A BIRTHDAY BASH

Yesterday a whole bunch of friends gathered to celebrate a friend's 70th birthday. 

The picnic shelter in a nearby village was transformed to hold the party.

Those who are musically talented performed songs throughout the afternoon.

I did a little sketch entitled "An Ode to Turning Seventy", helped by my two glamorous assistants and a lot of visual aids.

Years of enjoying the work of Victoria Wood and Pam Ayres came in handy for inspiration.

 For more pictures and a review of the event see Jim's post here.

That a tiny village here in the middle of France should have such a great venue available to all for free is amazing but even more so is that we have made such a wonderful number of friends here.

GOING BACKWARDS

Going back to my most recent trip to the UK I met up with my brother at a National Trust property called Calke Abbey at Ticknall in Derbyshire.

 

On acquiring the house in the 1980's National Trust decided not to restore it to how it was in its glory days, but to preserve it in the state of dilapidation in which they found it. 

Its peeling paintwork and dusty objects set it apart from the glamour of other National Trust properties.  They often tend to merge into one after a while - it's hard to remember in which fine stately home a particular piece of fine furniture was seen.

Calke is unforgettable.

I had been before, but not for a long time.

Since then a number of extra rooms have been opened to the public, and some interesting tunnels joining various bits of the house to other parts in the grounds.

 I enjoyed the visit very much.

Apart from the tea rooms which were mainly staffed by young people who didn't seem to have much of a clue.  I also had to get five teacups from the shelf before I found two clean ones.

Which just goes to show, perfection is hard to achieve and you can't have everything!

SERENITY AND COFFEE

With Nick back in the UK for a family funeral, I was on dog walking duty.

One of our favourite walks is two laps around the plan d'eau at Le Petit-Pressigny.

I was late on this occasion so stopped for a coffee and a home made madeleine at the tea garden.

It normally doesn't open until the afternoon but I was lucky.  Someone was there and happy to serve me.

Their peach tree was full of gorgeous ripe fruit, just right for picking.

It was my first visit, but will not be the last.

It was peaceful and serene, a perfect place to enjoy a delicious coffee.

ACCIDENTAL GARDENING

We have scaled down the amount of vegetable gardening this year and only planted a few tomato plants.  A single courgette plant appeared of its own accord on the compost heap and one minute there was nothing, the next there was this.

Gardening by accident.

PALM TREE LAMP (OLD STUFF)

On my recent visit to the UK, I spotted this lamp in a local charity shop.

I had exactly the right place for it.

It came without a shade so I added my own.

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Since I first wrote this post a friend has told me she saw an identical lamp in a very upmarket antique  shop in a very well heeled town in the south of England.

It was definitely a lucky find for me!

ANOTHER ANNOYING BLOGGERISM!

For a while now, Blogger has refused to upload any photos from my iPad into a post. Which means that photos taken using my phone, which automatically appear in my iPad library, can’t be used unless I email them to myself and finish the post on my laptop.

The wording of instructions on how to upload photos in Blogger does not mention any such obstacle to the process.  If anyone has any ideas how to fix this I'd be very pleased to hear them!

My profile picture and text have also been changed back to an old one from years ago without me doing anything!

All this covert "updating" and changing of things without my knowledge is very annoying.  The overwhelming sense of "oh for goodness sake, is it worth it?" is only just overridden by a determination not to be defeated by the "Big Brother is watching you" interference in my life!

Aaaarrrgghhhhhhhh……….