Nature Notes

I heard my first hoopoe today. I haven't heard a cuckoo yet but they won't be far behind! Spring is here... The birds are nesting...

And some rather interesting eggs have been observed. This first one came back from Edinburgh with us. Note the distinctive purple and yellow markings.

The birds which lay them seem to have developed a form of colourful, protective packaging.

More followed - these birds are clearly prolific breeders.Here are the eggs of a bird which hangs them from trees, rather than in the more traditional nest. Decorative, but perhaps rather less safe than the protective packaging. Maybe that's because these birds lay soft, cloth eggs, in charming patterned fabrics?

This delightful item, found with eggs in a nest, may come from a similar, as yet unknown, bird.Once again, we find some protective packaging.Inside, the mother bird has carefully wrapped her eggs in green tisue paper before depositing them in the safety of the package. Observe the similarity to the first eggs - the same purple and yellow, but with different markings. We can assume that these birds are from the same family as those who laid the first.Once again the purple and yellow, but this time much smaller eggs, laid in a different sort of protection. It may be that the parent birds lay so many knowing that most will be eaten by predators and only a few will survive...Meanwhile, in the undergrowth, rabbits are also celebrating the coming of spring.OK, that's enough David Attenborough. I challenge any bird to lay the protective packaging below!I need to tell you where these lovely gifts have come from. The bird, nests and realistic eggs came from Ele at A Bit of Heaven, and were part of her wonderful Sweet Tweet Swap last year. The first Creme Eggs were bought by me as an Easter treat for us ex-pat Brits languishing in the Cadbury-free zone that is the south of France. Someone else then had the same idea and brought more Creme Eggs for the boys when they came to visit our friends! Sweet of them. And then Vintage Vicki and I did a little mini swap, after various chats about chocolate... I sent her some traditional French Easter chocolates, which are wonderfully different to British ones, and she sent me the Cadbury's goodies we craved, AND MORE! Thanks so much Vicki - that was a great swap and I love your crafted gifts. I shall be hanging up the fabric eggs indoors soon.So we say goodbye to the distinctive purple and yellow eggs, leaving them in the safety of their nest.

There they will remain until Easter Day...

The Letter, the Cushion and the Guitar Tuner!

Our post box is set in the wall next to our gate (French homeowners are big on gates and privacy) and we sometimes forget to check it until quite late in the day. This happened

to us the other evening, with the result that I brought in two rather chilly but most exciting items: one a letter from California, the other a parcel from England.The beautiful card contained a letter from Janie, my partner in Denise's Letter Writing Swap! Janie has a wonderful blog, called Panini Girl, about her life in California and her love for Italy, but it seemed very different, and particularly special, to recieve a handwritten letter from her.
What a good idea this letter swap is! Do click on Janie's link, as she currently has the most amazing picture of an Italian apple tart, and information about the recipe book...

The parcel could have been one of two - I am doing Lululiz's rainbow swap, and thought it might have been my blue parcel, but instead, it was a remarkably speedy parcel from Serenata, with a gift she wanted to give me, plus a great thrifty item she wanted to pass on as part of the Utmost Challenge... ...plus a few more wonderful things, as it turned out!

Pretty card! This cushion cover is the gift that Serenata so kindly made for me. I'd seen

the similar one she made for her son's birthday, and made a passing comment that it would look great on my sofa and the rest is history! I am so grateful, Serenata. There will be plenty more photos at the end of this post so that readers can judge if I was right!Well, another passing comment to Serenata was that I was going to be 'challenged' to find a thrifty electronic guitar tuner, as requested for Son 1's new guitar lessons. She emailed back quickly to tell me that she had an unwanted one in the back of a cupboard, and could she send it along with the cushion cover? What a kind and thoughtful gift, and how appropriate to the spirit of the challenge to make or reuse rather than buy new...Son 1 was delighted with the tuner, and got his guitar just right within the next 20 minutes. It's going to make him a more independent player, which makes a real difference. He was also heartily amused by Serenata's card for him - just his sense of humour!While I show you thrifty things to do with the new guitar lessons, I just thought I'd show you the new strap on my old guitar case - guitar and case date from when I was only a little older than Son 1, and I was blowed if I was going to buy a new (second hand) case when I could stitch a new carrying strap onto the old one! It's a good thing that Son 1 is very behind the idea of this challenge, as the result is hardly cool... 'Cool' is not a word he admires, fortunately...

Cool blue is certainly the theme of this wonderfully generous bag Seranata also made for me, though! I wish I'd thought to take a photo of the wonderful fabric on the back, too. Maybe for another post...

Serenata is selling these bags through a local shop and I think they are going to be snapped up! I am so absolutely thrilled to own one. It will join Sharon's Clover Cottage bag on my Vide Greniers outings from now on.And then there was more blue! There is a super little vintage button in the middle of this lovely brooch - at the moment I've got it pinned to my bag! Oh, so lovely.Now, more details of the cushion. This is why Seranata can sell things she's made - attention to detail and skill with a sewing machine. I am not kidding when I tell you that my cushions are either stitched up by hand or held together with brooches etc. Lovely buttons... envy-causing button holes...This is why I felt it would go so well - do you think it tones in? A nasty draught howls down the back of our necks when we sit on the sofa in winter, so we've taken to putting a draught-excluding cloth on the stair bannisters at the back of the seating area. It works. This year's cloth is the lovely, almost CK-esque print I found at Veti Relais last month. A great match for Serenata's fabric, surely?When I put the cover onto a cushion and placed it on the sofa, it made the 'end of weekend' sofa look truly shabby in comparison, and not at all chic. I set to, tidying it all up so that it could match my snazzy new cushion.And here is the result! I'm happy.So thank you so much, Serenata, for finding and making so creatively and so generously. It was absolutely lovely, and even somewhat overwhelming, to open such a fantastic series of parcels. The blogging community is a truly vibrant and inspirational place to be!

Sweet Tweet Swap

It has been a great experience doing Ele's Sweet Tweet Swap! The theme was birds and springtime, and I had a beautiful piece of vintage Chinese embroidery that I wanted to combine with European lace and linen. Having found out a bit about Ele's home and her favourite colours, I realised that these colours would go in her new dining room, so I decided to put my pieces together on a frame, for a fairly formal effect.I added in some springtime sugared violets from Toulouse, too! The lace is needlepoint lace (made with a needle, or possibly a shuttle, not bobbins). I bought it from France, but it could be from a number of European countries. I like the contrasting texture against the French linen.You have to look fairly closely at the embroidery to see why it was appropriate for the swap. There are at least five flying creatures here!

I THINK this is a crane, which symbolises long life and is legendary in China for being the prince of feathered creatures. However, the legs are not quite like the other crane embroideries I've seen, so it might just be another bird with different symbolism.The sweet bees are a symbol of hard work and industry for the Chinese, just as they are in the west!The butterfly is a symbol of a young man in love. Ahhh!And I'm pretty certain that this is a bat (but correct me if I'm wrong). Bats have a great symbolic meaning for the Chinese, because their name ('fu') sounds the same as the word for happiness.Therefore, Ele's piece of embroidery carries messages of happiness, love, industry and long life! Now on to the AMAZING package she sent me:

What a treat to open it up and find so many charming birds inside!This little notebook is in front of the computer right now, ready for notes.

Oops - the chocolates did melt, I'm afraid, but the taste didn't change and they were MUCH appreciated!The paper on this charming box is vintage music and newspaper cuttings from a dance. There's a lot to look at!And inside, stock for a wonderful Easter display next year! I can't wait!What's in here?An adorable nest necklace, in my colours!This card is up near my computer too.What a charming vase - I know what I can do with this!And I was wondering about buying a little china bird, just the other day! But that one wasn't embellished...So here are some of Ele's lovely gifts, as they have made their way around our home.I made this pile of boxes a week before Ele's parcel arrived, and knew they were just missing one more for the top...

The pretty lamp base is still in need of updating, but meanwhile it looks fantastic with one of Ele's tags!And here are beauties from two different bloggers - the heart from Sharon's Pay It Forward, and another lovely tag from Ele. They could have been made to go together, couldn't they?I have two of these little white cabinets, so it's a good thing there were two tags and two hearts!What a beautiful parcel to receive! I did experience what Ele and I have described as Swap Anxiety. Do you ever get that - wondering how the other person could possibly want what you're making, and opening their parcel feeling that yours was so much less generous? Apparantly this is normal at first and then goes away. Ele has been so sweet and helpful to me, and to the others doing the swap too, I think, so if you ever feel worried about swapping, don't panic! It's wonderful to be able to make and share special things around the world.