A Fantastic Gift.

Sue Hammond painted this wonderful picture of our house in France and I just love it!  

Sue took a couple of photos and managed to capture the house perfectly.  Both Alan and I are very excited about having this painting hanging in our home when we finally return to France (which isn't long now).

Thank you Sue.

Home Leave to the UK & France

So, this is our new house, shown from the lake.   

A SNAKE, SOME PAINT, IT IS ALL RATHER IFFY!

At our house, we experienced all manner of wildlife at some point.  Thankfully, unlike last year we were not infested with mice again.  We had one lone mouse, and I soon took care of him.  SNAP!

I was delighted to find that this year we had rabbits. This is the first time I have seen rabbits in our garden, though I did once see a large hare.  Every morning, I would look out the window, to see if they were in the garden.  Now I may come to regret liking the bunnies, but they are so cute looking, and appear more scared of me than I am of them (which really takes some doing!).

The electrician found a small dead bat behind one of the exterior lights.  Hum, I didn't know we had bats around.  Owls yes, but bats?

Once again, we had a snake visitor, only this time we saw him, and it wasn't just the empty skin!  The builders told us where they had seen it, and sure enough, THE EVENING BEFORE HE RETURNED TO THAILAND, LEAVING ME ALL ALONE, Alan spotted the snake.  You can just see him (I obviously took this with a long lens!) hiding in the undergrowth (er the snake, not Alan).  I also spotted him on another occasion.  Alan looked him up when he got back to Thailand, and said it was a non poisonous variety.  Of course Alan knows all about these things!

You're Never Safe From The Rayboulds!

You can run, you can hide, you can even relocate yourself for a few weeks, to a different continent, but you just can't escape The Rayboulds!

Our friends, the Chalmers family, have a house reasonably near ours in France.  As it was the first time we were all in France at the same time for very many years, we spent Easter together.

How exciting it was to see them in their French house, which we had not previously visited.  They live in a small village, near Cahors, in the Lot.

On Easter Sunday, we had an Easter egg hunt.  Well, the children had one and they let me join in.  Oh stop it!  Do you honestly think I was going to sit there and watch, when there was free chocolate to be found?

Here I am with Sam Hannah and Ben, all of us clutching our bowls, though as there was only a small bowl left for me, you can see that I was none too happy!

Our house and nearby.

 La Roue.  It is the first time that we have seen this pink tree flower.  Sadly, it will have to go, as it blocks the kitchen window.  This is a cause of contention at the moment, but I ask you, who spends the most time in there?

I gave you my rum baba, now what are you going to give me?

I took Roy and Norma to see a village near us, and took a wrong turn into this village, Sauvetat du Dropt, where I only ever stop to eat.  My favourite restaurant in the area is there, Ma Maison.  Anyway, the village is very pretty.

I could live on this door.  Yes, I did say that.  This door has to feature in something I make.  It is the most wonderful door in the world.  Look at the colours and the way they blend in and just look at the old door handle.  I think this house is disused as the rest of the building was in a bad state (yes, unlike the door.  Boy, you lot are so sarcastic!).

Cigarette anyone?

As well as growing grapes, our region also grows tobacco (I think France grows 10% of its total usage). It doesn't look particularly interesting when you see it in a field, but the barns used to store the tobacco are exquisite.

Ste. Emillion

When you think of wine, you should almost undoubtedly think French, and if you think French, you must include Bordeaux and Ste. Emillion.  Luckily for us, we are within relatively easy distance of both these places.

Ste. Emillion is a World Heritage Site, and deservedly so.  We go there at least once every time we visit France and always take visitors.  It is a must for lunch.  You just cannot think of a better setting.  If you don't believe me, take a look at these photos.  It really doesn't matter whether or not you drink wine, this is quite simply a beautiful place.  Take a look and see for yourself.

Wine Anyone?

First let me say that I am sorry that this post looks so awful.  I just cannot get this post to lose all the gaps.  So just ignore the gaps and enjoy the photos.

The Vines outside our house, taken from a bedroom window.

Beautiful French Churches

Notre Dame de Thoumeyragues

I passed this church on the way to visiting the wine co-operative and knew I had to back for a closer look.  I packed my camera, pencil and drawing pad, and set off by myself for a couple (or three) hours, leaving Alan in the garden with a cold beer (or was it a red wine?!).

I am not sure why this church caught my eye.  I had first seen it on a beautifully sunny day, from some distance.  I think the setting, amidst the vines, was just so peaceful.  It dates from the 12th century.  It was partially destroyed in the wars of religion and during the French revolution.  

Eymet Night Walk

If you have watched any programme about ex-pats living in the Dordogne, you will have seen Eymet, also known as Little Britain.  Though there are lots of negative things about this, one of the good things from our point of view, is that you have lots of retired Brits, who love to delve into local history.  A couple of these Brits were leading an English language walk in conjunction with a French walk around this old town.

French Markets

The markets of Bangkok are full of exotic fare, but in France, it is all about the superb quality and freshness, the colour and the very Frenchness of it all.

Fred the Frog

Given that I am jet lagged (that is my excuse) I realise that I have done these posts the wrong way round, so start with Mice & Me, and work your way up.

Now you would think that we had seen it all by this point, but no, think again.

One night I went downstairs to get some water.  I didn’t turn the light on, as there is a little nightlight upstairs, which gave enough glow to see by.  On my return upstairs, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  Not having my glasses on I initially thought it was a mouse.  I realised that it hadn’t moved like a mouse so went over and squinted into the gloom.  You won’t believe this but it was a really big frog!!  Can you believe we had a frog in the dining room?  Yes, yes, I know it is France, but his legs were in tact, I saw them when he leaped away from me.

Amongst the many things running through my mind was how on earth did he get in?  Did he leap through the window or did he leap up until he hit the door handle and thus open the door?

I woke up Alan (hey it was 4am and I wasn’t going to chase a frog alone at that time of night), who mumbled, “well what do you want me to do about it?”  Hum, I was thinking he’d say ‘go back to bed darling and I’ll deal with it’ or even better 'the shock must have been awful, I'll take you shopping tomorrow to recover'.  Yep, no such luck.  By this point in the holiday, my role had been firmly established as the hunter.  He did get up (though very slowly in my opinion, and engaged in the big game hunt. 

The frog managed to get behind a cupboard, so we pulled that out.  The frog really didn’t want to leave and so hid himself into a corner of the room.  If that frog had only known Alan's penchant for frog's legs (in which he delightfully partook later in the holiday), I can tell you he'd have jumped out that door lickerty split!  I ended up gently poking his bottom with the broom and he leaped about a bit before leaping out the door.

Okay, I admit that this isn't the frog, but I tell you, at the time, it felt as though he was this big.

Bill the Bird

Alan returned to the UK to visit his parents at the end of the first week.  Sadly my friend Louise couldn’t make it out, so I was alone for a few days.  I therefore decided to work on the house. 

Sid the Snake

After a long journey to France, we were glad to arrive home to La Roue.  We were tired and hungry.  All we wanted was to take our personal stuff out of one of the storage rooms and settle in.

Alan opened the door to the storage room but before he could step inside to switch on the lights, I made him stop.  What was that long thing I could see on the floor?  It looked like a snake, but as I didn’t have my glasses on and didn’t want Alan to think that I had totally lost it, so I just said wait.  I got a lamp from one of the rooms and switched it on.  OMG, it was a snake! 

Of Mice and Me

I wrote a few blogs to post when I got back.  If they lapse from tense to tense, just live with it!!!

Who wouldn’t want to be in France when the sun shines?  Could there be a more heavenly place?

As we drive around the region, we pass mile after mile of vines, laden with rich blackish red and bright green grapes.  Many of these grapes are destined to become some of the world’s greatest wines, Bordeaux and Ste. Émillion.  The vines surrounding our house are also heavily laden.  

Off To France

Here is the latest quilt to pop out of the studio.  At the moment I am calling it Menopause quilt, I'm afraid my inspiration died on me at the naming stage!

To read more about this quilt click here.

We are off to sunny France on Friday, well I say sunny, but so far the summer hasn't been great.  The weather has certainly improved this week, but watch that change as soon as we arrive.

I'm looking forward to some lazy afternoons and longish evenings in the garden.  If I am really lucky, my aunt Norma, might take I upon herself to sort out the small enclosed garden area
behind the wall with the grape vine.  Oh, did I not tell her it was a working holiday?  Wait until she finds out I want her to bake me a pie!

Unfortunately for poor Alan, the packing for this trip, meant he had to move those three large bolts of batting to get to the suitcase he wanted, the one right at the top, in the furthest corner.  There were a few mutterings about me having the largest room in the apartment for quilting (not entirely true), and about being driven batty by all the quilt stuff in the store, that has entered by osmosis (kind of true).  There are only 4 tubs of fabric in there, well and the batting, but that isn't much to moan about is it.  Of course as long as he doesn't realise that a lot of the big bags have card and paper, curtesy of Janice getting me into the book making, and I should be okay.  

Oh our big news today, Mary has finally emerged from the wilderness, for a few brief moments.  Apparently she has been horse wrangling, irrigating fields, taming wild cats and most importantly, setting her last baby free from the nest.  Ellen is now at university (sorry I forget which one).  Good Luck Ellen!    One has to feel sorry for poor Ellen.  A vegetarian who lives in a household of carnivores, and whose mother thinks a nourishing, vegetarian meal, is to give her lard on toast.  Ellen, to misquote Doctor King, 'free at least, free at least, thank God Almighty, free from mother's cooking at last'.  Just joking Mary!!!!