in the next months newsletter
Member Janice Rayns and friends are organising a fund raiser on
International Womens Day for Feminite Sans Abri
A French charity that raises funds for homeless women
An Invitation to Celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD)
Restaurant La Poutre, 24400 Beaupouyet
Tuesday, 8th March – 10am – 4pm (Lunch 12h15)
All Proceeds to Féminité Sans Abri
Four local professionals are donating their time to provide the following:
June from Handifeet – Mini Manicure or Mini Pedicure 30 minutes and only €15, €10 of which will be donated to Féminité Sans Abri
Hair by Ria – Trim and Styling, 30 minute session €10 all proceeds to Féminité Sans Abri
Tracy Davidson Reflexology 30 minute session €15 all proceeds to Féminité Sans Abri
Claire from Trinité Holistic – Flower essence consultation including reading and supply of essence, 15 mnute session €15 (€10 donation to Féminité Sans Abri).
To avoid disappointment please prebook a slot by contacting Julie at La An Poutre jross8150@gmail.com
And there is more: Raffle, IWD fun Quiz (no charge), Board Games and Darts, Handmade Cards.
We will be collecting unopened/sell by date respected toiletries and samples (soap, shower gel, shampoo, hygiene products, toothpaste plus makeup, skin care products and perfumes etc.) to donate to Féminité Sans Abri for their distribution packs.
The Lunch Menu is €15. Please email steve.francis24@gmail.com to reserve your table giving menu choices on booking.
Lebanese Kofta (Marinated spiced meaty skewers served with yoghurt and garlic dip) or Cheesy tomato and roasted garlic tart served over fresh garden leaves or
Goulash Beef Soup
……..
Vegetarian cauliflower cake served with cucumber salad or
Roasted Salmon Steak coated in fresh green herbs and spring onions or
Marinated Chicken breast with grilled pineapple relish
……..
Fresh Mango Tiramisu or
French Chocolate Silk Pie or
Banana Meringue Pie
Pass Sanitaire Required
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