A mixed bag

This time of the year is always busy for us.

 Garden to keep tidy for our guests 

Especially this adorable 'Labradoodle'  from Holland.

 He was the star  staying in La Petite Maison

I found out he even takes his own selfies.

 Summer time is a must for market shopping.

always get there early, before the crowds appear.

I start off with the fruit stalls.

Then the Charentais melons, to take home and have for lunch

served with some jambon cru, and a crusty baguette.

There was even a stall selling Jambon from the Auvergne.

Local honey on a croissant for breakfast.

 A medley of tasty vegetables for lunch.

Traditional goodies to savour.

A lovely selection of rose shrubs.

Then I found a lovely stall with an English lady selling beautiful original things.

I loved these old cases & boxes she covers in decoupage.

 In the summer there's always an organ grinder playing music .

Time for a spot of people watching and a cup of coffee before leaving.

Easy all in one meals.

Then the joy of eating outside.

Followed by Strawberries from the Dordogne.( The best in France )

Family and friends popping in for aperitifs. 

All the things I love about summer.

How about you, what do you enjoy the most about summer ?

I'm looking forward to some long sunny summer days and evenings.

Spent outdoors.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Birthday celebration in Denmark.

In my sons home, their family day starts early.
The school bus arrives at precisely 7:16 am
to take our grandsons to school.

This morning was my 75th birthday.
I was woken by my two grandsons, my son and his wife
 singing happy birthday and waving flags.

 The Danish are very proud of their national flag,
so on celebration days, there is a lot of flag waving.

My day started with a beautiful bouquet of flowers
waiting for me on the breakfast table.
Evidently sneaked in the day before.

My son gave his day for me, to be spent how I wanted.
As it was such a lovely sunny day, I chose to go for a walk .
We needed to take a short drive to where he had chosen for us to walk.
On the way we pass this Châteaux. Dronninglund-slot.
 please take a look at this  It's well worth it.

I always love seeing this château,
so different from the ones i see in France.
 We didn't go inside this time, we just drove down the avenue
lined with huge Oak trees and lots of Beach trees.

We were heading to the woods, full of Beach trees
for me to see Autumn at it's best in Denmark.

We walked all around this lake
and were able to take in all the aspects.
Such beautiful rich shades of rusts to red.

then beneath the trees a carpet of leaves.

At the end of the walk, we saw these two lonely timber houses.

Ready for the drive back home.

Early evening we all went to a lovely restaurant.
Such a special time together with our son and his family.


At the weekend another birthday celebration for me, in Danish family style.

Champagne aperitif

I thought those of you who love porcelain 

would enjoy seeing this coffee pot and coffee cup and saucer.

Here is one I found for sale on ebay.

Royal-Copenhagen-Blue-Fluted-Half-Lace-615-Coffee-pot

I don't know how long this set has been in her family.

I knew it was a valuable heirloom but didn't realise it was so valuable.

I'll be terrified to wash it next time it's used, in case I break it.

Now for a Sunday walk through the woods .

Always somewhere to picnic, lots of wooden tables with benches.
The Danes love to stop and drink coffee outdoors.

Last days walk through the woods and ending on the beach.

I wonder if this tree will be chosen as some ones tree for Christmas ?



These tiny Pine cones ended up in my pocket,
brought back to France for winter decorating.
During my stay I ordered a special candle tray from
Corfixen for winter or any time decoration.



When it arrives I'll show you how I choose to decorate it.
Until then, keep well and stay safe.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Market day

I haven't been to Piegut- Pluvier market for a long time.

It's rated as being the best market in our area and stall holders come

 from far and wide, it's always very busy especially during the summer season;
so we like to arrive early. It's about a 25 min. drive from where we live.

 Most times I go to the market with our visitors or a friend.

It's not very often Mr France comes with me, but as we were up early
 he came with me. Here he is with my straw market basket.

We started off buying lots of fruit.

The Apricots were almost as big as the peaches.

I needed to stock up on fresh garlic so searched out my favourite stall.

It's always much cheaper to buy them loose.
I only buy the platted strung garlic as gifts.

Next I wanted summer fresh vegetables.
I'll be making summer salads with the Haricot vert beans.

This is how I make a quick simple bean salad.
Top & tail the beans. bring a large pan of salted water to the boil
cook the beans just enough to still have a crunch, about 7 to 10 mins.
drain in a colander, then plunge them straight away into iced water,
this will keep them green.
Put the beans into a serving dish, and drizzle some good quality olive oil over them,
  add some thinly sliced spring onions, toss tog. season with ground black pepper.
If you make a large amount, they will keep for a few days stored
in a sealed plastic container, in the fridge.

I noticed a lot of the stalls I used to visit were not there anymore,

so I decided to look around to find a new source for good fresh veg.
I saw a queue, at a  stall I'd never seen before, this is always a good sign.

 It was all Bio vegetables, which is usually more expensive, but their prices 

were very competitive. I had a peep first and all their produce looked top quality 

so I tagged on at the end of the queue. I noticed most of the people had
crumpled brown paper bags in their hands, which I assumed were from
their last visit and they must be regular customers. 

So not only were the producers Eco friendly all their regular clients were too.
So I'll certainly be buying my vegetables from there again.

 I bought a kilo of plum tomatoes with the intention of slow roasting them,

but I made a tomato salad drizzled with olive oil & sprinkled 

with fresh basil with a crunchy baguette for lunch,
I wish I'd bought more. I'll have to buy more next week .

My last purchase were olives to have with our evening aperitif.

So many types so I left that purchase for Mr France to choose.

He chose Greek and Moroccan, black olives

 There were lots of wine stalls, we only looked this time.
maybe next week we'll try wine from another region.

 Vin Rosé seemed to be the most popular.

I was pleased with the fresh fruit & vegetables I bought.
 Here's my straw market basket full of all things fresh.

I hope you enjoyed joining me along with Mr France at our favourite market.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Taking a short break from my garden.

This time of the year is always busy in the garden.
We are leaving for a trip and everything is growing so fast,
I wanted to do so much, but time is running out.
I feel like the mad hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland'

These days everything seems to take us so much longer to do.

We have shrubs that have grown so big they need to be cut back or moved.
They'll have to wait a little while longer.

 Fortunately the new roses have been planted at the replacement arbour.
They should have settled in nicely while we are missing
 and hopefully will have signs of buds when we return.

We do take a break now and again, to sit here
 and drink a mid morning cup of coffee and early evening 

after our day working in the garden we have an aperitif,

or as Mr France says.'Him doing the hard work and me titivating'.

Well someone has to give the orders.

I'm hoping that these climbing roses will do better this year.

After a year of neglect, I've given them lots of TLC which they were
in desperate need of, so I'm looking forward to seeing the reward.

Also I must stake up the peonies before they get too big.
I have Day Lilies & some Penstemon that a friend gave me still to plant.

Can you see my garden whimsy peeping out from behind the Euphorbia ?

I still haven't decided, whether she stays or goes.
Take a look here it was my gift from the floral committee. 

A gift from my daughter three Ranunculus in a pot.

Their petals are so pretty, wrapped round and round and so paper thin.

At the moment this is our view from the terrace.
We can see the wild Cherry trees in blossom  Food for the birds.

When we get back, I'm sure this view will be very different,
 all the trees will be dressed in their green robes,

I did manage to find some time to paint a sketch in my garden journal
of one of my Camellia flowers, before it turned brown & fell off.

I'll be taking this small sketch journal with me
 and a few ink pencils .

This lovely hand bound sketchbook was sent to me by Valerie Gardiner 
who has a lovely blog called Colours in the Breizh
 On her travels she doesn't use a camera, only the
detailed sketches she does 'en situe' in her own hand bound sketchbooks.

If I miss your posts, while I'm away, I'll try and catch up when I get back.
Enjoy your gardens,
especially those who have only just stopped having snow.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian