Yesterday was the winter solstice and there was also a bit of kerfuffle on the news about the day being the possible end of the world. It certainly was the end of a major cycle in the 5,125-year-old Mayan Long Count calendar known as the 13th Baktun. This event convinced some that it was the signal for the Apocalyse to begin.
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| setting solstice sun between St Flovier and St Senoch |
We, on the other hand, being made of more phlegmatic stuff, went down to our local village cafe/bar, the Relais du Dolmen for lunch in the company of friends
Simon and Susan and
Tim and Pauline. We were there to 'road test' the €12.00 menu du jour. The cafe/bar recently came under new management, you can read about it
here. The food was fine but we all felt that the lass who manages the Relais could do with an assistant as she was running things completely single-handed.
I'm sure you're wondering about 'Sister ma' part of the title. No, it is nothing to do with a nunnery! Those of you who read Simon & Susan's blog will know that they recently spent a month in Australia visiting family. They stopped over in China on their way back and very kindly brought us a seriously large pack of Chinese sweeties called 'Sister ma'.
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| Chinese candy |
We tried them yesterday when we came back from our weekly food shop and they are extremely nice: very thin outer hard candy shell wrapped round a sort of nut brittle. Yummy! We love the product description and the bright orange packaging. Just the right warm sunshine-y color to brighten up yet another driech rainy day like the one we're having today.
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| candy description [click to enlage] |
Yesterday, it mostly rained as well. We caught a very brief glimpse of the sun when it was setting and mist was beginning to curl over the fields, but that was our lot! We managed to get a few pictures on the phone camera before it disappeared. Sadly, the weather gods' dial seems to be fixed on 'soggy' for Christmas.
11 comments:
Glad you like the sweets -- a bit disappointed they weren't seriously weird though :-)
@Susan - to be honest we were expecting weird too!
The perfect crystal of traditional craftwork and modern food technology? What a delightful description.
I thought Madame coped pretty well with running the bar and serving ten people on her own, and the food was good homecooked family stuff too.
@Tim - we thought the description was brilliant :-)
Agreed re the food and we'll certainly drop in for lunch again; it's just not in the same league as the other 2 we mentioned. However, it is very early days and the others don't do it all on their own.
And we thought that the apocalypse was the Mayans foreseeing the arrival of the hordes from Belgium to spend Christmas and New Year here....
@Fly - well getting 1 out of 2 isn't bad when it comes to prophesies ;-) Enjoy the hordes!
I assume from the name of the cafe bar that Charnizay has a dolmen nearby.
The Chinese sweeties sound interesting. Ages ago I used to buy things called White Rabbits from an Asian deli. They were gorgeous. The Chinese sure can make good sweets.
I love Belgian chocolates,but have never tried Chinese sweets. One for the future. Horrible weather here too.
Happy Christmas to you both.
@AJ - yes there's a dolmen called Les Palets de Gargantua.
We didn't know that the Chinese made good sweets so these were a real surprise.
@Perpetua - totally agree with regards to Belgian chocolates--good one are out of this world!
And a very Happy Christmas to you and yours :-)
It is indeed soggy, we are in Wales for Christmas and flooding prevented me from getting out and about as required today! Have a wonderful Christmas thankyou also for calling by the Christmas post on News From Italy I hope you enjoyed the music.
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