20 December 2011

SPRING FLOWERS

Looking back at our photo album, our stay in Le Grand-Pressigny in April this year was very floral.  The weather was exceptionally good, if I remember, too.

APR 2011 - a

Dinner on our little terrace, just an hour or so after we arrived for the first visit since the dark days of winter.

APR 2011 - d

Our Judas trees were in full bloom in April.  Such pretty flowers ~ it’s a shame they make so much mess later on.

APR 2011 - e This poppy was in Nicole’s garden, I think.

APR 2011 - fAnother bunch of flowers left on our doorstep by Mme André.

 APR 2011 - g

APR 2011 - h APR 2011 - i Some pictures of the glorious spring flowers in the park at Descartes.

APR 2011 - r 

Flowers in a container in the village square.

APR 2011 - zc

And last but not least, the climbing rose on our front wall was in full bloom to welcome us back to our little holiday home.

11 December 2011

TWO LITTLE GIRLS

two little girls 1

This little girl was born in January 1928.  She was a shy country girl with a mischievous sense of humour, the youngest of eight children.

She married a handsome sailor, had two children herself and worked in a knitwear factory where she once mended King Farouk’s underpants.  Not many people know that.  She rode pillion all over England, Scotland and Ireland on the back of a BSA motorcycle.  She loved her home in the country and enjoyed holidays in Cornwall and Scotland with her sailor.  She once went to France but didn’t reckon much to it.  She died four days before Christmas in 2002.

two little girls 2

This little girl was born on the 11th December 1951.  She was a bit of a tomboy and spent most of her spare time climbing trees, collecting tadpoles and playing cricket with her male cousins.  She seemed to spend a lot of time in a sidecar attached to her dad’s motorcycle.  She went to university, has skied down mountains, dived the ocean, sailed, windsurfed, canoed, ridden a Harley-Davidson all over Europe with her husband Nick, and once drove a steam engine.  Not many people know that.  She has a little house in France and almost as many friends there as she does at home and is really looking forward to her next visit.

She misses her mum on the day she turns sixty but she is looking forward to her family coming over for her birthday.  It’s roast lamb and tiramisu for lunch, two of her favourites.  Happy days.

8 December 2011

NICE ARTWORK

artwork 

At the beginning of October there is a festival in the next village, Le Petit-Pressigny, called “L’Art et Lard”.  It’s a mixture of food stalls selling all kinds of interesting local produce, and all manner of artwork, displayed here and there all over the village.

artwork2

This year it was a miserable day weather-wise but we had fun, bumping into friends old and new and seeing what was on display.  These two are some of my favourites.

The artwork that was for sale was generally quite pricey but we could easily have bought lots of it – if we had the wall space.  In the end the only thing we bought was a small bottle of locally made walnut oil !!  Happy days.