More garden stuff

Really quick about the blog name change, Hélène informs me that 'raconteur', which is a French word obviously, actually means "liar" in French. In all the dictionaries I have found, and certainly in English usage, it means more storyteller, maybe with some embellishment, and that would seem to fit so I am sticking with it despite the negative connotation in French.

Just a few more pics from the garden. Hélène has quite the green thumb, as you will soon see. She started a little nursery, just a box with some plastic covering it, and then slowly moved things into the actual garden. Most of the nursery stuff is growing like wildfire, and I mean really impressively. About the only thing that isn't 'fruiting' yet is the pumpkin, although its had several flowers (where the actual fruit or vegetable or whatever the hell a pumpkin is grows from) but as yet, none of them have made it. She actually ended up transplanting it next to the compost heap, which should provide for some good nourishment, since at the moment its not in a box but instead is just a pile of dead stuff.

First a shot of the tomatoes, which are coming in nicely. Probably about 4 or 6 of them already-



Next is the Coloquinte, which is really just for show and a member of the squash family, and as my Argentine-American friend here said (yes, I have one of those here), its what they use to make maté gourds in South America-



The thing is like a freakin weed, basically taking over the whole wall of her little garden. Which is good actually, because its next to our neighbors driveway and that part of the jardin (which is used for 'yard' too in French) doesn't have a wall or any bushes.

Here is a shot of the Coloquintes flowers, which are kinda cool because they open in the morning and close as the day goes by-



Last is the Courgette, or Zucchini. I've recently learned that there are multiple types of these, including the 'giant' variety which is what we have and what was in that picture with Hubert the cat a while back-



Hopefully the closing flower there gives you some perspective (they are about the same size on both the Courgette and the Coloquinte, maybe a bit bigger on the Courgette), as its a little over a foot long and probably as thick as my calf (and while I have skinny legs, my calves are not so bad). I don't think we ever made it all the way through that other zucchini, and since we now have two of these, I would guess the compost heap is going to get some of this one too. Its really too bad I am not a bigger fan of zucchini; to me it always just seems like filler.

A+

UPDATE- So, we just had lunch and Hélène made a very typical thing for us- Just a salad with some vegetables, with some frozen (non-battered) fish (sometimes its tuna) and rice (pasta is probably more common). It makes a really nice, fresh lunch, and probably healthier than what I used it eat, and allows me to get away with eating more pain au chocolate. Which by the way, is retardedly called chocolate croissants in the states. Croissant comes from the SHAPE, so they are really just bread and chocolate, just the same TYPE of bread as a croissant!

Anyway, point is that Hélène asked if I could name all the vegetables in the salad and there were some big cucumber like chunks, so I said cucumber. Turns out thats the Courgette, and I have to admit its much much better cold and fresh than I remember zucchini being once its been cooked.