A Bit of Recovering

We got up yesterday and we were unsure whether to work in the garden or get on with some jobs that needed our attention. So after a cup of tea and some breakfast we decided to tackle the jobs.

 

Vince had some woodwork that he needed to do in order that we can update some windows and I decided to cover the ottoman that is in the blue bedroom of the gite.

 

 

I had painted the outside of it in the past but had never got around to recovering the top.

 

Well I started but needles to say I did not get far into the job when I decided I needed some help. I had to pull Vince away from his woodwork (which, by the way is a job that does need to be completed quickly) to give me a helping hand.

 

 

The ottoman was inherited from the previous owners and did not match our colour scheme.

 

I had some spare material left over from the curtains in the blue room and I had already made cushion covers for the little cushions on the bed so I used the remaining material to cover the ottoman.

 

I covered the whole of the lid so that when you open it you do not see any rough edges.

 

 

I think it looks good. 

I showed this picture to my sister in England and she said it looked lovely.

 

 

Thank you to Vince - I could not have done it without your help.

 

 

Below I have posted a link to the gite that we let out - please take a look.

 

http://www.holidayfrancedirect.co.uk/holiday-rentals/bm004915/index.htm

 

Thanks for reading .

 

Sweet Peas, Vegatables and Stickers

Hello everyone 

I have been doing such a wonderful variety of things since my last blog.
 

 

First of all I must thank our friend Hilary for popping over with her cousin and for bringing us these lovely sweet peas.
Thank you Sweet Pea xx
It was such a lovely afternoon sitting in the garden and catching up drinking soft drinks and eating cake which I happen to have made that morning.

 

A little messy but it tasted yummy.

 

 

 Vince and I have been pulling logs out of our wood.
 

 I had a go at pulling the logs out from the wood. I never knew I had it in me to be a logger. It just goes to show that you are never too old to try something new. This tree was 65 foot tall and came down in the latter part of winter and Vince wanted to keep it in just long lengths so he can then plank it to put the planks around our vegetable plots. It will make it so much easier for cutting the grass around the plots and strimming the edges. I have to say I was very pleased with our efforts.

 

Another thing we did in the garden was to thin out the bamboo plant and now we have the bamboo canes drying in the poly-tunnel hopefully ready for next year’s beans and peas.
 

 

We have been lucky enough to have more produce from the garden, not bad as we only moved here in January and we were very late planting out.

Apart from gardening I have been very busy with my knitting needles and sewing machine.

 

Honestly I have been busy haha.
This was just a small break of tea, toast and Woman’s Hour.
Sometimes it just has to be done!

  I have knitted a little shawl and I have another on my needles as I type. 

 

I decided with all the knitting and other craft projects I plan to do that I would make a knitting and craft journal. 

 

 

I did not want to use just a plain book so I decided to cover it in fabric.
 

 

Oh my gosh, I just love it. I embellished it with 3 different trimmings.

 

I felt like I was 5 years old again as I decided to highlight things in my journal with stickers.

Yes stickers!!

In this journal I am writing the date I started a project, the date I finished it. What materials I used with a sample of the yarn and the ball band, and just other little snippets of information

Great to look back on.

Well I will blog again soon to keep you up-to-date with our news.

Take care xx

 

Many Projects and Lovely Treats and a Baby Bird Update

Well here I go again telling you how busy we have been.

We have had a few projects on the go this week.

 

 

 

We decide I needed some extra storage for the boxes and boxes of fabric that I had not unpacked since our move to France in December last year. So off we popped to get some storage baskets and then Vince, my husband had to put them together.

 

 

 

I have to say they are brilliant - you can see what you have stored at a glance – love them. The only draw back is that I think I am going to need at least another two. I have so much material, wool and other craft items I could literally open a small store. The stash shown is not the full amount I still have a few boxes to unpack.

 

 

Another job that had to be done was to open up our back door so this was next on the job list to be tackled. The old door was sealed and you could not open it, so we wanted to open it up and put in a new door.

 

 

Vince made a brilliant job and it is now so lovely that you can just step out of the pantry into the garden.

Good Job Done

 

 

I decided to knit a little shawl - Oh I am so excited by the colours. I didn’t realise that it coordinated so well with our garden untill someone pointed it out to me.

 

I started this little scarf/shawl on Thursday and finished it on Sunday. I just love it, it is so pretty.

I have already started my next one.

 

It was such a lovely evening on Tuesday that we decided to have a BBQ.

 

 

 We dont actually have a BBQ at the moment but Vince found a little travel one in the store room so he lit that and then we were all systems go.

 

For dessert we had fresh raspberries from the garden.

They are so sweet. We had then with home made meringues and cream - delicious!!

 

 

We have never been able to pick fruit from our garden before so this has been a real treat and we are so looking forward to the apples, pears and plums that are formimg on our fruit trees.

  

 

An update on the baby birds - They have flown the nest now and are out in the big wide world.

 

 

 

It took a couple of days for all 4 to leave the nest and the mother was calling and calling them to encourage them to fly. We found a couple of the babies on the ground completely exhausted so Vince picked them up and put them back in the nest so they could gather more strength. It worked, the next time we saw them they had flown across the drive ready to take on their next adventure. We wish them well and who knows, next year they may be back to raise babies of their own.

 

In my last blog I mentioned about our gite in Brittany France.

 

 

You can have a look at the details on Facebook if you search under

Gite To Rent in Central Brittany Cottage Du Trefle.

 

 

We have a few dates remaining for this year and we can now take advance bookings.

A bientot (See you soon)

 

 

 

 

Weekend Joy in France

Well it has been a busy and very enjoyable weekend. I just had to share it with you.

Our small hamlet held a soiree on Saturday evening for all the residents

The village bread oven was lit and the barbecue was glowing.

This is an annual event but our first as we only moved to France in December last year. You took along a meal you had prepared and a bottle if you wanted and then it was all put out for all to help themselves. This is the very social side of living in France and everyone enjoys everyone’s company. 

The music played and the food was plentiful and the drink flowed.

It was lovely to see the mix of ages and the children enjoying the party atmosphere.

We had music, dancing and conversation, a lot had to be translated for us but we got there with help from our lovely neighbours and friends and faithful charades.

 

Today, Sunday was a late start but when we got going we had plenty to keep us busy.

Husband weeding his veg patches until lunchtime and then he started to build furniture for our office.

While he got on with that I decided to embroidery some plain bedlinen which I bought in England last week.

 

This is for the gite and I have to say I love the look of the little white daisies on the bright pink linen.

I have enjoyed dressing the gite and I think we are almost there.

 

Just before dinner I had a walk around the garden. 

I could not believe how lovely the flowers were looking, so much has changed in just over a week.

I think I am going to be busy next week tending the ever growing flower beds.



Oh what a lovely surprise – Husband collected a bowl of lovely fresh berries from the garden to go with our ice-cream for dessert.

Yum yum

 

Life here is just bliss.