A sunny Sunday afternoon in late November...

... Ben and I ate an appropriate 'ploughman's' lunch outside, next to the holes he was digging for our silver birches. I went back to the Vide Grenier, by bike this time, and, sadly, the kind ladies had not been able to find the other kitchen canisters in mum's garage. But they gave me the lids anyway!

After these photos were taken I went into the utility room for a grand clearout - A Thrifty Mrs' 30 Day Declutter was well-served by the sorting of jams and chutneys, the filling of a Charity Shop bag and the removal of a surprising hoard of broken things, stored surely more in hope than in any realistic expectation of further use.Son 1 helped Ben plant the trees in their holes and declared himself delighted that we'd chosen silver birches. He loves them for their strange, crumbly catkins, apparantly! Personally, we love the bark and the movement of the foliage, and are looking forward to eating under them next summer, and seeing the shimmering light and shadow of their leaves coming into our bedroom window on summer mornings.

Vide Grenier- to be continued...

The incredible sunny November weather continues. Ben and I sloped off to pick up some concert tickets this morning (more on that later) and then drove on to the tree nursery, where Ben had ordered three silver birch trees. Here he is, driving off with two of them. The third? Sill in the ground. Monsieur le Digger Driver doesn't work weekends so his little mistake can't be rectified yet. But digging three holes and planting two trees is going to keep Ben plenty busy, so we can wait for the third!Ben dropped me off in a neighbouring town, which is holding its pre-Christmas Vide Grenier and craft fair in the unseasonal warmth. It's a real biggie, with brocante stalls, Other Peoples' Tat, food stalls and an assortment of weird cheap things vendors think we might want before Christmas. These severed heads are advertising Hairigami. I dunno...

But spot the cute doggie in his hand-knitted vest? I was reminded of Happy Loves Rosie's little chap. This little toutou didn't think he needed a knitted vest at 17°C:His owners took it off him when they saw how uncomfortable he was.

I wandered around, dispirited by the prices on the brocante stalls (although in fact they're worth looking at just for ideas and sheer pleasure), and keeping an eye out for 'mum and dad selling off granny's junk' stalls.

So here are the finds, winkled out of 'Other Peoples' Tat' - you've got to be patient and in the right mood! The green choolate bowl on the left for 20c.

A bunch of vintage-kitch Christmas cake decorations - I was attracted by the way they are different to British ones, especially in the prevalence of saws. 'For the buche du noël!' confirmed the stall-holder. I had to have me one.

The stall-holders of that stall were the kind of people who make Vide Greniers even better. Sometimes I feel a bit stupid for being second-language French, but these two retired couples (selling granny's stuff?..) were great fun! The men had worked for Airbus, the huge employer of most Toulousains, and knew England (if not English) in terms of the Farnborough Airshow. They have a trip to London booked for next weekend: 'For the Christmas Market. Is London famous for its Christmas market?' (Um, no, that's Germany...) But I think they'll enjoy themselves. I found 25p in their box of odds and ends, and gave it to them for spending money! They asked what it would buy and I was stumped.

And here is the To Be Continued part. Another cheerful pair of retirees was selling maman's stuff, and had somehow managed to bring part, but not all, of the set above. After muttered searches through all their boxes, they concluded that they had left the largest canister and probably one lid in maman's garage. They will be back at the Vide Grenier tommorow - I am to come and find them: 'We'll wear the same clothes, so we'll look the same - and smell worse - so you can recognise us!' they assured me. 'If we don't find the missing pieces, we'll give you a refund!'

A suivre...

Beaujolais nouveau

What a superb tradition!

A Rosy Glow

There seems to have been a rosy glow over the last seven days - late autumn sun allowing a lingering stroll around last Friday's tree fair, the chance for me and Ben to go out for a meal together (perhaps the first one in over a year, we think) and lots of games with the boys, gardening and, in my case, enjoyable teaching.One of the best pieces of news is that Son 1 will be allowed to take his laptop computer into school from next Monday. His teachers were wonderful - the Head invited them to give their opinions, and one after another they spoke about what a good student Son 1 is (pride, pride!) and how this relatively small problem with handwriting shouldn't be allowed to turn into a big barrier for his education. Once again, it shows how a few dedicated teachers are more important than any number of official documents! Wonderful people. A rosy glow over the week...
I rather like the way the jumble of stuff on our shelves outside the front door reflects the way the seasons here are merging. We have birds' nests collected when hedge-trimming after last spring, and bulbs the boys planted in church youth group, waiting hopefully for next spring! We have squashes from the garden representing the autumn harvest, and (real) ivy and (fake) berries welcoming the coming winter. The big lotus seedheads remind us of our family visits to summer gardens over the last few years and the metal basket reminds me of the good friend who gave it to me. Family, friends; spring, summer, autumn, winter; harvest and sowing. A providential placement of bits and bobs!

A Wintery Find

At the springtime Troc Broc Solde I found this wonderful piece of jewellery: I promptly put it away because it felt all wrong for the season, but suddenly, it feels All Right!

I wonder if any of our jewellery makers out there could tell me anything about what metal it's made from, or even if the little stone is stone or glass? I'm not coming up with much from my traditional Google 'research'.

It's really quite big - about 20cm across. I wore it to the Tree Market on Friday and it felt very appropriate.

I've photographed it on the other side of my Welsh tapestry blanket, because I realised I never showed you the famous inverse pattern for which these blankets are admired. I've discovered this particular pattern is known as Caernafon, which is the town where my grandpa was born! I really am pleased to be getting to know more about it.

There are lots of bloggers signed up for our annual Pause in Advent. It would be great if you wanted to get involved - please click on the logo in my sidebar to leave your comment!

Join us for a Pause in Advent 2011

For the last two years it's been fantastic to join with bloggers around the world in taking a weekly break from the pressure and whirl of Christmas preparation. We've called the event A Pause in Advent, and the aim is to take some time out from the build-up and to share what is really important to us as Christmas approaches.This is what I wrote the first year, and I think it still fits now:

"We are getting together to share thoughts, traditions, ideas, crafts and experiences relating to Advent and the preparation for Christmas. Some of us follow very old traditions or have very established beliefs, whilst many of us are combining the old with the new, learning and growing as we go along…"

It would be lovely if you'd like to join us in posting on Sundays or Mondays in Advent. Anything goes, and you don't need to apologise if you miss a week (or more). Have a look through my previous Advent posts (they should be listed in the linky do-dah below) if you want to learn more, and leave a comment here if you'd like to join in this year!

PS Forgot to say - please do take this photo and use it in your own blog sidebar or your posts with a link!

PPS A few random-ish previous Advent posts to give you some ideas:
mine
Lyn's
Vicki's!

November

It's still incredibly warm and sunny here, on the whole. This holiday weekend has been a fantastic one so far. Ben and I went to a nearby town for their tree festival - it's the season to buy bare-rooted trees. To our amazement we found a Bramley tree! I really hope we manage to keep it alive and get it fruiting, as you can't buy British cooking apples in France. I'm keeping things pretty simple with the calendar displays at the moment, but I was inspired by the rosy November page on Nicki's calendar! Life feels rosy in the November sunshine.

Yes, the berries are fake. I can make an exception for berries, for some reason.

Can you spot next year's calendar behind this one? I've decided to go for something a bit different, which I hope will be a really good inspiration for our Thrill of the Old monthly posts. It's vintage and it's Scottish... tune in next year!In other news, Son 1 is pictured here pouring over a book of Mazes, hand-drawn by a fantastic young man from Australia! His mum has sent me and my Cullercoats friend Rob a copy of this incredible book - I need to tell you more about it, but for now, I'm just showing this as a Thank You!

Son 2 is spending time in the sunshine (and in the dark evenings too, actually) out on the window ledge....He's set up his snail farm again!They love a good 'rainfall' and so does he!

"Sapristi!"

Don't you know that word? I'll translate it for you: apparantly, it means "Great Snakes!"

And "Mille million de mille sabords" translates as "Billions of blue blistering barnacles"!

Or that's what my bilingual Tintin scholars tell me. They really enjoyed the film.

The Welsh Connection

To my stunned surprise, I own something which is On Trend.It's a memory from my childhood which made its way over to France in a rather weighty suitcase...It has one hole (moths cannot be blamed - think little fingers, I fear, although from which generation I know not...)

And BBC Homes and Antiques tells me it's a 'Covetable Antique'! Oh la la!

It's a Welsh tapestry blanket. They are still made (I got rather excited when I saw Jane C's post about a new Melin Tregwynt blanket in just the same colours).

But of the old Welsh blankets, these 'tapestry' designs (they're actually woven, rather than stitched, so it's a misnomer) seem to be the most desirable.What a super picture. If you want something like the one below I found a more affordable version here - now sold but there are lots of interesting ebay links.

This is the label on mine.Derw woollen mills closed in 1981 but I always presumed this one came from the 1960s. Now I look at the pictures and read the article it seems that it might be a bit earlier - maybe even from someone following Welsh tradition in giving a blanket to my grandparents when they got married in the 1930s.

For now it's in full 'gloating' position on our balcony. And, looking at the prices, I'm keeping it away from little fingers from now on!

Blankets do seem to be a feature of my posts right now! As Lakota cleverly noticed, the blanket I snuggled up in yesterday was made by our talented (but not price-wise) French charity shop lady. And our Selfsewn friend commented on the wonderful, wonderful patchwork (even though it's quite the opposite of 'fussy') - it's the one from Reunion which I bought this May. It's great fun to have such observant comments - thanks for keeping in touch, friends.

Elmer bed

We have an Elmer bed at the moment!

Even on a grey day, with no particular tidying-up,

it's awfully cosy!