D day....it`s all happening.....

It is full steam ahead here for the D Day celebrations.....I will try and keep you posted with the events but it is all a bit of a whirlwind!

A few pictures from today.....

My daughter Miss Frou Frou doing the 1940s style perfectly....

There is so much hairspray on those victory rolls that her head could be classed as a dangerous weapon!!

I myself went for the land girl utilty Hilda Ogden look....

Can you see the similarity?

This weekend I shall be doing a Hilda Baker look......I shall reveal all later ( well not all!!)

A la prochaine mes belles
xxx

Actually this post has sat here for a day or so as I didn`t get time to finish it......but as the weekend has progressed here are a few more pictures.....Frou Frou has her friend from the UK here...Miss La La Bingham and to say the least Frou frou and La La have been greatly in demand for photo calls!!

And later today a ceremony at a local chateau....this evening a Liberation party....

A la prochaine once again!
xxx

3am and a bare derriere....

3am Sunday morning saw me out in the lane in front of the 'chateau' with a torch wearing my gardening crocs - and sporting a bare derriere! And here's why.......

Sir Digbert Fanshaw Brownshaw has always followed us up to bed when we head for the stairs. Always, always, without fail; it has been the same for the last twelve years.

A couple of nights ago around about 11am and just as we reached the top of the stairs heading for bed Digger ( who had followed us as usual up the stairs to the landing)  suddenly turned around and shot back down them again like a rocket and dashed out into  the garden through the cat ( and dog ) flap.

I just assumed he had heard something in the garden and would soon return. I waited and waited. I knew I wouldn't  sleep until he was back , so I  just waited some more. 

After waiting about half an hour later I grabbed a torch and the nearest thing I could find to wear and headed for the garden. The couture item I had chosen for my late night catwalk sashay ?   A fleecy throw which has sleeves for lounging  about in during the Winter!

I called and called for him but there was no response until, after about 10 minutes searching in the pitch black, I found Diggers sitting in the lane with Charles, who was on his usual 'night patrol'!

I have suspected for some time that Digger may be going deaf so I made sure he saw me and encouraged him to follow me home. He trotted along behind me and then at the last minute as we arrived at the chateau steps the darted off again into the garden!

I went back to bed and waited for him to come up again. After what seemed a lifetime  I was getting quite frantic so 3am saw Mark in his dressing gown and slippers and me in my sleevy blanket (together with  naked derriere ) out searching again. There was almost a full moon that night - but not in the sky!!

This time there was no sign of him at all and we both shouted and whistled walking along the lane and back and forth into the garden by torchlight.

Had he got stuck down a fox hole?  Was he lost?  Was he injured ? My mind was working overtime and I was beginning to panic. He has never not answered to a call before and has never gone missing.

As a last resort Mark went back inside the house to check he hadn't crept in -  and found Diggers fast asleep in the cat`s bed!!!!

When I woke him he seemed a little non-plussed as to what the fuss was all about.

So, I think he has finally gone quite deaf and he and I are now developing a sign language of our own!

If he comes into the garden to look for me I  call him but he doesn`t hear so I have to wave frantically until he sees me and then he goes loop the loop!

He is still spritely, eats well and still lies on his own eiderdown by my feet as I list more treasures at my desk each day.

While he snoozes at my feet and I get up to take more photographs, instead of just expecting him to follow me as he always did I now have to gently touch him to tell him I am leaving the room and then he happily trots after me!

Do they sell hearing aids for Jack Russells, I wonder?

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

The walled garden.................

Finally I have been able to commence along with help of course!!!

The site was prepared......

 

The footings went down................

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the first layers of stone were  carefully chosen and placed......

 

 

 

I am adamant that I shall build it and as we speak it is 3 layers high with rain having stopped me in my tracks!

 

Admittedly I am the only wall builder that kneels on a velvet cushion, has the concrete mixed for me and has the large stones lifted for me!!

 

In my mind I have it planted out with lush plants with old cast iron grilles and statues peeping out in the foliage......Watch this space!!!

 

A la prochaine mes belles

xxxxxx

 

A good feeling x 3

Three good feelings today and it`s not even lunch time..........

No. 1 The best things come in little parcels so "MERCI" to Madame Besnier at the patisserie!

No.2  When we bought the chateau there was an old dog kennel in the garden that was whisked away by one of the relatives the day before we signed the paperwork. Five years later has finally returned home and is being guarded now by my guard pig! 

No.3  And talking of being "finally home" we had a wonderful email this morning from the grandson of the Baruch family mentioned in the letters yesterday. Oh the power of the internet!!  He is delighted to hear of the letters and we are just as delighted to be passing them to him. Apparently there are a couple of books being written that are including his family story from the 1930s/40s.

Three reasons to be cheerful!!

A la prochaine mes belles
xx

The threads of time.....

At the brocante at the weekend I found a huge brown paper parcel tied with paper string that contained the most wonderful batches of linen thread. All unused and with the maker`s labels....delicieux!

At the bottom of the bag was a batch of letters and cards all written from a  German Jewish clothing company or factory owner in Liverpool to Monsieur Louis Leffray at his mill in Coulaines.

Written in the late 1930s the letters are very evocative of a time of great worry and unrest as the war began to unfold.

If you click on the images they should become larger on another page for you.

Just one of the letters for you to read.

I am hoping to find a member of the Baruch family to whom I can pass the letters.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Get up now this minute.......

One hundred and fifty three nasturtiums planted weeks ago and 80 have appeared. Mais oui...I have counted them!

So where are the other 73? Lounging under the soil refusing to get out of bed?

Well I won`t have it...get up now....get up immediately and show your faces! Perhaps they have been a field mouse breakfast in which case I will find a huge bloated mouse unable to run in the hedge after gulping down 73 pea sized seeds.

Along with 15 friends this year we are having a pumpkin growing competition. Already the skulduggery has begun and we have one couple starting their specimens in a hot bed, some bringing in enormous specimen seeds from abroad, some with secret techniques and then there is me with three sad seeds lurking in a pot.

I am an impatient gardener as you may already have decided. Unable to wait to see if anything was happening today, I had a bit of a poke about in the soil and saw that one has a root so I buried again quickly! I may even have a specimen on judging day!

This weekend sees us once again at the 6 kilometres of brocante through the woods....let me at them I say!!! The first year we visited this venue, I rushed up the 6 kilometre route in case I missed anything as everyone arrived. Then rushed the 6 kilometres back as the first line of people had then unpacked.

Then I did the whole thing again slowly leaving no stone unturned on the whole 12 kilometres.

Then I made the mistake of walking the 6 kilometres up again and wanted to be airlifted back as my feet were killing me! I got back to the hotel and lay on the bed with two face flannels soaked in cold water on my feet!

Again on the first year at this fair, a huge van arrived that was packed to bursting with items cleared out of an old upholsters atelier that had been closed up since the early 1900s.

The seller simply stood throwing huge piles of period textiles into a heap. I sat in that mountain like a pig in a truffle patch gathering treasures. I truffled in it so much that I lost my phone in the pile and we had to get someone to ring the number and it was like finding a needle in a haystack!

SO who knows what will turn up this year. The weather forecast is good and we will start walking at 4am by torchlight as the first sellers unpack.

But I do feel I deserve a good haul after what happened yesterday.

Truffling with Frou Frou we came across a huge charity store filled with all sorts. We checked out their department for old textiles and were quite disappointed to find nothing at all.

Then we found a separate room filled to the gunnels with tutus, velvet tailcoats, ballet shoes, lace skirts, corsets and various costumes made of period textiles.

 We started grabbing huge piles to take to the counter and then we glanced up and saw it. A wall filled with antique feather angel wings. We took the lot down and made our way to the counter only to be told....."non mesdames"....these costumes are for carnival hire only and not for sale.

 Noooooooooooooooo!!!! I will never recover!

But, I still have a serious case of brocantitis and would have it no other way!

Hopefully I will be showing you a good hoard on Monday mes belles
xxxxx

Hindsight..............

Thirty years ago when I used to truffle the flea markets and village vide greniers in Provence I used to come home with crate upon crate of these old insect catchers.

I thought nothing of the huge piles of amethyst and clear wavy glass bells I came home with. If only I had known that today I would be over the moon just to find two clear ones
But then hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

Being listed tonight....

A la prochaine mes belles.....
xxx

The petite theatre....

We finally got around to opening the package for the toy theatre. It had been delivered by train as a Christmas present for some very lucky children.

IT is being listed tonight and here are a few photographs....

 

 

A wonderful heirloom piece.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxx