Aaaah, France........

How I miss being there already, and we only left three days ago. So we are already planning when to go next, lol.

The ten days we spent there on this trip went by far too quickly. Sarah will be most disappointed to hear that I didn't do any crocheting, I just didn't have time. We were far too busy visiting and being visited. You wouldn't think that living in the middle of nowhere with neighbours and friends spread out all over the place, one could have such a busy social life. But thats what I love about our little community out there so much, the sense of belonging, the getting together over "apero" and a few bottles of wine, and yes, the gossiping as well of course. Things tend to get very international as well. One evening there were ten of us grown ups plus two kids, 4 French, 2 Dutch, 3 English and 1 German (me), talking away in all 4 languages at times.

The weather turned out to be a rather mixed bunch, a few rainy days, a few grey days and a few gorgeously sunny days. This is the cottage on a sunny day -

It was warm enough to sit out in short sleeves. What a relief after such a long, hard winter!

One of the first things I do when we get to the cottage, after unpacking, is cutting a few bits and pieces of greenery or flowers to put on the table in the cottage. Because we are not there all the time, I can't have real house plants, and the fake ones are just not enough, I have to have some real life ones around me. On this trip the timing was good, the daffodils were in full bloom and the forsythias were covered in bright yellow flowers. So off I went to snip snip snip. Gosh, how those shiny yellow flowers brightened up the interior straight away!

Then, if its not too late on the first day, I take a womble down the lane, to see whats growing. I love wild flowers, those tiny little gems that carpet the ground under the hedges, or proudly raise their little heads amidst the dead winter leaves -

And there seem to be masses of wild strawberry plants growing under our pine trees, both inside the garden and along the lane. Fingers crossed, if they all produce those delicious tiny fruits, I'll be very very happy -

The doggies love love love being there, they get lots of walks -

and lots of racing round the garden. Errmm, well, it will be a garden one day, when we live there permanently, now its more field than garden and also moletropolis. The doggies' favourite game has to be dogball, played like this -

closely followed indoors by toy tug-o-war -


and then of course they finish off with a marathon, a marathon snooze that is, lol -

We are so lucky to live on top of a hill, because we get 360degree views from our top field. In the morning we get the lovely sunrises over the valley seen from the garden or lower field, and in the evening we get gorgeous sunsets which we can see from our top field on the opposite side.

Sunrise -

Sunset -

Well, I think thats enough for today. There are loads more photos to share with you, bits and pieces in the cottage, photos of the guest bedrooms, garden stuff etc. Oh, and I have photographed some of the Brocante finds this morning, so they will appear sometime this week as well.

Have a wonderful day/evening wherever you are, xx