Bugle and Grannies Bonnets

Brocante morning

Dental tools



I bought this today for E10. It was originally in a hotel as a place to keep keys and messages. I shall paint it and use it to display all manner of things, perhaps some old glasses. Sixty slots for the arrangement of things.
Wonderful to resurrect a piece of junk on Easter Sunday



Dechetterie

We had a big clear out today from one of our many barns. This was our day out to the tip. Very  nice trip along the country lanes via Preporche a little village to which we go to for a small brocante, or yard sale.The countryside is so very deserted, so that we pass another car every ten miles.. There are lots of tiny Charolais calves out at the moment, very white.



This is a very sweet place; tiny but full of charm. I snapped it through the car window. If you enlarge it's worth a look and so many doors!



This is on the way back home. The far hills are where we live.

The manager of the tip was English. He arrived here 25 years ago when he came to live on a barge. There is free compost at the tip. They make there own from the garden waste. The free stuff is in a big pile with a shovel to take your own. Next time we will take some bags to fill up . I found a load of dumped terrecotta plant-pots that were laying about. Satisfying day to be able to dump a ton of old washing machines and fridges and old building rubble, and then to come home with thirty old flower-pots. (My husband thinks that I am potty!)

Walk from Glux

Lovely meadow for a rest on our walk, near the source of the Yonne

Beech Forest walk

From time to time we take a six mile walk over the mountains, from the village called Glux-en-Glenne. The lonely old tracks wander all over the mountains at about two thousand feet.

Beech forest track. Sometimes I have seen deer along here, but never people. It was originally a Roman track.

Larochemillay Brocante

Cafe just before we arrived at the square, very promising indeed!

Green shutters and door, I love this house. The stall here had some lovely things but a little expensive.

Larochmillay is very close to me, only 10km away and check out the views.

Standing back, barely containing my excitement. There weren't very many stalls but there were some excellent ones and it was very quiet. I went at 9.30, not too early and people were still setting up.

Another road shot on the way home. If you expand this image there is a house with what looks like a shed on it right up on the hill, this is the Chateau that is the centre of the village.

Naughty Ayredale with cocked ear. I was very impressed with the things on this stall but it was all quite expensive.

Les Trois Sycomores

Red Shutters

L'eglise

Antimals

Dry  soil is very attractive to silly cats

Village dog who always wants to be in the frame.
I will start painting soon, really will. 

House detail

I have been trying to find out how to do this for ages, collaging I mean.picnik.com is how I eventually got here. Any other ways of collaging images would be happily received.

Flowers and Tower

Bugle, delicious looking creature

Common Orchid just out and they are everywhere. The colour of them is startling, really rather ethereal  and  intense.

Cherry blossom standing out well among the greens

This is my new love a C15th house in the village complete with tower. It has no garden  just a little courtyard. It's large with 14 rooms and boasts a romantic sweeping stone stairway. Wonderful features ecclesiastical or castle like. This huge house could keep one very busy and I could have lots of guests. Presently it's empty.

Trip to the commune village, and a trellis.

This is the trellis I made this afternoon.  The house you see beyond is a summer cottage used by a Dutch couple. The trellis is for my sweet peas, and will also serve as a bit of a screen between myself and the neighbours.

I may need to put up a few more sticks, but I like it so far, simple and asymetrical, a bit Mondrian!

Potatoes with these rusty chainsaw runners as markers.The lawn beyond belongs to another neighbour who is rarely there. My garden is on the far edge of my farm. It is so productive, and surrounded by other cottages, creating a very sheltered spot. It's also the only place on the farm where it's possible to be vaguely sociable.We live in a very remote spot but ocassionally someone walks past or a tractor chugs by. 

Grey skies today. This is my rainwater collection tank from where I can pump water onto my garden. I have assorted things around, like this old kettle, all increasing my joy of gardening, to water plants

Seed drawer.Melon, long radish and Romanesque.

Cherry blossom in the village.

Limeflower in leaf, traditionally planted to create shade for the intense heat of summer. But mostly it is for French herbal tea, called Tisane.

I was in the commune village this week, I met another English person who has bought a house near  the chuch. The  houses are very ancient, C15th, some with towers. This doorway always atracts me. So quaint.

A row of houses in the commune village. The bells that chime in the church are so flat, real clangers. So what you can't see, -what  for me is the overdiing impression of this view,- are the donging bells.

Visitor

We had a visit today by an 81 year old man who once lived in the house 70 years ago. It's not uncommon to have these kind of visits. It's fascinating to hear how people lived in these mountains. The guy today, very spritely, talked of living in our kitchen with 7 other children while Maman and her husband shared a tiny room we now use as a small office. He pointed to where now our linen cupboard is and said that's where I slept in that corner. His mother had died so he came to the Morvan where he lived with other orphans. Madam Joyeux, who I met last year was a wet nurse, it was common and a way to earn extra income in harsh times. They worked hard as subsistent farmers keeping cows, sheep, made bread had a well to collect their water from, and somehow survived very harsh winters without cars. Sabotiers or clog makers were another way to earn income and there was also one of those on the farm. Tools and half made clogs were here when George bought the farm

Our kitchen has a wooden post in the middle joined to a beam that holds up the beams above. It's crude but makes the room much more interesting.There were no windows in the early days, it's dark now so it would have been gloomy in winter. We have a big sun room built ajoining the kitchen, I live in the sun room, painting and growing seedlings at the moment.

The guy talked of how he went into Charcuterie in Paris, so at 14 he left a closeknit community for  Paris, to become a butcher, amazing.












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Seedling nursery

 so

My painting has given way to plants temporarily. Our conservatory gets so very hot, and my seedlings flourish.   It's so warm here, uncannily so. Last year it was rainy and cold,at this time. Today it was 24 C. I even put my shorts and bikini top on to plant carrots. I have my pump connected to collected rain water. 

Rhubarb

Fred bathing

Pear tree blossom