Going, going.......

Almost gone!

We leave tomorrow, travelling on Brittany Ferries

from Roscoff to Plymouth.

The weather is so lovely here that I'd rather stay in the garden, I think.

I've almost packed the cases.

I've left the list of contact numbers for the house sitters.

I've washed and ironed everything in sight.

I just need to get going now.

Thanks for the many good wishes.

A special thank you to dear Heidi who e mailed me to say

that I had won one of her lovely hand made fobs.

Heidi has the most beautiful blogs, one on her stitching (exquisite)

and one on her 'getaway' house, Cranberry Cottage.

She is an inspiration.

Another trip

Off on a trip again. This time to Cornwall for a wedding, the wedding of a charming young man who at seven years old was in my School class! He's now in his thirties (where does time go?), and is marrying an equally charming girl.

After the wedding we shall stay on for a while, catching up with our various family members, visiting with friends, and generally loving being 'back home'. I probably won't get near a computer for a while, so this space will remain very quiet.

Highlights......visits to Marks and Spencers and Waitrose! Sad isnt it?

Swap with Floss

Floss had a magazine swap earlier this year. It was such a good idea....a 'no frills' swap.

The idea is that magazines are exchanged, all over the world, with no need for extra gifts.

Once again, Floss is running the swap, so I'm hunting out some interesting French and English magazines to swap. To buy an English magazine in France can cost twice as much as the cover price, so it's a great idea just to swap.

And talking of exchanges.....I wonder if any of the participants in my 'Letter writing' swap(May 2010) kept in touch with their partners? I did, and it is so interesting to receive letters from California with news about a different part of the world.

What a lovely name.

I see that Mr and Mrs David Cameron have named their new daughter
born yesterday in Cornwall.
She is to be called
Florence Rose Endellion,
which I like very much.


St Endellion is a small village in Cornwall, where the Camerons were staying
on holiday, and where they have visited often.
Every two years there has been a wonderfully uplifting Music Festival
there, which we used to go to when we lived in Cornwall.


The baby was not due to be born till next month
but after a routine check up Mrs Cameron was found to be in labour, and
gave birth to her baby a few hours later.
They were both keen to put something of the village into their daughter's name.
The village takes its name from Saint Endelienta (5th C).
That might have been a bit of a mouthful!

Harvest!

Aren't they gorgeous!

I'm picking around 3 to 4 pounds every other day.

These two plants are what we call 'tame Blackberries', in other words bought from

a garden centre, rather than wild.

They have no thorns, which makes it a joy to pick the fruit.

So...it's Blackberry jelly,

Blackberry Fool,

Blackberry and apple compote,

Um......

And the rest go in the freezer.

Small modest edit;

Grandson got 12 GCSE exams, and 8 of them were A or A*

We are so proud of him!

Exams

This is the week when we wait with bated breath to hear news of grandchildrens' exams.

One has come through....3 A levels for our lovely grandaughter.

The next one is due tomorrow, GCSE results for a grandson.

It seems no time since they were little people,

finding it difficult to write their name!

Now, careers beckon,

decisions have to be made.

There are so many choices, unlike in 'my day'when a girl

was shepherded into teaching , nursing or secretarial work.

Is it easier, or harder for them, I wonder?

More Gospel....

Saturday evening....a church full of 150 people, and a group of Gospel singers.

What a night!

The French love Gospel music and probably around 40% of the audience were

local French people, loving it, swaying, clapping, singing.

For a little while we were transported into the era

of sweet sad songs of the Slaves, imagining

the years of tribulations and hardship.....but always sung with Hope.

The Callington Community Gospel choir had given their concert free> They

had done a workshop in the morning,

and today went on to one of our other church buildings to

assist in the morning Service.

They had generously made no charge for coming from the UK, and

their music helped us raise 1000€ for our

church charities, Shelterbox, Medecins sans Frontieres

and Toybox.

All that remains is to try to persuade them to come again!

Gospel choir weekend

This weekend our Church hosts two days of Gospel.

We're very fortunate to have the Callington Community Gospel choir from Cornwall

who are visiting us. Saturday morning is given over to a workshop on Gospel singing.

Saturday evening there will be a concert,

and on Sunday they visit one of our three Anglican churches

here in Brittany to assist with the Service.
It will be an exciting time.

Daisy Chains

I sat

in the meadow

Making Daisy chains with my grandaughters,

and pondered.

What did I do with the time saved

when I had mixers and microwaves to help me cook?

What did I do with the time saved

when I had machines to wash dishes and clothes?

What did I do with the time saved

when I took planes instead of trains?

What did I do with the time saved

when I wrote e mails instead of letters?

I did what seemed right

for that time, that season.

I sat

in the meadow

Making Daisy chains with my grandaughters

and rested secure.

(anon)

Arthur Ransome

Reading Angela's post today on the Norfolk Broads took me straight back

to a series of books that I loved as a child. I was given the first Arthur Ransome story, Swallows and Amazons, by a godfather who knew my love of reading , and who would every year send me the next volume. I still have my collection .
I grew up in a house by a Cornish creek, and was lucky enough to have a little sailing dinghy.

so, naturally, I became Nancy, right down to the red knitted bobble hat!

My cousin and his friends had another boat, so we spent our Summers re creating the

wonderful adventures of the six children featured in the books.

Many of the innocent adventures took place in the Lake district, where

Arthur Ransome had spent many family holidays. There are two, maybe three books

which are centred around the Norfolk Broads, 'Secret Water' was one, and I think, 'Peter Duck'.
Those were days when children could adventure safely, with their picnics

and the telegraphed instructions

from Father...'Better drowned than Duffers, if not duffers wont drown'.

I don't know if children read the books now.

Maybe they are considered old fashioned.

The publishers have certainly changed the covers and given them up to date

pictures, but all mine are like the one above.

I treasure them, but would now love to find another child

to whom I could pass them on.

Crabapple jelly....again.

My annual jelly making has begun.

We don't eat a lot of jam, so have given up making it,

but jelly from our apples goes on throughout the year.

It's a tradition from my Grandmother, who used to give us very thin slices of brown bread spread with Apple jelly......mmmmmmm!

Today's jars are full of Crabapple jelly from our two little trees

of the John Downie variety.

I forgot to take a photo of the nine pounds that I picked, but hunted out last years photo, of exactly the same amount of fruit.

Soon the main apple crop will be ready to pick.

Then I'll be busy preparing some for the freezer, and making more jelly.

I think I live in the wrong century.

I have visions of myself, wrapped, of course , in a snowy apron, busy in the kitchen from morning to night, living a wonderful pioneer life, canning (what we call bottling) all the garden produce.

Edit......If you would like step by step directions,

go into my 2008 posts, September 15th.

It has photos of every step in making Apple jelly,

(but I'm not clever enough to work out how to make a link)

Lara Martin

Lara Martin is one of my favourite singers.

She was for a long time, Worship Pastor with Abundant Life Ministries, Bradford,

but in 2008 she moved to Romania to work with disadvantaged children.

This is one of my favourite songs.

What a day to be alive,

What a time to live my life

To have a destiny and call

And see it day by day unfold.

What a day to know you, Lord,

To live and walk within your love,

To see the wondrous things you've done,

And know there's greater things to come.

and we sense the wonder of it all,

We feel the urgency;

There's not a day to be wasted.

God, help your church, help us to see.

This is our time,This is our day;

Now's not the time to hold back or delay.

Dreams can live again,

Faith and hope restored.

Taste and see that the Lord is good;

This is the day of Salvation,

A time to break free from containment.

People need, people need the Lord.

Oh, so it's that easy?

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday. At our advanced age (giggle giggle) we dont find birthdays terribly important. But our English holiday neighbours have arrived for their annual fortnight, and the 3 charming children suggested a Barbecue.

In our garden.

Good idea.

Then my husband remembered a wonderful dish of BBqed curried prawns that my son had cooked one year.

'Could we do that?' he wondered.

so I e mailed son for the recipe and got this reply.

"Hi Mum, it's easy.

Get in car and go to supermarket.

Buy jar of Uncle Ben's curry sauce, tikka, Bhuna or Balti.

Drive home.

Pour sauce in pan. Add prawns."

I think I can just about manage that!

Miss Matilda has a new dress

Miss Matilda belonged to my Mother.

She made the original clothes for her by hand.

Underneath she has lace trimmed pantalettes, which she is too modest to show you.

She has a petticoat trimmed with handmade lace.

But her original silk dress had perished .

Miss Matilda lives with an old friend of my Mother's, and she is much treasured.

So I was the first port of call for, 'Help, Miss M. needs a new dress!'

I happened to have a metre of pale pink gingham,

which I thought would be perfect.

A lace edging to the hem, sent me by the lovely Lululiz,

a pink velvet sash, a little lace trim here and there.

Voila! We are ready to model our new dress.

For 'Her at Home'

This little heart got forgotten in my search.

It was made for me by 'Her at Home', who is otherwise known as

'Un Peu Loufoque'.

Her ceramics are beautiful. She specialises in beautifully painted tiles, but there are many

interesting things to see on her website.

I'm fortunate....she only lives an hour away from me!

Hearts

Until I started looking, I hadnt realised just how many hearts I had around the house!

This one hangs on a linen cupboard and still smells faintly of Lavender.

It was a present from a friend.

This one, and its twin, hang in a bathroom, which is tiled in those cool blue colours.
This is one of my favourites.
It moves around the dining room, but at the minute is hanging on the glass cupboard door.
At Christmas I jazz it up with big red berries and bows.



These are little ones that I made years ago.



And this one came from a stitcher called Pipany
who makes beautiful things in Cornwall.

A heart on a cushion.

As you can see, I'm rather fond of hearts.

I haven't put all of them on here, but there are more.

There you are, just a few birthday flowers for Sunday.

They came last Tuesday and the lilies are beginning to open.

They are still fresh and lovely.

And the rains came down.

Thank you so much for the many good wishes on my birthday!

It was a very pleasant day, quiet, but with so many beautiful cards to open...and one or two presents too. My grandaughter sang Happy birthday in Japanese, one of the languages that she learns in her school in Sydney! We had a long chat via webcam, next best to actually being there.

Today we have rain, long awaited. Our lawns are brown, our flower beds are dry, our vegetables are the only things that we carry water to. We are so thankful for the wet. Yet something that we have needed so badly means death in another country

These scenes in Pakistan, below, and many others come to mind when I think about rain.

Although we long for the rain, we will never be in this condition, never know the misery of losing everything because the rain came. We will not see our friends swept away by a flash flood.

We will not have to be airlifted to...who knows where, homeless.

These scenes are, to me, unimaginable.

We pray for these people in our church.

May God be with them in their terrible sufferings.

Guess what?

Guess what I'm doing today.

Well, maybe just a little clue would help.

Like Pooh, it involves unwrapping parcels!

Holiday visitors

I know, I know, I've written about it all before.

There are some lovely visitors. We meet them quite often in towns.

We show them the way to the petrol pumps.

We direct them to the beach.

We chat over a coffee in the Bar.

They are delightful. And they are loving being here.

The quirkiness of France doesnt upset them. They enjoy trying out their French language

...and battling with the Breton dialect.

They seek out the wonderful 'Fest Noz', the Breton night festivals, they join in with the dancing.

So what am I rabbiting on about?

Well, the ones in the supermarket yesterday...big family group.

Men in vests, hardman haircuts and tattoos. Women in, um, varying attire.

At the cheese counter. Bellowing at the poor girl who really doesnt understand or speak much English.

" Naow, not THAT one . (sotto voce only not so sotto)"stupid cow"

"THE OTHER ONE, DEAR."

"Ere, let me try" from elderly lady.

Top of voice...."Cut us a bit of THAT one willya?'

Poor girl almost in tears, offering them this and that and the third cheese.

I'd have thrown it at them.

I was tempted to offer help, but felt slightly scared!

But, as I have said, they are the minority.

Thank goodness for nice tourists!