Seasonal Greetings

December 26th 2020, we woke to a clear blue sky and a sharp frost so went out for a walk to the village and then down to the river.  Today, 27th, we are being buffeted by storm Bella, the skies are gray and it is wet, wet, wet!  The good thing about today though is that we have (according to the sun, but not the sky) one extra minute of daylight, so we are now heading towards the spring, longer days and warmer weather.

Season's Greetings from St Pierre de Maille

Chenevaux - the Farmhouse and the Studio in the morning frost

The bridge at St Pierre de Maille

Looking over the river to Bas-Bourg and the Chapel

Approaching the village of St Pierre de Maille by the back road

Chenevaux in the sunset earlier in Dcember

The last of the orange glow of the sun

And illuminating the oak trees on our boundary

Easter Greetings from our isolated home in a little corner of France

Some would say it is the middle of nowhere, but for us, at the moment, it is our secure place.  We hope you are all in your own secure place and remain so for the duration of this crisis.  Our thoughts are with everybody we know, and those we don't know!

So, we do have visitors!  Phil the pheasant and his three Phillettes ( only one caught on camera ) are very regular visitors to the bird table. They are good fun to watch.

And this morning - Easter Sunday - there was a bunny rabbit in the garden watching the pheaseants ( sorry, no pic) - it did run away when we went to the window but look what it left behind!

OK the bit about the rabbit was true but not the eggs - they are porcelaine and have been decorated with special paint.

Over the past few weeks we have had to fix a couple things - first it was the strimmer that wouldn't start, then my sewing machine motor that froze and a minor issue with a door handle breaking so we just moved one from another door.  Mostly sorted thanks to the internet.

Then I wanted a portable BBQ!

So these are parts from an old tractor mower that Mark has gradually been taking apart, and an old tin container from some sort of wood preservative that we bought when we moved here 15 years ago!

And an old roasting tin that was in the potting shed - when fired up it worked perfectly and as the weather has been so warm we have already had use of it, yum.

Firings have gone well in the studio too - these pieces, amongst others, will shortly be on the new Anglian Potters sales site.

Yesterday it was my birthday - Mark had a lesson in cake making (  he still needs to master the beating action ) but as you will see the result was pretty good especially with my cranky oven.

I was a happy birthday girl! ( Well I still feel like one ).  Especially as the internet and phone apps allow us to keep in touch with people, even though we only have basic tech stuff how wonderful.

And after a few puffs I even managed to blow all of the candles out.

We were supposed to have had open studios here this and last week-end but these birdies will be happy to wait ...

We send lots of love to everybody who reads this ..... do whatever you need to do to stay safe and to keep everybody else safe.

The Impulse Buy

Have you ever bought something and then wondered why you had and then not been able think what you are going to do with whatever it was that you bought ?

Well this is a tale about a box of crochet squares!

A crown, beard and hair extensions were the last project for 2019.

So last summer we were at the annual village brocante and I purchased a box of nearly 500 crochet squares for a very few euros.  Not that I counted them before making the purchase, and neither did I have any plan for using them apart from the usual blanket or even waistcoat.

On getting them home they all went into the washing machine and then my trusty helper assisted with the pegging out.

Mark, aka the crochet squares laundry assistant.

It was at this point that I counted them and started to wonder what I was going to do with them all!  Then the weather got so hot that we could barely go outside during the afternoon so the sewing machine came out and the dining room table disappeared under a covering of multi-coloured opportunities.

Deep in concentration!

So first of all a couple of cushions ...

They're for the garden chairs really.

Then an advent tree ......

Each pocket is double thickness so this used up a fair few!

Then a pair of Christmas stockings ......

There is another one somewhere, probably in the lost sock place.

And a dozen padded coat hangers .......

I might even make some more of these for myself!

Now I just need an idea for the last 100 or so - hang on, maybe the waistcoat is a good idea after all!