Renard the Fox

Whilst sat quietly surfing scrappin web sites this afternoon imagine my surprise when my DH (Roger to you) came flying out of the library where he had happily been watching football to yell "There's a fox in the garden"!

After several minutes of squinting through the windows we caught another glimpse of him as he slid gracefully through the shrubbery and into the field next door.

This is a first in 12 years, we have never seen a fox before, I only hope he stays away from the pond as the moorhens are a little vulnerable at present. Everything is frozen over and they are very wary of the ice.

Stay tuned for further sightings of Monsieur Renard.

Happy New Year

We had a very enjoyable Christmas here at the Presbytere. Good food, good wine & great company. Just Roger & me & the chaps!!
On Christmas Day we attempted our annual beach walk, not another soul in sight probably because of the bitterly cold wind, but Miz Bess wasn't up to it so we turned back early.
She was fine a couple of days later when we walked through the Forest at Cerisy, the chaps always enjoy that walk.
We've spent a couple of lazy days in front of a log fire catching up on our reading & snoozing, sometimes managing to do both at once, and generally recharging batteries.
It's been a good time to flick through gardening books and think about vegetables to try in the potager come spring.
No snow for us this year but several mornings there has been a hard frost and frozen garden ponds to wake up to. The resident moorhens have abandoned the garden and decamped to another small pond at the end of the drive, they still come up to the house to be fed though! I didn't raise no dumb moorhens!!
2009 didn't start with fireworks (we're rather more sedate these days) but I have a good feeling about the year, despite the state of the world economy, and (fingers crossed) there are some good times ahead to look forward to.

Putting the potager to sleep

Well, it's almost Christmas and one of the last chores to do before the holidays begin was to batten down the hatches so to speak in the potager. All that is left in there growing are some herbs and 4 celeriac plants which we will surely finish off soon.
S the G has done a great job of covering the beds with thick black plastic sheeting to keep the soil warmish and keep the weeds to a minimum.
Fingers crossed, when the weather starts to warm up next Spring, we will have a good start for the new plantings.
I have enjoyed working in and eating from the potager so much more this year than ever before, due mostly to the new layout and the fact that S the G has been around to do the nasty heavy stuff.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Discovering Smilebox

Early in October I began to scrap book a memory book for my sister Kathryn's 40th Birthday.
It was a very steep learning curve but so much fun.
Yesterday I discovered smilebox, what a treat! It's about to take my creations to a whole other level.
Watch this space for more postings from smilebox, meanwhile check out the first one that I made as a souvenir of my Lancaster County trip in October, with my great pal Diane.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Where did the time go?

I cannot believe that it has been over 2 months since last I blogged!!

What have I been doing you might well ask?

Well..................

In September I flew to the States to visit friends in Dallas, TX for a few days before travelling with them to Philadelphia for the Quimper Club International's annual meeting. The photo is of several fellow Quimper nuts outside the Betsy Ross House (she of the first flag) in Philly.

We all had a great time, the organisers did a fabulous job of arranging tours & museum visits and I saw more original artwork there than I have ever seen in my life before.

Afterwards my friend Diane & I had a mini adventure in Lancaster County, PA visiting with an Amish family and generally having a great time.