Normal Service Resumed!

Well, the holiday is over and as usual the washing machine is now cowering in the corner after working non stop for what seems like forever!! That part of coming home is bad enough but - Oh My!! Who's going to iron it all :-)

Our leisurely wander up through France to Pays de Calais was somewhat shorter than planned thanks to our two little orphans (both doing well and I have visiting rights to them until they find new homes !) but very pleasant just the same. The weather was very kind to us and we were able to do lots of sightseeing and walking, especially on the lovely long beaches of Normandie , Picardie and in particular the Baie de Somme . It was quite surprising to see how lovely the Somme was, as like many others I am only aware of the area's history during WWI and it was hard to imagine the lovely countryside as the sea of mud associated with one of the most horrific battles of the Great War.

Cap Gris- Nez , famous for being the 'grounding' place for cross Channel swimmers, and it's sister Cap Blanc-Nez were worth the visit, albeit a very quick one, as we made our way to Calais to catch a ferry across to Dover, with it's white cliffs



and a short stay in Kent - but more about this in another post!

Just before we left, I was very relieved to hear that my Friendship Bag Swap had arrived safely at it's new home!!I can tell you that panic mode was beginning to set in as it took over 3 weeks for the package to arrive in Norway, but all ended well and I think Grethe was reasonably please with her parcel! I forgot to take photos before I sent it off so I 'borrowed' this one from Grethe's Blog, hope she doesn't mind !!




Unfortunately it seems as though the bar of chocolate didn't make it to the photo shot!!!!

The fog has lifted, and the sun is shinning again so I'm off to take a 'quiltie' photo to enter in Amy's Autumn Blogger's Quilt Festival - have you entered yours yet ??????

Motherless!

If you don't do ' cats' or 'cute'(!) then this certainly isn't the post for you!!

Just after lunch on Friday DH came in looking a bit worried and said that there were 2 kittens under the hedge at the bottom of our garden. Now I know some people claim to have fairies there, but kittens - no chance!! He was right though and this is what we found






They took one look at us and scurried under the decking at top speed so we assumed that mum must be around somewhere as these little fellows certainly seemed to know where home was. It wasn't a great surprise to see them really as stray cats are a mammouth problem in this part of the world and we have several of them around the village, so I suppose it was only a matter of time.

We kept an eye on them the rest of the day and all through Saturday but didn't touch them in case mum got upset when she turned up. Trouble was that mum didn't turn up at all and the kitties had started to come out from under the decking whenever we got near, mewling most pitifully!! By Sunday morning they were in a bad way, and to cut a very long story short, after dozens of phone calls we managed to track down a cat rescue charity in the area run by a number of fellow Brits, and were able to collect some feeding bottles and formula for the little ones.

Very small feeds every 10 minutes all Sunday afternoon started to pay off by late evening and by midday on Monday they were on their feet and ready to play! No sign of mum at all during this time,even though we left food out for her in case she returned, but when it was still untouched Sunday night we decided she wasn't coming back for them and took them into the warm!

They are the most gorgeous little animals you can imagine and are so full of mischief - I know all baby animals are cute, but judge this pair for yourselves!!




Well - I guess one milk bar is much the same as another !!




Look how cute I am !



...... me too..me too!!


Please come down before you hurt yourself!!



Lets race......


......and the winner is...



..but I found my new mum's leg!!






Wanna fight, eh !!!



Oh No!! She's put us back in Alcatraz!!!!

It's been a bit difficult the last few days as we've had to keep William indoors in case he either attacked the little ones or got attacked himself had their mother come back, but tomorrow they are going to a new foster mum until they can be placed in permanent homes as we are going away for a few weeks and won't be able to keep them. I will certainly miss the pleasure and smiles these little characters have given me over the last few days, but at least I'll be able to keep track of them through the volunteers who run the Cat Rescue Charity and I'll certainly be helping with the fund raising in the future!!


post script - I have been talking to one of my neighbours since I started this post, and he tells me that he saw the kittens being moved into our garden on Thursday afternoon but is adamant that he saw 5 kittens being moved, so what may have happened to mum and the other 3 I dread to think as there are so many predators around ( that's why I have our 2 'caged' during the daytime, this way they are safe and at night they are indoors) or maybe it was just that she couldn't cope with all 5 and decided to abandon some, who knows - I don't suppose I ever will!!

Broceliande

I mentioned Broceliande - land of legends and enchantment - a few posts ago, and whilst there is much debate as to whether Arthur & his Knights or Merlin actually existed, here in Brittany there is certainly a feeling that they may well have !

The forest of Paimpont covers many hundreds of hectares and a very large part of it is either privately owned or used as a training area by the French Army. In fact convoys of troops travelling along the dual carriageway from Ploermel to Rennes are quite a common sight and sometimes might you even catch glimpses of camouflaged figures scurrying through the the undergrowth !!

However, the publicly owned 10% has much to offer in support of the Round Table connection! We have claims to the Fountain of Eternal Youth, Merlin's Tomb as well as that of La Fee Morgane. Add to this the castle of La Fee Viviane (the Lady of the Lake) , oak trees 1,000 years old, manoirs & chateaux dotted all over the forest and some of the prettiest villages in the area and you have Broceliande!!

Now, whether you believe in these legends or not (!) there is no denying the absolute beauty of the area and taking advantage of the Indian summer we've been having, off we went to explore the Val sans Retour ! Local legend differs slightly from the official version as it is claimed that if you are a faithless lover, then you will not return from the valley but be turned into stone! Whichever version you choose to believe it is well worth the visit - if you dare!!

I have been trying for AGES to upload photos and am just about ready to scream!!I think there is a problem with my ISP at the moment as we seem to be on a 'go slow' as well as some other strange happenings (!!), so until things settled down and I can show you some of my own, just have a browse here

Have you seen this from Australia?


These very talented & generous ladies are making Blogland an offer it can't refuse :-)




and how about this from Canada, the first of Dorothy's 'Sweet Nostalgia' free block of the month - how cute is that !


Now that really is a North to South connection - see how much we'd miss without WWWdotCOM! !!

Something Quilty!

Just for a changed, a couple of quilty photos :-)

I first saw this sewing machine mat on Jane's blog and ordered the pattern from Tazzie
straight away! Then the pattern turned up again on Jenny's blog a couple of posts ago as part of her September challenge - make a sewing machine mat to match the cover from last month - and although I am very pleased with my mat I don't think I'll be joining the challenge, but do go along to have a look at the other colourways being shown !

My colours look very wishy washy in the photo because of the sunlight and are a lot brighter in real life BUT I am NOT going to complain about the sun as we are enjoying the most lovely Indian summer at the moment (albeit a little breezey !) with temperatures in the high 20s and long may it continue I say !



Next up is my Little Bouquet Quilt Along piece finally finished! I had a lot of fun(and frustration!!) making this but not sure if it's something I would try again. Once I thought I'd got the hang of the roses they didn't turn out too bad but what a lot of 'snipping' to even get them to look this good - I really don't know how Cherri managed to get hers so perfect, she must have infinite patience!!!



Finally, a finish from Susan Brittingham's Upside Down Appliqué class that I took with QU some time back




Had I realised how much free motion satin stitching would be used, I don't know if I'd have been so keen to join! It certainly gave me a LOT of practice and a lovely wall hanging at the end of it all!! The shading beneath the wings , tail and on the breast was done using tulle and/or organza and the difference it has made is quite pronounced ! Another fun course and one I would certainly recommend !

Where'd it go?

OK, own up - who took off with August when I wasn't looking :-)

I just don't know what happened to last month as it just disappeared in a whirl of being very busy but not actually doing anything! For the moment though the house is very empty and very quiet and it looks like our flood of visitors has dried up now that the schools are back. Don't know if the recession has anything to do with it, but we've had more company this year than we've had for a long time!

Not a lot of sewing going on at the moment as you might guess, but I have managed to get my
Friendship Bag finished and in the post today to my partner - forgot to take a picture though so I hope that my partner does when it arrives !

Now, I know I promised some photos , but they were 'accidentally deleted' - what do you call DH when he 'thought they'd been downloaded' and scrubbed the memory card ? All suggestions gratefully received, there might even be some I haven't thought of!!!!

One set I did download before the Demon Deleter got at the camera was of this wonderful oak tree on the edge of Paimpont Forest just a few minutes drive away.




Over 20 metres high, 9 metres in circumference and estimated to be 1,000 years old this is an amazing tree!It is regenerating itself through the branch that has gone to earth on the left of the photo and just look at the bark!



Almost like elephant's skin but a lot, lot thicker! The centre of the trunk is hollow



and you can actually see daylight through it (if you can stick your head in far enough!) but it continues to send out new growth every year!


What a lesson in perseverance and survival - another of Nature's miracles!

I love trees of all shapes and sizes and I never tire of looking at them, but this has got to be a very special one !


I expect most of you know the poem 'Trees' by Joyce Kilmer but just in case you don't, have a look here and maybe you'll also become a tree lover - and if that doesn't convince you, maybe listening to Paul Robson will do the trick !

Busy!

Another busy weekend here with yet more visitors from the UK! It is so lovely to see old friends and catch up with all the gossip from home, but it is also nice to have our home back to ourselves!!

One good thing about lots visitors is that we get to go to all the lovely parts of Brittany over and over - and never get bored with doing so! There are some pictures to show (surprise!!) but I'm afraid they'll have to wait until the washing machine stops and the ironing board goes away which will mean that mound of laundry that always appears on these occasions is finished!!!

So, before I disappear to get stuck in, have a look at some of the great give-aways that are in blogland at the moment!

Elaine at Faithful Quilter is giving away a selection of Civil War fabrics and there are also the most scrumptious Reproduction fabrics on Lurline's blog. Don't know why I telling you about these two actually as I really, really want these for myself !!

Sarah at Don't Look Now has a quilt waiting for the lucky winner and last but not least Frummie is giving away 2 yards cuts of co-ordinating fabric!! Phew!!

Good Luck everyone !!

Did you see it ?

If you clicked on this yesterday to enlarge it,



............. you would have seen this smiley 'face'




Don't ask me how it got there, it must be a trick of the light or something, but how amazing!!


Last day today to join the Friendship Bag Swap! This little one is the Charmed Gift Bag from Moda Bake Shop

You might remember this post back in April when a couple of sheep appeared in our neighbour's garden - well, we've been having a little trouble with them eating my plants through the fencing, so, to overcome the problem we invested in some wooden paneling which could double up as wind-breakers when the wind comes howling in off the fields.

Now I am not a lover of great expanses of bare wood, and as they were put into position too late to buy any climbing shrubs, I decided dig a few sunflower seeds out of the wild bird food that we buy , pop them in the ground then wait to see what happened - Well, this is what happened :-)



Panels are 2 metres high, so these monsters must be well over 3 metres !









So no matter what the weather for the next few weeks, I've got my very own rays of sunshine!!

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
That's what sunflowers do!

Helen Keller
1880-1968

Another Day Out! (Long Post)

It is such a long time since I blogged about the beautiful Brittany countryside, sad to say our experience at St Lunaire made us very cautious about new places, but now I think it is time to move on and get back to exploring our lovely surroundings!

So - let me tell you about our Saturday visit to l'Isle de St Cado, and one of the most photographed cottages in Brittany!

St Cado (or St Cadoc) was a Welsh monk who, during the 6th century , founded an oratory and later built a monastery on a small island in the River Etel. Local folklore also has it that he was responsible for the small bridge that joins the island to the mainland -and this was done by striking a deal with the Devil!

The agreement was that, in exchange for building the bridge, the Devil would claim the soul of the first living creature to cross it, St Cado agreed to this and overnight the bridge was duly built. However, St Cado (being a very clever Welshman!!) rose early next morning and sent his cat, Lacha, across the bridge , thus cheating the Devil out of his payment !! Well - that's the story anyway!

The island from the river bank, you can just see the bridge far left of the photo if you enlarge it.




Over the centuries the original buildings have disappeared and were eventually replaced in 1832 by a church and a 'Calvaire' or 'Crucifixion'



There is also a small 'fountain' or well on the beach that is only usable at low tide!


This island is a mini paradise of winding streets with street signs in Breton




and pretty cottages painted in traditional colours



Some of them complete with statues if the Saint himself !



and if proof was needed as to his origins - well, this says it all !!


Ooops!! Almost forgot! The most photographed cottage in Brittany !!



Now that's what you call a seaside home !!!!!




You cannot buy a multi-view postcard or calender in Brittany that doesn't show this little cottage, and easy to understand why !

Our day at l'Isle de St Cado was really worth the effort and one that I am sure we'll be repeating over and over with our friends and family! Unfortunately, the afternoon became very overcast and the photos are a little dark because of this, but if you can bear to look at more (including some of inside of the church) try this link

Bag Lady

It's been a bit difficult to get stuck into anything big the last few weeks with all the 'comings and goings' in our lives at present, and the result is the appearance of a number of small items!

Firstly, a tote, using Moda's 'Sonnet' collection charm pack




complete with 2 LARGE inside pockets!


The original Penny Surges pattern ( gift from my friend Jeannie - no blog, but thank you Jeannie! ) has an envelope pocket on the front but the fabrics are so lovely, it's a pity to cover them up - so no outside pocket on this one!!

Then, a trial run of Rachel's tutorial for the Friendship Bag Swap, made from a few left over 'Sonnet' charms


This was just so much fun and turned out so cute I couldn't resists making another one

Made from some of the selvages I've been saving (don't ask!!) , bright and cheerful and just the right thing to fill with sweeties - a little extra gift for DGD's birthday on 28 August !!

Forgot to post this yesterday (!!) and just cannot persuade Blogger to let me change the date - Must be some secret I'm not aware of !!

Give Away

I don't normally enter Give Aways, but this one is certainly different! Go on over to Elaine's blog and have a look for yourself!!

Special Day

Today is International Friendship Day, so a good day to say 'Hello' to everyone !

One of the greatest things about blogging is that I have got to know so many people that I would not have otherwise, and I am very happy to call you all my friends!

I'm off to join this
so why not come along too - what better way to share friendship!

A True Friend is Good to find