'Living Differently' - our town thinks it over...

It's our town's Alternative Living festival this weekend. I can't take any photos of the publicity, because the town's name is plastered all over it, but here are some of my archive photos of the town with a translation of the programme:

Alterna'town

The theme of this year's event: "Economy: the ecological alternatives"

Exhibition, conference and organic food

Round table discussions:

Saturday: "Eco-taxes and social taxes"

Sunday: "Questioning the development of out of town hyper-centres"

Conferences:

Saturday: "AMAPs and group purchasing" (AMAPs are pairings/groupings between farmers and food vendors, to support the rural economy - I had a look at the website on the link to find out more )

"The Fair Economy and Micro-loans"

"Décroissance, what is it?" (Good question! It's about down-scaling everything back to a local level, I think)
Sunday:

"Eco-building"

"Negawatts"

"The economy"

A local organisation will offer you an original meal for 8 euros with, on Saturday lunchtime a countryside meal, and on Sunday lunchtime, a wild meal!

To reserve your meal, phone..... Drat, didn't think to book!

Now, you may or may not think that sounds like a fascinating day out, but here's the news: we've never been before, even though they have one every year. There are a few reasons. Firstly, it's always on Ben's birthday weekend, and we often have other plans. Secondly, it's all in French, and it sounds pretty heavy!Thirdly, although we do 'Live Differently', I don't know, we just live differently our way, not anyone else's way. It sounds a bit shaven head and fifteen ear-rings, although it clearly isn't, as no-one in our town looks like that!
So, should we go? Let me know what you think, and also, if you can be bothered, tell me which option YOU would go to (just for fun, you know!) Are you anti-out-of-town shopping, or pro-micro loans? Do you have an opinion on countryside issues or (dare I ask it) taxes? Have you experience of eco-building and alternative energy sources? And most importantly, which meal will you have? The traditional countryside one (a bit like a Ploughman's lunch) or the more adventurous wild one?

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I'm signing off for the weekend, as we'll be celebrating with Ben (with or without the help of "Alterna'town"). No price tag on those languishing apothecary bottles yet! Back on Monday...

Autumn? Summer? Autumn?.. Plus my giveaway winner!

On Monday and Tuesday it continued raining - the first rain the garden has enjoyed since we were away camping in late July. The washing machine stayed off and I anxiously watched the weather forecasts for the next drying day. Thus it was that I had a load of summer clothes ready to go out on this rather autumnal line yesterday morning... The forecasts promised sunny weather, but the early-morning garden seemed in full autumn-mode, so I took the camera for a tour. The last bunch of grapes remains netted on the vine, waiting for Ben to get back from the UK - I want to share it with him! He's the one who found the vine sprawling across the ground when we moved in, and cleared it from the patio stones below, building this pergola for it all to grow over. He deserves a share of the last bunch of the season.

His lines of vegetables have seen a few tumbles due to high winds, but they are still very fruitful.

The purple beans are far better than green ones, in that they have a much longer period of being edible. Sadly, they turn green when cooked, but they look stunning in a salad! And look what's lurking below... Away from the potager, Ben planted some decorative gourds over the stump of our poor old acacia. This is a Crown of Thorns gourd, although the French call it a Devil's Crown, which I don't much like...The same pack of seeds has produced this plant with a green Crown of Thorns, too. The gourds will be great for creating some autumn displays around the garden - who's seen October Country Living?

The fuchcia was here when we moved in too, but it was completely crammed against the wall by a large and inappropriately-placed bush. We hauled the bush out of the ground after some heavy rain a few years ago, and replanted it successfully. Now the fuchia has free-rein in my shady garden, even thriving amongst the scaffolding!This is the part of the garden where the workmen are, how shall we put it, busy? No, busy would be too much. There are frenetic periods of activity and then a lot of nothing, but somehow it's all getting done...This is what they've been replacing - the old, rotting timbers of our front patio roof have been replaced by an artisan-made frame with brick pillars. How's that for buying handmade, folks? More photos to follow...All my pots have been gathered up away from the patio and pillars, and are clustered between the hedge and the swimming pool. That's 'grass' they're sitting on. It's what a lawn looks like in the south of France if you're not prepared to use a sprinkler. We have plans for more environmentally sensitive alternatives...

Round at the front fence, built and planted to screen the pool by Ben and the boys this springtime, the cosmos is producing seeds. Elizabethd has a veritable menagerie eating her cosmos seeds up in Brittany, but, try as we might, we're not seeing anything coming to ours...In Somerset, Ben grew up with blackberry season at the same time as his birthday - on Monday this year. Over here, the blackberries are ripe in early July and at their best, so long as they're near water, in mid August. This rather welcome interloper in our garden shows you what they look like now - either shrivelled or gone. It does seem optimistic to still be producing flowers!This is what happened to our poor acacia tree. It does look good with all the lichen though, doesn't it? I feel it's just about ready for a County Living photoshoot, if only we add a wholesome young lady or a few artfully placed berries and gourds...Artfully-placed berries? Country Living photos? Can I have been influenced? Our little downstairs loo is very autumnal in colour, and seeing as the resident fern barely survived the summer, I am building up a display of vintage bottles and berries to match the tiles.The handthrown vase from Ele at a Bit of Pink Heaven sits very snuggly among them all, I think. Tune in tomorrow to see if I have a bit of luck with some French Vintage Apothecary's bottles, by the way. I am not teasing, Liz, I am just in the dark myself - the Troc Shop refused to sell them to me today, because the vendor hadn't set a price! Mustn't think about it too much... Won't sleep...Some of them have hand-written labels, you know...

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Stop! Moving swiftly on, I was inspired to put on this lovely, looks -like-handmade-but-actually-cost-1-euro-in-a-Clare's-Accessories-deal, autumn necklace. Well, I won't be doing any more of THAT kind of shopping for a year!
So there it was, autumn. Today it was 30 degrees and this evening we were so hot and sticky that it wasn't pleasant to touch (it doesn't help having stinky boys, of course).

And on that delicate note, the winner of my two French homes and gardens magazines is Sharie, from Sharie's View to the Hill. Do pop on over and see why these two are going to a good home!

Many little things, by many little people... a Challenge

This is one of my numerous Fair Trade jute bags. I use it to carry all my school books and folders, so it's pretty important to me.

Here's the message:

Many little things,
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by many little people,

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in many little places,

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can turn around the face of the earth.

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Over the couse of last year, the handles got very worn, but the rest of the bag is in reasonable nick. Time for some Make Do and Mend, with canvas I bought about 17 years ago. Never been sure about the colour, but beggars can't be choosers...

So, what's inside? My French teacher's record book - very useful,

and a new (to me) 50 cents folder with a RECUP THEME!!!

There I was at Veti Relais, and they were having a Rentree special, and I got this recup' file with recup' pictures and recup' messages - I was very content. If you need to know what recup' means, do pop over to my definitions post. Look at the buttons! They called to me...

Something else that has called to me recently, but took a bit more thinking about, was dottie angel's challenge to herself and others.

Tif at dottie angel has challenged herself (being one birthday ahead of me) to a 42nd year of thrifty living and creativity. Here are the basic details:
I immediately identified with the idea, but like Tif, wondered if I could pull it off. Or if my husband would find it annoying. Or if my mother would worry about me depriving myself (note to mother - no chance, don't worry!)

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However, the following day was my big tidy-up day (which readers know about). I found myself tidying much used, much cherished things, and also sorting some slightly depressing clutter which it might have been a mistake to buy. The cherishable, useful stuff was all second hand, handmade, fair trade or recup', and the few depressing things were new - bought last year but somehow not having quite worked out the way I'd hoped.

This seemed to be a pointer in the direction of Tif's challenge, and I decided to follow up on the other bloggers who've taken up the challenge. My sweet friends Pomona and Denise have gone for it (in fact, I first found it on Denise's 'other' blog). By reading through their blogs, familiar or new to me, I was inspired by the varied ways that people are interpreting this challenge, and realised that I could make Tif's challenge my own, too.So my challenge to myself is that for one year, from Tif's birthday of 20th September onwards (phew, I never went shopping this week...), all my non-food, non-hygiene, non-stationery (I'm an independent teacher - I have to provide myself with stationery) shopping for myself and the house will be thrifted, hand made or fairly traded, and that I'll recup' anything that's wearing out or has no more use in its current form.

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In some ways this isn't going to change much - most of us, or all of us, who have accepted the challege, already work like that anyway. But there will be little things - I will save time and money by avoiding my 'guilty pleasure' shops Gifi and Casa - these are the French 'cheap but surprisingly nice' homestores, which can surely only achieve their prices by being quite the opposite of Fair Trade. I will delight in my mother's birthday gift of a Country Living Magazine subscription, and not go out and buy others... (except that the French often sell their back copies of good mags second hand by the bundle, woo-hoo!)Our TV, washing machine and a good amount of furniture have already come second hand or free from Toulouse's transient population of overseas inhabitants (often from people sharing out the goodies when they go 'home'). Our dishwasher and cooker were second hand and I recently was given an old glass jug to replace the broken one in our coffee machine. Thus, the essentials of French life can be achieved without going out and buying new. We have a computer crisis looming which may require a bit of new shopping by Ben, but we are also investigating the possibilities of our small town's 'green' computer rehab shop. In an emergency we will buy electrical goods new, but now we've lived here nearly five years we know enough to live almost completely without the highstreet.

This is not meant to be a depressing year. The aim is for a certain shedding of non-essentials, but for a lot of fun and challenge and celebration of all things long-lived and handmade! I think it could be a great year... Will anyone else join us as we have a go at changing the face of the world, one little thing at a time?

That which was lost, is found!

This title could refer to the floor-surfaces of my house, now that I've caught up on housework...Specifically, however, it's about this sweet little pincushion which I bought for 20 cents at Troc.com (the shop, not the website).

I popped into this favourite second hand shop on my way back from Toulouse the other day, and became increasingly disillusioned as I browsed amongst the over-priced, factory-made, modern tat. It was a very bad day for troc, or so I thought.

Just before leaving, I gave a last glance at the bric-a-brac section, and spotted something underpriced, handmade and vintage!

Look at the details on this tiny little pincushion! Do you think it is Native American? It looks like a moccasin, except for the pointy toe.

I had plans for it, next to the little pincushion with plastic birds which Son 2 bought in his 2 Euro Challenge, but I lost it! Ben and I concluded it had fallen off the car seat where I'd left it, and was lost in a carpark somewhere...

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However, Seek and Ye Shall Find, or, more accurately, do a proper tidy-up of clutter and discover it where it fell off the spare room bed when unpacking.

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Thanks for all your kind and supportive comments - believe me, I NEVER overdo it when I do the housework!

Poor Old House

We are feeling better, but after days of boys cutting up paper and leaving lego lying around, a hairy dog and cat, and me feeling sick, the house is rather the worse for wear.

I'm not coming back on the blog until I've fixed it! (And given that I'm at work tomorrow, this could mean Tuesday at the earliest.) Meanwhile, please make do with my pretty pictures from the last few days and this:

I have been lucky enough to follow a link to Lajoni's beautiful blog 'Painting New Memories', where she is having a giveaway of one of her portraits, drawn from a photo you send. Wouldn't that be fantastic to win! Do pop over and see her...

A project for a day indoors

The boys have been ill (le gastro) on and off all week, and it finally hit me in time for the weekend! Sigh... We spent yesterday slobbed in front of the TV and computer, and I resolved that today should be different. My red, white and blue theme means that I need something different to hang in my windows - at the moment I have lovely green leafy garlands made of felt, but something needed to change...

While shopping in Toulouse the other week I saw some excellent garlands of circles, which included recycled paper, but appealing as this was, they were 12 euros each, so I left the shop suffering from the well known 'I could make that at home' syndrome.

Today seemed like the ideal day to turn the idea into reality, so I gathered together some bits and bobs...

... looked through our music collection, finding these beauties on the way...

... with the intention of finding some music I was prepared to cut up - this one will do - apologies to Reading University Choral Society 1988 and Nigel M. Burton.

I tried to get the boys enthused on this project, but they decided on craft projects of their own, mainly for Ben's birthday (28th Sept), so we can't show them here yet! It didn't matter of course, as long as everyone had something to do that didn't involve a screen...

I got a collection of circles together (plastic cups, biscuit cutters and a two euro piece) and started drawing, folding, cutting and sticking.

I had enough red polkadot card for 9 circles, and then I made 9 more out of plain red card with the leftovers of blue polkadot I could find.

In the shop I'd seen similar circles stitched onto parcel ribbon, but I felt I could afford to sew mine onto vintage (rayon - euch) ribbon. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the two magazines from my giveaway already packed up in an envelope ready to post to the lucky winner next Thursday!Here is the result, which which I am quite pleased! Normally, putting something new onto the windows sends me running to clean them, but with the builders still here (note the red and white tape outside) I really can't be bothered until they've gone...While we're on the red, white and blue theme, here is a very lazy cushion which I made out of two bandanas - I didn't realise that this one was an advertising one until I unfolded it at home, but I quite like it!

If I'm not in the mood for advertising, I can always turn it around...Thinking of Sarah, I also picked up this red gingham cushion at the CS the other day. Spot the dog!

Let's end with a restrained red autumnal corner...

We're concentrating on getting well here, while Ben and his brother have a manly (and quite possibly wet) walk in the Pyrenees with Raja! Have a good weekend yourselves!