Footprints in the Snow...

...yes it's true, my little find in the walls of the house has got me all archaeologized...I am absolutely convinced that there is a Roman villa under our field...it's not such a reach really...the house is on the old Roman road that went from the village to the temple of Mars...and we're not far from the Via Domitia...the whole area is full of Roman vestiges...and this is where the snow comes in...about the only part of snow I like...because it covers and melts at different rates depending on what is under it...and what I was looking for was straight lines...I had a few clues from the grass variations in the summer but the snow made them even clearer...even the Palikari had to admit their existence, even if he says they are probably just from how they planted the crops...oh, ye of little faith...now I just need a metal detector and a little bulldozer...

The Amateur Archaeologist...

...makes a find at last!!! Buried in the hardened clay/mud walls I spied a squarish shape...the head...of an ancient nail? Certainly my nail...third from the top in my photo of finds on the bottom...is a pretty close match to the photo of a Roman nail from the Glasgow Steel Nail site, from whence see the description of the Roman nail making process below...also on offer thanks to the Palikari and his martopiquer is the original stone floor of the house...a full foot below the present two layers of cement of the floor (which the Palikari has refused to exhume for me in it's entirety despite whining and pleading) the original floor is about 6 inches below present day ground level outside...the other finds would appear to be fossils...although the grooves on the bottom piece seem to be hand carved...hm...

"For nail making, iron ore was heated with carbon to form a dense spongy mass of metal which was then fashioned into the shape of square rods and left to cool. The metal produced was wrought iron. After re-heating the rod in a forge, the blacksmith would cut off a nail length and hammer all four sides of the softened end to form a point. Then the nail maker would insert the hot nail into a hole in a nail header or anvil and with four glancing blows of the hammer would form the rosehead (a shallow pyramid shape).This shape of nail had the benefit of four sharp edges on the shank which cut deep into timber and the tapered shank provided friction down its full length. The wood fibres would often swell if damp and bind round the nail making an extremely strong fixing."

And More...

More Palikari's Progress...

...and needless to say he is looking pretty pleased with himself... fortified with a good sugar high of glyka tou koutaliou he's chipped more of the old plaster off the wall, further confirming that the house is in fact a pile of mud and rubble...he's taken the water access outside and dug the trench for the heating and electrical wires in the future salon...he's working fast and furious...perhaps I should be slipping more sugar into his food...

Glyka tou Koutaliou...

...the ancestor of fruit confit...which must have been made originally with honey...are still part of Greek culinary tradition...served almost any time of day to guests on a little crystal plate with a teaspoon and a tall glass of cold water...the translation is spoon sweet...these were a favourite of the Sultans in Constaninople/Istanbul...now they are a famous product from Pelion, our favourite region in Greece, the land of the centaurs (the menders "kentao" of "auras" or souls) the area is famous also for it's herbs...a sort of herbalists heaven...and the place where Achilles was raised and from whence the Argonauts left for Troy...so perhaps he is the one who took the sweets to Turkey...now they are popular throughout the Arab world!
The way to make them is pretty simple...for whatever quantity of fruit (my favourite are sour cherry, quince, or bergamot) use the same ammount of sugar...peel the fruit if necessary and toss it in some lemon juice and cover it with water...in a pot bring the sugar to a boil with about a fourth the volume of water(I add a pinch of salt but this is irregular of me)...you can add things like cinnamon, cloves, anise seeds...and a couple of twists of lemon rind...boil the syrup for about 15-20 minutes...let it cool...drain the fruit and add them to the syrup...bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour, it varies from fruit to fruit, the harder the longer...you may need to turn larger fruit occasionally to assure even cooking...when done remove them to a plate...at this point you can add alcohol if you like to the syrup (brandy, mastika, rum, be careful adding anything cold to the sugar syrup) and continue to boil it until it gets to a thin honey thickness, if it's too thick add some water...then put the fruit back in, let it cool and put it in a glass container...if you are going to try to store it then make sure it is sterile...or serve it...alone or on top of Greek yogurt with crumbled walnuts! My food photography seems to be improving...now if only I could learn how to use this system and get that plate horizontal...

Edible Art...

...kindness of antiquity...and by supposition ancient Greece...the first form of Fruit Confit, or candied fruits were preserved in honey...obviously this was a way to enjoy fruit all year long...
when I saw this shop window in Avignon it instantly made me think of all those Pompeian frescoes...and it was the Romans who brought this technique with them...and to what better place than the valley of the Vaucluse the fruit belt of France...Apt is the capital of fruit confit, I guess the centurions grabbed a couple from the Saturday market on their way to the Pont Julien just as the tourists do today...the term confit comes from latin conficere, to prepare...the water in the fruit is replaced by sugar through osmosis...a large fruit can take a long time...but the result are these beautifully colourful and perfectly shaped translucent memories of almost any fruit imaginable...you can see why the artists of Pompeii were so taken with them!!!

Alright Mr.Demille, I'm Ready For My Closeup...

Other Things in Trees...

...a hundred silky webbed nests of the chenille processionnaires...a fancy French word for caterpillars that follow eachother head to tail to destinations unknown where they will bury themselves in the earth and emerge as very ordinary moths...although all of them suddenly popping out must be quite a sight...this year the pines were inundated with them...apparently they just love pine needles, but they are very ergonomic designers, build a house and then eat the inside...I should maybe consider erecting walls of wine bottles?...anyway, when they leave the nests and caravan out they get very annoyed if disturbed, perhaps because if they lose the guy ahead of them they'll take a wrong turn...and when annoyed they expell short poisonous hairs that cause the skin to itch, turn red and swell...I know that this does not seem reason enough to have an enormous truck installed on the lawn (at least this one didn't sink, though it left pretty ugly tiretracks) and twenty hirsute workmen (18 watched) at great personal expense...but just one little poil from the millions that would leave home in two weeks could kill a CAT!!!!

While On Trees...

...literally...mistletoe...anglo saxon for dung-twig...because the seeds are deposited by birds...sort of takes the romance out of kissing under it at Christmas...this celebration originated with the Druids...but ha! this is where the Greek comes in...as Drys/Drus is the ancient Greek word for Oak...and where doth one find the sacred parasitic ball growing?...and what are the names of those who worship it?...hmmm...but the custom of kissing under the evergreen globe is also a Roman custom practiced during the Saturnalia...celebrated at the winter solstice when the Druids also had their most sacred ceremony, during which the King climbed up an oak and severed the mistletoe with a golden sickle...this jives nicely with the birth of Aphrodite, born of the testicles of Uranos that fell into the sea when his son Cronus castrated him with with a sickle, given to him by his mother Gaia (the earth Goddess)...(the French word for mistletoe is Gui, the modern Greek word for the earth is Γη (Gee))...and just like Aphrodite the plant also symbolized fertility in all the various mythologies...indeed Pliny says the Celts believed it cured infertility in animals...but it also had a significant relationship to death (it is poisonous)... in other Greek myths it is used by Aeneas and Persephone to enter Hades...and herein lies it's magic duality the key to all it's holiness...for all who use it come back to earth...even Balder in Norse mythology as well, returns from the land of the dead...here another facet of the Druid rite has a Greek tint, at the same time as severing the mistletoe two white bulls were sacrificed to the moon Goddess...in Greek Mythology, the cow/bull was sacred to both Hera (the wife of Zeus, God of the Oak tree, think about what an acorn looks like and the fecundal attribute of the tree is clear, some say the mistletoe's white berries also relate to this image) and to Pasiphae the Moon Goddess, daughter of Helios, the Sun, who married Minos and bore the minotaur...all of this is clearly a plea for eternal balance...between light and darkness from the Gods of Heaven and Hell, Sun and Moon, Life and Death, Cure and Poison...absolution and resurrection...in France they say that the cross was made of mistletoe and it is also known as the herbe de la croix...but it still retains it's apotropiac quality in English households where after the fertility kissing over the holidays has been exhausted it is allowed to remain and dry until the next year protecting the house...and in Bretagne the children still go from house to house on New Year's day shouting "Au Gui l'an Neuf"for luck!!!

We Must Have Taken the Wrong Road Home....

...where the Hell are we? -15!!!!

But Wait, There's More...

...the Cloister! built on the vestiges of the Carolingian church...from the Greek word for closed Kleisto...is basically a direct descendant of the Roman villa which had a closed peristyle (peri-stylos, around-columns, gotta get that Greek content in somehow!!!) in it's center or as a forecourt...also inspired by the Moors with their enclosed gardens...Narbonne also once belonged to Cordoba...this is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen...guarded by a roguish collection of gargoyles...the word is supposed to be an onomatopoeic (onoma=name and poiisi= creation, in this instance a word that sounds like the thing) reflective of their function as water spouts preventing the erosion of the stones and mortar...gargarizo is in fact the ancient Greek word for gargling....but I think their real etymology (true reason) is the Gorgon's head...the apotropaic (turning away) toothful beauty sticking her tongue out at you from Athena's shield...the origin of our own cocky gesture of dismay or disgust...the original "Gorgona" was Medusa, so terrifying she would turn a man to stone if he even gazed upon her...she morphed over time into the mermaid, both the protector of sailors and she who may lure him to his death...the purpose was to terrify...the ancient greek word for freaking out is (phonetically) "gorgo-ohmay"...Greeks are just as concerned with protective charms now as then, such as the evil eye which was painted on the prows of triremes but now appears most often on bracelets, keychains and decorative wall ornaments...I've got a multi coloured one on right now, never underestimate the eye!!!...walking the cloister while chanting, lighting a candle in the cathedral in hopes of the saint's protection, crossing yourself or wearing a crucifix are just other apotropaic gestures...but these gargoyles really work!!!

...And What a Church!!!

...and how nice to have a little tipple of bituricus every Sunday...the forefather of cabernet is probably what was in the chalis when the first Roman church was built here in 313...destroyed by fire it was replaced with another in the next century...in 782 it took the name of Saint Justus and pastor after two young martyrs...shortly after another was erected of which the spire remains but which also fell into ruin...until finally this enormous gothic cathedral was begun in 1272...but it is still unfinished because to finish it would have meant knocking down part of the city walls and the town council, apparently lucid, thought that destroying fortifications in the 13th century was folly...and indeed they were right as the city fell prey to numerous attacks in subsequent years...it's nice to think that safety came first, before bribery in those days...the ceiling is a staggering 41 meters and the cathedral is 60 meters long...quite a feat of engineering,
it took fifty years to build...it grandly monopolizes the skyline of this city that Martial proclaimed ''the most beautiful in Roman Gaul''...and the cathedral wasn't even built yet!!!