Autumn has arrived at Maison Porte del Marty, the school holidays are over and the many people with summer houses in the area have headed back to Paris, Holland, Belgium, UK…….You realise we are in a semi rural area when you see tractors heading over the bridge with trailers piled high with straw or hay bales and we are also starting to see the fire wood contractors driving by with someone's winter order also piled high. I'm not sure why, but most people seem to buy their firewood (usually oak and aged 3 years ) in 2M lengths then ' the buyers ' cut these logs into smaller 50cm logs to fit their wood burner, that's a serious sweat-up, oak is hardwork !…. Yesterday we had a cool foggy morning that warmed up to a beautiful clear 30C, our grapes and figs are ripe and the big freelons ( hornets ) know the sugar levels are right as they are munching their way through too much of our crop.
Cheri has been growing baby tomatoes outside the front door, plus we have quite a few wild plants on the river side from last years crop and trimmings. 
We can't eat them all at once, so some preserving skills are coming back into play. Along with some basil from our garden and the fresh violet garlic we have some nice preserved tomatoes ready for a later pasta dish….hhmmmm
