7/7

Will Never Forget That Day

It's Been a Warm Week

 We have been visiting with Sister 3 at her home in France. You think its is hot here?  Well 103 / 39.4 deg was registered at one point! And it has got hotter since we left too.
But it was lovely - its a very rural and peaceful area and although we were a bit early in the season, we did see many fields of these beauties

 Mr T gave a hand to keep the place looking tidy

that blue sky!

And I spent some time gathering produce from the garden

 Which resulted in several pots of glossy jam, and was enjoyed in a very nice breakfast

 The French family are lucky enough to be able to use a neighbours pool. We all spent time repairing the fence, tidying the surround and cleaning the pool. And that was where I spent most of the week.
I did swim, but I read a book and even stitched some, whilst sitting in that lovely blue water!

the Pyrenees in the distance

 A view from the pool

 A visit to a favourite restaurant in a hilltop town called  Bassoues for another delicious meal and at very reasonable prices

 Four scrummy and filling courses for 12 Euro! (£8.60) is so worth the journey.

 This is also the town that has a delightful Artisan Pottery. We called in there before dinner and a couple of purchases were made

An Oil carrier and Butter Dish!

Butter Cooler? Yeah - I was not sure about it either. You pack the butter in the lid, add water to the pot and this keeps the butter soft but not melty like this warm spell would produce.  Hubby thought that it was a great idea and so we have given it a go. And it Works. Nice soft butter spreadable but not too soft and no need to store it in the fridge. Result!

We also had a trip to the local Farmers Market , and I bought a string of the biggest Garlic cloves from a very old lady who jabbered away in the local dialect, but I caught the drift, being that if it is hung in a cool place it will last for 12 months.  I have split the string of about 15 cloves between the family. 

It's a Whoppa!

I have had a "Jar" session since we have returned

So will be making Mr T a cake now and spreading some deliciousness.


 The end of June was the Show and Tell of our Mini Mania Group project. This is my June offering. I will post the other members pictures when I get the hand of this Flickr thing Or click the LINK to see them for yourself

Measures 6" x 8"

 July's Mini has been started - it's a bit of EPP, the design from SewScatterbrained so I will be sitting in the sunshine enjoying the glorious weather

July Mini Mania

For those of you who are going to join us in this months Mini Mania project

July is time for sitting in the garden, sipping a drop of your favourite tipple, and maybe doing a bit of hand sewing so.....

Pop over to Sew Scatterbrained  and download the templates to EPP this lovely Ferris Wheel Mini

Pic from www.sewscatterbrained.com

Again - the colour choice is yours. If you print at 100% the finished Mini will be 10.5" x 11.5" finished.

You can post progress pictures here but don't post a Ta Dah! until the end of July.

Happy Stitching

Mini Mania

Willow Weaving

 When maybe I should have been at home, finishing the decorating or doing the ironing or packing my bags ready for a little trip to France, I tripped over to Lamport Hall to do a class on Willow Weaving (as you do!)

The old Laundry

Our Instructor, Sue gave us the choice of several items that we could weave, including some very nice plant supports, which I do need, and sculptured creatures (which are just for fun).

 I opted to make a chicken for my daughter 'S' who is about to move into a lovely rural setting. She was hoping to have a garden big enough to raise some chickens, but though the house they are moving to is huge larger that their present home, I don't think the garden would actually be suitable for the feathered sort.

Anyway, Sue gave us a quick run through on the process and we began to make our own chooks

some of the willow is grown locally

the basis of the body

Henrietta taking shape

Filling in the body

 We stopped for a short lunch break and had a stroll around the gardens.

This 'ruin' was built to display all the rockery plants and former owner, Sir Charles Isham's,  collection of garden gnomes. "Lampy" (thought to be the world's first Garden Gnome) still lives at Lamport Hall and has made celebrity appearances at the Chelsea Flower Show.  Apparently on the demise of Sir Charles, his daughters promptly went into the garden armed with shot guns and finished of all the other wee folk as they thought they were awful!

 The gardens however are beautiful

 some really weird seed pods

 A simple but charming piece of stained glass

 The Aliums are fantastic

 Lamport Hall has the largest walled "cutting" garden in the country

 It is a huge plot and all so the Lady of the house could have fresh cut flowers whenever she wanted. There are some unusual plants, and so many that are not native to this country but they seem to thrive in the shelter of these walls

 We did find this clump of Rhubarb had found a home here

many a pie to be filled here

 I don't know what this plant is, the leaves are huge but the flowers are ike stalks of snow

 I love Delphiniums, (and think mine could rival these)

 But I was quite envious of the superb collection of blousey Peopies

 Anyway - back to the weaving. I think Henrietta looks more like Mr Rooster so I started another one who will definitely be more girly

 I didn't get them both completed, but Sue packed me up with enough willow to finish off at home. (must do the ironing first!)

A couple of the ladies made Dragonflies for their gardens

 And when all the feathers are fluffed I will show you my finished first attempts at willow weaving (but definitely not the last).
I had a lovely day doing something quite different.

And now back to the chores.........

The Pirate has Returned

 You may remember that I had wanted to go to Leigh Art Festival a couple of  weekends ago but the plumbing incident put paid to that.

 Well,  yesterday we were called upon to help out babysitting and who doesn't want a trip to the seaside on a lovely day.  We travel down on Tuesday evening because it was a very early start to T & E and our morning began with a visit to Jo Jingles . Great fun and I knew most of the songs.
 We had a trip along the coast a bit and though the sun was shining, there was a cool, strong breeze ( not unusual for the British seaside) so we headed back to Old Leigh for some lunch as it's a bit more sheltered there.

I was delighted to see that the Pirate crochet had been returned to its postbox outside Chalkwell station  ( cannot believe that someone would have kidnapped him!!)

photo from twitter.com

 so we detoured to Leigh station and had a photo taken with this little lady

photo from twitter.com

 The detail on these creations is superb!  Little Miss O thought they were lovely but wasn't so happy being perched so high on top of the postbox!

 Anyway - today was spent catching up on neglected tasks and took a couple of hours off to get on with June's Mini Mania Challenge

 Tiny pieces had been cut and something must have been going right because I got the whole thing finished before Tea Time! Just the binding to sew down by hand

 Can't show you the finished item because we "reveal all " at the end of the month

Finished block size is 1 1/2"!!!

This little group is open to newcomers just pop over to this site to join in the fun!

A few more chores and we head off to the airport again!  This time we are visiting with Sister3  and we are hoping to see some of this

But if they are not out yet ( we have mis-timed it every visit!) there will be beautiful, peaceful countryside with some great food and quite a bit of relaxing ready to start July off.