A Finish

The beautiful weather continues in this part of Brittany - cloudless blue skies and at last no more high winds, in fact there has been barely a breeze over the last few days, so it must be that Spring has arrived this time!

Most of  the last week has been spent trying to get some kind of order back into our very unruly garden after the weeks of neglect . The very cold frosty weather we had in March hasn't helped either as its ruined all the camellia and azalea blooms, so at the moment there's not a great deal of colour around, but  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the very new buds that are just peeping out on the clematis!

One thing that did bring a little colour to brighten the days was my Stacked Coins quilt.  You might remember this post when I talked about joining in the No Strings Attached challenge, well two things happened to make me decide  to drop out.  Firstly,  life got in the way and time became very precious, and secondly having chopped up all my fabric, I was mortified to learn that 'coins' didn't count as 'strings' - another lesson in quilting terms!!

Not  really wanting to start anything else and create yet another UFO(!) I carried on with the Coins quilt and I am so glad I did as it finished up so bright & cheerful!

It's being donated to the local Sainte Croix Animal Welfare Group to be raffled to help raise funds,  and I am sure the animals that benefit won't worry if it's technically not a 'string' quilt - but lets hope it the 'coins' multiple to great numbers!!

Special Treat!

Its been such an age since I've managed to get away from home to do anything other than visit supermarkets, sit in doctors waiting rooms or hospitals that I promised myself that when the first warm Spring day arrived it would be used for a special treat .Well, today was that day and our treat was a trip to the coast and a favourite spot of ours, the beach at Landrezac  and its neighbour le Gree Penvin.

The weather was made to order, up to 19 degrees C in the shelter of the dunes and the sea was calm and looked very inviting, but neither of us was brave enough to try it out.

I've tried to get a sense of the actual length of the bay, but my camera doesn't really do it justice.  I guess it must be some 10-12 kms long from point to point, but however long it is - it is beautiful.  In the lovely sunshine we had all day it looked just like an exotic tropical shore somewhere far away.  I really need one of those 'take everything' cameras that are being advertised on TV at the moment - as I've a birthday coming up soon do you think its worth dropping some heavy hints  :-)

We started out with a walk along the bay from Penvin towards Landrezac and after about half an hour, made our way back and out onto the point

past the lovely little church perched on the very edge of the beach

with the Virgin & Child looking out over the bay - maybe to keep watch over the generations of Breton fishermen who have worked these waters for centuries.

and past evidence of another Breton delicacy - oysters !

After a very high tide its open season on oysters along the Brittany coast and you can see people digging them and scallops (coquillies St Jaques) out of the sands.

DH  didn't quite make it all the way as he hasn't quite got his 'legs' back yet, so he opted to wait whilst I went on out and he's the little dot tucked under the wall on the right of the photo - bless!

The headland opposite the end of the Point is the mouth of the Golfe du Morbihan ( mor - bihan meaning little sea ) a natural harbour or inland sea  that is filled with around 40 islands and a boat trip around the Golfe is highly recommended !!

As you can see the beach was practically empty, but there were one or two strange customers around chasing what I can only imagine to be 'bugs' in the seaweed being washed ashore - lunchtime snacks maybe ?

Another reason for going to this lovely bay is that it it home to the chateau shown on my header -                Suscinio.           

I love this little castle nestling in the dunes and often wonder what it would have been like to live here in the Middle Ages.  Today it is used as an exhibition centre and its surrounding land and salt marshes have become havens for a plethora of  wading birds, but the only one I managed to catch today was this fellow 

Home again at last , tired and worn out from all the walking whilst DH snoozed (!!) but certainly a day well worth waiting for!

Cure for the Blues

Wandering around Blogland I keep coming across the saying ' when life throws you scraps, make a quilt' which is indeed very sound advice. However, one of my best cures when I feel down in the dumps is a good read, so here's a few of the books that kept me company and helped keep my spirits up over the last couple of months

 Now these books have some lovely quilts that are 'do-able' projects for me and  I've already started bookmarking pages ........

........most of these though fall into to 'maybe someday' category, but then a girl can dream of something beyond stippling can't she ??