Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to those passing by who celebrate. Happy Thanksgiving to those who don’t too. I’m sure we all have at least one little thing to be thankful for – have a think about it.

I’m busy preparing for a visit from MIL. She’s coming tomorrow for nearly a week. As Dom isn’t here she’ll be sleeping in her room, normally she sleeps in the living room, so this time she’ll have some privacy. I have to go and collect her from the airport tomorrow evening.

I’m the 50 something lady who always stops just too far away to get the ticket into the machine at the car park barrier. I’m sure you’ve seen me all over the world.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A true star

Visitor number 40,000 came via Google and was looking for Patchwork Stars! Thank you to everyone who contibuted to all of the other 39,999 visits.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Unconscious Mutterings

  1. Toasty :: When I was a child we'd make toast on the open fire in the winter, with lots of butter mmmmm.

  2. Allegations :: accused

  3. Herb :: cookery

  4. Bacon :: and eggs

  5. Neck to neck :: equal

  6. Simon :: Garfunkel

  7. Heels :: feet

  8. Fundamentals :: basics

  9. Middle :: average

  10. Seasonings :: peppercorns



If you'd like to play

Special Saturday

Yesterday was a very good day for me. It started off with my visit to the post office to post off postcards to customers and then collect the post (a lot of ‘posts’ in that sentence – sorry). I had a surprise package with very beautiful handwriting indeed! When I got home and opened it up it was a letter from Keith plus a book on “Good Handwriting” which he had used more than half a century ago in the past to improve his handwriting. And it wasn’t even my birthday. Thank you Keith!

The day went well too.

In the evening as the sun was going down, Rob and I went for our usual walk to the sea and witnessed a really beautiful sunset. The sea was calm and reflected the red of the sky. The water on the marsh was blood red. It was really cold and the sky was clear. We kicked ourselves for not having a camera with is. We often have lovely sunsets but that one was exceptional.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Excitement in our street

The man across the road sometimes has a bonfire of cuttings from his garden. This week he chose a dry day without wind, perfect for the job. I saw the bonfire start to burn and wondered into another room. Olivier joked that I wouldn’t be much use if he set fire to himself. (he has a strange sense of humour at the moment)

A few minutes later I could see very bright flames indeed through the yellow glass of the front door. One of his tall trees had caught fire. It was very spectacular. Rob went out and asked if he should call the fire brigade, but the man didn’t seem too worried.

I now have the view of a giant stick of charcoal from the kitchen window.

Excitement in our street

The man across the road sometimes has a bonfire of cuttings from his garden. This week he chose a dry day without wind, perfect for the job. I saw the bonfire start to burn and wondered into another room. Olivier joked that I wouldn’t be much use if he set fire to himself. (he has a strange sense of humour at the moment)

A few minutes later I could see very bright flames indeed through the yellow glass of the front door. One of his tall trees had caught fire. It was very spectacular. Rob went out and asked if he should call the fire brigade, but the man didn’t seem too worried.

I now have the view of a giant stick of charcoal from the kitchen window.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Biting the bullet

Like a lot of people I put off going to the dentist for as long as possible. Having put two children through the ordeal of wearing braces for several years, dentist waiting rooms are not my idea of fun places to hang out. You can imagine how shocked I was this week to discover that it’s two and a half years since I had a check up.

A lot of cleaning up needed to be done as my teeth are squashed together but I didn’t need any treatment!

Enjoy what you're doing and get paid

I think most people who visit this blog regularly will realise that I also try to make a little money on the side. blog advertising is a way of earning money for bloggers which seems to be increasing in popularity. It can also serve to increase search engine ratings as you add links to your posts.

I’ve recently joined up with Smarty and have already written one or two reviews for them. Smarty ask for blog posts between 150 and 400 words, which isn’t too much if you’re writing on some of the interesting proposals which can come your way. You are provided with a home page where you can see offers suitable for your blog. So far there has always been something there for me. If you accept an offer you have 3 days to submit your post. All of the instructions and rules are clearly explained. The best part is that you can get paid for blogging once a week.

19 years old today

Happy Birthday Dom !

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bad news week

Recently we cancelled the local paper as ‘nothing ever happens around here’ and we didn’t have time to read it anyway. Last week there was a house fire in the village and a lady living on her own has been made homeless. She’s been helped by our friends at the campsite who have installed her in one of their cabins. We walk a lot but the burned down house doesn’t appear to be in the parts of the village where we go. Olivier doesn’t know where it is either.

The second piece of news was very sad. For around twenty years a homeless lady, Marie-Ange, has been more or less camped outside the smallest department store in la Rochelle. The story goes that she used to work at the store and her boyfriend /husband would meet her everyday after work. One day he stopped coming and she started to drink and I presume lost her job and spent her time waiting for him. This week she wasn’t asleep outside the store she was dead.

La Rochelle is a town where there are a lot of big houses and wealthy people and it’s considered very chic to live here. There is another side to life…

Friday, November 09, 2007

Not much going on...

I really haven’t felt like writing much recently. Nothing much has been going on, Dom went back to Poitiers on Sunday and Olivier went back to lycée yesterday. Rob and I have been really busy with the postcards, we don’t have time for much else.

Do you remember I mentioned breast cancer in my post about my visit to the Swedish Chef? I was talking to Dom about what he said and she told me that it was something she was worried about. When she was 5 or 6 years old (she'll be 19 next week) someone came to the house and asked us to sign a petition against extending the airport. One of the things he said (in front of the children) was that because of aviation pollution more girls would have breast cancer when they grew up. It stayed in Dom’s memory and I remember him saying it too. I hope what I told her the other day reassures her.

I did find something to say after all.

Friday, November 02, 2007

November

I was looking up what to write about November from my ‘Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady’ and I discovered that November 11th used to be the date regarded as the beginning of winter.

‘If there’s ice in November that will bear a duck,
There’ll be nothing after, but sludge and muck.’


If we get any frost here at all officially it’s not until after the November 15th . The first year we moved here snow got into the roof. We discovered that it doesn’t officially snow here and builders weren’t obliged to put in any protection; the regulations were changed the year after.