Spring is here.

Spring is here and the trees are alive again. I am always amazed with spring. Barren trees start to bloom once there are a few days of rain followed by a day or two of sunshine. 

This tree is in front of A2's room. Each morning when I rolled up the shutter, we got this lovely sight.

 This other tree is what greets us from the home office. The trees look beautiful. However, once the wind comes, the petals would drop everywhere including our drive way. It is a messy affair trying to clean the ground.

In our garden, the apricot tree is flowering as well. The cherry and apple trees are starting to bud. Chives are shooting out from a corner of the garden. I thought they are gone forever but each spring at the same spot, the chives appear. Just amazing. After so many years in this country, I marvel each time at the beginning of a season. 

Guess it's because I come from a tropical country.

The fruits of autum

Autum is the season of mushrooms. Living in the countryside surrounded by forest, we went mushrooms picking with a friend and her girls. I knew nothing about mushroom hunting so I was glad that my friend taught me a thing or two. Thumb of rule, in case of doubt, don't pick it. Actually, we used a knife to cut off the stem so that the mushroom could grow again. If we picked it, the root would be damaged and there won't be a new mushroom growing from that root.

 

Anyway, most wild mushrooms are not edible. We were looking mainly for cepes (porcino) as they were easy to identity. With our little children, it was difficult to spot the mushrooms further away from the forest trail. Or those that were edible already had worms in them.  

 

Our pick of the day was a coulemelle. My friend told me it was good. Just soak it in water and slice it up and fry with butter and garlic. It was big and easy to identify. It has a little hat just underneath. Seb and I tried it and we liked it. No tummy ache so all was well. 

We tried mushroom picking over the weekend with Seb taking his usual walk with Handsome in the forest. We did not have much luck this time. Most of the time, the kids and I were saying 'No good.' when we spotted the mushrooms.

 

Autum is also the season of chestnut. And being a city girl, I was not able to tell which chestnut fruits were edible. As school holidays started this week, the boys spent their days at the recreation center while I worked. On a lovely day, they went to the forest and picked up chestnuts. The staff at the center prepared a bag of chestnuts for each parent. I boiled them and A1 and I enjoyed them. Seb and A2 were not fans.   

Despite the wet autum season, there are interesting things to do in the forest. To make our kids walk in the forest, we give them a basket and tell them we are going chestnut and mushrooms hunting.

Late fall

It snowed overnight last friday and in the morning, this was the sight of our garden. It was white and beautiful. As Seb was on a work trip, I was alone with the kids. That meant that I had to bring the two boys out when sending A1 to school. I decided not to bring A1 to school as A2 was sick. I did not want to risk A2 getting sicker. Furthermore, the gate was frozen and could only open half way. The car was covered in snow too. The pathway was slippery. I was not motivated to sweep the snow and pour hot water. Well, we just holed up in the house the whole day. 

By afternoon, the snow had mostly melted away. As Christmas is coming, some neighbours put up decorations on the exterior of their houses. The best decorated house I would say belongs to our direct neighbour. The decorations look like display from a shop's window. The lights light up at 5.30pm and was beautiful. We are so fortunate to benefit from this display.

The weather had been rainy too. Yesterday I could not decide if I should pick up A1 by foot or by car as it was raining on and off. When looking out, I saw this double rainbow. Beautiful. It was dark at the front gate and clear sky at the backyard. In the end, the sky cleared and A2 and I went on foot to fetch A1 from school.

Snow is expected again this thursday. A2 is better now. Maybe I will let the kids play in the garden and make a snowman if there is enough snow.