One day, my girl was leafing through a toy’s catalog and suddently stopped on a page: Mom, I want that!
That was a cooker, pinkish, cute, multifunction (washing machine and integrated oven…) ... A little wonder that any little girl would dream of…

Before saying something like : Ok, we go get it, I have a quick look at the price... Ouah !!! It's quite expensive this little amazing toy !
And all of a sudden, I have a brilliant idea : I’ll do it myself… I made a course to cardboard furniture recently, I'll try to practise what I’ve learned…

The idea was nice but it was not easy at all... but my little loves the result… And she helped a lot to achieve it.



You will need to realize it :

Time, time, time ...30 hours of free time if you’re beginning with cardboard furniture
Cartons better if they’re big
A cutter
Craft
Painting
Magnets (for the oven and washing machine doors)
Straws (for tap)
Rope (for the resealable tablet)

I leafed through several catalogs of toys, wooden toys, to find a model to copy. Mine is unique but it did give me ideas to adapt what I could do with what I wanted to do: a rectangle with holes and doors ...

You have to think twice or more the templates you ‘ll need, where you want to make the holes ... kitchen units have to be solid (it's a toy for children !), the size (we have a small house, you can do it customized!), the practical side of the kitchen, the sealing of the toy (water and cardboard are hereditary enemies !)... I had so many questions and doubts that I wanted to give it up… But as I had insistent requests, I finally began to do it…

It's not perfect (I would do it differently now if I had to do it over again) but as a first try, I was happy… and my little girl too !
She helped me to assemble the pieces, to glu, to paint the object that seemed to go on and on and never stopped or finished. It's long.
It takes time, you need room to spread out, and room in order to store the furniture, waiting for a break to continue. A bit of organization is necessary. But once finished, the cooker runs all the time: dishes, laundry or cakes in the oven ... the tablet to eat ... Your child is just to busy…



The advantage of a toy designed like this is that I did it in order to fit it in my small house. I planned it for a corner of the kitchen so it does not bother me but it is still in the area where she / I, we spend time.

She loved to help me to do it to be abble to play right away with it!

Cheer up ! If you start now, you can be done for Christmas or do it for the birthday of your little!

Nuts, walnuts... in French, they have the same name… they're good and healthy, full of omega-3 fatty acids… and of Omega 6 fatty acids... These are the good unsaturated fatty acids, good fats for proper functioning of the cardiovascular system... A good natural food supplement ... that must be used without abuse!

For harvesting, you have two solutions : either the tree is yours or not :

- Or you pick them and then read the following passage directly
- Either you have a walnut tree in your garden and there are some rules to follow to respect the next harvest.
It is better to stick nuts rather than waiting to pick them up.
- Why ?
Simply because sticking them, popular French proverbs say that the harvest will be better next year ...

Whatever the method, remember that the husks (the green envelope around the nut) blackened fingers. It must be removed.

Preservation and storage
Once harvested, the nuts have to be dried: ventilate them regularly, stir them so they do not rot. Store in a cool place.

Just peel the amount of walnuts you need because once shelled, they go rancid very quickly. Keep in the fridge and eat them in a few days.
The recipe? A German recipe !!! Easy and tasty !

It is a recipe from my German friend Karine. But all the ingredients are so common that it could be a Breton dish. The only concern is to peel them… It’s a bit long… it depends ... if you've already tried the hips or the chestnuts ... Wallnuts are just to easy, it’s a breeze ...



Ingredients

500g potatoes good to mash
150 grams of nuts (peeled) 30 to 40 whole nuts
150 grams grated cheese (Emmentaler or comté depending on your tastes)
3 eggs (you must beat the egg whites)
Pepper and Salt

It is good plain like that. If you want a more tasty flavor, add a few leaves of basil or sage, finely chopped (the dried herbs powder is less good but it works well).

Cut the potatoes in pieces and cook them. Peel and mash to a puree.
Reduce about two-thirds of the nuts into small pieces (the robot to do anything does it very well) and keep the rest for decoration.
Pour and mix nuts, cheese, egg yolks, salt and pepper, basil or sage.
Whisk the egg whites and add them.
Butter a dish and pour the batter. Bake at 6 (180 °) for a half hour to 40 minutes when the pie is brownish.
Serve with a winter salad .

You want to try recipes with walnuts, well learn too about the tree that produce them. It is a nice one…



The walnut tree comes from Asia and is known in France for several centuries already (800). Charlemagne wanted it throughout his empire and thanks to him it was spread out in Europe ...

The walnut is native to warmer lands (Asia), he does not like the cold weather. When it blooms in April or May, the flowers do not like frost ... Otherwise the precious harvest of nuts may be compromised ...

Nut is very nutritious: 60% fat for 20% protein. They were advised for women seeking fertility ...

The walnut tree has a nasty reputation ... We strongly advise against taking a nap under its shadow ... not for fear of receiving nuts during your sweet rest, but rather because under it, vegetation grows with a lot of difficulty. The grass is sparse and the flowers wither. If you want to plant with a walnut tree around, do it but at a certain distance.

The tree can life 70 years to … 300. It produces walnuts with 20-25 years… It is 20 to 25 meters high.

In the Middle Ages, people used the walnut oil for massage to relieve pain of rheumatism or arthritis: 4 to 5 kg of nuts per 1 liter of oil ... Peeling and peeling again and again.

Walnut oil is very good, very tasty ... but it turns rancid very fast.

For longer storage, it must be stored in a cool place, away from light in a dark bottle. It helps by adding a few grains of salt in the bottle.

Use it as seasoning, as salad dressings, it is excellent, it can not stand to be heated.

The walnut wood is highly prized by carpenters. The quality of its wood and itsdark color are valued for furniture, table, desk, library ...

The walnut is a producer of nut husks : the green envelope that protects the fruit. The liquid it emits is used to produce inks for dark stained wood.

Inside the husk, the shell hides the edible part : the kernels.

The nuts have interesting nutritional benefits : they provide good essential fatty acids (the so-called omega 3 and omega 6), vitamins and minerals (especially magnesium).

Want to try my recipe : mashed potatoes and nuts in the oven.

Read it in French : Le noyer un arbre remarquable à planter dans le jardin

Or everything you always wanted to know about the wind turbines .

What is a wind turbine?

It was once the wind god Aeolus, who wanted ... No, stop. Wind turbines are the new generation of the old windmills, used to grind grains or to produce oil. Or to extract water, for irrigation. Our modern mills do something different more virtual, they generate electricity.

Who invented them and why?

It is a Dane (end XIX th) who created the ancestor of the wind turbine.
And it was almost forgotten for about a century. Until, until the energy crises : oil in the 70s and now the desire to diversify energy supplies, the fight against climate change and greenhouse gases…
Nowadays the first countries that are using this energy are Germany (22000 MW), Spain, United States and India (6000 MW).

What about France?

France has a very good potential (the second in Europe), and they plan to install 17000 MW of windpower for 2015. The actual capacity is only 2500MW…
The governement insists on saying that France needs to develop the renewable energy sector to reach 20 % of final energy consumption in 2020.

And in Brittany?

The electric production covers only 5% of its needs. The Rance dam is the main producer thanks to tides. The tidal barrage produces the equivalent of one year's consumption of a city like Rennes (around 300 000 inhabitants).
Brittany could be an ideal place for horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) ... it is quite difficult to find places where you don’t have any house at a sufficient perimeter (300 feet minimum).

Why is it so high a HAWT (horizontal-axis wind turbines)?

Because there is more wind up. The blades can be 15 meters long and the tower up to 100 meters.

Can it be installed anywhere?

There are plenty of conditions necessary to install a wind turbine :
a stable ground, a close electricity network (costs of connection to the main electricity network can be too expensive), a location with frequent and regular winds that blows in the same direction (the material does not like changes, nor winds too strong). In France, it can’t be located on a protected area or if homes are too close.
The site has to be accessible : it is not easy to transport the future wind turbines (which can reach 100 meters) and to install the blades or the tower (up to 100 meters) with no crane. !!!

And power ?

There are 4 types of turbines :
The big ones with a power of 350 KW, the middle one (between 36 to 350 KH).
The other two are for individuals, farms or businesses. the small wind turbine has a power ranging from 1 kW to 36 kW and the very small (1 kW) is used on recreational boats.
An example of consumption: a 100-watt bulb burning for 1 hour a day will consume in a year 36 kWh.

For maintenance ?

In new generations of wind turbines, there are elevators ... but when it does not work, it’s better not to forget the tools down, on the ground !

Against ? Why ?

Plenty of reasons:
The irregularity of the wind energy: it is not very reliable. Wind mills can only be associated with other energy supplies ...

Its storage : what happens when too much energy is produced ... We still don’t know how to store its overproduction.

Waves ... can affect TV reception.

And they are dangerous to bat ...

For it ?

Contrary to popular belief, wind turbines projects pay attention to birds : they avoid migration corridors and even studies from the French League for the Protection of Birds show that it is not worse than the city lights and other nuisances ...

Noise : the first generation were noisy and today the wind turbines respect strictly very specific standards about the decibels they emit. And it is one of the criterion that determines its location. The noise of a HAWT at 500 meters away from a house will be 35 decibels, which the equivalent of a whispered conversation.

The electricity produced does not degrade the quality of the air (no release of greenhouse gases or air pollution), does not pollute the water or the soil where it has been erected. A wind turbine lasts about 20 years.

France should accelerate the development of wind energy and produce in 2020 10% of its electrical consumption. It corresponds to the production of several nuclear reactors.

As for health is concerned, various studies do not indicate any health impact.
A green energy ...

And economically

The wind industry is work ... It is estimated that for an installed capacity of 10 000 MW in 2010, over 20 000 jobs were created in France.
Nationally, wind energy contributes to diversification and independence of the country.
For those who want to invest in France, you can rent your land to receive a wind turbine. You’ll get a rent for that.

Domestic wind turbines

A little one in your garden?
It provides electricity for the home but with some conditions:
- Its size (12m). In France, it is ok without building permits, but above, it requires one and the permission from neighbors.
- a garden (we do not recommend fixing it against a house because it vibrates a lot) but you do not fix it at more than 15 m from your house to avoid the loss of electricity.
And finally, they are not very efficient ... for now. But are perfect for farms, businesses who want to enhance their image of lovers of a friendly energy environment or for those who want to diversify their supplies of energy.

Read it in French : Eoliennes et développement durable : pour ou contre

I tasted fried salvia leaves at my neighbor’s place. In amuse gueule for the aperitif, the French “apéro” as we say, or a cocktail party as you say, it is so nice!

Sage or salvia in latin, you know ... Is this small shrub with fragrant leaves that aromatize so well our vegies...

Long ago, sage was commonly used as a medicinal plant ... She was used to almost anything ... if you believe that French saying ...

Who has sage in his garden, does not need a doctor.

In any case, it was very useful but, as there are about 900 different species, I will not say too much and make you tired of reading ...

Sage was used as aromatic plant, in decoction, against plantar warts, against hay fever (leaves were smoked during the 18th century), for its hallucinogenic properties (that's for the other side of the ocean, the New World) ...

I stop and go back to my recipe. My neighbor has a beautiful salvia shrub at home, facing south. It grows so much, she has to prune it very regularly.

Ingredients

20 leaves of sage (large ones with the stem) 80 g flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
7.5 cl beer
1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder
Coarse salt.

Let it rest for an hour.
In a bowl mix flour, egg, baking powder, milk, beer.
Let stand one hour (if you are in a hurry, you can do it straight away).
Heat oil. If it is hot enough, the drop of dough you let fall in the boiling liquid will rise to the surface.
Put the leaf in the dough, pass it between the tines of a fork to remove the excess of dough.
Cook it in the oil. When the stem is yellow, remove and drain on kitchen paper.
Sprinkle with coarse salt.
Eat it hot and enjoy it.

Read it in French : Recette végétarienne de beignets à la feuille de sauge

What arrogance! And such bad taste! In a Breton news blog, daring to mention the flu!

Yes, I certainly will, but without any guarantee of success! And I wanted so badly... to tell my anecdote.

I have a friend, several and one of them is a physician acupuncturist and Chinese. Which caracteristic of him should I put first : physician … or Chinese ? Anyway, we were speaking about the influenza A H1 N1.

He told me :

In China, you know, the virus has mutated. And one have realized that people who worked in vinegar factories were not sick.

And he added :

You should inhale vinegar (1 tablespoon to a glass of water) that you have boiled, once a day for 2 minutes.

What kind of vinegar?

I asked incredulously.

The one you have at home. They all have the same properties.

It obviously interested me : I am in the at risk group: 30 / 45 years. And as I have young children, I put the magic potion on a burning smell once a day since then.
I know it's a fake scoop, vinegar has been used for ever… already against the great fever ... Yes, and then. What do I risk ? I do not know whether it will work or not but it costs almost nothing to try.

But you can keep on the precautions against the spread of the virus:

Wash hands and avoid sharing your handkerchiefs with everyone!
Do not splutter on your colleagues and avoid sneezing on your neighbour !

Some last minute informations :

In the newspaper Le Monde (a really serious one in France) this weekend, the paper explains the differences between influenza A, B and C.
The first one is very dangerous, the other two benign.
To these letters, one must add another 2: H and N.
The first comes in 16 variations, the second in 9. 144 different possibilities. A lifetime would not last to try them all, these viruses!