Installation Of Photovoltaic Panels

Photovoltaic panels are less detrimental not only to the environment but also to our utility bill. Though it is said that the single most important contribution to combat climate change an individual can make is lessening the amount of meat consumed which we do, we also embrace the replacement of oil and gas with electricity every chance we get. Chez nous, all power tools, including garden ones are electrical. Our car for the last five years has been a Zoe, an all-electric Renault vehicle. Installing the panels is just the first step in our grand plan to go all electric in our home. Next will be getting a storage battery so we can use what the sun gives us during the day after when it sets. Following that will be getting more panels; we have eight presently, the section of our roof exposed to the south can take a total of sixteen.  And in the hazy future, we envision the banishing of the gas boilers, both for heating the house and water, along with the gas stove, from our domain.

Our jumping through both financial and bureaucratic hoops⁠—our city's approval was required to ensure that no historic building would be defaced⁠—took a couple of months. Thanksgiving sales, even though France doesn't celebrate La Grande Fête Américaine, are referred to as Le Black Friday/Weekend Soldes, the only french words being le and soldes which means 'sales' in that phrase. We of course were too broke to partake, but feeling so self-satisfied it was because we saved our pennies for solar panels. The installation crew arrived the beginning of December. The day was a gloomy one and would prove to be very noisy also as drilling through our house's two-foot stone walls was a rumbling, vibratory affair, but I focused that this project was all about the sun. In the below photo, if you look hard enough, past the leafless trees, you will see the expanse of panels across the roof—a cool glimmer as if we dementedly agreed to putting up an ice-skating rink up there.

That dark hose coming down through the eaves and then entering the house wall into the garage holds the electrical wiring connecting the panels with . . .

. .  . with various meters, here's one, . . .

. . . and another . . .

. . . and yet another one. They are adorning the cellier's wall and keeping the wine bottles company. Instead of trooping down there only to get confused by what these meters are metering, we can comfortably gaze at a web page replete with charts showing the ebb and flow of our little home solar energy production. We can't wait until the days get longer and hotter.

So far the only adjustment made in our routine, is instead of using delayed settings for our washing machine so the laundry will be done by early morning, I try to run it when the sun is shining. As with most European models, this washer has its own built-in, electric heater.

À la prochaine!

Euthanasia of Dirac, The Older Of Our Two Beloved Cats

Dirac's kidney insufficiency when it recently was diagnosed after three months of various puzzling illnesses, including the highest temperature the Vet had ever seen and a front leg's abscess the size of a ping pong ball, logged in at a quality-of-life-destroying sixty five percent.

Dirac being only five years old made his developing the disease unusual as it is seen typically in much older cats. In any case, it is mostly a hidden sickness. As the damage spreads, super cells, nephrons, take on the burden of purification until they, too, give out, and that's when pronounced symptoms appear like bloody vomit, loss of appetite/weight, lacklustre fur, lethargy, excessive urination, and disorientation. The earliest symptom is gradually increasing thirst which was not easy to note in Dirac as he went outdoors a great deal. A cure is not possible, only a treatment consisting of three days of IV to lessen the accumulated toxins that his kidneys are no longer able to filter. He spent the nights with us, but his vein was kept open via a device and bandaged until the treatment was finished. He improved for a week during which he went out to sniff out intriguing smells and climb trees, manicuring his claws with great enthusiasm all the time looking at me with bright eyes. He again deteriorated to the point where he stopped eating and couldn't walk in a straight line because his eyes no longer tracked his head movements.

Before we brought him to the Vet for the last time, we had discussed euthanising Dirac and continued to so while he was in his carrier letting out feeble cries from time to time in the back seat. When asked how much suffering he was experiencing, the Vet stated that no one knows exactly how much, but since his quality of life was so diminished, that he without a doubt was suffering. I also kept in mind that one Vet had written on the Web that constant tail waving in cats, unlike dogs, is the equivalent of crying in humans; the last two days Dirac's tail never stopped wagging. She informed us of the enormous damage his kidneys had sustained and that the positive effects would last just a week, necessitating repeated bouts of the invasive treatment.

Once those two aspects were made clear, The Calm One and I nodded in silent agreement that Dirac would be euthanised as soon as possible. She put him to sleep while we gently touched him as we wept. Then The Calm One remained and I left to wait in our car while she finished administering the second injection, the one to stop his heart. As I saw The Calm One approach, he was dangling the empty carrier, the carrier in which he had carried Dirac so many times in the past three months. His face was marked with anguish but his step with determination. To do the right thing is never easy. 

I have decided not to post a photo of our beautiful boy when he was healthy as the biggest ordeal for me was to see him get progressively and irreversibly unhealthy of which I had the hardest time to accept though I eventually did. He was sick, very sick, when we authorised his death. What I want to remember is despite his bad state he died in dignity, with our loving him to the end (we placed our caressing fingers as close to his nose as possible so perhaps he could smell our scent and know it was us, that he was not with strangers) and the Vet calmly, expertly ending his misery. That scene will be lodged in my memory always. The following day I remarked to The Calm One that I felt remiss I was no longer offering constant care to Dirac, to which he replied, that by ensuring him a peaceful death, I fullfilled an important aspect of that care.

Our three-year old cat, Eli, bounds with energy and loves his food. Cats are marvels.

Artwork Series: Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencil Drawing of Two Desert Roses

After a long hiatus, I am once again doing art on a steady basis. At present, I am getting up to speed on a medium that I haven't ever done, that of coloured pencils. Most days during the last two months I have practiced with top-of-the-line pencils (oil-based Faber-Castell Polychromos), but with inexpensive paper. I chose my various subjects from a notepad cover, my own photography, an art book of Toulouse-Lautrec's work, and a Pinterest board of mine, titled Drawing Ideas. I also watched some videos such as The Virtual Art Instructor among others. There are so many fantastic artists showing how they do art plus they respond to questions in the comments section! I remember back in the day when I would take nightly art classes after my full-time library job was done, what all the instructors, with the rare exception, would do were to walk around, saying nothing. On the other hand with YouTube artists I don't need to sit through a boring class as I can stop watching the video plus I didn't waste time going to and from a lacklustre course. Additionally I can switch teachers without a hitch, and they can be offered patronage if so desired.

Final Draft

After familiarising myself with the medium and feeling more confident, I was ready for an upgrade to high-quality paper, specifically, Clairfontaine's pochette dessin, papier blanc à grain, 224g/m2, A3. With the aide of The Calm One, a sheet was carefully and neatly halved. The lush colours laid down like velvet on the plushy paper! Once that initial delirium passed, all kinds of problems began to pop up, but I knew the paper was resilient enough to take on those challenges. What visually grabs you in your subject is what precisely needs to be captured.  My being instantly smitten by the below photo was because of several characteristics—the exquisite buoyancy, close to weightlessness, throughout the picture plane; silky smooth petals contrasting against the fuzzy texture of the sepals; plumpness of the roses; the warm colours of blue-green and peachy-pink set against a cool, dark background; specific details like dew drops/sharp light and dark contrasts/fuzzy little hairs edging the sepals & petals; five levels of distance, starting from the nearest to the farthest:

• 1. lower, larger rose
• 2. higher, smaller rose
• 3. the two stems
• 4. blurred leaves
• 5. dark green background

Pinterest photo from which my drawing is based

Basic preparation goes a long way such as practising on a separate piece of paper the effects I wanted to achieve along with choosing the appropriate colours by holding individual coloured pencils close to the subject. For those that came near to a good match, I made a colour menu, keeping in mind some of them might need to be deleted and some added as the drawing progressed.

I lightly drew the subject with a HB pencil. A good deal of time was spent to get placement and form as close to the original as possible which necessitated a good deal of erasing. On with the colours! Eventually my drawing advanced to the stage represented by the below photo on the left. How did I get to the final result shown by the below photo on the right? By spending nearly as much time refining it that I did to get a reasonable facsimile, albeit, a dull one, in fact, downright gloomy. Why was it like that despite being a decent rendition of the subject? The roses themselves lacked a contrast between light and dark while the background was much darker which competed for attention. The background was lightened by adding white and lifting off colour with facial tissues/an eraser to a certain point which was not enough to make the background less dominant. My guess is instead of layering black with dark phthalo green, if warm grey V (274) was used, the colour would have been light enough. Therefore, the roses needed to be brightened to hold their own. After more colours were layered on, mostly carmine rose and cobalt green, they were smoothed with the less vigorous blending stump so as not to lift off too much of the added colour.

The upper stem's thickness was made less to match the lower one by fading more of its edge into the dark background. Baby oil was used all over not only for additional blending but also to bring out the vibrancy of the oil-based pigments even more.

There are several ways to highlight details. One method is incision which is pressing the paper with a tool with a rounded point. To replicate fuzz/moisture under the rose's tip which remarkably resembles a dolphin's mouth, I applied dots with a deadbeat ballpoint pen. Though there are purpose-built tools, I figured since I share our abode with the deadbeat ballpoint champion collector of the world, that it wasn't necessary to get a special gadget. When the colour is put on, it doesn't fill in the marks, leaving a trail of visible white dots. Another way to highlight is scratching the paper with the colour already drawn in with a craft knife. That is how the slightly longer 'hairs' were done above the rose's tip . . .

. . . and along the sepals.

Yet another highlighting technique is lifting colour with erasers which are available in kneadable form (so a particular shape moulded by the artist can lift that exact shape), squat little sturdy rectangles that can be kept clean and somewhat shaped by rubbing them against rough sandpaper, and delicate eraser tips held by a holder. The strong highlights on the lower rose was first made by outlining their shape with a HB pencil and then steering clear of that area when applying colour. A light film of colour eventually drifts into any uncoloured area, so the highlights had to be made more evident by erasure.

The dewdrop on the upper rose's tip was made with both colour and scratchings. Since the light is coming from the left side, the strongest highlights needed to be on the left side of the dewdrop. The bulging bit in the middle of the rose was made more pronounced via shading.

Darker carmine rose accents and cobalt turquoise was shaded in to make a sepal look like it was pulling away from the rose.

Was I satisfied with how it came out in the end? Despite not rendering the subtlety throughout the picture plane, that is, one of graceful cheerfulness, because the roses finished being much more vibrant than their background, I did accomplish all the other aspects which I found alluring in the photo of two desert roses. In addition, I now know how to simulate a whispering of colour permeating the entirety of a drawing which requires keeping the contrast less demarcated by maintaining the background and subject in tonal values fairly light to moderate. Keep in mind, a flat subject melding into a dark background as in my first version, appearing foreboding and a bit mysterious, could be used if that effect is desired. My final version was neither one of lightness or gloom, but more dramatic, resulting from a pairing of a moderately toned background with bright subjects. Being familiar with as many perspectives and techniques will allow me to grow as an artist.

À la prochaine!

Polychromos colour pencils used for this drawing:

White, 101
Cream, 102
Warm grey II, 271
Cobalt green, 156
Cobalt turquoise, 153
Geranium lake, 121
Rose carmine, 124
Deep scarlet red, 219
Earth green, yellowish, 168
Dark chrome yellow, 109
Dark phthalo green, 264
Black, 199

Book Review / So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Though discussions about race are fraught with difficulties, Ms Oluo does not get bogged down by them. Her approach is like one of a spring--both like water bubbling up from a profound source and a resilient helical coil--because it is buoyed by lived experience while never forgetting her identity despite being pressed or pulled. She responds to well tread protestations against racism's omnipresence with courage, lucidity, and consistency.

The author

Humans, regardless of race and class, are subject to hardships. While poor whites experiencing setbacks and difficulties have less resources than better-off people, impoverished people of colour have their hardships compounded further by racism, a pervasive, bewildering substrate in which people of colour are stuck. If only class inequality were addressed, poverty would not be tackled substantially for people of colour. Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality startles at first because it is so elegant you don't know where to begin to digest its beauty and effectiveness. It makes you think and think hard which is perhaps why some people reject this scholarly concept out of hand, dissing it as banal identity politics/tribalism.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, lawyer, civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory

Racism will not be significantly lessened if a crude definition is that it's just a few rotten apples. Such individuals aren't worth the time of day but that barrel is. Dismantling systematic racism is what needs to be done because then those carriers of the rot will not be able to infect everyone. A common refrain is oh stop with racism is everywhere, you making it worse by seeing something that is not there. I can't help quipping that response falls in the category of is that a pen in your pocket or are you just glad to see me. I would imagine that Mae West found the second reaction to be the more common. The person who is living the experience of being seen fairly consistently in a particular manner is the one to whom I defer.

Ijeoma Oluo with her children

There's much to learn from her book because she knows this topic from all angles. But for me, the standout lesson is whites confronting everyday racism doesn't make them heroes. It's just the bottom line. Get this book, digest it, and apply. Reread. Keep as reference. Buy copies for giving to others.

À la prochaine!

RELATED LINKS

How to pronounce the author's very beautiful name

So You Want To Talk About Race at Amazon

Ms Oluo at Twitter

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw at Twitter

OTHER BOOK REVIEWS

Book review / Inferior:  The True Power Of Women And The Science That Shows It by Angela Saini

Book review / The Golden Thread : How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair

Book review / Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Warner Townsend

Book Review / Against Empathy by Paul Bloom

Book Review / The Tulip by Anna Pavord

Book Review / The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt by Robert I. Sutton

Book Review / Florike Egmond's An Eye For Detail: Images of Plants and Animals in Art and Science, 1500-1630

Book Review / Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook: Artisanal

Baking From Around The World by Jessamyn Waldman

Rodriguez with Julia Turshen

Book Review/The Confidence Game: The Psychology Of The Con And Why We Fall For It Every Time By Maria Konnikova

Book Review / The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art by Joyce Carol Oates

A Frosty Morn Delights

Frost is captivating. When looked at from afar, it relaxes the mind, slowing down a zigzag of pesky thoughts enough to get to the point of wanting to go on out and get close to it. The laundry can wait. And that goes for checking email too.

Solid ice in the bird bath is thumped out of its giant plant saucer. Shards lay gleaming on the frosted grass; the bath gets filled with fresh water.

Nothing showcases ice better than the hot pink of penstemon.

There's wind ready and willing to disseminate a dandelion's pollen, but the pollen says not right this moment, but thanks anyway.

A paprika heuchera stuns with picot edging of delicate lace along with a piqué interior of dots. 

A dried sedum clustered flowerhead's swaying in the wind on leggy stems isn't hampered by a newly acquired coat of rime.

Solar lamps encrusted with white accentuate the geometrical purity of a circle and a diamond.

Within sweet alyssum's flowerhead each tiny bloom bears a close resemblance to candied violets.

Weak, wintry sunshine washes over thawed Queen Elizabeth hedge roses facing east in the front garden, fading the vibrant colour into one of old, tattered, salmon-coloured silk.

Pots of lobelia adorning a series of sous sol window sills facing west are still holding onto their blooms since June! Their icy blue fits right in.

À la prochaine!

RELATED LINKS

How frost can harm and help your garden

Mini Banana Naked Cake With Blackberry Cream-Cheese Icing Plus DIY Festive Table Decoration (Last Post Until January 2020)

Though I grew up in America, lofty, frosted, layered cakes did not figure that much in my life.  The blame can't be put on bland Betty Crocker boxed cake mixes but on all those wonderful, taste-bud-spoiling German-American bakeries that dotted NYC at that time. My preference for European styled cakes became even more entrenched after having lived a couple of decades in France. Therefore when coming across the concept of a naked cake, that is, a layered one, but without frosting or icing hiding its layers, I said this is for me. The French frequently showcasing fruits via desserts is an aspect much appreciated by me. Frozen blackberries from a late-summer harvest gives a tartness to this soft icing and colours it a delicate mauve. The cake is the dark, moist banana bread that was baked last week (my recipe) for two hours at a low temperature and of which I have a nice supply in the freezer. The icing can also be made ahead and frozen. Once the ingredients are at the ready, it is a cinch to layer, ice, and serve. Leftover cake lasts at least a day in the fridge—oh, what a nice breakfast that was the next day!

What a cutie!

The festive table decoration was put together thusly: curl, layer, and press close to the sides of a glass jar whatever greenery and berries comes your way. Slowly trickle in water almost to the top. Remove the metal casing from a votive candle by pulling on its wick, place it on the submerged foliage or float on the water, and light it. In our garden, I found sprigs of leyland cypress, ivy with its berries, desiccated hydrangea blooms, orange rose hips, lily of the valley red berries, red blueberry bush twigs, and orange-red strawberry leaves. I love, love, love its portability, the ease in which it was assembled, plus how beautifully shining and translucent it looks! To look its freshest it's best to add water shortly before presenting.

Ingredients (Makes a 7.5 cm/3 inch diameter cake, serving 2 to 3. There is enough frosting and banana bread to make several cakes, either all at once, or gradually in the future as bread and frosting can be frozen. Frosting adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction)

• Blackberries, fresh or frozen (can be lightly sugared), 1 cup which makes 2 T of blackberry coulis)
• Cream cheese, 224 g/8 dry oz
• Butter, unsalted, softened to room temperature, 60 g/4 T
• Sugar, icing, 360 g (3 American 8 fluid oz cups)
• Vanilla, extract, 1 tsp
• Salt, a pinch (1/8 tsp)
• Banana cake/bread, 3 thick slices (recipe is here)
• For garnishing, blackberries and banana slices

If you have more berries than a cup, don't hesitate to make extra coulis as it can be frozen. It makes a delicious dessert sauce especially when served over vanilla ice cream. I made the coulis from three cups of frozen slightly sweetened blackberries (they were frozen in that quantity, three cups of garden berries in six separate containers, a total of eighteen cups. A blackberry bonanza from just a solitary bush!) which gave a lot more than the two tablespoons required. If a frosting is preferred rather than a somewhat drippy icing, then reduce the recommended amount of coulis over a medium flame until halved. Also either leave out the vanilla extract or let a split vanilla bean steep in the hot coulis for around ten minutes. Remove bean, cool, and use. For an even fluffier effect, if available choose the block form of cream cheese (less introduced air than the whipped version in the tub). If not, then use more from the tub than recommended, around three extra heaping tablespoons.

Place a sieve (or a Foley mill) over an appropriately sized bowl and add the berries. With a large wooden spoon squish, mash, and push their juice through the sieve. Make sure the spoon by which the sieve's bottom is scraped from time to time is clean. Reserve two tablespoons and if not using the extra soon, freeze the surplus.

If using a stand mixer: beat butter and cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and beat. Add the salt, blackberry coulis, and vanilla (if using). Beat until smooth. Doing it by hand: in a large mixing bowl, work the softened butter with a fork until fluffy and light-coloured. Add the cream cheese and continuing working with a fork. 

Whisk in gradually the sugar.

Add the blackberry coulis, salt, and vanilla (if using).

Whisk until smooth.

Cut thick slices from a loaf of banana bread. Use a jar whose mouth basically covers most of the slice without going over the edges. With a sharp knife, cut straight down around the diameter. Repeat two more times to get a total of three round layers. The cake cuttings can be toasted and used as croutons for fruit salad or toasted, crushed, and layered into a parfait.

Spread the icing thickly over the bottom slice, top with a second, and spread more icing, top with the last slice and spread icing. The more liquid the icing is, the more there will be an attempt for the cake to resemble the Tower of Pisa. In that case, gently coax it back into shape. Garnish with a blackberry and a banana sliver.

It slices well to give three portions.

Lovely in looks, gorgeous in taste! I am so glad that I have enough ingredients in the freezer to turn out more of these delicious beauties. Though I adored the icing soaking the cake, for the next one I will try the instructions following the ingredients list towards the beginning of this post to see how a fluffy frosting works out. I will report back.

See you in January!

Truffade Auvergnate

For a rustic treatment of potatoes and cheese, look no farther than France. There's Tartiflette (my recipe), also Aligot (my recipe), and then there's the glorious Truffade Auvergnate. The latter two dishes come from Auvergne where la France profonde (heartland) does its thing with excellent and just a few ingredients, serving up an unforgettable taste without much fuss. Truffade is gooey and substantial like another great comfort food, Macaroni and Cheese.

Sorrel, with its lemony taste, is managing to grow in our December garden. It makes a perfect topping for Truffade and per its saucy nature, mostly melts upon contact with the potatoes and cheese served piping hot from the cast iron skillet.

The cheese used traditionally in this recipe, that is, Tomme fraîche du Cantal, may be hard to come by so the very melty Comté can be substituted. I preferred Comté aged twenty months which has deep, complex flavour and welcome any opportunity to eat it. Here's an excerpt from my post on this fabulous cheese:

The flavour hovers between tangy and sweet tinged with caramel, and I mean hover, you're never quite sure which of those two tastes will dominate, keeping your palate awake. The texture is similar to the richest nougat, unctuous beyond belief with a touch of gooeyness before giving way to an umami cloud pervading every nook and cranny of my very fortunate mouth. 

Ingredients
2 ample or 4 smaller servings
adapted from Sarah's Kitchen

• Potatoes, all-purpose, 500 g (I used Rosabelle potatoes from our potager)
• Fat, duck or goose, 1 T (I used olive oil)
• Tomme fraîche du Cantal or Comté (which I used), 200 g
• Garlic clove, large, crushed
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Sorrel, fresh, a small handful

Cut the cheese into 1 cm/.4 inch cubes and the peeled potatoes into 2 cm/.8 inch cubes. The size is important allowing the potatoes to be cooked tender within the allotted time and for the cheese to melt quickly.

Peel and crush or mince fine one fat garlic glove.

Heat the fat or olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet, preferably cast iron. Toss in the potatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for twenty minutes over a low to medium low heat. Move the taters around with a sturdy spatula, scraping underneath them, from to time.

Add garlic and stir well, getting the tiny bits mixed throughout. Cook for another five minutes or until the largest potato cube is tender and all is golden brown.

Take the pan off the heat (don't forget to turn the burner off). Crush most of the potatoes with a fork or masher. Toss in the cheese cubes, steadily stirring until cheese is melted and has coated totally the potatoes, that is, you can hardly see any potato for the cheese. You can serve as is or you can compress and shape the cheesy mass into a thick pancake with a spatula or a potato masher. It then can be browned on both sides.

Top with chiffonade of sorrel (wash, dry, trim, stack leaves, roll into a cigar shape, and slice thinly). Perhaps because I substituted Comté for Tomme fraîche du Cantal, my version resembled the New York City street food like pizza and knishes with which I grew up, meaning warming food eaten out of hand. The tremendous amount of cheese becoming one with the  potato means the melty fusion passed to a stretchy, stringy state and then one of congealment so quickly that only determined fingers can take on the challenge of pulling off a chunk at least when it's served in a bowl. A challenge I met with gusto. I have since found a local source for Tomme fraîche du Cantal, the cheese used traditionally in this dish. When I remake this I will use that cheese and report back.

Any left-overs can be shaped into a pancake, put in a covered container, refrigerated, and reheated in a skillet with no additional fat. Eventually served on a plate, it was easy to cut with a knife into small pieces.

À la prochaine!