Reality Shot Thursday.

Autumn is a wonderful season, full of mellow fruitfullness.

Early mornings are crisp and clear, the sun sits low in the sky

 and the trees cast beautiful shadows across the grass.

We love to be outdoors in the garden at this time of the year but

 clearing leaves, acorns and horse chestnuts off the lawns is not a job we enjoy!

Hidden away in three of the four corners of the back garden are our compost heaps,

 out of sight but sadly not out of mind.

This is the reality of being the present caretakers of

 venerable silver birch, ancient oak,

 massive horse chestnut and stately sycamore trees.

Joining Claudia for Reality Shot Thursday #4.

a new but fun weekly gathering

 where those of us brave or silly enough

share the less than glamorous side of daily life.

Click on the link or sidebar button to participate.

Go on I dare you!

Also linking to The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sundays gathering this weekend.

White Pumpkin Vignette.

One of my favourite blogs to visit is The Tablescaper.
She has such wonderful ideas, not to mention the china, pottery, accessories, linens and silverware collections that she owns.
Well, I guess the clue is in the name of the blog!
Although I personally don't "tablescape" (is that a verb?) I often find inspiration there for ways to decorate our home, especally at this time of year - Autumn.
A recent post featured a collection of gorgeous white pumpkins and brown ceramics, you can see it by clicking here.
Suitably inspired, I went "shopping", through my home, to create a fall vignette for the top of the wood burning stove in the sitting room.

I gathered together a large faux white pumpkin (TJ Maxx 2009), a white ceramic cake stand, rattan tablemat and faux fall wreath (Michaels 2009).

I added a tall lantern (a recent purchase from La Redoute), which I placed on a couple of hardback books for extra height, before lighting the "Cashmere" candle inside.
Then for added interest and texture, a log which I unearthed from the outdoor wood pile, "enhanced" with real horse chestnuts from the garden.

I really like how it evolved, however the chimney sweep called by the house on Friday morning to clear away any debris which might be blocking said chimney.
Soon there will be wonderful log fires to sit beside, with tea and books, so I think I'd better find a safer place to relocate this vignette to, very soon.

Joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

and

Marty @ A Stroll Through Life for Tabletop Tuesday # 86

click on the links or sidebar buttons

 to see who else is particpating this week.

Pink Saturday in October!

Although it's officially Autumn and the Virginia creeper on the house is beginning to change colour from green to burgundy, there are still plenty of roses in my garden.

So, I'm sending you all a little piece of pink, from Normandy, to celebrate the first day of October!

Joining Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound and her wonderful Pink Saturday party

click on the link to see more beautiful pinkness from around the globe.

Blogging again and having fun with friends!

Such a lot has been happening since my last post almost 2 weeks ago that I'm only now able to catch my breath.
I'll be posting about where we went and what we got up to during our wonderful break back "home" in the UK very soon, but first I want to share with you the two visits which we have had since our return.
On Wednesday my very good blogging friend Jenny, & her husband Enno, (Two Tumbleweeds) from Holland came for tea.
It was the first time we had met face to face but you would never have known it, as we hit it off right from the start.

Jenny & Enno
just two tumbleweeds!

Jenny & Enno are both talented artists click here to go to Jenny's new painting blog.
The Senior Partner and I were thrilled when Jenny presented us with one of her artworks which she had painted during their time spent close to Monet's Garden at Giverny.

We spent a lovely afternoon together chatting over tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

As they left Jenny told me that she felt we could be related, well, all I know is that we're family now!
On Thursday afternoon my dear friend Sarah (aka Hyacinths For The Soul) and her husband Mr HFTS came to stay for the weekend.

Sarah, Mr Ben & me

Sarah and I met over 10 years ago, through our love of Quimper pottery, at the Quimper Club meeting in Washington, DC and have met almost every year, since then, at the same annual event.

Monogrammed napkins from Roundtop,
gingerbread from Dijon & graines de moutarde de Bourgogne,
French nougat, quince,thyme & rosemary preserves,
 and
pretty notecards

Mr B & I were in the UK whilst the club was meeting this year in Brittany but Sarah soon brought me up to date on all the latest Q news and I felt as if I'd almost been there myself!
She also brought delightful gifts for us both, we did feel spoilt.

Hyacinth in Bayeux!

Sarah & I drove to Bayeux on Friday for a little flea marketing, a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry and the Cathedral, followed by crepes for lunch.
If that girl lived here we could get up to all sorts of mischief!

experiencing my local epicerie

The "husbands" were happy to sit in the sunshine and have lunch in the garden putting the world to rights, until Sarah & I arrived home with one or two "treasures" found at the Depot Vente.

Hidden in a pile of plates I discovered this special piece. Number 50 of 300.
It was produced in 1990 to celebrate the "Trois siècles de faïences", Keraluc, Quimper.

The price?
 Just 2€ -  the thriftiest find I've ever had!

Joining Bunny Hop Wednesday at Bunny Jeans Decor & More

 French Inspiration Thursday @ The French Cupboard
and

Vintage Thingies Thursday with the Colorado Lady

Click on the links to see who else is participating in these great meme's this week.

The last Pink Saturday of summer.

Another week has flown by, another week of thunder and rain, soggy vegetables in an even soggier potager and the sound of falling leaves.

But the sun did peek through from time to time and as these photographs taken on Thursday afternoon reveal there is still plenty of pink to be found in the garden.

The hydrangeas which have really brought the garden to life this year with their bright pink blooms are fading now but still beautiful.
The roses climbing up the house and garden walls and the standard roses in the flower beds are giving us one last hurrah!

Fleur is ten months old now and loves nothing more than to chase Ben our cocker spaniel around the garden, which is what they were doing whilst I took the photographs, hence the pink tongues!
The hardy fuschia has bloomed profusely all summer long despite being invaded by a climbing nasturtium or two.

Joining Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound

for the last Pink Saturday of summer.

Click on the link to join in.

What a surprise!

Every morning whilst sitting up in bed drinking tea I like to gaze out of the bedroom windows at the surrounding countryside.
There are usually at least three or four Normandie heifers in my line of sight. The field next door is home every year to a small herd of 11 of them.
A heifer in case you didn't already know is a female bovine between 2 and 4 years of age who hasn't yet given birth to a calf. Then she's a cow.
So you can imagine my delight not to mention shock, on Friday, when I spied this little chap running across the meadow.

All that chasing soon tired him/her out and so it was time to head back to mum for a rest.

Later that day we caught up with the farmer who owns the heifers and asked him about the calf.
"C'est une erreur"! he said.

It seems one young heifer met up with a neighbours taureau, quite unchaperoned, and this little guy only 3 days old, was the result of their romance.

After rounding up the rest of the herd the farmer with his wife and sons caught up with the mum and her little one, loaded them into the trailer and took them up to the farmyard to be better cared for.

Au revoir Tinkerbell! (it may be daft but that's the name I gave the calf as soon as I saw it flitting around the field!).

Joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays #62

with this bucolic tale from rural Normandy.

The foyer/entry/hall back-story - circa 1997.

Last week I really enjoyed taking part in the Room By Room party, hosted by cottage and vine, with photographs of the hall here at the Presbytère.

You left me some very nice comments, merci!

After reading some of them the Senior Partner was overheard to mumble "if only they'd seen what it looked like when we moved in"!
Click here if you missed the "after" post.

So I thought it might be fun to show you what the hall did look like all those years go, in 1997, before and during the major house renovation.
We'll call this the "before" post.
I went through all the photographs that we took to document the work done and scanned them into my PC.
Those of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away NOW!

The original, white painted, front doors -  notice there's no lock or door handle.

The staircase and walls were clad in cheap boards and beading. The previous owner removed the wall and ceiling lights, when it went dark each evening we switched on torches to find our way about the house.

This is Sam one of the builders mates.

It was very dirty work getting them off and the walls beneath were in a dreadful state.

Can you see the loops of electrical wire just hanging down?

These wires were taped together and led from the junction box on the landing to the wall lights - very dangerous.

The entire house needed to be rewired. The wall was replastered where needed and battened for the new plasterboards.

The staircase was rotted through in places, serious restoration was called for.

With work going on in virtualy every room of the house simultaneously, tools and implements, not to mention, other things too, came to rest in very strange places!

What was stashed in the hall depended very much on what was happening in the rooms either side!

The underneath of the cantilevered staircase, which rises up through the centre of the house to my attic craft room in the eaves, had to be rebuilt and replastered.

Starting to look a lot better!

Walls plastered and painted, new central heating radiator (1 of 17) installed.

Mr. J Ribet, Artisan.

Jacques is adding the extra finishing touches. Bespoke plaster moulding for baseboards; dado; ceiling coving and interior doorways.

Finally the big day came, new doors!

The new outside lamps had been installed just a few days before.

There may well be bare wires and lightbulbs hanging from the walls but hey, the new doors are on!

Walls finally painted in pale yellow shades (tick), artwork and mirror hung (tick), new rugs and stair carpet laid (tick), 18th century original handmade terracotta floor cleaned and repolished (tick). Chandelier had yet to be sourced!

It took us almost 2 years to renovate this old house. During that time we had about thirty artisans working here, some of them practically living with us every day.

Builders; electricians; tilers; plumbers; master carpenters; plasterers; gardeners and tree surgeons.

I made what seemed like thousands of teas and coffees, the kettle was always on.

Two years ago we finally finished the restoration when we had the house completely reroofed.

Click here to see some more about that adventure!

Hope you've enjoyed the "before" post, it's been fun looking back at what we went through and maybe I'll do it again after next month's Room By Room party?

Linking this post to Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday party @ Common Ground,

 I always find great decorating ideas there.

Pink Saturday

Inspiration for Beverly's Pink Saturday party this week

came from some pretty pinks

which make my craft room/sanctuary/attic bolt hole

one of my favourite places to be.

Pink scrapbook pages,
 Pink Daytimer (love it!),
 Pink Roses from the scrapbook
 and Pink Radley dust bags and boxes.

I didn't take part in last weeks Pink Saturday but I visited quite a few of those bloggers who did.

One blog which was new to me is Raindrops and Daisies.

It caught my eye because of the doggy thumbnail pic and the title Pink Tongue!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm a sucker for pooches, so how could I not click through?

When I visited the blog I discovered that a Mr Ben lookalike lives there!

Poor old Oscar broke his leg when he jumped over a wall and landed on some ice, he's been back and forth to the vets ever since.

Hope you're feeling better now Oscar.

This weekend Pink Saturday is participating in
The Miracle Makeover Weekend
Click here or on the sidebar button to find out how you can play a part in
Charlie's Miracle Makeover.

Bon weekend a tout.

Room By Room with cottage and vine

Rene @cottage and vine has launched a new monthly party this week

 which will feature our homes "Room By Room".

Do please come on in.

The first party is taking a look at entrys/foyers, or what we Brits would call "the hall".

Because the hall here at the Presbytère is a T shape with the staircase going up on the left and doors leading off left to the dining room, right to the library and at the back into the cloakroom, there isn't room for too much furniture.

The ornately carved chest of drawers and the mirror above are permanent residents. I change the objects on top regularly to suit the seasons.

I have a large pewter collection which is usually only displayed during the autumn and winter months but some pieces I love more than others and keep them out year round, such as the bowl, jug and plate.

The clock and the chair are mainstays of the entry way decor too, the plant in it's blue and white delft jardiniere tends to wander from room to room, again depending on the season.

The antique oak captains chair was a gift from friends many years ago, the quilted cushions are vintage and came from an antique fair in Maine.

Some architectural details

A view of the garden through the double front doors

Thanks for taking my Open House Tour,

 I hope you enjoyed your visit,

and thanks too, to Rene for hosting Room By Room.

Click here or on the sidebar button to take more house tours .

Linking this post also to
Bunny Jean's Wednesday Bunny Hop
a new weekly meme.