Towards my next 100 now!

First of all I must just show you a swap package (swap was organised by Sew Scrumptious) .which arrived from Annie over at Annie's Antics The theme was flowers and I got this the sunny lavender flower, a little blue felt flower, a cute crocheted flower, a packet of cosmos seeds, some notecards (which I have just realised are not in the pic - sorry!) and a lovely bright pincushion with some pearl headed pins all wrapped in this cheery piece of yellow fabric and tied with a length of satin ribbon - how lucky am I?!

Oops I seem to have posted this now when I had intended to post it as part of another post later since I have already done one post today. Never mind you can have 2 posts today as it's my 100th birthday!!

Celebrations!

This is my 100th post - I can't believe that I have reached my century already and I have made so many friends along the way too. I see I now have 68 followers which I find amazing - thank you all so much for taking the time to visit me. I wish I could invite you all to partake of a celebration cake but sadly that is not possible! Perhaps you can just pretend instead?!

Picture courtesy of Google images. Not sure I could rise to decorating the sugar cubes like this though!

It is also nearly Easter and my favourite time of year. I will be getting some twigs and decorating them with my little eggs, making a simnel cake and sending some Easter cards. It always seems so much less stressful than Christmas and coming as it does at this magical time of year which is full of the promise of warmer days and lighter evenings I just love it so much more

These are some flowery photos taken from a French magazine bought recently and wanted to share with you all - aren't they lovely?

This one is my favourite - I love the little vintage jug and the apple blossom and forget-me-nots are just so pretty don't you agree?

These are my sort of flower arrangements - nothing formal or stiff just natural spring flowers in a simple container.

The daffodils below are for you Louise - I know you like daffodils and I often wish when reading your posts that I could invite you to pop round for a cup of tea and then I could take you to see the daffodils round here!

I took these photos on my way to yoga on Monday - all along the roadsides the grass verges are carpeted with these lovely sunny yellow flowers and they must be different varieties as when one swathe finishes another is ready to come into bloom.

We have had yellow carpets for weeks now along with a lovely purple swathe of crocus which I didn't get a photo of.

See even alongside the busy main road there is beauty to be seen....

Oops!

I inadvertently deleted all the blogs I follow from my blog and as there are quite a few of them I've decided to add them as I catch up with them one at a time so if your blog isn't listed it's not that I don't love you any more just that when trying to get rid of one (a magazine blog not a personal one) I lost the lot. Don't you just love modern technology?!




Whilst on the subject of gadgets I am thinking I probably should delete my 20 minutes a day button as I am sorry to say it's just not been happening recently! Though I did make this little bag recently for a swap. I will keep trying to do my 20 minutes but I hate not keeping a promise!

Thank you

First of all Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my last post - I have never had as many comments before. Was that because you particularly liked my booklet or perhaps because some of you came over from the flower swap I am involved with? That so many of you have decided to follow my ramblings amazes me - I now have 66 followers! I know that you won't all check out my posts all the time but even so I am still dumbstruck that so many of you find what I have to say interesting enough to want to check me out even occasionally. So a big THANK YOU to you all!

Yesterday I went to the Country Living Fair - I am sure there will be many more interesting posts on this event than mine so suffice it to say it was a great day out though tiring. I left home on the 8.00 am coach and returned at 9.30 pm. My feet have recovered now but they were telling me enough was enough when I got back! It's a small world isn't it as I bumped into a lady I knew from my Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers days back when I lived in Guildford a long time ago - she was wisely sitting having a cup of tea!

The coach was full and it seemed that half of us were off to the CL Fair and many of the rest to the Ideal Home Show. It was obvious that a lot of the passengers on the return journey had been to the CL Fair judging by the bags we were carrying and one passenger (obviously not a CL lover) was heard to say "They all live in the country so why they have to come up to London to see how to do it beats me"!!! True but a day out garnering ideas is always a welcome change isn't it?

Some crafting and some daffodils

I must admit I haven't been doing my daily quota of crafting but have made this which took several 20 minutes' worth of my time.

It was one of the items I mentioned wanting to have a go at when I posted about the magazine a friend had sent me here and I finally got round to trying it out. What do you think?

I made it with a friend in mind - I have put a tiny photo frame, a packet of seeds and a pack of book plates in the pockets and will post it off for her birthday - I hope she'll like it.

I added some friendship quotes.....

.... a picture of primroses which she has in abundance near her home in Pembrokeshire and which I love. When I visit there is often a little posy of them in my bedroom.

She likes Laura Ashley things so I left this selvedge showing .....

..... and again on the back...

We went to the market at Dorchester yesterday and I got a bargain - 4 bunches of daffodils for £2 so I now have several vases in different places each giving a little breath of spring to the house.

On the kitchen windowsill.....

On the breakfast table (it wasn't that dark when we breakfasted honestly!) .....

.... on the mantlepiece .....



And in the other kitchen window. This orange vase was given to me by a French friend so I can think of her when I see my lovely daffodils. The little chicken egg cup is also a gift from the friend I made the booklet for so more thoughts of friends there too.

French Leave

At last! I finally find a few spare moments to stop and post - it's been manic here since my return from my few days in France.

I had a lovely time staying with my friend and her husband in their lovely home - I must admit I was a little apprehensive in case I unwittingly made a faux pas - like the time I gave my friend a hug as she was feeling down in the dumps. This was early on in our acquaintence and as soon as I did it I knew I shouldn't have - it's not the done thing!

I had the top floor of their lovely home to myself with my own bathroom and this was the view from my bedroom window each morning when I woke. I was lucky with the weather and it was bright and sunny every day except the first.

She had planned a very varied and interesting programme for me and I loved every minute of it all. On arrival at the airport she met me and took me to lunch with a mutual friend. Then the following day that friend came to lunch chez nous and we went for a walk with my frend's husband as guide and sherpa (ie he carried the bag with the water bottles and a snack)!

Our route took us along the river Glane an area known as the Site de Corot. Corot was a painter who loved the area and did many paintings of this particular area - you can see why can't you?

Apparently we did about 10 km and it took us about 3 hours including our rest break! That is St Junien where we came from in the distance in the picture below.

Here is a field of paquerettes (daisies to you and me!) which made me think of summer and making daisy chains and pulling the petals off saying he loves me he loves me not which both of which apparently the French also do!

We were so lucky with the weather and although the wind was cold the sunshine was brilliant and we reached home feeling very righteous - well I did anyway!

Friday we had our Femmes Ensemble get together which had been the reason for my visit - we always used to meet for a chat once a week and the group consisted of 2 other Brits and me together with 4 French ladies and we learned a lot about each others language and culture from our afternoons happily spent gossiping. When I look back over my notes taken at these get togethers I see just how varied and far ranging our topics of conversation were!

We had planned to go out for a meal together after our Femmes Ensemble meeting but the 2 other Brits had to go home first so I was left with 4 French friends and a game of Scrabble was suggested till it was time to go to the restaurant! I am not much good at Scrabble in English let alone French but since there were 5 of us my friend partnered me against the other 3. I think I managed one word! Next time I will suggest that I am allowed to put English words instead.

This is a little seat in my friend's garden - isn't it inviting? But it was too cold to sit there even though the sun was shining.

And here is the table on the terrace where I spent many happy afternoons in the summer months.

These violets we saw on the Saturday afternoon when we did another walk - shorter this time though and only about 5 km.


We went over this bridge which is apparently 900 years old - or was it built in 900 Ad - I forget but anyway it is very old.

Our route took us past a porcelaine factory which had a shop and we stopped to look inside. The porcelaine was very nice but what took my eye was this selection of bags - I have that leather still waiting to be made into a bag and this design would be just the thing...... !

That evening we went to a hand ball match - my friend's daughter is captain of the local team. It was not what I had expected at all and seemed like a cross between netball and football but played not using the feet but the hands. Another new experience for me.

View from the aircraft as we passed over the coast of France heading for Southampton.

Sunday came round all to fast and after lunch I had to leave. I will be back again though as although I don't miss living there at all and am very happy to be back in my own country I did enjoy my stay.

This week has been busy since our daughter went off to Australia for an extended stay and it fell to me to help her pack and to then sort out all her belongings and pack them away to be stored in our loft! Everything she owns apart from what is in her rucksack is here!! It was quite a stressful time especially as she got cold feet and didn't want to go - it was awful saying goodbye to her at Taunton knowing she was going I knew not where about as far away as possible and not wanting to go! Then on Thursday afternoon I had a minor procedure to remove a skin tag from my eyelid and was left with a black eye! That didn't happen when the lovely Monsieur V in St Junien did it for me some years ago!!

Anyway - if you are still with me - I think I am back to some semblence of normality now and hope to find time to catch up with your posts and to post myself again.

Hitting the ground running!

Life seems to have got in the way of blogging since my return from France but I will be back posting as soon as I can.



Meanwhile here is a picture of market day in France - you can see it was a lovely sunny day but it was cold and I gather from my friend that they have snow now!

Catch up soon.

Nothing much!

Thank you all for your kind comments on my previous post. To those of you who asked what the pink shrub in the above photo was - I think it is heather - ours is in bloom now and looks very much like this.

This was Tom this morning - don't you wish you could get comfy on a hard windowsill like that?! He had given up his favourite place on the bed for this rather uncomfortable looking place in the sunshine! He was so happy his toes were curling - see?!

I have nothing interesting to tell you today and will be away for a few days visiting friends in France from Wednesday so hope to have some photos on my return.

I also have to own up to not having done my 20 minutes lately - I will try harder but this week and next are busy ones for me so perhaps I can be forgiven if I do plenty of crafting after that?