Fresh Cut Friday with Rose Vignettes

I think I spoke too soon, those gorgeous blue skies are nowhere to be seen today, the rain came back with a vengeance during the night and it's grey and overcast once more.

White hydrangea, pink roses and blue hibiscus

Luckily I picked these colourful blooms from the garden earlier in the week and arranged them quite simply in a Quimper faience vase decorated in the same colours.

The decoration on the vase is known as broderie and is made up of tiny little dots of coloured glaze which are applied to the surface with the aid of a small tool known as a "poire", it's a bit like icing a cake!

Many different designs can be found on broderie pieces, they mimic the elaborate embroideries which we see decorating traditional Breton costumes such as the one that the Bretonne, featured on the front of the vase, is wearing.

The back of the vase is just as decorative.

I find that the coloured glazes contrast beautifully against the dark cobalt blue background.

Joining Liz @ Rose Vignettes for Fresh Cut Friday

 where everything is blooming wonderfully.

Wordless Wednesday - Incy Wincy Spider

It's Wednesday and Wordless................

Click here for more WW

Nothing but blue skies from now on................

Summer has returned to Normandy and blue skies are the norm (!) once again.

For Mary's Mosaic Monday at the little red house and Blue Monday with Smiling Sally a little taster to brighten your day.

If the sight of blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you,
if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.

Eleanora Duse

As some of you will already know Sally has been hospitalised for some weeks now
 but the latest on her blog is that she's doing o.k.

Do pop over for a visit and say hi to Sally's grandaughter Lauren
 who assisted Sally with this week's Blue Monday.

Les Nympheas
Monet

Pink Saturday

How the week has flown by.
It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I sat here with my daylily collage for Mosaic Monday, now here I am on Friday preparing for the weekend ahead and Pink Saturday with Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound.
It's not as if I've been that busy this week, the days have been filled with mundane things such as shopping, housework and gardening.

I did have a mini rant over on my other blog just books yesterday, after I heard about the actor who will, allegedly, bring Jack (no middle name) Reacher to our movie screens this fall.
If you'd like to register your opinion on the matter, click here.
I'd really like to know what you think.

So, what have I got to show you for Pink Saturday this week?

How about a pink cow?
Well, Normandy is famed for it's wonderful cows and dairy industry, so why shouldn't l'Authentique not only have a beautiful creamy white daylily but also a pink metal cow in their garden?

Bon weekend a tout!

Mosaic Monday - Daylily collage

I spotted this beautiful, creamy white daylily in the garden of l'Authentique, a restaurant in our local market town when we had lunch there last week.
Unfortunately I got my shadow in there too, bottom right!
C'est la vie!

Kicking off the week by joining Mary for her Mosaic Monday gathering @the little redhouse with this simple collage and Shakespeares sonnet number 99.

To quote the bard:

The forward violet thus did I chide:

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,

If not from my love's breath? The purple pride

Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells

In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.

The lily I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;

The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,

One blushing shame, another white despair;

A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both,

And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;

But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth

A vengeful canker eat him up to death.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,

But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.

Pink Saturday with Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound

The weekend is almost here and so for Beverly's Pink Saturday party @ How Sweet The Sound I created this pinkalicious mosaic using photographs taken in our own garden and at the Château des Ravalet Flower show which we enjoyed visiting in May 2010.
The bad weather has kept me indoors almost all week.
There have been some dashes out into the garden, between the rain showers, to do bits of weeding and other tidying but mostly we've been housebound.
So, to while away the time, one of the things that I've been doing is sorting through the zillions of photographs stored on my PC
This is always a treat as I often forget just what's in there!

There are isolated T storms forecast for the weekend ahead so I'm glad that I have two new paper back books to read.
Mermaids in The Basement by Michael Lee West and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen, they should keep me quiet!
If you are looking for a good read click here or on the sidebar link to go to my other blog just books.
There you'll find recommendations from myself and other book loving bloggers, I should think that between us there'll be something to suit all tastes.

Most embarrassing snooze, we have a winner!

Cows in the mist.
The view from my bedroom window this morning

Last week on Bastille Day I owned up to the fact that some years ago I fell asleep during a performance of Les Miserables and asked if any of you had fallen asleep somewhere that you shouldn't have.
Several followers were brave enough to share an embarrassing moment with me and I did have to smile when Carol told me that she had fallen asleep in class once and dropped her knitting needle which rolled to the front of the auditorium.
Fennie admitted that she fell asleep during her daughter's graduation ceremony but was awake during her daughter's bit!
Sarah fell asleep in yoga class which I think we can all understand, but then she snored!
Lorrie was lulled to sleep on a tour bus whilst travelling through Europe, but I think that's allowed and Diane and her husband Jack fell asleep watching Mary Poppins at a drive in theatre.

However, Pondside's story made me howl with laughter and I think you'll all agree that she is the worthy winner, of a very small token of my thanks, for sharing the incident with us all.

This is Pondside's most embarrassing snooze....................

When our huge Home Depot first opened The Great Dane was very happy and wanted to visit at every opportunity. One Sunday, on the way home from church he had to 'pick up a little something' from the HD. There was something about the air in the store - the off-gassing, perhaps - but as I waited for him I sat on a stack of carpets, and before I knew it I'd tipped over and fallen asleep. I think everyone we knew walked by and saw me in my Sunday best, sound asleep in the carpet aisle. I was mortified!

Thanks to everyone who joined in, you're all jolly good sports and for those who didn't I hope that you'll click on the above names and go over and get to know the bloggers who did.