Surprise!!!

Yep, its me, and it seems I have almost forgotten how to blog, lol, couldn't even remember how to do a post. 4 months. Bit of a long dry spell. Well, I blame it all on France :-). Seriously though, I never feel the urge to crank up the computer when I am at the cottage. Somehow cottage, countryside, peace and quiet, friends and good neighbours don't go together with computers.  But that doesn't mean I don't think of my dear dear internet friends all the time. You are always with me. Plus, the internet is slow at the best of times, and the last few weeks there, it was so excruciatingly slow, I gave up trying to upload photos to Artyah altogether.

Artyah. Well there you have something new. A fairly new marketplace I have opened a shop on. Two actually, one for my beloved eclectic French antique and vintage finds collected over many years ( https://www.artyah.com/seller/lacroixrosion ) and one just for lace, trims, buttons, fabrics etc (https://www.artyah.com/seller/thevintagefrenchsewingbasket ). Now that I am back in the UK, I will be listing more regularly, and as always, if there is anything you are looking for which you can't see listed, just ask, I might have it stashed away somewhere :-). I am transferring stock from my closed Etsy shop at the moment as well as listing new items.

This was the last Friday morning just before we left the cottage to return to the UK -

I did bring back a whole lot of things which I had been hoarding at the cottage, I'll be listing them over the next few weeks on Artyah and start showing them on my lululizinvintageland blog like I used to do. But I have to confess, these days I find it so much quicker and easier to take photos with the phone, post them on instagram, which also sticks them onto my Facebook page straight away. Works a treat, lol, and saves lots of time. ( I am under lacroixrosion on Instagram btw, in case you would like to follow me there :-) ).

I am having France withdrawal symptons at the moment. I miss being at the cottage so much. Our dogs do as well, they are so much happier there. And I miss the doggies at the shelter where we go twice a week. A few in particular, which we love so dearly. These are two very special dogs Andy and I work with -

Boulet 

Bumbotte

They are problem dogs, and we have taken a special interest in them. Boulet is a great big shaggy dog, the most loving dog you can imagine, but so used to the life in the shelter, that he thinks of it as his proper home. Adopted twice, once returned and once he returned himself, just turned up at the shelter gate one day. He is very scared of cars and therefore was almost impossible to take out for walks. People just didn't bother to take him out in the end. It took Andy a long time to built up the trust so that most of the time now he can get him to go out on walks and once he is out, he is soooo happy.

Bumbotte is my special case. She is incredibly shy, has never been walked as she won't budge, and it is impossible to touch her. Again, she is the sweetest dog, not a bad bone in her body, and I just can't bear to think what must have happened to her before she came to the shelter to make her so afraid and shy of humans. She and Boulet share a large run and get on so well. Nobody ever seemed to spend time with Bumbotte as she couldn't be walked, so I started spending time in her run, just being there. Eventually, she would take little tidbits occasionally, before hiding in her cubbyhole again. She spends most of her time in the cubbyhole, pressed into a corner. So I took the plunge and just sat in the cubbyhole with her. And slowly, she would let me touch her, and then cuddle her, and now, we snuggle up together in her corner, she eats from my hand and sometimes purrs like a cat when I stroke her and tickle her. I miss her so much, and I am so upset that she might think I have deserted her. We will be back in France in a month's time, and hopefully, we can pick up where we left of.

I brought back lots of butternut squash from our veggie batch, and just had a fabulous butternut squash, chick pea and carrot soup for lunch. Delicious. My DH has also found some great sounding butternut squash curry recipes, so that will be next.

I took tons of photos with the phone of course over the summer, of the 'fete de voisins', of the family visiting, of the veggie garden, our furbabies etc. and I want to put these on my blog and treat it like a diary again. Might take me a while though :-). 

Enough for one day though. I hope that some of my dear friends are still around in blogland. I will make some time to visit their blogs as well.
Take care and have a great weekend,
toodlepip xxx