Car Boot Sale.....

......Breton style !

 

 

 

.......... saucisse frites anyone ?                                                              

                                            

 

........one man's junk is another's treasure                                                                                                                                        

                                         

.....glad I didn't have to clean all this

....hard  to resist, but do I really need more than 4 sewing machines ?

Vide Greniers are good fun and there is always a bargain to be found !  I had to fight hard against buying the little electric Singer, from the mid 1950s and complete with the original instruction book, spare bobbins & feet, at 20 euros it was certainly a bargain - I just hope it found a good home .

Have I mentioned we're in the middle of a heat wave ?

 Average temperatures over the last 2-3 weeks have been 34C with highs of 39C!  Not that I am really complaining , but I can't help but wonder what happened to Spring  this year as we seem to have missed it somewhere along the line .

 

It's been a While ...

......but a finished quilt at last :-)

My floral half  hexies done !

Think the feathers are improving too :-)

Talking about feathers - have you seen the videos on this Blog -  amazing !!

Italian Interlude - Part 1

Its been a while since I first posted about my cruise and as time seems to be flying by as usual,  here we go with Part 2.


We arrived at Sardinia early morning and anchored about a mile off  Alghero,  a lovely town surround by beautiful beaches.  A nice sunny day but still the darn wind blew. Not very good, this being one of the ports on the itinerary that called for transfer ashore by tender - not for the faint hearted or anyone prone to 'mal de mer'.  Wheeee!!  Here we go!

The idea was that we would spend some time looking around and then chill out on the beach and maybe a swim.  No chance with conditions like this !

 

Enough swell to tilt a 77,000 tonnes plus ship, and this wasn't our worst sea !

The choice was between being sandblasted on the beach and pulled off your feet by the surf , or ducking into the town and taking a tour on one of these

Before all the horse lovers shout 'shame!', the horse wasn't actually doing anything other than having a little exercise as the cart was fitted with an electric motor to do the work - got to be a unique definition on the term 'horse power' :-)

A stroll down main street

 

Something that caught my eye was this church dome

Now where have I seen this before  - maybe here ??

After spending the morning wandering through the town having our heads blown off, we decided enough was enough, so grabbed some lunch then headed back to our ship to watch the tenders scuttling to & fro

All of them eventually getting back safe & sound and stowed back on  board.Looks a lot calmer here in the lee of the ship  doesn't it ?  Watching all this going on reminded me of ducklings chasing after Mother Duck to tuck safely under her wings :-)

Hope you enjoyed Alghero - next stop Pisa & Florence.

QUATORZE JUILLET !

Bonne Fete A Tous !

 

 

 

Bon Anniversaire !

( photo courtesy of Le Tour )

100 years of the Tour de France, the biggest FREE sporting event in the World, and we are lucky enough to live very close to Stage 10 of this year's route, so off we went on Tuesday to cheer them on and enjoy the show.

First came the parade of  the sponsors' advertising vehicles

 

                 
                   

 

 

Just a few of the weird and wonderful vehicles that hurtled past us in a cavalcade that lasted just on an hour ! My apologies for any blurred photos, but they were moving some:-)

Then there were cars covered in cycles

as well as motor bikes by the score

 

 

We even had a flight of helicopters - look closely !!

then eventually, the real stars of the show - the competitors !!

The Leaders

These 5 riders led the race until within a couple of kilometres of the finish, and it was a little sad to see them being swallowed up by the rest of the field after such a grand effort.

The Peloton - well, part of it !

I got so caught up shouting encouragement to this year's great British hope, Chris Froome , that I missed the photo of him in the Yellow Jersey :-)

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of negative publicity about the race over the last year or so, but when you stand at the roadside in temperatures of   30C,  you cannot help but admire the physical effort of the competitors passing you at speeds over 40 kms per hour, and hope that this year it will be a controversy free Tour de France. 



                                  Vive le Tour !


Footnote :

The Tour is very close to the hearts of all Bretons as one of their own sons , Louis Bobet, won the race 3 times in the 1950s and lived just a few miles away -  today's stage passed through his home town as a mark of respect. Brittany was also represented today by Julien Simon , one of the leader riders in the photo above.

Bloomin' June !

Before I carry on with the Traveller's Tale, I just want to tell you about my second visit to these gardens .  I promised myself that I would try and go back at least once a year at different times to see the changes that take place with the seasons.  This year I really wanted to see the roses, and it didn't disappoint !

Roses of  every colour

 

and not just roses...

colourful borders.....

Lilies, poppies, peonies & camellias .....

and those hidden, secret places !  The black petunias were really stunning, and just look at the black arum lily in the centre of the planting !

Lastly, just take a really good look at this

I played about in Picasa so that you could see the fish more clearly - they were actually coming to the surface of the water with their mouths wide open !  Yes, the orange circles just above the words 'fish' are their mouths  - don't know if they were catching flying insects or gasping for breath as it was the hottest day we've had so far this year.  Whatever they were up to, they were all at it :-)

 

A Traveller's Tale - Part 1

Well, as I mentioned before, here's the start of the holiday photos :-)

We left Southampton feeling a little apprehensive as this was our first cruise and we were not quite sure what to expect, but we fell in love with this lovely lady from the very first day!

 

Snapped at our first port of call, El Ferrol in Northern Spain -  not the prettiest of cruise ports, but we were made to feel very welcome by a group of Galicia Pipers who raised a great cheer from the British passengers for their rendition of  'Scotland the Brave'.

At the next port we went in this

to the top of this

and saw these

as well as the most amazing views across to Spain and North Africa. The Rock of Gibraltar is 1, 398 feet high - to give you an idea just see how small our boat looks from the top !

I have to tell you that the ride in the cable car was a personal triumph for me as I am absolutely terrified of highs - I can't even stand on a chair without a parachute !  First half of the journey was a white knuckle job with eyes closed,  but thanks to DH and several other very supportive passengers, I eventually managed to open my eyes and enjoy (?) the rest of the ride.

Shopping in Gibraltar was a great treat as it's still duty free and who can resist that :-)

Next post - Sardinia - if you're not too bored already!

I'm Back !

Well, to be honest it's been a couple of weeks, but what with all the chores waiting for us when we got back, blogging and sewing have both been left at the bottom of the 'to do' list !

Our cruise was a wonderful experience which we both enjoyed immensely in spite of the weather. No actual rain, but boy - did that wind blow !  Strange as it sounds, the Bay of Biscay was relatively calm but once we turned left at the bottom of Portugal heading for the Med it was a different story.  Luckily we are both good sailors so at least no suffering from 'mal de mer' unlike lots of other passengers.  Average blow was force 7-8 but we did manage gale force 12 in the Golfe de Lyon off St Tropez.

Lots of photos to follow, but in the meantime, I've just discovered that in order to register with Bloglovin after the demise of Google Reader, I have to 'claim' my own blog page !  Ah well - that's how it is

Follow my Blog with Bloglovin

See you soon !

Can't Count

A couple of posts ago  I mentioned that, as well as 2 finished quilts since the beginning of the year, I also managed to up my count of UFOs by 2. Well, latest count is three :-)

Single Irish Chain - just the two colours in this one

Arkansas Crossroads -  obviously scrappy

and a Half Hexagon - just a little different to this one

Now all that's left to do is quilt them :-)