Today is the first day for many weeks when it has been raining here in the south west of France so it was time to attend to all those indoor domestic jobs that inevitably need doing before the onset of winter. You know, things like fitting a new light in the kitchen and rehanging a door that had fallen off a cupboard, things like adjusting the time clocks on the central heating the more pressing needs of the cooler wintry air, (we had minus 2C(28F) overnight this week). Actually, there was quite a list of such jobs which was quite daunting.... so I decided to sort my saved seeds!
Over the year I have saved from numerous fruits and vegetables. I tend to collect the seeds and then store them in a paper coffee filter in the kitchen whilst they dry. This seems to work well, as the filter paper absorbs any moisture that is still in the seeds and also provides a medium to write the identification information on. You know, things like "Seeds from that delicious melon which we bought from the lady that sells leeks at the market at Villereal". So today I have been moving the seeds into better storage jars for their winter rest.
Actually, this whole operation has been precipitated by a recent holiday.
Last week we suddenly decided to go away for a few days and take advantage of the autumn sunshine that this part of France was enjoying. A couple of hours here on the Internet and I had found a secured a beachside apartment just a couple of hours drive away. It was in a resort which is far busier than I like in the middle of summer but which I felt would be interesting again, now the crowds have thinned. So we upped and went and enjoyed a whole week of doing very little, swimming in the Atlantic, lazing on the beach and drinking good French coffee and eating good french patisseries.
Before we went, we moved all the seeds from our kitchen into our utility room for the sake of tidiness!
Sadly, on the day we left, a mouse, or maybe a whole horde of mice moved in. Maybe in this instance I should use an alternate collective noun for the mice.... a mischief of mice!!!!
Anyway, the result was that the mice feasted for a whole week and I have now learned that mice prefer melon seeds to pumpkin seeds, are particularly partial to tomato seeds, especially those varieties where I only had a few seeds saved and generally can make a great deal of mess.... indeed mischief... when confronted with rows of paper coffee filters full of tasty seeds.
