Short of Time

It's open season here at 'Hotel Chez Nous', that time of the year when the whole world and its wife decide it's time to visit France and take up lodgings in the spare bedrooms!  This is great in many ways and it's lovely to see all our friends and families but - Oh!! does it run away with time!

Lots of time to sit and chat and spoil the little ones but no time for sewing and precious little for blogging, so I've decided to let you see the rest of the holiday photos in D.I.Y mode and if you're interested these are the links

Bodnant Gardens  -  firstly the beautiful  National Trust property in the Conwy Valley.  Unfortunately we just missed the wonderful Laburnum Arch in full bloom, but you can still see the remains of the blossom in the photo, but this is how it looks in full glory

Snowdon  & Snowdonia  -  Well, what can I say about the lovely scenery in this area and the magnificent views from the summit of Snowdon herself .  Even though this was 'home' to me I will never cease to be amazed by the ever changing views of this part of Wales.

Finally, a bit of everything in this link  including proof of a visit to THAT  village on Anglesey !

Quatorze Juillet

                                                               

It's Been How Long !!

I can't believe that it's almost a moth since my last post - where does the time fly to ?  Having said that, I have to admit that we've been on holiday again for 3 weeks, so that will explain a lot.

DH has been saying for ages that he would like a trip to North Wales and a ride on the new Welsh Highlands  Steam Preservation Railway, so deciding  that there's no time like the present - that's where we've been.

We stayed just outside Conwy  at this cottage....

.......surrounded by these gardens...

.........with lots of secret corners....

                                                                                                          (DH posing as usual!)


.........full of wonderful colours.......

.....and views to die for practically on the doorstep!

Lots more to report as you might imagine, but the sun is shining on this lovely Sunday afternoon so I'm away now to enjoy my own garden, but before I go - Happy 4th July to all my American visitors, I hope you all have a great day !

Trompe-l'Oeil

Found in Calpe Old Town....

.........Gotta admit they beat a plain wall any day of the week !

Sun, Sea and Sangria

It's all starting to feel like a long time ago now, but our holiday in Calpe   has left us with lots of lovely memories

The promenade around the bay leading to the majestic penon de Ifach jutting out into the sea like a mini Gibraltar. 

  

Home mainly to all kinds of birds but also open to the more daring visitors who might feel like a little climbing adventure - me , I like to keep my feet on more level surfaces !  All along the prom was the 'tourist' area  and filled with the inevitable souvenir shops together with bars & cafes serving  meals of every description, they made choosing where to eat each day very difficult.

The other side of the rock sheltered the fishing port and was a little down market compared to the tourist-y area, but even more dramatic I think

Here the sea was more alive - don't you just love  'white horses'?

Inland was equally as beautiful in its own way with houses clinging to the mountainsides in a way that  made you wonder if they were defying gravity

But maybe they are all linked up with steps like these !!

Aren't they delightful - found in the 'old' town, but we'll keep that for another day.

Another  picture heavy post, but I can't go until I show you these (sand) Castles in Spain

Cheers All!!!

Spanish Experience

At long last, five minutes to sit down and show you some of the photos taken on our trip to Spain, but I suppose better late than never!

Our journey took us down  French Atlantic coast as far as Bordeaux , a beautiful city which deserves its World Heritage site status and which is also the centre of one of France's main wine  producing areas.  Strange to think that if you go back in history this area one was part of the British Isles (together with Brittany itself!).  A quick dash inland towards Toulouse and a  glimpse of the walled city of Carcassone   put us well on our way to the Mediterranean coastal highway.

Our overnight stop was at Coulioure , a very pretty town practically on the Spanish border and one we visited a couple of years ago. Unfortunately by this time the light wasn't too grand and the photos area bit dark

See the fortress on the hill top ?

    

We were luck enough to stay at the  Madeloc Hotel as we did on our last visit, and this was the view from our balcony - not the sea unfortunately, but a lovely jumble of rooftops caught in the early  morning sunlight ( just pretend the wires aren't there!!)

A quick breakfast then off to the border and into the land of olive trees and orange groves....

.......dried hams....

............ colourful rugs.....

....not to mention churches!

I don't usually take photos inside churches, but in this little one  I  was practically ordered to do so by the caretaker!  He was obviously very proud of it and quite rightly so,  and so's not to cause any offence, I took his photo too!

As this is turning into a picture heavy, long post,  perhaps I should stop now and  come back another day with the rest of the photos - oh yes! there are lots more :-)

From Beauties to Basics.......

.... and it doesn't get much more basic than 9s & 4s does it?

This latest finish couldn't be more different to yesterday's quilt, but in its own way just as pleasing.  The pattern was one I found on the Web some time ago, but can't remember  exactly where, so  I'm not able to give credit to the original . I think it might have been one of the major fabric companies, possibly Windham , all I do know is that it is very pink in the download pattern but unfortunately no sign of a name anywhere!


Finishing at 58" x 68" it's a reasonable size lap quilt and used up quite a lot of my scrap bag pieces, which is always good :-)  Would you believe that I took it to Spain to finish the binding - maybe not such a brilliant idea to have a quilt draped all over you given that the daytime temperatures were in the mid 30s, but it certainly came in handy later in the evening when it cooled down !!

Late Entry!

Almost missed getting my entry in for the Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2010  thanks to a flying visit from DD and DGD! We had a lovely long weekend with them filled with glorious sunshine, but as usual the house is VERY empty now that they've returned to the UK.

I think this time I have to choose the Vintage New York Beauties quilt I made a little while ago from Valori Wells  book 'Radiant New York Beauties' .

Why this one - well, because it was a number of 'firsts' for me!

My first (and probably last) paper pieced quilt.
My first attempt at applique using the  freezer paper method - something I will try again as I did enjoy it
My first attempt at free motion quilting that wasn't stippling - came out not too bad in the end luckily

So,  all in all,  even though it took  me ages to finish and at times drove me almost mental -  it is a quilt that I am proud of now .

AWOL ...

....and a change!

Way back when at the end of last year, I booked us a break in a milder part of Europe during February to break up the winter months.Unfortunately, things went a little off course when DH's health took a turn for the worse, but luckily I managed to change our booking without loosing any money, which is always a bonus, and this time we actually made it to Spain!Almost 3 weeks in glorious sunshine with nothing to do but relax, read and a  do little stitching !

.
A sea front apartment complete with balcony where we could watch the world go by when we felt too lazy to walk the 50 yards or so to the beach, and with good restaurants also within a couple of hundred metres - what else could you ask for ?

Naturally there are lots of photos, but just for the moment the washing machine seems to be taking up all my time, but not to post without a single one, just a little taster :-)

View from our balcony - not bad, eh ?

The change - well, it must be a reaction to the lovely Spanish sunshine, but I thought that I would brighten up the Blog with a new template, do you like it ?

Before I forget, Amy is hosting another Blogger's Quilt Festival next week,  it really is good fun with lots of eye candy and prizes too so why not join in !

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!