latest...

Well, not much is happening. All calm. Here is a lizard, preparing for the alien landing? All the world knows - and it was in Le Figaro last week - that the aliens are arriving soon at a mountain near us (Bugarach) Giant green lizards are expected before the 12 12 12.

















Et voila, a buzzard...















and an unfinished sculpture, abandoned last summer when it was too hot to work outside - still plan to finish it.















the little tiny sculpture, the magic raisin, is a specimen of what is called la fève. Fève is french for bean.
It is called a bean because in they olden days a bean would be baked in a cake, a Galette de Rois, instead of a porcelain figure; to get the bean ensures luck, makes you the king. Not sure why a porcelain figure is used nowadays (except that they might be untoxic, though if you crunch on it you would certainly crack a tooth). It is an epiphany cake, made to be eaten at the end of the christmas kneesup, - the one who gets the fève wears the crown that come with the cake. People collect les fèves - you can buy them in quantity at vide greniers-

I suspect a layering of myth and naturally don't understand any of it; why being a king should be regarded as lucky in France is a mystery. The arrival of the three kings at the birth of the infant Jesus is clearly a co-incidence. And historically unsound. But the cake is delicious, puff pastry and frangipane.