La Lune & the Pomme de Terre

Monsieur C,  our neighbour who lives opposite us has 3 teeth, speaks patois, one white vest for Summer and a grey jumper for Winter, as well as having the most impeccable veggie plot ever and is a walking oracle on all things vegetable.   We need to put the potatoes in, I remember having a conversation with Monsieur C last year which went a bit like this:-  "blah, blah, can't understand patois French especially with a person with 3 teeth, blah, blah, Lune, blah, blah, blah pommes de terre" .  After much hand gesturing and waving I came to the conclusion that Potatoes (pomme de terres) are best planted when there is a full moon.  I assumed that one does not enter the garden in a flannelette nightie but waits until the following day.  The above photograph was taken last Friday - we eagerly awaited Saturday morning and awoke to thick fog - I couldn't even see our prepared plot at the bottom of the garden.  Never mind Sunday will be fine - it's still a full moon right?  It rained on Sunday, along with more fog and I went to the brocante.   What happens to your potatoes if you don't plant them when there is a full moon?

YEEHAR The Brocante is here!

At last after weeks of hibernating from the beloved brocante,  myself and my eldest daughter set off on Sunday morning to Limoges to shop until we dropped.  Packing the faithful pink shopping trolley into the back of the car we set off on the 1 hours drive.  The brocante is based in the City Centre and winds its way around the large Cathedral......................................4 hours and sore feet later we came home with a box of silver rosaries (the above one is from Lourdes), 1900's chemises, a beautiful crochet and lace bed cover, conserve pots, cafe au lait bowls and a lot more stuff that I need to wash and photograph to list in the ebay shop.   We saw some beautiful items - lovely hand painted wallpapers (at 150 euros a throw there were way out of my price range), furniture, ceramics and vintage clothing............................just lovely! Feeling so much better after the first brocante of the year!

Dust Collectors

I am a horder by nature and BH is a "throw awayer" by nature - possibly a good mix.  I come from the school of; "don't throw that out, it could be worth money in a 100 years time" he is a man of few words but the ones normally uttered are "it's broken", "you haven't seen it for 10 years, it's been in a box" and "get rid of it, it's a dust collector" and the worse one of all...................................wait for it............... "its chipped, re-paint it"!!!!!!!!

Here is one of my collections:  "Nous Deux" china ("Us Two") from the 1950's made by various ceramics companies but mainly Villeroy & Boch.  They are found in a variety of pastel colours, shapes and designs this is just some of the collection - I have more but alas no room to display them.   The wall dresser was made from old pine by my Dad about 20 years ago for my first house - it has moved around quite a bit since then.  What do you collect?

Glorious weather

Who would believe it was nearly the middle of February?  Taken from our guest bedroom window yesterday afternoon as I was distracted from the largest pile of ironing I have ever had to tackle.  I opened the shutters and the windows and leaned out................................................and watched Barley (our labrador) squeeze himself into the thickness of a 2 cent piece, shuffle his way "commando like" into the chicken run, thread himself through the hedge, out into the field and into the lane running alongside our house.   That bloody dog!  Where was he going?  He then just ran off down the lane towards the direction of the Vienne River.  I yelled from the window, he turned round, stopped and then carried on running.    20 minutes later he returned via the same route.  I will have to investigate tomorrow.  Today has been taken up with doing 3 loads of washing, getting it dry in this wonderful heatwave we are having, chatting to a friend in the garden whilst the kids were playing - no school today as its a "Greve" day - a strike day, happens every couple of months here in France normally linked to a weekend ie a Friday so it can then become a "Pont" weekend or bridge weekend ..................a lovely idea, everyone comes out in sympathy with everyone else and the country comes to a standstill (all to do with liberty, pensions and something else that I can't remember) but could work in your favour if you are planning a weekend away with a loved one and you work for the French Government in some type of capacity - beats moving bits of paper around different buildings anytime!

What did I find?

Bags and bags of fabulous metis linen, fabric remnants, embroidery - basically all the things I love that I have a problem selling as I love them too much!   Typically I can't sew (but I know a friend who does), slightly unfortunate that she doesn't live in France permanently as I would have her making cushions until her hands bled, alongwith pillows and curtains, blinds, table runners etc etc.  As soon as I have worked my way through this lovely pile and washed, ironed and measured it - it will go onto my selling website shop.ebay.com/frenchfanciesinfrance/m.html if I can bear to part with it.  Look out for more interesting finds later in the week.

Missing the brocante

I can't explain it, its like a physical ache, something you just have to do, go to, pack a lunch for, look forward to.........................the brocante.............
In Spring, Summer, Autumn (not Winter) the brocante prevails.  Every Sunday morning, myself and sometimes the girls if it isn't too hot pack up the lunch and bottles of water and drive for between 1-2 hours away from where we live to go to a brocante.  I love nothing better than going through other people's "tout" searching for that perfect item.  Sometimes you can be lucky and come home with a boot full of wonderful items, other times you could drive for miles to just find one item - it's the luck of the draw.    We have some brocantes this time of the year, but with only 50 or less stallholders standing in the rain, wind and sometimes snow its just not worth the outing, instead to fill my need of shopping for old "stuff" I go to "Emmaus" - a charity depot set up by a French Priest in the 1940's to help mis-placed and homeless people rebuild their lives and homes again.  The charity is still going and is a great place to find old battered furniture, ceramics, kitchen items, clothes, books (a bit like the Salvation Army in the UK) that people donate and other people (like myself) buy.   I am going today - who knows what I will find?