I WON A PRIZE!!

Today my prize arrived from Tracey over at www.tcalamity.blogspot.com she runs a lovely little blog with her day to day stories of her home and garden, her beautiful daughters and her homemade crafts, she really is clever. Drop by and have a nosey and leave her a comment. As for the prize I have just the place for them, my daughters room is nearing completion as part of our huge renovation here in France so I am going to use them to decorate her wardrobe doors. Thanks Tracey I love them!!

My Favourite Journey

My least favourite place is the DIY store, our nearest is Auxerre and is about 40 minutes from here, however the road we take to get there is worth travelling along just for the view. It is a very hilly journey and as you wind your way along you are surrounded by grapevines as far as the eye can see all producing grapes for the famous Chablis wine. The nearer we get to Chablis the more stunning the views become, we decided to stop at one of the many picnic places along the way and take these pictures. I think you'll agree it was worth the stop.

From Little Acorns "Oaks grow"

Well maybe not oaks, just a modest veg plot. I have finally cleared the ground next to the carpark and squeezed in four raised beds to try my hand at eating what I grow. I have for 3 years watched my neighbours here in France reaping the rewards of their hardwork, and secretly felt jealous as they walk past my gate with arms full of produce from their allotments. Often they would leave us a parcel of goodies like strawberries, cherries and courgettes. But now its my turn. It's early days but hopefully I should get something in return for the backache I have at the moment. So watch this space, appearing in a garden in Burgundy soon will be cabbage, broccolli, french beans and carrots to name but a few! Well fingers crossed. (That's GREEN fingers of course)

Happy Bithday To me

A few posts ago I intoduced you all to Bill my wooden waiter, it is my birthday today and he who thinks he must be obeyed brought me this. I think Bill's expression has changed and there is a glint in his eye this morning once he realised she is here to stay. I think she is an old advertising model as her finger tips are flat so that she can hold a tray or something. She is about 3ft something tall and quite heavy, I couldn't find anything on the net about her so any ideas from my blogger friends will be most welcome. I think I will call her Saucy Sue no prizes for guessing why. She really is a cheeky gal.

The Gang

Meet my gang, we are about a dozen strong and have been thrown together by circumstance. We have all taken the plunge and moved our families from England for a better life here in Burgundy, our group grows and shrinks with various people coming and going throughout the year. Most of us live here permantly but a couple of us travel to and fro for high days and holidays. Tony and Racheal have been our friends the longest and Tony has helped so much with our renovation running hundreds of barrows of cement , scaling the roof in zero temperatures, lifting things with Paul that I couldn't even begin to move, his wife Racheal is known to some of you as a fellow blogger you can visit her over at http://www.milesawayinfrance.blogspot.com/she writes a brilliant blog and don't forget to visit her etsy shop she makes some lovely things. Sue and Barry are renovating a very pretty french cottage with the help of their son, Barry remains in England most of the time running the business and Sue stays here with her son overseeing the project, I can't wait for her to be here full-time, we hit it off as soon as we met and have become firm friends. Paul and Julie run an estate agency here selling all you lovely people over there in England a slice of the dream here in Burgundy their website is http://www.burgundy4u.com/ So if you are feeling the urge to upsticks give them a call and they will be able to help you. Greg and Louise are my maddest friends they both have huge personalities and even huger hearts, they are always at the end of the phone when you need help and nothing is to much bother, true friends. I couldn't have chosen a better group of friends if I had tried, I think the bond is that all our goals are similar, our problems are very much the same so we all no how each other are feeling. Moving away and starting a completely new life is exciting but there are always downs as well as ups and as we are all in the same boat we seem to hit it off very well. We get together every so often for various events, this Saturday we had a fondu, in the past we have had curry nights, quiz nights a pink party and several BBq's all these functions are a welcome break from renovating and it gives us all a chance to let our hair down and relax. So that is my gang, there is nothing like good friends

Wacky Races

Nothing surprises me anymore, here I am in a village miles from anywhere, minding my own business when my peace is interrupted. I was awoken by what I thought were boy racers screeching through our village at some ungodly hour. I lookes at the clock, 2 o'clock in the morning!! so I get up and look out of the window to my surprise racing through our village were all manor of different racing cars with their big bold numbers on the sides. I can tell you although it woke me at silly o'clock I breathed a sigh of relief that hooligans hadn't arrived in my sleepy corner of the world. This was one of the main reasons we left our pretty little cottage in england late night noise and problems. So I smiled to myself, pulled on my dressing gown and went downstairs for a cuppa, there was no point trying to sleep with all this going on. So I ended up on the sofa watching early hours tv until I drifted back off to sleep. I can't help thinking what a shame it wasn't during the day we could have cheered them all on as they went by. Oh well back to normal today, you never know something else exciting might happen today, the last event here that caused even a slight stir was our neighbours cows escaped and we watched with amusement as he tried to round them up in the pouring rain. I know you are all probably thinking I am having far too much fun out here in france but hey the quiet times here are the best.

Before and After

BEFORE!!
This sorry specimen was in a friend's barn and when they decided to move house they were going to throw it away, wait I said that would look nice in my new bathroom and so it became mine. Much to their relief I'm sure. I think they thought I was mad and for those of you that know me, they are probably right. Anyway it arrived at our barn here in France and it looked no better then when I first spied it. The rest of the bathroom here in the barn is made of reclaimed this and thats apart from the loo, which we brought new.



AFTER!!!
Well look at me now, a quick rub down and a few coats of paint and I'm ready to join my new friends in the bathroom. My friends were quite shocked when they saw the results, so now I've got the bug and anything rusty and cast aside should watch out as I could just be round the corner lurking with my paints and brushes.