This time last year I chatted about our summer kitchen and I asked your advice about what to do with the ugly, falling down, insulated ceiling. You can read the post here if you missed it. You may also remember I promised you an update in a couple of months time.
Several unrelated comments from around the globe have got me thinking recently about idyllic lifestyles. It has set me thinking that what is one person’s idyll is most likely not another’s. How does one clarify ‘idyllic’? Can life be idyllic in the cold and rain, or does there have to be sunshine? Or perhaps everything needs to be calm and perfectly peaceful to be idyllic? Continue reading “This Idyllic French Life”
I’m afraid to say that I feel utterly compelled to put paw to paper once again; I heard someone saying I was old the other day. Old? Me? It wasn’t Roddy or Susan or any of the children, but a neighbour, and it really ruffled my neck hairs (which are admittedly very long and looking rather shaggy at the moment). I’m not old, I’m in my prime!
Continue reading “Bentley is Compelled to put Paw to Paper again”
There are so many important things for us to teach our children. We must teach them to be strong and independent, we must teach them to be honest and to respect other people, and we must teach them to be confident. Almost above all though, I think we must also teach them how to cook. Continue reading “Les Petits Chefs and Fresh Ingredients”
These last few days everything has felt slightly different as the sun streams in through the windows, and although the mercury is definitely nudging upwards a little there’s a cold easterly wind which is banishing all thoughts of bare arms and legs. Along with the week’s slow change in temperature, there’s also a subtle change in the light and despite the lingering smell of winter woodsmoke in the air there’s now a welcome new scent, that of freshly mown grass. Continue reading “Brocante and Chocolate”
I am very excited to introduce you this week to some very dear French friends of ours who live in the south west of France. They have renovated not one, but two old farmhouses in succession for their family to live in. Continue reading “A Very French Renovation”
Spring officially starts today as the vernal or Spring Equinox takes place this year on March 20th in the Northern Hemisphere. Earth is spinning its yearly journey through the solar system and for earthlings in the northern hemisphere it’s definitely the topic of the day, the week, even the month; it’s almost all we can talk about at the school gates and in the boulangerie. I like winter though, of course, for winter is a necessity to enjoy spring, and as it is seen as a time of rebirth, with many cultures holding celebrations marking the equinox in March. Continue reading “A Quarter Round the Sun”
Writing a blog continually surprises me, but what I love most of all is the spontaneity of it. Just when I think I have everything in order and going to plan, with the next post happily laid out in my mind, everything changes; a few unintended photos catch me by surprise and the whole thing loses its original direction and I find myself freewheeling down a completely different road. This blog post started out about one thing and it sort of metamorphosed into something quite the opposite. Continue reading “Quintessentially French”
Oh my goodness we’ve packed a lot in so far this weekend. It began with one of those early Saturday mornings when you wake up with the sun streaming in through the bedroom windows, and even though you’d dearly love a lie-in, you just know that you have to get up; it would be a criminal offence to waste such a beautiful start to the day. And as the forecast yesterday had promised much warmer weather and plenty of sunshine, there was much to do and no time to waste after months of winter and weak sun. Suddenly everything felt so different! Continue reading “Finding brocante in the attic and an ivy update”
Our French Oasis 