Dawn Patrol

I think I have already mentioned that the area around Megan's pasture is a maze of little lanes or chemins ? Now that the mornings have 'recovered' from the hour changeover to Summer time in terms of when it gets light, I like to go check on the mare first thing every morning, which at the moment means around 7.30am. This is a lovely time of the day when everything is just waking up and at the moment with Spring trying really hard to get a grip on the countryside it is even more fresh and unspoiled! In spite of the very cold morning temperatures for this time of the year (currently -4 degrees!) ,there are signs of new greenery on the trees, catkins here and there and even the wild cherry trees are sporting the odd blossom not to mention the banks of primroses !! One other thing that is great is the 'wild life' that shows up in the early hours before the tractors take over their world. France is a country that has a great hunting tradition so there is not a profusion of wild life unfortunately, and this makes my experiences even more special ! In the last few days I have come across what I think is a water rat or vole swimming in the stream. It is quite a big animal, around the size of a cat or so it appears, but I couldn't get close enough to it to identify it properly - but boy, could it swim!!! Then yesterday there was this great, wonderful hare that came leaping out of the field onto the track, stopped dead, saw me and there shot away at a rate of knots. I thought it was a small fox for a moment as it crossed the field, then I saw the ears when it sat up and realised what it was. Two green woodpeckers were also abroad yesterday and today to complete my week, a small deer and a pair of ducks - the drake was so colourful and really outshone his mate!! So you see - the early bird does have more fun than just catching the worm!!!

Nothing to show on the sewing side of things I'm afraid. Yesterday kind of disappeared with cardiology checkups for DH, which I have to attend as 'official interpreter' (!), and happily all was well, and then the weekly shopping round finished off the day. I have almost completed the quilting of my brown scrappy quilt AT LAST - this top seems to have been jinxed as every time I've tried to get on with it, something has stopped me! Just one small section to quilt and then the binding, so who knows perhaps I will have one less UFO before too long !!! I have been very adventurous - I have joined 2 small quilt swaps!! This is something new for me and as usual I wonder if I have done the right thing (!!), but hey!! - what's to loose, rather more to gain I think, as I am sure it will bring me more pleasure than grief and hopefully some new cyber friends!!!