Happy New Year

Just checking in to wish you all a Very Happy and joyful 2013

I have been away for three weeks without a computer but I did have my camera...

First stop Yorkshire, where I spent ten joyful days with my family, unfortunately it rained heavily every day I was there so interior shots only.

No i phone or complicated portable just a good old fashioned British Telecom standard issue telephone, the one's I grew up with, they are considered retro now, I so enjoyed curling up on the sofa, twirling the curly cord in my fingers and using this to call absent friends and loved ones.

I had five star treatment staying with my Brother

Oh I do love a big bath with a view!

I even bought sweets from my childhood (also now considered retro) for the kids but they were more interested in computer games!

And I helped my Mother with afternoon tea.

Next stop Prague for seven days and mercifully no rain but it was cold I was secretly hoping for snow but it was not to be, still, it was beautiful and there is more to come on my Prague adventure

I won't be back home until Sunday, at present I am in my spiritual home on the Provençal Coast.

See you soon, wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

XXX

Rain, Clementines and Mulled Wine

Image via Seabois

Yes, it's been like this all day, relentless.  I had plans to go to the big town today, I spent a couple of happy hours on Sunday Christmas shopping on the internet (nearly all done) but there are some things that you need your olfactory senses for.  The big town will have to wait until the rain stops.

So I stayed at home, did some work and marvelled at my clementines which have started popping up in the greengrocers along with other seasonal delights such as lychees and pomegranates.
  

Yesterday evening whilst I was toiling in the study I could hear MG rustling about in the kitchen, soon the whole house was filled with the most beautiful aroma, a while later I was presented with a glass of the most delicious mulled wine, MG had clearly been inspired by the arrival of the clementines.  He used Jamie Oliver's recipe which can be found here.

 Image via Jamie Oliver

I feel the urge for another glass coming on...

The Cup Cake Lady

A touch of Christmas whimsy for the first Sunday in December.

Almost Advent

How did it get to be the last day in November?  Advent starts tomorrow and I am starting to panic.  Cyber Monday came and went, I have a feeling this weekend will be my cyber moment, I really need to get cracking to ensure delivery.  We are away for Christmas and the New Year so no tree but I will be putting festive touches around the house.

There has been much discussion on blogs regarding high street shopping versus on-line shopping, for me it's a no brainer, on my laptop, warm and cosy, dog at my feet, glass of wine by my side.  Modern shopping centres or malls filled with all the usual suspects are my biggest nightmare although I will make an exception for this beautifully restored Victorian shopping arcade which is crammed full of wondrous, interesting and mainly independent boutiques. I will be visiting it shortly before Christmas, I will not be able to resist a few extra stocking fillers, there is  no doubt they will be wrapped on Christmas Eve.

The Victoria Quarter, Leeds, Photo from flickr

 MG has asked me what I would like for Christmas I have requested a wide angle lens for my camera... but then I saw some exquisite evening bags...

Available from here

How are your plans going? Is all your Christmas shopping done?

Wishing you all a Wonderful Weekend.

XXX

The Simple Things

A beautiful painting of a simple thing...a bedspread airing through an open window.  I love this painting this is a typical French scene, the times I have driven from my village to the local town on a beautiful morning, houses with shutters and windows flung wide open, bedspreads, duvets, eiderdowns, dangling.  A simple morning ritual, played out all over France.

Elisabeth Baysset, the artist responsible for this painting, sadly passed away far too early, last month.  Elisabeth was an artist that I discovered through the blogging community, I think she was a huge talent, her beautiful works are a testament to her memory...

Antique Books

Be careful what you wish for, yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that we have had endless warm, sunny days, which seems out of keeping for November, well today it has been damp, dull and dreary so it jolly well serves me right! Added to that I have been in a melancholy mood.

To try and cheer myself up I went rooting around in the cupboard under the stairs for the boxes of Christmas decorations, surely fairy lights and baubles would cheer me up! Of course it's far too early to decorate,  normally I like to decorate in the first week of December.  No, what I wanted was to mess around in my studio spare room with baubles, fairy lights and candles and try to make some pretty pictures but nothing seemed to be working for me today, the pictures were a disaster so in the end I gave up and went back to photographing antique books.

We are fortunate to have inherited a large collection of antique books, the top three books in the first picture are French books on natural history, they have some stunning engravings in them and are eighteenth century, I was trying to capture the patina on them whilst imagining who their original owners were, these books were around during the French revolution, how come we have ended up with them? What was the fate of the original owners? what kind of room or library might they have rested in?

In the second picture the books are popular British classics from the late nineteenth century, I know the history of these one's. The first four little books are Dickens and they also include wonderful engraved illustrations, I love the gold detail on the spines, I really should read them but they are so delicate I worry about damaging them and that would be awful, so I will put them back in their home on the bookshelf and admire them.

I am still resisting the urge to invest in a Kindle or Nook, I love books, all books, nothing gives me greater pleasure than a new book. My modern book collection may one day fall into the hands of someone who wonders about the original owner from a couple of centuries ago, I don't believe a Kindle or a Nook would last that long!

Wishing Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.
XXX

Crusoe's Bucolic Constitutional

Every day here for the last few weeks has been lovely, almost too lovely!  I have been yearning for cold, crisp, misty autumnal days but it is not to be, all we have had is glorious sunshine and temperatures into the twenties an Indian Summer for sure, personally I think it's a bit eerie for November.   Every morning I take Crusoe out for his walk, today I thought, I would take you with me...

I know this herd is a happy herd, they belong to our neighbour Michel, he has a bit of knack when it comes to animals, he is dark and good looking our very own Heathcliffe, he rides his horses bareback and is always willing to lend a hand with his tractor in our garden and won't except payment. Every Christmas we buy him  a few of the finest bottles Bordeaux has to offer and I add add a few interesting home made chutneys, preserves and sometimes when I feel ambitious a special cake, I have learnt that's just the way things are done around here.

A view of the Château, I don't see it as a Château I see it as a Castle it dates from the twelfth century, it attracts droves of tourists and schoolchildren, inside its a museum, where they teach the history of Medieval France, most of the locals see it as a Walt Disney Castle it has been overly restored with the help of European grants and not necessarily remained true, most of the villagers tell me they preferred it as a ruin..they played amongst its crumbling walls as children, much more romantic but they admit it does bring much needed money into the local economy.

Ahhh Crusoe..."Come on, throw my stick"...

Proud dog, valiantly retrieving the stick

I am a clever dog!

Crusoe killing his stick

Eastern view of the Chateau

Can you see that egg shaped thing in the tree, what is it? A nest of some sort but what?

Autumn Colours

At the top of the hill you can see the highest peeks of the French Pyrenees and beyond those mountains lies Spain

The local Pyrneean goat herd, I love them Crusoe does not, I have to keep him on a tight leash when I speak to the goats in his presence, once he jumped into their enclosure, a battle ensued for hours, he would not come out and it resulted in this

After the Constitutional, Crusoe likes to relax in his favourite chair... and me... well this morning I made myself a large cup of coffee, changed the lens on my camera and practised some stylised shots of antique books of which there is more to come...